The Ashen Wastes
Two centuries after the World-Breaker meteor shattered the crust, humanity clings to life in scattered nomadic tribes. The environment is incredibly hostile, but strange, powerful crystals left behind by the meteor grant mysterious abilities.
Rules of Reality
The Searing Sun
Direct exposure to sunlight for more than an hour causes radiation sickness. Travel is strictly nocturnal.
Crystal Resonance
Meteor shards can power machinery or mutate biology, but they slowly drive the user insane.
Species & Powers
The Baseline
Unmutated humans who rely entirely on salvaged technology and armor to survive.
Crystal-Touched
Mutants with meteor shards embedded in their flesh, granting them unnatural endurance but fractured minds.
Key Locations
Scrap-Town
A bustling trade hub built entirely inside the hollowed-out carcass of a pre-fall aircraft carrier.
The Glass Desert
Ground zero of the meteor impact. The sand was superheated into a smooth, treacherous sea of jagged glass.
The Dune Sea
An ocean of ash-grey dunes that swallows whole caravans. Crystal-storms sweep its surface at dusk, leaving veins of glowing meteor-glass for those brave enough to dig.
Last Well Oasis
The only free water for a hundred miles, guarded by a truce older than anyone alive. All feuds pause at the well's edge — the one law every tribe still honours.
History
The Fall
Day 0
The Impact — The World-Breaker meteor strikes the equator, boiling the oceans and triggering global volcanic winter.
The Scavenger Age
Year 50
Founding of Scrap-Town — The scattered tribes form the first permanent settlement in the wastes.