Drive Cars or Something I Forgot – Lore Bible 01a

Empire City – A Machine That Eats Its People

Empire City was never built for the people who live here. It was built for the buildings. Glass and steel pierce the clouds, their dark windows hiding the faces of the corporate warlords who run the city.. The Rich, don’t walk the streets. They don’t take the subway. They don’t inhale the same air as the rest of the city. Down below, the city chokes on itself. Street vendors argue over territory as polluted rain burns their eyes. Streetlights flicker over trash left from decades ago. And in the shadows, the poor barely scrape by, because in Empire City, poverty isn’t an accident, it’s pretty much policy.

If you’re born poor here, you’re meant to stay that way until the day you die. Preferably as soon as possible.

The Incident – The Day the City Changed Forever

Five years ago, Empire City’s skyline changed in one deafening moment. At 12:34 AM, an explosion tore through The Great Tower, the central government headquarters near the bottom of Empire City. Hundreds died instantly. Thousands more were injured. The blast was so strong it shattered glass for blocks.

The official story felt like a lie, “foreign terrorists,” they said. But survivors tell a different story. They speak of cop looking men, of helicopters with blacked-out markings, of gunfire inside the building before the blast, cops lined up perfectly for the blast. The truth is locked away, buried under so many layers of redacted reports and corporate letters that no one will ever know for sure.

What matters is what came next.

The Empire City Police Department (ECPD), already known for brutality, was handed absolute authority to “maintain public safety.” Overnight, they transformed from corrupt enforcers into state executioners. Now, they kill without hesitation.

• Shoplift some Cola City Cola? Dead.

• Miss a rent payment? Dead.

• Look at an officer the wrong way? Dead.

And the public, terrified after “The Incident,” let it happen. The ECPD became judge and executioner in the streets. And they love it that way.

Empire City Now

Life here is survival. Nothing more.

• The Financial Core – Gleaming skyscrapers housing the ruling elite. Streets lined with cars, but patrolled by armed private security more than police.

• The Countryside – Forests with hundreds of trees, dirt roads, and crumbling houses that house the upper lower class.

• The Midtown Zone – High-rise housing projects crawling with gangs, drugs, and the occasional ECPD death squad.

• Industrial Slop – Factories pumping smoke into the air day and night, guarded not for safety, but to keep workers from stealing scraps.

• Night Sqaure – Neon-lit streets of high-rise offices, drug dens, and neon adverts to make you forget how horrible the city is.

The whole city is stitched together with roads clogged with dying cars and billboards selling dreams no one here can afford.

The Protagonists

Emily

• Age: 20

• Background: Trans-fem, high-functioning autism, raised in a cramped apartment by a single mother who worked herself into an early grave.

• Personality: Sharp, aggressive, and independent. Her mind can create a getaway route in seconds, but she’s quick to lose control if someone underestimates her.

• History: Emily grew up believing in hard work—until she saw her mother die in a hospital hallway because they couldn’t afford care. That was the moment she understood: the system wasn’t broken, it was working exactly as designed. Now she takes what she needs. When she’s behind the wheel, she drives like she’s chasing death.

Johnny

• Age: 33

• Background: Aromantic, asexual, and an obsessive heavy metal fan. Former road captain for a small outlaw motorcycle club.

• Personality: Calm on the outside, calculating, and deeply moral—by Empire City standards. Hates killing, hates crime, but knows when it’s the only way to survive.

• History: Johnny walked away from the MC life after watching his club implode in a war with a cartel. He tried going straight, working nights at a shipping yard with a beat down car, but was still targeted by the ECPD for his old connections. Vicktor keeps pulling him into jobs, and Johnny keeps telling himself “just one more” while knowing there’s no escape.

Vicktor

• Age: 46

• Background: Straight, war veteran with severe PTSD and ADHD. Born in Eastern Europe, moved to Empire City after the collapse of his home country.

• Personality: Unpredictable, intense, switching between calculated strategy and violent rage.

• History: Vicktor fought in a war so brutal it doesn’t even have an official name,, just body counts. He came home to nothing but debt, nightmares, and an addiction to adrenaline. Now he treats Empire City as his personal battlefield, taking jobs no one else will touch, killing without hesitation if it means survival. He sees Johnny and Emily as his only real family, but family to Vicktor means dragging you into hell with him.

Themes

DCOSIF isn’t a game about cool criminals doing cool heists. It’s about survivors. In Empire City:

• The rich live above the law.

• The poor die for breaking it.

• The police kill without consequence.

• And if you want to live past tomorrow, you have to be willing to do the worst things imaginable.

The protagonists aren’t trying to save the city. They’re trying to survive it, just like the rest of the city. And they can only hope they can burn it down along the way.