Players of Fate

THE ACHE   Any sufficiently advanced form of technology is indistinguishable from magic? Bullshit. You know what’s indistinguishable from magic? Fucking magic, that’s what.   Berks as far back as the Antiquitateds—those witches, wise women, wizards and the like—they chased the flickering flames of magic, grasping for a heat what could soothe the aching in their hearts. Down through the ages them savy cutters ran, following clues and knocking over rocks. Always searching for the bigger secret that would let 'em see the lights making the shadows on the cave walls.   Sure, I guess many of them thought they’d found it—the Truth. They latched onto whatever bits and scraps they could grasp and called it faith, called it science, called it discovered and known.   Except the world, she has a way of moving on past what we think we know, and then that ache settles back into our chests like a big old gaping sucker hole in our souls. No one believes it was magic that filled that hole. Not anymore. Magic is for stories or mass sims. It aint real and never was. Nope. Never.

THE RIGHT NOW   Right now we count the year as 2167, and there are a few things canny cutters can count on as true.  

• Cataclysmic Consequenses - our forebears thought they could run old mother natural hot and put 'er away wet. That didn't work out so well come the turn of the 22nd. Century that is. We make due. Hold up mostly in arcologies. But wide-opens aren't really a thing people talk about with a glimmer in their eye. You know what I mean?  
• Overlays Make Life Livable - with so many of us crammed up next to each other, alternate reality Overlays are really the only thing that makes the world bearable. If you got the bucks, you can lease yourself a pretty fancy worldview. Those microfees are a killer though. At least gaming is fun again. Toiling away at the 9-2-9 ain't much of a bother when you're also playing your favorite massive sim.  
• Religion Ain't Really A Thing - society gave it up towards the end of the 21st. Sure there are some what follow a god, but after seeing the destruction old mother natural can cause, most us berks can't give two shits about an almighty.
 
• Cults Got Big But They're Still Fucked as Shit - you know that ache I talked about earlier? Yeah, it's still there. We all still feel it. But we ain't going back to the orthodox way of life. Most folks, they go older. Way older. Cults are an epidemic now-a-days. They're everywhere. Most are harmless, really. But some...Well, let's just say there's always a few canny cutters looking to fluff their sense of self-worth by leading innocencent folks into the dark.

THE YOU   [You live PNW arcology — most people get by by belonging to cults, corps, or criminal organizations — but you have found a different path. You are an investigator working for a specialized task force, uncovering the secret cogs that turn the wheels of society.]   [But there are larger wheels turning and old things returning...]