First of all... You need to know two things:
1. Contrary to popular belief, the material universe is finite. I won't get into that because I'm not a physicist or a theologian, and besides, it's not what you really need to know. The universe is finite, but infinitely complex and structured. That's not what you need to know either. Here's what you need to know; humanity is a disorderly cancer in the heart of a beautifully structured universe.
2. Mental illness is catching. Keep that in mind
... In the Beginning... On a planet inconceivably distant from us in both time and space, two organisms met in the primordial ooze. I'm not a biologist, so I can't tell you anything more than this: our two organisms were like two fleshy dumplings, dime-sized, soft and amorphous, floating serenely in the nutrient rich jelly of their planet's prehistory.
Not being human, our two organisms were completely in tune with the intricate plan of the clockwork universe, as are all natural beings. Yet, to them a special honor was bestowed. At the moment of our small, fleshy friends' meeting, they joined in a rough approximation of what we would call sex. This is no surprise, as primordial beings are wont to do such things. Anyway, at the peak of their "ecstasy", their role in the universe was revealed to them and the will of the Creator made clear.
You see, despite the fact that our fleshy friend's fornication took place so far in the past that we cannot conceive of it, the universe was already nearing the end of its shelf life (which is, after all, considerably longer than that of a Twinkie.) The role revealed to these small creatures by the Creator was this no less than the preservation of the universe:
1. From two small flesh dumplings, they would multiply into one tremendous organism.
2. Eventually, this organism would consume it's planet, becoming a stellar entity in itself.
3. The role of this entity would be one of supreme importance.
4. To it would be given nearly godlike powers of mental empathy. The entity would have the ability to manifest the fleshy material of its shape in whatever fashion it wanted through a mere whim of thought. More importantly, the now planet size flesh dumpling would have the power to form "imprints" of any portion of the universe's structure.
5. This is the important part. The big, telepathic, fleshy, immensely powerful dumpling's mission was to rove the universe and catalogue every bit of it in these mental "imprints." Upon completing this mission, our dumpling would cross the dimensional barrier and set up a new universe, working off of the catalogued design for the old, decaying one.
6. Why didn't the Creator do all this herself? Don't ask me. I'm just a human.
What the hell does this have to do with anything?
On a Tuesday morning in March of 2102, a large, planet-sized ball of flesh appeared on the San Francisco skyline. To the sober populace this was understandably frightening. To habitual drug users of the time, it was just another day.
Earth of 2102 was sufficiently messed up. I won't go much into details. Although scientists were working on new fuel sources, when all the dead-animal minerals dried up in 2086 and stuff stopped running things got bad. The new technologies weren't even close to completion and it was hard to work on them without electric lights, generators, or any of that other cushy, fuel-powered junk.
Consequently, people started turning back to the old ways of farming and hunting. To their dismay, they found they weren't that good at either one any more. At least not with the aid of technology.
To make a long story short, when our now stellar flesh ball of telepathic might appeared on the horizon, humanity was charging headlong into some full-blown, monkey-style, tribal barbarism.
When the poop hit the fan.
Confronted with the terrifying mystery of the giant flesh dumpling, the remaining world powers mustered up some good, old-fashioned human ingenuity. Somehow, they got a rocket working. Somehow, they scrounged up some fuel. Somehow, they figured out how to stick a delegation of people in the rocket and keep them alive. And somehow, they managed to launch said rocket and people straight at our fleshy friend. Our fleshy friend opened itself to the rocket, making a nice fleshy womb in which the craft could land. The delegation emerged. Nothing happened. Confused, the remaining powers of a decaying earth stood in the belly of a vastly powerful telepathic organism whose sole purpose was the preservation of the universe. You see, nothing happened because our organism was unable to read these humans because of their decidedly disruptive and unnatural nature (as stated in the very, very beginning.) However, the humans had to be catalogued, didn't they? So, the humans were confused. The dumpling was confused. Everybody was confused. Than somebody, probably the American delegate, did something stupid. He stepped forward and proffered his hand in the traditional greeting of his people to the moist, glistening walls of our flesh dumpling friend. Using its matter manipulation abilities, the dumpling formed a similar hand and extended it from one of the gelatinous walls. Disgusted, the human grasped it firmly. And that's when the poop hit the fan. When those hands met, it opened up a sort of psychic window between the human and the flesh entity. Our natural, harmonious friend was exposed to the entire human collective unconscious in one searing flash. Several millennia of discord, war, violence and generally unharmonious human nature tore through its collective neuro-telepathic framework. The result was a sort of tremendous scale, alien schizophrenia. Like I said, mental illness is catching.
Since the flesh dumpling controlled its matter with its mind, pieces of itself began to tear off at an alarming rate. These autonomous fleshy bits and pieces began to assume shapes revealed to them in that blast of human discord. From Sherman tanks to dragons, fleshy manifestations of the violent human psyche began to take shape in the atmosphere. They immediately headed towards earth, stark raving mad at being separated from the harmonious whole of the flesh entity. Just what earth needed, a swarm of mentally unstable flesh creatures able to take any shape at will. Ninety-nine percent of the population was destroyed that day. Everybody probably would have bought it, except the flesh creature managed to regain control of its wayward children in the last moments.
Get to the point already!
Well, we finally have our world. What happened is this:
1. The flesh creature felt really bad, but it had to continue its universe cataloguing mission.
2. Therefore, it proffered to humanity a deal.
3. If the humans would remain on Earth and tend to the crazed children of the flesh being, the flesh being would provide for all other human needs.
4. The flesh creature would return annually to provide the human "keepers" with food and other necessities, as well as means of dealing with the hordes of matter-controlling flesh children.
5. The humans agreed, because what the hell else were they gonna do?
The human Keepers lived in relative peace for eons. The flesh being returned annually providing all necessities for life and providing certain sedatives and mental calmatives needed to keep the "crazed flesh" in line. However, there came a time when the original flesh entity failed to reappear.
I want to set my story in a time when humanity no longer has a means of suppressing the crazed flesh, and has to begin controlling the mad children of the original flesh entity in whatever way they can.
Demographics
Time: Far enough in the future to where dates are irrelevant.
Place: Same ol' spot we've been in all along.
Citizenry: 80% Crazed children of the original flesh being. A.K.A "Fatties," "Crazies," or "the Flesh." The Fatties have a nearly limitless range of telepathic, telekinetic and shape-shifting abilities. 20% Human "Keepers."
Economy: Totally dependant on supplies provided by the original flesh being. When these cease to flow, humans begin to plunder the scarce resources of the old world and survive in whatever way possible.
Politics: The Fatties are too crazed to maintain any semblance of unity or order. The humans converge on the ancient ruins of cities, seeking strength in numbers, the scarce supply of "mental calmatives," and the little remaining technology. They begin to develop a sort of tribal democracy, their limited numbers allowing a "total vote" like in ancient Athens.
Religion: Back when the original flesh creature maintained its annual visits, the keepers practiced their suppression of the Fatties with ritual reverence. Since the disappearance of the original creature, factions have sprung up. Loyalist groups trust in the return of the creature, while the Survivors feel it is necessary to preserve themselves in whatever way possible. I suppose religion and politics are somewhat interchangeable in this respect. Law: The concept is impossible to the Fatties. To the humans, the only law is survival.
Castes: A warrior class is beginning to spring up. As the supply of Fatty suppressants diminishes the city-tribes have begun to seek out warriors to fight against the Fatty threat. These warriors are individuals who have somehow found caches of ancient weapons technology.
My story will most likely deal with some lone warrior with a hidden
cache of weapons fighting off the converging hordes of "crazed flesh."