The World of Rifts


A few generations before the Time of Rifts, the world enjoyed a great peace and prosperity. The leaders of the day called it the Golden Age" of man. During this time, many great improvements in medicine and science took place. It was during this period in history that the sciences of bionics, cybernetics, and all types of human augmentation were developed. At the same time, the societies of the world, which had been at conflict for generations, put aside their differences to work together in peace and harmony. Sharing their ideas and technology to build a better world. Trade between each soared and many of the poor became wealthy and joined the world empires. China, Korea, Argentina were just a few of the empires that rose to stand among the old empires.

The world seemed to have been enraptured with the notion of "human augmentation"; the idea that the frail human body can be improved in any number of ways. The recordings of those days are filled with the accomplishments and the accompanying wealth of each new discovery. For all the accomplishments, there still existed a sort of rivalry between the empires, and soon, a sort of unofficial race began to see who could develop the new sciences faster and make them better. At first, everybody in the race grew powerful and wealthy. This is the so-called Golden Age. As long as the empires, old and new, prospered, they were happy. The old saying, "ignorance is bliss" seems an ironic phrase to use to describe this fabled period of learning, yet appropriate. The leaders of the day were shortsighted or entirely blinded by the wonders of the Golden Age. They continued to create and produce without thought as to what it was they were accomplishing or where it was all going.

Suddenly, the era of enlightenment stopped. It was as if one of the empires’ leaders woke up one morning with a new perspective and shouted to all the others, "Stop! Look at what we are doing. Who is to benefit? Who holds the power now?" And every power of the day stopped and looked, and did not like what they saw. Suddenly, many realized that they were so caught up in the race that they had not noticed that they were losing. Others found that they were so consumed by events that many other problems had come to stand on their very doorsteps. Worse, every empire stopped to examine themselves, and in so doing, examined their rivals. Somehow, none had realized what each other had created, or how some had grown more powerful than others.

AS unexpectedly as it had begun, the age of enlightenment ended. The empires looked at each other with suspicion and envy. Soon fear and distrust replaced the happiness and sharing of the Golden Age. The problem? The empires had set out to create improved humans. One day, they suddenly realized that they had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. The problem, not all held the secrets of creating super-men. And among the creators of super humans some were more super than others. They then asked themselves how could these super-men be used and the answer frightened them all. War!

At first, the empires tried to talk and hoped to establish a mutual sharing of each other’s knowledge, but not all would agree. This only made matters worse. Soon none would share any ideas. The best that could be achieved was a world pact in which each empire swore an oath to never use their secrets in war. But the definition of what could and couldn’t be used, or what even constituted a war was vague and unacceptable to many so the pact was seen as a blanket to cover the problem, not solve it. None could offer a better solution.

All this fear caused the empires to slow trade between each other. Some stopped completely. This created widespread poverty among many of the empires. Some saw this as the first steps toward war; to undermine and then conquer the weak. The world became a cold, silent place where brother did not trust brother.

Sadly, the situation worsened. One of the last recorded events from the Time before Rifts tells of a small military skirmish in one of the South American Empires. One empire sent a small force of the infamous Glitter Boys to suppress rebels on its border. Only a dozen Glitter Boys were sent into the area. The routed the rebels and pursued them across the border, into the neighboring empire. The neighbor responded to this action as an act of aggression and sent troops to repel the invaders. The exact accounts of what happened, and who was at fault, differ greatly, but without a doubt, a terrible battle erupted. It was over in the horrifying, short period of an hour; a score of tanks, 1200 soldiers and the town of Guada Marta were laid to waste. 24,000 townspeople were killed. An additional 800 soldiers and 13,000 townspeople were injured. Of the twelve Glitter Boys responsible of the assault, only one was destroyed.

The invading empire who dispatched the Glitter Boys refused to apologize, defending its actions as self defense. The world empires were torn asunder, some condemning the actions, others supporting them, still others, lost to confusion. Regardless of who was at fault, the battle served as a dramatic illustration of what the new technologies could do in a war situation. Those without the super-science felt and were naked and defenseless. Fearful, small empires joined large more powerful empires, polarizing the people, creating ever more distinct lines of imperial power. The "New Cold War," as it was called, saw all the empires begin to use their knowledge for the creation of war machines and super-soldiers.

The previous decades of peace were lost. Sometime shortly after this, perhaps within as little time as a decade, the Time of Rifts occurred and reshaped the world.

Nuclear holocaust ignited the destruction of the world, but was not the primary instrument of destruction. The sudden destruction of a billion people triggered a surge in ley lines of mystic energy around the world. All that psychic energy released at once and the sudden influx of psychic energy sent the energy rippling through the mystical crossroads of earth like an earthquake. Ley lines flowed with energy that that had not been felt for a million years. The energy surged and pulsed and crisscrossed across the planet at the speed of light. At ley line intersections, called nexus points, rifts in space and time tore open, releasing even more energy. The earth shuddered and heaved. Millions more died, increasing the energy level of the rifts. The oceans leapt from their basin and washed over the land. Hundred of millions more died, their psychic energy drawn into the ley lines, and the natural energies doubled again. A chain reaction was unleashed that could not be halted.

The continent men called Atlantis leapt from its watery grave and rose to the light of day for the first time in millennia. Its rebirth changed the very face of the planet. In its wake, the eastern coast of the United States was engulfed by the ocean, sending the energy of millions more into the relentless rifts.

From the rifts spewed forth energy that tore through mans citadels of steel and concrete like a tornado through a city built out of matchsticks. For every million or billion of lives lost, the ley lines surged and destroyed billions more; a nightmare in geometric principles.

The Earth has become a place of contradiction and infinite possibilities. Alien and supernatural beings roam the planet. Vampires, faeries, dragons, and alien monstrosities co-exist with human cyborgs, androids, giant robots, high-tech mercenaries and dimensional raiders. Creatures of myth and legend, demons and aliens visit regularly. Some use magic to bolster their already formidable powers, while humans augment themselves with nano-implants, bionics, power armor, chemical enhancement, magic and alien technologies in an ongoing battle of survival.

The ley lines and the rifts that they opened were not some insidious evil, nor a plot of some malignant intelligence from another world. It was an aspect of nature that science did not even know, let alone understand. Like a child playing with matches in a pool of gasoline, humankind dropped a match into the pool and was instantly engulfed. Once the match was lit and dropped, there was nothing that could be done to undo what had been done. Yet in a strange way, all this death was part of the birth of a new age. And through it all, humankind would persevere. Even the cosmic fury of a world gone mad could not completely eradicate all human life. However, it would take mankind hundreds of years to crawl out of the abyss that swallowed him. It is at this moment, as humankind finally crawls back into the light of a new dawn that our story unfolds.

The Coalition States: Humanity’s Salvation
"To embrace the inhuman is to lose our humanity.
To accept the alien is to lose our identity.
To use magic is to forsake technology.
Magic and the acceptance of the monstrous, alien and inhuman is the poison that eats away at our people.
We are human! We are the people of Earth! This is our world! Ours alone!"
---Emperor Karl Prosek, Coalition States.


Humankind had teetered on the brink of extinction for over 300 years. Even now, in the year 102 P.A., humankind’s existence is not assured. The Coalition States is the largest and most powerful nation in the Americas and one of the few collective communities of predominately non-mutant humans. All citizens are true descendants of pre-rift human ancestry and exhibit no signs of mutation, with the occasional exception of psychic powers. An estimated 14 million humans occupy the vast strip of middle America claimed by the Coalition. Perhaps an additional 10 million D-Bees, mutants, and other intelligent non-humans also live in these territories. These 14 million people are spread across four of the old American States and parts of Canada; approximately 850,000 square miles of land. Except for urban hubs like Chi-Town and Quebec, where a million or more people live, every Coalition State has thousands of square miles of uninhabited and unexplored land.

The Coalition States; led by Emperor Prosek and his son, Joseph Prosek II; represent the embodiment of humankind on the American continents, and is the protector of the human race and preserver of the old ways of the American life. Emperor Prosek is a masterful strategist and administrator. He is a powerful and capable leader with a head for strategy and tactics, both in the military and political arenas. He is a formidable foe and a strong, willful leader. He has meticulously and intelligently arranged the power structure of the government and the social, economic structure of Chi-town, and to a lesser degree, the other Coalition States, to support his position of power, as well as having won the hearts and minds of the people 100 percent.

Coalition soldiers are concerned citizens who believe in and love their emperor, life and country.

The Coalition on Non-Human Invaders; "Do not give pause in your beliefs. Unnatural invaders have the power, both psychic and magical, to cloud your mind. To listen to their words is to open oneself to evil. Stay clean. Stay pure. Kill them without hesitation or remorse, knowing that your actions save the human race."

The Coalition on Technology; "The Coalition will provide you all that you need. Know that we ask you what no man should ask another, to put your brave lives in danger so that others may live: to sacrifice your own safety, and perhaps life, so that a child may grow. You are the embodiment of the human race’s hopes and dreams. The army shall provide you with all you need so that you may concentrate in full on the terrible task at hand."

The Coalition on Magic; "Magic is a thing from the rifts. Its energies are alien and corrupting. Those who are foolish enough to use it are placing all life in danger, for the energies are unstable and unpredictable. Magic attracts the supernatural. Magic is our doom. Do not trust it, nor those who use it, lest you are ready to betray all you believe in."

The Coalition on the cruelness of war; "Some will call you the dogs of war, others, tyrants and puppets. Know in your hearts that you are noble warriors asked to do terrible things so that one day we can know peace. Be ever alert, ever vigilant. Do not doubt what you know to be truth. Act quickly. Compassion is a quick end to one’s enemy."