On the 5th of July 2009, Improbable Island Season Two went live. It replaced some very broken game mechanics, introduced the Stamina system, and greatly increased the size of the Island.

It also changed the gameplay mechanics so much that a complete reset was in order. Everyone went back to being a newbie, overnight.

I didn't really know how to handle that, canon-wise. At the time, I was wrestling with US immigration, an unreliable housing situation and a development machine that was intent on grinding its CPU fan into dust - I didn't have the spare time to do anything beyond a hand-wavey "Ah, just release the gas and wipe everyone's memory" sort of deal. And then it hit me.

A nuclear bomb! Of course! That's suitably dramatic... We'll have the Network decide that the show's gotten too silly, and nuke the damn Island. But what happens when you combine nuclear forces and chance? I guess weird things happen... I'll let my players roleplay it, let their scenes collide as reality gets all wobbly, and then fade to black as the universe splits itself in two. Season One would remain online for as long as anyone was playing it (which was about a week, and then another few months for sentimental reasons), so it makes thematic sense that the bomb would shatter reality - blowing everyone up and yet not blowing everyone up, all at once.

So, we had a day or two when everything that the players did was considered utterly canonical. After all, the world was ending, may as well go out with a bang. Reality splintered, and everyone got a slice.

Now you've got the backstory.

Stories, once started, linger - especially those stories that concern characters like The Watcher.