Lore

The World That Was died from the hubris of a woman named Corinna. There are some that still worship her as a goddess for the merging of technology and magic, and others who still speak her name in venom and malice. There were very few of her generation who did not have a strong opinion on her, but as those who remembered the old ways grew old and died, history softened her story and she moved from living memory. Her cult still lives in the shadows, but they’re not as shunned as they once were.

As is humanity’s talent, it survived and thrived despite the adversity of the sudden change in how things worked. New governments emerged, old mechanical and analog technology was revived, and a closer relationship between humanity and the world they lived in was forged. As people came to better understand the new techno-magic, it was slowly re-integrated into daily life, but at least the first few generations after the technological rebirth were hesitant to trust in it. As the rebirth fell from living memory, the new generations embraced techno-magic and it flourished.

We Are Not Alone

It was during the rebirth that we learned humanity was not the only intelligent species on the planet. Sure there are dolphins, mice, ravens and other corvidae, and the great apes, but while intelligent none of them had done what humanity had and built civilizations. Some argued that perhaps they were smarter for having not fallen in that trap, but in the end humanity found others who expressed their intelligence in a similar way to their own — the were-people and lizard people.

Both had lived alongside humanity mostly unnoticed longer than humanity had recorded its history. Old myths and folklore had spoke of them, but they’d mostly kept separate from humanity for the safety of all involved. As humanity had flourished and soon filled the planet, the spaces to keep to themselves had disappeared and both groups had used technology and magic to hide themselves within plain sight. When the technological rebirth happened, both groups were forced to risk greater exposure to humanity in order to survive. Though they have the ability to go back into hiding now, and some have done so, many have found the new relationship with humanity better than hiding and have stayed in the open.