Claws and Chrome

Or: The Brave Little Toaster and The Lion King get put in a cage match.

I'm a fan of Engine Heart. Heck. I have a fan site/backup of the kickstarter materials up expressly so it wouldn't die off. I'm also someone that grew up on Disney classics, Don Bluth's movies, and other examples of 'talking animal' cartoons (Not 'funny animal furry people.' Actual Animals, four footed in the wild Animals talking.) I realized at some point the commonality of these isn't the intellect and nove lsituations. Granted those DO exist, but by and large? It's the lack of humans. Oh sure Brave Little Toaster has People in it, and as example the Homeward Bound or All Dogs Go to Heaven series has people, but by and large? I am drawn to the question of 'What will their world be if one removes people?'

Scifi and Fantasy, to me, are at their best when they make us think. They are also at their best when they take problems that typically have people devolved into tribalistic screaming, and instead re-frame the mess in such a way that a person can set aside their own ego and sense of self identity in relation to that problem and just Look at it from a new perspective.

This is both a long term project I've had in the back of my mind since the early 2010's, and a fairly new one that I hadn't started on in earnist before 2025. For now it is more a sandbox than anything else. I might even class it as a systemless RPG as I'm not focusing on the mechanical bits of character creation, combat, and the like. I more want to build a world. Yet I don't have a large story setpiece for it yet.

The overal state the world is in for those wanting to tell stories within it.

Histories, oral traditions, records, and the like explaining how we went from the World of Man, to ... This.

Those things that humanity has created that has the spark of Intelligance about them.

Those devices humanity has made that lack the spark of Thought.

Those creatures either evolved or uplifted to have thoughts, ambitions, and a sense of Self.

Those creatures that lack the spark of intellect.

To show one potential way for things to play out, and how the differing groups could interact.

The World is Yours. What will you Do With It?

What I offer here is not The Way things must go. This is merely a potential story that can be told within the wider world.

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