The World of Post Mortem
A Near-Future World
Post Mortem is set in a 'near-future' world: a setting that appears to be very much like our own until you scratch the surface. Near-future science fiction takes place in the present day but plays on our assumptions, hopes, and fears of technology that are already real or on the cusp of creation.
Yesterday we were playing Atari. Today we are virtually simulating reality. Tomorrow we may create artificial intelligence.
This means that technologically, outside of a few rare commercial products and the strange science of DOOR, on the surface life is by and large extremely similar to our own. There are no anti-grav skateboards, no machines capable of teleporting humans across the city, no ray guns.
The Quantum Revolution
Developments in quantum physics and hermetic alchemy have revealed dark and alien realities that interface with our own; rare and terrifying anomalies that our superstitious ancestors may have erroneously labeled daemons or spirits, but that we now are capable of quantifying, analyzing, and categorizing.
Cryptoscience, a rudimentary but 'respectable' new means of studying the occult, is practiced discretely behind the closed doors of highly secretive government research facilities and corporate R&D departments alike.
The promise of infinite dimensions of time and space may be both prudent and profitable to explore.
Political Decay
The story of Post Mortem is set in a world very much like ours, with problems and conflicts very much like ours. Ecological degradation, growing disparity between rich and poor, abdication of political autonomy to social elites and institutions, and a wary apprehension of the future are all features of the social landscape.
Despite its similarities, ultimately Post Mortem is an alternate reality.
Post Mortem is set in a 'near-future' world: a setting that appears to be very much like our own until you scratch the surface. Near-future science fiction takes place in the present day but plays on our assumptions, hopes, and fears of technology that are already real or on the cusp of creation.
Yesterday we were playing Atari. Today we are virtually simulating reality. Tomorrow we may create artificial intelligence.
This means that technologically, outside of a few rare commercial products and the strange science of DOOR, on the surface life is by and large extremely similar to our own. There are no anti-grav skateboards, no machines capable of teleporting humans across the city, no ray guns.
The Quantum Revolution
Developments in quantum physics and hermetic alchemy have revealed dark and alien realities that interface with our own; rare and terrifying anomalies that our superstitious ancestors may have erroneously labeled daemons or spirits, but that we now are capable of quantifying, analyzing, and categorizing.
Cryptoscience, a rudimentary but 'respectable' new means of studying the occult, is practiced discretely behind the closed doors of highly secretive government research facilities and corporate R&D departments alike.
The promise of infinite dimensions of time and space may be both prudent and profitable to explore.
Political Decay
The story of Post Mortem is set in a world very much like ours, with problems and conflicts very much like ours. Ecological degradation, growing disparity between rich and poor, abdication of political autonomy to social elites and institutions, and a wary apprehension of the future are all features of the social landscape.
Despite its similarities, ultimately Post Mortem is an alternate reality.
The Department of Occult Research
The Department of Occult Research, otherwise known simply as DOOR, is the government's top secret association of high level researchers, scientists, engineers, and field agents working in cryptoscientific areas of study behind the public's back. Founded as a private association of curious hobbyists of the occult at the turn of the 19th century, the fellowship that would become DOOR quickly attracted the government's attention and was soon bent to military and espionage applications.
With the dawning of the nuclear age and the birth of new scientific paradigms, DOOR’s methods shifted away from shady and ultimately circumspect ‘old magicks’ and towards cutting edge technologies that would allow us the opportunities to study what lay in wait in the crevices between realities.
Despite all the power of modern science at our disposal, we are still children fumbling in the dark
The Class System
The story's participants portray members of the Department of the lowest and highest ranks alike. The Department divides its personnel into two distinct classes, each with their own privileges, decision making power, and responsibilities. Class A members hold prestigious titles, enjoy reaping the rewards and recognition for the work their teams complete, and earn larger salaries and research grants. Class B members by and large do the dirty work, both in the field and in the lab.
Humanity & the Cosmos
The Department has also been host to more than one schism over both method and philosophy. The possibilities offered by the quantum revolution and contact with other-dimensional entities may be vast and world changing, and even the Department's high ranking personnel are not in unanimous agreement over how these new possibilities should be wielded and who will ultimately benefit from any changes.
Similarly, the shift from old magicks and traditional occultism to the cold, hard and unfeeling reason of science also puts many personnel at odds over the very nature of the occult and humanity's place in the cosmos. For some, daemons are ancient creatures of malign intelligence who prove that humans are just grains of sand in the cosmos. For others, 'daemons' are simply strange formations of particles and matter we, in our infinite wisdom and destiny as masters of nature, have yet to have a proper chance to dissect and analyze.
Modern Work
Like many modern bureaucracies, and because of the clandestine nature of the Department's project, DOOR uses strong social pressures and group policing to keep up morale, reiterate the chain of command, and gauge and monitor the compliance and disposition of its members.
The story's participants portray members of the Department of the lowest and highest ranks alike. The Department divides its personnel into two distinct classes, each with their own privileges, decision making power, and responsibilities. Class A members hold prestigious titles, enjoy reaping the rewards and recognition for the work their teams complete, and earn larger salaries and research grants. Class B members by and large do the dirty work, both in the field and in the lab.
Humanity & the Cosmos
The Department has also been host to more than one schism over both method and philosophy. The possibilities offered by the quantum revolution and contact with other-dimensional entities may be vast and world changing, and even the Department's high ranking personnel are not in unanimous agreement over how these new possibilities should be wielded and who will ultimately benefit from any changes.
Similarly, the shift from old magicks and traditional occultism to the cold, hard and unfeeling reason of science also puts many personnel at odds over the very nature of the occult and humanity's place in the cosmos. For some, daemons are ancient creatures of malign intelligence who prove that humans are just grains of sand in the cosmos. For others, 'daemons' are simply strange formations of particles and matter we, in our infinite wisdom and destiny as masters of nature, have yet to have a proper chance to dissect and analyze.
Modern Work
Like many modern bureaucracies, and because of the clandestine nature of the Department's project, DOOR uses strong social pressures and group policing to keep up morale, reiterate the chain of command, and gauge and monitor the compliance and disposition of its members.