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The Planet

Welcome to the planet Hemera. It is the year 882 HE (Hemeran Establishment), 3694 in the Common Era. Hemera was colonized nearly nine centuries ago by the Aurora mission, a joint project between the United States and Japan. More colonists were supposed to arrive, but there was no further contact with Earth, and subsequent wars led to such destruction of their technological capabilities that the Hemerans were unable to communicate with their home planet or send a return mission. Nonetheless, Hemera has thrived, the original 10,000 colonists spreading across four continents and developing into what is now a vibrant civilization of 68 million.

The five nations of Hemera are Messembria, the technological superpower; Auxesia, heart of the planet's agriculture; Elysia, exotic land of beauty and adventure; Boreas, the cold and wild land of the free north; and the Andalus Isles, a mysterious and insular nation with strong traditions and ties to the original Earth cultures that made up the colony.

The Situation

The last major war on Hemera was 50 years ago, and things were fairly peaceful. Then, in 871 HE, a dimensional rift opened up on the continent of Elysia, unleashing a dark and destructive force known only as Erebos. Along with this creature came strange beings from the world called Xenia, and mysterious crystalline power sources buried in rocks, dubbed Geodes. The Xenians, who live in a world suffused with magic, gain their power from the magical crystals within the Geodes, but it was useless against Erebos. Desperate, they banished it to another realm - Hemera. Unfortunately, some were sucked through the portal along with it.

With the Xenians' help, Hemerans, led by the Messembrian military, sent in a small force armed with Geodes and power armor. Though barely a third survived, they were able to open up another rift, and Erebos was forced through.

Just a few years later, it was discovered that Erebos had left behind spawn. These have begun to rampage across the planet, and left unchecked, they could grow to be as great a threat as Erebos itself...

The Mechs

Human mastery of the Geodes was incomplete, and Messembrian engineers worked to perfect the power armor so it could better utilize the crystals' magical power. However, there was still one problematic factor: the human mind was incapable of accepting the existence of magic to the degree necessary to fully harness its power. While the power armor was developed into highly sophisticated mechs, 10-15 feet tall on average, another team worked to devise a training program for the pilots.

Volunteers who had shown a particular affinity for using Geodes were recruited to the Makhai Initiative and placed in a training simulation, programmed with a scenario known as "Illusions of Grandeur." Their identities within the simulation took them to an alternate version of ancient Earth, a post-apocalyptic world reviving from millennia of nuclear winter and suffused with magical "will-force." In this simulation, the pilots' minds were trained to accept and use magic in the face of frustration and desperate, sometimes futile battles.

The simulation is now over, and the pilots have begun to awake...some not remembering their true identities yet, so deeply were they immersed in the virtual world.