The Time of the Sunder

A flash of light - our utopia undone.
Gone were the stars, gone was the Empire, gone was our home.
The Sunder hit - and we could barely hide.
A final burst of magic to scorch the world anew.

The technology violently reacted.
The spellcasters became rabid as dogs.
The arcane stones dissolved into dirt.
Within seconds, craters for cities, glassed-earth for graves.

Some of us survived, but we left our souls behind.
Heaven's Fall thrived as the New Empire rose.
Neon lights in lieu of thaumite glow;
Corpo campaigns make do for warmth.

Would the Goddess show mercy on me?
I traded my elven soul for a pump-action shotgun.
My skull is chrome, my eyes mithril, my thoughts digital.
An old blood pump keeps my hatred alive.

— Aoife Davi, "In the Shade of a Gilded Tree"

Welcome to the Time of the Sunder - a homebrew alteration of Cyberpunk RED, squarely set in the distant future of Linaly's Boshaari setting.

Through the Mirror, Darkly

The elves of Kalim relied on magitek and their planet's natural arcane flow for thousands of years. When the Sunder hit, all magic was lost, and the world was plunged in darkness. Scattered survivors were forced to improvise.

Far easier said than done. Even today, the land is ravaged by climate catastrophes. Droughts and dust storms scour the dead cornfields, where nomad caravans still eke out a living. The New Empire, rising from the ashes of the Old, barely controls the main cities that stay standing, let alone the rest of the land. By chartering key corporations out of decrepit guilds, and elevating them beyond the reach of the law, the Empire seeks to restore its economy through militarized corporate rule and widespread use of cyberware. Corporate skirmishes and regular warfare between former Imperial states are the lot of many.

There is a spot of hope in the bleak shrublands. On the West Coast, there is a citadel of stubborn civilization, a City of Hope where one can still make it big and carve their own destiny. It's every elf for themselves out on the Streets, with at least the familiar comforts of urban life. The locals call it a nightmare - they call it Heaven's Fall.

The world is rust, the world is dust, the world is neon and electric sheep.

Welcome to the Dark Future of Elvenkind.

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