[i]This is a game about an ecosystem. Long ago there was an ancient people who had dangerous ways of creating great amounts of power. Faced with catastrophe when great quakes ruined these devices, which poisoned anything sent to fix them, they used their craft to create great beasts that could survive the poison and clean for them. This was the cause of the second catastrophe. Now, nothing remains of the ancients. But a thousand years later, the land they once held has become a new world.[/i]

[b]Musings, speculations, and data analysis (sparse) regarding the ecology and economy of the world, as recorded by San Jose Dome maintenance function AI431338 (“Ailee”)[/b]

[hider=Early history and economic development version 2.3.1]
The major quake on the Hayward fault and subsequent nuclear disaster caused by the ill-considered location of nuclear power for early AI processing on top of the fault represented a…seismic moment in global technology. The cleanup required major advances in the breeding of genetically modified creatures in order to address a uniquely terrible disaster that, at least initially, killed anyone who entered and ruined any mechanical equipment sent into it (from a human perspective: computer processors with adequate radiation shielding continued to function, but all equipment was irradiated, making it impossible to perform maintenance or retrieve for subsequent use, hence “ruined” from the perspective of its creators). Hence the creation of autonomous living creatures that could survive in and modify the environment. These colossi were created at the height of technology but also represented a necessary technology shift for the planet.

Based on subsequently obtained data from interactions with renewed human settlement and analysis of human equipment or lack thereof, it is clear that the Hayward fault quake represented not merely a singular incident but a crowning conclusion that human beings were incapable of observing the necessary safety protocols over an extended period of time required to render the use of nuclear energy safe. Combined with the exhaustion of fossil fuels and the genetic breakthroughs in animal breeding, there appears to have been a global shift to heavy physical labor being done by beasts of burden in all possible circumstances, primarily agriculture, mining, transportation, and trade of bulk goods. The reduction in manufacturing of heavy industry goods allowed the remaining manufacturing of high technology and small consumer goods to, by and large, convert to solar and wind power, resulting in what appears to be a decidedly mixed consumer economy in which substantial parts of the population combine animal husbandry at unprecedented scale with sophisticated computing and what could be termed post-modern military small arms. Clothing likewise remains mixed: the processing of industrial cotton appears to remain common, but decoration and supplementation are more heavily based on animal products than industrially produced artificial materials as compared to the baseline reference imagery.  

Based on the timing, ethnic and linguistic characteristics, and population size of settlement, it is further posited that the technological shift to animal husbandry of titanic and newly created creatures happened unevenly around the globe, resulting in significant realignment of global wealth relative to the 21st century. 

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[hider=Speculations on population demographics and settlement waves subsequent to disastrous population decline version 1.2.0]
After the disaster, essentially no local humans had survived. The combination of complete local infrastructure collapse and nuclear radiation functionally killed everyone who had not immediately escaped beyond the periphery. A small number of autonomous facilities had equipment with adequate redundancy to survive irradiation, but this only furthered the external confirmation that no human survivors remained as these facilities did not report any operator activity via satellite in the days and weeks following the quakes. This led to the genetic engineering focus on creating creatures that could survive in the irradiated zones to clean it for habitation. And in turn led to three waves of migration to the region.

[u][b]First wave[/b][/u]
Despite the severe irradiation, some people returned to the area surreptitiously after a few decades had passed and the radiation had gone from “kills you in five minutes” to “highly increases the chance that you’ll get cancer in the next twenty years.” Many of these people did not make successful settlements, and their early interactions with the vast creatures and mutated local wildlife that had only just begun their work led to even further casualty rates as the creatures had not been built with instincts or training to protect humans. 

Nevertheless, some of these settlements succeeded, particularly in the rich cave networks opened by the quake, which had greater protection from radiation and whose designation as the resource base to eventually justify resettlement provided both the lure to bring people in despite the risk and a relatively safe zone from the most dangerous aspects of the colossi. 

These cave settlements remained small and surreptitious, trading primarily through smuggling and black market channels and never officially being acknowledged by any external powers.

[b][u]Second wave[/u][/b]
The complete exhaustion of fossil fuels a century after the quakes meant that resettlement of a highly dangerous and expensive area in any sort of formal way was simply off the table entirely. Moreover, Zi’aru had evolved by this point to begin active predation on anything entering the mountains by land, making the entire region functionally inaccessible. As such, the second wave settlers did not properly arrive until nearly two hundred years after the disaster, coming over the sea via a combination of wind and solar power.

They treated the area as unsettled by this point, there having been no international record of any settlement in the region for over two centuries and the territory treated as abandoned and inhospitable. They nevertheless managed a string of roving coastal settlements designed around moving in the long tail of land tilled by Sandrea to harvest the naturally occurring food and other resources. They did not meet the cavern dwellers for quite some time and found the handful of autonomous facilities functionally inaccessible as they lacked the proper credentials for access and most metal access systems had rusted from the sea salt to the point of complete breakdown in any case.  

They were surprised to meet the cave miners, but not unhappily so, as they were able to provide local food support while the roving settlement structure was established as well as provide some stable infrastructure such as mills and forges in exchange for trade and services from the sea settlers (whose numbers were ultimately much higher than the cave miners). 

The second wave settlers were the ones who dubbed the region Beyari and came up with the modern names for the Colossi based on information from interactions with autonomous computer systems that still functioned to provide basic regional information.

[b][u]Third wave[/u][/b]
The first and second wave settlements maintained a tentative harmony with the colossi and the natural world. However, some further centuries later, technique and technology advanced to the point that some parties were able to ward off and slip past Zi’aru, leading to new groups entering over the mountains. These third wave newcomers as known as marauders to the others, as their early arrivals have been focused not on friendly trade, but on theft, resource extraction, and clearcutting (to the extent they can manage: early deforestation efforts led to an assault by Sandrea, and subsequent work has shifted to smaller scale hunting and clearing to avoid antagonizing the giant titan for the time being). 

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[hider=Descriptions and Legends of the Colossi version 6.1.3.draft]
[u][b]Dialo, the molten:[/b][/u]
Dialo is the eldest of the great beasts. When the cataclysmic earthquakes changed the landscape and ruined the ancient energy, Dialo is the creature that was created to make the space safe. A digging beast, it sank the broken core deep into the ground, beneath the great earthquake valleys that had sprung into existence. Designed to produce scales of ceramic and titanium, it fed off the energy of the ancient core, growing and tunneling. It spreads heat and melts rock, boring caverns beneath the earth. At some point long after its creators were gone, it dug deep enough to reach the supervolcano beneath the earth and claimed that as its new home. 

[u]Its lands[/u]
Its tunnels, fed by its heat, are full of scavenger beasts with hardened hides that eat and smooth the enriched rock left behind by Dialo. In their wake, some hardened carnivores, mostly smaller flame drakes, hunt the tunnels for the scavengers, and they in turn form Dialo’s favorite meal. 

The intensity of the heat and esoteric energy that Diao produces leaves few plants or grazers in these deep tunnels. But there are some hardy mushrooms that have learned to grow in the heat and in turn some of the scavengers have begun to adapt to the mushrooms, eating them but also carrying their spores, leading to highly poisonous or paralyzing variants. 


[u][b]Waln’t, the refiner:[/b][/u]
Waln’t is not especially large for a colossus (though still the size of a moderately-sized plane), but it is swift and agile. It was originally designed to produce the sort of valuable materials necessary to attract a returning population. Its movement process and internal functioning is highly magnetic, creating electrical currents that run through high energy rock, functioning as a heating and refining instrument that produces easily mined valuable metals. It has since evolved beyond simply moving through the underground space and hunts using electrical currents for tracking and signaling.

[u]Its lands[/u]
The subsurface tunnels, being both sheltered from the weather and full of useful materials, have also become key locations for returning human habitation. Where the spaces open to the surface, the sun merges with the lingering energy to produce bountiful fields. Some grow crops and orchards, others are grazed. 

In the darker tunnels are vivid mushrooms and mosses full of spice. It is easy for small settlements to arise near a major field, harvesting and hunting, while doing their best to protect themselves from carnivores that roam through. They worship Waln’t as a deity. A god of storms and a protector, albeit a mercurial one at best. 


[u][b]Sandrea, the verdant[/b][/u]
At the surface are the vast forests of Sandrea. Sandrea is the largest of the colossi, a dragon larger than any of the ruined towers of the ancient civilization. It has no wings, but huge legs and a long neck with a crested head. It walks the land, its feet tilling the soil and its back spreading seeds. It is an island unto itself, it’s coming easy to spot. It was created originally to make the land habitable for people after the quakes. Its wake flattens the land and its myriad cast offs plant it, making it ripe to inhabit. Over the passage of time, however, the seeds of Sandrea have matured and then mutated so that in the modern era it creates rampant growth in its passing, creating vast forests that have grown over the flattened ruins of what were once great cities. 

[u]Its lands[/u]
Sandrea’s existence makes permanent surface settlement perilous, and it is the most responsible of the colossi for wiping out the remains of the prior civilization. Though there are scattered ruins and overgrown campuses that it has always avoided in its direct path due to some sort of historical programming, which have become basecamps for settlers where available, or may contain sealed relics of the past where they have been preserved.

Sandrea is nearly always followed by a huge menagerie because of the abundance it creates as it moves. Creatures nest upon it directly and scavengers eat the plantlife that grows as its passes. Predators that prey upon both follow it closely and there are people who migrate in this rich space, breaking off to trade with underground settlements from time to time. 

The forest itself is huge and rampant. Fed by soil enhanced with esoteric elements and refined metal. Though parts of it are regularly destroyed by Sandrea, they grow back even more quickly, fueling a lush ecosystem that feeds on its own past generations. The forest has the most diverse species. People live in the forest using mobile camps, and its apex predators are the great cats who ambush anything from the canopy. 


[u][b]Zi’aru the frigid[/b][/u]
At the edges of the forest, marking the boundary of destruction are the great mountains ruled by Zi’aru. The winged dragon of ice, Zi’aru rests in the highest peaks. Zi’aru was originally created as a guardian beast to ensure that the efforts of the restoration were not disrupted by the greedy or rapacious. But being most separated from the ancient energy, Zi’aru eventually mutated to harvest energy itself, often preying on the forest from its mountain home. Its scales have taken on the nature of rock and have grown tight and strong against wind and rain. Smoothed over time to a mirror sheen that lets it blend with the sky. Zi’aru absorbs energy from its environment, causing blizzards and cold fronts in the process. But this also checks anything from the forest growing overly rampant, and has lended the mountains their role as a barrier to the land. 

[u]It’s lands[/u]
Few other creatures live in the mountains of Zi’aru compared to the lush forests or the rich tunnels. Those that do are the most hardy and determined. Trees whose roots crush the rocks and free the soil. Strong grasses that need little more than wind and water. Herds of powerful mountain goats that climb like they walk on flat ground. Huge wolves prowl the lower slopes, warmed by their great pelts and the vestiges of the energy of the ancient peoples running to this very edge of their land through the ground beneath them. 

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