"Send asks about oc's!" HIHIhihi, idk much about your universe but how did the whole zombie thing happen? Sry if that doesn't make much sense
HIIII ILL GLADLY ANSWER THIS!
so for context in this world there's two gods, varu and voda. Varu comes from another reality/dimension and is trying to train voda to take his place if and when he ends up decaying from not having a mortal form.
Down on earth there's a religion that follows them, the cimmerans(turns out it's basically said the same as Sumerians but I didn't know those existed at the time of writing 😭) they eventually came to America to try and find freedom of religion, specifically Texas, 50 to 100 years after they came a family entered and quickly turned it into a cult.
Flash forward Another 100 years or so and the world is absolute chaos, like.. just think 2001 onwards and how life is since this happens in our timeline.
Voda, being a naive god who doesn't understand human perfection doesn't exist and therefore would throw off the balance of everything, tries to create perfection to cleanse the earth. A Jesus type figure.
She ends up sending down Rowan is born into the previously mentioned cult. He's born to a mother who was forced from rural Russia down to Texas(Lilah) and to the cult leader(Andrew).**
When varu finds out about Rowan, Rowan is about 18 and has gotten kicked out of the cult for being gay. He's also aware of the fact it's a cult.
Varu punishes voda by trapping her in a child's form for her childish behavior. With that he sends a virus down a virus to turn all sentient creatures into compost to have a new beginning for the world.
This virus IS the zombie virus.
The virus starts slow, causing minor brain fog and joint pain. You might be more hungry too, then after a week or two you become agitated and angry. After three you black out and start biting people.
During this time the infected still remain themselves to a degree, if their vocal cords aren't decayed they can talk, some even beckon or beg for you to come near them. Others try and use broken computers, phones, etc. as you get further and you lose yourself you still try and get dopamine.
Some examples would be a zombie swinging on a swing, or a (now infected) teacher scribbling with chalk on a white board.
During this the zombies, typically, are not in any pain nor do they know what they are doing. When you meet the other main character, avian, you meet him in his infected state. He is drifting in and out of consciousness, using water color paintings as an example for his vision. When he comes too he sees a deer, he goes to "pet" the deer.. that's when Rowan meets and sedates him (in hopes he can cure him) and you see that he wants petting the deer, but eating it!!
**If anyone wants I can do a post on Rowans lore!!
