Lore

*In Underpunks you play as a mutant humanoid rat living deep below a 1980's retro-futuristic vision of a cyberpunk city that you lost contact with in 1955.*

### Year One (2021 - 2022)

Players began as stone-age miners living underground and progressed to a strong community who formed guilds, gained skills, and began exploring a dungeon that had been sealed off following a magical apocalypse during the first year of gameplay. One player (TruFFe) has made it 20 levels above the underground Ratropian city, but there's still a long way to go.

### Origin Story

1950 - Scientists in a Soviet laboratory in Georgia (a country above Turkey) began experimenting with rats to improve their intelligence, size, and strength. They successfully created a caged colony of humanoid rats that stand about 46 centimetres (18 inches) tall using human DNA, growth hormones, and some experimental drugs.

1955 - The rats are further mutated by an atomic event, and they flee deep underground via a massive underground river fed by a waterfall. A few other experiments escape with them. The Underpunks establish a colony underground, now known as the Hideous Dungeon, and vow never to return to the surface.

1970s - The human Apollo missions were never cancelled and Skylab was re-boosted and kept in orbit around the Earth.

[Historical Earth Timeline splits off at this point]

1981 - The Underpunks discover SHARD magic and the stone-aged colony advances rapidly.

1988 - When a mystical Underpunk 'DEATHPUNK' unleashes some extradimensional/extraplanar shit, a magical apocalypse occurs. The old colony (now known as the dungeon) and many of its mystics have been sealed off. Access to the 'Imperious Waterfall,' which washed down wooden items, crates, and cultural information in the form of magazines, has also been lost. Attempting to gain entry to the dungeon is a capital offence.

1989 - A human exploration team descends the waterfall, and all but one member is slaughtered by the strange beasts deep below. The sole survivor manages to flee and is committed to an asylum. Locals avoid the cavern entrance, and the entire event is dismissed as superstitious nonsense. The post-apocalyptic Underpunk colony is cut off from the SURFACE.

1994 - The humans above go full cyberpunk (computer/space age on steroids) and are no longer dependent on underground mines, sewers, tunnels, or even the earth. Mars has been colonised.

1999 - A massive fire engulfs the new Underpunk city, and fire is strictly prohibited.

2000 - The mediaeval epoch begins. Tools and weapons are in short supply and are frequently regarded as religious artefacts. Magic is more of a myth than a reality.

[Players enter the universe at this point - 27th April 2021]

2021 - A new colony has been established, complete with a new Queen, Guilds, Mining, and a basic city bordering a massive underground river. This entire cavern was formed along a fault line.

* 12th October - The dungeon was reopened, magical items have been researched, and new surface technology has been discovered.
* 18th November - Three players (Nobles: SpiriBetter, Cigale & weap10) create Corporations and have control over their own gameplay universe (Shires) within Underpunks.

2022 - Technology that has washed down the waterfall is being discovered and scientists begin constructing a rocket below the waterfall.

* 18th March - TruFFe, a player, scales a ledge high above the underground city and discovers the earthbound brown dragons.