About

When scholars and men of wisdom chart the history of mankind, they will divide it into two chapters, before 1862 and after 1862, or rather before the Aester and after the Aester; the years when the mysterious gas remained isolated near the Earth’s magnetic poles and the years when it nearly plunged the world into eternal darkness.

In 1862, the Aester started to move, beginning its twenty year march from the poles to the equator, blackening the sky, disrupting the Earth’s magnetosphere, and unleashing untold catastrophes across the globe. Massive tidal waves engulfed entire countries, causing millions to abandon their homes as humanity clashed over the few remaining areas still able to sustain crops. Millions died as war, famine, and disease ravaged the surviving population, leaving others to question whether the sun had truly set on mankind.

These changes came at a particularly unfortunate time for the fledgling United States, a nation currently embroiled in its own costly Civil War, the effects of which had left the country unprepared to cope with the disasters the Aester would rout. American leaders soon realized they lacked the means and the resources to survive the cataclysmic changes and extended a hand to their old enemy, the English, eventually rejoining the British Empire. But not all Americans welcomed a return to British rule. Members of the former Confederacy condemned the government’s deal with the British, and choose instead to strike out on their own, forming a loose collection of city states east of the Mississippi and south of the Mason-Dixon Line, where chaos and lawlessness runs rampant and order is only maintained through the end of a rifle.

But just as the morning sun follows even the blackest night, the Aester settled and humanity strived to rebuild their shattered world. Thus began the City of Light Movement. Each City of Light was constructed in the upper reaches of the Aester, held afloat by the unusual gas’s ability to suspend objects in place at higher elevations, a phenomena commonly referred to as “the Draw.” These floating industrial goliaths house enormous farms and greenhouses powered by fluorescent Tesla lights, supplying food for its residents. Each City of Light also includes an Aeroplex, a giant spire rising from its center, which serves as landing platforms and docking facilities for airships crossing in and out of the Aester. Shimmering towers of light in a darkened sky, sailors see the Aeroplexes as welcome respites from the constant hardships of Aester travel and the madness known to grip anyone foolish enough to risk exposure to the gas without protection.