Lore Copendium 1 - The Megawarrens

Inception: In the year 51348AD, Nehr, later known as Emperor Schorl, gained ancient human knowledge from a damaged Neural Flare in North America. After returning to the rat capital located in France, he began the process of reforming the relatively crude city into a vastly more productive and advanced one. Utilising the nanotechnology and virtually unlimited energy of the Twilight Shroud, he created self-replicating factories that produced domestic infrastructure, machines for construction and war, food, clothing, water and a digital communication network. Based initially around the Twilight Shroud pylon in Paris, it took only one month for the factories and their products to absorb and replace the original city and the surrounding landscape to a radius of one hundred kilometres. At a distance further than this from the pylon, power transfer became inefficient, effectively limiting the size of the city. This colossal, cramped conglomeration of copy/pasted buildings had such incredible sustainability and defence potential that its population quickly grew from sixty thousand to over one million, and in late 51348, it was instrumental in ending the civil war that had been raging for the previous forty-nine years. At this time, it became known as the Megawarren.

With the rats once again in control of the world and using the (now renamed) Megawarren 1 as a template, each of the other forty-seven land-situated Twilight Shroud pylons (thirty-two occupy oceanic locations) were similarly seeded with Schorl’s self-sustaining and replicating factories. The number given to each megawarren corresponds to the previously assigned pylon number. Megawarren structures are dominantly constructed from carbon fibre synthesised from airborne carbon dioxide and imported or local plant matter. The material required to create metal or quartz-based elements are mined from deposits that were once human cities.

Most animals in the war-torn nations of the northern hemisphere welcomed the modernisation of their crumbling cities, desperation superseding any remorse at the loss of their unique architecture and culture. With almost all animals moving in from rural areas to the megawarrens, they effectively became the sole platform of civilisation in the northern hemisphere for the next forty-three years.

Life in the megawarrens: The average population of a megawarren is 1.6 billion, with over 85% of this number being made up of rats. The remaining 15% comprises a mix of weasels, stoats, gerbils, hamsters, hedgehogs, chipmunks, groundhogs, mice, shrews, moles, pine martens, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, beavers, otters, skunks, ferrets, bears, and the occasional animal from the southern hemisphere. The populations of megawarrens universally segregate into single-species dominated sectors, but this is a social phenomenon, not a legal one, and there is nothing stopping an animal living anywhere they wish.

Rats are higher in social status than the other species,’ which all exist at an equal lower level; the submission signal sent down by the shroud that prevents other species from harming rats enforces this. Domestic structure is slightly different for each species, but in general, a family unit consists of two parents, or a polyamorous enclave of several adults, and between one and forty children.

Due to their relatively short lifespans, rats and other small creatures narrowly focus their education, becoming proficient in one skill at the cost of everything else. Larger creatures have the time to learn more, but due to the rapid pace of megawarren life dictated by the dominant rats, longer-lived creatures still learn relatively little and merely spend more time in their chosen profession. Working life begins at age fifteen months, and the types of occupation on offer are like those in modern human society, with a heavier lean toward factory overseer and technician, and careers in the sciences.

Food is synthesised from waste products, ground water, and dredged nutrients, in enormous vats and 3D printed into a variety of forms, many reminiscent of human foods due to their creator’s human knowledge. Food is mainly tailored to suit omnivorous diets, making carnivorous animals relatively rare and herbivores even more so.

Very little is exported from megawarrens besides farming machinery and labour, while they import vegetation cultivated (with difficulty) in the vast empty spaces between the cities, and raw building materials.

Due to their reliance on solar power and waste recycling, megawarrens suffer from minimal pollution, with air, streets and buildings being cleaner than those of any comparable city type to come before or after.

Long-distance transport between locations in megawarrens is achieved aerially via stryder or stryder cranial unit. However, due to the compact and repeating nature of the cities, most creatures spend their entire lives in a relatively small area. Short-distance travel utilises the complex network of gravity-assisted external tunnels that connect all structures in a megawarren, with a creature’s suit computer defining and enacting navigation paths. This is one reason why a power suit, or at least a wrist computer, is always worn by a resident.

Culture and pop culture in the megawarrens is largely represented digitally, with animals rarely decorating their homes or owning physical possessions. This is due to the destruction of all previous northern hemisphere settlements during and after the Rat Empire civil war, and the loss of Emperor Schorl’s ability to invent new factory types after his flare knowledge faded. Digital movies (with significant reliance on computer-generated effects), computer games, highly varied and species-specialised music, virtual concerts and other events, holographic board games and sports, and short-distance travel comprise most of a megawarren’s cultural activity.

The locations of the megawarrens, using 21st century cities as a guide, are as follows:

1 – Paris, 2 – Dublin, 3 – Stockholm, 4 – Reykjavik, 5 – Jerusalem,  6 – Rome (First pylon to be destroyed), 7 – Casablanca, 8 – Kazan, 9 – Omsk, 10 – Irkutsk, 11 – Vladivostok, 12 – Tokyo, 23 – Taipei, 24 – Bangkok, 25 – Kathmandu, 26 – Kabul, 27 - Tripoli, 28 – Oslo, 29 – Murmansk, 30 – Nar’yan, 31 – Noril’sk, 32 – Tiksi, 33 – Anadyr, 44 – New York, 45 – Virginia Beach, 46 – Charlotte, 47 – Savannah, 48 – Orlando, 49 – Nashville, 50 – Dallas, 51 – Wichita, 52 – Chicago, 53 – Rapid City, 54 – San Antonio, 55 – Omaha, 56 – El Paso, 57 – Albuquerque, 58 – Colorado, 59 – Casper, 60 -  Great Falls, 61 – Calgary, 62 – Washington, 63 – Las Vegas, 64 – Juneau, 65 – Anchorage, 68 – Nuuk, 70 - Inuvik, 75 – Resolute.

In 51390AD, the Twilight Shroud was destroyed, depriving the megawarrens of the power they required to function. During the strife that followed, known as Shroudfall, 94% of megawarren citizens perished due to conflict or starvation, with vast stretches of the cities lying abandoned, derelict and powerless for the following seven years.

In 51397AD, with the Twilight Shroud restored, a megawarren revival seems inevitable.