Science is in a golden age: decades passed since the first android and genetically modified humans were developed. These beings of scientific perfection are several magnitudes stronger and smarter than normal man. They are collectively known as the Order. Eventually, the Order creates a one world government, and world peace.

This "worldwide order" comes at a high cost. A great social divide develops between the Order and ordinary humans. Rejected from the utopian society of the Order, some turn to the teachings of a man with seemly divine powers named Mabus and a new religion, the Chosen. Mabus preaches of attaining spiritual perfection thru constant magical research and supernatural enhancement. To be religiously pure, one must reject all forms of technology. The Chosen considers androids as "soul-less machines".

As the Chosen gained in popularity, the Order saw them as the greatest threat to civilization. Mabus, who openly taught his followers to practice sorcery, is considered the incarnation of ultimate evil; an evil that would consume the world in unnatural witchcraft. Simply known as the Purge, the war started when the Order killed the Chosen's leader, Mabus.

The Purge Jihad is a war of self-righteousness and extreme intolerance; of fundamental values and the preservation of entire livelihoods. The Order is protecting the very fabric of a modern world - the right for scientific knowledge to even exist. The Order fears what the Chosen seek, a worldwide theocratic government (rule by religion). The Chosen believe they are "chosen ones" to cleanse the world of non-believers by eliminating technology wherever it exists in the name of Mabus, so that he will one day return.