What's going on here you ask?
In the year 2000, the world fell apart. In a cataclysm that saw several
nuclear devices detonated in eastern europe, that brought the global
economy to it's knees, and fragmented the only two large countries left
in the world, the US and China, the entire fabric of reality changed
overnight.
It became obvious that supernatural forces were battling it out for
control. Vampires, Garou, Mages, all fragmented, but wielding forces of
incredible power, fought for their way and humanity was caught in the
middle.
It took 10 years for the dust to settle. Now, the world is different.
Huge corporations wield the real power. Governments are pawns to their
machinations. Magic and creatures of darkness have become a part of
reality. Secrets that should never have been are no more. Humanity has
reunited with it's spiritual and magical spirit, as it rushes headlong
to give it's soul to the machine.
What caused the Fall?
The Vampire pulled one too many strings. The Garou could no longer
contain their rage. The Technocracy let it's attention slip for a
moment. Perhaps it was just destined to happen.
Whatever the reason, the Fall was both an end and a beginning. When the
cold war philosophy finally came home to roost and the US stock market
crashed, it pulled everything toward the pit. The players in the field
moved quickly to guard/get their piece of the pie. Conflict was
inevitable. Into this pot, already rife with cooks, the WYRM wriggled
like a black catalyst. All hell broke loose.
Centuries of silent posturing and delicate manipulation gave way to
desperate, open conflict. The thin disquise that humanity had long
accepted for it's own sanity was torn away in the battle and mortal eyes
were forced to see the world as it was.
No one walked away unscathed. At first, the casualties were enormous, but
all life has at the core of it's existence, the ability to adapt.
Eventually a new reality settled into place. Broken and fractured, but
livable.
There is balance in all things. Light is sister to Darkness, Good is
brother to Bad. It is the essence of existence, it is the truth that
underlies understanding.
In the cities of the Bright, the world is hard and real. Even the
imagination has been explored and defined by the corporation sciences.
Birth, sex, love, work, all are part and parcel of oppressive technology
and engineered society.
But in the Dark, these definitions are crushed by fear, anger, desire, and the
shadows. The edge of your vision pulls at your security. The world presses
in too closely against the edges of the city, a distant force that seems to
breath...
Imagine Utopia with a disease. The bright city and the great, green unknown
at war. One wields technology and the other, magic. Both have only one foot
soldier - the spirit of humanity. Both are part of heaven, and while the war
that can never end rages, the battlefield between inherits something of each.
This is the world of DarkMetal. Monsters and heros. It's all a matter of
perspective.
It is the information age and people, like anything else, are quantified in
a thousand ways on an incredible web of computing devices. Their health
records, birth certificates, money, all the myriad pieces of data that are
the product of a lifetime in a computerized society end up being attached to
them.
More accurately, attached to their SSN. Once a number used to match people
to their government benefits, the SSN has become the key to a person's
life.
All the residents of the 'Bright' world that surrounds the corporations
use their SSN's constantly. A great many actually have it tattooed on
their wrists to simplify identification and as a sign of status.
Of the remaining populace, about 75% have an SSN and use it when they are
dealing with the system. Hospital stays, licenses of various kinds, taxes
and business dealings often require an SSN.
The rest are collectively called 'The Dark' or 'Dark'. These are the fringe
of society who either cannot get or do not want an SSN. They deal in barter
or in certified cards ( a form of electronic money order. ) They cannot prove
who they are, but they are also outside the immediate gaze of the information
world. They are free in a peculiar way.