Posts in category Glass Shadows World Building
World Building: Drones
While they may not be considered a lynch-pin of the cyberpunk genre, it’s hard to talk about modern warfare and not mention Drones. Already, we see civilian drones being tested for various uses such as package and taco delivery. (http://tacocopter.com/)
Drones, in an Operator sense, are remote operated surveillance and weapon platforms. Drone [...]
World Building: BattleFrames
With BattleFrames, we diverge a little from classic cyberpunk tropes, and into Anime territory.
BattleFrames were first discussed here.
Cyberpunk-styled Anime, such as Ghost in the Shell and Mobile Police Patlabor, heavily inspired aspects of Glass Shadows. Additional inspiration came from reading about military exoskeleton projects. Thus wa [...]
World Building: The Datasea and Hacke...
Of all the Cyberpunk concepts one of the most iconic is cyberspace. Even cybernetics take a backseat to the way the net defined the genre.
We first talked about the Datasea here.
Glass Shadows ramps up the Net. Here, the Datasea is a ubiquitous, always on, wireless network which permeates all aspects of modern life. On the surface, the avera [...]
World Building: Genegineering
It’s time to look at alternatives to Cybernetics. We originally discussed Genegineering here.
Genegineering began with the concept of cloned bodies, available for sale or rent for digitized human consciousness. Thus was born the idea of the Kevin™ and Kate™ model clones, their faces representative of a generically wholesome brand name. Howe [...]
World Building: Cybernetics
Cyberpunk and Cybernetics have been a mated pair from the beginning. I had a number of goals when it came to cybernetics and Glass Shadows. In addition to the traditional chrome and steel, I wanted to offer an alternative to implanting hardware. We call it Genegineering, more on that next week.
We originally covered cybernetics here.
There [...]
World Building: The ECILAL
We introduced the ECILAL back in this post, and it has since become the expected default play area. The Easel, as residents tend to refer to it, grew out of my research into Megacities, megaregions, and feral cities.
For those of you unfamiliar with these terms:
Megacity: An urban area that exceeds 10 million residents.
Megaregion: A chain o [...]
Setting: The Datasea
The Datasea is an outgrowth of the Internet of the 20th and 21st century. As computer technology progressed, wireless access and storage became ubiquitous and inexpensive. With the advent of Angel technology, the majority of the population had a computer in their brains and Augmented Reality overlays on everything they saw. These technolog [...]
Setting: The East Coast Sprawl
Since the late 20th Century, the East Coast of the United States has been becoming more and more urbanized, as cities push their boundaries ever outward. Eventually, a tipping point was reached and the East Coast became one massive urban sprawl, an unbroken cityscape stretching from Illinois to Massachusetts, and all the way down to Alabama [...]
Technology: Nanotech
Nanites are produced and controlled by nano-hives, small items the size of modern cellphones. The nano-hive is a macro-scale builder unit, it produces the desired nanite swarm and acts as a central brain, providing orders to the swarm via an encrypted link. A nanite swarm is produced with enough internal power to function for a preset perio [...]
Technology: Cybernetics and Kits
Other than the Angel implant, the most common cybernetic enhancements are prosthetic limbs and headware upgrades. These implants are installed on an out-patient basis; the patient is sent home with a dedicated nano-hive that anesthetizes the target area and gradually replaces it with the desired implant overnight. The patient goes to sleep [...]