Oriam/Ashworld Details

CIGEN: A system for ranking technological development in Ash's world. Comes from a shortened Hemel word, 'Cinguelean', which basically means 'Eureka'. Note that Stream use and Stream 'magic', known as Thaumaturgy, and the items it can construct, can pervade any CIGEN level.

CIGEN 0: Pre-civilization caveman levels. Sticks, stones, and fire, hunter/gatherer, one with nature. Rare, but such groups do exist.

CIGEN 1: Basic technology. Farmwork done via beasts of burden, houses of mud, wood, and straw, candles to light the dark. Basic metallurgy to craft tools and simple weapons. 30 percent of Ash's world operates under this level of living.

CIGEN 2: Advanced medieval technology. Stonework, water pumps, aqueducts, paved roads, writing paper, more advanced weapons such as crossbows. 55 percent of Ash's world operates under this level of living.

CIGEN 3: Steam-powered. A small amount of rail-line vehicles, furnaces instead of fireplaces, metal used in housing construction, basic plumbing and sanitation, printing presses, occasional forays into 'steampunk' style machines via thaumaturgy. 7 to 8 percent of Ash's world operates under this level of living.

CIGEN 4: Electrically powered. Small clusters of basic power structures often fueled by water and wind based turbines, electrical lights, gas-heated homes. 4 to 5 percent of Ash's world operates under this level of living.

CIGEN 5: Nuclear powered. Modern structures, self-powered motor vehicles, more advanced power structures that provide electrical heating. The only CIGEN level where firearms are not incredibly rare, as only CIGEN 5's are capable of manufacturing the weapons and bullets at any decent speed. 1 percent of Ash's world operates under this level of living.

CIGEN 6: Every color of the science fiction rainbow. Possesses super-advanced technology unseen anywhere else in the world; non-projectile weapons such as lasers, lighter than air vehicles, advanced armor vehicles such as tanks, and many sorts of one of a kind, experimental technology that will likely never be mass produced: the more philosophical of Ash's world believe (like a certain group of Orks), that a fair bit of tech in Oriam functions not under the laws of physics but via a need of a gestalt consciousness that dearly wants them to work. Only locations in Ash's world to still have something resembling movies and television, all locally produced and very crude by modern standards. Only three cities in Ash's world are classified under CIGEN 6: Oriam is the sole one open to the public. The second is the Hemel city of Veloeren, which due to the events that created the Hemel is more of a shrine than a city, very few Hemel capable of living there due to the extremely degraded condition of the land surrounding the city. The third is the secret Hemel city of Ruul, which is build underground and a very carefully guarded secret of the Hemel and Aarde. Two other cities once existed under the CIGEN 6 banner: one, Sulaco, was corrupted by Xaxargas' Elite Hardware and was destroyed in the Twilight Wars, while the other, Nostromo, was destroyed by the great beast of disaster Mokèlé-Mbèmbé.

Higher CISEN cities, while capable and (usually) willing to share their more advanced technology, are often stymied by the very limited infrastructure that will take years if not decades to be rebuilt, not to mention many lower CISEN ranked areas having an almost Amish-like concern over attempting to 'improve' their lives (if it ain't broke, don't fix it). In essence, those that want a more advanced life will congregate to where it is (which is the historically accepted reason for why the world is so patchwork to begin with, as well as different concentrations of Hemel).