Archaeological recordings dictate that just 800,000 years ago a meteorite ten meters in diameter, apparently composed of pure Warpstone, hit the earth in what is currently the Black Valley, right above a large mass of Uranium with high concentrations of U-235. This mass of fissile fuel became critical and a massive nuclear explosion followed. Radioactive fallout mixed with warpstone fallout spread throughout Australia, alongside some of Indonesia and New Zealand. This resulted in a heavily mutated ecology, which created an enormous number of distinct species. Homo Erectus populations are believed by mainstream scientists to have been eradicated by this event; in reality they also suffered from severe mutations and took refuge in Tasmania, which was left unscathed by a great war in the mainland. The time period following this impact is known as the Enigmatic Age.

Slinging around equipment fashioned from recovered technology and their own capabilities, operators are usually deployed to precursor sites to scout them out. Another use for operators are actual military operations such as sabotage, rescue or assassination; which the FSRD and other organisations painfully learned after capturing Mechanicum technology or personnel.

Following Russia's defeat in the Crimean War, its intelligentsia believed that backward social, economic and political institutions had been the source of said defeat. After the Treaty of Paris (March of 1856) Alexander II's government immediately began planning for a total reform of the Russian society: the abolition of serfdom, military reforms, railway construction, free speech, judicial reform, etc. In 1864 a number of Russian officers, enraged and ideologically inspired by the great American struggle to end slavery, occupied the Winter Palace and proclaimed a new Russia. Its liberal intelligentsia was assembled to form the Constitution of 1864 and the first Duma, a body of elected legislators. While initially opposed to the unravelling revolution, Alexander II eventually ceded and agreed to transform Russia into a semi-constitutional monarchy.

The Gatling Gun is an American rapid-fire gun Invented by Dr. Richard Gatling in 1861, a predecessor to all modern machineguns. It features multiple barrels arranged around a central axis and operated by a hand-crank mechanism. This allowed for rapid and sustained fire, making it a formidable weapon on the battlefields of the American Civil War and beyond. The Gatling Gun's design represented a significant advancement in firepower, providing military forces with a means to deliver a high volume of fire at a time when single-shot rifles were the norm. In the 1870s a number of these weapons were purchased by the British Empire, used to great effect in the British Conquest of Africa, the Anglo-Zulu Wars and the Oceanykan Frontier Wars. These weapons were largely chambered in .45-70 Government.

The coffee plant is a perennial shrub cultivated for its Coffee Beans, which are processed and brewed to produce Coffee. Cultivating coffee involves specific environmental conditions, including altitudes ranging from tropical lowlands to high mountain regions, well-drained soil, and consistent rainfall. There are two main types of coffee beans: Arabica and Robusta, each with distinct flavours and growing requirements. Once the coffee cherries are harvested, the beans are extracted and undergo processing methods such as washing, dry processing, or honey processing. Its beans are one of the world's most traded commodities, its consumption an undoubtable global phenomenon, with enormous social and cultural significance. After all, who could imagine an office in the mid-1960s without a coffee machine? Coffee became popular in Oceanyka as a soldier's drink, able to keep those in firewatch awake and alert against a nocturnal ambush, though its cultivation later spread throughout the country.