Power Struggles: Political and personal power conflicts within a territory.
Transformation Journeys: Characters evolving from ordinary individuals into key players in the story.
The Anyth, the lower half of Gates City, remains a remnant of the Terra-war, where survivors from the NOA (Nations of Anyon) still reside. Together with Archeston, these two cities are collectively referred to as "the Gates" due to their proximity and shared architectural styles. Unlike the towering heights of Archeston, the Anyth is an overcrowded, decaying district suffering from severe resource shortages. Many of its residents live in unstable buildings, with some structures already collapsing into others.
The Heavens, the ruling force above, avoid direct involvement in the Anyth’s affairs. Despite the constant struggle for resources, the Anyth is rich in vegetation, known as the Green, which is cherished by every citizen and plays an essential role in daily life.
The Anyth’s strategic location, 3 kilometers above the ground, was originally chosen to avoid the mythical threat of the Blood Runners. However, overpopulation continues to present a significant challenge to its residents.
The Anyth is home to a broad mix of ethnicities, including almost every group except those from the Heavens. A notable subgroup, the Hopens, is predominantly of Dutch descent.
While residents maintain their native languages, colloquial English is the dominant tongue throughout the district.
The Anyth is governed by a dual system: the Founders uphold democratic values, while the Hopens adhere to theocratic principles. In general, the Anyth reflects a lower-class society, with cultural norms and legal structures similar to modern Western civilizations.
One unique cultural practice distinguishes the Anyth: the burial of the dead. Unlike Archeston, where bodies are discarded without ceremony, the Anyth takes great care to transport bodies to the planet’s surface for formal burial. This process is resource-intensive and costly, but it is viewed as a profound way to return the dead to the planet’s ground, honouring their lives in a way the people of the Anyth deeply respect.
Domestic, conversational moments within the Anyth among desperate individuals feel fractured and strained. Characters are constantly venting, always circling back to the same pressures and injustices that dominate their lives. Survival requires relentless work, and when they return home, exhaustion turns into complaint, resentment, and fatalistic reflection on how things are. These exchanges do not soothe them. Instead, they amplify hostility, creating space for arguments and infighting as shared frustration is redirected at one another as a coping mechanism.
In this way, even their attempts at connection become another arena of struggle. The emotional weight they carry spills over onto those closest to them, reinforcing the very instability they are trying to endure. The underlying beauty and harmony emerge only when they begin to recognize this pattern for what it is. Their anger is not truly about each other, but about the system that forces them into cycles of stress, scarcity, and despair.
Once they understand that this structure is deliberately producing the chaos that divides them, they can reframe their conflict. The infighting is revealed as a symptom, not the cause. This realization opens the possibility of unity, where mutual acknowledgment of the true source of their suffering allows them to cooperate and confront the forces that keep them living this way.