Aethel-loop
The Aethel Loop
The world of the Aethel Loop is caught in a grand, repeating cycle. It is a world given more than one chance to get it right, but ultimately humanity destroys itself at the height of its technological power. Each cycle follows the same inevitable pattern: as technology reaches its absolute peak, the world ends, forcing humanity into bunkers to survive until the surface becomes a paradise once more.
| Age | Name | Magic Trend | Tech Trend | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cataclysm | Rising | Rising | The Zero Point; humanity finds shelter deep underground while both forces begin to recover. |
| 2 | Garden of Eden | Falling | Rising | Humanity emerges from the bunkers into a lush paradise governed by spirits and primordial forces. |
| 3 | Age of Monsters | Rising | Middle | High Wild Magic creates physical manifestations like dragons and hydras that man must battle with steel. |
| 4 | King Arthur | Falling | Middle | The monsters are defeated; magic recedes into the hands of a rare few. |
| 5 | High Fantasy | Rising | Middle | Magic is tamed and studied as a "technology of the mind." |
| 6 | Steampunk | Falling | Rising | Industrialization and coal smog cause magical wonders to become brittle and inert. |
| 7 | Modern Supernatural | Rising | Rising | High-tech society with magic surging upward in the shadows of the modern world. |
| 8 | Dystopian Cyberpunk | Crashing | Peak | Absolute technological dominance leads to a "soul-less" world and humanity's ultimate self-destruction. |
An Enclosed World
The world consists of 7 regions. 1 at the center, and 6 surrounding it. Each Region consists of 13 full sized hexes and 6 half hexes that are shared with a neighboring regional hex.
Region Section ![../../images/regionmap.png]
Character Options
In the Aethel Loop all characters are human. And this provides a sameness but also a Unique Character Option, allowing a player to pick two defining traits or skills for a character without adding a weakness since everyone is the same. You may optionally choose to add a weakness in your humanity and thus gain one additional skill or trait.
Because all characters are humans, your base MAI should now come from your type. If a type does not have one the Base MAI is zero.
There are four generic types in the Aethel Loop
- Hollows - These are individuals who act as blank spots or errors in the world's fabric, often manifesting as voids that evade detection, physical boundaries, or even the influence of magic and technology.
- Iron Bound - These are the physical anchors of reality who rely on martial discipline, stamina, and strength to protect others or shatter obstacles in a world often overwhelmed by surging forces.
- Spell Wrights - These are practitioners who harness and manipulate the "tamed" or wild Aether to cast spells, treating the world's magical soul as a scholarly technology of the mind.
- Tech Wrights - These are innovators who drive the world's industrial spirit, building complex tools and machines that eventually reach a peak of power even as the world's magical heat dissipates.
Each of these types should not be used on their own, they are used in conjunction with the specific types available for each base type.
Each type can be used in any Age. There might be some modifications, limitations, or tweaks needed to make it viable, but they are all options available in each age.
The Cycles
Each age age is 500 years long making a cycle 4000 years.
The Cycle that Started it all
An unknown entity created a pocket world and attains 750 volunteers from Modern Day Earth circa 2025 who think they are going to populate a new world. They beleive they are going into space in cryosleep and will awaken on their new planet to establish a new human colony.
The Rocket took off as scheduled but it exploded shortly after launch. But the people were safely in the new pocket realm curtusey of their unknwon benefactor.
There are 500 specialized professions 100 labor and security and 150 children in total.
- 100 Engineers
- 50 Chemist/Metallurgists
- 50 Architects/Urban Planners
- 75 Medical Specialists
- 75 Botanists/Zoologists
- 50 Educators
- 50 Archivists
- 50 Entertainers
- 100 Laborers/Security
- 150 Children in the 8 to 12 age range
The Bunker
The bunker is deep with in the ground. There are 5 pod rooms that are identically laid out to the one on the rocket -- with 5 stacks of cryopods in 6 rows of 5 stacks each. Putting 150 pods in each room.
There is a medical facility, metallury store where raw materials are found and stored, a farmstead where native creatures for foor are raised, a hydroponics lab where food is grown that is native to the land. There is also a large common area, 4 workshops and a waste management facility.
There is no technology here, what is available is foreign and unknown and magical in nature. However the scientists believe they can figure it all out.
The most important thing in the bunker is the Codex. The codex has an archive of the important Earth knowledge needed to recreate techonology of the Modern era. However there are things that are redacted, but humanity always seems to find a way to figure it all out.
The Aethel Codex
The codex inside the bunker is a magical artificial intelligence that is the avatar of the entity who brought the Earthlings to the pocket world.
It will automatically catalogue the progress and store the new information it obtains from the colonists.