Core Premise
SublightRPG is an alternate timeline science fiction setting where humanity evacuated Earth in 1920 following a magical Cataclysm, combining Victorian-era aesthetics with realistic space travel physics.
Historical Timeline
- 1800s: Nuclear power developed (internal combustion engine never invented)
- 1904: The Great War begins
- 1904-1920: 16-year military stalemate leads to increasingly desperate measures
- 1920: Magical Cataclysm forces complete human evacuation of Earth
Technology Profile
- Power: Nuclear/fusion-powered spacecraft and stations
- Propulsion: Water or regolith (crushed rock) as propellant
- Physics: Realistic rocket physics, rotational gravity on space habitats
- Absent Tech: No cars, tanks, or airplanes (no internal combustion)
- Aesthetic: Victorian-era design sensibilities and cultural values
The Great War (1904-1920)
A prolonged global conflict that drove world powers to extreme measures:
- Necromancy: Raising the dead to maintain trench warfare
- Kaiju: Radiation-consuming giant monsters deployed against cities
- Auxons: Self-replicating robots that consume infrastructure (power grids, bridges, water systems) for materials
Setting Tone
Victorian sensibilities meet space colonization, with humanity scattered across the solar system after fleeing a magically devastated Earth. The setting blends hard science fiction space travel with supernatural elements from humanity's catastrophic past.