The transition between the end of Iiosia and the beginning of Agniton was not a stark and sudden one as what happened when Tae’lummisae ended. Indeed, the change was much more subtle, and lasted several centuries as the Arcs of magic dwindled from the world.
With the decline of magic, so too came the slow extinction of the races of Iiosia. The demons were first; their reliance on the Dark Arc made them the most vunerable to the changes occuring on the world. The other races, including the atia, eventually passed on too; their remains kept in crypts and morbid museums, and eventually became little more than curios and folklore.
Only humankind and the small number of remaining dwarfs seemed unaffected in a negative way by the decline of magic. Quite the contrary, humans thrived. Given access to greater swathes of territory and with only themselves as competition, the human's knowledge and grasp of technology only grew.
What resulted was the world of Agniton.
Technically called the Era of Ending by the atia, the meaning of the word lost to the generations of humans thereafter and it became known as such in name only.
The humans of Agniton cared little for the things that have passed before; the vast majority of what occurred within Iiosia was lost to them and branded as legend and simple stories. Their thirst for technology, knowledge, and power drove them to more and more outrageous creations. Their feats of engineering, architecture and electronics were wonders to behold, but the price they paid for them, and the sins they inflicted on themselves, could arguably be said to be worse than any of the atrocities of the creatures of the Dark Arc.
Their overexpansion and thirst for growth, knowledge, and betterment led them to use ever more natural resources. They took advantage of the land, of the forests, the minerals in the mountains and the waters in the oceans. With little heed for the consequences of such actions, they laid much of the world to ruin.
Eventually, they had to retreat from the hostile environment they were creating for themselves, and their largest settlements became sprawling cities called megatropolises. These gargantuan urban centres sprawled for miles and miles, and held many millions of people within their walls.
The cities are ruled over by the Agency; a government that holds an iron grip of control over the residents it rules over, but does provide security and order where there would otherwise be none.
Generally, Agniton has a dry, warm climate. For most of the cities, they’ll experience little in the way of changes in the seasons throughout the year, and experience long days of sunshine (which makes solar power a viable option in those areas). Nights can become very cold - falling to below freezing - because of the general lack of clouds in the sky.
Because of the arid, dry conditions and the largely flat terrain, sand and dust storms are a common part of life. Not even the bounaries of the cities an keep these out, and dust storms sweep across them, blinding the inhabitants and clogging machinery.
For the cities further away from the equator - those such as Arx Cerex, Kralos, and Eisheron, then the climate can fluctuate a little more. Rain becomes more common - and is collected for drinking water where possible - and the climate more variable. Snow, for example, sometimes falls on Eisheron in the winter months.
Author's Note
The MegaCities, or Megatropolises, of the world of Agniton would fall into ‘Dystopian Urban Sci-fi’. The largest inspiration for them are the mega cities of the world of Judge Dredd, though the megatropolises of Agniton are far more ordered and controlled, as well as smaller (although still huge by today’s standards), with The Agency taking an unhealthy interest in people’s lives, controlling the media they consume, the food that they eat, and the their places of work.
The Beyond is a term which is used to describe anywhere that's outside of the borders of the Megatropolises.
After decades of exploitation, the land has been ravaged by deforestation, mining, and intense farming. Because of this, much of the landscape is now a barren wasteland comprised of desert and arid hills.
People living on the Beyond do without the influence of The Agency, but also outside of the security that offers. Food is scarce, life is cheap. Nomadic tribes wander from oasis to oasis, and scattered shanty towns dot the land, usually ruled over by whichever warlord is strongest at the time.
The Beyond is not abandoned by The Agency - they still operate many facilities within it. Namely, these are quarries, water treatment facilities (near the seas), and food processing units. Often, those who disobey the laws within the cities are sent to work at these facilities.
The Agency facilitates the rumour that deep within The Beyond, the air is poisonous and the land totally dead. While only true in very specified areas, this exaggerated truth does provide another tool to keep the population under control and within the boundaries of the Megatropolises.
This island, located roughly the same distance between four of the Megatropolises, became a dumping ground for their waste products. Anything that could not be recycled or re-used was brought here by carrier aircraft and dropped onto the island, leaving it a sprawling mess of waste, the mounds of which could reach many hundreds of feet high.
The island also became a place for those fleeing the authorities within the Megatropolises to head to by hitching a ride on one of the waste carrier aircraft. The Agency had no real authority there (and little desire to do so), so instead employed a ring of floating mines around the island, so that none could leave once they ventured there.
The world of Agniton is dotted with nine huge cities.
In eight of these, many millions of people live; the smallest city containing one hundred million, and the largest around half a billion.
These giant hubs of humanity are governed by The Agency, which controls all aspects of their citizen's lives.
The megatropolises are sterile places of control, with huge metallic walls barring them from the rest of the world - from The Beyond.
This city was destroyed in a calculated ‘reduction of resources’. It was felt the most expendable, and so the choice was made to remove it from the network. What lies there now is a gargantuan husk, ripe for plunder for those willing to head there. It is a lawless place where one will find riches and death in equal measure.
Author's Note
High Allyon will likely become an interesting and key setting for stories to take place within!
The Agency came to power decades before the creation of the magatropolises. It was a gradual process, which in itself took around 15 years. In the beginning, the Agency was a successful commercial corporation, the name of which has been lost to time. Its reach grew so that it began to have influence in the security and information systems of its host nation and, eventually, others as well. This brought concern from some sectors, and when resistance on its expansion was encountered, the company was large and powerful enough to simply buy out competitors, or bribe auditors.
Eventually, the company had direct influence over choices in government, with corrupt officials voting to it allow more and more influence over the way things were governed and, therefore, people’s lives. Over the years, the company became the government, and the government became the Agency.
This expansion came at the same time as the vast exploitation of the world’s natural resources, and the need for the construction of the mega cities. The Agency was the only entity powerful enough to set about performing such a task, and in doing so eradicated the last semblances of foreign currency and influence. People had to band together to help The Agency construct the cities and railroads that connected them, for their very survival.
Due to the huge populations they govern, and the need to fulfill basic needs such as food, power, drinking water, and sanitation, the Agency needed to keep a strict hold on things. Because of this they have gradually come to control huge aspects of people’s lives; and have so slowly; expanding this control over decades so that the changes were practically imperceptible. Any protests were quickly put down in the name of ‘the greater good’.
In current Agniton, residents born into the magetropolises are microchipped at birth. These chips contain a person’s name an their identification number, and will go on to then store their address, area of employment and their place of work, how many credits they have (the currency within the city) as well as other information such as movement tracking, purchase history and eating habits.
Each city is filled with millions of sensors, which are reading the chips as people come and go. It is with these chips that movement is restricted - someone who works in farming would not be able to go onto a transport tram to the manufacturing area, as the system would not allow them access.
Life under agency rule is relatively comfortable. It offers security against the harshness and unpredictability of The Beyond, and provides food, clothing, and shelter for oneself and one's family.
Residents are micro-chipped at birth in order to be tracked and monitored across the millions of censors that litter each city. The chip is also scanned for the purposes of purchasing goods and services. There is no physical currency; the economy works through virtual credits which are allocated to a person through their work and other helpful actions towards the city.
With this system, The Agency can monitor a person's movements, purchases, eating habits, what they watch and listen to, and who they meet. They can tell if someone leaves work early, or do not get there on time, and deduct their pay accordingly. Families live in towering residential blocks known as Towers, and each Tower can be filled with thousands of living appartments, which are known as Pods.
Free-will is barely existant. Residents are vetted at an early age to find their aptitudes for certain tasks, and are processed in the training facilities accordingly. Thus, people do not get to choose what they do for a living, and have to accept their lot in life. There is very little chance of them advancing further in their role unless someone above them vacates a post or expires.
The only way one may better their lot in life, and that of their immediate family also, is to become a Citizen. Citizens are allocated better living areas, in better locations of the city. They generally have more credits to spend, and have a better way of life.
To become a Citizen, one must spend at least eight years either in the Agency's military forces, enforcement services, or some other critical function which sees the control and dominance of the people withheld.
Those who are deemed to have erred against the laws can be punished in several ways. This could be by a simple fine - one that strips them and their family of food for a day or more – or the removal of basic facilities such as power or water to their Pod.
Punishments could also be harsher, such as being sent to one of the lesser desirable duties within the city - sewage and waste disposal, recycling, and various hard labour. Worse still would be sent into one of the facilities within The Beyond, such as to a mining camp.
Of course, the death penalty is always an option also. Such punishment at least sees the individual recycled as fertiliser for the food production industry along with the rest of the dead.
Those who live off-grid are offered none of the security and stability that those within the cities have. They inhabit a barren wasteland, carpeted in dead fields, dried out forests and drained marshland.
With resources low and no law and order, The Beyond is home to remote, isolated groups of people who eke out a living the best way they can; trading whatever resources they have with other nearby settlements, and fighting off roaming bands of raiders and fiends that try to steal and murder their way to what they need.
People may end up off-grind for a number of reasons. Some are born there, whereas others willingly (or unwillingly) leave the Megatropolises and head into The Beyond. This could occur because some crime may have committed; and offence for which which leaving is better than saying and facing the punishment. Those lucky enough to make it to the outer walls of the city and get out via drainage or ventilation.
Most who leave this way will be killed within a few days, either by the harsh conditions, or run into the wrong group of vagabonds. If they are lucky, they will be taken in by one of the shanty towns and build a new life for themselves, albeit a harsh and unforgiving one.
The Beyond
Trespassers are a special breed of person, and one that is very rare. They facilitate the exchange of goods and people from within the Megatropolises to The Beyond, and vice versa.
Trespassers often (but not always) operate outside of the jurisdiction of The Agency, and the activities they engage in are highly dangerous and carry severe penalties - death being the primary one (not to mention the associated torture which would precede it; The Agency would be very interested to learn of holes being exploited in their security systems).
Because of these risks, Trespassers charge high prices for their services. Often they are employed to smuggle someone, or something, out of a city, but sometimes the reverse is true.
Trespassers are wily, street-smart, and dangerous in their own right. The vast amounts of material wealth they acquire is often stored in strongholds close to the edges of the cities they operate from. Despite their wealth, trespassers are forever in danger of being ratted out, their goods confiscated, their lives forfeit.
Only a few hundred dwarfs survived into Agniton. A pale shadow of their former selves, dwarfs dwindled from having the largest empire the world had known, to it all falling into ruin.
It is thought that the dwarfs that survived are many hundreds of years old, and have no desire to reproduce. Eventually, then, the dwarfs will die out - a willing extinction brought about by the shame of centuries of failure and shame.
Those dwarfs that are left usually live off-grid, as most are unwilling to live under human rule. Those that do live within the cities actually find decent lives for themselves, as their natural abilities in crafting and metal working means they often find themselves working as engineers and architects. Because of this, even in the spawling mess of the Megatropolises, buildings influenced by dwarvern structures can still be found.
The decline of magic, and its eventual disappearance from the world, is what led to the foundations and eventual development of Agniton. As such, there is no working magical energies or powers within the cities of the Agency or the wilderness which surrounds them.
However, unbeknownst to most of the world (save maybe a handful of top-ranked, highly specialised Agency officials), there have been sightings of strange beasts in the forests southwest of Arx Cerex. Perhaps there are some places in the world where there’s enough magic left to preserve what was there in Iiosia, or maybe these beasts are simply rare, but mundane, jungle wildlife.
V.E.R.I-AX
V.E.R.I-AX, or "Veriax", is a primary character of Agniton.
He was birthed within one of the Agencies military initiatives to create an elite soldier, and so his name is an acronym -
Versatile Enforcement and Reconnaissance Infantry.
Batch A
Number X (10)
The VERI project was designed to create super-soldiers; individuals crafted using specialised DNA manipulation, and honed from birth to be obedient, unthinking soldiers willing to carry out all orders without question.
When he was still a boy, V.E.R.I-AX went AWOL on a training mission on the island of Ergeon, and attempts to re-capture him resulted in failure (as chronicled in The Boy). V.E.R.I-AX, for whatever reason, rejected his training and grew up on Ergeon and adopted the name Veriax (ver-e-axe).
Years later, as a young adult, he escapes the island after witnessing the bombing of the nearest Megatropolis (done so by its neighbours in a planned 'reduction on the strain of resources').
He spends years roaming The Beyond as a mercenary before becoming entangled with a plot involving the remains of The Magic Flux (which was instrumental during The Sundering). The Agency, found both halves of this ancient and dangerous artefact and restored it without understanding what it was. Upon realising this, the planned to have it locked away once again. However, Veriax destroys the device, and in so doing unleashes a second Sundering, paving the way for Agniton 2.0
Author's Note
Veriax is the main reason why Agniton exists at all. His earliest incarnation was that of a bounty hunter in the Games Workshop game Necromunda. However I soon found myself importing into my own settings, and eventually this birthed the world of Agniton.
As many of you know, it is also the pseudonym I use online!
