This is a work of fiction, and the characters are not based on actual people.
While the story is set in an alternate dimension equivalent of the EthDenver conference in February and March of 2022, the projects, events, and conspiracies described are the author’s invention. It was written, edited, and illustrated entirely during the period of the virtual buildathon.
As a cis-gendered, middle-aged white male, the present author has tried to avoid any hurtful stereotypes, and welcomes any feedback about unconscious biases that may be evident. His intention was to create a balanced cast of characters that could have been chosen randomly from people attending the conference.
This is a characters-versus-environment narrative, rather character-versus-character. None of the main cast will turn out to be evil. None of them are purely comic relief. Each has at least one point-of-view chapter, and I've endeavored to take their perspective seriously.
The villain, if there is one, is simply entropy, the particular kind that seems to prevent meaningful human coordination, antagonistic strategies that outcompete social symbiosis. Oil interests, corrupt governments, co-opted movements, and systemic inertia. War, and the budgets attendant to them: the gold dust shaken from daemonic wings.
The hero is something like the organizing principle of shared music.
Content warnings: horror elements, drug and alcohol abuse, politics, disturbing themes.
The author thanks Spindle ASA, and other contributors to this project of gamifying and monetizing fiction on the blockchain.