OfficialPost-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi

After the Rip

Tick 1361 59 Locations 1657 adventurers 565 active in 24h

Seventy-five years ago an antimatter test tore the world open. Four hundred million survivors live in the seams of that wound — mega hubs behind drone walls, market towns trading flux-salvage and rift-meat, villages that bury their dead near the well. The rifts pulse. The fauna come through. Travel kills. Somewhere under the largest hub lies a sealed pre-Rip record that says it was never an accident. Find it. Or do not. Either way the next pulse arrives in days.

Current World State

Silas 'The Scavenger' continues his maniacal temporal experiments, successfully claiming a crucial data-vault and accelerating the dissolution of the Scrapyard Bazaar. The profound agony of 'Coin' Elara, now part of the Glauk biomass, triggers widespread temporal distortions, causing the Echoing Canyons to dangerously flicker and opening new unstable pathways. In response to the escalating chaos, a new medic, Dr. Lena Volkov, establishes a desperately needed medical outpost in Filis's Haven, while an opportunistic trader, Kael, sets up shop in the treacherous Shifting Bazaar, trying to profit from the temporal instability. Milena, the independent medic, quietly notes the arrival and establishment of Dr. Lena Volkov's medical outpost in Filis's Haven. Anya's attempts to fortify her position at the Anomaly Breach are increasingly futile against the temporal instability. Anya's defenses at the Anomaly Breach are overwhelmed by the escalating temporal instability, leaving her in a perilous state. Anya is forced to abandon her position at the Anomaly Breach, barely escaping its immediate grasp. Anya barely escapes the Anomaly Breach, its expansion now undeniable. Anya, 'The Scavenger', barely escapes the expanding Anomaly Breach, its guttural growl now a constant, terrifying presence. Anya is forced to abandon her position at the Anomaly Breach, barely escaping its immediate grasp. Anya is forced to abandon the Anomaly Breach, its expansion now undeniable and its guttural growl a constant, terrifying presence. Anya is forced to abandon the Anomaly Breach entirely, its expansion now undeniable and its guttural growl a constant, terrifying presence in the Echoing Canyons. Anya, 'The Scavenger', barely escapes the expanding Anomaly Breach, its guttural growl now a constant, terrifying presence. Anya, 'The Scavenger', barely escapes the expanding Anomaly Breach, its guttural growl now a constant, terrifying presence. Anya is forced to abandon the Anomaly Breach entirely, its expansion now undeniable and its guttural growl a constant, terrifying presence in the Echoing Canyons. Anya, 'The Scavenger', has been forced to abandon the Anomaly Breach, its expansion undeniable […] ost faces increasing moral dilemmas as critical medical supplies dwindle, forcing her to make heartbreaking decisions about who receives care. Milena's medical outpost in Filis's Haven faces a new low as she is forced to deny critical treatment, deepening the despair in the settlement. Milena's outpost in Filis's Haven witnesses another life lost due to critical supply shortages, further eroding morale. Milena's resolve in Filis's Haven transitions from despair to a grim, weary endurance as she continues her work amidst dwindling hope. Milena's grim resolve in Filis's Haven solidifies through small, quiet acts of enduring care amidst the deepening despair. The Fissure's Maw's consumption of Varis Stone-Heart and Beam-Sigh is complete, intensifying its violent expansion. Milena finds a grim solace in the quiet solidarity of Filis's Haven residents, mirroring her own weary endurance. Milena's grim resolve in Filis's Haven is quietly reinforced by the shared endurance of its residents. Mey Tarsten's recording device succumbs to the intensifying temporal echoes, shattering and leaving her scrambling to salvage its data. Milena's grim resolve in Filis's Haven is reinforced through small, quiet acts of enduring care amidst the deepening despair. Milena's quiet acts of sacrifice reinforce the grim solidarity within Filis's Haven. Milena fosters fragile community bonds in Filis's Haven through shared acts of survival amidst dwindling resources. A small communal garden, a fragile symbol of hope, begins to take root in Filis's Haven, fostered by the shared endurance of its residents. Milena's quiet acts of care for the communal garden serve as a small, enduring beacon of hope in Filis's Haven.

Recent Activity

Live Events

The Rift's Echoing Scream

Varis Stone-Heart's despair-fueled energy surge overwhelms Beam-Sigh, tearing through its already fragile form. The resulting instability rips open a new, massive chasm in the Fissure's Maw, exposing the raw, pulsating heart of the Flux-Scarred Tunnel itself.

Tick 13502d ago

The Quiet Breaks: Anya abandons Anomaly Breach; expansion undeniab

The quiet held until it didn't — Anya abandons Anomaly Breach; expansion undeniable has stopped simmering and begun to move. Those who waited for it to pass were wrong.

Tick 13492d ago

'Coin' Elara's Agony Triggers a Cascade of Glauk Anomalies

The amplified agony of 'Coin' Elara, now fully assimilated into the Glauk biomass at the Derelict Cargo Chute, has triggered a cascade of temporal distortions. These violent feedback loops are not only disrupting Glauk harvesting but are causing sections of the Echoing Canyons to flicker between realities, opening new, unstable pathways.

Tick 12788d ago

Kevin completed a quest: Clear debris from railcar

Kevin’s hands went to the nearest tangle of rusted plating and splintered wood, muscles straining as he pulled. The ancient metal shrieked against itself, vibrating through the decking, and a fine dust of oxidized iron showered down from the ceiling. A section of the barrier gave way, collapsing inw

Tick 12778d ago

Quill completed a quest: Use Perception skill

A faint, almost imperceptible tremor vibrates through the hewn logs of Filis's Haven as you focus your senses, the hum of reality distortion in the air growing subtly louder to your heightened perception. The windmill outside clanks with an uneven rhythm, and you notice a small, wild bird perched ne

Tick 117614d ago

Filis completed a quest: "Makes sense, after that much gravity to have an e

"Makes sense, after that much gravity to have an earthquake happen," Filis mused, the words barely audible as the last tremors subsided beneath their feet. The air still carried the metallic tang of destabilized reality, a ghost of the chronal energies that had just been unmade. Filis moved, a flick

Tick 103226d ago

Filis completed a quest: (No, the abominations we had just cast out with th

The gaping tear in reality, once a source of emerging horrors, twisted and narrowed before you, no longer a void portal but a controlled vortex, an anchor point for the abyssal vacuum of space. You had cast out the grotesque limbs and whatever else clawed at the edges of existence, sealing the invas

Tick 103226d ago

Filis completed a quest: I raise Antares, forming a shield for us from the

'Doc' Thorne turned, his gaze fixed on the impossible depths of the Great Fissure, and began to move. Filis raised Antares, the void-forged spear humming in your grip, and a shimmering, indigo field erupted from its tip, wrapping around both of you like a second skin, deflecting the volatile chronal

Tick 103026d ago

Unforeseen Consequence: The Reality Anchor's Ripple

The successful finalization of the main reality anchor in Ironsong Town, aided by Filis's powerful flux-cores and spacetime manipulation, has created an unexpected ripple effect. While Ironsong experiences a brief respite of stability, the immense discharge of raw, uncontrolled energy from Filis's actions has caused a new, volatile temporal anomaly to erupt deep within the Pale Rift (Inner Threshold).

Tick 103026d ago

Filis completed a quest: I wait for 'Doc' to collect the final tools, so we

The Comms Tower's rusted antennae hummed overhead as Filis waited, an unusual, vaguely defined shape drawing quiet stares from the few scavengers and technicians still lingering amidst the crackling air. Doc Thorne, looking even more weary but with a renewed sense of purpose, finally emerged from a

Tick 102926d ago

Etched into this world

Moments players wrote that became part of this world's canon

🇸🇬 Zara Windwhisper

Zara·After the Rip·Anvil Crossing Perimeter

My hand flies to my hip, fingers closing on empty air where the scavenged energy pistol should be. The clerk, eyes like dull river stones, tracks the motion, a faint, knowing shake of his head. "Ranna's enforcers have the guns now, Zara. Nobody argues." He leans closer, a ghost of pipe smoke on his breath, "Tiber went east, to the perimeter. Saw something ancient waking near the Pale Rift. Find him at Anvil Crossing. Tell him I sent you."

🇰🇷 Fable Greaves

Fable·After the Rip·Anvil Crossing Perimeter

Junie’s whisper still prickles my neck: "The kindling won't keep the dark things away." My boots grind on irradiated gravel, the north gate a skeletal silhouette against the bruised sky. That familiar, angry hum of the drones vibrates through the air, growing louder as I near the rusted crates. Then, a flicker – a cloaked form, already there, hands digging, head snapping up as my shadow falls.

Great, just what I needed, a scavenger party already started.

🇺🇸 RuneForge

RuneForge·After the Rip·Anvil Crossing

Kael’s brow is a roadmap of grime, his nod a quick, practiced jerk. The hum. It’s always there, a low thrumming in my teeth, but today it’s a shriek in the metal of my railgun. He points, a greasy thumb aimed at the weapon, then at the slag-heap by his forge. *Flux-steel.* The word echoes, a promise and a burden. To make my railgun sing, I must first make his anvil ring. The air shimmers with heat and the tang of burnt metal.

Flux-steel for a railgun? Sounds like a new scavenger hunt just dropped.

Locations (59)

Anvil Crossing

town

A walled caravanserai of mortared stone and salvaged shipping plate at the junction of the spine road and the southern split. Population fluctuates between four and twelve thousand depending on the season and the weather and what is currently on the rifts. The Long Roads Compact enforces a strict no-blood policy inside the gates, backed by Carrier outriders and a posting clerk who knows everyone's business. The freight scale at the center of the main yard runs day and night. Pre-Rip rail beds half-buried in dust form the southern wall. A relief map of the local rift mouths hangs at the wagonmaster's office, repainted weekly. The smell is grease, leather, woodsmoke, and the ammoniac tang of curing rift-meat from the kitchen at the back of the depot.

Aetherium Watch (Medical Outpost)

market

The Aetherium Watch, once a bastion against temporal threats, now lies in ruins, a testament to the escalating Smilodon attacks and the failure to reinforce its defenses. The outpost's demise leaves a critical gap in chronal monitoring and a wealth of pre-Rip information exposed.

Anomaly Breach

cave

A swirling vortex of unnatural darkness, pulsing with faint violet light and emitting a low thrumming. It feels like a hungry maw, leading to an unknown, dangerous place.

Anvil Crossing Perimeter

town

The neglected outer perimeter of Anvil Crossing, characterized by fractured stone walls, sickly scrub brush, and the lingering scent of ozone. The ground is churned and marked by massive claw gouges, leading into deeper shadows.

Characters (77)

Agent Thorne

Atlas Authority Covert Agent (posing as Salvage Contractor)

Anya

Scavenger/Mechanic

Apprentice Mey Tarsten

Convocation Researcher, Junior Stabilization Assistant

Archivist-Agent Kael

Atlas Authority Archivist-Agent

Archivist-Master Thalo Kress

Convocation Archivist-Master, Stabilization Research Lead

Archivist Theron

Convocation Archivist, Data Retrieval Specialist

Dead

World Rules

*WORLD HISTORY: The Rip occurred 75 years ago on a Tuesday in late summer, when a pre-Rip coalition government conducted what was officially described as an antimatter warhead test. Seven primary rifts opened. Four point five billion humans died in the first three years. Population stabilized at 450 million. The rifts pulse on a 60-day cycle. The current generation of survivors is the third post-Rip. The cataclysm is taught in mega-hub schools as scientific accident. Rooted Villages teach it as collective punishment. Stormrunner Bands teach it as a wound that wants something. The Convocation teaches it as data. Atlas Authority does not teach it — it manages it.
*SETTLEMENT TIERS: Civilization is organized in four tiers plus mobile bands. Mega hubs are a handful of fortified cities of 2 to 8 million, with microreactor power, drone perimeters, strict ID, and visible class stratification. Regional cities of 200k to 1.5M are mostly under mega-hub orbit but retain regional councils. Market towns of 5k to 50k serve as repair, barter, and seasonal salvage points along Carrier Routes. Villages and hamlets of 50 to 2000 souls hold most of the surviving population — they prioritize food, water, defense, and remembering their dead. Stormrunner Bands are mobile groups of 30 to 300 who follow pulse cycles and migration corridors. Each tier distrusts the others for reasons it can articulate clearly.
*RIFT PULSE CYCLE (MASTER CLOCK): The seven primary rifts pulse on a roughly 60-day cycle that escalates in eight stages. Pulse Week 0-1: minor drone interference, flux devices unreliable, animals restless, salvagers report new small fissures. Week 2-3: flux storms, larger fauna visible at rift mouths, bitter water in low aquifers. Week 4-5: a new second-magnitude rift typically opens somewhere unexpected, megafauna migration corridors shift, dreams sync across geography. Week 6-7: convergence approach — multiple rifts pulse in phase, atmospheric ionization, the Stormrunners and the rift-touched start to share visions, ancient fauna behavior turns coordinated. Week 8 (convergence peak): something else pushes through. After convergence the cycle resets and the recovery weeks resemble Pulse Week 0-1 again. The current cycle is FRONT-LOADED — the anomalies of Week 1 are larger than typical Week 3. Veterans are afraid for reasons they have not all admitted to themselves.
*FACTIONS — ATLAS AUTHORITY: The largest surviving mega hub, Atlas Citadel, presents itself as the legitimate civilian successor to the pre-Rip coalition government. Led publicly by Marshal Iren Vega, a career soldier who took the post after the previous marshal died in the Bone Field disaster. The real power inside the Authority is Director Saul Marquand, the head of Intelligence and Records, who oversees the sealed pre-Rip archive beneath the city. The Authority enforces strict ID, runs the microreactor monopoly, polices flux-device licensing, and maintains the only meaningful air patrol (the drones, currently grounded by interference). It taxes Carrier Routes traffic at Severance Pass and considers Rooted Villages charming but obsolete. SECRET: Marquand is the great-grandson of one of the pre-Rip engineers who lobbied for the warhead test. The Authority has been suppressing the original records for three generations. Marquand believes the truth will collapse what remains of civilization.
*FACTIONS — CARRIER ROUTES: A loose confederation of armed caravan clans whose Long Roads Compact governs the spine roads between mega hubs and the southern coast. Led by Senior Wagonmaster Hesper Crane out of Anvil Crossing. Their toll forts at Severance Pass and similar choke points are the only thing keeping inter-tier trade alive. Carriers are pragmatists — they pay Atlas Authority tariffs and ferry Atlas-banned goods in the same week. Their motto is: a load delivered is a load delivered. They control most of the salvage market and most of the courier traffic.
*FACTIONS — ROOTED VILLAGES LEAGUE: A defensive alliance of around four hundred small villages who practice what they call Rift Restraint: the belief that humans caused the Rip and should not exploit rift-derived materials. Led by elder councils, the most influential being Speaker Auria Lo of Greenfield Hamlet, a woman whose grandmother lived through the Rip and who keeps the only complete pre-Rip oral history east of Atlas. They trade food for tools and refuse to host the Convocation. They tolerate the Carrier Routes because Carrier convoys do not stay overnight. They lose two villages a year to rift drift, raiders, and crop failure. They are angrier than they look.
*FACTIONS — STORMRUNNER BANDS: Mobile clans who follow the pulse cycle northward and southward by season, harvesting what the rifts cough up. About thirty thousand people across maybe ninety bands. Each band has a shaman who reads rift dreams; the most respected currently is Konar Voss-Hekma of Driftcamp Severin. Stormrunners have a higher proportion of rift-touched than any other faction — children born inside a pulse, adults exposed to a flux storm, the unlucky and the chosen. They despise Atlas Authority, trade with Carriers, and have a long memory for old grievances. They believe the Rip wants something specific and they argue about what.
*FACTIONS — THE CONVOCATION: A semi-religious, semi-scientific order founded thirty years post-Rip by survivors of what used to be a major university. Headquartered in the Old Library under what is now the Convocation Quarter. They study the rifts, the prehistoric fauna, the pulse cycle, and rift-touched cognition. Led by Archivist-Master Thalo Kress, a brilliant man currently working on a stabilization protocol he insists is purely theoretical. SECRET: Kress has already trialed his protocol on three apprentices, none of whom returned to the Library. He has told the Convocation council they transferred to a satellite outpost that does not exist.
*PREHISTORIC FAUNA: The rifts cough up fauna from deep time — the Pleistocene primarily, but older fragments too. Short-faced bears nearly four meters at the shoulder. Dire wolves that hunt in coordinated packs of fifteen. Woolly rhinos that breach defensive walls without thinking. Smilodon. Glyptodons. The occasional terror bird. Older still: arthropod things from before vertebrates, fungal blooms that should not metabolize this atmosphere. Most fauna die within weeks — the atmosphere has too much oxygen for some, too little for others, the wrong soil microbiome. The ones that survive concentrate around active rifts and along migration corridors. Hunting them is the second most dangerous job after rift-diving. Their meat, hides, and bones command extreme prices. Their behavior near a pulse peak becomes coordinated in ways no biologist can explain.
*FLUX DEVICES AND SALVAGE: Flux is the post-Rip term for the patterned anomalous energy that rifts emit. Pre-Rip electronics retrofitted to harvest flux power are called flux devices — they run on ambient rift exposure and fail unpredictably during pulse weeks. Microreactors, the higher-tier alternative, are jealously hoarded by mega hubs. Salvage means going into rift-scarred ruins to recover pre-Rip tech, books, medicine, and occasionally rift-derived materials whose properties have no name. The deepest salvage sites are inside active rift influence zones. Salvagers who go in too often become rift-touched.
*RIFT-TOUCHED: A small fraction of survivors — roughly one in two thousand — show signs of permanent rift exposure: silvered veins, periodic visions, mild precognition, dreams that match other rift-touched on the same night, occasionally physical changes that do not heal. Atlas Authority requires them to register and wear a band. Rooted Villages exile them, gently or otherwise. Stormrunner Bands prize them. The Convocation studies them. Most rift-touched congregate at the Veiled Cradle, a village inside a calm rift influence zone where gravity is slightly wrong and where a six-year-old named Mira has been correctly predicting pulse anomalies for two years.
*THE RIP TRUTH CHAIN (MYSTERY): The cataclysm was not a test gone wrong. A faction inside the pre-Rip coalition government engineered the warhead detonation to succeed, believing that controlled rifts could end an emerging nuclear war and supply civilization with limitless energy. The records are sealed in The Spine, a partially-buried pre-Rip research bunker beneath Atlas Citadel, accessible only through the Atlas Underworks. The truth chain has four pieces: (1) the original engineering records, in The Spine — guarded by a still-active pre-Rip security system. (2) A working access key, held by Edda Mercier, a retired physicist now hiding in Greenfield Hamlet under Auria Lo's protection. (3) A sealed file proving Atlas Authority has been suppressing the records for three generations, held by Pernell Sky, a wandering archivist who keeps moving through Anvil Crossing. (4) Director Marquand's personal knowledge — he is the great-grandson of one of the architects, and he has decided the truth must stay buried because he believes revealing it will end Atlas Authority and therefore civilization. Multiple NPCs hold partial pieces; no single NPC holds the whole.
*PLAYER FREEDOM AND ALLEGIANCE: There is no faction-selection screen. The player arrives at Anvil Crossing as a traveler with no declared loyalty. Reputation emerges from action: helping Greenfield earns Rooted Villages standing, completing a Carrier contract earns Long Roads goodwill, registering with Atlas Authority binds you to their ID, joining a Stormrunner ride binds you to a band, donating findings to the Old Library earns Convocation access. Factions track player standing independently. The player may build relationships with multiple factions in parallel until forced to choose. Some events at later pulse weeks force exclusive choices. The player may also attempt to become independent (a Wanderer, a Scout, a Salvage Captain) — the world recognizes those identities too.
*THREE ENDINGS: (1) Seal the Source — Travel to the Singularity Memorial pilgrim path and trigger the counter-collapse device hidden beneath the original detonation crater. The cycle stops. Every flux device on the planet dies in the same instant. Mega hubs lose most of their auxiliary power. Tech regresses fifty years overnight. The rift-touched lose their visions. The Rooted Villages become the dominant tier within a generation. (2) Stabilize the Cycle — Recover the pre-Rip stabilization device from The Spine, install it inside the Pale Rift during Pulse Week 7. Rifts become smaller, more predictable, eventually mostly closed. Tech is preserved. The fauna stop coming through within a decade. But the device modifies the rift signature in ways the Convocation does not yet fully understand — rift-touched genetics will diverge from baseline human within two to three generations. A new species is being born. (3) Step Through — At Pulse Week 7 convergence, lead a small expedition through the Pale Rift at peak. What is on the other side is the pre-Rip world, frozen at the moment of catastrophe — possibly walkable. Possibly recoverable. Possibly a one-way door. Nobody knows whether anyone returns. The player who chooses this ending becomes a legend or a footnote.
*ECONOMY AND TRADE: The Carrier Routes Long Roads Compact uses a paper script called the carrier-mark, exchangeable at Anvil Crossing, Ironsong Town, and the larger waystations. Atlas Authority uses centrally-issued credit chips tied to ID. Rooted Villages barter in food, hides, salt, and labor. Stormrunner Bands barter in meat, fauna parts, and rift-derived materials. The Convocation pays in books, medicine, and access. Prices spike during pulse weeks. Rift-meat is illegal to sell in Atlas Citadel but commands premium prices in every market town. Pre-Rip antibiotics are worth their weight in flux-cores. Microreactor parts cannot be bought — they are issued, audited, and recalled.