Post by Juhn on Jul 26, 2018 22:59:24 GMT -5
Hell on Earth
Cedar City is a Hell of a place to be, for a Demon.
A wholly artificial city. Great, gleaming glass towers sprouting out of the Utah desert. Civilization clawing its way up out of the ground, right next to a millenia-old testament to American natural beauty in Zion National Park. Cedar City's been settled since 1851, but for most of that time the "city" was a small town of under 30,000. After the final collapse of the mining industry in the 1980s, the city refocused itself. By the end of the decade, gone was the sleepy little mining town that Cedar City had been since the 1850s. Within ten years it was a modern metropolis. A hive of 1980s materialism a virtual stone's throw away from the capitol of America's own homegrown Latter-Day Church, people were soon calling Cedar City "Mormon Vegas", with no small irony. Some called it a miracle of Reagan-era economics. Others called it a blasphemy. The Unchained know better.
It was the God-Machine's own city. Or it was supposed to be. Where there are people, where there are buildings, where there are machines, where there's infrastructure, there's Infrastructure. And where there's Infrastructure, there's the God-Machine. The glass spires rising out from the sand, bringing people, bringing comfort, bringing materialism, bringing modernity, bringing vibrancy to an area both pristine and hostile to human civilization was a testament to God's glory. Not the God of the Mormons over in Salt Lake, but the sterile and ever-watching God of the Machine.
Up until the end of the millennium the God-Machine fostered the city, ensured it prospered, under the watchful eyes of its Command and Control Infrastructure. Cedar City was a Paradise to the Angels of the Machine, and a death sentence to the Unchained.
And then, a few short years later, in an act of sheer insanity even the God-Machine couldn't foresee, some goddamned madman pressed the button and blew it all to hell.
Years (in some places, decades) of work undone, in an instant. Thousands of innocent civilians dead. Plans a quarter-century in the making thrown irrevocably off-track. Cedar City is a mess.
But the God-Machine is still here. The God-Machine, in some senses, is Cedar City. It's a lot more careful, these days. Its view is wider and its focus less laser-hot. It used to be more than willing to send Angels to fix any and all of its problems, micromanaging Cedar City as best it could. With the world torn asunder, that's not much of an option now. A Destroyer Angel staring down an Abyssal Manifestation, calling home for data, and receiving "ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND" is a hell of a good way to get a new Demon. The God-Machine is omniscient in those metaphysical areas of the world it calls home, but outside of that it's effectively blind. It keeps a much closer eye on rogue elements these days, where it can, but the Unchained are now aware that there are areas outside of the God-Machine's sight in and around Cedar City.
A place truly apart from the presence of God.
Hell on Earth, yours for the taking.
Just be warned - this Hell is not of your own making, and the Unchained aren't the only demons here.
Cedar City is a Hell of a place to be, for a Demon.
A wholly artificial city. Great, gleaming glass towers sprouting out of the Utah desert. Civilization clawing its way up out of the ground, right next to a millenia-old testament to American natural beauty in Zion National Park. Cedar City's been settled since 1851, but for most of that time the "city" was a small town of under 30,000. After the final collapse of the mining industry in the 1980s, the city refocused itself. By the end of the decade, gone was the sleepy little mining town that Cedar City had been since the 1850s. Within ten years it was a modern metropolis. A hive of 1980s materialism a virtual stone's throw away from the capitol of America's own homegrown Latter-Day Church, people were soon calling Cedar City "Mormon Vegas", with no small irony. Some called it a miracle of Reagan-era economics. Others called it a blasphemy. The Unchained know better.
It was the God-Machine's own city. Or it was supposed to be. Where there are people, where there are buildings, where there are machines, where there's infrastructure, there's Infrastructure. And where there's Infrastructure, there's the God-Machine. The glass spires rising out from the sand, bringing people, bringing comfort, bringing materialism, bringing modernity, bringing vibrancy to an area both pristine and hostile to human civilization was a testament to God's glory. Not the God of the Mormons over in Salt Lake, but the sterile and ever-watching God of the Machine.
Up until the end of the millennium the God-Machine fostered the city, ensured it prospered, under the watchful eyes of its Command and Control Infrastructure. Cedar City was a Paradise to the Angels of the Machine, and a death sentence to the Unchained.
And then, a few short years later, in an act of sheer insanity even the God-Machine couldn't foresee, some goddamned madman pressed the button and blew it all to hell.
Years (in some places, decades) of work undone, in an instant. Thousands of innocent civilians dead. Plans a quarter-century in the making thrown irrevocably off-track. Cedar City is a mess.
But the God-Machine is still here. The God-Machine, in some senses, is Cedar City. It's a lot more careful, these days. Its view is wider and its focus less laser-hot. It used to be more than willing to send Angels to fix any and all of its problems, micromanaging Cedar City as best it could. With the world torn asunder, that's not much of an option now. A Destroyer Angel staring down an Abyssal Manifestation, calling home for data, and receiving "ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND" is a hell of a good way to get a new Demon. The God-Machine is omniscient in those metaphysical areas of the world it calls home, but outside of that it's effectively blind. It keeps a much closer eye on rogue elements these days, where it can, but the Unchained are now aware that there are areas outside of the God-Machine's sight in and around Cedar City.
A place truly apart from the presence of God.
Hell on Earth, yours for the taking.
Just be warned - this Hell is not of your own making, and the Unchained aren't the only demons here.