The floating Citadel of the Druids.
At the climax of Mendax City, a cataclysmic energy wave from The Core bursts out, saturating the planet. It causes instantaneous mutations across all living humans – some die, some fall sick, but others transform into more advanced beings. Unimaginable beasts, men as strong as trucks, and a host of other impossible people roam the Earth. The cataclysm affects the very fabric of reality, and as a result, many places on Earth become strange, spatial anomalies known as Heterodoxes – each site with its own unique form of energy that bends the surrounding reality.
The atoms within all matter at a Heterodox Site vibrate more slowly, weakening their gravitational attraction to each other. 3-Dimensional matter slows down to compensate for the excess Temporal Energy at that point in space. Temporal energy is of a holographic nature, meaning that if any part of it is isolated, it will still contain the same directives as the whole. This concept is what defines the Heterodox – the Temporal Energy has too many directives to execute in such a small amount of space, and so searches for new directives on the Astral wavelength. Physical matter ‘widens’ in order to make room for the excess Temporal Particles, putting Heterodox Space into a malleable state.
The base, sub-conscious desires of the Heterodox's native population dictate its evolution. For example, the Citadel of the Druids is constructed of ferrous metals, allowing their magnetic powers to evolve, while the Ash Clan reside in stone caverns that contain the intense heat they generate, so it may be used as a power source.
For a century after the Mendax City cataclysm there is chaos. Humanity are mutated, starving, and desperate - at war with each other in a burning world. Most of the population are wiped out in the hundred-year war, but a form of order eventually creeps back into society. Bloodlines begin to form, and the offspring of the first generation mutants become progressively higher beings. Tribes form around the Heterodoxes, where evolution again leaps forward, and the age of Tribus begins. Over the next several centuries, the tribes evolve a telepathic symbiosis with the Heterodoxes, and begin new evolutionary strands of their own devising.
The 12 Heterdoxes of Tribus each represent a branch of the Extraverse Power Tree:
| Force | Heterodox | Tribe |
|---|---|---|
| Magnetic North | The Citadel | The Druids |
| Magnetic South | ||
| Tempest | ||
| Solaris | Hell | Ash Clan |
| Aquarius | ||
| Masculum | ||
| Matriarch | ||
| Progeny | The Woods | The Daemon's Horde |
| Flux | ||
| Sapien | Common-Mind Commune | The Sapiens |
| Terracore |