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Trying to figure out how the landscape of Rifts Earth was for an adventure.

Say something like -20 PA instead of, what is it now 109 PA.

Are monsters and demons aimlessly wondering the land eating humans?

Generation 0 for D-Bees?

Arrival of Naruni? Splugorth?

Earthquakes?

Ley Line Storms?

Some of the books describe life as being kill, possessed, enslaved, eaten or in hiding. As bad as life is, even for a D-Bee they flock to the CS, and their racism over life un-policed by them.

There's not a lot of info in the books - it's the Dark Ages after all - so you're going to have to make a few assumptions.

Some general things to consider regarding a setting 20 years before 0PA:

It's been ~180 years since the cataclysm, so things have probably calmed down a bit. Communities have already formed and started to stabilize. LL storms likely have substantially reduced to near what is typical of 109 PA. The books don't speak of any unusually prominent geological events around that time.

DBees have been around since Dec 22, 2098 AD, so no change there. Some species may not have arrived yet, others may be there but not survive the next century.

No Naruni. Mercs pg 122 implies they are a new outfit that only started being active after ~100 PA. They don't show up in Los Alamo until 104 PA (WB10 pg 113).

SB01R pg 121 tells the tale of the ruination of the New Republic in Washington DC by the Splugorth 60 years into the Dark Ages. Since it only took 5 years for Splynn to be built (WB21 pg 9), expect the Splugorth to be well established by -20 PA.

Monsters/demons aimlessly eating people, how has that changed? Humans for breakfast, humans for lunch and, gosh darn, if it ain't humans for dinner. What they wouldn't give for a nice piece of Elf...

Lazlo and Tolkeen had been established. Old Chicago is Grand City, the capital of the Federation of Magic, ruled by Nostrus Dunscon. Chi-Town was an established nation and already talking "coalition". (WB16R pg 9)

Free Quebec is by then the second most powerful independent human nation state. It has a growing sphere of influence, supported by its Glitter Boys. (WB22 pg 20)

The Kingdom of Ishpeming is well established and Northern Gun as a brand is starting to establish itself through trade, but likely not a major player...yet. (WB33 pg 9, WB11 pg 24)

Archie is in the shadows. However, there are no Shemarrians at this time. (SB6)
No GAW (Mercs pg 96).
Los Alamo has been in place for 110 years already, but isolationist (WB10 pg 113).
Kingsdale is probably a small town of a couple thousand people (WB10 pg 100).
Newtown is a minor kingdom at this time (WB10 pg 121).
Fort El Dorado is described as being founded by survivors of the Cataclysm and being one of the largest and wealthiest kingdoms in the area, so safe to assume it also is established and growing (WB10 pg 129).

All in all, adventures would likely be the same old same old.
Exploration of the wilds.
Clashes with ChiTown security forces (not yet Dead Boys, but still sporting armor, SAMAS, and nifty laser guns), evil wizards, and bandits galore.
Rising anti-magic and human-centric sentiments lead to growing sales in torches and pitchforks in peasant communities.
Formation of the FoM and alliances with Lazlo and Tolkeen. Diplomatic missions between ChiTown, FQ, and FoM. Lots of espionage type adventures.
Perhaps the occasional trouble with radical remnants of the Republicans trying to usurp smaller communities to wage war on Archie.

I think, playing a magic using CS military service member might be cool.

Fighting the Federation of Magic.

Then the feeling of betrayal over being deported.

The founding of the Vanguard. Building a secret organization.

I toyed with the idea of Lazlo (new or old) or the Federation of Magic built a Museum of Coalition Magic as a way of Mocking/Honoring a time when the CS military were hypocrites and only succeed because of magic.

Made up some famous names and heroic deeds.

darthauthor wrote:Fighting the Federation of Magic...The founding of the Vanguard.

Then you want to move your setting forward 20-25 years. The issues arose when the FoM was left out of the Coalition (they wanted to join) in 0 PA and confrontations started to increase over the incident of ChiTown's 134 requests. (WB16R pg 10)

The Vanguard were formed in 6 PA prior to the Bloody Campaign of 12 PA (Vanguard pg 6)... so I think 0 PA - 12 PA is the timeframe you may be looking for. The first half would fit your narrative of a CS mage pushing back against incursions and the latter half would be as a member of the Vanguard or even a repudiation of the CS to join the FoM.