The Rift

It is the 3rd Century After-Gap...

  Ancient mystics once told stories of the stars in the walls of their stone cities. From inside these walls, people from all races looked to the sky for wisdom and guidance. It was known as a boundless expanse; the realm of the gods, untouched and unsullied by the hands of mortal men. It was told that, after one's soul has passed beyond, they would be given their place amongst the stars. An earned rite for an existence well lived.   Now, providence has found her way beyond the chrysalis of rock and dirt. The men and women who looked skyward for wisdom soon found themselves decorated among those mighty stars. Some say it was a marvel of ingenuity, some, a gift from the gods themselves. After the Gap, no one knows for certain when the Praxerians harnessed the mystifying power of magic, but what was once thought to be the blood of gods and goddesses became fuel for Praxeria’s mighty engines. Great mages and engineers alike powered their ships skyborne and began to sew their place across the cosmos.   It was in this new golden age of discovery that the Praxerians discovered that they were, in fact, not alone. Very few records remain of the first contact with species not of their world, though many scholars believe that the first aliens to be encountered were seen as dwellers of the afterlife once believed in. Praxerians believed they had intruded on the hallowed realm of Sarenrae, The Cleansing Light, whose great fireball in the sky had sustained all life.   There was a long peace that followed after the first contact with the outside. All races worked together, Praxerians spearheading the unifying philosophy that banded their homeworld together and granted them their place amongst the stars. It was through this unification that the local star system was named The Pact Worlds, in honor of the unshakable alliance forged between peoples.   The members of The Pact Worlds built great wonders both planetside and in the newly dubbed Rift, the infinite expanse separating the worlds. With the power of their arcane engines and rapidly advancing technology, the Pact Worlds created their greatest wonder of all, Absalom Station, an artificial world of magic and metal, serving as a uniting trade-hub and nexus that connects all of the surrounding worlds. Its lodestar became known as Guideon, a beacon of hope and direction for a once purposeless people. .   But soon, during the long quiet, the peaceful way of The Pact Worlds became threatened by an emergent, indiscriminate threat known only as The Swarm. Countless worlds were consumed in The Swarm’s insatiable hunger, with the core of The Pact Worlds being civilization’s last line of defense against a seemingly unstoppable adversary. The battle was narrowly won against The Swarm, and the resulting dark age became known by scholars as The Gap.   The once interconnected, galaxy-spanning civilization was now fractured. With Absalom Station and countless worlds now in ruin, The Pact Worlds seek to once again reunify the stars. This time, there won’t be another defeat...