Project “Biomorph” is a research and development project of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation in the field of genetics, described in the novel Metro 2033 The Lair (Метро 2033 логово) by Alexey Doronin.

Biomorph was conceived as the ultimate “Doomsday” biological weapon. Its foundation was a special mutagenic virus, or “pseudovirus,” capable of radically altering the biological structure of living organisms in the shortest possible time.

Unlike conventional bacteriological weapons, the goal of “Biomorph” was not merely the destruction of the population, but the complete transformation of the Earth’s biosphere into an aggressive environment, lethally dangerous to humans.

DEPLOYMENT:

During the final escalation of the conflict, when nuclear warheads were already wiping cities off the face of the earth, these secret developments were deployed.

Containers with Biomorph were delivered by parachute or dispersed into the atmosphere, where air currents picked up the mutagen and carried it over vast distances, mixing it with radioactive fallout.

The effectiveness of the “Biomorph” project manifested most vividly in oviparous creatures, which became the key to the rapid and extensive reformatting of the ecosystem. While radioactive fallout destroyed many organisms, the mutagenic components of “Biomorph,” entering unhatched embryos through the contaminated environment, triggered a swift and horrific process of transformation.

Creatures appeared that only vaguely resembled their progenitors. These new life forms demonstrated an incredible metabolism, allowing them to increase in size at a phenomenal rate. Undergoing an accelerated cycle of evolution in just a few weeks, they transformed into powerful predators, often combining archaic ancestral traits with new, unique adaptations.

The spread of the mutation became global due to natural migration mechanisms. Surviving and strengthened mutants became carriers of the pseudovirus, transporting it within their bodies across oceans and continents. Warm currents and airflows ensured that trillions of organisms—from plankton and fish to large beasts—received their dose of the mutagen.

For most species, this resulted in death, but a small percentage managed to adapt, gaining colossal advantages: immense size, monstrous strength, and most importantly, high resistance to radiation. Thus, the biological chaos unleashed by “Biomorph” turned the planet into an arena of struggle between entirely new, previously unseen species that filled the vacant ecological niches.

For humanity, the impact of the “Biomorph” project proved fatal not only physically but also mentally. Those people who did not perish in the first hours due to the transformation of their nerve fibers underwent profound changes to their skeletal structure and hormonal balance. The human mind proved too fragile an instrument to withstand such radical biological restructuring, resulting in most of the infected turning into dangerous semi-animals driven only by instinct.

By 2033, the phase of active speciation had concluded, and the mutagenic viruses stabilized. This event, in its scale, surpassed the consequences of nuclear exchange: it did not merely destroy the old world but permanently inscribed a new chapter in the biological chronicle of the Earth, where humanity is relegated to the role of a living relic.

ADDENDUM:

Ironically, it was other weapons of mass destruction—nuclear and chemical—that prevented the “Biomorph” project from completely transforming the biosphere into something resembling Catachan (WARHAMMER 40K).

No matter how adapted the new species became, even they could not survive in zones of total contamination caused, for example, by the deployment of cobalt bombs (in places like Novosibirsk), or in areas with critical concentrations of chemical toxins (such as off the coast of Kaliningrad).

Moreover, in their desperate struggle for survival, humans, by using filters, hermetic doors, protective suits, etc., created an unintentional barrier against Biomorph as well, effectively isolating themselves from the virus.

At the same time, the mutagenic virus itself, being not just a killer but also a factor of total transformation, served as a powerful medium for horizontal gene transfer between the most diverse life forms. (It was precisely due to horizontal gene transfer that the “Skaven” and “Rat-Hordes” appeared, which I will write about another time.)