no gods below // there's cold. there's money. there's you.
the short version
It's the 2500s. Not so long ago Europe was one network of clean cities where Machine Intelligences counted every kilowatt, a new arm was an impulse buy, and people lived past a hundred and twenty. Then the bill came due. Resource wars broke out, not between people but between the machines humanity had trained to fight better than itself: the WAR IN HEAVEN.
While everyone was looking up, the sky closed. An unexplained blizzard swallowed the planet and erased every border. THE STORM. The temperature fell to -100°C and stayed there.
What was left of the governments dug in. Hive-cities rose under the ruins of the old capitals, each one hanging on a thermal core drilled a hundred kilometres into the earth. Lose the core and the hive freezes by morning. Above it is the surface: grey, dry, empty, deadly.
Today the surviving hives answer to London through the PACT, with garrisons, tax collectors and a levy paid in Crowns or in blood. Underground, people kill each other for a place in line, an extra ration, the right not to freeze tonight.
You're a STRAY. No flag, no home, no master. Just a leash someone slipped on you and a contract that decides who eats tonight.
Man kills man for food and a few square metres of warmth.
- the hive saying goes: frost is the catalyst of cruelty
the cold
Every scene in the game has a Cold Level. The colder the place, the more of your dice freeze.
Level
Name
Where
0
WARM
hive core, a Den, anywhere with a heater
1
CHILL
unheated corridors, maintenance shafts
2
FREEZING
dead districts, breached sectors
3
DEADLY
the surface. no suit, take 1 damage every turn
TURN OFF YOUR DATAPAD. every page on this site is a terminal, board or transmission out of that world. you don't need more than this to follow along.
how we got here
2200before the storm
Europe is a single web of beautiful cities from Lisbon to Moscow. Work is a choice, not a necessity. Cybernetics is cheap. Hunger, frailty and most diseases have gone the way of war, or so it seems.
c. 2220the war in heaven
Decades of burning factory clusters in the Ruhr, the Urals and the Pyrenees leave the atmosphere in debt. The rare metals behind implants, AI cores and orbital lifts run out. Machine Intelligences fight over what's left, and the sky over Europe becomes their battlefield.
the stormwhite curtain
A blizzard with no precedent covers the globe. Governments launch UNDERCITY. Its first act is a selection, not a rescue: the question isn't whether humanity survives, but whose piece of it fits underground. Hatches are closed on people who missed the quota. Some later call that mercy.
the first hivesthermal cores
Hive-cities are built under the ruins of capitals and powered by thermal cores. The same hands that queued for entry quotas build them. The surface goes quiet. Survivors eat fungus and synthetic protein, and some eat whatever turns up. The upper floors keep their steaks.
a century onthe recovery era
The Storm eases a little. The temperature rises just enough for people to climb out and walk back in again, carrying the same things they carried down.
the pactorder
European hives sign a pact of exchange: goods, ideas, people. The terms are too good to refuse, and the price is total loss of autonomy. London becomes the capital. Peacekeepers answer the cities that object, and Paris and Moscow pay for it.
nowthe 2500s
Six hives are known to survive. The PACT holds most of them. Paris is still at war. Moscow is still bleeding. Strays take the jobs nobody else will.
the pact
PACT stands for the Protectorate of Allied Cities and Territories. It started as a trade agreement between the hives of Europe. Exchange of goods, ideas and staff. The organisers wanted power centralised in one place, and the terms were generous enough that most signed anyway. Nobody chose what came after.
London holds its member cities in line with garrisons and tax collectors. Every city pays its levy in Crowns, the standard PACT currency, or in blood.
what it built
The PACT's real achievement is getting people onto the surface. New gear reopened contact between the wastes and the hives. Snow dreadnoughts haul cargo and tech between cities. Waystations went up on the surface, where travellers and pilgrims can rest and, naturally, spend their Crowns.
the peacekeepers
For cities that weren't keen on signing, the PACT had an answer: the Peacekeeper Corps. They get the best weapons Crowns can buy and the pay to match. Their job is order at any cost, including a human one.
Each Peacekeeper has a KILLJOY implant wired into the brain. It sends a hit of euphoria whenever they commit violence against another person. They carry automatic rifles that are nearly impossible to find anywhere else in the PACT, and their heavy armour is bolted into the skin so it can never come off.
London fights every external war with Peacekeepers. At home, the hive police handle things, or the army if it turns into mass unrest. People who cross the administration end up filling Peacekeeper ranks.
FOR STRAYS: some Strays carry a KILLJOY of their own. Soldiers (the Strays who came out of the army) start with one. See SOLDIER in the rulebook.
known hives
The PACT lists six European hives still alive: MOSCOW, WARSAW, LONDON, PARIS, BERLIN, MADRID. It doesn't rule out others. Every attempt to reach them has failed, and sending people and food that way isn't counted as an efficient use of either.
LONDON
HIVE DOSSIER // PACT HEADQUARTERS
STATUSPACT CAPITAL
EXPORTSVIOLENCE, EXPLOITATION
MOODWARM AND OBEDIENT
The most developed hive, and the one that kept the pre-Storm way of life. The price is paid by everyone else in the PACT, and by Londoners themselves in constant surveillance and heavy punishment for slackers.
Daily life: long shifts, better-than-average rations, and a housing block the size of a city. It keeps people happy about their government. Anyone unlucky enough to cross the administration joins the Peacekeepers.
CORPORATIONS
Corporations fight over territory and citizens' attention. A job at one of them is every Londoner's dream.
CROWNWARD LOGISTICS - builds and plans the hive's expansion. Makes sure London holds its enormous population and shines brighter than ever.
VANTAGE ARMAMENTS - weapons and vehicles. Builds the dreadnoughts, the jewel of London's crown, and the weapon platforms bolted onto them.
BRITANNIA POWER - keeps the modernised thermal core running and decides who gets light tonight and who sleeps in a jacket. Employees get a discount on their power bills.
PARIS
HIVE DOSSIER // INDEPENDENT
STATUSAT WAR WITH LONDON
FRONTDEADLOCK
CULTUREPUNK ANARCHISM
The Peacekeepers' first victim. Once a thriving hive that matched London in technology and population, linked to it by rail through the Channel. It refused to join and hand its people to London. Peacekeepers arrived on converted trains.
The war for independence goes on and has worn both sides down. Neither will loosen its grip first.
The endless war gave a second life to the punk-anarchist movement. Most Parisians hold that ideology, and it sets the fashion, behavior and slang of a once-great hive.
LIVING FLOORS - hung with Peacekeepers and slogans. Children born after the war began are radicalised from birth and join the army at 14 or 15.
INDUSTRY - runs around the clock on weapons, combat stims and basic rations. The whole economy exists to keep the war going.
ARCHITECTURE - ruined by clumsy rebuilding and improvisation. Most resources go to trade with roaming merchants on bought-out dreadnoughts who sponsor both sides, or to the war in the tunnels.
THE CORE FLOOR - the core is the hive's greatest weakness: switch it off and Paris falls that same night. Hundreds of soldiers guard it. It's a fortress and the seat of decision-making.
ADMINISTRATION - a cemetery, riddled with corpses.
MOSCOW
HIVE DOSSIER // INDEPENDENT, SPLIT
STATUSCOUNCIL, DEADLOCKED
LOSSESA THIRD OF POPULATION
SHIFTSUP TO 18 HOURS
The second victim. Moscow followed Paris, but after two failed campaigns the PACT stopped fighting it because of the distance. The third-largest hive in Europe after Paris.
The war cost a third of the population and resources that have never been replaced. The hive now splits between two parties:
THE SHIELDS - nationalists who believe the war never ended. They want to close the hive to visitors and traders and make Moscow fully autonomous: "let just anyone in and we'll be taken from the inside." Their territories look like fortresses and their people carry weapons from old warehouses.
THE UNION OF CITIZENS - the opposition in its purest form. They hold that closing Moscow will kill it, because restricted trade and hostility to everything outside means smaller rations and weaker industry. Life in their territory is pickets and protests. They reject violence and revolution.
Both want the whole city. Neither is willing to pay what a real revolution would cost. For now Moscow hangs on a shaky council where every session ends in fiery debate and threats.
LIVING BLOCKS - took the worst of the invasion. Bodies are still being burned. Rations are split across several days instead of one a day. Shifts in both factions have grown to 18 hours.
INDUSTRY - hurt less, but Peacekeeper saboteurs crippled the hive's ability to recover.
ADMINISTRATION - abandoned. A neurotoxin was pumped through its ventilation during the war. Cleaning it up is a luxury neither party can afford. The few who go down are looking for valuables to carry out, and risking their lives to do it.
WARSAW, BERLIN and MADRID are known to be alive. No dossiers yet.
who hires
The hive hands out three kinds of work. One of them is for you.
the corporations
London's dream employers: Crownward, Vantage, Britannia. Steady shifts, a place in the light, a discount on your power bill. You need a Londoner's papers to apply, which is why you're not applying.
the peacekeepers
The state's work, done by people who got no say. Cross the administration and the Corps gets you. A KILLJOY goes in, the armour goes on, and it doesn't come off.
the yeomanry
YEOMANRYFILE INCOMPLETE
TYPEMERCENARY ORGANISATION
OFFERSWORK FOR STRAYS
HEADQUARTERSno data here
LEADERSHIPnobody knows
MOTIVEunclear at best
Nobody can say for sure what the YEOMANRY is. It's an enigmatic mercenary organisation, and the only place in the hive that reliably has work for Strays. It doesn't care about flags. It pays in Crowns, and it expects results.
Each job comes through a Handler, who names the job, the pay and the twist. After that come the Terms, the clauses nobody wants to break. Break them and the Yeomanry notices, and your Leash gets shorter.
how a contract runs
Tier
Name
Pay per Stray
I
ERRAND
400 Crowns
II
JOB
900 Crowns
III
HEIST or WAR
1600 Crowns
Every contract has 2 or 3 Terms (no witnesses, deliver intact, done by dawn) and three acts. Each broken Term costs a third of your payout. Between contracts you go to the Den, where upkeep is 150 Crowns a head, and you sleep cold if you can't pay.
The more you fail or refuse, the higher your Leash. Past a point the Handler starts skimming your pay, then starts giving Orders.
NEED A JOB? the bureau printer prints random contracts and Strays on receipt paper.
terms you'll see around here
hive
an underground city built after the Storm, sealed from the surface and kept alive by a thermal core.
thermal core
the colossal rod every hive is built around, sunk a hundred kilometres down. Lose it and the hive freezes within a night.
the storm
the unexplained global blizzard that buried the surface and drove humanity underground. -100°C.
undercity
the program that built the hives. Its first act was a selection: who fits underground, and who gets the hatch closed on them.
war in heaven
the resource war fought between Machine Intelligences over Europe's skies, just before the Storm.
machine intelligence (MI)
the AI that ran the pre-Storm world, and then fought its wars.
pact
the Protectorate of Allied Cities and Territories, headquartered in London. Membership is rarely optional in practice.
crowns
the standard currency of the PACT.
peacekeepers
the PACT's army: the best gear, order at any cost. Wired with KILLJOY.
killjoy
an implant that rewards violence against another person with a hit of euphoria. Standard issue for Peacekeepers, and a Soldier's signature implant.
snow dreadnought
a surface freight vehicle hauling cargo and tech between hives. London's pride, and Paris buys them used.
the surface / the wastes
what's left above ground: frozen, grey, and mostly empty. Exiles live out there in communes.
stray
you. A hive resident with no flag, no home and no master, working contracts to eat. Players are Strays.
operator
the person running the game. Sets the scene, calls the checks, and answers for the world.
pack
every allied Stray and NPC in the scene.
yeomanry
an enigmatic mercenary organisation that offers work for Strays. See WORK.
handler
whoever names the job, the pay and the twist.
leash
a rating for how tightly the Handler holds you. It climbs when you fail, break Terms or refuse Orders.
den
your downtime: a warm place to rest, vent, warm your hands and repair. Costs upkeep.
cold
the mechanic and the mood. Cold Level 0 to 3 sets how many of your dice freeze at the start of a scene.
harden
what the hive rewards: doing something cruel and unnecessary to relieve stress. It also makes you harder to reach.
faq
is any of this real?
No, are you dumb? NO GODS BELOW is a fictional worldbuilding project. Everything here is made up.
do i need to read this before the other pages?
No. This page just makes the other terminals make a bit more sense. Explore first and come back if something's unclear.
what is a stray?
A hive resident with no flag, home or master who works contracts to stay alive. Player characters. Make one on the stray sheet, or print a random one at the bureau printer.
what about the other cities?
London, Paris and Moscow are on the HIVES tab. Warsaw, Berlin and Madrid aren't written up yet. They'll get their own space if and when they go up.