Gold, once a symbol of wealth, has become a macabre currency since the Tuning. No longer merely desired for its monetary value, it now serves a far more sinister purpose: binding damned souls to the abominations' infernal machines. In the wake of the Tuning, humanity—save for a dwindling few—has devolved into a primitive state, their understanding of currency lost. Yet they still kill for gold, driven by the abominations' promise of sustenance and medicine. In the old world, gold was prized for its conductivity. The abominations, however, discovered a far more horrifying application: it conducts the very essence of a soul. Within their grotesque machinery, captives are ground into a bloody pulp. As this gruesome slurry flows through the mechanisms, arcane magic, interwoven with the gold, extracts the victim's life force, condensing it into a potent quintessence of energy. This energy fuels the abominations' conquest. Their armies spread across the land like a creeping, sparking blight, corrupting all in their path. Since the fall of the old world, nearly everything has been twisted and warped by the Elder Beings, with one chilling exception: the abominations themselves. Their monstrous nature is simply unbridled human cruelty, unleashed in a world devoid of law and morality. Some victims meet a swift, if agonizing, end in the corpse grinders. Others are dragged to the abominable cities, destined for prolonged suffering. The strongest and healthiest are delivered to the Forges—vast cathedrals of brass and steel, designed to sustain and harvest life force. There, they are plugged into the machines, bound by gold cables and ropes, their bodies connected to feeding and waste tubes, prolonging their torment. The cacophony of thousands of screams is deafening, yet it barely registers with the abominations. The metal framework draws out the life force through its technology, but it is the accompanying magic that transmutes it into the quintessence. Days, months, or even years may pass, but eventually, the victims are drained, their bodies discarded into the pits below.