This is a post-apocalyptic world of Mind Knights battling Degenerate Barbarians, and the efforts it took to get there (that is, you can start play earlier in the timeline if a ‘high chivalry’ setting does not appeal.) It is for an alt-dimensional roleplaying game named Multiverser, but is usable with other systems as well.
The world had been destroyed by machines. Fire flowers had bloomed over every major city, and the dead outnumbered the living. But of those who survived, there was a new impetus, a striving for survival for the human species which threatened to fall into a Long Night.
Before, harshness had been done away with, and only softness was allowed. In the new day, only the strong, the finest of the genetic lines of humanity survived. This great culling set the clock back on humanity for well over a millenia.
You see Humanity gathers weaknesses to itself as generation spirals to generation. Cosmic rays bombard, and rip tiny holes in DNA; poor choices of chemicals ingested as medicines do the same. Over time, each and every human becomes more and more loaded down with this load of damage. Of course, in the midst of all this there were those few who shone. Those few who let Humans know what they had been a millenia and more ago. These flukes got a combination of undamaged genes, or relatively undamaged ones, and they made the hard seem trivial, the impossible became a word not understood to these genetic throwbacks to a lost golden age.
And these were the ones who survived. They finally met a challenge worthy of their powers. The rest of us…died.
There was more radiation in the atmosphere, but as long as you stayed away from the major cities, it was actually healthier. Its one of those stories told so often that everyone believes it that any amount of radiation is bad for you. Problem is, if you live in the high mountain areas where there is more radiation, you’re less likely to get cancer. Some larger amount of radiation than normal is good for the person as long as it doesn’t get too excessive. Its seems to act as a vitalizing agent, a Vitamin R. Too much of Vitamin R just like too much of any vitamin can kill you.
Before the fire flowers bloomed, the culture had been focused on comfort. And it had met the extremity of discomfort. The survivors believed in the Pendulum Effect. Go too far one way, and you’re likely to come around with the opposite effect from what you wanted. Besides, they were all tough as nails survivors. They wanted to pass this on to their children.
And thus the Testings began. There was no fixed age for a Test, but there were many of them to pass before you could be considered a full-fledged adult, and not suited to be a servant. Some never passed all the Tests, and remained servants all their lives. And the startled survivors who now lived in stone houses made of toted and hauled bits of broken skyscrapers finally accepted this.
Some people just don’t want to have full responsibility for their own lives. And some people are just more comfortable helping others out. And some people know they are not fit to live on their own; they know they need a keeper to reign them in. So the Servants and the Lords were born, but it was always meritocratic. Any Servant born child could take the Tests.
Of course, it was vastly easier for the young lords with their better educations and encouraging parents to take the various Tests of skill and knowledge and wisdom. One had to ride a horse blindfolded, and jump a fence. One had to do seven digit addition in one’s own head after staying awake for fourty-eight hours. One had to reason out a way to escape a cave which was closed in. There were other tests.
The young Lords might have been tempted to arrogance, but the concept of noblesse oblige, and servant leadership by which the lord was there to help the weaker ones out was drummed into the children so that they responded emotionally to the concepts of honor and protection rather than ‘logically’. But the Lords also demanded respect,a nd that too was drummed into the Servants. It seemed a fair trade to most. Protection and guidance from the strong, and respect and obedience and help from the not so broadly capable. Because even the Servants were strong in their ways, and in being survivors.
Without the various specialists, and without the vast markets the whole of post-industrialized society fell. Shortly thereafter, the technology of the world fell even further. The world became measured in ‘to the horizon’, and a ‘day’s horseback ride on a fast horse’. Steam engines on a small scale, and pushcart railroads, and salvaging iron and concrete and copper wire from the cities were the majority of the ‘industrial sector’. Coal stoves and wood stoves became common again. But another constricting factor was that in a largely pre-industrial society, most of the people, over eighty percent (this was lower than historical situations, but they did have advantages) had to grow food.
That left twenty percent to build stone manors, hunt the escaped tigers that spread and mated wildly from the zoos, preach, teach, bind up wounds, build steam engines, travel on wagons to market, stable horses, and conduct Tests.
In this density of very good genetics which was being highly stressed by the environment, and by their own selves as they constructed a society given to high standards of morality and competence, and rather unforgiving of breaches of the codes associated with them,….well, perhaps it was inevitable.
Certain areas of the brain it had been speculated in the last years before the fire flowers bloomed were not being used. These areas were small, and almost unnoticed next to their larger cousins which did things like process vision, and remember rhythm for songs. A set of exercises was proposed as a way of activating these centers.
It was also proposed that Human’s were in effect robots, or more precisely Radio Controlled vehicles. That is, the essential element of Humanity was a pattern in the quantum substrate. The brain was the receiver for this pattern, and damage or incapacity in some area of the receiver made it hard for the mind to get the brain to do what it was supposed to do.
It was also speculated that some of the psionic effects were the result of the brain manipulating back the quantum effects. With the brain able to be affected by the quantum substrate, it followed that it could reverse the effect, and cause ripples in the quantum substrate. These ripples if used correctly could cause not only quantum scale changes in the physical world, but line up millions and billions of micro-scale changes to create a macro-scale effect, that is one that could be seen with the naked eye.
Some young Lordlings put these ideas into practise as part of their Test to showcase a ‘new physical ability previously unknown.’ Their success at first was clairvoyance, and it caused a sensation. In the years that followed, they and others moved it up to things like penny-flicking with the mind.
And then one knight proved the usefulness of penny-flicking by saving his own life from an arrow ambush. He flicked the arrows aside. After that, basic telekinesis became part of every warrior’s curriculum.
And the skills continued to advance. It took decades to go from penny flicking to levitation, and a single decade took it from there to pain resistance, and a few more decades took the now renamed Knights of the Mind and Will up to being able to heal themselves. They now ride horses that *hear* their commands, are surrounded by glimmering force fields, and can hear their commander in their mind. If trapped, they can levitate high enough to catch a breeze blowing their way, and try to escape.
The Knights of Mind and Will have played a major role in expanding the horizon a bit. They are the core of the Kingdom of Vision. And some others such as Far-speakers, and folks with various limited talents that they master are also of great help to the King of Vision who sits on a throne reputed to give its recipient when he sits on it the ability to pierce any mind. But, the psi’s are mostly in the Knights still with Healers and others spreading throughout the Kingdom, but slowly.
Unfortunately there are others in this world. Some are like the Kingdom was before it discovered mindpower. They are harsh and small enclaves of survivalists. Others include barbarian tribes who have gone on to some rather disturbing practises involving bathing in pools of toxic waste. This gives no additions, but it does subtract. Frequently it allows the bather to resist pain, and to fly into berserk furies. These sort were highly genetically advanced, but their several generations of bathing in toxic wastes have twisted and deformed them both physically and mentally.
They believe in eating the brains of Mind Knights in order to gain their power.
The survivors have moved from 1)Simple Survival to 2)An Iron Age to 3) An Age of Silver (with silver referring to the return of some pleasantries and nice things and also being a synonym for mind power. It is commonly considered that silver helps the use of mind power, just as being tied by silk –which is exceedingly rare these days–blocks mind power. These beliefs are strong enough to effect morale of a mentalist.)
Of the three ages, the greater lifespans of the survivors due to their better genetics mean that some few of the original survivors still live, and they worry that their descendants have grown too soft. The great leaders of the time are Iron Agers. The vast majority of the people and of the active Knights are Silver Agers.
The psi bias is 6@1 and it continues to slowly rise. The tech bias has fallen from 12@1 to 11@8, and continues to fall.
