HISTORY
“When we were forced to leave one of our porters to the wolves of the frozen wasteland, we were already near the fringes of the Ancient Human city center. After a month of trekking, the expedition was exhausted. I had studied Montreal on maps, but the vast, icy ruins were full of surprises. Two members of the expedition had already been lost to bottomless crevasses. Suddenly, we beheld a large, semi-collapsed structure which, after a brief field survey, we surmised to have been some kind of performance venue. (Only later did archaeoscience prove that the Ancients indeed played ‘puck’ in large, roofed indoor arenas). In the courtyard of that building, we saw them: four magnificent statues. Such determination, nobility, the dynamic energy of the body… Sticks in hand, skates on their feet… Truly, they knew how to craft statues in the old days! The figures were so well-preserved they must have been entombed in ice for ages, revealed only by local melting within the last few centuries. We were enraptured. After a long silence, everyone erupted in joy and praised the gods. We knew we would remember that moment for the rest of our lives, but of course, it occurred to no one what a pivotal impact this discovery would have on the future of the entire planet.”
– Excerpt from the diary of Archaeomonk David Puckinstone, Research Director of the Montreal Expedition outfitted by Shagothkin, Commander-in-Chief of His Highness’s Arctic Republic, year 8789.
The world of whipped cream, bicycle helmets, and Seinfeld ended in the year 3178. Humanity pressed the reset button: nuclear war.
Nuclear winter followed. Mankind dwindled and regressed. Complex social constructs gave way to small communities and autocracies. Philosophical-technological ambition was replaced by mechanical-religious thinking. The daily life of the human species became a struggle for survival in arctic conditions, where well-being was squeezed out of primitive agriculture and heavy industry. On a barren, frozen Earth, science, art, and sport withered away. The last bandy player reportedly died on a hunting trip in 3182, and the last curling team was slaughtered in the village wars of Stockholm in 3183.
After the nuclear war, biological and evolutionary processes took a new turn, and as we know, such processes usually go to hell. Over thousands of years, the so-called Anthropocene—the human-centered era—faded from the Earth. Mutations began to appear in organisms. The planet transitioned into a phase we might call the Multispocene, the era of many races: the planet was now populated by Hoomans, Gorks, Necralites, Ferris, Radiunis, Hudrafolk, Primes and and all manner of grimaces and deformities.
When the hockey statues of Montreal were discovered, five and a half thousand years had passed since the nuclear war. Artifacts found in the research area suggested that something important lay in a remote mountainous region of Terra Europa, inhabited by a population of rat-folk. The Ancients had called that region Switzerland. Indeed, the sanctuary of the IIHF organization and the rules of a lost sport, ice hockey, were found there. According to ancient documents, the original IIHF was an incorruptible and honorable sporting body, but when it was re-established as a “joint peace project for every creature on Earth” in the year 8800, the organization was anything but: Union Leader Ice General Tetsuo II is likely the most corrupt lifeform on the planet.
The new world conquest of “Ice Hockey” happened rapidly. Peoples living amidst the ice, craving bread and circuses, appreciated a frozen and rugged sport. Ice was their soulscape; violence was their mother tongue. Star leagues emerged, such as the legendary Golden Circle, but such things are light-years away from the grassroots struggle.
Few things on Earth are certain nowadays, except this: where there is life, there will be—in addition to inbreeding and venereal disease—ice hockey matches. The small stadiums of misty valleys and the grimy rinks of the slums are where hungry hearts beat for the puck and the bookies’ wallets. There, the sweat of passion and the blood of frustration are shed. In thousands of beer leagues, money is won or lost, lives are spared or taken. You never leave a linemate behind and the coach is a god—until that linemate stands in the way of your promotion, or the god must be forsaken. In these rinks, they don’t snap it, they slap it; they don’t hook, they impale—this is hockey!
WORLD OVERVIEW
In the year 3178, hoomankind hit the reset button and triggered a nuclear war. What followed was a nuclear winter and a total upheaval of the ecosystem. Permafrost, radiation, acid rain, and toxic winds scourged the planet. But life endured. At first, hoomankind dwindled and regressed, only to rise later to a new flouris—well, to rise to something!
In the first centuries after the Great Cataclysm, complex social structures devolved back into small communities and oligarchies. Daily life became a struggle for survival in arctic conditions, where wellbeing was eked out through subsistence farming and rudimentary industry. In this bleak, icy world, science, art, and sport decayed into the hobbies of a capable few. Philosophic-technological ambition was replaced by mechano-religious thinking.
With the collapse of nation-states and the international world order, lineages, tribes, and local communities gained importance. Gradually, however, a need arose to form larger unions based on utility—and subjugation. City-states emerged in the few remaining habitable areas. Today, most of the population lives in massive megacities where life is grim for the majority, but still vastly superior to the alternative: the contaminated wasteland inhabited by savages and ruled by anarchy. Terra Euralis (or the “Old Peninsula,” as romantics call former Europe) is mostly toxic wasteland, but it is also home to the world’s largest megacity: in New Londrax, 75–80 million hoomans chase fortune and bliss. No one knows the exact number, and no one really cares.
The administration of megacities is built on corruption, personal connections, and economic power. Grassroots “facade referendums” are held in city sectors to give citizens the illusion of sending representatives into the decision-making machinery. In reality, power lies—depending on the city—with the mega-corporations that provide jobs and wealth, or with authoritarian rulers who have a large enough portion of the military in their pocket. Politicians typically have close ties to these corporations, but they sometimes harbor their own divergent interests, aligning themselves with the citizens (i.e., the workers) against the corporations when the power struggle demands it.
The Omnidemocracy is an authoritarian federal state formed by three city-states. Omnigrad, Toverograd, and Demokratarsk are the factory-megacities of the Omnidemocracy, whose planned economy devours countless workers and produces half of the world’s industrial goods (including ice skates). “Made in everlasting Omnidemocracy” is one of the first sentences read by children learning to literacy. Throughout its existence, the Omnidemocracy has sought to expand, but a loose, ever-fracturing alliance of other city-states has managed to dam its most sinister plans. Fortunately for the rest of the world, warfare is neither easy nor simple in a world where earth and sky are ruled by pollution—often, diplomacy and intrigue prove more effective. Within Terra Euralis, the loudest neighbors and counter-forces to the Omnidemocracy have been the megacities of New Svearik, Ashford Prime, Kaltstadt, Nordhel, and Frosthafen. To the far east, the players blocking Omnidemocratic expansion are New Peking, Khongor Khot, and Shuangfeng.
The world outside the city-states is mostly contaminated wasteland. As the city-dwellers say, outside lies Nullaterra—the “non-land” or “land of emptiness.” In truth, numerous tribes and even nations live in the desert. Bizarre rumors constantly emerge from the wastes, and few know what actually happens in Nullaterra. And how could they? The typical city-dweller never leaves their city once in their entire life. Those who know the wastes best are the mystical Archeomonks, who travel and study Nullaterra, though even they do not know everything.
SPECIES
Hoomans are not the only species on Earth. Over thousands of years, the so-called Anthropocene—the hooman-centered era—has faded. After the nuclear war, biological and evolutionary processes shifted into high gear. Natural mutations and strange hybrids began to appear in organisms. Due to geography and quirks of nature, mutations developed in different directions across the globe.
For example, some hoomans found permanent shelter underground after the Great Cataclysm. Naturally, safety from the surface-level nuclear hell was an attractive option. Over millennia, the living conditions and altered mineral composition of the soil shaped this branch of sapiens. The most peculiar change was caused by iron, a common element in the Earth’s crust, which was mobilized by the Cataclysm and integrated into the genome of the subterranean civilization. A new race emerged: the Ferri, who can no longer be considered hoomans. They are shorter, wider, and more robust than hoomans. Evolution has turned their skin pale, almost white. These “Iron-born” practice the noble art of bio-metallurgy: because their bodies contain so much post-Cataclysm iron, they do not reject iron implants. Thus, Ferri Iron-Shamans can use their laboratories to fuse imaginative iron applications or reinforcements to the Ferri body, helping them survive the harsh Nullaterra or gain an edge on the hockey rink.
Another widespread species born through natural mutation are the Necralites. In the beginning, during the famines caused by the Cataclysm, a hooman community consumed too many contaminated corpses mutated by fallout, triggering a unique evolutionary path. Cellular and genetic changes gradually turned these scavengers into beast-like, bony, sinewy predators with sharp teeth, though their brain function remained similar to their ancestor, the hooman. While feasting on corpses eventually became a cultural curiosity, the predatory nature of the Necralite body and spirit did not fade. Their speed, fangs, and claws still help them hunt prey and eat it raw. Although Necralites now consume corpses only in religious rituals and on feast days, few people want them as neighbors. Most Necralites live in the wastelands, and urban Necralites form their own districts or blocks where they are left in peace. Urban Necralites look down upon their “wild” kin in the wastes, though they no longer possess any real knowledge of their rural cousins’ culture. Regardless, the Necralites’ suitability for ice hockey has not gone unnoticed, and many Necralite clubs have succeeded in the lower leagues. Perhaps one day they will be seen all the way in the Championship League.
Mutations and new races have also been developed in laboratories. Among the Archeomonks, who manage ancient knowledge, it has always been known that the Gorks were originally a race developed by the Omnidemocracy for warfare. In a closely guarded research facility spanning dozens of hectares—the Omnidemocratic Replication Center (O.R.C.)—the vision of early racial engineers gave birth to a variant called the Gork (short for Green Omnidemocratic Rifleman Commando). (Editor’s note: Another theory is Gork, short for Green Omnidemocratic Riflemen Kickoff, referring to the bureaucratic start of the project rather than the result).
The Gorks were intended to be a physically stronger and mentally more ruthless super-race of perfect soldiers. However, the engineers were disappointed. While the race’s physical attributes were enhanced, they were far from perfect soldiers because they simply weren’t sharp enough mentally. The high hopes were not met. Consequently, Gorks have blended into the world as one race among many; others do not see them as a super-race, but as green-skinned, semi-erratic workhorses. No one except the Archeomonks remembers the ancient history of the name “Gork,” and the average person wouldn’t even believe the story of their origin—that is how normal a part of daily life the Gorks have become.
Other experiments also slipped into the wild from laboratories and have integrated into the global population over thousands of years. For instance, products of a marten-hooman hybridization project escaped from a research lab in city-state Slavsector-3. These Hooman-Martens have since bred like, well, martens, and today the population of Hooman-Martens in Slavsector-3 is larger than any other single species.
Over thousands of years, the races have intermingled. It is not uncommon to see a Gork family with slight marten-like features or a Ferri lineage with a hint of a Necralite’s predatory teeth. “Purity of blood” has become very rare. Among the elite of some megacities, racial purism or nationalism is a popular ideology, and the most purist ice hockey teams do not accept “mixed-race” players.
Earth has moved from the Anthropocene to the Multispecene—the era of many races. Now and in the future, the planet is inhabited by all sorts of grotesqueries and deformities. One can have many opinions on this, but the essential question, of course, is: Can they play hockey?