Welcome to another episode of The World of Spherean!
For all new subscribers, thank you for being here, and if you have come for my narration of Tolstoy’s War & Peace, I hope you will enjoy this content, too.
Spherean is a work-in-progress dystopian novel, set on Future Earth.
The Spheres that protect the last of Earth’s civilisation are failing. Scientist Hein Sorenson has found the solution and gets entangled in a web of cybertheft, corruption, and murder that leads to the destruction of one of the Spheres. A race against time unfolds to ensure the survival of the human race.
Kay Occamore
Last time, we met Senator Bosso and learned a bit about him and his pod. This time, we’ll have a brief look at one of the main characters from Spherean, one of the three protagonists, Kay Occamore: Designation Omniversant.
Instead of pasting the character sheet from Scrivener as I did with Bosso, I will use a descriptive passage from the novel instead.
Kay gets called away to deal with a neural deviation, activities not sanctioned by GAIN, and Kay is sent to perform corrective measures, which involves purging the neural synapses, eliminating the offending signals, recalibrating and restoring neural neutrality in all subjects.
To his friends, he was Kay or simply K. Some of his colleagues called him by his initials, K–O. “Hey, K–O, are you O–K?” And they would laugh. He paid them no heed, they were imbeciles, and he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction, which irked them to no end. His boss called him Occamore. It was never a good sign, even more so with his designation: Omniversant. What a vulgar word. Om–Ni–Vers–Ant. He was an ant. He felt like one most of the time, a tiny little lost ant in the Omniverse. For everyone else, he was K-O, and he was OK. He was great, one of the tallest, brightest, bravest Omnis of all, blessed with the smoothest skin, utterly incapable of sprouting a single strain of beard hair. He got into his pod and, reading the figures of the sector report on his console, cursed.
—Spherean, Draft Zero
What is a Pod?
The pod Kay is using is the OMNI TRX. There are many different kinds of pods for different purposes, like Felice Vongestalt’s S-Zer0 or the JCab. It’s how Sphereans get around in the future.
OMNI TRX
The OMNI TRX is a quantum levitation vehicle designed to operate via neural input but also features conventional controls. The OMNI TRX: always but a thought away.
The OMNI TRX comes equipped with an Encrypted Wireless Multiport GAIN Labs Neural Link and Cluster Control Protocol, making it the perfect tool for Omniversants to purge neural divergent signals at scale and ensure maximum defragmentation.
However, this does come at a price, and not everyone is cut out to be an Omniversant, purging all those corrupt impulses and signals. Heavy weighs the burden. To purge or not to purge. That is the question.
What’s in a Name?
The etymology of names always fascinates me. The idea that knowing one’s true name gives you power over them is as old as time and has been explored by many, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea springs to mind.
So, what does Kay stand for? Short for Katherine? In Greek, it means Pure (intent). What does that mean for our male protagonist? How does this align with what he does in the name of GAIN?
Let’s dissect Occamore, fragment it.
Occamore / Occam / Amor(e) / Ore / More
Occam: Occam’s Razor, the idea that “entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity,” hence maximum defrag.
Ore: rock, valuable mineral deposit, potentially toxic
Amor: Ahh, l’amour. That’s Amore!
But what if it’s toxic love? Tainted by millions of purges of neural signals, made in GAINs image?
More: More of everything, pure Kay is an Omiversant (one of the four factions) after all, more Occam, more hard (toxic or not) love.
In Arthurian Legend the meaning of the name Kay is Keeper of the Keys. Sir Kay was one of King Arthur's knights.
That’s a lot to unpack. Sometimes we may read too much into a name.
What’s your take? How do you choose a name?
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TFTD Community
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Credits
Occamore’s Theme was composed by the magnificent
.Matt created this wonderfully emotive soundtrack. It fits like a glove, don’t you think?
Do check out Matt’s Substack, you won’t be disappointed.
Pod Design by Master of Pods, Joe Reeve. The premise was to create a three-seater, with pilot vibes, hence the single front seat, the design leans heavily into Kay’s love for all things retro in design and arts, something only he as Omniversant can indulge in. There are other design influences from the real world that went into this concept vehicle, esp. the rear! Can you find the source?
Voiceover by Alexander Ipfelkofer.
If you are interested in the whole design process behind the pods, check out my podcast with the Designer here.
All concepts and designs are based on the novel Spherean by Alexander Ipfelkofer.
Spherean will take most of 2024 to finish. Meanwhile, if you haven’t read it yet, The Chronicles of Samuel Carter Part One & Two are available now!
In GAIN We Trust