Looking at this from a glance, I gotta say that this sounds cool.

Anyway, I noticed your mention about the lack of a crawl, and how you plan to go about this using text. Well, I have an idea. I’m a sucker for Seven Samurai, and I’ve always loved the opening credits and text prologue of that film combined with the thumping musical score that sets the atmosphere. I think something similar would make a perfect alternative to the opening crawl (not to mention give it more of the aesthetic that you want to acheive). I don’t know how to do it myself, but I think it would make for a nice little detail.