In 2089, the world went dark.
For decades, humanity had balanced on the edge of catastrophe. When global temperatures rose beyond five degrees, the planetary AI—programmed long ago as a last safeguard—did exactly what it had been designed to do. It shut everything down.
Power plants fell silent. Grids collapsed. Nuclear reactors failed without backup energy to cool them. Within days, cities froze, starved, and burned. Water systems failed. Hospitals went quiet. Communication died. The world, so utterly dependent on electricity and artificial intelligence, crumbled into chaos.
They would later call it Darkfall.
Wars ended not through peace, but through powerlessness. Governments dissolved. Billions perished. Only the prepared survived—survivalists, the ultra-wealthy, and those who managed to endure the long years of cold and hunger.
When they finally emerged, the Earth was unrecognizable.
Dalliss City
From the ruins of old Dallas, a new city rose—blinding metal and glass piercing the desert sun.
Towering above them all stands Santzco Tower, symbol of monopoly and excess. Holograms shimmer across skyscraper walls, advertising synthetic luxuries and energy wealth. Hover-limos drift between platforms high above the ground, ensuring the elite never need to descend into the streets below.
Because below is the Underbelly.
Up in the Super Level, life is luminous and indulgent. AI servants anticipate every need. Synthetic food, designer drugs, cultivated gardens, and constant surveillance create a polished illusion of perfection. Status is measured by altitude—the higher you live, the more powerful you are.
Down on the ground, reality smells of smoke and burning plastic. Power cuts are constant; warmth is a privilege. Slums press together under sour air and dim light. Clean water is scarce. Medicine is nonexistent. Resistance brews in graffiti-covered halls while gangs of abandoned children search for survival in the ruins.
The city runs on fossil fuels once more—expensive, unstable, and increasingly scarce. And beneath it all lies something far more powerful.
Arantium.
Esten
Beneath the deserts of what was once New Mexico stretches Esten—an underground civilization carved from sandstone and shadow.
The Taran were once survivalists who retreated belowground during Darkfall. Over generations, they became something else entirely. Living in the presence of Arantium—a mineral born from an alien crash centuries earlier—their bodies changed.
Each Taran carries the power to shapeshift, bound to a spirit animal. It is a gift from the entity they call the Mother—a sentient alien craft buried deep beneath the desert. In return, it takes a fragment of their life force.
Esten is ruled by three Elders. Water flows through ancient aqueducts. Food grows in vast hydroponic caverns. Energy comes from geothermal heat and underground rivers. They reject AI completely.
But not all transformations are stable. Some Taran become trapped between forms—twisted beings known as the Keening—exiled to roam the surface.
The Taran consider Arantium sacred.
Dalliss City considers it fuel.
And the disputed land between them—called the Spiritlands by the Taran, “the Cut” by the city—is being mined.
Neither side fully understands what Arantium truly is: the by-product of an alien engine still searching for its lost counterpart, trapped beneath the ruins of Area 51.
It is not infinite.
And history is preparing to repeat itself.
