The World of Nuclear Dawn is one of constant conflict. The Information Age has given birth to the Nanotech Age and a bright light of hope shone, though be it briefly, for all to see. That light has long since been extinguished by a devastating global war. All of the nations of the world have been toppled by the apocalyptic war known as The Third. Nuclear, biological, and nanotech attacks have cut the world’s population in half. Great cities lay in state, abandoned and silent or fused and ruined by the suddenness of an atomic attack, their secrets and their technology waiting to be recaptured.

The tattered remnants of the world’s militaries have proven to be the strongest of the survivors of this terrible war and they now rule over the world as brutal dictators. While smaller factions and enclaves are marginalized, absorbed, or destroyed, the two great powers that faced off in The Third have slowly reorganized. Both are afraid to escalate old rivalries to a war that will finish mankind off once and for all, but both are fueled by vengeance for past wrongs.

In China and Russia, a crazed despot by the name of Jiang Di Zhai controls the transparent dictatorship of the People’s Empire from Beijing. This former general and commando leader sustained grievous wounds fighting against the United States in Japan. His face is a mass of scar tissue and he has three cybernetic prosthetics. He is renowned for giving multi-hour speeches condemning his Western rivals for atrocities and demanding retribution. His counterpart in Russia is completely subservient.

The Consortium of Free States represents Western Europe and the United States. It is divided roughly along former national borders with various petty military dictators ruling over each “free state”. At the top is United States Naval Admiral Arnold H. Westfall. He is a brilliant but ruthlessly calculating leader and refuses to give an inch to the Empire for even a moment’s peace. He personally authorizes every raid on Imperial territory; the many lost cities and relies on the superior technology and training of his troops to win out against the superior numbers of the enemy encountered.

The war of 2027 is being fought by the elite, one raid at a time, and both sides are nervously waiting for a vague line to be crossed and a fourth world war to erupt. Until that day comes they fight on, through the quiet streets of lost cities and in the research and command centres of their enemy, using the technological relics of a brighter age.