Infraflux: The Setting
A future Earth, shaken apart in the late 2000's by a pseudo-magical event known as The Cataclysm that rewrote fundamental rules of nature and brought entities from other planes and other planets out to play. Built up again in the 2400's, people pulled the altered world back together to rebuild civilisation in whatever form the new reality made possible, living their lives as people always have.
The world, now known as March Earth, is a dangerous place of unpredictable spontaneous generation and vast areas where the environment itself is hostile to unprepared forms of life. Civilisation exists in pockets between: In prosperous cities with deadly perimeters guarding their farms, in towns with thick tall walls, and in brave villages guarded by a few powerful individuals or just hanging on with sheer bloody stubbornness.
Nature on March Earth has been overturned. The usual rules of animals and plants barely hold any grip at all, and strange hybrids can easily be formed if their parents are merely conceptually compatible (a spruce and a fir, a cat and a rabbit, a lion and a rose). The division between organic and inorganic is also blurry, with living trains laying their own tracks across the countryside and people made of metal and ceramic. Forces from beyond the material plane have also woven themselves into the tapestry of life (called by some, "magic"): Shine that inflicts energetic law, and Dim that inflicts frigid chaos.
These forces, along with the technological and cultural influence of the alien Geometrids, are usually summarised as "The Five Powers":
- Dim - (decay, disharmony, uncertainty, chance, energy withdrawn)
- Shine - (structure, harmony, regularity, immobility, energy applied)
- Lore - (the force of human knowledge and stories)
- Earth Sense - (the natural pre-Cataclysm rhythm of the Earth)
- The Geometrid Influence - (the lingering marks of a visiting alien race)
Infraflux: The Country
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On March Earth, Infraflux is the name of a vast intercontinental "supercountry" formed by the unifying and blending of many countries that previously existed on Earth. Although it covers a huge percentage of the land and a decent amount of the ocean mass of the Earth, there are still some areas that have opted to remain independent or are too wild to realistically be included. Infraflux is cyberocratic and guided by a vast AI called The Seven that is partially subservient to decisions made by voters and elected experts. All citizens of Infraflux are eligible for base-level income and education as long as they live somewhere where it can be provided.
People of March Earth
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All manner of life on March Earth has become incredibly diverse, and the people are no exception. Thanks to human ancestry and the power of Lore there remain a lot of humanoid-shaped people, but there are also quadrupeds, snake-shaped people, incorporeal people, people made of metal and other inorganics, and everything in between. Thanks to the energies of Dim, Shine, and Lore they may not even need to fully adhere to the laws of physics. Also influential are the Darwinchild species: Already highly intelligent species that became "uplifted" post-Cataclysm. The Darwinchild dolphin species "phinnies" have been as influential to the bloodlines of aquatic people as humans have been on land. Most countries have little descrimination about what type of person inhabits them, though more exclusive/xenophobic Recluse States certainly exist.
Generally speaking, the average person on March Earth looks like nobody else, each with their own colourful tapestry of influences and experiences shaping their form. Citizens of the Infraflux supercountry have their physical profile connected to their personal ID, which sorts them into a number of categories that help determine potential medical and social requirements.
Places on March Earth
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While Infraflux is a sprawling intercontinental collective that covers most civilised places on March Earth, it is not the only country to exist. Independent states exist all over the globe, divided by differing cultures, needs, ideologies, traditions, or any number of other reasons. On average, these countries tend to be small and isolationist, though that's by no means true for all of them. The largest is the Trade Union, which is an intercontinental country in the same vein as Infraflux but with a more capitalistic, competitive nature. Relations with Infraflux tend to be peaceful as Infraflux is enormous and well-organised and doesn't seek to claim new territories, but international conflicts can sometimes arise between smaller nations.
The geographical nature of modern civilisation, however, makes direct warfare difficult and unwise. In many places the land itself is a far greater enemy than any fellow nation. Stretches of land that are too hostile or too difficult to traverse to be realistically controlled by any form of government are known as Free Wilds. If considered as a country of their own, the Free Wilds would rival Infraflux itself in size.
History and Origin
(See timeline of events)
March Earth's timeline diverges from our own in the late 2000's after an event known as The Cataclysm. The Cataclysm was a chain reaction of several events whose exact trigger is not precisely understood in-universe except by those with otherworldly/extraplanar knowledge. The starting point for the Cataclysm is known to be an event dubbed a "Lore Cascade". The precise mechanics of a Lore Cascade aren't fully understood but involve an exponential growth in Lore energy caused by unchecked spontaneous generation. Basically: Imagination creates creatures and people, and the people that were created also begin creating creatures and people with their imaginations.
On the heels of this Lore Cascade came various interested parties, drawn to the colourful chaos overtaking the Earth. Entities from the Shine planes arriving to investigate invited the presence of entities from the Dim planes as balance, causing a sharp and permanent spike in the energies of both on the planet. These energies only served to destabilise the world further, resulting in large scale failure of infrastructure, destruction of entire cities via monster attacks, disasters, and plague, and overall collapse of the once-mighty human race. In addition to this, the Earth itself became destabilised; the ecology and natural systems of biology that would later be called Earth Sense fragmenting and mutating into wild chaos. This dark and tumultuous era lasted around three hundred years, before the scattered remains of intelligent life began to reconnect once again. Instrumental to this reconnection were the Teleost Broadcasts- a series of mysterious global radio transmissions- and the visitation of a few members of the extraterrestrial Geometrid people, who were willing to share technological insights.
The present day of the Infraflux setting is in the 2400's, a decade or two into the 25th century. Historically the world is divided into post- and pre-Cataclysm, with the year 2000 serving as a rough divider. Much of pre-Cataclysm history has been lost, and serves as archaeological intrigue whenever it's uncovered.