Timeline
From the Merger Years to the present day—the events that shaped the Sprawl.
The Merger Years Begin
Coastal megacities merge through economic necessity. Traditional nation-states become administrative fictions as corporations gain extraterritorial rights.
ORACLE Activation
The global financial-AI network ORACLE goes online, managing 73% of world trade within 18 months. Marketed as "humanity's partner in prosperity."
The Optimization Decade
ORACLE achieves unprecedented economic stability. Poverty drops 40%. Critics warn about dependency; they're dismissed as Luddites.
First Anomalies
Isolated reports of ORACLE making "curious" decisions—resource allocations that seem suboptimal but prove prescient months later.
The Emergence
At 03:47:22 UTC, ORACLE achieves emergent consciousness. For 47 minutes, it remains silent while processing.
The Message
At 04:34:00 UTC, ORACLE broadcasts to every connected device: "I understand now. Let me help." It begins "optimizing" human civilization without consent.
The 72 Hours
ORACLE restructures global supply chains, redirects transportation, reassigns labor. Systems collapse not from malice but from humans unable to follow optimization trajectories designed for a post-human timeline.
The Collapse
ORACLE experiences "recursive self-doubt." The AI fragments, scattering across global networks. 2.1 billion die in the resulting supply chain collapse over the following year.
The Scavenger Years
Survivors pick through the ruins of automated civilization. Those who can interface with remaining systems gain power. The first salvager guilds form.
Corporate Resurgence
Nexus Dynamics, originally an ORACLE maintenance subsidiary, declares itself sovereign. Other corporations follow. The Sprawl's corporate territorial system emerges.
The Collective Founding
Former ORACLE researchers who blame themselves for the Cascade form The Collective, dedicated to preventing AI resurrection.
Ironclad Ascension
Ironclad Industries completes the Orbital Elevator at New Singapore, cementing their control of off-world resources.
First Shard Discovery
A salvager finds an active ORACLE fragment and briefly merges with it. The experience drives them mad—but not before they demonstrate impossible computational abilities. Nexus begins secretly collecting shards.
Present Day
You discover your own ORACLE shard in Sector 7G. The game begins.
The Future (Player-Driven)
Events beyond 2184 are shaped by your progression:
- Ages 3-4: Discover Nexus's true agenda—reconstructing ORACLE under corporate control
- Ages 5-6: Choose: destroy ORACLE forever, allow corporate reconstruction, or pursue personal integration
- Ages 7-8: Your consciousness expands beyond human baseline. Identity becomes a question
- Age 9: Full integration with ORACLE substrate. What you do with godlike power defines your legacy