From the introduction:
It is the dawn of the 28th Century.
The Third Renaissance, or Bright Age as future historians will call it, is at its zenith.
After the catastrophic first contact with extra-terrestrial life that led to the horrific Solar System war, humanity clawed its way back from the brink and finally reached the stars. For millions of people, Earth’s sun is no more than another star in the night sky, a mote of light, a spiritual birthplace that they will never visit in their lifetimes.
It has been over a century since the Machine Civilisation gifted humanity technological marvels such as the Visser Cube, allowing wormhole travel across the vast chasms of interstellar space. Now interstellar distances grow ever shorter. How the myriad of splintered cultures view this gift varies. Some see it as a blessing, a way to draw humanity into a united whole. Others see it as a curse, robbing them of their individuality. And then there are those who would use it as a means to subjugate humanity and impose their own will upon all...
Across the river of heaven, humanity clings to a scattering of islands in a sea of stars. Players can take on a multitude of roles in this future: a crew member on an interstellar trader, a member of the mysterious Engineers’ Guild, a body-hopping Intercessionist agent – out to manipulate human cultures to its own secret ends, a Renouncer Zealot – intent on destroying Artificial Intelligence in all its forms, or perhaps one of the Reclaimers – planetary engineers dedicated to terraforming any viable planet they happen upon...
River of Heaven is a game of science fiction adventure. It is a universe of spaceships and alien worlds, but it is also a universe based in real science, extrapolated from where current technologies might eventually lead. Some is based on theoretical physics e.g. traversable wormholes. It takes place in the imagination of its players, in a universe where humanity has spread out to the stars, where advances in technologies have the potential to lift humanity into a new high age, or to destroy entire civilisations.
The universe of River of Heaven has its limitations. For all but the most advanced human civilisations, interstellar travel takes years, if not decades. Matter cannot travel faster than light, and while the legendary Stepships traverse the heavens often a mere whisker below light speed, this is as fast as they can go.