L U M E N
[The Crown City]Lumen is the world's premier megalopolis, a massive sprawl city with a population of 57.7 million and counting. Founded in the year T000, Lumen has grown to become the world's single largest population center.
It began with the discovery of the next island of stability by Dr. Richard Exion. Dr. Exion was able to discover a massive body of a superheavy element, later termed exionium, located underground where Lumen would soon be founded. Dr. Exion hypothesized that the fission of even small amounts of this element would generate massive amounts of power, easily enough to power a whole city. The massive amount that Dr. Exion had discovered would be a tremendous power source unlike the world had ever seen. Dr. Exion managed to painstakingly obtain government grants and began the process of obtaining the gigantic element source and using it. After years of research, mining, and construction, in the latter years of Dr. Exion's lifetime, the project was complete. The titanic exionium load had been hooked up to a massive reactor plant and, as Dr. Exion had predicted, was able to produce never-before-seen levels of power. Dr. Exion, his life goal complete, passed away just as the city of Lumen began to sprout up around the reactor building, named the Beacon of Humanity.
As Lumen grew around the reactor, scientists working for the Exion Research Laboratory began to apply the Beacon's power for the benefit of the people. As power became a seemingly limitless resource, Lumen began a near-utopia as poverty, drought, and hunger stooped to record-low levels in humankind's history. The Beacon became a symbol of progress as a collective species as people from around the world flocked to Lumen. They found a place where equality was prevalent, life was easy, and new developments by the lab made possible the idea of resurrection. It seemed as though humanity has finally reached a pinnacle.
The Reactor Wars would change that.
Beginning in T-137, the Reactor War lasted on-and-off for a grueling 64 years as foreign powers launched attacks on the independent society of Lumen, seeking to assume control over the Reactor. Lumen, a neutral, sovereign city-state, was entirely unprepared for war and suffered heavy losses as several foreign nations invaded and waged all-out war through the city- most notably, the North American Federation and the Grand Texan Republic, though several other foreign nations were involved in the constant skirmishes. After 64 years of enemy occupation, the intruders were dispelled and Lumen was re-fortified, and once again declared fully independent. However, by the end of the Reactor Wars, Lumen had become a changed place.
The Corps had taken over.
What was once an entirely democratic, respectable, and fair system of governance in Lumen that distributed the resource of power equally to every citizen was now a cold war for the Beacon's power between a group of powerful corporations that had helped fend off the intruders during the Reactor Wars. These Corporations, because of their immense wealth and influence, proved dominant in every aspect of society. What was once a utopia was now a dystopia, as the Corps took the power from the Beacon and distributed it among themselves more greatly and among the other citizens unequally.
The only threat for the Corps are each other, and that's where the idea of Mercs come in. Paid mercenaries working for a Corp that helped undermine the other Corps in an effort to sabotage each other. Waging all-out war in the city would only lead to another Reactor War, but hiring Mercenaries to subtly destroy each other? It was pure genius. Mercs working for a Corp were gifted with resurrection, a rare process drawn from the Beacon's power reserved only for the higher-ups in a Corporation.
It is currently the year T-301, the hundredth anniversary of the end of the Reactor Wars. Several recent Lumen-wide power outages have concerned some that the Beacon of Humanity is beginning to see its final days. The Corps, however, continue their campaigns to undermine each other, hoping to gain a greater and greater share of Beacon power. In the coming days, though, it is becoming more and more apparent to everybody that some other power is rising, and a dangerous one indeed.
The Era of Big Business is surely not one to be taken lightly.
Hey y'all! Thanks for reading all the way down here! If you're interested, do tell! Once I get enough interest, I'll drop more world-specific info in the main thread so characters can start rolling.
Any questions, please lmk!
-Hitman
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