Oops! All Copyright Safe Eukari-mon

[Prompt: An unclaimed, unregulated, or lawless region in your setting]
After the explosion of light and sickness, what we can only call the Igniting Incident, nowhere on Remiga was safe. They deemed the whole valley-bowl poisoned, saturated by an invisible sickness that made your own body turn against you. Limbs and tissues changed shape, changed substance, causing immeasurable pain as they attacked their own. Humans were never meant to transform this way. They couldn't survive such mutation, and they had no means of shielding themselves from it. All those remaining could do was run, run and hope the invaders hadn't already burrowed too deeply into the survivors' veins.
When the humans fled, many left behind their metamorphosing Eukari-mon. Slaughter fodder and beloved pets alike: all monsters had to be abandoned, for fear their changing abilities would further sicken the humans around them. They could only hope that we, so intimate with shapeshift, could weather this change. We were left to die, or to survive, by our own power. And so, as bipeds evacuated the Remiga Region, a land of lawless potential was born.
It has been a few moons' phases since the exodus. In those days, it has been surprisingly quiet. I and mine hesitate to venture outside, for fear we will find nothing but bodies dappling the ground. Yes, we were wild once, but we have lived so long alongside them: soldiers, companions, meat. Those introduced to their Security Bubbles in the age of socialization came to see the cages as home. Some species imprinted on their Masters. And many of us were born to the orb. I cannot confidently say there is much wildness left.
They domesticated us, made us into cells of their superorganism. We changed, molded to our environment, as our nature dictates. Humans venerate us for growing into bigger, sharper, lonelier versions of ourselves. But not all evolution is toward independence. Collaboration is a strength, and we welcomed it. It came as a trade: protection in exchange for circus battles, company for solo functionality. We are specialized tissues, animal cells at every level. What happens when you remove a eukaryotic cell from its community?
Region Remina is without rule, it's true. Many would expect to see us at war, evolving into Kaiju-mon, or returning to the natural interconsumption web, all the more complex for our new mutations. I hope some among the abandoned will explore and find their niche, re-wild this place. I hope the wild song of Remiga-soar will once again punctuate the silence. I fear we have lost the spirit to sing.
Cemeteries need no laws.

Type

Badlands