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Lore in this game is few and far between.
There are some things i have in mind, but that is fluid.
Here is a rough writedown of my ideas:
Let's get one thing out of the way from the beginning.
The characters in the game are nazis, but i don't call them that way.
I don't want to accidentially attract the real life nazis, nobody likes them.
(If you are a real life nazi: fuck off and never come back)
Most elements in the game have no relation to the real world at all.
A few are mapped to the real world loosely, but are mostly symbolic and that connection is not deep.
Lore and setting was mostly chosen because it fits well to how CPU work. So don't overinterpret stuff.
A rough timeline of the world is:
the early reich
implant trance
artisans
golden times
grasping the power
the fall
the current situation
The germans won the big wars and defeated all opposing parties.
Everybody was subjugated and integrated into the reich.
The thousand year reich started under the supreme command of bismark.
The steam age is still holding strong and the implants are developed.
The implants were miniature versions of the thinking engines put into peoples heads.
The implants assisted by keeping track of tasks to do and was able to direct simple jobs.
Over time the situation stabilises and society simplifies.
All external threats vanish and is replaced by ritualistic conflict.
The implant get extended, take over more tasks and can direct in many jobs.
The more the implants instructions grew in quality the more often workers fell into implant trance.
This means they follow the implants instructions subconciously and don't even notice what they are doing.
Affected workers describe it similar to dreaming and feel no fatigue after working in implant trance.
The high command learned about this and ordered to mass produce implants.
Processes were simplified and the implants were improved.
This allowed to completely do shifts in implant trance, removing the need to sleep completely.
The efforts to out everybody with implants and convert the industry faced some challenges.
Not enough implants could be produced and waking up workers from implant trance was problematic.
Workers who have been in implant trance for too long could respond violently.
This was worked around by trying to keep workers in implant trance without interruption.
If that failed, guards took care of it and the worker was replaced.
As implants were introduced on a wider scale, artisans apeared.
Artisans attack everybody nearby and could use an unkown power to do so.
Stopping artisans sometimes required a whole army, sometimes a single hit to the head.
The artifacts they build in the process turned out to be invaluable.
The leader took personal interest and researched this effect.
Sites of artisan activity were raided and artworks were collected.
A laboratory was build and the artifacts were tested.
While it was never found out how the artworks work, it was found out what they do.
Some were useless, others could be used to improve processes outside the lab.
After some time the leader disengaged from the research on the artworks.
Factories were visited and protocols were analysed.
Rules and regulation were changed to prevent artisan activity.
The artworks had mayor impacts on society.
Implants were improved and a new classes of workers were created.
New versions of the implants were able to make reanimated dead move.
Those ghuls never could do complex things, but could carry out simple tasks.
Factories desiged to make use of ghuls experienced drastic production increases.
Population could be decreased and implants were available to everone.
The biological workings of officers could be augmented and made one with the implants.
Sexual reproduction was abandoned in favour of cloning succesful individuals.
Additives were found that influence and improve the cloning process.
The new classes of worker soon dominated the population.
Ghuls outnumbered clones and only a few officers of the old circles remained.
Artisan activity of all severity increased, but the supply of artworks remained invaluable.
== grasping the power == back to top
In secret the leader was studying how to provoke and control artisan activity.
Methods and procedures were found to create powerful artisans and their artifacts.
Having accumulated a collection of powerful artifacts the leader called for a demonstration.
All remaining officers of the old circles were invited as witnesses.
Everyone of importance should see the new powers of the leader.
During the demonstration the rules of reality were changed.
The world was fit to the leaders likings.
It was split into pieces and interesting additions were made.
And indeed everybody was in awe.
Structures were adapted and the world was tweaked.
The old circle tried to impress each other by building bigger and better factories.
Might was proven in war games and regions were raized and rebuild for sport.
One day the leader got a great gift: A glass ball.
An recently recovered artefact radiating with unseen amounts of power, but of unknown function.
Filled with confidence the leader called for another demonstration.
The old circle arrived, but the leader was not able to make it do anything.
Pushed by pride the leader smashed it in front of the audience, hoping for an impressive effect.
The artefact killed everyone in the vicinity.
A storm of power swept through the city and turned everything to glass.
With the whole old circle eliminated, only the new worker classes remained.
Everyone kept following the last orders until new orders arrived.
But none of the top rank survived to issue new orders.
Uncontrolled artisan activity spiked in some areas, devastated some regions and then stopped mostly.
The war games not stopped and entire branches of the hierarchy were destroyed.
== the current situation == back to top
Over the decades and centuries stagnation took hold.
Precious resources where depleted without searching for alternatives.
Unneeded production filled up the warehouses and eventually stopped.
The great machine the empire once was is gone.
Most of it is just dead rusty hulks overgrown with mold.
Only some remnants of what once was are still moving.
Individual bases and structures follow ancient orders to this day.
This history itself was not preserved and is forgotten.