I've got this giant cyberpunk city that really only looks good if it's always night, and always raining. And I've also got a bunch of other locales you'd travel to that looks better in daylight with the sun visible. I could just have unexplained time skips whenever you travel away from the city (you know, like how most games have a different time of day permanently for each area) but I've been toying around with this idea that the darkness and rain are caused by a supernatural cloud that permanently rests over the city.
So the idea is as follows: during the victorian era (like 1820-1850-ish), a portal to the demon world opened in London, and monsters, magic etc started pouring out (so they're already established parts of the natural world in the modern-day era when the game takes place). A side effect of the portal is that a dark cloud is generated. It has been spreading slowly over time, covering more and more of the world, now it's reached the seas of western Europe. (The cloud is called "The Everdark" since it's always dark below it).
What side effects would the cloud have?
A lot of technology will be invented the same way since I'm planning to have this be more like "the normal world but there's magic and demons" rather than accurate alternate history, but side effects like certain technology being instantly obsoleted or going from obscure to essential would be nice... and also things like the long-term effects on the weather, climate, politics...
Some properties of the cloud: (these are basically the axioms of this phenomenon)
So the idea is as follows: during the victorian era (like 1820-1850-ish), a portal to the demon world opened in London, and monsters, magic etc started pouring out (so they're already established parts of the natural world in the modern-day era when the game takes place). A side effect of the portal is that a dark cloud is generated. It has been spreading slowly over time, covering more and more of the world, now it's reached the seas of western Europe. (The cloud is called "The Everdark" since it's always dark below it).
What side effects would the cloud have?
A lot of technology will be invented the same way since I'm planning to have this be more like "the normal world but there's magic and demons" rather than accurate alternate history, but side effects like certain technology being instantly obsoleted or going from obscure to essential would be nice... and also things like the long-term effects on the weather, climate, politics...
Some properties of the cloud: (these are basically the axioms of this phenomenon)
- The cloud acts pretty much like a normal raincloud, with the same physical properties. It is really dark, almost completely blocking out sunlight.
- The cloud is on a lower altitude than all normal clouds (so there's never standard clouds below it)... not sure how significant this is for the science.
- A vital part of forming the cloud is salty ocean water. No matter how far the phenomenon spreads, it can't go very far inland - it only forms over large bodies of water (with a direct connection to the original portal) and quickly dissipates when there's no water below it.
- The raindrops deposited by the cloud contains small amounts of a mineral with magical energy. One of the big reasons people still live in areas covered by the Everdark is because this is a valuable resource you can't get anywhere else. (I'm expecting most of the rain to end up in the ocean where the mineral fragments sink to the seafloor, so quantities on land probably will be relatively insignificant - I'm not really a weather expert, though)
- The energy deposited on land from normal rain acts as a fertilizer about as powerful as volcanic ash, so plants that don't need a lot of sunlight should be able to thrive.
- The cloud in itself isn't directly hazardous (it's not poisonous, it won't teleport you to another dimension, etc).
- The cloud isn't the "main point" of the game, it's more of a worldbuilding background detail.