Technically, it would be a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Several hundred light years in fact, but this isn’t some kind of space opera. Tucked in to a small corner of the visible universe that we forgot to check is a galaxy that inhabits life. To be more precise, it is a small planet, quite similar to Earth, but, yet at the same time so distant.

Raon is the mother star from which this planet orbits. The third rock from Raon is Pangea, a planet that harbours life similar to that of Earth. In Pangean’s ancient history, it was once known as Cyn’Ichtar but that is not why its name was changed. A single continent floating atop and surrounded by water, where, in its brief geological history, two tectonic plates crash in to each other, creating a distinctive mountain range that many have likened to a spine, is why Pangea is named such. Pangea orbits Raon in three hundred and sixty days and completes a full rotation in twenty four hours with little deviation. A whole article could be written on the dating and calendar systems employed by the various civilisations but that is not the issue at hand. The angle of the axis of Pangea’s rotation also mimics Earth’s own, but only in variation, the slant itself is slight and the only noticeable effect of this is the changing of weather, i.e. seasons. However, Pangea’s proximity to the other planets has made for at times extreme tidal variations and plate tectonics.

Originally, the continent was lush with grassy plains, rainforests, marshes and diverse biospheres. However due to what we could confidently call human beings, incidentally also a dominant species on the planet, much has changed for the worse. Around two millennia from Pangea’s present was the peak of human civilisation which existed as a cold war build up between two factions split by the continent’s only mountain range. The cold war went hot and many nuclear detonations later, only a single city survived as the remaining bastion from that distant age. Now the planet is mainly desert, the occasional crater collecting enough water to create a lake or oasis to sustain life within a certain radius. Some of the marshes and bogs still exist but long gone are the rainforests and verdant grasslands. Savannahs where deserts refuse to dust up also exist but it is not only just the flora that has changed. The fauna as well, having been exposed to various forms of radiation from fallout, are changed to say the least. Not just the humans, but the animals too and soon a new food chain was created over the course of two millennia and it is still changing. Life learned to cope.

But for the survivors the blast waves of the war, their sole mean of coping was through extermination of these “mutants” or more accurately, the exclusion. The single remaining city, which functions to this day in a more or less stable equilibrium, is the city of Gate. Remaining neutral throughout the whole of the war, Gate was also known as the Benevolent City, and gave asylum to those who sought it. Unfortunately, this changed radically after the war ended in the mutual destruction of the two factions. Initially, in the confusion there was a massacre at the very doorsteps of the city of misshapen men and women, all survivors of the war, believed to be biological weapons sent to finally end Gate. Even when they came to their senses, the damage had been done and there was no recovering from it. As a result the xenophobic state of mind persists to this day and the occasional stray “mutant” who wanders within range is always gunned down mercilessly from the dilapidated concrete walls of the city. However, the city was also assaulted from within as this mutant scare soon started to fade. Organised crime started on a rise that could only be meteoric. The city fought itself for its own services and limited resources until finally a new equilibrium was reached. This new equilibrium was vigilantism. It was a logical step towards fighting crime that had spiralled out of control.

Five years later, this equilibrium was once again disturbed as a major explosion in the largest of its kind to date rocked the city. Bringing with it an old issue, that of tolerance, this event was dubbed the Awakening. Why so? Simply because those affected by it would all have a common symptom. It was an awakening to new power, the power to manipulate the energy within the open system. Whether they became unnamed horrors or remained relatively human was another toss of the die altogether. This did not mean that they were superhuman or godlike. No, they simply saw things differently and interacted with the world differently. It still required great mental effort to actually do anything with this power and many simply ignored it and went about their lives. Those curious enough to study this founded a school, the School for Mentally Gifted, or SMagi. The designation of Magi was meant as an insult though and it is not used much in normal speech. However, it is still required in many official functions and some still look down on those who are able to wield such power.

It took a generation for this to settle, bringing the then overt war between crime and the city in to a more covert spot. Now, it is rare to see any special relationships between any two people in a criminal organisation than anywhere else as any true criminal organisation at present are more akin to a small collection of like-minded individuals. Even rarer still are those who act criminally with noble intentions. The law held no distinction, or at least, it was not supposed to. This gave rise to a few bends in the law that not even the greatest assembly of vigilantes would dare touch. Surely it is to be a recipe for disaster.

Yet Gate still persists and forces work once again to turn the gears of change, for better or for worse and perhaps the time has come to better reflect Gate’s new nature; that of an Ever-Changing City.