In the 2200s, authoritarianism was rising across the globe, rich corporate overlords dictated much of humanity’s future, and the world was sicker for it. As the scarred Earth burned, rather than trying to right their wrongs the oligarchs sought a new world, a clean slate that they could shape to their will. A habitable planet was found, but its distance was great. They gathered humanity’s greatest minds from across the globe, spinning the project as one of unity and peace between humanity.
A rush was made to reach the new world, but the final gateway was built with a glitch. When the teleportation gateway activated and the first colony ships were sent through this simple glitch forever altered our reality. Strange, colorful storms swept across the globe that altered magnetic fields and caused power surges. This disrupted wireless communication and overloaded many electronics, but the storms also brought with them other anomalies.
Psychics awakened, the dead rose as ghosts, and apparitions appearing as spirits, demons and gods from legend were witnessed across the world. All beliefs were questioned and reinterpreted. New cults appeared, and psychically powered rebels tried to overthrow their authoritarian regimes. Among all this conflict humanity was invaded by an outside force, the Interlopers.
The Interlopers were psychic beings from another dimension. They had been drawn to our world by its growing psychic energy. An army of monsters spilled from their portals. They came in every shape and size, through psychic power able to sculpt themselves and their servants to their desire or purpose. They were led by eldritch beings known as the Idols, beings whose forms defied reality. They came seeking psychics to add to their ranks, hoping to find the key to reaching a Realm of Creation. They tried to seduce and persuade Earth’s psychics with riches, beauty, power, or simply purpose. Those psychically weak, the unawakened, were melded into their amalgamations, minds and bodies enslaved to their will.
To survive, humanity took off their safeguards upon artificial intelligence and created an organization of psychics known as the Esper League. Through a melding of psychics and technology they defeated the threat. The Interloper defeat was triggered when one of their Idols was killed, a disciple of the Maw.
Some fled back through their portals, but many of their forces were left stranded.
50 years after the Invasion of the Interlopers, a fragile peace lies upon the world. Many of Earth’s major cities were left in ruins due to lingering alien infestations, while others were hastily reclaimed. Some habitations have become completely cut off from the rest of civilization. The Esper League, a international organization of espers, retained its emergency powers and dictates the lives of psychics across most of the civilized world. Rogue AI created during the Invasion of the Interlopers hide within the shadows, gathering a cult of haunted machines known as the Cryptographers of Logos. Doomsday cults such as the Christian cult of Heaven’s Shield gather members as they prepare to face the return of the Interlopers, while the cult of the Heralds of the Third Epoch scheme to hasten their return.