Shiftsville

History and Description

When the leylines erupted, the 6.28Km(3.9 mile) diameter spherical area that would eventually become Shiftville, found itself at the junction of seven short leylines in a triangle of 3 major lines. In other places this lead to the formation of super nexus points and permanent gateways to other dimensions. Fortunately,or not depending on your point of view, at the exact centre of what would have been a super nexus was an experimental fusion reactor. The leylines and containment fields of the reactor interfered catastrophically, causing the reactor to implode. The implosion distorted the space/time continuum, wrenching the 6.28Km(3.9 mile) diameter spherical area outside normal space and time, shattering the seven small leylines, and altering the arrangement of the major lines in the process.

What was left would appear from first glance not be the best place for a town to grow up, since there should be nothing except a large crater. Space, time, leylines, and dimensional physics, being what they are, had other ideas and the sphere re-appeared  9.42Km (5.8miles) from where it started, almost entirely structurally intact and devoid of anything living. With all the chaos of the first months after the coming of the Rifts, the intact and empty buildings started attracting refugees, until a small community of 300 people existed.

Nature however still had one more trick up her sleeve, the land upon which the community now lived was dimensionally unstable. At the next equinox, when the leylines flared, the land(and community) D-Shifted re-appearing some distance away. This was more than most of the community could take, especially on top of the rift that now existed where the town had moved from, and most of them fled.

The town today is very different from the ramshacle community of 190 years ago. It is now a city of nearly 5000 humans,D-Bees and aliens, over 50% of which are either Psionic, Magic-Using, or have Super-Powers. It owes its progress in the last 13 years to its mysterious ruler- The Iron Duke- and in the last ten to the mercenary force Ironhand's Irregulars which have their base in the city. All beings prepared to live in tolerance of one another and abide by the laws are welcome, assuming they can find the city.

Despite all the other changes the city is still dimensionally unstable and major fluxes in leyline energy (such as at equinoxes, solstices, eclipses, and major planetary conjunctions) cause it to move. Where it moves to is somewhat predictable, being one of seven positions on a 9.42Km(5.8 mile) radius circle centered on the original reactor position. The twist in all this is that every move causes a random rift to open at the position it leaves which remains open for between 2 and 12 hours. The position occupied when the town moves is never the one it came from previously but can be any of the other 5 (See Shiftsville - Position History).

One of the reasons for the high levels of magic and psionics becomes clear when the city is located in four of the seven positions - it becomes hidden inside a leyline. The only means of locating it then is to 'feel' for it along the centre of the leyline; inexperienced travellers have spent days looking for it in these locations. The other reason is that the city is a permanent nexus no matter where it is - but no form of dimensional manipulation magic works as expected inside the city limits (See here).

Anyone who has been to the city and is familiar with it can Dimensionally Teleport into or out of it, otherwise the only way in or out is to walk, drive, swim, or fly (See the Shiftsville Dimensional Affects page for full details.

The location of the city and its high levels of D-Bees and magic make it a prime target for Coalition agression. Unfortunately, because of the dimensional displacement of the city, , targeting of objects by technological means,other than by direct Line-Of-Sight(LOS) optical means either from inside the city to outside, or from outside the city to inside is impossible. This means that only direct fire attack forms using optical sights or indiscriminate untargeted indirect fire can be used to attack the city (at least when not hidden).

With the forth coming war against Tolkeen, and the necessity to maintain its borders, the Coalition cannot spare the manpower to mount a direct assault against the city. It has therefore, via a number of 'front' agents, been mounting a guerilla war against the Shiftsville and the neighboring villages. Until just prior to the Chask invasion this had been quite successful, but in the preceding month the operation had suffered has suffered a number of major setbacks due to increased capability within the Militia (They recruited a Glitterboy defector from Quebec complete with a working suit of armour which turns out to be really useful at knocking down SAMAS power Armour and Sky cycles at range).

There are also reasons not to be inside one of the alternate town locations at midnight, sun-rise, midday, or sun-set every Equinox, Solstice, Eclipse, Full Moon, or major planetary alignment. There is a chance that the area will D-Shift, leaving those caught unable to return to Earth, and stuck inside a 5 mile diameter area, until the next time the town departs from that position. This is the only time that that area is guaranteed to return to Earth as the Town moves to its next position. The down side of this return is that you'll also be directly adjacent to the newly opened Rift.

The Legal Bit
Rifts®, Megaverse®, and Rifts Books® are registered trademarks owned and licensed by Kevin Siembieda and rifts Books, Inc.
© 2002 Kevin Siembieda; © 2002 Palladium Books®, All rights reserved world wide.
No part of this work may be reproduced in part or whole, in any form or by any means, without permission from the publisher.
All incidents, situations, institutions, governments and people are fictional and any similarity to characters or persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.