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Aether1

The looming silhouette of the city lay silent and still, its once prestigious towers now subject to the ire of decay. Bullet holes and craters litter the cracked asphalt reclaimed by nature, battle scars of a distant conflict. Once the proud capital of the Aetherian isles and the technological jewel of South West Cier, Aether’s architecture now lays in ruins; the result of Blackwatch’s conquest of the city and desertion by Aether 2.0, Aether’s aerial sister city. Though the alliance has conducted small humanitarian efforts to aid the surviving population through the provision of dome city habitats, little has been done to restore and stabilize the region. Several nomadic groups still reside in the outland regions of the ruins, tinkering and salvaging old Aether subsystems and clinging to their old way of life. Meanwhile, the current residents of old Aether are forced to live in cramped and polluted slums, harbouring a long lasting animosity against Aether 2.0 for abandoning their people.

Geography

In the absence of several of the isle’s intricate systems and maintenance networks, the majority of cities have substantially deteriorated; the streets and infrastructure now overgrown and strangled by vegetation. The inland regions in contrast, mainly consists of rolling hills and grassy meadows, ridged and cratered with the signature scars of war.

Regardless of where you go however, evidence of the Aether-Blackwatch wars are scattered throughout. Shipwrecked destroyers and amphibious landing craft lay quietly rusting in the calm waters; their cannons silent and still, their hulls and mechanisms gutted by scrapers. So too lay the mechs and war machines that once patrolled the smoldering streets; their cogs and gears now choked with grass, vines and creepers crawling throughout their metallic shells.

Architecture

Decades of repairs and reconstruction have yielded hardly any recovered cities. Though not restored to their former glory by a large margin, they have at least superficially repaired their infrastructure and brought online a few of the more essential systems. A small respite amidst the chaos and ruins.

Like a quick bandage over a severe open wound, the Arcologies helped house refugees from the war, but did so more insufficiently than intended. These quickly built, prefabricated dome cities were quickly built and deployed by the Cierian Protection Front as war reparations. Self sustaining and efficient, these arcologies are low impact and do little to pollute the war-ravaged ecology around it. These dome cities acted more like arks in the early portions of post-war Aether, hosting as many civilians as possible in their safe, clean walls. This resulted in an obscenely high population density, and made for less than ample living conditions.

Not all areas were as lucky. Those who couldn’t recover their cities were forced to hobble together some semblance of society. Some are built in the ruins of pre-war cities in the form of patched up structures and buildings, some are villages fortified from war-time scrap. These “half built” cities do their best to provide for their inhabitants in an age and area of uncertainty.

The Outlands are lawless places, stretches of land between the pockets of civility and beyond the reach of authority; no one dare impede upon this wildland without armed convoy, less they incite less scrupulous attention. As a result, nomadic groups seldom erect permanent structures or buildings of any kind. More so temporary shields from the elements at nigh

Technology / Wealth / RICE

In the face of hardship and abandonment, the people of Old Aether were left stranded in a veritable storm of casings and shells. Left with no other choice for retaliation, the people were forced to adapt, scraping together what little they could scavenge, reworking these technologies into usable assets with the little knowledge they retained. As expected, technologies vary widely from district to district, even more so as the region entered its post war era.

The rebuilt cities and arcologies are by far the most well off in terms of technology. Refurbished pre-war technology makes for a relatively untouched technological impact compared to the outskirts of the Aether Isle. Functioning low-clearance hover vehicles and computers have made life much easier for those fortunate enough to live in an arcology or a rebuilt city, with such amenities like telecommunications and laser tech keeping the society intact.

The persisting bands of outcasts and refugees, having moved to the Outskirt and Outland regions, generally have a haphazard approach to the development of their technologies. Weapons and defensive armaments are unreliable at best and dangerous to use at worst; the utilization of dangerously overclocked and fallibly unstable power cores generally being a common theme throughout their weaponry and other equipment. This makes these badland type societies both sufficiently technological and formidably capable; scraping what they can between Blackwatch war machines and Old Aether technologies to aid in their plight.

With the entirety of the upper class being evacuated aboard Aether 2.0, the rest of Old Aether’s populus struggled to maintain a solid economy. This problem compounded post-war with the lack of monetary reparations given from allies, resulted in an economic powergap. Ironically enough, new classes of wealth were formed within this population. The ones lucky enough to live somewhat normal lives in the main rebuilt cities were now seen as the higher class, compared to the ones struggling to even survive and feed themselves in the outskirts and outlands.

While an extremely sought after energy source throughout the rest of Cier, Aetherians lacked the knowledge and technology to utilize RICE to its fullest potential; as a result, post-war Aether saw the use of RICE as a high value currency rather than a powerful commodity. However, recent years have seen the slow relearning of RICE and it’s value, properties, and utilizations beyond currencies.

People and Culture

The people living in the main rebuilt cities of Aether now live closer to normal lives within their city walls. Ordinary rare commodities such as schools, job systems, and even recreational centers have improved the standard of living significantly in these cities compared to the other regions of Old Aether. Although normalcy has started to make its return to these areas, there is still a sense of melancholy within the people who remember their nation’s former glory.

The populations living on the Outskirts of Old Aether make adequate livings, forming sanctuaries and settlements supported by the local community and organizations. These settlements occasionally struggle to maintain a stable income of food and resources, the result of regular ambushes and raids on supply convoys due to their lack of security and stability. Populations living in the Outlands scatter far and beyond the reach of Aether’s main cities and establishments, away from the shackles of governance and law enforcement. Though generally isolated into small nomadic groups, there exists a sort of tense code of honor between the merchants and thieves, even to the point where they’ve been known to cooperate; even in trying times and the worst of situations, it seems their shared unity remains unbroken.

Government/Religion

The populations located on the Outskirts of the region have tried to organize themselves similar to the now ruined cities of Aether. Although the lack of population and resources prevents them from doing so, the Outskirts’ inhabitants still attempt to maintain a sense of society, in contrast to those inhabiting the Outlands. Those living on the Outlands of Aether have no government and lack the knowledge, infrastructure, and numbers to support such a system. Outlanders usually have very few, if any set rules, given the lack of enforcement.

The inhabitants of Aether are known to follow a Systemist philosophy, which is known to favor scientifically proven truths, technological supremacy, and logic over faith. This trust that everything has a validity to their purpose was what allowed Aether to develop their applied sciences far beyond the rest of Cier, earning their reputation as the former leaders of technology. Even after the hardships of the post war era, the people of Old Aether still hold on to this ideology to this day.

History

For much of the past, the Aetherian Isles were superior to much of mainland Cier in technology. Being the only region to have been influenced by the ancient, hyper-advanced Somnian race, the Aetherians were responsible for many of the century’s technological developments. However, Aether’s complacency and seclusion led to its downfall when the Blackwatch Confederacy declared war and invaded the isle.

Although renowned as the leaders in technology and wealth, the invasion by Blackwatch was a devastating reminder to Aether’s weaknesses in the reality of war. Aether’s vastly superior quality technology could not hold against the onslaught of Blackwatch’s quantity in numbers, and in a matter of four years, Blackwatch had Aether cornered into their capital.

Harboring the people of utmost importance, wealth, and intellect into Aether 2.0 while the rest of the population were kept away through the military’s “protection” orders, the government made the decision to prematurely launch their final resort. The capital shook itself away from the earth, taking off from the ground; It was Aether 2.0’s true purpose, ascended isolationism. Although receiving some aid from the Alliance after the withdrawal of Blackwatch, Aether now shows a permanent scar of it’s once prosperous life.


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