The Penns, Womb of the Key Pit

A part of what I call my "Unified Universe," my attempt to stitch together all the Science-Fiction narratives I've imagined over the years. This has effectively made it my own personal exercise in combining as many Science Fiction and Fantasy sub-genres and tropes as I can into a single, cohesive canon.  

---

  Toward the beginning, genetics were just the latest means of convenience in a Capitalist world. Mutants were tools. Tools for food. Tools for construction and tools for destruction. Millions of Americans could now keep their lights on, put food on their tables, and mow their lawns more efficiently than ever before with an evolving selection of specialized, made-to-order Genetically Engineered Lifeforms known as "GELs".   As more and more of America's nuts and bolts were grown over by tissues and ligaments, experts around the world coined the United States the "Womb of Biotechnology," praising its advances almost as much as they condemned its abandonment of ethics. At the same time, China similarly came to dominate fields ranging from cloning to nuclear fusion, and its economic grip crawled toward Europe. Advancing tech manufacturers, running from the United States' shrinking tech market and hostility with China, moved to Canada where biotechnology was still in its infancy and China was still friendly.   Though, this growing animosity with the United States' chief economic and political competitor was not met without tension, even if the United States benefited from Canada's production and trade of these vast quantities of cybernetic, artificial intelligence, and synthetic technologies. The United States began placing tariffs on Canadian goods, setting off a trade war which extended all the way to the United States' territories and commonwealths in Africa. The stark contrast between gleaming, silver cybernetics and throbbing, crimson GELs was one which cut a deeper and deeper divide between the two powers.   Despite the hearts of America and engines of China and Canada emitting less waste than ever before, sea-levels continued to rise and hurricanes dared to tear through America deeper than ever before. Thousands moved to islands far off our coasts where a cloudy day was an occasion; but to the ambitious, it seemed not even the climate was out of the reach of man. We erected superstructures comparable to entire cities which stretched into the sky, injecting it with all manner of additives, changing its temperature, reflectivity, and viscosity, creating tailor-made microclimates over almost every state. For the first time in history, humanity held nature itself in its hands.   The United States was increasingly the world's foremost Utopia, with every comfort known to man, martian, and android ready at the snap of the proverbial fingers. That was, until great plagues swept through the States. Spreading through the veins which ran between our cities and infecting their hearts. A cure wasn't far behind, but entire regions had began to shrivel and rot where they stood before it could be distributed. The targeted lethality of the disease was like nothing nature had ever conceived. Never could conceive. With heavy hearts did Congress rule unanimously that the gates to hell had been opened.   Red, white, and blue nuclear warheads rained down on every metropolitan city in Canada by midnight. That day, the United States opened another door, but all reports said the nukes never detonated. Falling from their cloaked, bone-crafted bombers, they vanished into thin air. It was as if at 10,000 feet they were swallowed up by some invisible force and ceased to exist. A force more advanced than anything the United States had developed in the last hundred years. A reality field.   It quickly became clear that a new strategy was necessary.   When the planet finally began to purge itself of us, we soon fell victim to our own hubris and abused these newfound tools to the point of near-extinction. By the time we dug up our technologies out of the ash, they were our sole means of salvation.  

Post-Apennsylvania

  A hub for trade throughout the Mid-Atlantic, Pennsylvania was benefited especially as its neighbor Ohio led the country's Genetic Revolution. Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia each slowly grew to become their own gleaming "City of Tomorrow," competing with the giga-cities that were New York and Los Angeles in technological advancement. As the war with Canada progressed, Pittsburgh's previously modest GEL industry grew to produce untold droves of engineered soldiers and elevate Pittsburgh to one of the United States' most valuable assets in the fight for freedom. Pennsylvania found a place on the map, just in time to nearly be erased from it.   Reports from every news station holding so much as a cup and string or anti-matter repeater confirmed the catastrophe which everyone in the Western Hemisphere had already felt rattle through their bones and synapses: Pittsburgh was hit with a reality bomb. One of at least a dozen detonated by the Canadian government to finally force an American surrender.   Focused on rebuilding the infrastructure for a counterattack, Pennsylvania and much of the rest of the country was left to cope with life after the Catastrophe, the occasional patrol-drone or GEL convoy was their only reminder a national government even existed. Powers came and went, fighting for resources, hope, and bodies, only to fall victim to the same ambition. This was the new Pennsylvania. These are the Penns.   In the place of the once great Pittsburgh, pride of the Mid-Atlantic, now harbored a crater which burned and boiled beyond space and time. The forces of [unreality] which radiated outward warped Penn's landscape, moving its mountains, resonating through its forests with infinite echoes, and touching the minds of its inhabitants. The odd case of telekinesis and transmutation became less and less far between. People learned that reality itself, given a good conductor and a sharp wit, could be warped by human hands.   Those who learned to harness the latent fields of unreality soon found strength in numbers and organized schools share their knowledge and spread their influence. Though, others, gripped by their prides and lusts, endeavored to realize the limitless potentials of unreality. Many who stared into such infinities, found something which stared back. Corrupted by forces beyond human comprehension, these warpers mutated into numerous monstrous forms which came to be known as Manticores, Dragons, Hydras, and Krakens. Covetous, jealous, and fearful, these beings either seclude themselves behind meticulously crafted and hidden fortresses or solicit the worship of disparate peoples to manipulate to their ends.   Within a decade these Pseudo-Deities and their avatars dominated the Penns, entire regions forced into worship and servitude.   "DO you know the difference between pseudo and "proto? A Pseudo-embryo is less than an embryo, a doomed and deformed bundle of cells. a proto-embryo has simply not yet matured. These aren't pseudo-deities. They're proto-deities."   The force of Unreality which spread out from the crater which was once the great city of Pittsburgh quickly   Harrisburg, though a shell of its former glory, survives as a cultural center and is believed by its residents to be the last bastion of freedom and democracy in the Penns. Refugees, explorers, runaway scientists, and outcast GELs all flock to the city in droves to escape vassalage under Matia's Serfdom and despotism under Karen's Legion and the growing influence of the Reptiles of Old Philadelphia. A mix of this constant flux of culture and the championing of ideals of freedom and libertarian life leave Harrisburg in relative chaos. Were in not for the battalions of Cybernetic Street Samurai and the faithful watch of depute citizens, fledgling gangs and power-hungry factions would quickly overtake Harrisburg.