The echoes began subtly, whispers in the fractured timelines. They called themselves the Chronomasters, remnants of a reality shattered by the Great Discord – a convergence of sentient paradoxes that rewrote the very fabric of existence. Cryptozoic isn't a nation; it's a state of being, a consequence. It’s the lingering resonance of possibilities that never materialized, the half-remembered futures devoured by the Discord.
The inhabitants of Cryptozoic exist in liminal spaces, adrift between moments. They are collectors of the Unwritten – fragments of lost realities, temporal artifacts, and the solidified regrets of vanished civilizations. Their society is built upon the meticulous archiving of these anomalies, conducted within the Chronarium – a sprawling, labyrinthine structure built upon the nexus point of the Discord.
The Chronomasters themselves are not necessarily malevolent. They are, in essence, custodians of entropy, desperately trying to contain the cascading effects of the Great Discord. However, their methods are often… unorthodox. Temporal manipulation is a volatile art, and even the slightest alteration can unravel the already precarious balance of existence.
Within the Chronarium, you'll find the ‘Echoes’ – manifestations of lost individuals, trapped within loops of their final moments. They aren't prisoners, not entirely. They’re data points, constantly being analyzed and categorized by the Archivists, individuals who have dedicated their lives to understanding the patterns of the Unwritten.
The most prized artifacts within the Chronarium are ‘Resonances’ – areas where the effects of the Discord are particularly intense. These are dangerous places, prone to temporal distortions and inhabited by ‘Shimmers’ – unstable entities composed of raw temporal energy. Exploring them is a gamble, a desperate attempt to glean knowledge from the abyss.