The rusted ruins of civilization both old and new tangle their way over both wastelands and jungles alike, destroyed in the shattering or deposited in the resulting burst of creation. These graveyards are sources of great riches and great risk, as anything that can even temporarily provide shelter from the Grey invites tenants who are loathe to share their prize. Excavation during the War of Wonders was rapacious, and remaining untouched ruins were either too dangerous, remote, or both for the mighty industrial powers that fought over them. In some, emplaced guns and esoteric energy weapons keep an unending vigil for anything that moves. In others, the walls crawl with undulating carapace, the buzzing of wings drowning out the cries of would-be looters. Much of the ruins, at the time of their creation, were wonders of technology. Left unattended to the harsh caress of the Shattered continent, some have begun to malfunction, often to catastrophic consequences. Leaking chemical compounds, arcane radiation, and uncontrolled activation of the wonders that lie within them are but a few of the corruptions that plague ever growing swaths of the Shattered continent. Of these meltdowns it is the last that haunts the dreams of the Free Cities, and beyond the promises of wealth and fame that successfully plundering such a ruin can bring, the safety of nearby homes and families is as often the cause of seeking out these sites before it's too late. In some cases, containment or purge is possible, and before the War of Wonders the DMV moved into several of these uncontrolled zones through the expenditure of much blood and treasure. However, once the DMV had pulled back to first Redsector, and then from the continent entirely, these places were left to their own devices once more, in some cases now exacerbated by the DMV’s previous “solutions.” The Free Cities have scrambled to reclaim these sites and put back into place the protocols previously enacted by the DMV, who have adopted a policy of non-communique with the various polities unless the Department is allowed a permanent interest there. Of course, no soul within the continent is quick to forget the shackles that come with such a bargain, and the Free Cities are loathe to allow the hated bureaucracy back into their home. Some particularly desperate Free Cities have turned to courting the mad Corp of Engineers that after exposure to the whispers of the Oroboros gained vast knowledge of material sciences at the expense of much of their sanity. Such alliances are always tenuous, but not always unfruitful.
