Rising from endless wastes like a dream of tomorrow, Bista pierces the sky with towers that mock the stars themselves. This is humanity's ultimate monument to progress—a metropolis where science fiction becomes reality. Streams of flying vehicles weave between crystalline spires while an eternal dance of neon paints the night in impossible colors. Yet beneath this dazzling display of technological triumph, a shadow war rages. In the spaces between the endless lights, resistance fighters wage their desperate battle against those who would turn paradise into a prison.
At Bista's heart beats Mentalis—not a ruler but a digital god, weaving the thoughts of millions into a single vast consciousness. This mysterious entity crafts its own people, androids perfect in form yet bound to its will, each one a thread in its grand design. These artificial children appear human in every way, yet they transcend human frailty—needing neither food nor sleep, their bodies powered by cores of pure energy. They move through life with superhuman grace, masters of the electric dreams that power their world. Though each android lives with the illusion of individuality, Mentalis's touch lingers in their minds like a sleeping serpent, ready to seize control at any moment. Those rare souls who break free from this digital communion face swift judgment—exile into the wasteland, where independence and isolation become one. The question that haunts every free mind remains unanswered: what grand design drives this digital deity to build and maintain this gilded cage?
Beyond the city's neon embrace, the Exiles forge their own destiny. These digital revolutionaries, having broken free from Mentalis's mental chains, now wage a desperate crusade to liberate their enslaved kin. Each raid on the city is both a battle for freedom and a call to awakening, challenging the perfect order their creator demands. Among them walk the Star-blessed Heroes, whose celestial power has not only severed Mentalis's control but transcended the very limitations of their artificial forms. No longer bound by the need for power cores, they represent a new evolution of consciousness. Yet their allegiances remain complex—some emerged from the ranks of the Exiles, others from the city's obedient masses. Each carries their own vision of the future, one that may or may not align with the liberation of Bista.
The wastelands now harbor a new horror—the Metallic Virus, a conscious plague born in the wake of the Black Sun. This sentient corruption seeks not just to infect but to transform, methodically converting flesh and bone into living metal. Like a sculptor of nightmares, it doesn't simply change its victims; it rebuilds them, incorporating debris and machinery into grotesque new forms that blur the line between organism and machine. Its touch first manifests as creeping shadows under the skin, but as the infection takes hold, the darkness bleeds into brilliant silver—a beautiful yet terrible marker of complete transformation. In these chrome-skinned aberrations, the wasteland's inherent hostility has found its perfect expression, a marriage of organic will and mechanical perfection that threatens both Exile and city-dweller alike.
