#Terrana Sector

[tryingtimi]

Happy WBW! Can you tell me a little bit more about each of the sectors in your IQRUS WIP? Do you have maps or like a general idea of the layout of each? What's a fun fact about each area?

Heyo! <3

I love talking about the Sectors, and I also got an ask about it the last time, so here’s a link to that. This time, I'll focus more on its aesthetics then, and give you some visuals. Even tho I don't have actual maps yet, I plan to make a 3D model of the Astin Tower in the future, but it's hell of a project, so I'm really preparing myself for it lol.

Enough talking now, here are the aesthetics from pinterest (none of this is my art ofc):

The Aquor Sector Fun fact: If you happen to fell asleep on a landfill – which is rather common because everyone wants to be the first one to get to the newly arrived batch of trash tech stuff in the morning –, then you most likely will lose a well-functioning mechanical arm or leg or basically anything that can be detached from you. People will steal the good stuff even off of the living.

The Terrana Sector Fun fact: There are places that you can find only if you're a Restored or if you've been invited there by one. That fact that you've found the place is basically your ticket to get in there. Also, some people think the caelusian are gods, so there's a church for them here.

The Caelus Sector Fun fact: Some augmentations contain harmful tools hidden inside. It's a kind of open secret which people will discuss shadily during social gatherings. ;)

[tryingtimi]

Happy STS! If you haven't written about this already I would love to know more about these different sectors and what they entail

Thank you for the ask! <3

The Sectors are one of my favorites in the story, so I'm glad I can talk about them.

Ionera has three Sectors as I listed in the intro: Aquor, Terran and Caelus. The Aquor Sector is the lowest one, which is the closest to the water, therefore it's naturally the most endangered one too. If a Rising comes, aquorian the first ones to suffer the consequences. They also have access only to barely eatable food that definitely has a mutagenetic effect, so people in this Sector usually wear clothes that hides every body part, including their face, so they don't display where the mutation started to change them. Only their eyes are visible usually. People here also tend to get augmentations frequently, since a little too much food or clumsier platform lifting during a Rising and the mutation gets advanced enough to make a limb useless. And useless means death here. This Sector also became the trash container of Ionera, since the landhfill is here too. Everything that's defective, demaged or too aged goes to this Sector. Aquorian also doesn't really an educated lot, since surviving eats their time up mostly, so if they somehow get a decent job at a higher Sectorn that can only be something like cleaning a lowly bufet's floor or picking up trash tech stuff and deliver to the landfill. Also, there's a lot of trashmech out there, mostly taught by themselves. It's a very hopeless, depressive and dirty place with a folk that doesn't welcome other's from higher Sectors.

The Terrana Sector however, is in a better condition. This is where the avarage life happens. There are schools, decent jobs, more eatable food in here, people don't need to constantly stay alert what's happening with the Everocean. The occaisonal wave's sounds are quieter here even. The Rising rarely gets up this high, but it can still reach the platform sometimes. Thanks to the Divum Council, Terrana's society is very divers and cohesive, welcoming the Restored back like a family and it's uncommon to have riots or any upheaval around here. Or at least, that's the picture the Council like to advertise. What's sure is that terranan are the common people, having almost as common life as we have, mostly. The members of the Deep Corps also recruited from here too. The mutation level is way lower here than at the Aquor Sector, but it's still high enough for people to have a fashion that hides most of the body. Augmentations are more higher quality here, people even can get some by public funding, like the members of the Deep Corps and their families for example. In spite of being in relatively good condition, Terrana is still a place where people can't really get higher from. If you were born to a terranan, you'll most likely stay a terranan. Even though, there's a conception that was spread across the Sector, which say if you work hard enough (meaning: taking samples and studying them, then handing the results to the professors to send them to the Caelus Sector), you can get into the highest Sector and making your family a comfortable life etc.

The Caelus Sector is directly below the top, therefore it's the highest from all. People here are kind of act like they're gods on the Olympus. They live in luxury compared to the other two Sector. The explanation were always that; scientists, engineers and everyone who keeps Ionera going needs a safe place to concentrate on their work and making people's life better. So, to not distress them, they became the elite. I would probably compare their attitude to the meth's in Altered Carbon (the Netflix series, not the book). Most high-tech labs are here, besides the research, the food-water cleaner and the restoration facilities. There are also separated platforms here, "little islands" as some of them call it which are owned by the welthiest and the members of the Divum Council. These two things usually comes together. The fashion contains very loose, very showing clothes, people display their skin and their augmentations which wouldn't be necessary here, since no Rising can get this platform, but they still do them. Usually from rare and/or more nice material than you can find in any other Sector and they also even has decorations that matches the people's clothes in the current day or something. So more fashion ans status symbol, than function of course. Caelusian also act like they're saviors. They'll say they do augmentations as a gesture of compassion towards the lower Sectors and some other similar bull. Also, they even change their hair and eye color with some gene modification (because there's no things for hair dye anymore, so they just straight out do this instead). So, the Caelus Sector has only white haired, very blue eyed folk which makes them pretty odd and not in a good way. Aquoran calls them basically aliens. And our main boy Dane needs to change his hair and eyes to these too when he gets into the Council.

Huh it was so great to write this out, thank you! <3 I probably left out a lot, but if you're interested in anything else in them, then shoot!

[tryingtimi]

You may have talked about this already in some other ask, but can you tell us about the Divum Council? What is its purpose? Who's on it? How is it structured?

*grabby hands* Gimme.

Actually no, I've got no chance to talk about it yet, so thank you for this ask! <3

Honestly, the Council is very incomplete yet, and will probably change things about it later, but here's what I've got already.

The Divum Council's original purpose is to bring balance in the Sectors, smooth out the chaos after every Rising, keep the "heavenly" order in place and strive to get Ionera safe. It's members always were the most competent people, each in different fields. They've been chosen from fields that kept Ionera going and “alive” if you will, not every one of them a politician from the start. Even though they fast to adapt to that position. However, the representative of the lower Sectors soon became a Caelus Sector folk, since being the member of the Council meant that you get some advantage you could take. Coming out from the dirt was one of them. This lasted for a while, and so all the members were chosen from the Caelus Sector only. But when the circumstance did not change for a very long time, in fact it got worst in the lower Sectors, people got upset. There were little riots here and there, protestors started to camp around the Terrana Sector (only there because the Aquor Sector was never a hopeful place, so people there rarely made an effort to change on things. “Why bother, it won’t help anyway” kind of mindset is the default there.) and when they loudly planned to get into the Caelus Sector, the Council stepped in. They needed to keep the order after all, so they gave people what they wanted. That’s how Dane gets into the Council, he’s gonna be the first lower Sector representative who truly came from there after some decades now.

The Divum Council is basically works as an autocratic association dressed in fake democracy. All the representatives has a say in things, they hear them out, they vote, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is what the current Astin wants and/or agrees on. Icharo, as every one of his ancestors, is only appeares at the end of a meeting (in holografic form) if he even shows up and not just sends someone/ something to deliver his “suggestions” *ahem* orders. The Council members soon learn to know their place and that inside the Council's building, Icharo can kind of hear and see everything, so they need to be careful what they say. But overall they very much okay with this situation when our story starts. They have the highest luxury on Ionera, each of them owning a separate platform in the Caelus Sector which is only theirs, they get the cleanest food etc. There's no reason to complain.

Oh, yeah, the Council also supervises and chooses who should go to the restoration facility, which is a thing that they – or more like Icharo – formed when the population hit a ridiculously low number. To keep humanity up, they can't let this number drop even lower. Therefore, the Council banned every object, device, anything that could be used to hurt someone else and thrown the idea of prisons out of the window. Ionera needs functional people, so that's how this facitlity were born. No-one really knows what happens in there tho. What people heared about it, is that criminals get help to change into someone who can be put back into society and be a useful member of it again. After some months or years, people can go out, live their life again. They're fine, they're social, they even gained some faith maybe?

Who knows, Dane never met any Restored. But when he does, he soon finds out that something is very strange about them, the same as with the Divum Council.

So here it is hehe! It was great to talk about it, thank youu again! <3

[tryingtimi]

Happy Blorbo Blursday!! Tell me about the relationship between Adran and Dane. What's one of their fondest childhood memories together? Did they get along as children? Etc. I want the deeets.

Thank you, @aschlindartroom! 💙 Deets you want, deets you shall recieve. Buckle up, legend, this is gonna be long and spoilery, as everything I always give you. Side note: I've tried to write about both of them, but I kind of got biased and wrote more about Dane. So maybe, next time, I'll talk more about Adran lmao.

CHILDHOOD: LIFE OF THE DEEP CORPS' BABIES

Adran and Dane had a very good relationship when they were little, even though they have a seven years age gap. Adran always looked after tiny Dane, who mostly tried to prank his big bro all the time. He used his advantage on being more into science-y stuff, so he surprised him with harmless bombs — that their dad helped him build it — or weird, little creatures hidden among his stuff. Adran also returned the favour, but since he never were much of a sneaky person, he just wrestled with Dane, tickled him, challenged him etc. Adran was always very touchy and loudly affectionate, so he gave lots of hugs to Dane, always sat close to him or behind him so he could massage his shoulders (what Dane loved) and brought him gifts from wherever he went, even if it was only the grocery store. And Dane always shared the gifts with Adran. He had his silent care attitude as a kid too though, so he tried to seem cool while he did that. He was never a loud kid, but he was mischievous, because he knew how to use his head well. He also told everyone that how cool brother he has. Plus the "fact" how cooler his gonna be when they both get into the Corps; Adran as a soldier, Dane as a mechanic. Just like their parents — even though their dad was never part of the Corps, but he figured he'll be one in there anyway. PARENTS. Kallista Cohren and Hido Riordan

side note: on Ionera, if your a child of a Corps memeber, you always inherit their family name. In any other cases, your parents can choose. Hido was a talented mechanic, who managed to move from the Aquor Sector to Terrana. He was a strict, mute man, who owned a humble workshop, where he repaired stuff for a very low price to people who couldn't really afford it. He also maintaned and made Kallista's mechanical hand, which is basically how they met. Kallista was a fearless woman in the water, but a more gentle, cool mom at home. Dane and Adran got a lot from both of them. They even got to learn how to swim (which is rather rare, considering the circumstances) with the help of Kallista's suit that could change to the shape of any wearer, thanks to their dad's little hacking in its technology. The boys were also taught to not fear the water. It's dangerous, but it's also part of their life and it's always gonna be. So, it's better to be on good terms with it. This was Kallista's philoshophy that Hido seemed to support, even if he always kept his distance from the water. Adran tried to ask him about his parents, past and get him to learn swimming together, but he never budged, which Dane somehow understood more than his brother. He took the lessons with his mom and Adran and enjoyed it, but then always joined his father sitting far from them alone, watching them contently. They had a kind of understanding, that Adran found more in Kallista.

This is why, their fondest childhood memory is probably a holiday, when they were all home through the whole day. Kallista tried to make a secret plan with Adran to prank Dane and Hido, while the said two also did the same. But, when the time of the pranks came, the two adults found themselves "attacked" by their own ideas, because the two kids secretly ganged up together against them.

They were also half a religious family. None of them forced Dane, nor Adran to believe in the same thing as they did, but the latter automatically joined Kallista in believing the Almighty. Corps members had a tendency to become a believer anyway. However, Kallista used to tell the boys that Hido was never really into God before he met her and he never really joined the church either (but went to preaching with the family anyway). Dane liked his father’s take on the subject, though, which said he did not deny the existance of a higher being, but he didn’t think it had any intrest about them, lessers.

TEENAGE YEARS: LOSS AND SLIENCE

Dane was ten, Adran seventeen, when the famously high Rising and a very messed up transfer occured. They lost both their parents through the process. Hido and Kallista died helping the desprate aquorian people get into Terrana, while Dane also lost one of his leg fully when he tried to dash after his sinking parents. Adran saved him, but from that point, Dane did not speak for months. He also refused to leave their apartment and engage in any kind of social or physical interaction, so young Thaddeus offered to help Adran and they switched each other between training days, so there was always someone who stayed with Dane. They got no professional help because of the chaos that the event followed.

Adran never gave up on Dane, though. He asked for advice from all the older Corps members how to run a household, took care of Dane, talked to him everyday, tutored him of the things he should learn in school and got him a prosthetic, finally. That broke the ice. Dane treated Adran as a stranger through this time, his eyes hollow, not even looked at him once. But, with getting the prosthetic, he was puzzled at first, then furious and then devastated. He shouted, thrown the mechanic leg at Adran and yet again, refused to use it. The next day, Adran found him sitting on the sofa, prosthetic nicely seated beside him (not attached yet), Adran’s favorite food on the table, even though it was burnt a little. When Adran sat beside him with the food, clearly touched by the gesture, Dane did “thank you” in their own sign language, not looking at his brother, before they spent the rest of the morning in a comfortable silence.

Important note: They have this thing that they never say “thank you” or “I love you” with words. They use sign language for that, which they got taught because of their father. They also made up their own signs for it, because there were times when they didn’t want their parents to understand what they were talking about. They made this into a habit and now it’s something that connects them. Dane, however, never uses “I love you” anymore.

From that point, Dane slowly came to terms with wearing the prosthetic outside (never at home), going out etc. Their connection, however, transformed. Dane wasn’t near to being better, because when he got back to school finally, he provoked others to beat him up (as Adran later figured out), he shouted at Adran a lot, trying to provoke him to hit him too (which he never did, nor said a word when Dane got this worked up) and spent a big amount of time in his room, alone. He refused to go to a professional to get help with everything he was going through, so Adran — secretly — tried to use all the mental training methods he got to know through his Corps training. Which Dane could spot very easily and they had a big fight after that.

Dane was ruthless with his words by the way, but Adran never spoke to him like that. When he had the urge to say something hurtful, he stayed quiet instead, even though his face could tell everything.

Nevertheless, they always aplogized and cried together after a fight. Dane eventually got out of his room, while Adran sat beside the door, waiting for him. Those moments were the only ones when Dane let anyone to touch him, because Adran always hugged him tight. They also never talked about their parents or what happened. At least with each other, because Adran needed to, on his training.

As they grown, Dane changed more, and he would have been popular in school if he wasn’t cold and unfriendly with everyone. Adran saw that some were afraid of Dane because he never ran from the bullies, but some got very interested in him, even admired him. Adran saw Dane’s transition when he reached the age of 16. He got quieter, their arguments got more rare and he stayed in school more. Turned out, his teacher showed them some things in the lab about their water and the sealife. Dane became obsessed with examining all these stuff in his free time. Which Adran thought strange at first, considering how Dane bacame completely incapable being even near the Everocean or any kind of water since The Events. But, if this helped Dane, then who was he to stop him. In fact, he got Dane all the stuff he needed for researches to one of his birthday and started to save up for his education. Which Dane did not ask for, and he even secretly started to work to save too. Either way, Adran spoiled Dane, because he didn’t know how could he support him more.

Dane wasn't blind though, so he take up all the chores from him and most of their arguments transitioned into arguing over why Adran wants to do anything at home, when it's Dane's job. Also, Adran tried to lure Dane into their religious community, since the day he got back to him, but he was furiously against it. At the end of his teenage years, he switched to questioning things about it, though, intead of plainly attacking it. He also seemed to completely forget what happened with their parents by this new obsession over studies and sience. (which we know isn't how things work, so)

ADULTHOOD: SAVING AND SERVING

Dane and Adran had no problem with living together still when Dane started university. In fact, all the people who was sound of this and suggested Dane to move out (his partners usually), was generally destroyed in a very thoughtout and seemingly unassailable debate about why he has no intention doing it and that's okay. He also payed the bills before Adran could, from all the scholarship money he got or won on competitions. Which Adran was always a little upset of; he wanted Dane to spend on anything else.

Also, with being more and more educated, Dane stopped to start arguments with Adran, and instead, he tried to debate. He questioned his worldview, morals and his belief, which Adran didn't mind; their parents did that a lot anyway and he had answers and liked that his brother began to talk more. Unlike the people in the university where he successfully got in; Dane was insufferable in most people’s eyes. He was intelligent and quick minded (not a true genuis though) and he wasn’t afraid of being sound of someone’s lack of skill in something if that hurt the community too. He seemed to got a hold of his emotions, but was still not be able to stay in control, when he got frustrated. So, he got into a lot of trouble because of his sharp tongue.

Anyway, Dane moved into a closer place to the lab at last, because of his research projects and the frequent overnight stayes, but he still talks to Adran everyday through holo calls and Adran still uses their sign language everytime, especially the "I love you" at every message he leaves for Dane, or at the end of every meet up they're having. Dane do not uses any of it anymore and calls Adran childish for doing it, but never tells him to stop.