Humanity has split into different galaxies, searching for more planets with Earth-like fertile soil. The Earth had become polluted beyond recovery, its soil and air turning toxic to plants and animals, leading to the extinction of 82% of the global population. In desperation, humans ventured into deep space, eventually finding other habitable planets.
These became second homes, but it wasn't long before civil wars broke out over farmland and planetary water reserves. Resources were scarce; the newly colonized worlds simply weren't big or bountiful enough to feed everyone. A treaty was eventually reached. Humans—dispersed further into the galaxy, claiming whatever planets they could tame. Peace held for 80 years.
Humanity ruined Earth. Over-industrialization, synthetic farming collapse, ecosystem breakdown. By the time clean air and fertile soil were gone, it was too late. 82% of the world's population died in the Great Toxic Bloom, a mass extinction event where mutated plant spores poisoned the air. Earth was rendered uninhabitable.
Those who survived fled to space—fractured, starving, and desperate. The surviving governments and corporations became something else entirely. Splintered, militarized, corporate techno-clans rose from the ashes, desperate for resources. After decades of violence over water-worlds and green planets, a treaty was enacted: The Split Accord. Each major power took their own star clusters and vowed never to compete over claimed planets again.
Then came the shift. Over the decades, humanity evolved into something entirely different. Four dominant human factions emerged, each breaking off into distinct genetic and cultural groups: Gali'za, Dio'ka, Fah'jah, and Hav'ik'co. These became the Four Core Clades of Humanity.
Gali'za—"The Executors"—focus on terraforming, precision breeding, and colony governance. They believe order is survival and emotion is extinction. Their hierarchy is controlled entirely by the Central Pairing Authority (CPA) and Genetic Behavioral Office (GBO).
Their technology includes biomechanical suits, AI-regulated social functions, and Emotion Suppression Nanofields. Their reproduction system involves strict breeding contracts and assigned pairings, forbidden to bond emotionally. Their doctrine: "Emotions are the first death."
Dio'ka—"The Architects"—focus on environmental control, atmosphere regulation, and interplanetary AI systems. They believe in controlling the environment to control the people. Their society is architect-led, data-centric, and citizens are called "Modules."
Everyone is memory-chipped at birth with pre-programmed knowledge streams. No names exist, only Designations. Marriage is virtual-only. Reproduction occurs in labs. Love is a programming flaw.
Fah'jah—"The Fractured Heirs"—focus on cloning, memory manipulation, and dreamsplicing. They believe identity is mutable and biology is outdated. Their culture consists of shattered cult-tribes united under dream-visions, ritualistic memory-burning, and art outlawed except for mind-loop programming. Their clade law states that no child belongs to parents, and all born are "seed-strays."
Hav'ik'co—"The Harvest Lords"—focus on hydro-control, resource dominance, and genetic purity. They believe humanity must become a perfect crop. Their symbol is a broken stem in a steel ring. Mating is only allowed during rare "Harvest Events"—public, AI-supervised, emotionless rituals.
Their weapon of control is Nutrient Control Banks—if you're not productive, you starve. Their death sentence: "The weed is cut from the field."
These groups abandoned old Earth identities and philosophies. One shared concern lingered among all of them: reproduction. Birth rates plummeted. Love and marriage became obsolete ideals.
Less than 12% of people across the factions were willing to marry or give birth. Faced with extinction, the higher echelons of power conducted genetic and psychological experiments. The results were definitive: high compatibility between partners could be achieved through bio-genetic engineering and emotional dampening.
Thus, "The Felts" were outlawed. The Felts—emotions, affection, love, empathy—were now classified as a psychological disease. Laws were passed against them. Testing for susceptibility became the single most important metric in evaluating a citizen's worth.
Feeling love or affection toward another was a death sentence or, worse, a one-way trip to a place called Remission, a rumored facility where the defective were erased. Love became myth. A forbidden word. No one remembered what it even meant.
"The Felts" is now a cursed term. It refers to love, joy, nostalgia, passion, sorrow, and desire. Punishment for expressing or exhibiting signs of these emotions is death or Remission—emotional reprogramming via neural wash and behavioral reseeding. Children's lullabies include stories of "the Felt Plague"—where two people loved and doomed an entire dome city.
From birth, children are taken from their mothers (whose memories are wiped) and placed into sterile nursery academies.
These institutions raise them for 23 years, after which they graduate into adult society. There is no family. Only duty to the Order.
Womb Units—artificial gestation chambers—replace all biological parenting. Memory Burn ensures all natural mothers and fathers are wiped post-birth. Nursery Colonies raise children in peer-units of 32 with no elders or guardians, only EduSynth Instructors.
Once they graduate, citizens are instantly career-placed and marriage-assigned. Assigned pairings are based on Genetic Line Optimization (GLO score), Fertility Prediction Model (FPM), and Emotional Resistance Index (ERI). Physical contact between spouses is forbidden unless authorized during a state-assigned mating cycle. Kissing, hand-holding, hugging, or anything resembling warmth is nonexistent. Emotional responses are monitored and controlled.
Bedtime stories told to children now include cautionary tales of "The Felts," a disease of the old world that leads to madness, chaos, and death. These myths are the only remnant of a forgotten emotional past.
Technology ensures compliance. CompaTech is the Compatibility AI that determines who breeds with whom. Emotion Scanners are required for daily check-ins. Readings over 0.5 on the Felt-Scale result in a warning; above 1.2 triggers arrest. Suppression Nanites are injected weekly to dull dopamine and empathy responses.
NeuroMuse is an AI-guided headset that delivers dreams of correct behavior. CensorCloud is a global censorship field that edits language and thought in real time.
The Gali'za faction is particularly strict in enforcing emotional suppression. They are known for their advanced terraforming technologies and obsession with galactic expansion. Their primary mission is to colonize and terraform habitable planets to expand the Gali'za Dominion. Paired exploration units are always assigned to scout new planets.
These are married couples selected by genetic compatibility. AI Overseers regulate all mission assignments and personal schedules. Once the wife becomes pregnant, she is pulled from field duty; the husband assumes full responsibility for the mission.
Exploration units are considered the psychological foundation of colonization. If a pairing fails emotionally or mentally, the mission is considered a threat to civilization. Such failures are eliminated. Affection is strictly regulated.
Paired units are not allowed to interact beyond breeding mandates. Even eye contact is timed. Touch is rare and only permitted during fertilization cycles. Units are not even aware of the concepts of kissing or hand-holding.
There is no vocabulary for romantic affection. These words no longer exist. To show signs of the Felts—to smile unassigned, to touch without reason, to dream about companionship—is considered a sign of defectiveness. Punishment is swift.
What little remains of Earth's emotional past is deeply suppressed. Music, literature, and art that carried emotional resonance have been lost or erased. The only surviving cultural artifacts are utilitarian: technical manuals, terraforming models, agricultural blueprints, and social engineering theory. No family albums. No lullabies. No traditions.
But deep within some minds, something stirs. A song with no name. A word they don't understand. A pull in the chest. A dream of warm hands. That's where it begins. That's the risk. That's the Felts.
The following terms have no known definitions in the current universe: love, family, affection, like, hug, kiss. These terms, if encountered in old Earth archives, are marked as corrupted or heretical. If spoken aloud, they are flagged for deletion by neural compliance software.
The ship was called The Astrum Valiant. A cold name for a cold place.
It glided through the void like a blade, all precision. Everything was ordered, efficient, sterile.
Silence filled its halls, not because it was peaceful, but because it was engineered that way. No one spoke unless required.
No one touched unless assigned. Emotions were inefficiencies. Touch was restricted to scheduled sessions. Affection? Nonexistent.
Ryn had been paired with Vaela three years earlier. Not by choice, not by feeling. Just biology. Their genomes aligned.
Their emotional indexes were low. Their mating probability was ideal.
Ryn's pairing with Vaela wasn't unusual. Genetic compatibility, biological efficiency, ideal mating results were the norm on Gali'za. Husband and wife—by Gal'za standards.
Which meant: no shared quarters, only coordinated work schedules, or synchronized sleep rotations, and occasional mating and breeding assignments logged then reviewed by Higher Central Population management of breeding Command.
Physical contact wasn't allowed without a breeding assignment or scheduled mating assignment.
Husband"" and "wife" by designation only.
That was just how things were.
This is the universe. Emotionless. Regulated. Fading.