Previously known as Earth, Earthica gained it's name to encourage a new, cleaner time. In the past, Earth was corrupted by cruel governments and machines that ran on diesel fuel. The polluted the air tore through the thin sheet of Ozone that protected the people ruthlessly in a matter of nearly 300 years.
Finally, On June 1st, 3198 the Ozone layer protecting the Earth disintegrated, leaving all of it's inhabitants to be fully exposed to violent meteor showers, extreme heat and cold, and most of all, unfiltered UltraViolet rays. Those who didn't die were either tragically disfigured or mutated.
Luckily, 50 years before, a chain of factories where opened around the world that were meant to create a whole new ozone that would be made out of a thick fog. They were meant to go into buisness a week before the expected date of the Ozone Disintegration, but it had happened much earlier than expected and billions suffered.
In many cases, people were found blind, severely burnt, and horribly mutated. Unaltered humans were rare, and were quickly put into charge of communication and care of those who had been mutated and disfigured.
As soon as the new ozone was put into place, an era of steampunk quickly rolled in. Steam was merely water, and would do no harm to the environment. Soon, every car was demolished for metal and the metal was shipped to the Factories.
The Factories not only produced fog, but simple machines and tools that further encouraged a steam based and automatomic era. Nothing used fuel but the Factories. What they use as fuel is used to create the Fog. The fuel is an unknown but reliable source, as given to the public.
Most people, if not a worker in the factory, opened small artisan shops (cobbler, welder, clockmaker) or began lives on farms. Technology, other than cellular devices (though very scarce among commoners), were abandoned because they were unfairly associated with the fall of the Ozone.
The current year is 3210, a full 12 years since the UV Crisis. Earthica Industries is booming, and the polar ice caps are reforming. The world is slowly, but surely, returning to it's former self.
But what of the mysterious fuel room? What fuels such a heat source so hot to boil thousands of gallons of water a day?
Why do many go in and come out as a wisp as their former self?
