Because each layer is an enclosed 100-mile shelf packed with high-energy machinery, the sheer heat and friction generate a terrifying brand of artificial weather:
Rust Dust-Storms: Massive, churning clouds of pulverized oxidized iron whipped up by giant ventilation fans or moving structural pistons. A rust-storm can completely strip the paint off a vanguard suit, clog air filters in seconds, and drop visibility to a flat zero feet. (FEC vets hate when this happens).
Oil & Coolant Floods: When high-pressure planetary-scale conduits rupture in the ceiling, it doesn't rain water—it rains boiling lubricant or freezing liquid nitrogen. Entire lower levels can become flash-flooded by raging rivers of pitch-black synthetic oil or glowing chemical run-off, sweeping away unsecured scaffolding and base camps.
The "Vent-Gales" (Harsh Winds): The megastructure has to breathe. When massive intake shafts clear out the heat from lower engine tiers, they create localized, screaming hurricanes of hot, dry wind across the structural beams. FEC caravans have to literally anchor themselves to the deck plates to keep from being blown off into the 100-mile abyss.
To truly understand the Hall of Humanity's place in the universe, one must understand the geometry of Conquoria. It is not a planet.
It is a galaxy-sized mechanical structure, of UNKNOWN depth.
THE ANATOMY OF A LAYER
While Conquoria stretches across light-years horizontally, its verticality is rigidly locked into a terrifying grid.
The Depth: Every layer is exactly 100 miles from ceiling to floor.
The Variety: No two layers are alike. Rivers of oil, coolant seas, strange creatures, forgotten civilizations, and colossal structures vary wildly from one tier to the next.
Our Anchor: Layer 001 is merely where humanity spreads out from. It is neither the top nor the bottom. Humanity does not live on a sphere. Humanity lives upon a shelf.
THE VERTICAL MATH
Travel between layers is measured not in light-years, but in miles.
Layer 30B: 3,000 miles below Layer 001.
Layer 300B: 30,000 miles below.
A vertical distance greater than the entire circumference of Old Earth.
Layer 2,050B: 205,000 miles below.
HISTORICAL NOTE:
Only a handful of legends have ever returned from the deep two-thousandth tiers.
Among them is the current Grand Keeper, Bram Gallagher III, who mapped portions of Layer 2,050 in his youth as an FEC Elder.
THE GREAT GATE
When the Monolithic Gate opens, humanity does not gaze upon a clear horizon. It opens onto a dense ocean of industrial mist and chemical vapor.
Visibility rarely exceeds 10 to 50 feet.
A veteran of the FEC once remarked:
"I once saw clear across Layer 001. Never want to again."
Because of the fog, the colossal pipes, scaffolding, and towers of Layer 001 do not stand in the open.
They loom.
Massive floodlights flash blindly through the haze.
And somewhere beyond the mist, the welding sparks of the Craftsmen flicker like distant lightning.
HALL OF HUMANITY HISTORICAL ARCHIVE // THE GRAND KEEPER
TITLE OF OFFICE: Grand Keeper
CURRENT INCUMBENT: Grand Keeper Bram Gallagher III
CORE MANDATE: To protect the memory of the Old World, coordinate the human race, and guide the species through the cycles of the Black lights.
THE ORIGIN & HISTORY
The office of the Grand Keeper was never meant to be a throne. It began in the dark centuries of the Age of Hunger with a single traveler, Shepard Cross. When the scattered, isolated settlements of Conquoria tried to name him a king for uniting them, Shepard refused all crowns. He insisted he was merely a "Keeper" of the memories of a forgotten Earth, carrying a lantern to gather the scattered fires of humanity.
When the Hall of Humanity was finally founded, the title stuck. For over nineteen thousand years, the Grand Keeper has not been an absolute ruler or a tyrant, but a coordinator and protector.
The position underwent its greatest shift 9,000 years ago during the dawn of the Age of Exploration. Grand Keeper Alexander Voss IV, driven by an unwavering pride in human resilience, took the monumental risk of opening the seven-mile-thick Great Gate. This initiated the modern era: a grueling, continuous cycle where the Gate remains open for 200 years of exploration and resource gathering, before closing for 100 years to shield humanity from the endless labor of the Craftsmen.
THE ELECTION PROCESS: THE CHOSEN GUIDE
Humanity has survived for millennia because the Hall is run as a family, a team, and a crew—not an empire. There are no royal bloodlines or corrupt political campaigns. When a Grand Keeper steps down or passes away, a new one is chosen through a deeply respected community tradition:
The Qualifications: The human family does not look for charismatic politicians or aggressive warriors. They look for the most responsible, selfless, and hardworking individuals within the Hall.
The Elder Council: Because the role requires immense grit and a deep understanding of Conquoria's dangers, a vast majority of elected Grand Keepers are FEC (Frontline Exploration Corps) Elders. These are men and women who spent their youth scaling freezing scaffolding, mapping dangerous layers, and risking their lives outside the Gate.
The Transition: The election is a solemn handover of the ultimate burden. To be chosen as Grand Keeper is not seen as a reward, but as a massive, lifelong responsibility to look out for the entire crew.
THE MODERN ROLE: BRAM GALLAGHER III
In the present year of 27,023, the office is held by Grand Keeper Bram Gallagher III. True to the traditions of the FEC elders before him, Bram is viewed by the younger recruits as a wise, approachable grandfather rather than a distant ruler.
Instead of governing from behind sealed doors, the modern Grand Keeper can often be found down on the staging decks, checking equipment seals, looking over structural maps, and ensuring that every expedition has what it needs to return safely. Under his guidance, the frontline crews continue to step out into the void, when hes not in the hall Bram would walk the streets of the Hall city and talk with the people, celebrate food and family with a smile, he would play with kids, dance with villagers, and when he needs to return to the hall he wishs them a good time and leaves to go to the Hall and do paperwork and study records, when threat approaches the city gates and threatens his people he fights in the charge leading his men standing 6'5 in his old FEC gear with a booming, human roar echoing the ancient cry:
In the dark centuries of the Age of Hunger, when mankind had been scattered into countless isolated tribes and settlements, there walked among them a humble traveler named Shepard Cross. Bearing neither crown nor banner, he journeyed the layers carrying seeds, maps, books, tools, news, and stories, believing that humanity's greatest enemy was not Conquoria itself, but the loneliness and division that had taken root within the hearts of men. Through decades of wandering he brought distant peoples together, rekindled forgotten trade routes, settled disputes, and taught the scattered remnants of Old World that no fire survives alone. Thus did the settlements grow into fellowship, and fellowship into what would one day become the Hall of Humanity.
Though many sought to name him king and grant him honors, Shepard Cross refused every title bestowed upon him. It is recorded that when asked how he wished to be remembered, he answered only:
"Just another man who held the memories of a world long forgotten."
And again, in the years before the Founding of the Hall, he is said to have spoken these words unto those who traveled beside him:
"We have already lost the world. Let us not lose one another. Eight thousand years have passed since mankind stood together beneath the skies of Earth, and though the oceans are gone and the mountains are dust, I believe there is yet strength enough within us to gather the scattered fires and become a people once more. So here am I, Shepard, with all the compassion and strength I have, trying to gather my people together into a civilization worthy of those long forgotten."
For this reason he came to be known by later generations as the First Keeper, the Bridge Builder, the Father of the Hall, and the Lantern Bearer. At the entrance to the Hall of Humanity there stands a great bronze monument in his likeness, depicting not a conqueror astride a horse nor a warrior bearing a sword, but a weary traveler clad in a worn coat, holding aloft a lantern, with a satchel of books and a crate of seeds resting beside him, his hand outstretched toward all who would follow. Upon the stone beneath his feet are carved the words:
SHEPARD CROSS
THE FIRST KEEPER
"We have already lost the world.
Let us not lose one another."
And below these are inscribed the three virtues by which mankind endures:
Knowledge. Memory. Survival.
THE GREAT GATE
During the latter years of the Age of Hunger, the First Century Of The Black Lights descended upon mankind.
Until that time, humanity had believed itself hidden among the endless structures of Conquoria. Yet when the Black Lights came, the Works of the Craftsmen followed, and for one hundred years the settlements of man knew only death.
In those terrible years, Shepard Cross gathered the first climbing companies and led the Defense of the Hall. Men and women fought with all the desperation of a species facing extinction. Entire districts were wiped out. Countless lives were lost. Yet though a quarter of the Hall was destroyed, mankind endured.
It is written that four thousand, six hundred and seventy-five Craftsmen were halted, buried, delayed, or destroyed in the fighting. But Shepard Cross understood that no victory had been won.
The Craftsmen did not hate. They did not tire. They did not retreat. They simply continued. And so Shepard Cross conceived a different answer. Not a sword. Not a machine of war. But a GATE.
A shield between mankind and the endless works beyond.
Gathering the survivors before the ruins of the Hall, he declared:
"This gate shall be the shield, the guardian, and protector of all we hold dear. It shall stand, watch over our children and the generations yet unborn. Let the Craftsmen labor against it. We shall endure. Till the Metal Ends."
Seven miles thick and wrought from countless locks, mechanisms, and reinforced layers, the Monolithic Gate became the greatest structure ever built by human hands.
And when at last it closed during the next 100 years of The Black Lights, The Hall of Humanity was spared.
Beyond the Gate, the Craftsmen continued their endless labor.
They dug. They built. They dismantled. They worked.
For centuries. For millennia. And still they work.
over nineteen thousand years after its completion, in the Year 27,023, the Great Gate yet stands.
Scarred. Ancient. Ever watchful.
Its mechanisms are tended by generations of keepers who know not every secret of its workings, yet faithfully preserve them all the same.
No man living had ever seen the full breadth of the works beyond the Gate until the Age of Exploration when Grand Keeper Alexander Voss IV, with a passion of curiosity, knowledge, resources and burning fire to demonstrate the unwavering resilience of man, had opened the ancient doors after ten thousand years of their construction. With all knowing the truth spoken by The First Grand Keeper Shepard Cross in the Age of Hunger:
"We have already lost the world. Let us not lose one another."
Thus the Great Gate remained in a cycle of opening for 200 years and closing for 100 years for over 9,000 years to the present day
(Shepard establishes the Hall of Humanity, marking the end of the Age of Hunger)
500–8,000 — lasted 7,500 years
The Age of the Gate
(The construction of the Great Gate begins)
8,000–18,000 — lasted 10,000 years
Following the establishment of the Hall of Humanity, Shepard initiated the construction of the Great Gate. Though he would not live to see its completion, humanity continued his work across thousands of generations. The seven-mile-thick barrier became the greatest engineering undertaking in human history, requiring ten thousand years to complete.
The Age of Exploration
(The Great Gate opens for the first time in ten thousand years, marking the beginning of the age)
18,000–Present — 9,023 years so far.
Grand Keeper Alexander Voss IV took the monumental risk of opening it for the first time. This decision initiated the Age of Exploration and established the modern cycle of 200 years open and 100 years closed, allowing humanity to venture into Conquoria while periodically sealing itself away from the endless labor of the Craftsmen.
The Cinder Mink is a small whiskered scavenger commonly encountered near inhabited regions of Conquoria. Covered in soot-gray fibers and equipped with sensitive vibrissae, the species is known for its inquisitive behavior and tendency to steal metallic objects.
While largely harmless, they are notorious pests among FEC detachments.
Diet:
Rust mold
Insects
Organic waste
Fungal growths
Caravan scraps
Shed Steam Drake skin
Behavior:
Hoards shiny objects.
Nests in tight airducts
Forms family groups.
Chirps and clicks to communicate.
Freezes when surprised.
Frequently follows expedition camps.
Relationship With Humans:
Generally tolerated.
Veteran FEC personnel often feed them scraps despite regulations.
FEC Advice
Secure all utensils.
Check your pockets.
Never underestimate their curiosity.
Common Saying
"If you've got one Cinder Mink, you've got six."
Audio:
Soft clicking noises.
Chirps.
Trills.
Quiet purring vibrations.
Colonies have been compared to distant typewriters.
