Ruins of 1985

There was a time of great progress and prosperity.

Crop yields were blessed. Ships and traders brought goods and ideas from all over the known world. Universities flourished with inspiration and invention. Great cosmopolitian port cities raised towers to the sky.

Prosperity fed population. Over generations, those with greater luck or skill came to possess more land than those without. As the natural resources of the land became monopolized by fewer and fewer, the many began to suffer under the heel of oppression and serfdom. There was grumbling, crime, and talk of revolution.

The aristocracies of different nations faced similar problems. The nobles took more and more land for themselves, leaving the poor and dispossessed ever more numerous. Every freeholder thrown off their land and made a serf became a potential rebel. How could the nobility protect their power and privilege?

The solution was simple. The leaders of various nations got together and planned a splendid little war. It would eliminate the excess, unneeded laborers while providing grand sport to the military men.

Armies marched. Mages burned cities and summoned monsters from other worlds. Sorcerers blinded whole populations with their colorful and imaginative lies.

The weakness of arrogance was apparent as things spun out of the leaders' control. War led to famine, as various armies took what they needed from peasants by force, leading peasants to devour their seed grain. Famine led to diseases few could fight off. Pestilence added the final nail in the coffin, and 99 out of 100 living souls perished in the space of a decade. The wars began in the year 1950; society collapsed by 1980. All of the old nations had fallen. Entire cities were abandoned. Developed lands went back to the wild.

In 1985, small groups have banded together at the local level. Towns are being rebuilt. Some have begun to go out and explore. There are untold treasures waiting to be found in ruins - not just gold and silver, but works and art and books of forgotten knowledge worth their weight in gold.

Towns hire mercenaries to defend themselves from the raids of roving bandit gangs. Strange monsters roam the land, leftovers from forgotten wars. Heroes work to restore lost knowledge and temples.

There is much to do.