inpiration - settings

[tokisada]

Picture earth one too many millennia into the future. Technology, for a good while, advanced at a rapid rate, spawning huge, infinitely connected cities bustling with human activity.

Then one day we fucked it all up. Who knows how, who knows exactly when -- blame it on the weather, maybe, and the rapidly rising oceans that no one paid attention to, or the rapid consumption of resources, or unsustainable populations. Whatever the reason, the sea began creeping into the land and the cities all came tumbling down.





As cities flooded and collapsed, what was left of mankind packed up and moved inland, where rapidly rising waters carved wide, shallow rivers across most of the North American continent.



Disconnected and frankly newly distrustful of the technology that went hand in hand with the collapse of society, humans reorganized. Things that are mechanical and convenient stayed -- the convenience and connectivity of the old era did not, and so technology got stuck around 1970-1980, and people liked it that way. As people are imperfect creatures, it didn't take long for society to re-stratify into the haves...





...and the have-nots.



Most people, regardless of class, live by the water out of lack of anywhere else to go, really, in settlements built on barges or on the shore or on boardwalks and stilts. Richer areas tend towards manufacturing, whether that be of clothes, goods, food, or luxury items like books or novelty gadgets. The poorer areas bring in raw material and freight materials and manufactured goods via boat.

With natural resources often fouled by the decay and pollution left behind from society's collapse, there's a significant part of the economy that revolves around scavenging parts and artifacts out of the ruins of old cities.

Most junk collectors either go up into the towers and skyscrapers left behind, or down into the collapsed areas and deep sinkholes of the cities where larges amounts of computers and other sophisticated tech equipment ended up.





There's lots more hidden beneath the cities. Shit no one remembers or wants to remember, things that are easy to stumble upon and hard to escape from. Stuff like that. You know.