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The events of Fragmentary Order take place in the year 2251, more than two centuries after a near-collapse of human civilization in the early twenty-first century. Out of that wreckage comes the world the player inhabits: a Solar System wide enough for new colonies, advanced enough for synthetic biology and remote-piloted clone soldiers, and unstable enough that the order holding it together is already coming apart.

Quick Facts

From Collapse to Core

The backstory begins with a near miss. During the early twenty-first century, humanity comes to the brink of a societal collapse from which there would be no easy recovery. Exact causes are not detailed in the public material released so far, and no specific year, war, or named event has been confirmed. What is consistent across the official framing is that the collapse was averted at the last possible moment, and that the rescue did not come from a coalition of nations or a grassroots movement. It came from a single megacorporation.

That corporation is Core. In the official lore, Core steps into the vacuum left by failing institutions and brings the surviving world governments under one banner. The unification ends the immediate crisis, replaces a patchwork of fragile states with a single coordinated power, and sets the conditions for the centuries of expansion that follow.

Solar System Era

Under Core's leadership, the surviving civilization stops looking inward and starts moving outward. Colonization extends beyond Earth, supported by the kind of large-scale infrastructure projects that only a unified power can sustain. Alongside the off-world push comes a parallel revolution in biotechnology and synthetic life, the foundations of which underpin the disposable clone bodies known as Replicated Entities. Advanced biotech is not a side detail of the setting; it is the technological substrate that makes the gameplay loop possible at all.

The geographic scope is the Solar System rather than a single planet. Early coverage of the reveal has referenced Mars as one of the kinds of contested environments players can expect, described as hostile and reportedly partially terraformed. That detail has only been mentioned in a small amount of secondary coverage and should be treated as preliminary rather than confirmed. No specific planets, moons, or off-world colonies have been named in the official material. Map and zone details are tracked separately on the Maps and Scale page as they are revealed.

Fracturing Power

By the time the player enters the story in 2251, the unified order that defined the post-collapse centuries is no longer holding. Core's monopoly is fracturing from within. The corporation that once united the world is now developing internal divisions, and rival factions are emerging from those cracks, positioning themselves to seize control of the systems Core built. Chief among those systems is the CORIE Framework, the global apparatus that structures and monetizes warfare, technology, and economic activity across human-controlled space. Whoever controls CORIE controls the rules under which contracts are issued, value is assigned, and risk is rewarded. The factions splintering off from Core have not been individually named in the public material.

Tone

The setting is positioned as hard science fiction with cyberpunk elements. The framing prioritizes plausibility: the technology, the corporate structures, and the social arrangements are presented as extensions of trends that exist today rather than as fantastical leaps. The recovery from collapse, the corporate consolidation that followed, and the use of remote-piloted bodies for dangerous work are all meant to feel like reachable futures rather than impossible ones. The result is a grounded this could happen atmosphere combined with the visual and thematic vocabulary of cyberpunk: corporate dominance, commodified violence, fragile humanity behind layers of synthetic flesh and machinery.

Unconfirmed Details

Several elements that fans frequently ask about have not been confirmed in the public material as of the April 2026 reveal. They are noted here so readers know what is and is not on the record:

• The specific year, decade, or triggering event of the early twenty-first-century collapse

• The names of human governments, nations, or coalitions that existed before Core's unification

• Named historical figures from the pre-Core era, the unification, or the early Solar System period

• Named planets, moons, stations, or colonies beyond the broad reference to the Solar System

• Named factions other than Core, including the rivals currently emerging as its monopoly fractures