Page 1.
Scene: Splash- whether full bleed off the page or confined in a giant singular frame is up to the artist, as with every page to this tale. An angular, aerial view of a sunny day over richly dense jungle, with evocative foliage near and far, a long river lazily running through the middle and with a from this vantage point tiny waterfall dead center to the shot, and off in the distance mountain ridges rising foggily up and beyond through willowy clouds. Figure POV as several hundred meters up.
Caption 1.
“In 2023 the world’s biggest and most costly war in all of history took place, all within a few hours. Over half of the global population was erased into memory in less time than it takes to watch two or three back to back movies.”
Caption 2.
“Through the course of the preceding century, the United States of America had risen to the height of its power and vainglory, with Church, State and Industry all falling victim into the melting pot of seething arrogance and greedy acquiescence. Everybody could see what was happening, to the point of prolific internet joking at their own expense, but nobody did anything substantial to fight the oncoming circumstances of the world’s most powerful nation coming under the blatantly irrevocable control of a handful of malevolently disingenuous families.”
Caption 3.
“And through them, so fell the world.”
Page 2.
Scene: Splash- with the POV being a closer view of the previous page. Drop the camera down a couple hundred meters to focus in on the waterfall, with a downward perspective of waters racing down and feeding into a now mighty river. Tranquil scenery, save for the raw power and lots of energy of the fall itself, with exotic birds flying across a corner of the image going about their birdy business.
Caption 1.
“What is the difference between conspirators and opportunists? Between neutrality and passivity? Between yesterday and tomorrow?”
Caption 2.
“The 21st century was born of a recession, quickly worsening into an all-out global economic depression with multi-national banking conglomerates striking higher and higher profits year by year. The United States was no longer bashful about its military might being used exclusively as a private army to advance the desires of the select few to claim for their very own all of the resources of the planet. The last Pope of the world’s wealthiest religious body, faced with astronomically growing numbers of hungry and unemployed and homeless, stood increasingly in opposition to the rampant Capitalism, creating in turn divisions among his flock around the globe. A breaking point was inevitable, especially after the United States were exposed by citizen journalists for illicit surveillance and data-mining programmes worldwide. Soviet Russia and its allies sided with the Vatican. Privacy and security up for grabs online and in real life, the church divided, and with American business interests to blame, the then current President withdrew the United States from United Nations membership and circled his proverbial wagons like the cowboy movies of old.”
Caption 3.
“This resulted in immediate trade embargoes to and from the United States, with the ante being upped steadfastly by thousands of American nationalist cyber-warriors unleashed, shutting down power grids and freezing assets the world over. Just before midnight of March 15th, 2023, international news reports exploded with word of nuclear missiles in the air and contradictory accounts over who fired first. But all agreed it was the world against America”
Page 3.
Scene: An even closer view of the previous page, showing the fastly flowing currents of the waterfall running downstream. Fishes bounce up for a brief dance in the air, with breezy branches flaying their secret melodies. The river in this shot should take up the bulk of the page, full of crystal clear waters and splashing waves and the weirdest insects one could hope to find.
Caption 1.
“Washington DC was nuked. Vatican City was nuked. Hollywoodland was nuked. Moscow was nuked. New York City was nuked. Hong Kong was nuked. Pyongyang was nuked. Ottawa was nuked. Toronto was nuked. Vancouver was nuked. London was nuked. Berlin was nuked. Paris was nuked. Liberland was nuked. Novosibirsk was nuked. Havana was nuked. Mexico City was nuked. Rio de Janeiro was nuked. Mosul was nuked. Tehran was nuked. Athens was nuked. Beijing was nuked. Kyoto was nuked. Honolulu was nuked. Grozny was nuked. Sydney was nuked. Perth was nuked. Barcelona was nuked. Bucharest was nuked. Lisbon was nuked. Jammu was nuked. New Mirpur City was nuked. Caracas was nuked. Buenos Aires was nuked. Houston was nuked. Kiev was nuked. Ho Chi Minh City was nuked. Istanbul was nuked. Damascus was nuked. Riyadh was nuked. Tel Aviv was nuked. Jerusalem was nuked.”
Caption 2.
“In the following years there was the slow and painful acknowledgement that the world was on its collective knees, courtesy of unchecked egos and petty racism and sexism and fascism and the money that enabled even worse sins. Billions dead, global economic collapse, the United States of America and the Roman Catholic Church both obliterated, and with greatly diminished and poisoned natural resources. The only things left were dreams and nightmares.”
Caption 3.
“Until the survivors of the world began to talk again with each other, and united in the front to resettle the fabled Dark Continent, Africa, to be the new starting point for future generations.”
Page 4.
Scene: A complete antithesis of the previous page, with essentially the same layout but instead of a surging river there is a concrete aqueduct under a grim evening’s light, with steel and copper conduits alongside. Maybe scattered human skeletons, and a plenitude of graphiti on the walls and rubbish on the mostly dry grounds. From this page on each shot will be a spiritual mirror image of an earlier scene, same design, but death instead of life.
Caption 1.
“There were conflicts in the first dozen years or so, but the world’s leaders had no avenues left to themselves but to divide and conquer the lost jungles of the African nation-states, still an abundance of unharvested resource and majesty. Massive construction projects were undertaken employing millions of natives and foreigners alike, funded by the remnants of the banking families who had survived the nuclear fallout from the comfort of their private shelters. A city hundreds of miles large grew up in the wilds, a city unlike anything the world had ever known before.”
Caption 2.
“A full generation of all-encompassing soul-searching compelled action, so a new world was crafted, a marriage of all previous cultures as humanity tried feebly to hug what remained of itself close in fear of the storms it had created with its own misplaced will. Nationalities and ideologies of the past were dropped for the sake of this neo-unification, and its house was called Babylonia. It was the men of science who led the way, fueled by the no longer abstract needs to make things work. New technologies were created with each and every passing month, and the new city-state of Babylonia was a science-fiction wet-dream come true at last.”
Caption 3.
“There came to pass a body politick to govern, a council of elders. Logic was the new rule of the day, with dwindling resources measured thusly. There were pockets of life beyond Babylonia scattered about the wastelands comprising the rest of the world, though the new headquarters for the human race saw fit to keep its doors closed. A new theology was crafted as well, a system of beliefs to allow the masses the means for escape and validation for their labours. Because of course, such a city as vast as Babylonia and its many marvelous technological marvels required a steady flow of a focused working class, for the benefit of one and all.”
Page 5.
Scene: A total antithesis of the scene in page 2, with the waterfall replaced by a massive tower raising up into the heavens like a fearsome god’s gleaming broadsword. The edges around it have nature replaced by modernity, such as the mountaintop removal of coal-mining, and swathes of trees cut down to their roots and mounds of waste as big as mansions. The tower itself would be miles wide, with many many many more of its kind going off in the background, all under a darkening sky. No animals on this side of the water.
Caption 1.
“Without exception all are required by the new Law to commit 12 hours of work per day, with their remaining 12 hours spent in the stasis of the Somnium Chambers. Employing a form of cryogenics, in the Chambers all achieve the rest and relaxation their bodies need, so that they can return to their vocational duties energized for the following day. As the years pass, more and more of the populace engage in increasingly imaginative dream-cycles while in the Chambers, providing entertainment for the masses. Books, films, beds, cars, private property- all of these concepts and more were left behind in the rubble of the nuclear holocaust, with Babylonia preferring instead a shared world where all might grow together. Education and healthcare are provided to all by the respected council of elders, who manage all resources.”
Caption 2.
“Some more than others, naturally.”
Caption 3.
“As humans cannot exist without the need to destroy each other, to control one another, so too in certain aspects have times remained achingly the same. Unbeknownst to most of the populace, the elders of the council and their favored members of the community do not engage in the Somnium Chambers, instead clandestinely allowing themselves full use of the finest resources, the richest foods and assorted other creature comforts. The new Law works wonders for these elite.”
Page 6.
Scene: Total twist on the imagery from the first page, showing an angled, aerial view of this city reaching hundreds of miles across and stabbing hundreds of meters into the clouds. It can be glistening and nightmarish all at once, with fumes of smoke and shining stained-glass windows alike adorning ornately detailed, crystalline-infused architectures.
Caption 1.
“But hey, that’s all alright. Because unbeknownst to the respected council of elders, those of us who are compelled to spend half of our time in dream are learning things, learning amazing things. Old ideas die hard, and the Jungian Collective Unconscious is not only a real and tangible thing, but we evidently share that unconscious with beings not of this realm. And they have such wonders to teach us dreaming workers of the fallen world…”
end?