TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS OF FISTBUMP THE SKY
ARTBOOK 4: REMAINS (Part 2)
The intergalactic Research Team, consisting of the planet’s best scientists and archaeologists, has been given the absurd task of cataloguing the many inventions of Fistbump the Sky in a manner understandable to those from other planets. Such a request is, of course, absurd due to the planet’s interference with available resources, having created multiple timelines.
In response to this daunting task, the intergalactic Research Team, led by The Historian, had little choice but to focus on the inventions that have left the greatest impact across all territories, with the Great Migration as an anchor to the multiple timelines.
PART 2: REMAINS
For many cycles, applying the Rule of Equal Exchange remained the easiest way to obtain materials. Yet, it was also the most costly, with most of the first generation lacking the ability to regenerate the body parts they had sacrificed. With the creatures and plants under the planet’s protection, the first generation had little choice but to rely on other materials, such as remains of the living and space debris.
Unlike space debris, which was littered around the planet and easy to acquire, remains were more elusive and usually discovered by accident. The first known Essence material was flying wood, native to the Limbo territory. According to legend, Light, Limbo’s founder, had been travelling with Baia when she reached her destined territory and immediately fell into Limbo’s infamous crater. For scale, the crater is large enough to span the entire territory and deep enough that the bottom cannot be seen with the naked eye. Light, according to the legends, had survived the fall by landing on the leaves of gigantic flowers. Once Light awoke, she found herself in a vibrant garden made up of plants twice their normal size. Amongst them, as the story goes, were trees that are said to have been vibrating and pulling up against their roots. During the time that she was stuck in the crater, Light is said to have observed how any part of the tree that was able to escape, whether leaves or twigs, would fly out of the crater and into the sky.
The Limbeans believe that there is a large garden at the bottom of the crater with enormous plants. According to their myths, each plant has a unique ability and was originally an animal that had annoyed the planet in one way or another. As punishment, Fisbump the Sky turned them into plants to silence them, cursing them to grow in a place where they would never be found. We have been unable to find any memories or ruins that might indicate to us how much of this legend is true. What we do know for certain is that Light started catching these flying twigs for farming after escaping the crater. Once Light discovered that the harvested wood had the ability to fly, she sent small bundles of it to the other territory founders. What remained, she shared with Baia, the only first inhabitant who had tried to rescue her. The ones she kept for herself were used as building material for Limbo’s floating structures. She also used the wood to develop transportation that could fly over the oceans, minimising the risk of crossing paths with the ocean god, Siya.
As soon as the other founders heard about Light farming the flying wood, they conducted a series of experiments to determine why the planet allowed it, as the wood was alive and would therefore fall under Fistbump the Sky’s protection. However, as Light had planted twigs rather than uprooted plants, Fistbump the Sky’s rules could be considered broken. With this thought in mind, the other founders started experimenting by planting various plants. Based on the few altercations they had with the planet’s watchers, the theory that remains could be farmed was proven to be true.
The first generation used this loophole to their advantage by running pieces of cloth across the surfaces of other living things, such as plants and animals, hoping to dislodge any stubborn remains. This proved to be immensely successful, and in some cases, even aided the plants and animals in regenerating new skin. The act of running cloths across living surfaces swiftly grew in popularity and is considered to be the birth of Fistbump the Sky’s most popular winter tradition: Last Scraps.
Please remember that these are only legends. Yet, researchers have found numerous rags throughout the cycles that displayed clear signs of having been scraped across a rough surface. Considering that cloth is still used in the tradition today, the legend may contain some truth. Aside from obvious damage, the rags also retained traces of the surrounding environment and Essence
ESSENCE & SPACE DEBRIS
Essence is often described as remnants of a soul and tend to take the shape of the source they came from; for instance, the Essence of a shard resembling the stone it broke from. This attribute functioned as a defence mechanism, hiding Essence in plain sight. It was only towards the end of the Great Migration, before the founding of the last four territories, that Essence was acknowledged as a material. From our understanding, Lahba, the first healer and the founder of Baal, was the first to notice the strange material.
The discovery came about when Lahba found unfamiliar plants mixed in with their herbal ones. Unlike the others, these strange, new leaves burst into flames when Lahba removed them from the plant stem. They showed no signs of ageing, and poisoned those who consumed them. We have since learned that essence can be identified by its lack of change. Although still difficult to identify on sight, it was possible to locate Essence, given enough time. Unfortunately, as mentioned before, removing essence from its source causes it to shrivel and burst into flames. Around the time the gods began creating the second generation, researchers discovered that essence can be removed with the original source’s permission. Using the previous example, a rock must allow the essence of a broken shard to be removed. Once removed, an essence could be placed in a jar and used for various purposes, depending on its origin, such as the Essence of a flower having the ability to heal, while the Essence of a river washes away emotions.
Since its discovery, Essence has become the most widely used and easily controlled material our world has to offer. The most important use is arguably its ability to capture memories. However, observing these memories requires a vessel.
For as long as anyone can remember, debris from surrounding planets has been making its way onto Fistbump the Sky. As our galactic neighbours progressed, the debris became larger and more frequent, with our planet’s gravity functioning as a magnet, pulling all the discarded objects towards the surface. Once rumours of being buried alive began to spread, the previous leaders were forced to gather to find a solution.
Our research team has been fortunate enough to have acquired an audio recording of this gathering. The recording buzzed with the voices of furious leaders and overwhelmed advisors. Questions led to panic, and their suggestions of getting rid of the debris escalated quickly. Thankfully, the suggestion of a galactic war was put to rest by the researchers of Metallica and Magnifico.
As there was no way of stopping the space debris from reaching Fistbump the Sky, they suggested implementing a planet-wide system to repurpose the debris, thus minimising litter and advancing Fistbump the Sky’s technology. Upon hearing their suggestions, the leaders decided to adopt the Space Debris System (SDS), which continues to operate to this day.
The first stage of the SDS consists of collecting the debris and shipping it to Metallica. The Metallicans then choose which debris to feed their territory’s mountains and other metal companions. The addition to their diets causes the mountains’ faeces to contain rare minerals that are not naturally found on Fistbump the Sky. Once the mountains and companions have decided which debris is the most palatable, the chosen debris gets transported from Metallica to Magnifico. For those unaware, Magnifico is essentially a volcano. Due to this, the territory’s crust is incredibly fertile, so much so that anything planted there will grow, including space debris.
In the second step, the debris that wasn’t chosen to become food for Metallica’s mountains, gets transported to the sorting stations at the border between Jengu and Codex. Once the debris arrives, each piece is manually inspected to see which ones can be reused as Essence vessels or memory players. Those that cannot be repurposed are either sold at the markets in Sia or used as Bridging Day gifts for our cosmic neighbours.
When the SDS was first implemented, some worried that our neighbours would stop accepting the debris as gifts. However, the discovery that debris make the ideal vessel for Essence and Spirit alleviated these fears. Unlike the astronomers, Jenguns are notoriously secretive with their research. Codexans, by comparison, freely discuss their works, however this is done in such a chaotic way that no one can understand them. As such, we can only speculate how it was that debris was discovered to be perfect vessels. There are, of course, some theories regarding this discovery.
The first theory is that the scientists at Codex and Jengu were inspired by Lahba who had managed to safely place Essence in a jar without it bursting into flames. The scientists would naturally have taken inspiration from this and experimented with placing Essence in different types of containers, which would, of course, have included debris.
The second theory is that two newly created Codexan and Jengun friends had come across a piece of debris while they were out playing. The piece is believed to have been of average size, rectangular, cold to the touch, metallic, and with one side made of glass. Like any young being might, they decided to poke the unfamiliar object and, upon doing so, found images trapped inside. Seeing this, the two friends decided to open it and rescue whoever was inside. After realising that it was empty, aside from a few metal strings, they decided to take it to their scientists for further investigation.
This theory seems to be the most accurate based on the description of the debris they found matching those that are usually converted into memory players. Memory players come in different varieties, yet the most common ones are made from debris from planet Earth, called HDs. By placing an Essence inside of an HD, one can view the memory as moving images. These memories are unfortunately without sound and other, much smaller debris is typically used for audio memories. It is only recently that progress has been made with combining audio and visuals, aiding progress in research and entertainment alike. Regardless of who came up with the idea of placing Essence inside HDs, it was undoubtedly the Jengun and Codexans who were responsible for the creation of Essence vessels. They also discovered that debris can be used on Spirit, too. The only, small, difference is that Essence, being tangible, can solely be placed inside empty debris. Spirit, however, is intangible and can only be infused within an object.
