It has been two hundred years since first the outbreak of the Plague, when without warning the dead rose to feed on the flesh of the living. No nation was spared. Everywhere, the animates, or zombies as they came to be known by the common man, prowled the streets, killing and spreading the infection as they passed. For each victim claimed, a fresh animate rose to join the ranks of the risen. As panic and mass hysteria gripped the public, the cities were abandoned. Countless millions perished in the chaos that followed. Overnight, humanity found itself on the brink of annihilation. Seventy percent of the world’s population succumbed to the Plague, secondary epidemics, or the mass starvation that followed. The year was 1905; it was the dawn of a new dark age. In the following decades, the survivors to learned to fight back and to retake what they had lost. Recalling the golden age that had come before, the Neo-Victorians set out to rebuild their shattered nation. Despite the heavy cost in human life, they reclaimed their cities one by one until only the sepulchres, or plague cities, remained under death’s dominion. Though the survivors have successfully constructed a new world on the bones of the old, their world remains rife with undreamt of terrors. London 2105. The capitol of the Neo-Victorian Empire is a vast, densely crowded city surrounded by fortifications fifty-feet high. The dead walk the Wastelands beyond the walls, and spontaneous outbreaks of the Plague ravage the population within. It is only through constant vigilance and massed firepower that order is maintained. Plague carts make daily rounds through the slums of metropolis to collect the remains of those who died the night before. Once the carts are loaded, grim plaguemen deliver their cargos to one of the dozens of public crematoria throughout the city. Thick clouds of smoke billowing from countless factories co-mingle in darkened skies with the cremains of the incinerated dead. The dingy, haunted streets below are dimly lit by pale, crackling electrical light fuelled by energy broadcast from the city’s Tesla array. It is here that monsters are born to prey upon their fellow man. Lunatics maddened by desperation, fear, and overcrowding compete with vampires, animates, and ghouls for prime hunting grounds among the city’s slums and rookeries. Residual psychic energy released from the deaths of countless millions during the Plague Years has worn thin the boundaries between life and death. All manner of spectral apparition gaze unseen upon the corporeal world; observed, in turn, only by mediums, those living souls born with the capability to communicate with the discarnate dead. Driven by the public’s insatiable hunger for immortality, Neo-Victorian physicians search tirelessly for the Elixir Vitae. The fabled alchemical solution promises not only life eternal, but also the panacea for the world’s ills, the ultimate cure for the Plague. For many men of science, the search for the Elixir becomes a single-minded obsession that frees them from the confines of morality and ethical considerations. Though great advances have been made, most often such experiments produce Anathema, the misbegotten children of science. Beneath the haunted streets, resurrection men and body snatchers hock their grisly wares at bloodstained meat markets. Their clients are degenerate ghouls and amateur anatomists who practice the outlawed science of reanimation. Despite such horrors, there are those with the strength to fight the gathering darkness. From the heavily armed soldiers of the Deathwatch who guard the fortified perimeters of the metropolis to the detectives of New Scotland Yard who fight to hold back the rising tide of inhumanity in the streets, there are those who are called to defend the world from its monsters. There are also the Undertakers, the fearsome bounty hunters who stalk the undead abominations that prey upon those who walk the fog-choked streets, and the silent and lethal Mourners, who maintain a solemn vigil over the dead, ensuring rest eternal. Above it all, the aristocracy gazes down from their monolithic manors with casual indifference upon the overcrowded streets below. Insulated behind walls of privilege, the Quality live in a world unmarred by the desperation that infests the lower classes. These barons of industry and scions of the noble families truly command the Neo-Victorian world. Launched at GenCon in August 2007, Unhallowed Metropolis™ was written and created by Jason Soles and Nicole Vega. Deeply steeped in Victorian history and science, Unhallowed Metropolis was inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Nikola Tesla. The game features an incredibly detailed setting, a fast-paced and visceral combat system, an in-depth anatomical study of variety of supernatural horrors, and rules for the creation of alchemical solutions, reanimation of the dead, and the engineering of life itself! Eos Press is a Seattle-based game company founded in 2003 by Hsin Chen and Aron Anderson. In addition to its work on such leading-edge products as Weapons of the Gods, Eos has also partnered with other companies & designers to produce popular games like Creatures and Cultists!, Delta Green, Godlike and Lesser Shades of Evil. For more information about Eos Press, contact business manager Brad Elliott at info@eos-press.com. "This is a great new addition to Eos's family of products," said Brad Elliott, business manager for Eos Press. "Our company is committed to excellence in game and setting design, and Unhallowed Metropolis™ will be an example of both." Jason Soles is an accomplished writer and artist. In addition to being co-founder of Catalyst Studios, he is also an independent film maker. His gaming credits include work for Privateer Press, Wizards of the Coast, and WizKids. Nicole Vega is a talented newcomer to the game industry. UNHALLOWED METROPOLIS™ Hardcover B&W RPG Core Book, 392 pp. Debut Date: August 2007 Release Date: January 2008 Retail Price: $39.95 Stock #: EOS 1300 ISBN: 0-9710642-9-6