Before the whispers of the wind, before the dust settled, there was the Lumina – a confluence of stardust and primordial thought. The indigenous peoples, the Children of the Starfall, emerged from this luminescence, their skin shimmering with captured nebulae. They spoke in a language woven from light and emotion, and their cities were grown from crystal and song. Legend speaks of the Great Weaver, Lyra, who sculpted the first rivers and mountains with her fingertips, guided by the rhythmic pulse of the Lumina.
The arrival of the Serpent Kings – beings of obsidian and shadow, drawn to the raw power of the Lumina. They attempted to drain the light, creating pockets of eternal twilight known as the Obsidian Wastes. The Children of the Starfall, aided by the sentient cacti known as the Guardians of the Bloom, engaged in a centuries-long conflict, culminating in the sealing of the Wastes beneath the heart of the Dragon’s Tooth Mountains.
The arrival of the Roman Legionaries, not as conquerors, but as cartographers – driven by the prophecies of the Sibylline Stones. They established the first settlements along the Rio Grande, trading in knowledge and obsidian. Their influence, however, was marked by a peculiar obsession with timekeeping, leading to the construction of colossal sundials that warped the flow of the Lumina, causing localized temporal anomalies.
The Spanish Conquistadors, not seeking gold, but for the 'Song of the Stone' – a legendary resonance said to unlock the secrets of the universe. They encountered the descendants of the Children of the Starfall, now known as the Shadowed Tribes, and engaged in a complex dance of diplomacy and veiled threats. Their attempts to harness the Lumina resulted in the creation of the 'Clockwork Desert,' a desolate expanse where time itself stuttered and looped.
The rise of the Railroad Baron, Silas Blackwood, a man rumored to have negotiated deals with the temporal echoes of the past. His vast network of iron and steam allowed for unprecedented movement of goods and people, but also inadvertently disrupted the delicate balance of the Lumina, creating what became known as ‘The Ghost Routes’ – pathways where the past bled into the present.
The Roswell Incident – not a downed spacecraft, but a rupture in the temporal fabric. Fragments of a chronal vessel, radiating with inverted entropy, crashed into the plains of West Texas, seeding the region with 'Time Blooms' - flowers that briefly displayed glimpses of alternate realities. The government, codenamed ‘Project Chronos,’ attempted to contain the anomalies, leading to a clandestine war fought across multiple timelines.
The present. The remnants of Project Chronos have vanished, leaving behind a fractured society grappling with the consequences of unchecked temporal manipulation. Neo-Austin, a city built on the ruins of the old, is a nexus of temporal anomalies. The 'Chrono-Shift' – a phenomenon where individuals momentarily experience the lives of their past or future selves – is commonplace. The search for the ‘Temporal Key,’ an artifact said to stabilize the timeline, continues, pursued by factions both benevolent and utterly terrifying.