Note: there are heavy religious themes but I am not Christian and these themes are not an attempt to proseltyse, but rather just in-universe modes of thought as this story is meant to feel like mythology or the Bible
Areas:
The Collapse/The Nuclear Rapture: The Collapse to the Deserters and the Nuclear Rapture to the Holy People. When the gods tore down the world as it was once known and it was reborn (my OCs live ~180 years after the Collapse)
Truebabylon: The name for the area of Neojerusalem, the Desert, and the two Sanctuaries combined.
The Desert: (not an actual desert) After the Collapse, half of survivors survived off of their own merits using whatever they could to survive the godly blast and the following radiation. Being left fateless and forsaken by the gods, they live only with Death, too kind to kill them all off. The Desert is embroiled in constant fighting and mostly ruled by the primary group Fame, led by Lord Fame. The Desert is the title of the region but only the deepest end of it is truly a desert, but it is unpassable. Inhabitants are called "Deserters"
The Heart: The actual desert part of the Desert. To go to the Heart is to lose your life: you either die or become a god
Neojerusalem: The other half of the survivors were pious people, protected by the gods during The Collapse. They were drawn to the Life Waters and they built their theocratic, matriarchal kingdom around it, with Neojerusalem naming itself after the kingdom that would reign after the Rapture and the 1000 years of terror, ruled by Queen Glory. Inhabitants are called "Holy People" (Note that Neojerusalem and the Little & Big Sanctuaries together are referred to as "The Sanctuaries" The Workers' Sanctuary is not included)
The Big Sanctuary: The smaller, theocratic, matriarchal, kingdom southeast of the Life Waters, ruled by Queen Wisdom, inhabited by the pious people
The Little Sanctuary: The even smaller sanctuary closer to Neojerusalem than the Big Sanctuary
Havedom/Haver: The term "empire" and "emperor" have not survived, being renamed after their leader Haver, whose name is both a name and title like the Roman Caesar. The spouse of the Haver would be called "Haver [name]", whereas the Haver would just hold that name and whatever number in the line they are
The Workers' Sanctuary: The commune founded by Worker and lead by Worker and Piety together, burnt down in the 200th year
The Chasms: Formerly North America, almost entirely wiped out to become a large trench after the Collapse
The Life Waters: Formerly the Red Sea but most of its banks were dried up and is now only recognisable as a river, though it does grow very large in its portion by the Big Sanctuary
Farms: These are the large concrete buildings that withstood the Collapse (once malls, military bases, apartments, etc), often reinforced with whatever the Deserters can find to reinforce it with. They have many floors, often the bottom floors are where the Girls are kept. Higher up tends to be where the men who rule over the Farm live. The attics are mostly for storage.
Camps: There are 12 camps (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin) that all war with each other, though most of them still follow Lord Fame
Mines: An underground town inhabited by the Deserters that work for Neojerusalem, gathering most of Neojerusalem's materials
People:
Wons/Pewons/Howons: The way that the martriarchal Sanctuaries refer to women (wons), men (pewons), and humans (howons)
Barebacks: The ideal state of being for the Desert religion, a form of dedicating oneself to the Divine, can be equated to monks
Deserters: The way to refer to a person originating from the Desert
Sanctuarians/Holy People: The way to refer to a person originating from Neojerusalem or the Sanctuaries (not including Workers' Sanctuary)
Wise Women/Wons: They are often the only ones who know how to read and write, they are the ones who hold the knowledge from before the Collapse, and they are who are sought for advice. Most Wise Wons are from the Sanctuaries, where education is more available
Lord Fame: The primary leader of the Desert who enforces total patriarchy
Servants: The primary men, soldiers who fight for Lord Fame
Names: After the Collapse, people in the Desert forgot what names were and instead named people based off of what they were: girls are named Girl, women named Women, and so on. Rager is the first to name herself after 190 years of no names.
Concepts:
P.C.: Stands for "Post Collapse", a marker for what year it is. Ex: 400 B.C.E. (Before Common Era), 400 C.E. (Common Era), 400 P.C. (Post Collapse)
Chariots: Cars that wons drive around with food and water and supplies to give to Deserters as charity work, often required for entry to many universities in Neojerusalem
Glory Run: The 6-12 month trip a group of wons will take (at 18-25 generally) after graduating from university, driving a Chariot and delivering supplies to Deserters as charity work
Lost: The holy rite of making a lifelong pilgrimage to the Heart, trying to achieve divine madness and be consumed by the Divine
Skirts: Skirts symbolise status. Most Deserters are born with no skirts, while Holy people are born with at least one skirt. Skirts are earned through various things, often by accomplishing something great, or by being born in the royal family. Deserters really only earn skirts through warfare, or by being pious enough. Very pious. Holy people earn them through many other, easier things. 6 skirts is the maximum, but reserved for the monarchs of the queendoms
Treasure Horse: A large wooden horse or horse-like figure on wheels used to be ridden like a horse (as horses are extinct in most areas of the world), often decorated in ornate fabrics and endless treasures.
The Collapse/Rapture War: The Collapse War to Deserters and the Rapture War to Holy people, the third world war that lead to the world being wiped out for their "sins"
The Eternal War: The war between all of the Camps in the Desert as they all struggle to stay afloat and do not trust one another
Truebabylon's Neowar: The war initiated by Haver founding the Havedom in the 200th year that, unlike the Eternal War, involves the Sanctuaries (i.e. all of Truebabylon)
Religion:
The Divine: The way to refer to all of the gods at once, from all of the religions across Truebablyon
The Desert religion: Religion across the Desert is scattered and changes from person to person, though they largely believe in gods as incarnations of emotions (when an emotion or concept is capitalised, it is referring to their divine form, i.e. that emotion has cognisance). Most Deserters do not have strong belief, but still a fear of the Divine and the punishment from Lord Fame for blaspheming. There is a common belief that if one dedicates their life to the Divine and goes to the Heart, they will have enough strength to endure through the Heart and become one with the Divine themself, though there are other sects believing everyone and everything already is part of the Divine.
The Old religion: The more institutionalised form of the Desert religion, pushed by Lord Fame and his political movement. This is orthopraxical, and so relies on religious action rather than religious thought (so faith is not as important as offering)
Neojerusalem religion: In Neojerusalem, the concept of the gods is more concrete, and they believe the gods have physical faces and bodies, though these forms are only shown to the queen, Glory, who is named after their primary deity. They have more organised festivals and a high temple in Glory city for all of the religious authorities, as well as smaller temples across Neojerusalem dedicated to individual deities.
Priests: Religious authorities only in Neojerusalem, as the Deserters believe they worship false gods. Men cannot be priests, though they can serve them if they join the high temple. Smaller sects in the Sanctuaries believe the priests can also see the physical forms of the gods.
The Sanctuary religion: Very similar to Neojerusalem's religion, but with more branches believing in different appearances and names for the gods, as well as other branches believing all of the gods are just pieces of one true god (often referred to as the Divine, and there is debate between the Sanctuaries and Desert if they refer to the same "Divine")
Lost: The act of going to or near the Heart in order to seek the Divine and become a Bareback
Acts: My method of differentiating between sections of the story that does not exist in-universe. There are three Pre-Acts spanning the years where older characters like Piety, Worker, and Wisdom are relevant, which lead into the three main Acts, separated by the most pivotal parts of the story (Seer is delivered to Rager ---> Act I ---> Seer is delivered to the Sanctuary ---> Act II ---> Truebabylon's Neowar starts ---> Act II ---> Rager and Haver duel). Some characters' stories may only span one or a few Acts, some may start in later Acts, this is because Acts are the overall story and not individual stories
Wisdom as a character is representative of the story as a whole. She is the only character present in all 6 Acts, and exists as a passive role behind all of it. She is Queen of the Big Sanctuary, a large but unambitious queendom. She, like her namesake, is wise, and knows to oppose Haver and almost pity her, as she knew her mother Glory. She allied with Rager briefly, as she respected her and her connection to Worker, but this alliance backfired into Haver invading her queendom and leaving her without a throne nor home. She doesn’t exist as anything less superficial than the prose of the story itself. In a story full of everyone desperate to take and keep power, she feels no attachment to it. She knew when her time had come, and told Rager likewise for her, when Rager’s time had come.
Piety left to explore the Chasms (formerly North America) at 18 years old, returning at 20 having seen something so terrifying she could not speak a single word for 2 whole years. Then she ran away to the Desert. She wandered the Desert for 3 years before moving to Camp Asher. She gathered a small group of students who were enraptured by the vague and philosophical ways she now spoke. At 37 she meets Worker, and shortly thereafter begins teaching her, and she soon becomes her only student, her protégé. 8 years later, they run away to establish the Workers’ Sanctuary, where she returns to her reclusive state. It is here where she tells Worker what she saw at the Chasms: The Divine in physical form. She waits for years to meet someone who understands what she saw, the horror of it, and at 62 she finally meets her: Rager. They exchange only a sentence, but Piety dies happily a few years later, with the Neowar’s beginning
Worker was born to a relatively normal family, but they start to grow distant when her brother gets to go to school and she can't (cuz girl). She gets a tutor but they're not very good, but at 17 she finally gets to get an education from Piety, who is mysterious and enrapturing. At 21 she becomes her protégé, and 5 years later they build the Workers' Sanctuary, partaking in the Desert's Endless War. She occasionally meets up with Mad to help her with her hangovers, and at 41 she finally meets Rager, who stays with her and fights on her side. 5 years later, the Workers' Sanctuary is burnt down and Piety is killed. Haver helps Worker rebuild and then she rescues Mad from Lord Fame. At 54 she kills Lord Fame and 2 years later the war ends. She steps down from leadership and cares for her niece until she dies at 70, peacefully.
Winner and Rager got close raising Seer together. Winner indulged Rager and Seer's worst tendencies because of her misplaced compassion and forgiveness. She wanted to hope they could get better. She invites Mad to join them when they run away from the Farm and is the first to accept her when she comes out as trans. She comforts Seer through his visions and Rager through her depressive episodes. She allows Rager and Mad to become drug addicts, and forgives them every time they act out of turn. After Seer reached the sanctuary, it was just her and Rager, and they began to fall in love, however, Winner is killed before they can do anything with that love.
Seer was prophesied to take down the queendom and end Glory's line. He's then delivered to Rager at the Farm at 3 y/o, who raises him to believe he is a god. he only makes one friend, Girl. At 8 y/o, he's forced to perform a surgery and he starts to believe he really is a god when it goes successful. Then he, Rager, Winner, and Girl flee the Farm. Winner mothers him for a while. He has many prophetic visions. He finds out he's intersex. He sacrifices Girl and in return the divine(?) gives them a car. At 15 y/o she's delivered to Neojerusalem, where she joins the temple. She meets Haver. They fall in love. They get engaged when she's 21 y/o cuz Haver was gonna get banished. Seer becomes a Prophet. She makes a big speech about "darkening the sun" and boom an eclipse happens (she believes this is the Divine), and her empire (the Havedom) starts. She rules over Glory while Haver's off fighting. She reunites with Rager briefly. At 26 y/o she decides to just spend time with her little cult and wander around. At 30 y/o she gets martyred by some Servants of Lord Fame
Mad was born a boy and runs away at 13 cuz she feels like a girl, finds Rager and the crew in the attic and joins them. Comes out to Winner. Starts doing drugs. At 15 she and Rager finally get close cuz Rager didn't like her at first so then she comes out to her. She and Rager start getting a lot of addictions (drugs, self harm, etc) together, and seer is jealous of the time they spend together. At 20 she leaves and starts her cult of maenads where they do drugs and talk about existentialism. she meets back up with rager at 27 and they see seer become emperor. she becomes more lucid (she locks in) cuz of The War. she baptises haver. at 31 she gets kidnapped by lord fame. Worker rescues her. she spends her days recovering with her maenads until she's 40 and the war ends and they wander off to do drugs and presumably die
At 5 y/o Queen Glory kills Haver's parents and makes her her successor. Haver is forced to study a lot so she's isolated. She makes a friend (Sun) at 10 y/o but Glory exiles Sun cuz she's controlling. Haver becomes fascinated with death. She sneaks off with some wons at 15 y/o and explores the Desert for 6 months (She sees Sun & Rager & Seer here). She's exiled from Glory city for 4 years so she spends them at the temple. She meets Seer at the temple. At 21 y/o she and Seer start dating. Glory threatens to take the throne from Haver so she quickly marries Seer then kills Glory. She's 25 y/o when she starts her empire (Havedom) and a war and teams up with Rager to fight but like they keep falling out then getting back together. Haver conquers all the Camps and Sanctuaries at 32 y/o. Seer dies. She and Rager are having a really rough spot (shes 37 at this point) so they wrestle for who's gonna live or die and then one of them becomes one with the Divine and one of them dies. i will not tell you which one
