Cardania History
Cardania is an ancient, continent sized megastructure in the Sol System. Slowly constructed and expanded over many millennia by previous generations, Cardania is a glorious, chaotic testament to humanity's perseverance in the void of space.
Across a million years, numerous civilizations, species, and factions have risen and fallen across, around, and inside Cardania. Countless calamities have befallen the structure, but she remains a habitable, albeit treacherous place to call home.
The beating heart of the megastructure is the "Quantum Dark Energy" drive, an ancient megalith which allows limited teleportation of Cardania across space, time, and dimensions. The Quantum Dark Energy drive is powered primarily by the Summoning Pool, a mystical interdimensional portal and limitless source of energy. Cardania thus travels to new locations for limited excursions, though often without the control or consent of her citizens. Cardania always (eventually) returns to her anchor point in the Sol system of the material dimension.
Players will find themselves in Cardania around the year 1M CE.
Factions
Solar Barbarians
"The Solars" are genetically gifted, physically massive specimens of humanity. A powerful tribe of sun worshipping humans once left Earth to colonize the stars.
Their civilization stretched across all of Sol, or so the stories claim - The Solar are the descendants of this once powerful empire. They now carve a tribal life in the hinterlands, enjoying the fruits of conquest and building toward the day that the Solar Empire will rise again.
Void Priests
Legends hold that Cardania itself is a massive living entity, of great spiritual power. For generations, the Void Priests have worshipped Cardania as nothing less than a deity.
Through secretive traditions, the Priests harness raw psychic energy and dark technology to create miracles and rain holy destruction upon their enemies.
Technomages
The Guild of Technomages have endured for nearly a millennia of Cardania's current age.
Through generations of discovery and scientific inquiry, the Technomages have unlocked many ancient mysteries of Cardania and put their discoveries to good use. They are also responsible for a number of calamities and near extinction level events. With their use of bio-enhancements, cybernetic implants, nanite injections and neural stimulants, the Technomages are perhaps more machine than human.
Spacers
"Spacer" is the name given to those Cardanians who eschew the gravity bound life and instead choose to build and run their own ships.
While it is a difficult lifestyle, talented, adventurous citizens can make a good living with trading or mining expeditions. Others earn their way through smuggling, piracy, and other such black market work. Spacers tend to live fast and die young. Some successful spacers have managed to create their own orbital stations.
Imperators
Many citizens choose to live within the relatively orderly boundaries of Imperator control.
While their laws can be stringent and punishments severe, it's a small price to pay for not being consumed by Void Worms in the wastes. Imperators are motivated by ensuring humanity survives, no matter the sacrifices or moral ambiguities that requires.
The Fungus
A species of intelligent fungal based lifeforms that dwell primarily under the surface of Cardania.
The Fungus enjoys a diverse evolutionary tree - Some are considered violent nuisances, while others engage with humanity as benevolent, spiritual guides. The Fungus are thought to be nearly as ancient as the Custodians.
The Custodians
The one constant in Cardania are the enigmatic hive of self replicating artificial intelligence.
The Custodians tirelessly build, repair, and makes habitable the megastructure. While many speculate that their prime directive is benevolent for humanity, others have observed rogue behavior that indicates there may be underlying errors in their programming.
The Darkness
Paradoxically, the Summoning Pool that powers the very heart of Cardania also conjures all manner of chaotic creatures, plagues, and terrors from the Void.
These creatures routinely wreak havoc across the world and have been responsible for countless calamities across time immemorial. Over time, Summoners have come to recognize a malign intelligence behind the creatures and that source is now collectively known as "The Darkness".
