The Umbrian Vale and its 60,000 people are the last known survivors of the fall of the Umbrian Protectorate and the Nation-Eaters, a century ago. With the fall of the Protectorate, all knowledge and technology, which had been stored on psychic ‘servers’ called Shades, was lost. People today only know the skills their grandparents knew - basic psychics, wilderness survival, mushroom agriculture, making bread and beer. There’s little metalworking and absolutely no writing - it’s not just that people are illiterate, but that after a thousand years of psychic group minds, even the concept of writing information down has been lost. Small city-states called Spires, governed by councils of powerful psychics, form loose coalitions and governments, but daily life is just about survival. No Nation-Eaters have been seen in twenty years - but there’s been no contact with the two other Vales in that time, either. The people of the Fallen World are fiercely independent, and any sign of someone trying to become a central authority or a single ruler is met with violence - everyone hears tales of what it was like when everyone dreampushed while they slept, and Adepts adjusted their thoughts and feelings into harmony. Fuck that noise. Losing trains, libraries, and irrigation was worth it to be individuals again.

Each Spire is a walled city on the lower slope of a mountain whose peak pierces the clouds (about three kilometers up). Around each Spire are Terraces, where mushrooms and grain are grown. Famine is common; weather is harsh. The world has ended three times, and may end again soon. But in the meantime, everyone’s going to fight to stay alive, and find joy and meaning together, just like in every other time.