Horti Cadit (aka Lapsos)

Horti Cadit, nicknamed Lapsos, is a variation of planet Earth. They share similarities but still have differences in technology, industry, ethnicities, and a few more. Horti Cadit finds itself as one of the last planets in what's left of the Duplica System. By now the atmosphere has changed so much that it has impacted Horti Cadit's surface, rendering the land near useless for agriculture. Water is hard to get a hold of. The black market has seized the land and everyone is near poverty. Though the AL's have promised peace and prosperity to all who remain true to the High AL, there's still unrest in the less lucky areas.

The land is divided into two major social hemispheres. There exists the Social Monarchy that is formed by sixty-eight percent of the population. The other thirty-two percent of the populus is formed by the group called the Neutrum Coetus, thus named by the Centrum, the single biggest city and the capital of Lapsos. But these numbers are deceving. In truth the population is sixty-two percent Social Monarchy, twenty-four pecent Neutrum Coetus, and the last fourteen percent is made up of an elusive third-party named Veridicis. About six percent of the Veridicis have taken to living as outlaws, making up their own rules and living in small comunities out in the outskirts of the Centrum and the deserted parts of the world others have claimed inhospitable.

The political groups split even further than just the populus. There is the main accepted group for teaching named the Credentes, people who claim to be under a deity named Iniuriam. But their religion is only filled with liars and hypocrites. Their leaders have been threatened or bought off by the Social Monarchy, making it impossible to keep the Centrum's political propaganda from infiltrating the system of teaching to children.

Amidst all this political corruption, the land boasts three main peaks: Mount Denali in what used to be called Alaska; Mount Gasherbrum I located on the border of what used to be China; and Mount Jungfrau, 74 km away from what used to be Bern, Switzerland. The lakes and rivers that still naturally irrigate the land are too many to be named, but few enough to be counted. One third of those fresh water bodies are contaminated with chemicals from meteorites and toxins from factories that also dot the land, large enough to be landmarks on the latest map of Horti Cadit.

This is the world in which Shane Anderson finds himself. His parents were part of the Veridicis and out of nowhere, they are captured and imprisoned in the hidden dungeon of the Centrum. Shane returns home only to find a hastily scribbled note behind the front door and no one home. Searching for answers, the sixteen year old ventures off with rations of food, water, clothing, and other necessary items. Little does he know that his journey will lead him on a path of discovery to find out what it means to be a true verax credentis. As he finds answers in the darkest places, Shane, along with a handful of faithful friends, quest across Lapsos recovering artifacts from the twelve churches that have been left standing as landmarks.