THRACKNova Eden
Nova Eden was once a thriving human colony, linked to Earth by enormous Colony Ships carrying settlers, equipment and supplies.
Then the ships stopped coming.
Generations later, the colony has fractured into settlements, factions and warbands fighting over what remains.
Nova Eden was founded as a major human colony, chosen for its mineral wealth, fertile land and relatively stable climate. Millions of settlers arrived over several generations, and isolated landing sites gradually grew into towns, industrial centres and eventually cities.
Mining, manufacturing and freight became the backbone of the colony. Highways and maglev lines linked sprawling industrial districts, while the earliest modular settlements developed into the Stacks: dense neighbourhoods built up and around the original colony infrastructure.
Artificial intelligence and automation became part of everyday life. Machines managed transport networks, factories and logistics, while droids worked in mines, hospitals, homes and construction crews.
Every few years, a Colony Ship arrived from Earth carrying new settlers, specialist equipment, replacement technology and news from home. The colony could support itself, but those ships remained an important connection to the rest of humanity.
By the time that connection failed, Nova Eden had become dependent on systems it could maintain, but not always replace.
The Colony Ships stopped coming.
At first, nobody knew why. Delays had happened before, and most people assumed the next ship would arrive eventually with an explanation.
Weeks became months.
Months became years.
The skies remained empty.
Messages were sent back towards Earth, but no reply came. Governments and corporations on Nova Eden issued reassurances, but they had no more information than anyone else.
For a while, life carried on much as it had before. Factories kept running, crops were harvested, freight moved between cities and people went to work.
But the colony had been built around a connection that was suddenly gone.
Specialist equipment became harder to replace. Some technologies could be repaired locally, while others depended on components or expertise that no longer existed on Nova Eden. Projects were delayed, then abandoned. Parts were stripped from one system to keep another running.
People waited for the ships to return.
They never did.
The Collapse happened gradually. One system failed, then another, and each crisis made the next harder to contain.
Without regular contact with Earth, governments and corporations became increasingly protective of what they controlled. Supply shortages turned into disputes over resources, transport routes and industrial capacity. Settlements that had once depended on one another began looking after themselves first.
At the same time, Nova Eden was still trying to solve problems with the technologies it had spent generations developing.
Artificial intelligence became more autonomous as fewer people were available to oversee increasingly complex systems. Genetic engineering was pushed further in an attempt to adapt people, crops and livestock to worsening conditions. Automated factories continued working with incomplete orders and failing infrastructure.
Some of those projects worked. Others created problems nobody knew how to contain.
Civil unrest became armed conflict. Local wars spread between cities and regions. Machines built to protect infrastructure turned on the people trying to seize it. Modified organisms escaped laboratories and breeding programmes. Entire districts were abandoned as fires, earthquakes and industrial accidents made them impossible to hold.
Meridian, one of Nova Eden’s largest cities, was eventually torn apart by a combination of war and geological collapse. Fault lines opened beneath the lower levels, magma flooded old industrial zones and whole sections of the city disappeared underground.
There was no single day when Nova Eden fell.
By the time people realised the old world was gone, they were already living in what came after it.
Generations have passed since the Collapse.
The old nations are gone, and even the largest factions control little more than settlements, industrial districts and the trade routes between them.
People have rebuilt wherever they can. Old railway stations have become markets, worker housing has been turned into fortresses, and abandoned factories now sit at the centre of new communities. Traders move food, medicine, ammunition and salvage between settlements, while scavvers search the ruins for anything still worth using.
Outside those settlements, much of Nova Eden remains dangerous. Highways end at volcanic rifts, automated facilities still operate without anyone controlling them, and sealed research sites contain things most people would rather leave buried.
Wars are smaller now. Instead of armies, most fighting is done by warbands competing over territory, resources, technology, faith or simple survival.
That is the Nova Eden Thrackdown takes place in.
"By now, most of you know the truth. No Colony Ship has reached Nova Eden in years, and every attempt to contact Earth has failed.
We can keep waiting for an answer, or someone can go and find one.
The last vessel capable of making the journey is still in the docks, and I intend to take it. I don't know what I'll find out there, or whether I'll make it back.
Keep the beacons lit. Watch the skies.
I go so that we may rise."
Why did Earth go quiet?
The Silence has lasted for generations, and no one on Nova Eden knows why. Every settlement, faction and cult has its own explanation. Which theory your warband holds may say more about them than any banner.
The Ships Were Taken
The last ships sent back towards Earth never arrived. Or worse, they arrived changed, carrying something back from deep space. Believers fear long-range communications; some settlements smash old transmitters on sight.
The Machine Ascendancy
Earth may still exist, but no longer under human control. Its AIs took over, judged organic life inefficient, and abandoned the colonies as a discarded experiment.
The Silence Is a Test
Among cults, void-preachers, and dream-augurs, the Silence is not absence but design. Nova Eden is a proving ground, and something is watching to see which creeds endure.
They're Still Coming
Earth never abandoned Nova Eden at all. The Colony Ships are still out there, drifting closer. Believers maintain ancient ports and light beacons that will probably never see use. A few are killed for it by those who fear Earth's return more than its loss.
Rumours from the Wastes
There are plenty of stories about what still hides in the less travelled parts of Nova Eden. Most pass from traveller to traveller, around campfires or over cracked radios.
Most of these stories are impossible to verify. That hasn't stopped them spreading.
Pick a side
Six major factions are fighting for territory, resources and influence across Nova Eden, with countless smaller groups caught between them.
Meet the factions, choose a warband and start playing.