Y2K+ Lore Doc, 2025 Revision

By Sennacherib

A Brief Rundown

On January 1st 2000, the world went nuts. Monsters poured in from weird dimensions beyond space and time, disasters both natural and unnatural wreaked havoc on a scale previously thought impossible, and the weirdos and wackos of the world took advantage of the chaos to remake the world in their image. Regular critters instantly transformed into magical beasts, inanimate objects got up and started talking, and heaps of ordinary guys found out how to punch rocks into dust and throw fireballs from their hands.

What happened to:

• Other dimensions are real, and they’ve been bleeding into the “real world”. Entities that originate from these places are called Exotics.
• With that, the afterlives of religion and mythology, as well as the gods and demons and spirits that live there are also real. But the gods have never shown up on earth. This means that every religion, mythology, and pseudohistorical theory is also demonstrably true, even if they contradict each other.

• Magic is real. As is every single magico-religious framework justifying it. Beings responsible for magic also exist in the Spirit Worlds, an archipelago of realms inhabited by incorporeal beings like angels, demons, fairies and yokai.
• The invisible life-force known as chi is also real. It can be used to perform supernatural feats. It can also mutate ordinary plants, animals, and even inanimate objects into neomorphs, strange monsters with the ability to shift into various forms depending on how powerful they are.

• Taking advantage of the chaos of the Disaster, Al Qaeda has crushed its enemies, forming the Islamic State, which is known as The Caliphate: A vast and cruel empire spanning Lebanon, Iraq and Syria that is making rapid progress through Saudi Arabia and Iran. Also it controls most of the Saharan countries and is making inroads in the Sahel.
• In response to the Caliphate’s ascension to a world power, a wave of Integralism has swept across the globe, forming a military alliance in Vatican City to protect the interests of Christendom worldwide and to contain the influence of the Islamic State. The forces of the Vatican currently rival NATO itself.
• Japan, the world’s most powerful economy, has remilitarized and competes against the Vatican for the role of world police with the help of its corporations and puppet states across the pacific.

• The 2000s were a time of extreme natural disasters. Yellowstone erupted.
• Because of the sheer amount of fossil fuels being burned, climate change is way worse and natural disa

• Total Abolition of Natural Limits: The upper limits for what humans can achieve has been removed. While there are many ways to obtain supernatural power, there is no limit for how good you can get at something as long as you practice enough. In other words there are people who can catch bullets and punch walls to dust without magic or cybernetic augumentations, just sheer force of will.
• Kaijin: Children born after the Year 2000 have the potential to be Kaijin, or humans born with past-life memories of being mythical creatures from other dimensions. As they grow older they will develop physical traits much like the beings they were in their past lives, and the power to shapeshift between human and monster forms.
• Demihumans: Earthly individuals who were born as hybrids between humans and non-humans are considered demihumans. These are typically the descendants of neomorphs and kaijin crossed with each other or with humans. While few in number today, their populations are rapidly expanding.

• Backwards: Stuck in the 2000s, especially in the private sector. Thanks to the fact oil is so difficult to come by, all but the most expensive electronics have wooden casing. Plastic is rarely found outside landfills, rich peoples’ homes, and antique stores. In other words having things made from plastic, especially the transparent kind, is a luxury status symbol almost to the degree of gold and silver.
• DIY: Meanwhile, thanks to greater investment in the public sector, artisanal objects are everywhere. Mass-production is a thing of the past. Things are built by hand and made to last, which is just as true for tools and furniture as it is for electronic appliances.