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Rifts Earth

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The Dawning of

The Earth. The only planet where life evolved in the exact way to produce sentient beings. Or so we thought. Then came the Great Cataclysm, the toppling of governments, the Dark Ages, and, eventually the Coalition States. For we found out the hard way that we are not the only sentient creatures in the Megaverse...

History


Shape of the World

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Current Events

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Society

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Rifts Earth from Space

Rifts Earth from Space

The Earth is a world of magic, technology, the supernatural, and extraterrestrial in the dystopian post-apocalyptic setting of Palladium Games' Rifts fictional universe.

Background[]

At the dawn of the 21st century a new Cold War began on Earth between rival powers whom possessed rail guns, power armor, genetically enhanced humans, cybernetics, etc. It started after a brief "Golden Age" of great accomplishments in science and technology. It was not to last as early in the 21st century, magic returned to Earth with a vengeance. The world's long dormant ley lines became active and erupted resulting in a global apocalypse that shattered human civilization known as the "Great Cataclysm".

Titanic magical storms were created that swept the world in wave after wave of destruction in which the great cities were topped by tornadoes, earthquakes, and tidal waves. Mountains exploded, the coastlines were swallowed by the rising ocean and the island continent of Atlantis returned. Within hours billions of people died, and in doing so released so much mystical energy that the ley lines overloaded, which resulted in more disasters. Approximately 80% of human civilization was annihilated in a day.

For a decade or more the planet was covered in a cold darkness, casting the survivors into a nightmarish world that was being transformed by dimensional energies and magic that were ravaging the planet. Dimensioinal gateways (Rifts) that rose a mile or more in height opened to alien worlds, some of them nightmarish. Coming through these Rifts were alien beings and monsters. Some opened and closed, while others remained open for days and even decades. A few have remained open for centuries.

Countless aliens were pulled into Earth against their will by dimensional rifts that opened in their worlds and hundreds of thousands of them died alongside the humans. It was a Dark Age of monsters and demons, magic and alien invasions, disease and madness. Humankind was sent back into barbarism as the last cities fell within a couple of years. The Dark Age may have lasted over two centuries and the legends spoke of swarms of demons that blacked out the sun, alien invasions, the land being reshaped, and mountains rising and falling. There were 3 to 4 Demon Plagues (waves) that hit the Earth.

Earth Today[]

A third of mankind continues to live as primitive barbarians. Another third of mankind now use magic, accept those whom are aliens (from other dimensions), and use their psychic abilities. The final third of mankind rejects magic, remains fearful of that which is not human, and destroys whatever they don't understand. Scattered across the world are human and alien city-states and empires (small in comparison to the great ones of humanity's past), surrounded by monster and demon plagued wilderness and wasteland.

Humans[]

  • New German Republic = A technological superpower and bastion of human culture. Whose people are literate, cheerful, and enthusiastic, despite the fact that they are surrounded by enemies. It is a human supremacist nation which has expelled all aliens from its territories and want nothing to do with them.
  • Sovietski (Russia) = Feudal human kingdoms which are ruled by warlords and defended by armored bands of cyborgs, and are populated by humans and friendly aliens. Whom war with demons and monsters that appear more primordial and visceral than those elsewhere.
  • Japan = Some have returned to the old feudal ways, societies of samurai warriors and magic practicioners. From the time before the Great Cataclysm, there is a time displaced high-tech city, which acccepts friendly aliens and is a the height of literacy, science, and technology.
  • Geofront (China) = A vast subterranean human civilization descended from the People's Republic of China, which is connected to an apparently infinite subterranean system of tunnels and caverns. Whose ultimate goal is to liberate their homeland from the Yama Kings. They accept into their society both aliens and magic users.
  • Australia = Except for two high-tech human kingdoms that have walled themselves off from the rest of the world, humans elsewhere live as savages.
  • South America = A few human pockets of civilization remain, mostly in what used to be Argentina. They vary from republics to fascist regimes, from those who are tolerant or friendly toward aliens and those who are human supremacist.
  • Coalition States = It's an imperialistic fascist regime which is human supremacist and genocidal. It's regime fears and hates those who use magic, possess alien technology, have psionic powers, or come from other worlds or dimensions. To them alien technology is to be destroyed, psychics are to be controlled, magic users are to be killed, and aliens are to be exterminated.
  • Quebec = Another human supremacist state, which is just as fascist and hateful toward aliens and magic as the CS but it does not want to expand and conquer like the CS does. It has 1000s of the legendary Glitter Boy power armor, making their army one of the largest and most powerful in the world. It's people on average are better educated and informed than those of the CS, and it's peole have more freedom.
  • Federation of Magic = In the American Midwest is a coalition of magic using city-states who are governed by magic practitioners. The city states range from democracies to oligarchies to tyrannies. Some of them are enlightened and others practice dark magic. Some of them are benevolent and others are militaristic. All of them have both human and alien populations.
  • New Navy = It's the time displaced American navy (or to be more precise part of the fleet, though a powerful armada). They are wary and distrustful of aliens but will tolerate their presence, have allied with them on occasion, and will only attack those who are attacking humans or have systematically oppressed, enslaved, or slaughtered humans.
  • Lemurians = In the Pacific and Indian Oceans are the floating cities of the ancient mutated humans known as the Lemurians. Masters of magic and caretakers of Mother Nature. Who have returned to Earth from another dimension and fight evil wherever it exists.

Aliens[]

  • Empire of the Sun = Established by the Inca gods who have returned to earth and established a dominion in the Andes, of magic and technology. It protects the indigenous people (Quechua and Aymara Indians) from aliens, demons, and fascist humans.
  • Arkons = Interstellar invaders, the remnants of a shattered fleet from a great interstellar empire in this universe who have established a foothold on South America, a dominion that is one of the local powers.
  • Atlantis = It is a continent ruled by the Splugorth, one of the great transdimensional conquerors. It's a continent inhabited by aliens from countless worlds and dimensions. It is a dominion of powerful magic and alien technology. The streets are packed not only with aliens but also dragons and demons. All manner of product is sold and all forms of entertainment are available, including the most decadent and depraved.
  • Vampire Kingdoms = Dominions of vampires created by transdimensional Vampire Intelligences who have established strongholds on Earth. Mostly in central and southern Mexico, but also in Colombia and in the western Indian Ocean.
  • Horune = Seafaring barbarians from another dimension who ended up on Earth. They roam the oceans, the terror of Earth's seas. Pillaging, looting, raping, murdering, and enslaving.
  • Naut'Yll = Aquatic invaders from a world in another dimension. Transdimensional conquerors who have established a stealthy growing underwater empire, which currently dominates the southern Atlantic Ocean.
  • Xiticix = An intelligent race of insectoids with a hive mind, who dominate Minnesota and southern Manitoba. They are from another dimension and found themselves on Earth. They've done what they need to do to survive. Which is to reproduce and expand, which threatens all sentient life on Earth because they are an all consuming species.

Demons[]

  • Gargoyles (demons) in the millions who have conquered areas around the NGR, mostly to the west and south who aim to enslave humanity and free themselves from the control of the greater demons.
  • Yama Kings (China) = Demonic gods who have linked China to their Hell Dimensions and claimed large parts of China and its humans for themselves. Approximately a dozen of these Yama Kings who battle each other to become the supreme ruler of Hell and Earth. China is surrounded by a mist that hides what is going on from the rest of the world.
  • Japan = Ruling the mountains are goblins and demons, who sometimes go to war with the demons in other parts of Asia.
  • Brodkils = Humanoid demons who have conquered Poland with the assistance of the subterranean Mindwerks corporation, a survivor from the pre-Catalysmic world led by a cold, sadistic cyborg woman.

Miscellaneous[]

  • India = Gods of good and evil rule over the subcontinent, using mortals as their soldiers and pawns.
  • Phoenix Empire = In what used to be Egypt is an empire of technology and magic ruled by a tyrannical dragon.
  • England = An enchanted island with Druids and knights. Where the greatest power is the Kingdom of Camelot. It stands as a force for good and justice, but is in reality controlled by an evil dimensional conqueror.
  • ARCHIE = It's a lost, confused, and misled (by a human) artificial intelligence which has established a growing empire of machines on the American East Coast.
  • Lord of the Deep = It's a colossal Kraken-like Lovecraftian entity from another dimension. A consumer of worlds which has entered Earth's seas and is slowly expanding its dominion and enslaving, transmutating, and consuming what is in its way.

Technology[]

The human civilizations and alien races on planet Earth have a wide variety of types of technology from the mechanical and electronic to the bio-mechanical to techno-wizardry. The technology possessed by the human civilizations and various alien races include;

  • Mecha
  • Power Armor
  • Hover vehicles
  • Force Fields
  • Directed Energy Weapons (lasers, particle beams, ion blasters, plasma guns, etc)
  • Rail Guns (electromagnetic)
  • Cybernetics
  • Robots
  • Genetic Manipulation

Gallery[]

Sources[]


See also[]

History
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