By 3024, Earth has drastically changed due to extreme climate change, leading to the rise of the Svorans, a technologically advanced sub-species. Their emergence has caused ongoing tensions with humans, who have retreated to fortified, semi-underground shelters, the Midwestern Bunkers, to escape relentless storms and flooding worsened by Lake Michigan.
These storms have destroyed much of Chicago's surface, making it a desolate expanse with few surface buildings, frequent power outages, crop failures, and economic collapse. Social life is confined indoors, travel is minimal, and isolation is widespread. Those without access to secure environments suffer the most severe effects of the climate crisis.
INTERMARK is a resource access system using stamped approvals for essential resources like Shelter, Food, First Aid, and more, divided into categories of Basic Needs, Health and Safety, and Tools and Technology.
Created by CLINE for the Midwestern Bunkers, it utilizes special validating ink and a waterproof material that adheres to skin, designed to withstand harsh conditions. These slips, which indicate resource allotments and validate authenticity, fade after a week and must be re-stamped and reapplied, with each transaction noted on the slip.
Factions are groups that grant individuals access to more abundant resources. Signing with a faction means you must contribute significantly to the group. In exchange, you gain relatively unlimited access to the eight resources. Members of a faction must have the faction’s emblem tattooed on their body in some form.
