Prologue
Prologue ----
It's the year 2199. Space has become commercialized with the various advancements made by private companies such as SpaceX and governments across the world. Progressively, the rich are moving to space where they can live their lives in luxury.
On earth, society is becoming more and more separated by class. Suburban communities over the past century and a half were bulldozed to make room for more cities, as overpopulation became an increasing problem. Engineers had to eventually develop techniques to make skyscrapers reach up to a dozen miles high. With all this construction and planning, naturally not all people could be accommodated.
Cities are now structured by districts, which are purely titular. The primary principle everyone lives by is this: the closer to the ground you live, the less fortunate you are.
At the lowest level is Gehenna, where squalid living and high crime rates are the norm. Here reside the outcasts, the rejects of the corrupt society they challenged, in the end only in vain. Here lie the ill, those who could not afford or were rejected from receiving medical treatment from higher districts. Here, no matter your race, gender, or background, all are equal as all are damned. Survival is the only true goal down here.
The streets are laced with broken neon signs, fast food restaurants with half-cooked food every other block, and the sheer density of the homeless clinging to their lives in the dusty winds blowing through the streets… all of it is enough to make any person sick. What's worse is that it's nearly impossible to advance upwards. Even with the miracle you do, you'll just be viewed as just another Gehenan.
Right above this is Purgatorium; capitalism and fame are the only true gods here. Tarries, the people who reside here, typically concern themselves with having only the best: being the top of the class in school, having the highest wages, having the nicest sense of style. One skyscraper will typically have one to three malls in just one floor. Marble and gilded walls fill the hallways as people try their hardest to be something their not and will never be. It's rare to meet someone without them wearing a 'mask' of sorts, fakery is commonplace and friendships are typically only based one functionality.
Finally there's the Elysium. Only the most influential, most wealthy, most controlling live in this paradise. Filled with carefully curated exotic plants and only the most haute couture of art and fashion, the lucky few here are the gods of what's left of earth. Governments, democracy, hell even socialism are mere follies of the past. Now, the 1% are the sole rulers of us humans, their fearful subjects.
Surprisingly, with a little bit of effort, it's easier to work up from Purgatorium to Elysium. The only caveat is that almost daily, a person here can be knocked back down a level in seconds. Competition and rivalry are the law here. A Gehenan can only dream of what the penthouses are like.
These past few weeks, us Gehenans have noticed the quiet but watchful presence of a secret police. Not much is know about these agents of the higher ups. All that's gathered from the rumors floating around is a single clue: The Eye of the Onyx.