The world is Chaos. Long ago, people knew no differently. They were born in chaos, they lived the best they could in chaos, and they died in chaos. All anyone knew was the chaotic savagery that is Logerian's Wilds. People did everything they had to so they could live just one more minute, one more hour, one more day. It was a dark time.
But then the first of the Forerunners came. Streaming down out of the heavens in fire and rock, they crashed down to Logerian and were found. Clockwork people. Simple drones really, but they brought wonders with them that began to open the eyes of those they encountered. Chaos was not the only way. Order could be forged out of the chaos of Logerian if people banded together and made it so. Thus, the first city was founded, Firstgear. The city was built around a tall dark tower that the people of Logerian could not enter but held in reverence.
Immediately the chaos of Logerian began to push back on the attempts at Order, but with the aid of the Forerunners the Wall was built and the Clockwork Heart of Firstgear was forged. The Council of Makers learned as much as they could from the Forerunners as they built up the city, and they created the first hub of learning and knowledge, the Hubworks Library.
Over time, the people began to realize that the Wall holding back the fumes of Logerian from entering the city, was creating profound changes in them. Their figures straightened, their minds cleared, their attention to detail and focus grew. At the same time, their passions lessened, rational thought and action became more and more the norm, and they discovered that unless they died early to the chaos of Logerian, the shortest and the longest lived races died just before the stroke of midnight on their two hundredth birthday.
The city grew as the Forerunners and the Council of Makers built it, the entire thing set on top of a massive series of clockwork. The mechanical wonders powered by that clockwork were amazing and the people thrived.
But the chaos of Logerian was not so easily tamed. The first of the Titans arrived. Legendary beings formed out of pure chaos energy, they roamed the world with seemingly incoherent goals, emitting the fumes of chaos that so dominated life for those outside the walls of Firstgear. The people of Firstgear began to despair that their city, and thus Order itself, would be crushed. They sent out what few warriors they had to battle the creature but none was able to even ascend it’s massive bulk before being slain. Then the second wave arrived. Streaming out of the heavens a massive mountain of rock crashed down to the surface of Logerian, directly on top of the Titan, killing it. The Caretakers emerged from the mountain. The Caretakers were a much more advanced variation of the Forerunner drones. They immediately moved into Firstgear and began establishing Order, enforcing their will on the people. Where previously the people of Firstgear had slowly discovered how their city could be a bastion of Order in the chaos of Logerian, now the Caretakers imposed rules and order upon the city, quickly relegating the Council of Makers to be their mouth pieces and enforcers throughout the city. Thus, the religion of Firstgear, the Law of Order, and their Order Keepers were formed.
Firstgear continued to flourish, although in a much more deliberate way, under the care and leadership of the Caretakers. The city expanded, the Wall pushed outward more and more, the clockwork powering the city growing ever more complex as the need for more space grew. At the same time, the Caretakers began to expand the heart of Firstgear, building it into a massive Dome built into the center of the city. No one except Forerunners, Caretakers, and the highest echelons of the Order Keepers were allowed into the dome, but rumors sprang up of a massive clockwork creature being built into the Dome. However, once the Dome was completed, exactly 1000 years after the Forerunners’ first arrival, the Caretakers all entered into the Heart dome, sealed it off, and have never been seen again. The Law of Order and the Order Keepers ruled the people with a firm hand in their place.
Eventually, the growth of the city simply could not keep up with the population need, and seed groups of Forerunners and people were sent out from the city in the newly built Hazeskimmer Airships to build new homes. The Hazeskimmers were created to fly up above the fumes of Logerian, thus allowing safe travel.
Disaster struck Secondgear, the first group to leave, as their newly formed city was smashed by a titan attack before they could finish building their Wall, but Thirdgear and Fourthgear were rapidly built, and the ordered world continued to grow for hundreds of years…