prologue+opening

prologue:

After the Great Desertification dried the world to its bone, the Old World’s cold politics turned hot. World War III didn’t start with a declaration; it started with a button press. A surprise nuclear blitz aimed at total dominance forced the superpowers into a violent, reactionary spiral. As the giants fought, lesser nations seized the chaos to invade and loot what remained.

For fifteen years, nuclear fire rained down. The few who survived the radioactive blanket did so by burrowing into underground bunkers. But even the deep earth offered little safety from constant raids, despite the desperate anti-missile tech cobbled together by survivors.

The network died. The digital system collapsed. Silence fell between humans for decades.

Then came the Yellow Warrior.

A genius from Iablyn, he was more than a fighter. He ended the nuclear exchange not with diplomacy, but with an invention that neutralized the very radiation choking the world. Yet, this device was not a shield. It was a hammer. Against the might of this new power, nuclear weapons were obsolete toys. It was the force scientists had chased for centuries, the terrifying answer to an ancient riddle: control this, and you control everything.

They called it The Graviton.

It forced nuclear energy into submission and shattered our understanding of quantum mechanics. It allowed for the infinite manipulation of gravity itself.

For a moment, there was a savior. A new leader with a noble message. But human nature is inescapable. Peace crumbled into envy. Rifts formed within the Yellow Warrior’s ranks, turning into betrayal, then open war. The Graviton was unleashed again—this time, on a catastrophic scale never seen before.

it was as if the sky had fallen to the earth, and the earth had been cast into the sky.

The planet’s surface was pulverized. Life was nearly extinguished. Only a handful survived, including the Atherdeen family, who pledged to the Yellow Warrior to safeguard the weapon and rebuild civilization.

The Graviton changed everything. Science was bifurcated into Old World Physics and New World Physics. The weapon itself was cataloged among the most dangerous inventions in history; its science was forbidden, its manuscripts hidden and fiercely protected.

Years later, above the ruins of the Great Atlantic Trench, a new world took shape. The Atherdeen family used the Graviton to rip massive chunks of the earth’s crust from the wasteland, forging them into floating sphere-like lands. Suspended above the toxic remains of the past, these sanctuaries of clean air and new hope were named the Atherdeen Territories…

opening:

On the shores of Epsilon, where our toes sank into the warm embrace of the sand... the breeze was gentle, and the sky belonged to the birds. In that moment, I wished I could have frozen time forever. For the first time in my life, I felt truly free.

I was watching him with all my love... my young son, Selim, his eyes burning with a brilliance that mirrored the horizon. But then he asked a question—a question no child his age should know how to ask. It was then I realized he was destined to be one of the great minds of his era.

He pointed toward the skeletal remains of jagged buildings, his voice filled with wonder. "father, How old are these ruins?"

I looked at him, with a faint smile breaking through my weary features. "No, son," I said. "You should say: How ancient is this world?!..."

He studied my face for a heartbeat, searching for the meaning behind my words. "Is that how geniuses talk, Father?"

I went silent for a moment, then leaned in. "Did you know, Salim, that the Mind-walker on your neck... I invented its first prototype when I was nearly your age. I wanted people to find each other again. I wanted them to speak, to understand one another, to tear down the walls of language. I refined it, piece by piece, until it became the very fabric of our lives and memories. This neural-enhancer was—and still is—a revolutionary breakthrough. It is the phone of the new world."

...

"father... how ancient is this world?

no... how wrathful is my soul?!"

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