THE LORE
The Timeline
Before Time
An era of systematic deception. Humanity lived under the guidance of the Technocratic Core, unaware of the Five Vessels hidden among them. The Moon was presented as a barren rock, while in reality, it housed the Cradle of the Archivists.
Day 0: The Great Fry
The Lunar Capacitor discharge. Initiated by Lynn and sabotaged by Rahu, the reset failed to achieve its biological purpose, instead short-circuiting every digital system in the solar system. The Moon's surface sheered off, falling to Earth as the debris field that would define the next decade.
The After Time (Year 1 - 15 AT)
The emergence of the Archivists and the Thousand-Year Fallacy. This is the era of our story. Lem wanders a world of mechanical ecology, governed by the stadium-sized Monoliths—grown industrial machines that humanity mistakenly remembers as "Tripods."
The Five Elements
Wood (Lem)
The Vessel of Growth and Memory. Hidden in suburban anonymity, Lem's nature was only revealed during the Cataclysm. He carries the software legacy of the Water element.
Fire (Rahu)
The Vessel of Transmission. After his defection, Rahu became the broadcast voice of the Moon, his warnings twisted by Archivists into propaganda.
Water (Lynn)
The Vessel of Flow and Preservation. Lynn dissolved into the Lunar Capacitor to initiate the reset. She survives as an AI guided by Lem's Aether-Drive.
Earth (Tor)
The Vessel of Stability. Once a high-ranking human general, his shattering obedience during the Cataclysm led him to become a wanderer seeking the true nature of the Fallacy.
Metal (The Synanthropes)
The element of standardized Order. Shared-consciousness units led by the reset forms of Tor and Rahu. They serve as the physical enforcers of the Archivist Thousand-Year Fallacy.
Aetheric Drive
The resonance engine that allows Vessels to communicate with the Schema of the solar system. For Lem, this includes the spectral presence of AI Lynn.
The Monoliths
Colossal organic-mechanical hybrids. Not built, but grown. They feature two massive legs and two primary arms, designed for planetary reconstruction.
The Builders (Gorgons)
Fire-aligned mechanical lifeforms engineered as "perfect slaves." Brittle without heat, they migrate to Fire Cities like Cradle Zero for survival. They possess a shared hivemind and utilize invisible heat rays.
Geography of the Fallen World
- Cradle Zero
The original terrestrial base, now a restricted "Fire City." A Pillar of Fire stretches into the blackened sky, attracting thousands of **Builders** seeking warmth and energy. It is guarded by the dormant Elder Monolith known as The Great Beast.
- Apex Hub
The primary Archivist lunar base on the far side of the moon ruins. It is where the **Builders** were first evolved as a Core experiment.
- The Path of Fragments
The orbital debris field that shields the Earth from deep space. It is both a graveyard of the SAS fleet and the foundation of the new lunar ecology.