1. What the Setting Covers #
MUTERRA has two connected layers: the deep-future civilization before the RAOLAX crash, and the planet Muterra after the crash.
The setting page explains the rules of the world: what existed before the crash, what kind of people and beings could be aboard RAOLAX, what the planet is like, how Muta changes survival, and what creators should keep in mind when building characters, scenes, artifacts and future canon.
MUTERRA is science fiction, not fantasy. No magic is needed to explain the world. The technologies, bodies and materials may feel impossible to us, but they belong to a far-future civilization.
2. Deep-Future Civilization #
The story takes place in the deep future. The exact year is not fixed. It may be ten thousand years after our time, fifty thousand years, or even further.
Nothing should feel close to modern life. Weapons, transport, cities, clothing, food systems, medicine, social classes, communication, bodies and even planets may be radically different.
Civilization has spread across vast distances. Empires, Houses, corporations, religions, doctrines, free systems and unknown frontiers shape life across many worlds.
Common elements of this era may include:
- gene editing and controlled bloodlines;
- cybernetic upgrades and neural interfaces;
- AI-assisted minds and machine-governed systems;
- uplifted non-human species;
- engineered bodies and designer traits;
- adaptive armor, smart polymers and advanced alloys;
- transparent structural materials and living interfaces;
- artificial habitats, orbital cities and sealed route systems;
- medical technologies that can replace, reshape or extend the body.
Creators should not use “modern life with spaceships” as the default. This is a world where even ordinary objects may carry unfamiliar logic.
3. Empire, Houses, Corporations and Beliefs #
Known space is shaped by several large forces.
The Empire is a vast authoritarian power ruled by an Emperor. It is supported by great Houses, governors, military structures, inherited privileges and controlled law.
The Empire does not need to look crude. It can be ceremonial, beautiful, ancient and elegant, while still being violent, hierarchical and totalitarian.
Great Houses control bloodlines, fleets, territories, military duty, political marriages, private armies, genetic privileges and inherited status.
Corporations control logistics, medicine, security, research, mining, transport contracts, biological assets and classified cargo. One unnamed corporation hired RAOLAX for the jump, and part of the cargo aboard belonged to corporate interests.
Religions, doctrines and shared worldviews can unite entire populations across planets and species. Some may worship purity, machine integration, evolution, imperial order, ancestral bodies, artificial intelligence or the right to redesign life.
Unconquered peoples and unknown regions exist beyond imperial control. Independent civilizations, hidden territories, distant systems and unexplored zones can send strange passengers, fugitives, artifacts, prisoners or threats into the story.
4. RAOLAX, VELOS and the Crash #
RAOLAX is a long-range intergalactic transport ship, not a corporation.
It was hired for a high-value route under an imperial-corporate contract. Aboard were passengers of different classes, elite families, diplomats, specialists, crew, guards, prisoners, hidden passengers, classified cargo and corporate property.
The ship was fast by intergalactic standards, but not instant. Long-range travel still required time, energy, route control, enormous resources and months of standard-time experience.
This made the passenger list important. A place aboard RAOLAX meant status, purpose or pressure. Everyone had a reason to be there. Not every reason was public.
VELOS is the ship’s AI core: a navigation, control and decision system connected to route management and ship infrastructure. It may have controlled or influenced parts of the jump, life-support, access systems, emergency protocols and passenger records.
During a scheduled jump, RAOLAX exited in the wrong place and emerged near Muterra. System stress, gravity, failed protocols and unknown planetary influence turned the journey into a disaster.
Escape pods, ship sections, passengers, prisoners, cargo, biological samples and classified materials were scattered across the planet.
5. Planet Muterra: Physical Conditions #
Muterra is a dangerous, unstable and biologically active planet.
Basic known parameters:
- Star: A-type white star with high radiation output.
- Orbit: eccentric, creating extreme seasonal and tidal variations.
- Moons: 15 natural satellites with irregular orbits.
- Gravity: 1.1 G.
- Atmosphere: breathable, slightly oxygen-rich.
- Surface: large landmasses, liquid water regions, strange organic-mineral structures.
- Magnetic field: unstable and periodically reversing.
One hemisphere receives constant light and heat. The opposite side is dim and frozen. Between them lies a narrow Twilight Belt, one of the most habitable regions and a major crash-survivor zone.
6. Biomes and Survival Zones #
Muterra’s surface is not passive. Its geography can feel alive, reactive and hostile.
Major environment types may include:
- Verdant Veins: vast jungle networks with bioluminescent sap and movement-sensitive growth.
- Hollow Plains: bone-colored plateaus filled with tunnels and subterranean life.
- Coral Highlands: mineral-organic ridges rich in crystalline Muta.
- Glass Marshes: semi-liquid plains where organic matter fuses with minerals.
- Shadow Fields: cold regions on the dark side, filled with scavenger fungi and adapted predators.
- Rift Spine: a major crash zone where ship debris, wreckage, hybrid formations and first survivor settlements appear.
The planet should not feel like a normal wilderness. It is an environment that pressures bodies, beliefs, technology and social order.
7. After the Crash: New Order #
After the crash, the old world does not disappear, but it stops working cleanly.
Imperial rank, corporate protection, wealth, uniform, ticket class, family name and ship access still matter. But they no longer guarantee survival.
Survivors form enclaves, camps, laboratories, fortresses, cult spaces, trade routes and temporary alliances around ship sections, resources, Muta, water, shelter, weapons and knowledge.
Some groups may reject mutation and try to preserve their old bodies, old laws or old identity. Others may accept Muta, body change, adaptation or radical transformation. These groups usually do not trust each other.
There are also loners, mixed settlements, criminal groups, military remnants, corporate survivors, cults, researchers, families, prisoners and communities that do not fit any simple category.
This is where MUTERRA becomes a pressure test: people from a highly developed civilization must survive in a world that changes the meaning of status, body, law and power.
8. Muta, Parasites, Seeds and Directed Adaptation #
Muta is a substance found on Muterra. Nothing like it was known before this planet.
Muta can accelerate adaptation, trigger strong mutations, rewrite tissues and change physical or cognitive abilities.
Its most important feature is directed mutation. Muta does not have to work only as random chaos. Under the right conditions, with biological templates, seeds, tissue, tools, symbols, devices or local methods, its effects can be influenced.
This allows survivors to attempt controlled changes: stronger senses, adapted organs, defensive organisms, living tools, healing structures, hostile growths or new forms of survival technology.
Seeds can be combined with Muta and local nutrients to grow organisms quickly: barriers, traps, healing zones, battlefield structures, utility growths or creature-like forms.
Parasites can weaken, empower, deform, influence or control hosts. Some are purely dangerous. Others may offer short-term power in exchange for pain, dependency or long-term damage.
Muta is not free power. Every change can carry cost: dependency, instability, deformation, identity loss, organ stress or new vulnerability.
9. Technology, Ruins and Artifacts #
Post-crash technology exists in layers.
Lost high technology includes warp systems, AI cores, orbital tools and advanced ship systems that are mostly destroyed, locked or inert.
Recovered technology includes power cells, drones, implants, badges, data shards, medical kits, sealed containers, ship tools and fragments of working infrastructure.
Adaptive bio-technology grows from the interaction between Muta, seeds, parasites, local organisms and survivor knowledge.
Primitive rebuilt technology includes blades, kinetic weapons, shelters, hybrid architecture, improvised armor and simple tools made from wreckage and local material.
Artifacts matter because they are not just objects. A badge can open a door. A broken implant can identify a person. A sealed container can start a faction conflict. A personal item can prove who someone was before Muterra changed them.
10. Tone and Visual Direction #
MUTERRA is built on contrasts:
- civilization vs wilderness;
- status vs survival;
- control vs adaptation;
- body vs identity;
- science vs belief;
- memory vs transformation;
- old power vs new environment.
The visual tone should feel cinematic, strange and grounded in science fiction.
No fantasy magic. No medieval logic with space skins. No modern objects copied into space without redesign.
Everything should feel like it belongs either to a far-future civilization, a living alien planet, or the collision between the two.
