A world of broken gears

  Ten thousand years ago our world was mutilated during an event which has been etched into history as The Shattering. Vorandrax the Worldbreaker ruptured the fabric of reality to strike at our world. Forever leaving an eternal scar upon our world's soul.   By his destructive hand the core of our world was laid bare, exposing not molten rock but a mechanical labyrinth now destined to birth creatures of nightmare. These creatures poured out of the world's open wound, scorched the skies, ravaged the lands and consumed all that was left on the surface. The vibrant world we once knew vanished in an instant. The magic that once flowed harmoniously through the veins of our world became distorted, chaotic, and sundered our sacred connection to the gods we once served. Only we lucky few who found themselves upon the fractured shards of our former world, now adrift around its broken husk, managed to survive.   These drifting remnants, aptly named Gears in acknowledgment of their artificial origin, encircle the old world in eight distinct levels known as gearspheres. Each one isolated yet all bound together by etheral veins of magic, The Leylines. The Gears began to perpetually turn giving us a chance to forge new homes from the remnants of our shattered existence. Adaptation was our only recourse as millennia unfolded. New species emerged, Cultures of all types have taken root, and eras of history have been both written and forgotten. Our once shattered Gears now thrive as if in defiance of their traumatic origin.   Yet, despite our resilience and adaptation a looming threat persisted. The Corebeasts, Nightmarish monsters of ever changing visage and insatiable appetites for destruction, that eternally emerge from the depths below. Relentlessly seeking to ascend the Gearspheres, Slaughtering and ravaging everything in their wake, as if reaching out towards the scar in the cosmos that was left by The Worldbreaker himself.   However as the abyss stares at us from below so too does a new adversary from within our own homes. The Corekeepers. Presumed to have once been the wardens responsible for containing the corebeasts. But now these enigmatic entities lurk within the forgotten depths of the Gears, harboring hostility towards all life. Whether from having forgotten their duty or some warped perception that sees us as indistinguishable from the monsters they once restrained, their presence only adds another sinister layer of peril to our existence.   Regardless of the we trials endure, the Gears never stop turning. Indifferent to our struggles, the threats that we face, the petty wars we wage, and the pages of history that we write each day. The Gears, forever trapped in their eternal dance around their former home, remain an enduring symbol of a world that never ceases to turn.