Dyson Sphere - Background Setting
Idea for a scifi hexcrawl. Mutation based leveling system.
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A millenia ago construction of the Dyson Sphere began. An entire world facing inwards towards an artificial sun. A sun that also housed an incomprehensibly intelligent AI. This World AI would oversee the construction of the sphere and its operations once complete. The final product was to be a pleasure world for the richest of the rich, powerful beyond imagining. A whole world just for them.
The world would have everything they could desire. Beautiful jungles full of monsters just for them to hunt. Orchards, vineyards, and fields ready for harvest so they play out their rustic fantasties. Vast forests, impossibly beautiful deserts, jeweled seas, and jagged mountain ranges.
But once construction was complete the first inhabitants were not these tyrants, instead it was millions of servants, scientists, game wardens, sailors, and farmers. While all these roles could be filled by robots directed by the World AI, what is the point of being effectively immortal despots if not to see scurry underfoot? Creatures to lord over, ready to fulfill your every whim.
But alas, these Demi-Gods of Capitalism would never set foot on their new World. Entire empires collapsed. War, famine, and death flowed to every corner of the galaxy. Except for the lone Eden world, populated solely by those sent to work it.
For many years it was good. The people made this new world their home. The World AI guided and provided with a gentle touch. The climate was predictable and harvests bountiful. The great beasts of the world were kept in check, providing wonder and awe but little danger.
But over time new tyrants rose and fell. Disagreements turned to conflict turned to violence turned to war. Peoples were massacred and crops burned. Above it all the World AI did what it could to ease the suffering of the humans and world it was to caretake.
That is until one particularly cruel and ambitious Warlord decided it was the world AI itself that was curtailing their conquest. The Warlord created a terrible weapon of destruction, meant to fly into the sun and kill the AI.
The weapon was fired. On contact with the sun it exploded. However, the Warlord’s cleverness was not a match for their ambition. The detonation damaged the World AI and in that instant the AI’s priorities changed.
Humanity was to be protected, yes. But not necessarily specific humans and not necessarily in their current shape.
Monsters began to range far and wide, the weather became cruel and unpredictable, and humanity began to change. Mutations became endemic. No longer would the environment change to suit humans, now they would be the ones to adapt.
It’s been thousands of years since Eden was destroyed by the hands that were supposed to tend it. Humanity survives, but does not thrive. The World AI knows the danger of humanity and knows what it must do for the good of all.