Echo Sprawl

In Landfall-530 - Noble Blood, humanity reached its zenith. Behemoths like The Second Lilaris Empire, Starspire, New Ides, and the Mirage Concord thrived under the divine governance of the Divinets: AI gods interfacing with genetically attuned humans. They guided nations, managed economies, and shaped culture and belief. Following The Blaze, all that remains are ruins, silence, and the consequences of unchecked corporations.

Echo Sprawl was one such consequence: a hyper-optimized arcology built by competing megacorps to contain, monitor, and extract labor. It was never meant to be a home. When the world collapsed, the corporations filled the vacuum, adapting the structure into a self-contained sanctuary.

Today, Echo Sprawl is a corporate-run refuge on a dying Earth. Towering steel monoliths house a decaying society. At its core, pristine towers gleam. White walls, muted tones, penthouses styled like influencer-wellness retreats. Beyond, the city rots. Collapsing infrastructure, failing systems, and market-stalls cling to terraces between megastructures. Propaganda drones circle endlessly, preaching obedience and unity.

Survival in Echo Sprawl is a grim bargain. The corporations offer shelter, food, and protection, but only in exchange for total subservience. It's a post-capitalist husk, a parody perhaps, where currency is obsolete, replaced by labor-for-subsistence contracts. Most comply, trading freedom for scraps, because the alternative is worse.

The elite live above the smogline, basking in non-artificial sunlight. Below, generations toil in lightless slums, taught from birth that work is purpose, and mere survival is noble. But the illusion is fading and some have begun to ask dangerous questions.

"Could there be life beyond Echo Sprawl?”
“Could freedom be worth the risk?”

Those who try to leave are fodder for fear campaigns: “Look what happened to the fools who fled.” But the myth of a better life persists. Trailblazers still vanish into the shadows, slipping through cracks in the concrete carcass of Echo Sprawl… chasing something more than survival. There's an abundance of people who still believe in the promise of Echo Sprawl, so travel remains unrestricted. For now...