extremely fun to be a designer baby. Oleander was two twins when he was born but was fused together medically and cybernetically by his parents. they're pretty miserable to him but as he's grown up he's established clear boundaries with them. unfortunately he cannot safely live alone with his imposed disabilities!
Oli's brains are connected and he is consciously one person. as soon as he was of legal age he got himself his current leg cybernetics. in current story canon he's in his early twenties and waiting on his best friend to return for him from the wasteland and get him out of here, if Kieran doesn't die out there.
first here’s a lil lineup of all the currently canon hi-tech cityfolk in Ash & Dust! the twins Teagan and Kieran, Oleander, Trace, and au Reed who is @crownanother 's oc (and not fully designed yet)
i’m very good at namedropping terminology and not explaining myself, so under the cut is a lil rundown on what the hell a hi-tech is!! these guys are pretty notorious and relevant for the cast so they come up a lot lol
Hi-tech originated as a colloquialism referring to a collective of cyberpunk-dystopia cities local to the area A&D takes place. they're all built upon remnants of pre-apocalypse cityscape, and proudly claim to be the last bastions of the "high-tech" lifestyle of before. hi-techs are easy to identify by their sleek, lifelike cybernetics and intricate bodymods. at least in the (former) north american region, nobody else has this kind of technology and the hi-tech name is well-earned.
the cities host a gaudy, excessive culture with a focus on entertainment. to everyone else, hi-techs are known as egotistic, morally bankrupt frauds that treat everyone outside their walls as disposable, despite inexorably relying on the wasteland for resources. they have no regards whatsoever for the environment outside and cities are regularly surrounded by ecologically dead swampland. they treat the wasteland as a tourist destination to ogle poor outsiders - wastelander sentiments range from resigned tolerance to outright aggression.
against likely their only selling point of producing a high volume of art, hi-techs practice eugenics and regularly have trophy children that they sculpt into cyborgs. artistic vision for their children aside, they love blood sport and many kids are put into the pipeline at an alarmingly young age. they claim to be all about personal freedom and expression but their cultural pressure to continually, excessively bodymod just to be "hip" says otherwise, especially when its often parents making decisions for their preteen kids. Some folks are happy! most are not. all of the canon hi-techs above are delinquent from the city at this point - some left after disgrace from blood-sport (ie they killed civilians), the others left after a life of abuse and discontent. its possible for them to lead a life in the wasteland that they choose!
that’s not to say its all sunshine and rays of hope for hi-techs in the wasteland; many bandit types will capture and sell hi-techs to people like Cyanide and scrappers often have no qualms disassembling them in the field. its dangerous out there!! the wasteland as a whole - settlements, nomads, and rogues alike - has a pretty severe distaste for their neighbors trying to play overlord, but they’re (for the most part...) willing to recognize its the city and not the individual that’s such a toxic blight on the map. from an outside perspective, the cities are failing and will fall eventually. but in the meantime hi-techs are easy to hate and its hard to blame the runaways
i think that’s plenty! the story has little to do with Eden but they’re fun to develop 💖 despicable people the lot of em
as always ash & dust is a work in progress so don’t take this as gospel lol <3 anything is always subject to change.
bonus, here's concept art for Eden, the closest hi-tech city to the story's happenings! thanks for reading ✨
