World History...

Darkness is set in the far far future of a world not unlike our own. Much of history before the Fall has been forgotten, in fact forgotten on purpose. The Fall is thought to be the last Great War. Life managed to continue regardless of its attempts to irradicate itself. What knowledge survived, survived only in the great underground cities hidden from the poisoned world.

 Man hid from the destruction he had caused, he dug great holes and created vast underground cities to escape the devastation of the world above. Many more years past, man expand these underground worlds making them bigger, digging deeper, building under, on top of, next to, inside any where just to cope with the overcrowding. After many centuries the planet healed, some people realised this and left the great cities, others clung to the safety of the Cities, others were not allowed to leave. After more centuries, the ruling forces lost their hold on more of the populace and more people left the cities.

Inevitably the leaders of great cities fell to their own decadence losing face and their control over population and disease, dangerous housing, ghettos, lead to revolts and revolutions. Each major city at some stage or in some form became unstable, free thinkers were exiled or pushed out of the Cities Core. The Core of each city became like a technological nirvana. Advances in medicine and technology extended and made easy the lives of the rich. These technologies are doled out to the rest of the city at exorbitant prices, this keeps the rich very comfortable indeed. The city around the core financially supports the core.

Outside the Cities, little shanty towns came into being living off the rubbish that was discarded. A good scavenger can come up with nearly any technology though broken and a couple of years old ....nothing a bit of patience couldn't fix. These shanty towns are indirectly protected by the UnderCities mere presence and the Cities get much of their raw materials from the inhabitants of the shanty town who scavenge and trade.

Not all of the UnderCities are like that however. Some have fallen from grace. Some fell into disrepair and are technically only a shanty town , thus of no great financial value. All the UnderCities had a central computer. These computers being built before the Fall were the most complex devices every manufactured. They were entrusted to look after Man and to protect them from themselves, keeping them underground away form the surface and also shielding them from the terrible technologies that had cost them all their planet. This meant that the great technologies were lost and so too was the knowledge of how to repair the Computers and the UnderCity's essential systems. Coordinating a city as complex and massive as a Undercity is not an easy task, much of the techniques that make such a large project viable utilise technology from before the Fall but to 'protect man from himself' these devices are controlled directly from the Computer. So should a City lose its Computer the rest of the City would soon follow. Still some of the Undercities are lost from the outside world. All the UnderCities were originally named numerically consecutive, but not all of them have been accounted for. And some are only spoken of with hushed voices, one such place is Sixteen.

Each of the Cities has its own Government and policies they do not function together but rather bicker with each other like spoilt children.

Far away from the UnderCities and the shanty towns exists a life lost in the dark ages. Most of the planet is made up of this. Self appointed barons and kings Rule the lands and life is simple. Out there magic is the only technology needed. In some areas technology is so shunned that its use is punishable by death for it is believed to bring forth demons....This may be only folklore but there are demons.

Those that had left long ago had embraced a simpler life, they had little choice, the governments refused to let any technology leave the UnderCities lest it fall into the hands of outsiders who would then destroy the UnderCities. This simpler life led to a new Dark Age. The common people through the generations have forgotten of technology, this ignorance turns to fear thus sustaining the Dark Age. The Government outside the cities turned feudal. Sustaining this Dark Age being in the interest of the kings and lords laws were passed prohibiting the technological evil. Magic on the other hand, magic thrives in areas where science has not destroyed peoples beliefs.

There are areas that refuse to be tamed. They are populated with the twisted, the violent, the wild and other strangeness, they have been named DemonGround. Few are crazy or brave enough to travel the Demongrounds. But there are those who "Run the Gauntlet" transporting goods and the like between the UnderCities in fast cars cobbled together from the refuse of the Undercities. These 'Runners' are about the only contact some of the more isolated UnderCities have with the outside world being cut off by vast areas of Demonground. Along the roads that lead into the demongrounds 'wild west' frontier style towns have emerged to service the Runners giving them places to rest and gather the nerve for their next run.

Many races populated the earth before the Fall and even more have arisen since. Humans being by far the most dominant within the UnderCities and still dominant outside but there are others, Dwarves, Elves etc.

Where do the player's fit in...

Some games are set in the feudal areas dipping into the demongrounds or maybe the shanty towns, characters may not even be aware that an UnderCity exists as to some they are little more than a rumour.

Other Games could be set entirely within an UnderCity. Some Undercities have never been found the general populace convinced that the outside world is still toxic and deadly. The character hearing rumours of the outside and wanting a better life.

Players could take the role of runners transporting/smuggling between the UnderCities, or bounty hunters tracking down criminals that have escaped the Undercity legal system for the freedom of the 'olde world' or even them selves escaping an undercity.

The Players could be scavengers, traveling the Demongrounds searching for valuables lost by victims of the demongrounds or raiding the 'Runners' or discovering lost caches of pre-Fall technology.

In fact each one of the players could come from each of the above backgrounds.

Inspiration....
the core of the undercities are similar the world portrayed in the movie 'Gataca' or other deep future 'utopias'.
the shanty towns and the UnderCities think the movie 'hardware' or ' mad max-(aka Roadwarrior)' or 'judge dread'
the demongrounds, the tamer areas think mad max 2 or 3, judge dread with the worst areas reflecting hell.
the other areas, the dark ages or the wild west depending on the technology available and the local rulers

Timeline, Dates of Major World Events.

System Overview : if you want to get an idea of the game mechanics.

Races : for a quick overview of the non-human races.