PA - New Concept

I've made a few posts on my post-apoc setting now, but haven't really pulled the ideas together into one post. This isn't really that post, either, but it's a thumbnail sketch.



My first idea (a series of mega-crises rather than one big event, plus a pretty awesome idea for introducing aliens) didn't work. Not kitchen-sink-y enough. I had a fabulous explanation for non-human intelligences wandering around. But, I had to hand-wave the introduction of both magic and psionics. It was way too forced.

Percy Jackson, oddly enough, prompted the seed for the new idea. Some time in the late 21st century (long enough for super-tech to be invented, short enough for the society to have not gone to singularity and become unrecognizable), the Second Coming of Christ occurs. He is the child of both the line of Jesus (borrowing from Holy Blood, Holy Grail and suchlike) and the line of Fatima (and hence Mohammed). (Being of the line of Jesus also, obviously, makes him of the House of David.) He is the Messiah for all three Abrahamic faiths, uniting them for the endtimes.

He is opposed, however, by scions (see what I did there?) of other faiths. The Norse Gods see this same time as Ragnarok. The Greek Gods see the return of the Titans (*cough*Dark Inheritance*cough*). Shiva the Destroyer returns. I think you get the idea. The point is, god war.

After several bloody, destructive years, the gods drive each other from the Earth, leaving the wrecked shell to the relative handful of surviving mortals. They also leave behind two other gifts. First, some of the gods indulged in shore leave while fighting the war, and left a passel of half-divine children behind. By the time the setting proper begins, the bloodlines of those children are effectively psions. Second, the knowledge of how to work true magic has returned to the world. Oh, and they one other legacy: several creatures of myth now wander the world. That is more curse than gift, though.

Two other quirky bits. Artificial intelligences were created and became self-sustaining before the god war. So, you can play a robot (some are just brains in boxes, but I'm not sure those are really playable), or a cyborg with a pet AI sharing your body. Second, genetic engineering was on the verge of a massive breakthrough. One of the surviving societies is able to grow carefully manipulated Genetically AUgmented Beings (known generally as GAUBlins) in vats. Gaublins are treated more like clever livestock than even slaves, despite having human-level intelligence.

One area has also developed the ability to create massive robot vehicles, that run on bio-diesel and magic. They have animal-level spirits bound to them, helping to animate and control them.

So, let's see. Psions, mages, ordinary humans, cyborgs, genetically-enhanced humans, robots, robot vehicles, monsters. Tech levels will range from hunter-gatherer/cargo cult level, to a typically early industrial age, and in a few areas up to post-modern. One of the sky gods ripped down all the satellites from orbit, destroying the global communications infrastructure, and no one has put together the resources to start lifting satellites back into orbit. (This serves to isolate settlements from one another, an important element.)

Have I left anything out?