In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, peace descended on a troubled Europe for the first time in living memory. It was an age of reason, of enlightenment, and progress. An age where the ingenuity of mankind scaled heights previously unimagined. And yet, it was not science or intellect, nor even conquest that was to change the world. It was the discovery of something older and far more mysterious than anything humanity could have dreamt; something that had lain dormant since the dawn of time…

Though France controlled all commerce in Aetheric goods across Europe, the benefits for all could not be denied, and many common people in Unified Prussia and even Britain reaped the rewards of the new age of invention......

What the Consulate scientists were working on in the lowest, most secure levels of the extraterrestrial complex will perhaps never be fully understood. However, the pinnacle of their work was surely the invention of portal technology—the ability to transport a living person from one place to another almost instantaneously, by passing through a portal of pure Terrestrial Aether.......

The cosmic strife persisted for almost two decades, remaining mercifully confined to France and the surrounding environs until one day in 1867, quite suddenly, the storms calmed. The sun rose into a blue sky for what seemed to be the first time in eons, and the world held its breath. No-one knew what had befallen France and its people. No-one knew what the other nations had been up to during the time of isolation. But the race was on to find out.....

With so many horrors, and with France still very much in a state of Aetheric flux, it seems foolhardy for any nation to contemplate expeditions into the wasteland. And yet the Prussian central ministry and the Royal Geographical Society of Britain have put together several expeditionary forces to foray ever deeper into old French territory. And they are not alone—several of Britain’s more partisan regiments have disobeyed orders and entered France in search of riches. Mercenary warbands from rival nations delve into the wasteland unaided. And all this, for the merest opportunity of fame, fortune and the advancement of science beyond measure.