The Truth vs. the Correct Answer

When you are playing Squawk, the GM's answers to players who's characters are trying to determine the origins of their universe should be something like "no one is sure.  There are no fossils to verify evolutionary theory, and there is a missing link of machinery when it comes to microorganisms and nanobots."  That is the correct answer; "Squawk is something of an alternative universe where large mammals just don't exist," or "Squawk takes place so far away that it is completely unrelated to Earth" are other explanations used previously.  (For more information on how to treat this topic while playing the Squawk RPG, see the last blog post "Squawk's Creation Debate.")

However, when we were working on this book, there was a graphic we used to keep in mind from our own personal designer's perspective what the "real context" of Squawk is.  Basically Squawk takes place about 5 million years ago in another part of the Milky Way Galaxy:

The Terraformers (a type of biomechanical robots called "Golems") were critical to life being spread throughout the worlds of Abaddon.  So both sides of the debate mentioned in our last post are right: the origins of life in Abaddon depended on biomechanical robots, and most of the life there evolved one way or another.  The "good guys" (Symbiotic Order) are more-right, but the Clockmakers are not completely wrong.