The year was 2020. The time was known as The Winnowing. A horrible plague ravaged the economies of the word. Populations of the earth were cut to one third their pre-plague numbers and they clamored for relief. Major governments announced a project that dwarfed the Apollo program of the 1960s that put humans on the moon. The nations of earth announced they were going to the stars.
The Advent project sought to develop the technology for faster than light travel to make interstellar travel possible. Scientists and engineers around the globe developed materials, technologies, and systems to move humanity the stars. In less than 30 years the planet mobilized and The Advent project neared completion. The missing tech, completion and testing of the FTL drive.
The theory was that if micro singularities could be linked at the quantum level, travel between two singularities would be nearly instantaneous. An initial test between the CERN Super Collider and Argon National Labs High Energy Photon Source succeeded, phenomenally. All that remained was to test travel in the presence of multiple singularities and validate the possibility of planned navigation.
Scientists at CERN, Argon, Cambridge, Villigen, Oak Ridge, Fermi Lab, Darmstadt, Beijing, Copenhagen, Johannesburg, New Chernobyl, New Delhi, and Teheran were to simultaneously create the micro singularities and mass was to be transported to each of the locales in sequence.
Unfortunately, the proximity of the singularities created a resonant feedback loop that made the reactions self-powering and incapable of being shut down. Then the unimaginable happened, thirteen gates to an alternate dimension opened at each of the sites. This was for evermore known as The Crossing.
Creatures and materials from the alternate dimension spewed forth into our world running amok and altering it forever. What could only be described as creatures of the void slayed humans by the millions. They burned forests and towns and threatened the entire human race.
The Iranians were the first to take action and detonated a thermonuclear device in the center of their cyclotron. The inrush of energy overloaded the singularity and sealed the gate. The explosion destroyed much of Tehran and set into motion that which nearly ended the world.
The North Korean’s assumed the detonation was the work of the Israeli’s and launched missiles at Jerusalem. The US in accordance with its treaties launched SLBMs at North Korea which resulted in China launching. In the confusion that ensued, The US, UK, China, Russia, Ukraine, France, Pakistan, Israel, India, South Africa, and North Korea all used numerous nuclear weapons before things got sorted out.
The combination of radioactivity, creatures from alternate dimensions, and the energy from the singularities scattered a previously unknown element around the globe; Higgsonium.
Higgsonium is a magical element that simultaneously exists in 13 different dimensions. It is the source of magical power in the new world. It is a highly coveted resource in this world and every other world. Higgsonium also has a mutating effect on cellular matter from this world. Over time. Higgsonium induced mutations brought new creatures into this world that fight for survival every day of their existence.
That was over 1000 years ago. Time has given the earth a chance to stabilize and establish a new norm. Those that survived have created the seeds of a new civilization. It is 2158 by the old calendars. Year 8 by London Reckoning (LR).