Historical Background of Rifts Earth
The year is 103 PA according to the Post-Apocalyptic
calander used by the Coalition States. This translates
to 2389 AD using the pre-rifts system. For three
hundred years humanity has lived a pitiful existance,
struggling to survive in a world overrun by horrors.
Even now its existance is not assured, however it is
only in the last fifty years that human nations have
began to rebuild some form of civilization. With luck,
humanity may yet unite long enough to reclaim the world.
The struggles of humanity go back to the mid 21st
century. The nations of the world were in the middle of
a golden age of science and learning. Great advances
were made in many fields. Then, suddenly, the golden
age ended. Countries became paranoid about the military
applications of the new technologies. A new cold war began,
a cold war that ended in nuclear fire.
On December 22, 2089 a volley of intercontinental
nuclear missiles were launched.
It is not known which country launched the first missiles,
however all the nuclear powers quickly responded, and within
an hour hundreds of millions of people died. However this
was just the beginning. With every death a small amount of
magic energy is released into the enviroment. When
so many million people died the global level of magic
skyrocketed. The ley-lines (natural channels of magic
energy) surged, creating hurricanes, earthquakes,
and tidal waves that killed millions more people,
further increasing the level of magic. At the nexus points
where ley-lines cross, great rifts in the fabric of
spae-time were torn open, allowing extra-dimensional
horrors to enter our world. The coninent of Atlantis
lept from its watery grave and rose to the light of
day for the first time in millenia. For every million
or billion lives lost, the ley-lines surged and
destroyed millions more. A nightmare of geometric principals.
Yet finally, the chaos ended. Mankind was decimated,
with only a tiny few left alive, yet the survivors
began to rebuild. However the Earth was permanently changed.
Magic was now a known force, a power to be used for good
or ill. Hundreds if different types of demons and aliens
had entered the world, and more entered every day through
fluctuating doorways of the rifts.