In a world that was blasted back into the stone age, and is only now climbing toward the industrial age, there are a very few who are blessed to have the remnants of higher technology. Only a few who dare brave the wastes and the outlands for the spoils in the ancient ruins, and even fewer who can get what they find to work.
And when I say few, I mean... maybe two hundred, among supposedly hundreds of thousands of people. The Human Race... has fallen on hard times. There was a war, some thousands of years ago(only a few, likely, but still) that blasted the whole race back into the stone age. Of course, they reached the iron age soon enough, thanks to a few people who remembered a few things(and passed it on through the oral tradition), but things are not as they were.
The ancient weapons of war, and the machines that wielded them, were so devastating that they warped reality around them. The damage was so severe that magic has, in fact, become possible. This is, perhaps, the one thing that has kept humanity as high as it is on the food chain.
At the same time, though, there are problems. Most magic users are selfish puppeteers, manipulating the fallen mecha and other machines through crude energies. Very few know how to work them, content to pretend and lord it over their chosen city-states. Bandits and outlaws are everywhere, chaos is common in most of the world. Here and there, pockets of Civilization have popped up. The Duchy of Gahrimon, for one, and the Kehleris Plains have both displayed a surprising level of peace due to their namesakes.
For the most part, though, things are much as they were during the Dark Ages. A new Dark Age, as it were. Most people never see true technology in use. Most people have no idea how to use any higher technology they find.
And everyone is decidedly nervous around Outlanders.
Enter Jonathan. He's an Outlander, one of those brave, insane, or simply supremely skilled folk who dare enter the regions where things have become very, very strange. The landscape of the Outlands has become utterly alien to most people, with strange plants and animals, and dangerous ruins teeming with ancient monsters. The wastelands, at least, only have the desolation and the ruins... they don't have the life of the Outlands.
Anyway. Jonathan is an Outlander, as was his mother. He grew up in that environment, always wearing a gasmask and often secured under his mother's armor. When he was old enough, they rigged an airtight, sterile shelter, and he was given his own armor to wear, and his own, suitably sized gasmask. He was also given his first weapon, a small-caliber pistol.
Needless to say, he grew up and moved on.
His mother is still alive, but Outlanders cannot safely live together, most of the time. Large groups attract beasts of all sorts, some harmless, some hunting the harmless ones. As well, resources are fairly scarce, and frankly after sixteen years spent together they're sick of each other. Other than that, they're on good terms. Having acquired his interesting mount, as well as some interesting tools, JT has set off on his own to make his own way.
Armed with an assault rifle and a larger, higher-caliber rifle(possibly an old sniper or anti-materiel rifle), and accompanied by Brutus, Jonathan has decided he wants to see new things. No shortage of those in the Outlands, but at the same time he wants to meet people. His mother's encounters with Outlanders were brief, sometimes confrontational, but she told him stories about his Father's lands, the green fields and the clean air. A place where you don't need much armor or an air purifier, a place where you can be free, and clean. He decided, in the end, to go there....
We'll see how well that works out.
