The first mass-produced A.I.

, the Porygon, were clever Pokmon, capable and clever but a

clear mark below human intelligence. Within a few years, that would change. Newer Porygon
models out-thought humans by increasingly wider margins. Eventually, human scientists
simply gave up and left them to run their research projects. New biological life was also
invented, and the first successfully manufactured Reuniclus was met with celebrations around
the world.
Concurrent with these developments, humans advanced themselves, augmenting themselves
with wetware and uploading their minds to computers blurring the lines between human and
machine. Human scientists could compete once more with A.I. researchers, and many citizens
of the time considered humanity to be entering a new Golden Age.
Not everyone shared this sentiment, and that is why Aniseed came to exist in the first place.
Many people saw the future rushing at them and cowered from it. For them, transhuman
society meant much more than simply a steady march toward a better future for all for them,
it was a civilization that had descended into debauchery.
Free from material need, humans began seeking increasingly bizarre lives to combat their
growing ennui. Mind upload technology encouraged unconventional lifestyles humans living
in artificial Pokmon or robot bodies, children raised in multiple virtual childhoods from which
the parents then chose their perfect kid, collective minds guided by Alakazams or other
intelligent Pokmon. In fact, most currently existent Pokmon species are the result of
whimsical experimentation, with the results out-competing natural species. How else would
oddities like Koffing and Trubbish come to be? Eventually, an enterprising individual
established Aniseed, a sanctuary for those unable or unwilling to cope with the fast-paced,
rapidly evolving lifestyles of transhuman society.
Living under an artificial sky in a city deep within a hollowed out mountain, the citizens and
temporary residents of Aniseed still enjoyed some modern conveniences such as
Cornucopia Machines which provided the basic necessities of life using nano-manufacturing.
However, they could choose to work and to associate with like-minded individuals who also
chose to escape transhumanity, living human lives in human bodies. It was a perfect
arrangement. Only the researchers and managers of Aniseed ever had to connect
themselves to society at large, and people on both sides of the transhumanity debate could
live as they wished. But then something went terribly wrong. No one can quite tell what
happened, just that Aniseed lost contact with the rest of the world in an instant, and the few
bits of higher technology allowed in the city failed catastrophically. Aniseeds researchers
who were heavily reliant on intelligence augmentation technology or tapping into complex
neural networks had their minds fried or at least suffered heavy memory loss and dissociative
mental disorders. With critical systems failing all over the city and incursions by wild Pokmon
threatening a vulnerable population, humanity ceded most of Aniseed to the unknown and
retreated to the citys core. As far as anyone inside knew, it was the last bastion of human
civilization.
Slowly, other survivors began to trickle into the city. News from the outside was bleak.
Everywhere that survivors came from, the same catastrophic failures had struck their
computer networks, A.I. systems, and mind upload data banks. Millions or billions of lives,
many of them existing only in cyberspace, were certainly lost in the cataclysmic event. Of the
survivors, most were minimally enhanced by transhuman technologies. The trend seems to
have been that the more sophisticated the technology, the harder it crashed. High-level A.I.,
quantum computing systems, and other highly complex technologies failed in a way where
even a cursory glance revealed the damage to be irreparable, whereas simpler digital archives,
remained recoverable, even if filled with glitches and data corruption.
Engineers in Aniseed quickly set about repairing technologies that were once considered
taboo in the city, such as full-immersion virtual worlds and mind upload technology. The latter
hasnt quite been recovered yet, but the former has become a cornerstone of the citys ability
to recover other technologies. The necessity of preserving human knowledge and
technologies that would allow reclaiming the rest of the city overrode Aniseeds original
raison dtre. Most people went along. After all, it didnt look like the type of transhuman
lifestyle they abhorred would be coming back in full force any time soon, even with the
recovery efforts.
With dangerous wild Pokmon knocking at the front door, Aniseeds denizens have scurried
to recover weapons and Pok Ball technology. However, current efforts have only led to the
recovery of caches of Pok Balls; their manufacture is still beyond the capabilities of the city
and will require more complex Cornucopia Machines than are available now.
Basic needs are well met in recovering Aniseed. The augmented reality network of the city
has been revitalized, and even those in the city who came to Aniseed for refuge rely upon it
for everyday tasks as well as emergency alerts such as warnings of Pokmon incursions into
the city. Medical technology allows easy treatment of most wounds but fails to achieve the
complex bioengineering that was once commonplace