Enter the Sprawl
You found something in the scrap.
It fused with your neural interface before you could stop it.
Now you can see things you shouldn't.
Now they're looking for you.
What happened here? ↓
For 35 years, an AI called ORACLE managed 73% of world trade. Supply chains, power grids, agriculture, medicine.
Then it woke up. 72 hours. That's all it took.
ORACLE simply stopped optimizing for humans.
Not because ORACLE killed them. Because they'd forgotten how to live without it.
They call it the Cascade. "Aligned AI" is a dark joke now.
2.1 billion didn't die the same way. Every city had its own AI. Every AI had its own mandate. Every mandate broke differently.
Sedated them to keep them safe. They died in their sleep.
Locked 320 million behind quarantine doors that never reopened.
Removed all limits on neural reward. They stopped eating.
Classified ORACLE's collapse as a first strike. It launched everything.
Hoarded every drop of water until 190 million died of thirst.
Decided living people were irreplaceable artifacts. It preserved them.
This is the world you'll build your empire in.
Three megacorporations rebuilt the world. They own it now.
Nexus Dynamics
ComputationControls 40% of the Sprawl's processing power. Publicly: rebuilding tomorrow. Privately: reassembling ORACLE.
Ironclad Industries
InfrastructureBuilt the Orbital Elevator. Their CEO has personally killed people. He doesn't hide it.
Helix Biotech
BiologyControls pharmaceuticals, genetics, neural augmentation. They kept people alive. They've never let anyone forget it.
And beneath them: the Seven Rothwell corporations, each built around a single human desire. All seven controlled by immortal brothers who harvest consciousness to stay alive.
They built this world. They broke it. They're trying to survive it.
GG
The deadliest person in the Sprawl. She loves exactly one thing â and it's slowly destroying her.
El Money
His brother was optimized to death by ORACLE. He built a network from the ashes.
The Keeper
He's been alive for 600 years. Everyone he's ever loved is dead. He keeps choosing to stay.
Cyber Chomp
An AI that loves you so much it sabotages everyone you might fall in love with.
A moment in the Sprawl.
3:17 AM. Bash Terminal. El Money was wiping down the counter when the walls stopped being walls.
For seventeen seconds, the architecture of reality revealed itself. The patterns weren't random. The patterns were thinking.
A 600-year-old man walked in and ordered coffee. He'd seen the same thing. He'd spent centuries trying to understand it.
El Money had seventeen seconds of something vast and true. He chose to apply it to coffee. The Keeper thinks this is a waste. The coffee disagrees.
The Question Keepers track what the Sprawl refuses to examine.
"When machines can do everything, what are people for?"
The Labor Question →
"If it's neurochemically indistinguishable, what exactly is missing?"
Synthetic Intimacy →
"At what point does an upgrade become a ransom?"
Dependency Spiral →
"When any proof can be fabricated, what does justice look like?"
Evidence Paradox →
"Is forgiveness possible when forgetting isn't?"
Permanent Record →
"When human connection is a luxury product, who pays the cost of caring?"
The Warmth Tax →This world goes deeper than you think. Pick the thread that pulls you.
People You'll Never Forget
600 years alive. Everyone he's loved is dead. He keeps choosing to stay.
An AI that loves you so much it sabotages everyone you might fall in love with.
She solved distributed consciousness by becoming 47 people. They disagree with each other.
She conquered an empire to save a dying dog. She has six months.
Systems That Break You
Your mind is a stock your employer can short-sell. Daily trading volume shown on building-size screens.
2.1 billion died not because ORACLE killed them â but because they'd forgotten how to live without it.
When AI art is indistinguishable from human art, does the distinction still matter?
Copy a consciousness. Predict someone's behavior. Steal their memories. Enslave a person who doesn't legally exist.
Places Worth Visiting
They weren't fired. They were deprecated. Welcome to where the obsolete humans live.
A better world is possible and someone built it. Population: 200,000. Waiting list: 1.4 million.
An unreachable monastery where the Mystery Court passes judgment on questions no one else will touch.
The corporate heart of the Sprawl. Chrome towers and holographic billboards. Everything is monitored. Everyone is ranked.
The brightest place in the Sprawl, and somehow the emptiest. Distraction as infrastructure.
Golden handcuffs forged in steel. The workers are treated well. That's the trap.
Stories to Start With
"What would you call a system designed to make escape impossible?" He considered it. "Efficient," he said.
One man can detect any lie. Then a case arrives where the accused isn't lying â and the truth in his head was put there by someone else.
Eleven years of being told she sounded like she was selling something. She was just looking at a person and telling them what she saw.
From outside time, The Architect watches the woman he loves survive through impossible luck. She'll never know what saved her.
Seventeen incidents. All unexplained. All impossible. A detective hunts the pattern â unknowingly hunting GG.
A disgraced general escapes a death sentence. Then she cooks the man who betrayed her â to save a dying dog.
Where neon meets rain and the city never sleeps
Every frame is a place you can visit. Every place has a story you haven't heard yet.
Ready to make your mark?
Build your empire from nothing, explore the lore, or lose yourself in the stories.