BAbEl

Prologue

[You hear the following spoken aloud by a man standing on a stage in the town center, wearing a worn tan coat and a blank white mask]

Welcome to Post-History.

In mid-September of 2251, books began to burn themselves. More specifically, post-historians have determined that any inscription or encoding bearing semantic content that was created after August 21st burst into flames, over the course of a few short hours. All attempts to write, type, or otherwise inscribe anew met the same fate: a sudden increase in temperature and swift conflagration. This happened, and still happens, regardless of the attempted medium.

Needless to say, the consequences were dramatic.

Today's society was born from the coals of the resultant month-long Burning of the world. None would would call our rebirth triumphant, and only the most blindly dogmatic amongst us are foolish enough to compare our fate to the phoenix.

[The majority of the crowd that has formed laughs and whistles at this last comment.]

Some say we have seen the resetting of a cycle, an inexorable descent into obscurity, and that we will be able to make record of our words again someday.

If this is true, I hope that we do better next time. I hope that we do not forget the power of words. Of course, there is no guarantee we will make it that long, since, as you know well, I have yet to mention the demons.

The World of bAbEl

The setting of this game is a post-apocalyptic world, but a peculiar one. The fires of the Burning did much damage, and killed many, but substantial areas were relatively untouched (inner forests where fires didn't reach, areas that contained a high density of non-flammable material, such as downtown city blocks). Most significant is that words have power. Old writings can still be read, but they burn if read aloud, just as new words burn immediately upon being written. And there is magic to be found in those fires.

Scholars seek to preserve the old knowledge and harness the magical powers of the written word, risking the chance that they will call Demons their way.

Chanters are resurrecting the old oral traditions and keep memories in the spoken word - holding communities together through stories.

Rhymers try to beat the demons at their own game, using the strength of rhyme to preserve truth.

Namers seek the True Names of things, now that such things are no longer static, but must be captured.

Most everyone else just tries to get by.