[Torg] After The Post-Scarcity Apocalypse (The GodNet and The Grid: 2 of 7)

[Jasyn Jones]

Tharkold

In 2007, when I was last active on the List, I posted part of my re-design of Tharkold. I'm going to be using a version of this for my campaign.

Summary:

Tharkold was an Earth-alternate. 500 years ago, the Spasm began. It was a mystical apocalypse: the dead walked the earth, horrors escaped from the unseen world, and demonic spirits, the ancestors of the Tharkoldu, first manifested. Shortly after this, there was a conflagration that destroyed the world. This reduced mankind's civilization to ruins, destroyed his cities, and polluted the land.

Nearly all knowledge from the world before has been lost. Neither humans nor demons can recreate the devices of the past. Were it not for the wonders of the world before, they undoubtedly would have descended into savagery.

The World Before

Tharkold, before the Spasm, was a post-scarcity (or nearly post-scarcity) world. Not only did they have powerful technology, but their technological devices were married to magics.

They had recyclers based on alteration magic, that could recycle with 100% efficiency. They had fabricators that could replicate nearly anything, given raw materials, any raw materials. There was no shortages of food, clothing, shelter, anything. Whatever was needed, could be fabbed. (The sole exception were the raw components of technomagics: fabbers couldn't replicate technomagical devices, only mundane items.)

Worldwide, human civilization was a leisure society. With guaranteed essentials, mankind could turn to entertainment en masse. Technical abilities and technomagical abilites were rare. For society to survive, they had to build a series of idiot-proof devices that could recycle and replicate as needed.

After the Spasm, people have survived only because they have access to fabbers. If a gun is wrecked, it can be recycled into a new one (or anything else). Dead bodies, rubble, worn clothing, human waste- all can be recycled into new devices. The only reason Tharkoldans can make high Tech gear, is because the fabbers make it possible.

Fabbers depend on programs to run: hardcoded ROM's with information on how to make something. These ROM's are technomagical in nature, and thus cannot be replicated. This makes new ROM's objects of high value. If your fabber can replicate food, but can only replicate steak tartare with caviar and champagne, you can survive but your diet is monotonous.

As a leisure society, most ROM's were programmed for party clothes, fancy dinners, or toys. (Many nomads wear whatever clothing they can replicate, no matter how ridiculous it is.) Very few were programmed for survival gear or weapons. These ROM's are rare and highly prized. Scavengers who locate one can buy their way into whatever sanctuary they wish, and never have to work for the rest of their lives.

Like the rest of Tharkold's devices, the Grid is a post-scarcity, technomagical computer network. It could do things that were flatly impossible. It was also the template for the GodNet.

Jasyn Jones
jasynj (at) gmail (dot) com

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Ulysses, Alfred Lord Tennyson

Check out my Torg webpage, Storm Knights:
darleyconsulting.com/games/stormknights/