Five hundred years into the future, Civilization fell. It didn't happen overnight, but to those who still cling to long past days of bliss that are left, it feels that way. No one really knows how it happened or why, but society as everyone knew it was gone. War had ravaged the earth leaving it scarred and almost barren, nations were left crumbled and their citizens scattered due to famine and war. Thanks to the level of science humanity had reached before the nuclear fallout, the blow it had suffered had been mitigated by a small amount.
Technology had not received the the same fate as most of humanity's inventions like cars, trains, and planes had fallen into decay. Anything that had required parts from long before the war or heavy maintenance had been left to rot. Reduced to bows and swords save for a few dozen firearms, they were hard to come by as guns require upkeep that would be hard to maintain. People became wanderers, merchants selling secrets for better survival, nomads, or those choosing to live by the sword as hired guns or bandits. Even though they were forced to live in small tribes and communities, humanity did as it always does, it endured.
After several years of famine, the earth had began to heal, although some parts of the earth were beyond healing. civilization had start to bounce back even if only by a little. Mother nature claimed what was originally hers as vegetation started to grow in the now abandoned cities. Habitats sprung back to life leaving animals to claim some of them and without the threat of extinction animal life had thrived. Society had taken the chance to build three sanctuary cities around the places that life had returned. Resources were not a problem as people who lived to the cities were assigned jobs from explorers, to soldiers, to doctors and the latter. To keep from overpopulation the cities only let small groups people from the outside in once every fifty years. This is our year.
