Corporations experimenting with technology allowing the eventuality that humans become supra-intelligent and immortal are besieged by the Church and mortalistsThe Mortalist and Transcendentalist belief systems arose as a gradual collision of ideas and values between human factions during the ~250 years between the beginning of the Digital Dark Age (2043 CE)... More. These corps refuse to stop their experimentation and have some initial successes. Blockades and embargos cripple these corporations and they strike back in all-out war against all other corporations that are trying to persecute them for their beliefs in a post-human existence.

Nukes are used extensively on Earth and Mars by both sides. Billions more die in the chaos. Much of the earth becomes a wasteland. Massive city-states come into existence as a form of common self-preservation. Those who control the knowledge and technologies control the power once again. Those who don’t are under the reliance of these states to protect them and sustain them. This reliance extends for the next 300 years even after the need is no longer there.

During these years there is also a refugee exodus and a concerted effort to ramp up the colonization of discovered worlds. The population of Earth declines drastically.