The Seic (pronounced 'see-ick') Razening destroyed the Old World when they attempted to rise up against the gods, and the gods struck them down with fire and holy light and the Unseen Sear which burns from the inside.
The Wasterwater is liberally spotted by giant jutting cliffs of iron that spike from the water, and look as if a great wind bent them back and forth. It has good spots in it where the water is only salt, and not tainted with the presence of the Unseen. A Knowing Man can tell you what types of fish and crabs are created by the gods,and what type were Changed by the Sear. It is most unwise to eat Sear-tainted meat, but some Forlorn Folk have no choice. Of course, their children grow up Sear Tainted, and strange. But there are many spots in the Wasterwater that are healthy if one knows the signs from an Old Grandpa Fisherman (which are few because most people don't live to see forty), or from a Knowing Man (who is expensive).
All about the Wasterwater, a long narrow lake (twenty miles wide and eighty miles long) lie the Ruined Lands. But there are places in the Ruined Lands where things are not so desperate, and human life struggles onward in the Tem Marsh, and the Marcy Coves, and in dozens of other areas. Some places are only a village, and even a few are less than that, just a hamlet. But some, like the Tem Marsh and the Marcy Coves have a loose council of ten to fifteen villages, a genuine tribe.
Further back from the edge of the Wasterwater, on both sides, the west and the east, are the Hard Lands where Sear Dragons allegedly roam. In any case, no one but the mad goes there, and no one comes back. The lands are scoured clean and glow an evil blue at night.
But there is magic in the land, and not all is horrible like the Unseen Sear.
High Sorceror--These men (only men) summon spirits to do their work. Wise tribal leaders call them to build levees, and to cleanse the soil, but the less wise try to make weapons of war of them. This the High Sorcerors dislike themselves feeling that war should be a matter of trust in the gods, and the Proof of the Right by Trial by Champion.
They do magic by ancient compacts.
Magicker--By mystic hand passes, and focused emotional energy they can heal or harm at a few feet range.
Waterman--He calls the rain, or stays the flood. Finds fresh springs, and makes war in defense if the Rules of Land War are forgotten.
Charm Girl--If you need to be hidden, or to have love, or to walk through Seared Land...go to a wandering charm girl, and she will give you an amulet to protect you.
Technomage--Some say they are evil. The illegitamate children of the Sieck some call them. But they know words to speak to old machines.
The History,not the Legend.
==========================
By the early 22nd Century, the Creche Boom had gotten out of hand. In response to declining birth rates worldwide and outbursts of infertility, especially among the advanced powers, scientists invented the Baby Creche. Give the Baby a Creche, a Robo-Nanny, and a Robo-dog, and you could still be the self-absorbed person you always were, but avert TEOTWAWKI by watching Europe become Eurabia.
The Secular Reasonists taught the kids of the Creche their theories,courtesy of the bots, and the kids saw no reason not to 'Do as Alexander Did.' Despite the best efforts, robots lacked the power to give empathy to kids. And without a strong moral code (see China's youth today) you had ambition without restraint. Cold-blooded, ambitious, and willing to do just about anything, the elite of the Creche roared into the Post-Modern Society like a flamethrower meeting papier mache.
The Establishment panicked, and threw up barriers, and after that tried to appease at the same time. It was the exact worst response. Angered by the barriers, they then smelled weakness which to these wolves in human skin smelled just like blood.
They would have gotten along just fine, the Creche Wolves, with their thousand year old ancestors, the Vikings. Unfortunately, the Wolves had nuclear weapons unlike the Vikings.
They shredded teh PoMo Establishment,a dn then went after each other.
By the end, most of Europe and England was uninhabitable. Its only near the English Channel, near the Tems Marsh specifically, and near Marseilles that most of the survivors huddled.
The Channel became a lake, and the oil tankers became the jutting iron cliffs, and the Channel silted up so that it became far more shallow.
But, as tech failed, and as post-modernism had led to a collapse of science....these both opened the door to mysticism which the Razening kicked that door wide open.
The Magic Bias went up.
Its now 3@5.
And there are mutant entities which feed on raditation, and emit radiation, but are invisible....the Unseen Sear. And there is still plenty of radiation...or the Sear. And there are degenerate mutants or The Forlorn Folk.
Sometime later I need to come up with a few magic spells for each of the groups.
