In the year 2100, the world turned its face from God.

The Hold had risen to power. A shadow union so powerful that it quickly conquered the Western world and cemented its position as its sole authority.

They called their new kingdom, Astia.

A supposed bright Utopia free from the traditional flaws of what they deemed the Old World.

Still, it wasn’t enough. 

Total control could never be enough. 

So slowly, they began to cut things off. They cut everything off. 

Overnight, thousands of drones and militarized men were deployed to endlessly survey the oceans that divided the western continents from the east. The open transport between the nations of earth had been cut off for the first time since ancient days.

They did this without bloodshed. 

They did this without fighting.

They did this without resistance.

They did this.

Still, it wasn’t enough. 

Half of the known world was their playground. Now that everyone was boxed in, it was time to set the rules. First you break a man’s body, then you scrape his mind next. Combinations of subliminal and overt messaging incrementally brainwashed the masses to believe life was better … that people were better. 

The economy thrived under their dictatorship. Most of the conquered states and nations had obtained food sovereignty, economic independence and crime rates so infinitesimally low it was irrelevant to speak of. Additionally, there were no diplomatic tensions between them. They had successfully dressed up their filth, plugged their noses, and smiled at each other at the rims of the cesspit. But a fundamental truth remained:

ALL MEN ARE EVIL BY NATURE

Still, things were “better”.

After they kept them submissive, separated and stimulated out of their minds, their spirits began to fade. 

No, that’s not quite right. 

Their spirits were blotted out. Magic, sorcery, magework, and the dark arts were revealed to the world.

 In the first century, it was a spectacle. 

The second, recreation.

Now, four hundred years later, all worship, devotion, and evangelization to the divine had been long forgotten. Holy sacraments and traditions, texts and scriptures, songs of praise and worship were all lost to time. 

But even with complete anonymity and their seemingly infinite resources, the Hold’s grasp was not absolute.

And soon…

Their fingers began to unfurl.