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The content on this page is a WIP and subject to change. Changes to the page will be documented on the updates page.

Welcome to the Setting page! Here you will find information about the setting, including its history, social structures, politics, and other relevant information.

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1. Summary
2. History
1. Pre-Reset
2. The Reset
1. Event
2. Impacts
3. Factions
3. Political landscape
4. Populations
5. Mail delivery system
   1. Deliverer specializations
      1. Speed
      2. Endurance
      3. Combat/de-escalation
      4. Stealth
      5. Regular
6. Details specific to story location
   1. Lack of borders
   2. Economy
   3. Medical system(s)
   4. Attitudes around mental health and neurodivergence
7. Problems with setting to resolve (subject to change)

NOTE: please keep a close eye on the last section as the website and story are updated. The setting is still super early in development and I have a lot of research to do to make sure my setting is cohesive, accurate, and, importantly, sensitive to the real-world implications of its makeup. As previously mentioned, the content of this page is subject to change.

Summary

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History

Pre-Reset

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The Reset

Event

[Laboratory name], after decades of research, developed technology that they believed could alter the fabric of reality itself. They developed this tech in secret under the code name [insert code name here]; to those outside of the project, they simply operated a particle accelerator for physics and physics-adjacent research.

Various researchers on the team had different goals for this technology. Some were interested in using it to further knowledge on the fundamental laws of the universe, such as how particles behaved below Absolute Zero or above Plank Temperature (absolute hot), as these were situations where current understanding of particle physics broke down. Others wanted to investigate the possibility of using it to alter the time stream, such as travelling forward or backward in time. Yet others were simply pursuing it for the sake of generating knowledge. However, the lead researcher, Matilda's great-great grandfather, [Name], had more political motivations, desiring to sell the patent for the technology to one of the major world powers--he wasn't picky on who, just whoever would ally with him and protect him from repercussions--and, through monetary gain and political protection, become the most powerful man on the planet.

[Name] grew impatient with the project's development, irritated with his team's insistence on rigorous testing. The longer the project went, the harder it was to keep it under wraps, and they had already had multiple scares with documents almost being leaked to the press. He finally put his foot down and gave the order to run the prototype so that they could confirm its functionality.

The order ended in disaster. As soon as the machine was switched on, the fabric of reality unravelled, tearing a giant hole--later dubbed The Chasm--in the universe and swallowing the laboratory whole.

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Impacts

The largest impact of the Reset was, in addition to the creation of The Chasm, the creation of Aberrations, semi-sentient tears/glitches in spacetime that are hostile in nature and tend to attack people. The creation of Aberrations led to near-apocalyptic conditions and political and economic turmoil globally, with whole cities being swallowed whole by tears in reality and yet others destabilizing the physical conditions of surrounding areas. In the ensuing chaos triggered by such natural disasters, governments scrambled to control the situation, but they fell into complete disarray. It was up to the people to organize themselves and defend their communities from these Aberrations. See political landscape for more information, but in summary, nations eventually fell and gave way to a global anarchist society.

Multiple social systems have developed to combat Aberrations, such as the existence of groups dedicated to combating Aberrations and the existence of combat/de-escalation mail deliverers.

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Factions

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Political landscape

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Populations

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Mail delivery system

Mail delivery is decentralized but global. No one person or group coordinates mail operations--rather, consensus-based, horizontally-organized groups in different regions contact each other on an as-needed basis to coordinate delivery between their communities. While it's an as-needed basis, though, mail delivery is more or less continuous, particularly in more populated areas. The exception to this pattern is for more geographically isolated communities, who tend to have smaller populations and thus less mail to delivery day-to-day.

Mail deliverers can specialize for specific types of delivery, which requires training for that specific type of delivery. There's no official certification, but all specialized deliverers are expected to do enough training to know how to do their job. Some specializations, like combat/de-escalation, require more training than others. Though, all deliverers (sans those in more high-conflict areas due to higher densities of Aberrations) start as regular deliverers similar to those seen IRL (as in, real life outside of this story).

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Deliverer specializations

Speed

Speed-type deliverers do express delivery, often involving lots of parkour and some sci-fi technological augmentations for speed and movement. Common within urban areas. Franklin is training to be this type of deliverer, which is the type that his father was as well. As a rabbit, his physical inclinations (speed and agility) make this style much easier for him to learn.

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Endurance

Endurance-type deliverers travel long distances in extreme weather. They're slow but reliable and useful for getting mail to and from more isolated communities. Endurance deliverers tend to be animals suited for more extreme weather conditions, such as polar bears or camels. Extremophiles like flamingos will take on particularly hazardous routes.

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Combat/de-escalation

Combat/de-escalation-type deliverers do delivery in areas with high concentrations of Aberrations. They're trained mainly in self-defense and de-escalation (sometimes regions with a high density of Aberrations will have more social conflict, so de-escalation is a useful skill). Many deliverers in this subtype are martial arts nerds (Some hand-to-hand, some swords, etc). They're speedy, though not as fast as the speed type.

Combat-de-escalation deliverers in these high-Aberration, high-conflict regions don't need to start as regular deliverers like others do, as there tends to be a higher need for this type of delivery in these regions.

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Stealth

Stealth-type deliverers are similar to combat/de-escalation deliverers in where they operate, except the focus is on stealth and as a consequence they're a bit slower. Animals with strong camoflaguing abilities like chameleons tend to take on this role.

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Regular

Regular deliverers are most similar to IRL mail. They handle mail that doesn't require specialized delivery (common in stable, low conflict areas and for long distances w/o extreme weather).

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Details specific to story location

Lack of borders

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Economy

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Medical system(s)

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Attitudes around mental health and neurodivergence

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Problems with setting to resolve (subject to change)

• I need to figure out the specifics historically for how the conditions created by the Reset led to the development of global anarchy. How did people organize? In what ways? Did this vary by region? What were various governments' responses? They obviously would have retaliated, but the Aberrations in some way levelled the playing field. Most of all: how long did it take to get to the point of a stable global anarchy?

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