We Design A Surreal Apocalypse Setting

>Reality is being beset by an unnatural force known only as The Expanse.
>The Stars are dying, their final cries fading out into darkness.
>Black voids remain where the stars once lay, whispering sweet nothings to all that will listen.

>Species touched by the expanse develop mutations that become more intense with each generation
>This condition alters the species so heavily, that they lose their ability to reason, with only a few beings remaining sentient throughout the generations.
>Entire cultures and species have disappeared from this, only to be replaced by mutants with the some desire of dragging beings into the expanse.

>The song of the cosmos is slowly coming to a halt, and the breath of life is being snuffed out. Existence is dying, screaming out in desperation.

>Even the few creatures that manage to retain some manner of intelligence from their infection, show an utterly nightmarish fixation on the Expanse, desiring only to service it and drag other beings and civilizations into it so that they may suffer the same fate.

>There are many beings who would rather throw themselves into the vastness of the Expanse and be devoured by it, rather than waiting for the slow end of all.
>Some have even formed cults to the Expanse all across the stars, sacrificing their own in honour to it.

Normal fire has a tendency to suddenly snuff itself out, and produces little heat, no matter how much fuel you feed it. It's light however is still comforting.

The primary source of light and heat comes from "dead lanterns", simple objects of mystical artifice. They glow a bright red and are fueled by the blood of sentient creatures. Though they accept fresh blood, they prefer blood crystal, a common fuel source created by mixing blood with alchemical reagent, yielding a clear granular crystal, similar to rock salt.

Dead lanterns, and their fuel are crafted by "weird-workers". Part alchemist, part artificer, they channel the psychic nightmares of The Expanse into "epiphany", which aids them in creating wondrous and terrifying inventions. No one is sure of their inventions hold back The Expanse or invite it in, but they have become necessary for survival.

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Some have tried to escape by going to different realities, but all so far have been in an even more advanced state of decay.

>Even as the Expanse devours civilization, even it's mindless thralls have predators of their own. There a moments, when the sky rips at its threads, and reality swallows whole entire cities and mountains. Nothing is left of where these Contractions occur, as all matter is pulled together into a single dense clump that shortly sinks into the ground, and those that have seen them note their obisidian like color, and oval like shape. They seem to follow shortly behind the contraction, vanishing away reality in but mere seconds; but never before the Expanse slips away.

>It seems that the corroding influence of the Expanse reaches even the furthest realms. Nowhere is safe from this evil, nowhere is free from its touch..

A rare bastion of sanity is the Rector of Zion, a "holy man".

These hermetic clerics offer assistance to any willing to journey to them. Oftentimes living near enough to a township to guide them, but far enough to keep their solitude.

Their symbol is the all seeing eye nested within Metatron's cube, and they often engrave it on their bodies, particularly on the palms and forehead. Though their eyes may be deceived, the third eye will always see truth.

Some of their practices include self flagellation, and rhythmic chanting which they believe helps keep them sane.
Anointing with caustic and pungent oils, to ward off parasites, infection and physical mutation.
Phrenology, used chiefly to locate tainted areas of the brain, piercing them with long thin needles, allowing the taint to seep out.
Geometry, which they use to encode their scripture. The world may warp and twist, the mathematics of geometry are infallible.

Their behavior may seem archaic or extreme, they do maintain both benevolence and sanity.

Although they benefit from the inventions of weird-workers, they see the practice of channeling epiphany as heretical and profane.

Maybe less about how reality is being destroyed, and more about the creatures, people, and places that are still around.

>There are numerous beings who have taken to studying what they can of the Expanse and its corruption, one group amongst these being the Zaldrosini.
>These enigmatic beings of will and thought have gone out of their way to study and observe the effects of the Expanse upon reality, drifting across the cosmos in their ships that are driven through their wills and dreams alone.

>The Zaldrosini do not truly *have* bodies. Instead their ever dreaming minds are connected to their ships in every way, allowing them to manipulate it in various unique ways, even changing its overall structure and composition for ease of travel or study.
>For all intents and purposes, their ships *are* their bodies.

Bump.

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>Humanity, desperate for salvation from their withering cosmos, has turned itself in an engine of strange sciences. >One such faction, in a bid to survive beyond the multiversal death knell, has set out aboard the experimental vessel, Aphelion, leaving its crumbling homeworld to the inevitability of the new universal fate.

>The experimental vessel, known as 'Aphelion' is unique in many ways. Using resources harvested from all over the crumbling cradle of mankind, and an assortment of varied sorceress and alchemical solutions, a ship has been designed capable of traversing the quickly decaying seas of the cosmos.

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>Amongst the darkness once called the stars, there survives an esoteric order called the "Mumblers"
>without order, rule, or organization, these strange hermits travel the darkness from dead world to dead world.
>In the ruins of lost and dying worlds, they catalog every name every race and world has known God by.
>They believe, once they have collected ever possible name for God, their speech will be powerful enough to manifest God material and beat back the Expanse.
>To always remember their quests, they constantly mutter the names of God they know to themselves, from thus comes their name.
>Many believe the Mumblers are fools
>Others claim the Purity of Speech is the thing most holy in all the universe

>Those who have personally met with the Mumblers describe them as being "babbling, incoherent even at the best of times, a certain cryptic oddity lacing everything they say".
>Some have taken this as them merely suffering under some manner of affliction as a result of traveling to such distant and dead worlds, but others can 'feel' that there is oohing more to the seemingly insane gibberish the Mumblers speak.

>known only as The Expanse.
dropped