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Prologue

With its true origin a mystery to the public, the virus spread at an alarmingly rapid rate. Its genesis was the subject of heated debate globally. Many theories emerged as the number of individuals infected continued to climb.

Some believed it was created in a laboratory, that it was either a science experiment gone wrong and accidentally released upon its completely unprepared victims, or that it found its way into the wrong hands, and the outbreak was intentional, planned by some unknown group with an agenda to cause world-wide chaos on a scale the planet had never before seen.

Another popular theory was that the arrival of the virus was a reckoning, that it had been unleashed upon humanity by whichever wrathful deity the particular theory's supporters happened to believe in as some sort of punishment or cleansing.

Regardless of its source, the virus' effects were devastating. Within a few short weeks the infection relentlessly swept its way around the globe, digging itself into the human population and shrinking the infected down to just under an inch in height. Fast forward two months, and upwards of ninety percent of humanity had become infected. Civilization as we know it shut down.

For the small chunk of the population that managed to avoid contracting the mysterious virus, life became a daily struggle of scavenging to survive. Now a minority by a large margin, normal-sized people were simply spread too thin to maintain a functioning civilization. Food, water, and all other resources crucial to survival became scarce. People turned on each other, forming groups and feuding over possession of such precious materials.

Life for the infected, however, was much more difficult. Groups of tiny survivors faced to a degree the same issues of feuding over resources with rival factions of their brethren, but these conflicts were the least of their worries. The forces of nature were constantly acting against them. Each day the survivors were forced to battle some combination of the weather, the very terrain of the planet, which had been rendered quite difficult to navigate thanks to their new size, and a cornucopia of formidable creatures, the various animals inhabiting their gigantic new world.

As if things weren't bad enough, there was still one final threat to contend with: the portion of the human population which had not been affected by the virus. Compared to the infected, these normal-sized individuals stood hundreds of feet tall and were capable of causing great acts of destruction, whether they were aware of doing so or otherwise.

Survival for the population of tiny humans was rough, but over the years improvements were made as they adapted to their new environment. With such a large percentage of the population afflicted with the virus and shrunken down to its new height, it was quite common to find scientists, doctors, engineers, and all sorts of other important people with incredibly useful skills among the ranks within each of the various colonies scattered across the globe.

Twenty long years pass after the initial outbreak, and the infected have worked tirelessly to clothe themselves, forge new technologies, develop new weapons, and craft any edge they possibly can to improve the conditions of their survival in their harsh new world.