Intro to Year5k
Year5k is the overarching name used to refer to the entire story, including all the side plots and the stuff like HALLOW and whatever Virna's breaking this week. If I wrote a book about this all I wouldn't call it “Year5k”, it's just a convenient way for me to talk about it. But we'll pretend that is the story title for now, because I'm not writing a book (yet).
The main section of the story takes place during the 5100s, with 125's destruction being 500 years prior.
The story proper starts with the Church of the Isotope, and with Torin being born to a fairly uninportant cultist, Vannen. Tyriel appears to Torin in a dream, warning them that they'll be the downfall of the Church but being rather vague about it. Torin does as they've been raised to and tells the leader of the Church, Rose about it, and she sees the vision as a sign that Torin is a prophet sent by Tyriel to lead the Church to greatness and that the content of the dream was some sort of test.
Rose instructs the Church Technicians to strap Torin to a concrete chair and connect them fully to the System, an operation that's never been done before as every other member of the Church is only connected at 5% maximum due to the side effects. This doesn't deter Rose and she orders the connection to go ahead, leaving Torin's realworld body permanently vegetative, but giving them full access and control over the System.
Torin's memory is wiped and they're given the “name” of 125 to emphasise their connection to Tyriel, with Rose claiming that they were made from scratch and are merely an artificial idol in Tyriel's vague image. She threatens every other member with a painful death if they dare tell 125 the truth, and with Rose's status and influence in the Church she gets away with it for far too long, even to the point of having Vannen driven out by the other members to keep the secret a little longer.
Decades later and 125 finds out the truth after Tomo turns traitor against Rose, using their “admin” access to take full control of the System and rip out their control cables. Within the minute, everyone in the Church is dead, implants simultaenously fried - with the exception of Rose and Kaiser, who modify their implants to disconnect themselves and stay safe from 125's rampage. Rose shorts the wires going from the powerplant to the System, causing 125's massive monitor to slam down into the heart of the System and crush everything important, shutting 125 down along with the rest of the Church's electricals. She and Kaiser manage to make it out before the oxygen cuts off, sealing the heavy steel doors behind them and escaping off to the city of Havenbourne.
Five hundred years in the future and