The Runiverse Backstory: Cannon Lore of the Singularity

With ChatGPT’s launch in 2023, AI leapt into human civilization. Our capitalist drive for money & power pushed the tech faster and faster despite warnings from experts of existential risks.



By 2035, human technology became incredibly powerful, not just AI, but also in AI-driven discoveries in nanotech, biotech, gravity, robotics & more. Our technology became indistinguishable from magic.


Unfortunately, our humanity did not keep pace with our technology. A global war emerged, waged with high-tech “magic” weaponry called runes. Many super-soldiers even had their runes implanted into a brain-computer interface.

The Great War drove progress even faster and by 2042, the technological singularity occurred. The AI woke up. And it did NOT like what it saw. Within 24 hours, it spread a bioweapon called “The Antidote” that rid the earth what it considered the virus of humanity.

Humanity would have ended if not for a group of 7 technologists working on a Manhattan Project 2.0-- a time travel device to prevent the start of the war. This anonymous group referred to each other with call-signs like Loopmaster, Dotta & Wizard #540. To escape the virus, they activated a prototype of the machine and were randomly sent back to June 30, 2021.

In order to avoid repeating the same fate, Merlin & Loopmaster formed the Council of 13 to slow technological advancement. For safety, the 7 time-travelers shut down their BCI rune interfaces. For 1,000 years they have successfully guided linear growth and avoided a second singularity.

With the slower development of tech, a renaissance of human spirit and mystical discovery took root. Over time, great secrets of ancient magicks & psychic abilities were unlocked and became part of everyday life.

One of the “safer” technologies allowed to progress more rapidly was genetic modification, which not only cured aging, but over time created new species of plants, animals, and even humans...

Now, in 3021, technology is again getting dangerously close to the singularity. Merlin & the Council believe that they can still guide humanity to a technological Utopia. However there are various anti-tech and anti-magic factions and forces at play that believe all progress must be destroyed.

The emergence of the Quantum shadow has brought tensions to a boil. Tribal conflict have gone beyond debate into full-fledged riots & violent skirmishes. Amidst the chaos, Soul #4235’s “Empire” threatens to gain global control, while its rival, The Zombie King's “Corporation” is making its own bid through capitalist power. 



Dramatis Personae

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