Psychomachia
Psychomachia
Created by Allison (naiveprophet) and Rebecca (guiltycross).
Introduction: It is a world in which corruption reigns and religion decays. It is a dying world. A world in which sins are a non-issue, and good deeds are trampled on by the stampede of rising corporations.
The Psychomachia (Battle of Souls) is a poem that describes virtues and vices in a battle. We have taken this term and use it for our own devices. In our Psychomachia, virtues and vices are greyed, they are blurred around the edges. In Psychomachia, pirates have the biggest hearts, and the biggest cut from their thievery. Police officers are bigots, but they fight to protect what they believe in. And the cruelest man of Port Atlantis is trying to better society.
It is a complicated world. It is a world none of them wanted. But it is all they have.
Setting: Psychomachia is set in a post-apocalyptic type earth. Approximately three hundred years in the future, the world is vastly different. A nuclear war has left most of the world devastated, and drastic changes have been made to continue life on earth.
There are three major region/society class divisions: the domed cities, the Rim, and the labor annexes.
Domes
The domed cities are exquisite architectural wonders. They're enormous, able to fit about 750, 000 people into one. The domes themselves are not tangible. They are force fields designed to filter the air of harmful toxins and radiation, as well as protect the city from invasive attacks or massive weather spikes. The cities are generated largely by water, and so each is positioned by some major water source. There are twenty-five of these worldwide, and each is its own city-state.
The domes are vastly overpopulated, however, and expensive to live in. The taxes make living almost impossible for some. These people inhabit the outskirts of the city, the slums. They are mostly those who scraped all their lives to move into the city, and found the cost of living so high they can't really "make it." Drugs, prostitution, and crime run high in the slums. Well, drugs, prostitution, and crime run high in the rest of the city, but it's sugar coated to make it look less real.
These cities are quite technologically advanced. Transportation is mass, personal, or ship. Mass transportation refers to the public transportation units known as ULTras (Urban-like transports). They are electronically controlled cars that do not need to be driven. Though they are for public use, there are several classes of ULTras. Some are owned by certain businesses, some are owned by the university, and some are owned by the city itself. None, however, are for personal use. The only personal transportation unit an individual can own is a motorbike, and getting one involves a lengthy certification process and a great deal of fees.
There are two main types of ships: Atmo transports and Breakships. Atmo transports are ships that are incapable of leaving the atmosphere. Breakships are those that are able to go into space, they are used to mine on other planets.
While the cities are all structurally similar, they are vastly different culturally. Port Atlantis is a cosmopolitan crockpot of people, but over time has become blended into an Asian-Euro culture. That is, there are a great deal of European-descended individuals living in Port Atlantis, but the overall culture is very Eastern-influenced.
Business is the main source of income in Port Atlantis. All the high-class families own a business of some kind, and many politicians are business oriented as well. The Big Five, the five main corporations of the city, are the main source of power in Port Atlantis.
The Rim
The Rim is the term most widely used for the dead land outside of the domed cities. It is divided into colonies and independents. The colonies are those villages that are reliant on the domes for food, clothing, and other supplies. The colonies of Port Atlantis, the city featured in Psychomachia, are sadly neglected and mostly left to their own devices, which has caused a surge of piracy and salvaging.
Unlike the cities, which are considered advanced, the society in the Rim has gone backwards in time, though they are blessed with some technological improvements-always several years behind the domes. The Rim is reminiscent of the Old West. The land is dead and desert-like, the conditions are rough, and the education minimal.
People are either tradesmen, and follow their father's career, or pirates, looting agro transports from Port Atlantis. Divided into villages with strong Native American influences, they have alliances and governments of their own, with little regard for the mother city-state.
Called "ghosts" by the people of Port Atlantis (the term "ghost" refers to the lack of a PIN-personal identification number-and thus, the lack of a verifiable identity), these Outers are considered ignorant and generally worthless. Even the kindest of Port Atlanteans often feel some bigotry towards the Rim.
The independents are villages that rely on themselves alone. They are set in the wilder parts of the land, in mountainous regions or deep in the deserts, that make it difficult to access from the outside. There is little actually known about the independents, though there are a great deal of rumors, many intended to frighten children at bedtime.
Labor Annexes
There are some regions in the world that are still valuable and hold useful resources. These have become labor annexes, and underpaid workers are hired to work in these regions. Some are dangerous, and the life expectancy of these workers is very short. The labor annexes are mostly owned by corporations, though there are some private owners as well. The Big Five of Port Atlantis own a large portion of labor annexes.
Situation: There are at least two major themes that will be touched on in Psychomachia, and they are environmental, and equal rights issues.
The environmental issues belong primarily to Port Atlantis. PRISM Corp., one of the Big Five, owned by Adrian Bancroft, is planning his Expansion Project, an attempt to build a series of island cities that will float far above the earth.
Meanwhile, Ethan Valente, a doctor and scientist, starts projects of his own to heal the wounded earth. His projects include replacing the workers in labor annexes with drones, building animal sanctuaries to preserve the dying animal kingdom, and return the dead lands to thriving status.
The issue of equal rights is prevalent in Psychomachia. The strongest of these is the rivalry between the domes and the Rim. There is a great deal of contempt between Port Atlantis and her colonies, and years of bitter strife.
There is also the issue of metasynths in Port Atlantis. A metasynth, or metasynthetic human, is an individual with cybernetic implants or synthetically enhanced parts and processes, of varying degrees. Most metasynths belong to the government, though there are also some who were upgraded as a last ditch effort to save their lives. Society generally sees these people as subhuman, and also fear them as a threat.
Another issue of equal rights is homosexuality in Port Atlantis. Contrary to our society, homosexuality is not actually viewed in any negative way in the city, and that is because it is so common. Early on, when the population was growing out of control, a popular political party supported a scientific experiment of population control. Male babies were injected with a hormone to ensure their sexuality while still in the womb. When its effectiveness was assured, a law was passed that any family having more than one child would have to have a male fetus injected. Certain rewards were promised to families who had their children injected voluntarily. These babies became known as C-Factors (Control Factors). A new political party grew to power approximately eight years later, and the project was declared unethical and disbanded, though still not outlawed. Now these C-Factors are adults and have to face the facts that they had a choice made for them.
A final issue faced in Psychomachia is misogyny in the Rim. Society in the Rim generally regards women as the weaker sex, and look down on any unmarried woman, particularly women who are employed.
Dictionary: For a list of terms used in Psychomachia, go here.
This is incomplete, and will be added to over time.
Created by Allison (naiveprophet) and Rebecca (guiltycross).
Introduction: It is a world in which corruption reigns and religion decays. It is a dying world. A world in which sins are a non-issue, and good deeds are trampled on by the stampede of rising corporations.
The Psychomachia (Battle of Souls) is a poem that describes virtues and vices in a battle. We have taken this term and use it for our own devices. In our Psychomachia, virtues and vices are greyed, they are blurred around the edges. In Psychomachia, pirates have the biggest hearts, and the biggest cut from their thievery. Police officers are bigots, but they fight to protect what they believe in. And the cruelest man of Port Atlantis is trying to better society.
It is a complicated world. It is a world none of them wanted. But it is all they have.
Setting: Psychomachia is set in a post-apocalyptic type earth. Approximately three hundred years in the future, the world is vastly different. A nuclear war has left most of the world devastated, and drastic changes have been made to continue life on earth.
There are three major region/society class divisions: the domed cities, the Rim, and the labor annexes.
Domes
The domed cities are exquisite architectural wonders. They're enormous, able to fit about 750, 000 people into one. The domes themselves are not tangible. They are force fields designed to filter the air of harmful toxins and radiation, as well as protect the city from invasive attacks or massive weather spikes. The cities are generated largely by water, and so each is positioned by some major water source. There are twenty-five of these worldwide, and each is its own city-state.
The domes are vastly overpopulated, however, and expensive to live in. The taxes make living almost impossible for some. These people inhabit the outskirts of the city, the slums. They are mostly those who scraped all their lives to move into the city, and found the cost of living so high they can't really "make it." Drugs, prostitution, and crime run high in the slums. Well, drugs, prostitution, and crime run high in the rest of the city, but it's sugar coated to make it look less real.
These cities are quite technologically advanced. Transportation is mass, personal, or ship. Mass transportation refers to the public transportation units known as ULTras (Urban-like transports). They are electronically controlled cars that do not need to be driven. Though they are for public use, there are several classes of ULTras. Some are owned by certain businesses, some are owned by the university, and some are owned by the city itself. None, however, are for personal use. The only personal transportation unit an individual can own is a motorbike, and getting one involves a lengthy certification process and a great deal of fees.
There are two main types of ships: Atmo transports and Breakships. Atmo transports are ships that are incapable of leaving the atmosphere. Breakships are those that are able to go into space, they are used to mine on other planets.
While the cities are all structurally similar, they are vastly different culturally. Port Atlantis is a cosmopolitan crockpot of people, but over time has become blended into an Asian-Euro culture. That is, there are a great deal of European-descended individuals living in Port Atlantis, but the overall culture is very Eastern-influenced.
Business is the main source of income in Port Atlantis. All the high-class families own a business of some kind, and many politicians are business oriented as well. The Big Five, the five main corporations of the city, are the main source of power in Port Atlantis.
The Rim
The Rim is the term most widely used for the dead land outside of the domed cities. It is divided into colonies and independents. The colonies are those villages that are reliant on the domes for food, clothing, and other supplies. The colonies of Port Atlantis, the city featured in Psychomachia, are sadly neglected and mostly left to their own devices, which has caused a surge of piracy and salvaging.
Unlike the cities, which are considered advanced, the society in the Rim has gone backwards in time, though they are blessed with some technological improvements-always several years behind the domes. The Rim is reminiscent of the Old West. The land is dead and desert-like, the conditions are rough, and the education minimal.
People are either tradesmen, and follow their father's career, or pirates, looting agro transports from Port Atlantis. Divided into villages with strong Native American influences, they have alliances and governments of their own, with little regard for the mother city-state.
Called "ghosts" by the people of Port Atlantis (the term "ghost" refers to the lack of a PIN-personal identification number-and thus, the lack of a verifiable identity), these Outers are considered ignorant and generally worthless. Even the kindest of Port Atlanteans often feel some bigotry towards the Rim.
The independents are villages that rely on themselves alone. They are set in the wilder parts of the land, in mountainous regions or deep in the deserts, that make it difficult to access from the outside. There is little actually known about the independents, though there are a great deal of rumors, many intended to frighten children at bedtime.
Labor Annexes
There are some regions in the world that are still valuable and hold useful resources. These have become labor annexes, and underpaid workers are hired to work in these regions. Some are dangerous, and the life expectancy of these workers is very short. The labor annexes are mostly owned by corporations, though there are some private owners as well. The Big Five of Port Atlantis own a large portion of labor annexes.
Situation: There are at least two major themes that will be touched on in Psychomachia, and they are environmental, and equal rights issues.
The environmental issues belong primarily to Port Atlantis. PRISM Corp., one of the Big Five, owned by Adrian Bancroft, is planning his Expansion Project, an attempt to build a series of island cities that will float far above the earth.
Meanwhile, Ethan Valente, a doctor and scientist, starts projects of his own to heal the wounded earth. His projects include replacing the workers in labor annexes with drones, building animal sanctuaries to preserve the dying animal kingdom, and return the dead lands to thriving status.
The issue of equal rights is prevalent in Psychomachia. The strongest of these is the rivalry between the domes and the Rim. There is a great deal of contempt between Port Atlantis and her colonies, and years of bitter strife.
There is also the issue of metasynths in Port Atlantis. A metasynth, or metasynthetic human, is an individual with cybernetic implants or synthetically enhanced parts and processes, of varying degrees. Most metasynths belong to the government, though there are also some who were upgraded as a last ditch effort to save their lives. Society generally sees these people as subhuman, and also fear them as a threat.
Another issue of equal rights is homosexuality in Port Atlantis. Contrary to our society, homosexuality is not actually viewed in any negative way in the city, and that is because it is so common. Early on, when the population was growing out of control, a popular political party supported a scientific experiment of population control. Male babies were injected with a hormone to ensure their sexuality while still in the womb. When its effectiveness was assured, a law was passed that any family having more than one child would have to have a male fetus injected. Certain rewards were promised to families who had their children injected voluntarily. These babies became known as C-Factors (Control Factors). A new political party grew to power approximately eight years later, and the project was declared unethical and disbanded, though still not outlawed. Now these C-Factors are adults and have to face the facts that they had a choice made for them.
A final issue faced in Psychomachia is misogyny in the Rim. Society in the Rim generally regards women as the weaker sex, and look down on any unmarried woman, particularly women who are employed.
Dictionary: For a list of terms used in Psychomachia, go here.
This is incomplete, and will be added to over time.