2023-04-06 07:25
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<p>[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]</p> <p>In the bio-mechanical city of Neo-Bablyon, a surreal underworld called Kur rises from the bones of the Kenoma solar system. Despite Entropy leaving the solar system in a null, lightless state, Kur remains as a bastion, sustained by an unknown musical force and ruled by the Archons - metaphors for both post-human extremes and real, tragic human beings who organize the city's literal and metaphorical lifeblood in a cruel gamified system.</p> <p>Through Aktaly's eyes, we witness her Saturn Return as a 28-year-old woman caught between working as an anthrorgan technician and studying to become the Post-Human Composer who sings through it. After her fiancé's death in his mad scientist brother's experiment, she suffers her own demotion. Worse yet, that mad scientist is Spryaig who is subsequently promoted to Archon status. This drops Aktaly right at the rock bottom of Neo-Babylon. That was until an invasion of space dragon refugees fleeing from an eldritch horror tears her the rest of her shattered life apart. And the ruins of Neo-Bablyon become Kur, the refuge for the last survivors of the Kenoma solar system. Aktaly sustains herself by being transmogrified into a Cyber Bard and gains the potential for exceptional abilities of musical composition that can be used for both resonance healing and electromagnetic destruction when properly trained.</p> <p>As she journeys through the city, Aktaly confronts both the vilest and most pitiful forms of bio-mechanical life and faces moral tests of power and addictive pleasures. With Orpheus, a sentient parasite, slowly overtaking her bionic body, she must choose between fully committing to the powers of a Post-Human goddess or remaining a human being who can empathize with others to find a better way forward for everyone and not just herself.</p> <p>Inspired by mythology from various cultures, Aktaly's katabasis to heal the city of Kur and the Kenoma system updates the stories of Inanna, Eurydice, and Sophia Achamoth for a modern audience. As she navigates her own agency and confronts personal and cosmic identity, she must also contend with the collective species-wide trauma of every suffering once-human face on the soul brick streets of Kur in her struggle to keep her capacity for empathy alive.</p> <p>The unique literary biopunk fiction saga challenges readers to question if perhaps we already possess the tools to create a solarpunk utopia, but maybe we just don't empathize enough with each other to use them together for a better future. It is a story of personal growth, ethical dilemmas, and the power of music and empathy to heal a broken world.</p>
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