The Gates of Haven - Series/Setting Blurb (Patreon)

Notes : Chapter 411 of The Fallen World has been written and added to the queue !

Not many people expressed interest in the setting blurb I'd talked about (chapter 117 MFR's notes here on patreon), but some did, so here. For anyone not interested, do feel free to skip it. For those who are, a little treat before the new chapter tomorrow.

Centuries ago, humanity reached for the stars. We colonized, spread, tamed.

Then we fought. But not the wars of the old time. This was a war fought with asteroids, planetkiller missiles and engineered nanoplagues.

We almost died. All of us. Wiped out by our own weapons.

Then came Arcadia. An artificial intelligence that, in our desperation, we empowered. We gave it everything. All of our technology, our libraries, our thoughts and our ideas. We built something we didn't understand.

Thankfully, Arcadia understood us rather well. She saved humanity. Made cures for the plagues. Built arcologies we could live in. Sent ships to rescue the dying remnants of our species on the many worlds we burned.

And on Earth, our birthplace, she built Haven. The last megacity of humanity. The pinnacle of our specie and the monument to our survival. Everything can be yours in there. Food, clean air, medicine. Cybernetic augmentation, travel to the new habitats around the stars.

But there is one rule in Haven. You are under Arcadia's eye. Always. She learned from us, but it turns out she inherited some of our less desirable traits as well. Like the need for control. She will protect us, if we let her control us.

Humanity being what it is, many of us refused. She understood that impulse as well.

So here we live. On edge of Haven, building our own city, our own districts, our own rules.

But it is always there. Towering over us. Calling to us. This shining beacon of glittering technology and luxury. From anywhere humans can still live, you can see the distant thread of its space elevator reaching towards the stars. The greatest, and last megacity of humanity.

Its Gates always open.

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A short explanation of what drove this setting : I've been wanting to write a Cyberpunk story for a while. My first prototypes used magic extensively, but...there were issues. The first one is that I'm afraid I'm basically over-relying on the 'mix magic and technology' aspect of my stories. The second one is simply that I really want to write a pure sci-fi story, but one that isn't a space opera.

It is using a variation of Earth from my general multiverse, one where things went badly, badly wrong during the early interstellar age. Those who have read The Fallen World know Alexandra had mused the European Federation had seen something like this coming, and this would be the result of the Final Contingency being triggered, and the colonies being engulfed in a war of extermination with Earth.

The story would follow Tiva, a 'troubleshooter', which is a fancy name for a mix between a mercenary, a security consultant and a private investigator. In a city where everyone lives precisely to avoid an all encompassing police state, even a benevolent one, traditional law enforcement is a complicated affair. People like her fills in the gaps.

It's heavily inspired by the Murderbot Diaries and Person of Interest, and I wanted to make a setting with another take on Cyberpunk dystopias. One where living in a corporate hellscape is entirely optional, and where the freedom that Cyberpunk is always about is what caused that hellscape.

Anyway, I hope it was an interesting read. See you tomorrow for chapter 411 !