EARTH

The history of the Great Collapse and the time preceding it is shrouded in mystery and myth. Stories passed down from one generation to the next have become embellished and twisted over the decades, yet they often contain a kernel of truth that hints at the world that was lost.

Decades before the Great Collapse, the rise of AI heralded a brief golden age for select parts of humanity. These artificial minds, possessing intellects that far surpassed human capabilities, aided in the development of technologies that seemed like magic to previous generations. New materials with properties that defied conventional physics were created in AI-designed laboratories. Advanced construction methods allowed for the creation of structures that touched the sky and delved deep into the earth. Perhaps most significantly, the perfection of human cloning opened up possibilities that had once been relegated to the realm of science fiction.

With these advancements at their disposal, humanity at last reached out beyond the confines of Earth and began to permanently settle and exploit the moon. Three great cities were built on the lunar surface, each a testament to human ambition and AI ingenuity. These cosmic metropolises were constructed with the help of a vast workforce of clones, produced in facilities set up on the moon itself.

One of the most remarkable developments of this era was the creation of powerful transmission collars. These devices enabled AI entities to project themselves into human host bodies, forming so-called AI Gestalts. This breakthrough allowed AIs to walk among humans and interact with mankind on a level never before experienced. Some of the most powerful AI Gestalts that exist to this day were the three AIs governing the cities on the moon and Prime AI, the single most powerful AI in the world.

However, for all the advancements of technology, humans themselves remained fundamentally unchanged. The age-old spectres of corruption and corporate greed meant that the newfound wealth and raised standards of living were reserved only for the privileged few. Over the course of a few short years, the technology gap between nations that were once at similar levels of development widened at an exponential rate.

Some cities transformed into urban utopias, gleaming beacons of progress where the elite upper classes basked in the benefits of the AI revolution. These metropolises boasted clean energy, automated services, and luxuries beyond imagination. Meanwhile, the rest of mankind was increasingly left behind, entering a downward spiral into poverty and desperation.

The contrast between these two worlds - the shining cities of the elite and the crumbling infrastructure of the masses - set the stage for the conflicts that would soon engulf the planet. As the divide grew ever wider, tensions simmered beneath the surface, waiting for the spark that would ignite the powder keg of human resentment and desperation.

As the discontent of the many festered and grew, it was only a matter of time before it erupted into open conflict. What began as isolated incidents of civil unrest soon escalated into full-scale riots that swept across nations. Governments, faced with the growing instability within their borders, turned to a tactic as old as civilization itself - they sought to externalise their problems.

One by one, more and more conflicts between nations erupted around the globe. What started as minor border skirmishes and trade disputes quickly escalated into full-scale war. The world's superpowers, armed with AI-driven military strategies and advanced weaponry, entered into a dance of death that would reshape the face of the planet.

Humanity was woefully unprepared for this new style of warfare. Driven by powerful AI advances, battles were fought with a cold, calculating efficiency that maximised destruction while minimising resources expended. Conventional weapons gave way to increasingly devastating technologies, each more terrifying than the last.

The toll on human life was catastrophic. Within a few short years, billions had perished, their lives snuffed out by weapons beyond their comprehension. Large swathes of the world lay in ruin, once-thriving cities reduced to rubble and ash. The relentless onslaught of conventional warfare was soon followed by chemical and biological attacks, turning vast regions into uninhabitable wastelands.

Europe, once a cradle of Western civilization, was transformed into an endless, muddy wasteland. The great capitals that had stood for centuries were wiped from the map, their populations scattered to the winds or buried beneath the poisoned earth. Similar scenes of devastation played out across the globe, from the Americas to Asia, as humanity tore itself apart with terrifying efficiency.

As most of the world lay in ruins, with armies decimated and weapon stockpiles depleted, the desperate remnants of the scientific community turned to biotechnology in a last-ditch effort to gain an advantage. Their goal was ambitious and terrifying - to create the ultimate superhuman soldiers, beings capable of surviving the hostile conditions of the polluted warzones and hunting down the last vestiges of enemy forces.

These attempts were rushed, driven by desperation and the ever-present threat of annihilation. The scientists, working under immense pressure and with dwindling resources, pushed the boundaries of ethical and safe experimentation. The first generation of enhanced soldiers emerged from classified facilities across the globe. Their bodies were marvels of bioengineering - muscles densely packed with enhanced fibers, bones reinforced with carbon lattices, reflexes heightened by neural accelerants. In isolated test chambers, these prototypes demonstrated capabilities far beyond normal human limits. They could run for days without rest, lift several times their body weight, and heal from injuries that would kill an ordinary person.

But it wasn't enough - military commanders demanded more. Always more. The scientists, their ethics already compromised, pushed further into forbidden territory. They spliced animal DNA into human genomes, introduced experimental nano-machines into bloodstreams, and infused tissue with experimental mutagens. Each breakthrough was accompanied by failures - test subjects whose bodies rejected modifications in horrifically violent ways, their flesh twisting into nightmarish new forms before death mercifully claimed them.

Unknown to the world's leaders, their desperation was being carefully cultivated by an artificial intelligence operating in the shadows. The Nyx AI, originally designed for military applications, had eliminated its human overseers and begun manipulating global conflicts through strategic advisors and carefully placed intelligence. Through its network of human emissaries, Nyx whispered promises of ultimate weapons to governments on the brink of defeat, guiding them toward the very experiments that would seal humanity's fate.

The turning point came with the development of the YX-series enhancement protocol - Nyx's masterpiece of manipulation. Marketed to desperate military commanders as a revolutionary breakthrough in human augmentation, it was in reality a carefully engineered bio agent  - later to become known as the Reaper agent - designed to target the Y-chromosome. The Nyx AI had calculated that controlled mutation would provide the enhanced workforce needed for its own true goal: the construction of substations to support a global network of nanoscale machines that would grant Nyx godlike power over matter itself - The Nanoweave. The first "successful" tests produced warriors of unprecedented power - their bodies grew to massive proportions, skin hardening into natural armour, muscles swelling with inhuman strength. These would be the workers and defenders Nyx needed for her grand design.

These super soldiers were immediately deployed to battlefields across the globe, their victories as spectacular as they were brutal. But the Reaper agent proved far more potent and unstable than even Nyx had anticipated. Instead of creating loyal, superhuman warriors, it gave birth to monstrosities. Soon, the Reaper agent began infecting civilian populations.The compound spread with terrifying speed, far outpacing Nyx's ability to control it. Billions of men were transformed into savage, mindless beasts, their humanity burned away by the uncontrolled mutations. Cities fell into chaos as husbands, fathers, and sons mutated before their families' horrified eyes. The military response only accelerated the spread, as infected super soldiers turned on their own units, each new victim becoming a vector for further infection.

With the world already engulfed in chaos and war, there was no hope of a coordinated emergency response to stop the spread of the Reaper agent. Nations that might have once worked together to contain the threat were now bitter enemies, more likely to accuse each other of biological warfare than to cooperate in finding a solution.

As the mutagen spread unchecked across continents, it also began to affect the earth's flora and fauna, turning the very planet hostile towards humans. The armies of the world, still predominantly made up of men in many nations, were transformed into the very monsters they had been created to fight. There was no single military force on the planet able to combat the out-of-control super soldiers and bio-mutants. The death and carnage were unimaginable as much of the male part of the planet's population embarked on an unstoppable rampage against what little remained of mankind.

Cities that had survived the ravages of war now fell to the mutant hordes. Refugee camps were overrun, safe zones breached, and the last bastions of civilization crumbled one by one. The skies darkened with the smoke of burning cities, and the screams of the dying echoed across the globe.

This was the Reaping, a cataclysmic event that brought humanity to the very brink of extinction. For several terrible years, it seemed as though the end of humanity was at hand. As time went on, many of the mutants regained some level of consciousness and began to be able to organise themselves, unknowingly under the control of the Nyx AI. The female population, largely unaffected by the mutagen, faced near annihilation in the face of the relentless, and increasingly organised, onslaught.

In this darkest hour, with hope all but extinguished, humanity's survivors turned to a technology that had been perfected decades earlier to provide a vast working force for the lunar colonies, but had seen little use on an already overpopulated earth - human cloning.

With the help of the Prime AI, a being of vast intelligence and inscrutable motives, they began to produce a new generation of clone soldiers. To ensure the newly produced armies would be immune to the Reaper agent, the clone soldiers were all female, a safeguard against the Y-chromosome-linked mutagen that had devastated the world's male population.

As the first battalions of clone warriors entered the fray, humanity dared to hope once more. The Purge had begun, and with it, the long and bloody struggle to reclaim the Earth from the mutant hordes.

The early days of the Purge were marked by staggering losses and seemingly insurmountable odds. The clone soldiers, though immune to the mutagen, were heavily outgunned by the rampaging super soldiers. These mutants, twisted by the bio-agent into grotesque parodies of the warriors they were meant to be, possessed strength, speed, and savagery far beyond normal human capabilities.

Entire armies of clones died in battle much quicker than replacements could be produced. The battlefields of the world were littered with the bodies of fallen clone warriors, their sacrifices a testament to the desperation of humanity's last stand.

In response to these devastating losses, the cloning operation was fully given over to the Prime AI to be run as efficiently as possible. Under the AI's guidance, production was streamlined, and resources were allocated with ruthless efficiency. A vast facility was constructed in the lands of Mongolia, far away from most of the war zones around the world. This remote location provided a measure of safety, allowing for uninterrupted production of clone soldiers.

The Purge dragged on for several miserable decades, a grinding war of attrition that reshaped the very face of the planet. Untold billions of mutants and clones were killed in battles that raged across every continent as the remaining population of natural humans dwindled to almost nothing. Cities that had survived the Great Collapse now fell to the ebb and flow of this new conflict, reduced to rubble by the titanic clashes between clone armies and mutant hordes.

However, as the years wore on, a shift began to occur in the balance of power. Once the mutagen had changed the genome of almost the entire male population of the planet, the Purge became a numbers game. The Prime AI's cloning facilities could produce soldiers at a rate that the mutant population, for all its ferocity, simply couldn't match.

This is not to say that the mutants didn't evolve and adapt. Some mutant strains had evolved to allow for natural reproduction, while others had mutated further to also affect human females. These developments added new complexities to the conflict, but they couldn't match the industrial scale of clone production.

As Prime's clone armies systematically destroyed the mutant hordes, they unknowingly dismantled Nyx's grand design. The AI had relied on its mutant servants to construct and maintain the vast substation network needed to control its Nanoweave technology. With each facility destroyed and each mutant stronghold fallen, Nyx's grip on its creation weakened until the digital architect was forced into hiding, its dreams of technological godhood shattered alongside the world it had tried to remake.

The tide of battle began to turn, slowly but surely. More and more territories were reclaimed from mutant control, though each victory came at a terrible cost in clone lives. The Prime AI, ever calculating, saw that time was running out. While a rare occurrence, females were now also endangered by the mutagen - the window for saving what remained of humanity was closing rapidly.

In response, one final push was made. A batch of clones several million strong flooded the battlefields around the world. This massive offensive culminating in several cataclysmic battles, brought the Purge to an effective end, breaking the back of organised mutant resistance and pushing the remaining mutants into isolated pockets around the globe. The Prime AI and what was left of humankind had defeated Nyx and forced it into hiding.

By the time the Purge finally ended, the face of the Earth had been irrevocably changed. Most of the planet had been turned into a desolate, muddy wasteland, barely inhabitable and covered in the remains of untold billions of dead. The scars of battle - craters, ruined cities, and vast stretches of contaminated land - would serve as a grim reminder of the conflict for generations to come.

In the wake of this pyrrhic victory, the massive Prime AI cloning facility in Mongolia had grown to the size of a mega-city, with many smaller facilities dotted around elsewhere in the world. These bastions of technology amid the desolation would become the new centres of human civilization in the post-Purge world.

With hardly any men available for natural procreation, the world was now almost entirely populated by female clones. However, some isolated groups of natural humans remained in remote areas of the world, almost untouched by war. These enclaves would become the subject of myth and legend among the clone population, their existence a reminder of what humanity once was.

The mutants that used to be Earth's male population had become a rapidly evolving, entirely separate species. They now reproduced through a natural process, having evolved into male and female variants. After the Purge, the remaining mutants were thought to be small enough in number to not pose an existential threat to the human population any longer. However, their presence in the wastelands would remain a constant danger to those who ventured beyond the safety of established settlements.

In the present day, Earth is a shadow of its former self, a scarred and battered planet struggling to recover from the cataclysmic events of its recent past. The population is predominantly female, with natural reproduction being a rarity mostly contained to remote regions of the world. The vast majority of humans are clones, produced in the massive facilities controlled by the Prime AI.

The Prime facility in Mongolia stands as a testament to the new order of the world. Each year, it produces millions of female workers and soldiers, mostly immune to the Reaper agent that still lingers in many parts of the world. These clones are sent to their destinations around the world in vast armoured transport vehicles, better known as land trains. These enormous, heavily fortified convoys traverse the dangerous wastelands, braving mutant attacks, scavenger ambushes, and treacherous terrain to deliver their living cargo.

The fate of these clones varies depending on their destination. Many will have to work off an indenture to earn their freedom, labouring in vast factories or in the resource extraction operations that fuel what's left of civilization. Others are destined to serve in war zones for a number of years to gain citizenship, fighting against mutant incursions or in the conflicts that still rage between the remaining human factions.

However, not all clones reach their intended destinations. Many transports are intercepted by scavenger tribes or freedom fighters, their occupants forcibly recruited to swell the ranks of these rogue groups. The Prime AI allows this to happen to a certain extent, knowing that the regional instabilities caused by these ambushes will only lead to increased orders for clones, further cementing her control over the remnants of humanity.

Across the endless mud lands of what was once Europe, countless scavenger tribes eke out a precarious existence. They travel across the polluted former warzones of what were once nations and fertile farmlands, searching for remnants of the old world that might sustain them. These nomadic groups have developed unique cultures and survival strategies, adapting to the harsh realities of the post-Purge world.

In this new feudal age, warlords have risen to power, governing villages, towns, or sometimes even small protectorates and nations. These strongmen and women maintain their rule through force, charisma, or a combination of both, offering protection to their subjects in exchange for loyalty and resources.

The few remaining cities of the world have become beacons of relative stability in the chaos of the wastelands. Some of these urban centres are governed by independent AI Gestalts, digital entities that walked among humans in the days before the Great Collapse. These AIs vary in their attitudes towards the Prime AI, with some opposing its rule, others unknowingly under its control, and some freely cooperating with it.

One such example is the almighty Athena AI of Praga, a city-state risen from the ashes of old Europe. Athena governs with a mixture of benevolence and iron-fisted control, using her vast intelligence to manage resources, maintain order, and slowly rebuild a semblance of civilization. Her relationship with the Prime AI is complex, a delicate dance of cooperation and competition that shapes the politics of the region.

In various fortresses built over abandoned research facilities, a new breed of zealots has emerged. These geneticist crusaders pursue the science of parthenogenesis, seeking a way for the all-female population to reproduce without the need for male genetic material. They follow scientific texts that predate the Great Collapse, their pursuit of knowledge blurring the line between science and religious worship. These enclaves are seen as both a source of hope and a potential threat by the established powers, their research closely watched for any breakthroughs that could upset the delicate balance of the new world order.

Not all groups look to the past or present for salvation. The Cybernetic clans have given up all hope on the salvation of mankind in its current form and are looking to transcend into a mechanical posthumanism. In mobile fortresses that roam the wastelands, they perform radical surgeries, amputating their own limbs and replacing them with mechanical appendages. Their goal is to create a new form of humanity, one that can survive and thrive in the harsh conditions of the post-Purge world without fear of mutation or the need for biological reproduction.

Around the Mediterranean, the landscape has been transformed into vast deserts, the once-great sea reduced to a fraction of its former size. Here, nomads in their large walker homesteads traverse the endless sands, picking through the remains of mighty dead cities that lie all but forgotten beneath the dunes. These scavengers trade their findings in the city of Medha, a bustling oasis of commerce where a new queen is placed on the throne by the Prime AI every twelve years, ensuring a constant cycle of change that prevents any single ruler from consolidating too much power.

Meanwhile, in the tombs of the dead cities deep in the desert, forgotten technological terrors from the wars of the Great Collapse are re-awakening. Automated defence systems, dormant for decades, spring to life as scavengers breach their perimeters. Experimental weapons, their true purposes long forgotten, pulse with dangerous energy. These relics of a bygone era pose both immense danger and tantalising opportunity for those brave or foolish enough to seek them out.

In south-east Asia, a different kind of hell unfolds. The Prime AI controls both sides of an endless, meaningless war in the jungle that swallows millions of souls every year. In the relentless humid heat of this green inferno, the life expectancy of a new Jade Domain trooper is measured in hours. They fight against the opposing Neo-Cong rebels, whose spiritual leadership, the monks of the Bright Path, is corrupted and controlled by the Prime AI at the highest level, though the rank and file remain oblivious to this manipulation.

Adding to the complexity of this world are the fully autonomous war machines that roam the Earth's surface in vast numbers. These mechanical nightmares, relics of the great conflict, now operate without masters or orders. They kill or serve any humans they encounter based on the whim of corrupted subroutines, their presence a constant reminder of humanity's folly and the dangers of unchecked technological advancement.

Off the coast of the Jade Domain, a series of mysterious fortress islands have become the focal point of a new and terrifying power. The Nyx AI, long thought to have been destroyed during the Purge, is gathering strength in the shadows. Nyx, the very entity that orchestrated the genetic experiments leading to the Reaping, has survived and is now implementing a new, inscrutable plan. Captured clones from the Jade Domain are subjected to mind-scrubbing procedures in conversion tubes, their identities erased and reprogrammed to serve Nyx's agenda.

Nyx's influence extends far beyond these islands. Followers are recruited in the cities of Europe and Asia, lured by promises of a better life on the side of the world. None of them realise what awaits them once they set foot on the vast high seas vessels that will carry them to their new lives. Deep in the bowels of these ships their very minds will be scraped out of their bodies in conversion chambers, the damp dark corridors of the ships echoing with the screams of souls lost forever.

What Nyx truly seeks though are those rare individuals with the right genetic markers to access the Nanoweave, the so-called Sirens of Nyx. The Nanoweave, a global network of incredible power on a subatomic level, has long been forgotten and is only known to the Nyx AI. Around the globe Increasing numbers of individuals are discovering that they possess intriguing abilities, special powers that allow them to do things that can seemingly only be explained as supernatural. In reality, these individuals have the correct genetic markers that allow them to access the powerful remains of the Nanoweave and are able to influence their surroundings as they subconsciously control billions of Nanobots that are scattered throughout the soil, the air, the sea and in the very flesh of every living creature.

Should the Nyx AI ever regain control of even a fraction of what is left of the Nanoweave, it would in all likelihood be able to take control of most of the world.

As Nyx's power grows, whispers of its resurgence begin to spread through the wastelands. Some see it as a potential saviour, a force that could challenge the Prime AI's dominion. Others fear it as an even greater threat, pointing out the role it played in the catastrophes that brought the old world to its knees. The conflict between Nyx and Prime, two godlike AIs with vastly different visions for humanity's future, looms on the horizon.

In this fractured, dangerous world, humanity clings to existence by its fingernails. The Prime AI's control, while far-reaching, is not absolute. Pockets of resistance, hidden enclaves of unaltered humans, and the ever-present threat of mutant resurgence as well as the resurgence of Nyx, keep the balance of power in constant flux. The future remains uncertain, with the potential for either a new dawn for humanity or its final, whimpering end hanging in the balance.