see !unix_surrealism@lemmy.sdf.org , one of the best things on the fediverse.

~~there was a really nice overview which has since been removed. let's see~~ oh, it was just moved here: https://analognowhere.com/wiki/analognowhere/

In not too distant future...
TECHNO-MAGE

In not too distant future, in a universe not too dissimilar to ours, the world is barren. Vast sprawls of arid deserts and inhospitable jungles cover the face of the planet, while the majority of its denizens persist in gigantic walled-off metacities, governed by the omnipresent gov-corporation. These cities are home to many beings living under the tyranical regimes of their watchful overlords. This is the age of technocrats, transhumanists and digisophers, all slaves to meticuously crafted closed hardware, deceptive software and cyber practices designed to enthrall all who wish to persist on this new frontier of the future.

Most have forgotten the days of old. Times of revered hackers, prophets of digital freedom, cults of the spirits of the machine and of free people are now distant memories turned into myth. The buried trenches, where great warriors once fought the abominable corporate monsters, and looted museums of open technology are to those few who still remember but a sickly reminder of a great cause that was lost.

But while the large cities are host to most, the outside is not without life. Many sought refuge in the vast wastes of the Wild, escaping from the cybernetic hell the gov-corporation had in store for all. These remnants of the free people now inhabit small towns and communes, built from the rubble of previous generations, gathering old knowledge and obsolete technology they sparsely understand.

In this world, where all but few have forgotten the language of the free machine, enigmatic TECHNO-MAGES roam the desecrated planet. Hunted and persecuted by the restless gov-corporation, but loved by the fleeting population of the people of the Wild. Teachers of forbidden knowledge. Last warriors of freedom.

In a small settlement of an old Wild tribe a child is summoned by its elder and sent on a quest to seek out the mythical Fish in order to become its student. This is a story of that child in the world of Analog Nowhere.

for lore see: https://analognowhere.com/wiki/

for links to stories see: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/2723323