Earth.
A vast human Empire dominates the planet, its marvels of architecture, science, art and wisdom is matched only by its ability for warfare and repression of heretics and dissidents.
In the depths of an Imperial laboratory, a young brilliant researcher and alchemist take the first steps toward events that will echo through millennia - the quest of opening the Doors of Dark Matter, the keys to time and space itself. Their goal is the red planet Mars, to expand the empire throughout the universe.
A portal-device is built, its mechanics built into the very walls, streets and spires of the city, a giant spiderweb of a single, true purpose. On a storm-ridden night, where lightning strikes relentlessly at the golden spires of the capital city, the research, planning, sacrifice, work and efforts finally align with the massive energy flashes from the sky. Through a lightning crack that echoes through an age, the portal device sparks to life through the streets, a dark pulsating void emerging at the device’s core - the portal to Mars is finally open. The chosen few of the Travellers enter the void-portal, carrying a piece of the portal device with them.
In a journey of darkness, shattered sanities and turmoil, the Travellers travel through the spacetime and emerge torn and battered upon the face of Mars. Some dead, some insane but with a few survivors that remain determined to establish the portal on the new world. A small outpost is built, the portal is secured and on a thin thread between life and death, a colonization begins.
Below the storm ridden, rocky grounds dwellings are being built, and so are the fungi caves first discovered. Deep below the ground, in huge cave systems, vast forests of giant fungi are growing - emitting a faint red light and a misty haze of spores.
The fungi’s spores are examined to be both flammable with potent chemicals inside, but is also hallucinogenic. This discovery is quickly put into use, with refineries and fungal farms being used to extract a new type of fuel.
The hallucinogenic effects are quickly adopted into the occult practices of the old religion, but also spawns new visions and ideas, the human mind interacting with a brand new alien breed of toxins and psychotropics.
