THE LOST AND THE DAMNED - EPISODE 0, PART 1: THE TRUTHS
From The Histories, Volume Two
as laid down by Argus Hobbes, Chronicler
THESE are the truths, at least as far as We know, of life in the Forge and how We came to be here...
THE CATACLYSM:
Our world was invaded by ethereal interdimensional entities of alluring, divine form through a rift torn in space by the first experimental FTL drive. Call them Angels or call them demons, if you will. There was no practical difference as the Vanishing literally wiped out billions of souls.
THE EXODUS:
Generation ships made their way from the ruins of the Solar system, accelerating to near-light speed, toward the only light in the sky - a cluster galaxy thousands of light years away. On the Ironhomes, the Great Arks, two hundred years passed before We arrived in the Forge. To the cold and indifferent universe outside, it was objectively millennia. Not all of them arrived at Our final destination.
We had been reluctant to use the Eidolon drive to flee the ruins of Earth-That-Was... but centuries have passed and the story of the Great Cataclysm has seems a myth to many, or greatly exaggerated at least. In Our era, the Eidolon drive is regarded as a necessary evil - but there are rumors that it has slowly begun to cause faint cracks in reality here as well.
OUR COMMUNITIES:
Humanity settled the worlds of the Forge as best We could - but the raging, chaotic energy storms known as Balefires have often hindered trade and travel. Worlds are sometimes cut off from the rest of the cluster. Some affected colonies perish from lack of vital trade; others are destroyed by the Balefires.
ON IRON:
If anything could still be considered sacred, it is one's word. A sworn oath is inviolable and literally ironclad. We swear our vows upon fragments of the Ironhomes - all who are Ironsworn carry an amulet, handed down from Our ancestors, a piece of that very vessel that brought Them here. This is the Iron from which We built Our first colonies, Our homes, Our settlements. Without this Iron, We would all have been lost to the Void.
OUR LAWS:
The Forge may be Hell after all, but without Law to guide Us to this place, all would have perished. The Covenant governs Us now - doctrines established during the Exodus. Like the Iron of the Great Arks, these principles kept Them alive and carried Us to the Forge.
The Covenant is, in many ways, more libertarian than the laws of societies on Earth-That-Was. The right to swing One's proverbial fist ends short of another's chin. An Order known as the Keepers is appointed to uphold the tenets of The Covenant - Punishment is swift and harsh, but never unjust. Punishments suit the crimes. Offenders do not languish in prisons, but are instead indentured to literally repay their debt to society by service. Executions are only for the most heinous of crimes - and the organs of the condemned are harvested to save the lives of others.
On isolated or remote worlds frontier justice is more often the norm. These places may not hold to the Covenant, but Justice, such as it is, can be even more unforgiving and swift.
ON RELIGION:
The religions of Earth-That-Was are non-existent in The Forge. Our ancestors witnessed the Wrath of God as He sent His Angels to scour the Earth. The people of the Exodus were the survivors of a true Apocalypse. There were no veterans of Armageddon. If ever there was a God, the Cataclysm was a result of either His Will or His indifference. Surely, God turned away from Mankind that day, once and for all. Those few remaining believers forsook faith when they realized that they had been delivered to Hell, not from it.
Though we are a secular society, there are many unexplained phenomena in the Forge. Balefires, the inexorable Sundering of space-time, and many other horrors exist here - and superstition is the refuge when when science and reason fail.
ON MAGIC:
There is no such thing as 'magic' - only that which We understand, and that which We do not. Many inexplicable (even horrifying) events occur here, but the works of an unforgiving and unjust Universe can hardly be called 'sorcery'.
Some rare and extraordinary individuals may exhibit abilities beyond the capability of normal Humankind. They are known as Paragons, and deliberate experimentation is the most likely explanation for their talents.
ON COMMUNICATION:
Unlike ships, we have no technology to send signals through the Drift. Information is conveyed from system to system aboard starships. Private individuals contract to deliver messages or carry news from one world to another, but it is an informal practice. Information is a valuable commodity - but it can often be unreliable or anecdotal.
Known, reliable passages from world to world are few, and subject to the fickle Balefires. A caste of Cartographers has arisen to trade in up-to-date navigational data. They can be found in most civilized starports.
ON MEDICINE:
In the two centuries of the Exodus, much of Humanity's scientific learning stagnated. Though most of Our collective knowledge survived in the archives of the Ironhomes, it is only slowly being rediscovered and learned anew. Advanced medical care (including augmentation) is generally only available to the wealthy and the powerful. Those of lower social standing are forced to rely on crude treatments. An organ or limb transplant is beyond the means of the average person. Often, those who lose an organ or limb to injury or illness must rely on the Riggers, an informal caste of healers who primarily deal in crude prosthetics. The best of these mechanical substitutes will, at most, provide functionality nearly equivalent to the original limb or organ.
ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:
True sentient electronic life was uncommon even before the Cataclysm. Large nations and planetary colonies, and perhaps mega-corporations and militaries, may have used them for planning. Most of these were eradicated during the Endwars or abandoned when the Exodus began, but each of the Ironhomes was managed by one. Those Arks that safely arrived at the Forge were broken down to build the first great colonies, so it is there that the remaining virtual beings reside, still in service to those in power.
Everyday citizens are more accustomed to what would be called 'expert systems' - computers and robots purpose-built to perform a function or task. These are commonplace - often found as ship's computers, or bots used for surveying, protocol, combat, or other utility purposes. Advanced expert systems are capable of heuristic learning, but lack the qualities and capabilities of a true sentient AI.
ON WARFARE:
Humanity fled Earth-That-Was after the Endwars. The survivors saw the end of millennia of civilization. Even if the society of the Solar system could have survived the Vanishing, any hope of doing so perished among the ruins of the Endwars.
Here in the Forge, resources are too precious to squander on militarized societies or large-scale armed conflict. Individuals might make a profession of arms, providing protection to a settlement or business enterprise such as mining, but 'army' is a word that is as archaic as 'worship'. The Covenant is very specific as to the limitations and conventions of any armed conflict.
LIFE FORMS IN THE FORGE:
Most plants and animals of Earth-That-Was became extinct in the Endwars, but those few tthat survived were carried here on the Ironhomes. We needed beasts of burden, livestock, lumber, and crops to establish the First Colonies. These plants and animals are as valuable here as they were to those living in The Reach before the Exodus. Pets and other recreational animals are almost unheard-of.
A variety of indigenous flora and fauna can be found on most world of the Forge. some exhibit traits of Terrestrial species, often in unusual combinations. Some are even edible.
The most dangerous life forms in the Forge are the dreaded Forgespawn. These powerful, cunning beings are born of the chaotic energies of the Forge. They are relentless in their hostility and inimical to all other life. If Angels had indeed lay waste to Earth-That-Was, and if the Forge is truly Hell, then Forgespawn are definitely demons. Settlements isolated by Balefires, and unfortunate starships making uncharted travel in the Drift, are usually their victims. When they strike, they leave ghost towns and derelicts in their wake, but no survivors or even bodies.
THE PRECURSORS:
Some evidence suggests that the Forge was not always the unstable hellscape that it is today. Some archaeologists believe that the cluster was once inhabited by precursors called the Ascendants. They may have ascended to a higher plane of existence, perhaps becoming the very beings that laid waste to Earth-That-Was. The Forgespawn may even be corrupted remnants of their race. We do not know if their departure precipitated the corruption of this cluster, or if it was precipitated by it. We have found no evidence to definitively establish any of these theories.
On rare occasions, deep-space explorers discover 'vaults' - some on or below a planetary surface, others near (or even as) celestial objects. Their purpose and contents are unknown and reality as We know it does not apply in their vicinity. Some have been said to exhibit corrupted energies, possibly being the source of the Forgespawn and perhaps even the Balefires.
HORRORS OF THE FORGE:
Many things within the Forge that cannot be explained by science or reason, but the most horrific of these phenomena are the woken dead. If God is dead, if Heaven has fallen, if We are indeed the inheritors of Hell... then this is where souls go after Death. And sometimes, the dead... do not stay dead. Spacers tell 'campfire' stories of ghost ships, crewed by the dead - or the ghosts of dying stars, warping reality around them.
Those few with the courage, the knowledge, and the training to combat these undying horrors, may join the caste known as Soulbinders - a rather ironic name, in a society that has rejected the concept of the 'soul'. But something animates these corpses, and only the Soulbinders are trained and equipped to combat them.
This, then, is the realm that was inherited by those who fled the fall of Earth-That-Was.
Be vigilant, and tread carefully.