Public information.

The gates opened onto Hell. Almost half of humanity died. Then the gates closed. Now there is the Cortex.

The Cortex keeps one official story: the supernatural is real, and people should be glad of the watching. Under it, humanity endures. The innocent have nothing to hide. Observe. Contain. Control.

Not everyone fits inside that story. Some natures hunger. Some listen. Some inherit powers no one authorized. Outside the Cortex's reach, communities hold their own beliefs, and those beliefs are not always a comfort.

The setting is the ground for Paroxysm, a text-only MUD in early alpha. The part I would most like feedback on is the tension the Cortex creates: a state that protects people by treating everyone as a risk. What would you add to that?

Lore notes: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/paroxysm-paroxysmrpg Site: https://paroxysmrpg.com/ Discord: https://discord.gg/Hkx8rcj4k6

The Paroxysm team

New: take the Cortex Citizen Assessment, a 10-question in-world personality test: https://paroxysmrpg.com/assessment/