The Farlight Foundation | The Gates | The Music

Starfall

One day a swath of stars fell from the sky. Most fell like small meteors and faded harmlessly. A few crashed upon the Earth, almost always in heavily populated areas, leaving in their wake places altered and imbued with a power previously unknown. Places that came to be known as the Gates.

At first it was thought there were no survivors where the stars had fallen. The land that could be seen was alien and strange. People who crossed the boundaries either died in inexplicable ways or went murderously and destructively insane. However, one week after Starfall small handfuls of survivors started stumbling past the boundaries with no memory of what had happened during that week.

The New Stars

With every person who came out of the Gates a new star appeared in the darkened swath of sky above.

The survivors started to display strange behaviors at first and later the ability to do things that defied our very understanding of the world. In a word they had magic. These were the first Espers to walk the world. They were often unstable and none of them fully integrated with their abilities.

Some of them died in the early days.  Through uncontrolled use of their abilities, murder, or collapsing into schismed personalities.  Every time an Esper died one of the new stars vanished.

The younger Espers had an easier time with their new found powers and programs where started to learn about Espers and in turn to train them. Especially after it was found that Espers could travel into the Gates with no issues.

Rise of the Corporations

The world population to a great hit from Starfall. Some countries with the majority of their populations and government in a single city were especially crippled. Corporations took advantage of the power vacuums to gain more and more power until these days some are essentially sovereignties in their own right.

They worked along with governments to contain the Gates. Which became more pressing as monstrous animals started occasionally coming out of the Gates.

The corporations with their Esper programs discovered that things brought of of the Gates often had properties that could be harnessed. This is how Magitek (magic technology) was born and it advanced technology in huge leaps over the next thirty years.

Second Wave

About ten years after Starfall a new wave of Espers started to emerge from the current population. A small percent of the children born after the creation of the Gate were starting to develop Esper powers as they entered the ages of 10 to 13. As their powers emerged another star lighted the night sky.

These Espers, dubbed "second wave," were much more stable than their first wave counterparts. However, further laws were passed to "protect the populace" by requiring all Espers to be placed into programs under the control of corporations or governments.

Technology was developed to help in the detection of new Espers. Today this technology is not perfect, but it means that some of the younger Espers have completely grown up in the confines of their program.

The Watchers

After the emergence of the second wave, now used to mean everyone born an Esper, a program was developed to help mind the Espers as their numbers grew. This program eventually created people known as "Watchers."

Very little is known about the Watcher program. The number of people involved is kept to a minimum and secrecy is maintained with prejudice. The Watches themselves are not forthcoming about their experiences.

There are of course many rumors around the program, and none very flattering. One rumor that may hold the most truth is that they select from Espers when they are very young. Most Espers who grew up in programs know someone who knows someone who saw a young Esper taken away by Watcher program personnel to never be seen again. 

Watches are resistant to magic and are able to see magic, but are otherwise blind. Their role is to watch Espers for signs of falling to their Urge. They are also used to hunt and contain rouge/un-registered Espers.

Needless to say the relationship between Espers and Watchers is tense at best.