Scattered Stars - A Traveler's Guide to Paradigm Worlds
I welcome you, my online (or physical) reader to this strange and bizarre story about one question— what if the middle-northern part of the United States of America was teleported to a world filled with wizards with magic-tech, cybernetic undead, samurai aliens, paranoid-asylum-warrior-hackers, a simple human renaissance-age civilization, and much more?
You may be wondering, what did I even just write up there?
How did this world even manage to get to this chaotic state?
Well, this guide will answer these questions. Buckle up!
Take this work as a traveler's guide to the land of Paradigm Worlds.
The Story Behind Paradigm Worlds
A long time ago on a parallel universe, on an Earth similar yet completely different to our own, the world's superpowers entered into a race for technology. This race, unlike others, was not centered on military weapons, vehicles, or projects like it. No, this race was focused on genetic alteration.
With the discovery of artificial viruses and bioweapons, this race would lead to some of the most powerful and dangerous viruses that the world had ever seen. Fortunately, these weapons would not be used until the year 2052.
A scientist of Rusbielsan (the Russia of this universe) created and implanted a powerful viro-transplant into Generalissimus Vladimir Putin (the same Putin as our universe). This viro-transplant would prolong his lifespan for hundreds of years.
When the news of this implantation was made public on Putin's 100 birthday, many countries' relations with Rusbielsan heated up, realizing the magnanimous impact of his extended lifespan. They believed it to be a threat to world peace.
This was especially an affront to the USA-NAD MicroApple States (the US of this universe). USA-NAD would send an ultimatum to Rusbielsan— If they didn't explain the secrets of this viro-transplant, the USA-NAD would launch an bio-attack on Rusbielsan.
Rusbielsan refused and decided there would be no further negotiations. Thus, USA-NAD launched their bio-weapons on Rusbielsan and their allies. In retaliation, so did Rusbielsan. This sparked a war that would be known as the "14-Day War", or "The Third World War."
The war saw the unleashing of different kinds of bio-weapons, artificial viruses and other diseases across the globe, with the end result of almost obliterating the majority of all life on Earth. A few pockets of life managed to survive and hide in some small parts of the world, and even some governments before their fall managed to create some altered clones of humanity. With most of humanity extinguished, the cycle of civilizations ended… for now.
Earth, fortunately, would live and change as time went on.
Countless cities would be lost to nature itself, becoming nothing more than small ruins. Almost all knowledge of that cycle and the cycles before were lost, technology for the survivors went backwards and paradoxically forwards. The continents slowly re-joined together, forming a Pangaea-like continent that would be named Paradigm.
Long after the war, some valuable places known as "points of interest" remained in certain spots. These could contain the most dangerous materials, such as toxic and radioactive substances, supplies, artifacts, or small treasures from the previous cycles of civilizations.
Earth began to look more like a parody or a "lightful shadow" of its former self. During these times, some creatures beyond our planet and dimension tried to colonize our world, but they were either killed or changed into new species. The visits and changes of these beings would cause many anomalies and dangerous places (or zones as they are known) to appear to our dimension. These gave birth to a powerful energy capable of breaking the rules and principles of our reality; this energy would be known as "magic".
For the worse (or best, depending on how you see it), all the viruses that were unleashed after the war began to infect and change the ecosystem of Earth, creating different kinds of creatures, plants, and minerals. With the arrival of the new "magic", the creatures and viruses had to continue to evolve and adapt to their changed reality.
These creatures and viruses evolved to eventually become their own recognizable sapient species, like elves, orcs, uruks, morloks, skeletons and many more. However, each form was unstable as the previous one; all of them would change their appearance, and possibly mentality and/or personality every few cycles, completely forgetting their original existence, thus allowing for a new kind of life to live on this planet.
From this, there came a special creature. It evolved so fast that it transcended this dimension and passed on to a higher dimension. Despite this ascension, it did not change its purpose nor its mentality. This higher being only wanted to exterminate any kind of life, and this being would be known in Paradigm as "Ketele".
This creature, ruling over its own reality, created and sent all sorts of chaotic and terrible creatures to attack Paradigm in order to cause more chaos and misery. These attacks helped to fund its religious cult, known as the "Doomsday Cult". Their goal was to use the energy of the chaos and misery of the Paradigm to return to that dimension and bring it back to a new dark age, with the help of the cult and its creations.
Even then with everything, new civilizations rose up in this world as creatures formed their own enclaves in which to live and cooperate. In the year 6078, there were six major civilizations ruling different parts of the world with different kinds of ideas and political ideologies.
Necrocorp Syndicate: A nation/mega-corporation of quasi-lords that played with both technology and magic. They used this technology to manipulate their genetic code and transcend their own mortal limitations of their citizens and soldiers, by turning them into undead or into mind-controlled zombie-mortals.
Most of these people lost the majority of their personality, but it depended on their role and how much they were deemed useful. If you were smart and had the knowledge and expertise demanded by the lords to help them extend their control over their dominion, then you would keep almost all of your own personality and intelligence.
But if you did not have that and were unable to comprehend such concepts, then you would be turned into either an undead servant of Chief Executive Officer Nocton (the leader of this civilization) or their underlings, or be put into military service as a low-ranking soldier. Still, if you were not useful enough to be a soldier nor an servant, then you would be one of the many brainwashed zombie-mortal citizens of the Necrocorp Syndicate.
The people live in a nation dedicated to corporatism, which meant that almost everything in the society was owned by the state corporation, Necrocorp, or one of the many sub-branches. These citizens, despite their poor standard of living, escaped the real world through the use of virtual reality technology. Some lived permanently in virtual worlds, ignoring everything in reality. With the citizens being zombie-customers brainwashed with the idea that the only thing that mattered was endless consumption, their overlords desired for them to devote their entire existence to these corporations. No one could escape from their control and ever-watchful eyes. Brainwashing was done through propaganda and the use of such technology, allowing no dissent. Due to this, they are hated across the continent.
The Necrocorp Syndicate was the most technologically advanced civilization on the entire continent of Paradigm, creating powerful devices such as the Neuro-hacker. It was a device capable of hacking into multiple peoples' nervous systems, but only if it touched them.
In terms of military forces, they have a combination of sci-fi and modern-day weaponry, and a use combination of medieval and modern tactics.
They controlled the vast majority of the world, including Ultima Thule (Siberia), Athromma Zone (Russia and some parts of eastern europe) and the Shimziq Jungle (South America).
The Sanitarium Conspiracy: A nation of humans and djinni based on paranoia and conspiracy. Armed with the knowledge of hacking, the use of a powerful mutagenic mineral known as pyre, and a wide desert, they rose to become a technocracy, though afraid of any threat to the power of their leaders, the Techno-mages.
This civilization is probably the second-most advanced on the continent, only being outmatched by the Necrocorp Syndicate, thanks to a powerful, but yet dangerous material named pyre. Pyre had a multitude of uses, including but not limited to powering energy and mechanical functions, but the main disadvantage of this mineral were its heavy mutational effects on the living.
While locking political dissidents and other undesirables in what would be their mental asylums, they also contained those turned maniac and schizophrenic by the mutagenic properties of pyre.
The Sanitarium Conspiracy was ruled by several different kinds of Techno-mages, who fused themselves with the integration of magic and technology. This allowed them to become not only more powerful but also extended their own lifespan by hundreds of years. To keep their hold on the realm, they spread lies and manipulated their people, keeping them under the illusion that they completely controlled the land. Thus, everyone was in a state of constant fear and paranoia.
In terms of culture, the Sanitarium Conspiracy was a mix between medieval arabian aesthetics and magical cybernetics. Most citizens have embraced cybernetics and the digital art of hacking, although the information sent across their networks were usually immediately intercepted by the Techno-mages and altered, often through censorship.
When it came to the Sanitarium Conspiracy's military, they fought in an medieval Arabian way, using traditional close-combat weapons like swords, spears, and axes. There were also pyre-based rods, maces, and shields. They also had ranged combat options, such as pyre-based paralyzers and palantirs, crossbows fitted with pyre-based projectiles, and if techno-mages were present, magical-cybernetic firearms.
They controlled the Havi-havi Desert (the Middle East and parts of Antarctica).
Creatures' Democratic Republic of Morloks (CDRM): The CDRM was an communist civilization similar to the USSR of the 1950s with some touches of steampunk and Victorian-era aesthetic. It was ruled over by the Prime Minister Konrad Tchernov.
This civilization was mostly inhabited by the Morlok, a species that was considered across the continent as the most primitive, yet they were still formidable in comparison to other creatures with their intelligence. They used the dangerous mineral known as pyre to upgrade their technology and power, allowing them to create the CDRM, which was a nation focused on the protection and care of the many mutants and creatures of Paradigm, prioritizing and venerating the worker above all.
Unfortunately, over the years, the CDRM saw a large increase in corruption, invasive security methods into civilian lives, and a class division between the government, the military and the civilians. It became that the massive population of poor workers were infiltrated by a small government and military, though large in their influence, in the name of control.
Their military was composed of riflemen, machine-gunners, grenadiers, pyre-augmented close-combat soldiers, and a small division of cavalry. Though their weapons were generally inaccurate, mass fire tactics enabled them to hit their targets. Most of the time, they will engage as far as possible from their enemy.
They controlled the Hadrian Hills (a fused peninsula of the Nordic region, England, and Ireland) and the Pyre Zona (central Europe).
Alien Shogunate: The Alien Shogunate was an extraterrestrial civilization, similar to Japan in the Middle Ages, though there were some elements of European feudalistic societies. It was a feudalist society in which both the shogun and emperor were figureheads, combined into one position. The leader was Emperor Gojimikura. Most of the power was concentrated in the alien samurai lords. However, there were organizations that defied their authority, namely the alien pirates and various monk orders. In addition, it was a haven for criminal activity.
It was inhabited by different kinds of aliens, but of course in Paradigm, alien was a broad word used to describe both beings from outer space and beings with a biological system too complex that were simply alien to normal medical knowledge.
Due to some lords being involved in the black market, they granted much autonomy to criminals and other kinds of illegal organizations through turning a blind eye. By letting them steal, buy and sell prohibited weapons, drugs, and equipment from different parts of Paradigm, this allowed some criminal heads to gain almost as much power as the lords, making them a dangerous, yet essential part of the Alien Shogunate.
Their technology was a mix of medieval and alien prototypes, often using parts that were smuggled from other places. Their military favored melee and ranged weapons that used energy cells as a source of power or ammunition. In addition, they had a fondness for riding strange animals, which were smuggled through illegal trapping.
They controlled the Shimizq Jungle (central America and a few parts of Mexico).
Fantasy Magiocracy: The Fantasy Magiocracy was like a medieval European civilization, inhabited by creatures often heard about in fantasy tales. Though most other nations considered them primitive, they were powerful in their own right, having harnessed magic. Almost all of it is governed by magic, which formed the basis of its social and technological system.
It was ruled by the Supreme Mage Azaethel, a powerful wizard. After establishing the empire, they declared that the social status of a creature must be based on their expertise with magic. Thus, they created the concept of magiocracy, an ideology similar to feudalism. Instead of being based on bloodline, it was based on one's skills with magic and how much magic one could use.
In many ways, this enforced separation of the races living within the borders of the Fantasy Magiocracy. Generally, orcs, uruks and goblins generally had little-to-no magic abilities, and weren't able to use much magic. As a result, they tended to be at the lowest of the social structure. They were mostly used for labor, or a basic soldier unit. On the other hand, elves, djinnis, skeletons, and humans could become masters of magic, provided they had the necessary capacity to. By this, many of them became the administrators of the Fantasy Magiocracy.
The wizards, the masters of magic, were the most powerful units that the Fantasy Magiocracy had. Their spells could manipulate the elements and the energies of this universe to use them against their enemies. In addition, their spells of pure destruction were capable of turning entire squads of units into piles of corpses.
In addition to their medieval technology such as swords and shields, they also used magical artifacts. For example, they had magical staves that shot projectiles and bows capable of shooting eight arrows at once. Most of the more powerful weapons were reserved for the higher-ranking wizards.
They controlled the Cursed Mountain Island and the Korabhi Hills (Greenland and North America).
United States of Renaissance: A confederation of kings and independent nobles under a feudalist system, they were governed by King Kanzler Rodrigo de la Borgha. As its name implied, most of its society and culture resembled different kinds of European countries from the Renaissance era.
Its inhabitants were embracers and fanatics of this age, seeing it as the golden age of not only Earth, but of humanity as well. Seeing the feudalism of that time as an effective and protective ideology, they disallowed anyone from creating or rediscovering any kind of advanced technology that could do harm to them and their ideas.
Because of this, they rejected any kind of technology that was far more advanced than that of their own, due to the fact they trusted their own more. For example, they saw modern weapons and its derivatives as too dangerous and unpredictable, compared to safer technology, such as matchlocks and flintlocks.
In comparison to the many other civilizations, they were a primitive civilization on Paradigm. Yet, they managed to show a high amount of strength and creativity, despite their technological disadvantages.
With their military, they fielded soldiers that used pikes, rapiers, lances, and flintlock firearms. They mostly focused on infantry and cavalry.
They controlled the Athromma Zona (western, southern, and some parts of eastern Europe, and a few islands of the Shimziq Jungle.)
Conclusion
Now that you know about the countries and technology of the world of Paradigm, I hope you can enjoy your travels across this strange and bizarre land.
But be warned that everything on the continent will completely change over time, after all, through the cycles of mutations, progress and evolution; change will always be inevitable.