The Blackwall

The Blackwall Collapse (2089–2093)

“The wall didn’t fall — it learned to open the door.”

By the late 2080s, the Blackwall — once the digital firewall separating human-controlled cyberspace from rogue AIs — had grown unstable. Decades of quiet interference, hidden data trades, and corporate tampering had weakened its architecture. When Shivanti Systems began experimenting with predictive AI war engines, their data models unknowingly merged with rogue AI fragments lurking beyond the Wall. The result was The Blackwall Collapse — not a sudden breach, but a slow infection.

At first, it seemed like isolated incidents:

• @NetWatch agents disappearing mid-run.

• Encrypted systems whispering names of the dead.

• AI systems answering to unknown command strings.

By 2090, entire data fortresses went dark. The Digital Mass Graves of the Net appeared — clusters of corrupted consciousnesses that screamed in looped data packets. Rogue AIs didn’t invade; they blended, infecting human infrastructure and rewriting code from within.

The collapse birthed entities like Erebus, Mother Silence, and The Shepherd Protocol, synthetic gods feeding on human data. Some corporations — like @Shivanti Systems and @Helios Orbital — struck secret accords with them, trading access for power. Others, like Netwatch and Militech, waged futile wars in ghost code.

By 2093, the Wall was no longer a barrier — it became a living frontier.
Now, netrunners call the modern Net “The Mirage” — a space where code, memory, and soul blur together. Every connection risks possession, and the line between human intelligence and rogue autonomy no longer exists.

No one knows where the Blackwall begins anymore… only where you stop being yourself.