“From the seas, vast and blue, emerged different lands, green and new. Our ancient world turned the page, to where states were not states - but remnants of a golden age.”
Excerpt from
The Living Dust,
Novel on the origins of Monad
Towards the end of World War II, a weapons experiment went terribly wrong. It eradicated almost all of civilization.
The few who survived faced a new reality in a destroyed, reshaped world. After centuries of rebuilding, mankind found a way to leave the planet, to venture into the great unknown as intergalactic pioneers.
These pioneers had their aims set on founding new corporations, perhaps even the next generation of mega corporations. Driven by fear and hope, they left their wretched, dystopian home planet where states had fallen and ultra-capitalism reigned — and ventured towards the stars.
Star system interface, Qauard System
It is not an understatement, nor an overstatement, to say that the world became a very different place after the great cataclysm. It had all begun as an experiment, attempting to exploit a new mineral discovered in then-called Central Europe. The mineral went by different names: schwarzeisen, black iron, devil's gold, and more.
Intelligence agencies from around the world had it on a shortlist of key topics of interest, but very few knew of an experiment involving three of the world's most important scientists. These men were Ludwig Vavruch, Darius Ecker, and Marlon Dyne. Marlon Dyne would eventually give Earth its new name - Dyne.
“If something happens, do you really think it matters where I am? You’ve seen what the black iron can do with your own eyes.”
Over the coming centuries, the black iron would in many ways, often unbeknownst to humans, play an important role for all life on the planet. Mankind slowly repopulated the recovering surface, after a generation spent underground, and the black iron dust was everywhere. Before fully understanding its origin, as all knowledge of the experiment had gone lost, it gained a new name in everyday conversation, "the living dust." Very soon, this dust became associated with mysterious events occurring around the world: forests with giant animals, prodigies with seemingly magical abilities, with clairvoyance, and with soothsaying. It was blamed for disease and recovery alike.
Eventually, humans would rediscover the potency embedded in the original mineral. It became the subject of new research and attention. By this time, mega corporations ruled in society, and each corp had its own agenda for the elusive, black mineral.
Research quick-view and Fleets overview
More than 300 years after the disaster, mankind had seen the rise and fall of nations, the emergence of ruthless mega corporations, and a subsequent decrepit darkness and ruination of the world. Discovering long-distance space travel was to discover the door to escape.
Enormous space vessels, called Infinity Rockets, departed in great numbers from the planet, in search of new riches, success, and purpose. Inspired by the mega corporations, their passengers sought to found new commercial empires in distant galaxies.
Planet surface, Qauard II, desert planet
“One single discovery in mankind’s history enabled the intergalactic expansion of today, much like iron melting, antibiotics, or the first combustion engine revolutionized their times.”
Backstory
Monad
Before the disaster, Ludwig Vavruch, a historical legend, discovered the mysterious black iron mineral. It was signified by pitch-black color and a blueish shine. When shattered, its dust shimmered like a rainbow.
A distant descendant, Jino Vavruch, made a startling discovery when he researched his infamous ancestor. Using an extensive knowledge in mechanical engineering, and supported by the robust Ominiyan research community, he found a way to surf pseudo-physical particles with a new type of cosmic engine. He presented his discovery as the “Vavruch Engine”, and explained its function with reference to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s philosophy of the Old World:
Starmap, Draco galaxy
“All things, dead or alive, contain metaphysical substances which can be imagined as monads. These monads are mirrors. They reflect everything in time, the universe, and other dimensions with a strength relating to time-space distance. Processed black iron dust provides a translational interface to these metaphysical highways, giving certain physical structures the ability to fold into meta space itself and achieve great distances in almost no time.”
Juno Vavruch
Inventor of the Vavruch Engine
Using his extensive knowledge in mechanical engineering, and supported by the robust Ominiyaian research community, Jino Vavruch found a way to surf pseudo-physical particles with a new type of cosmic engine. He presented the discovery as the “Vavruch Engine”, and explained its' function with reference to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s monadism concept, stemming back to the Old World — to before the cataclysm.
The term monad refers to singularity, "that which is one". A monad has no parts and is indivisible. It was a philosophical concept debuted in opposition to atomism, which was growing in popularity around the same time. Leibniz' claim that space is an illusion, in Juno Vavruch's view, was a valid way to illustrate an impossibly intricate reality.
A more technical explication was later provided in Una Scientific:
“... and we knew that we had finally found a way to peer into the mirretic field of the subject. By dissociating the black iron molecules and blowing them into a magnetized wind tunnel, we had discovered the means by which we could access the monadic [sic] dimension. A concrete, visual success indicator was the rainbow-like shimmer, the dust, which we had only seen referenced in ancient literature. We were all quite shocked. All that remained were the configurative levers, so to speak, which we achieved by adjusting dosage and compounding other materials, including certain crystalized minerals. In specific combinations, we were able to access the mirretic radius and instantly re-instantiate the subject at the edge of the field. ”
The Vavruch Engine gained immense traction, quickly, fuelled by a planet-wide tire of circumstances, and a fear that the planet may soon be exhausted of natural resources. Wealthy corporations and families acquired the blueprints for the engine and started building Infinity Rockets - large exploration vessels equipped for starting anew in distant galaxies. As long as they knew the coordinates, they could get there.