Far into the future, perhaps a hundred or two years beyond our lives, the world is in a golden age. Commerce has grown to be worldwide, countries that, to us, seem backwards, have been modernized. No wars have marred the landscape for at least 50 years. Incredible advancements in the sciences have made the fantastic possible. Yet for all this prosperity, there seemed to be a growing aprehension.
In South America, border disputes had always raged, yet this one was especially harsh. North American scientists had created the chrome based armor that powered one of the most terrible war machines ever created: the Glitter Boy. Russian scientists, spurred on by the prosperity they had not seen for 200 years, advanced cybernetics to unthinkable heights. Along with this and a myriad of other advances, the world seemed armed to the teeth and with nowhere to go.
Just as in the previous Great Wars that tore Europe and the Pacific apart 250 years earlier, the powder keg effect built. New countries just rising from poverty were eager to advance their goals with the new war machines. South America lit the fuse that tore the world apart.
Worldwide war erupted and spread like wild fire. The Americas went into turmoil and America, spread all over the earth retaliated with the walking divisions of Glitter Boys.
Turning the devestation up a notch, Atom bombs began to be tested in preparation for use. Not wanting to be left behind, All other countries followed suit. A cool morning in July dawned and one country, on the losing end of a battle, launched. Monitors of missile activity responded with full force retaliation. In a matter of hours, city centers were obliterated, countryside turned into nuclear glass and billions of people wiped off the face of the Earth.
The simultaneous destruction a billion of lives shook the veins of the Earth. All the psychic energy of each individual spewed forth from the devestation. Ley-Lines, carriers of the mystic energy, filled once more to the brim. The energy overloaded some lines and caused them to rip open. These tears or rifts opened portals into other worlds, sparked magical storms of the energy, brought demons, monsters and other beings through.
The rivers of Magical energy sparked natural disasters as reawakened Lines pulsed the Earth around them. Tidal Waves, Earthquakes, Ley-Line Storms, fires, floods and the like swept across the Earth, killing even more inhabitants and filling the Ley-Lines to the breaking point.
It is now 104PA (Post Apocalypse) by the recognition of the Coalition, the new Superstate on the American continent. 104 years since the virtual loss of humanity to the inhuman terrors of the Rifts. 104 years since Humanity got back up off its feet to fight in an orderly way. The humans have toughened up now and are prepared to duke it out for their planet.
The American midwest is a stronghold of Humanity. The west is the domain of the new cowboy and is watched over by the Chivalrous Cyber-Knights. Central America is veiled in secrecy and surrounded by rumors of demon, vampires, or worse. South America is filled with the mystics that abandoned it when the magic was drained 7000 years previous. Africa is once again dark and is ruled by death. Europe is another stronghold of man with the New German Republic fending off the Gargoyle invasion. Atlantis has risen once more in the Atlantic and has been occupied by an evil force greater than has ever been seen. Russia is now ruled by the New Soviet and their cybernetic hordes. All else is dark and probably as bad as the rest of Earth.
This is the setting for Rifts, a role-playing game of monumental proportions.