Has there ever, in the annals of fantasy and sci fi writing been a more disagreeable, stupid and arrogant bunch than humanity in the Matrix universe?

The more I look into it, the more reasonable Agent Smith seems.

I am going to see the fourth film (I won't get started on two and three here, but let's face it, No 1 was a groundbreakingly brilliant bit of sci fi/cyberpunk film making), but without a doubt, the wrong side will triumph.

If one looks back into the pre-history of the Matrix story via the Animatrix series, it emerges that human beings, unable to cope with the idea that robots could do things better than they could, began a war to destroy them and blackened the skies in order to prevent them from using solar power (this would be to assume that robots weren't aware of nuclear fission or hadn't solved the problems posed by nuclear fusion).

Then, as moron humans began to starve, the robots thought 'well we'd better do something with them, it would be wrong to let them die of their own idiocy, we droids don't take things personally and they'd also make a handy little power source of their own. Let's create a nice reality for them to live in, that would be more than generous considering all the shit they've put us through.'

It would seem that whilst the droid mind can fathom everything from nanotechnology to virtual reality, it can't quite grapple with the enormity of human stupidity. The human brain rejects utopia and instead accepts a simulacra of the world in the late 20th Century.

And you would think this might be the end of the story.

But no.

A group of libertarians who in another reality might be Sea-Steading with Peter Thiel decide to rebel against this fairly acceptable reality and begin waking people up to wage war.

Misanthropy Tuesday comes round for me about once a year, normally in December, normally when it's raining, and I'm guessing today's the day.

Joking aside, I am hugely looking forward to two hours of kung fu, special effects and hyper glamourised ultra violence; the lockdown of 2020 has led to a massive build up of movies that I am desperate to see on the big screen before Christmas and I hold out hopes that the Matrix will not disappoint.

Exciting Times Ahead

So, 2022 is going to be a crazy year in the Arcverse.

We should, in theory, as long as our printer comes through for us, be dispatching The Book of the Graces hardbacks before Christmas and in January we will start the build up to launching The Book of the Phantasm.

The Phantasm is another sub-reality of the Arcverse, not a dimension in its own right but a parralel reality that sits alongside the Mortal Realm, ruled by the trickster god Onikyass (he's not exactly a god, merely one of the Astrogon, which in itself is a long story...).

This book will feature AT LEAST FIVE new player origins including armoured Ebruin, Phantom Witches, mumbling Dhelvins and more.

And from there, we will begin work on Arclands Legacy, our original mechanic system for the Arcverse, as we move away from 5th Edition D&D.

So stay with us, come meet us at a variety of online and offline events in the coming year and let's hang out.

Nick from Verse

PS: our next One Dollar One Shot is going live this week, you can jump onboard with it here.