Setting

[meowtroid]

The Nexus:

The Nexus is a vast city built at the epicenter of the Rift. With a population as diverse as the sky is wide, from time periods ranging anywhere from prehistoric to space-faring futuristic, the city's style has reached an equilibrium of fantastical yet technologically advanced. Most structures are made of brick and stone, with classical styles designed to withstand the test of time, yet flying crafts, a metro railway system, and a city-wide network are also implemented into the infrastructure.

At the city's center rises the Welcoming Center, a towering building situated between two enormous Great Crystals that are believed to protect the city, as well as serve some role in causing the Rift. The Welcoming Center's roof, overlooking the city in its entirety, serves as the point at which Drifters appear. This was not always the case, as Drifters used to appear anywhere within a mile radius of the towering Great Crystals, but thanks to tireless work done by geniuses some few centuries past, a smaller artificial Crystal was installed that draws Drifters to a point directly beneath it.

The Welcoming Center serves as a place of orientation as well as communal congregation, with its many halls dedicated to the day to day operations of the city as a whole. There is no police force or centralized hierarchical government in The Nexus, but rather a vast web of volunteer organizations and social workers who oversee the everyday concerns of its citizens, established on cultural tenants of peace, community, and hospitality.

Essentials such as food, clothing, medicine, and shelter are freely given to those who need them. What little economy exists is primarily a bartering system driven by tradecraft, with several sections of the city designated as the commons to be used by all citizens. "Shops" still abound, but are voluntarily staffed and rarely demand compensation for services, with material goods often being exchanged for either simple tasks or other material goods.









The Outside World:

While much used to be known of the world outside the city's walls, some several thousand years past, a miasma grew to cover the continent beyond. The substance, manifesting as a clear fog that makes the world look blurred, is toxic to all Drifters and their descendants - causing choking and a drain of life force while within it, as well as disorientation and memory loss even long after the short term effects have subsided. Native flora and fauna, and monstrous creatures that lurk outside, appear to be unaffected. A perfect dome envelops the city keeping the miasma at bay, believed to be created by the two Great Crystals that sit at its center.

Travel to the outside world is possible while in possession of a Great Crystal shard, though it is fraught with danger. While there have been some reports of settlements centered on other Great Crystal shards in the great continent, communication with such settlements has been infrequent and disjointed. Caravanners will leave the city from time to time in search of adventure, and a potential solution to the miasma that plagues the world, though few have ever returned.