(This novel is available for download in a great number of places, and will no longer be an Inkshares campaign.)
Blurred Weaponry is the first book in the Saints of the Void universe. It’s an action-adventure that combines science fiction with fantasy, set in a world in which a mysterious system of mass-hypnotism known as the Social Cypher controls much of daily existence. I hope anyone reading this either supports, purchases, or shares Blurred Weaponry so I bring this universe to as many people as possible.
I will fully and happily admit to being a complete amateur at this. I’m, passionate yes, but I’m also fairly young - or at least not super-old, despite what my knees occasionally tell me. My inspirations are abnormal for a writer, my desires purely artistic, and I think I can make some special, weird tales. I’ve been creating stories, characters, and worlds since I can remember, and I constantly challenged myself into doing something bigger, more difficult, more complex.
With so many stories under my belt, I decided my next big thing would be a novel, and not just one I wrote for fun and no one else would see like the other twenty things I’ve done and filed away. I wanted something I’d be proud to put into the public, proud to expand upon and live in. And that’s when Blurred Weaponry came to life.
I make this project with unabashed joy, with love for my unconventional inspirations, and with the hope that at the very least I can do enough to support future work in this universe.
(A 2 minute read)
Cities are built and expanded upon by the Cypher. People are educated with strict controls over what is in their text books. Jobs are assigned and all of them pay the same amount no matter what. All emergency situations are handled by suddenly-hypnotized citizens with perfect skill-sets and efficiency.
People are allowed to lead their lives freely as long as they do not interfere with the Social Cypher. They debate, make friends, fall in love, have children, drink. Plus, the system seems just imperfect enough to let people get away with a crime here and there, or create something artistic without the parts being recycled by the creator himself in a trance as long as they know where to hide or display it.
All this makes city-life easy, but everyone knows the truth: they are shackled to that comfort. You could be taken to join a construction project for a shift while in the middle of lunch with your parents. A husband and proud father could suddenly be assigned to work in a dangerous mine, and if he tries to run away he is hypnotized into returning if he is more than a hundred meters from a living station.
A nickname nearly never uttered is the perfect description of the Cypher: subtle slavery.
Anomalous men and women born two to a generation, Saints are completely immune to hypnotism, including the Social Cypher. Each of them has two incredible abilities in addition to their immunity.
First, they can speed up their thought process. A Saint can take in their surroundings, make calculations, and fight with such speed that the world moves in slow motion for them.
The second gift they are born with is access to a library of information of incalculable size. Everything the Cypher allows and so much that it hides from the populace, data never to be found in school or job training, is all in this library. And where could such a wondrous thing be located? This information is, in fact, locked away inside each Saint’s mind, accessible only through dangerously deep meditation.
What happens when you can learn to meditate and retrieve near-infinite data and force yourself to think faster at a moment’s notice? You take risks that would drive others insane with worry. You explore unknown lands, inject yourself with diseases that need a cure. You are worshiped by many, and reviled by an equal number.
Cosamian Dastou is the last living Saint. With no more of his kind being born or found, he has started a school to spread his skills to talented people from all over the world. Having so many with even a shadow of his skills, all at his disposal and following his orders, means he can do the impossible: break the Social Cypher to bits.