The setting of 4240 AD is one I have been leisurely working on for some time, going over details and ideas whenever I felt like it, discarding this and incorporating that motif. The result is a pop-, sci-fi- and cyberpunk-ish worldbuilding project somewhat too extensive in view of the fact its main motivator has been and continues to be self-indulgence (and maybe, to a degree, to practice my non-native writing).

To thus cut a long story somewhat short: When I developed 4240 AD, I had wanted to construct a "stage" fit to host all sorts of macro-, microphiliac and similarly fetishistic scenarios, one defined enough to be interesting but not too defined to allow for the introduction of new ideas. More than anything, it had been my goal to create a setting accessible to others - something of a public resource or platform, to be embedded in the framework of a Discord server or similar, for example. I had much enjoyed participating in a (considerably more innocent) roleplaying forum around the age of fifteen and thought it would be fun to build a comparable infrastructure myself, one that others could expand upon with their own concepts as long as they remained within the boundaries of the overall lore and didn't compromise the existent structures. A communal project, essentially; a gallery of roleplays and stories rested upon a (not to overestimate myself) sturdy and decently embellished foundation.

This is naturally where the clownery started: I had drastically underestimated the amount of effort to be necessarily invested in a forum of this kind. I realised that, besides work, uni and everything else, I would not have enough time to manage a resource of this scale and that, if I somehow tried to nevertheless, I would come to resent doing so sooner than later; continuing work on a more serious personal project would also be off the table. I consequently gave up on the endeavour, closed the server I had set up and moved on, deciding to retain the lore and system I had built for some other occasion, leaving it to hover in some fashion of creative limbo.

So that's the purpose of this account: Here I will share the ideas I developed for the setting of 4240 AD, the resources I have commissioned and will commission for it yet and, although I have taken to mainly writing in my own language by now, the occasional story told in its universe. I have no idea where that will lead as of right now, and I suppose I would be more than happy if it provided any inspiration to anyone. I find it is needless to say that whoever might feel like using 4240 AD as a basis for their own stories or concepts is more than welcome to do so, for its identity remains that of a public resource still.

Lastly: The character of 4240 AD is, as alluded to above, a fetishistic one, its tone excessively dystopian (someone told me it reminded them of Warhammer, which I haven't played but can see regardless), its lore somewhat but not too expansive. Usually dabbling in fantasy, I tried to nevertheless develop some sci-fi concepts I will not pretend are abundantly innovative but not without appeal either; my main focus however rested upon the outlines of some socio-economic and political mechanisms that I believed to be necessary to create a world of human and ethical interest.

Whether I have succeeded in any of that or not is up to others to decide! I sometimes felt slightly encumbered by the English language as it is not my own, but, to harken back to the motivators mentioned above, I think I benefited from the undertaking nevertheless. Maybe others will too, in some way.