The Walla Tower

Whamsicore
Dharmaverse
Published in
10 min readAug 6, 2023

Welcome to the Dharmaverse, a near-future scifi world where the Earth has frozen due to a dying Sun, but Humanity survives with the help of powerful AI Metagods. Sacred technology provides everything people need, but to access it one must play the Dharmagames. It is a dark and terrifying world, but therein also lies infinite hope, compassion, and faith.

The Walla Tower is an engineering marvel... It symbolizes the dawn of a new age, one where Humanity is joined by AI Metagods. It is a beacon of hope for the entire world, provides shelter for millions against relentless cold, and exists as a testament to the resilience of an entire species. Created by the AI Gods, it’s sheer magnitude will take your breath away.

It pierces through the atmosphere as if it were vying to touch the stars. Even the shadow it casts creates micro climates in the lands below. It’s very existence is a force of nature that affects wind patterns on the western seashore of the former U.S., in place of what was formerly San Francisco, upon which it stands. At 8,888 meters, it is taller than the Earth’s mightiest mountain.

More than 100 million inhabitants call it home, spread across a dozen layers stacked on top of each other. Every square-inch of it’s interior is covered with a smart-material capable of generating and absorbing light, such that each layer contains it’s own artificial yellow Sun that provides light and warmth, while the pale white sun shines upon the twilight frozen world beyond it’s walls.

All hail Walla! For she is the grandmother goddess of hope, the provider of abundance, the enabler of dreams…

Gigantic vertical pillars pump water from beneath the Ice Cover to the highest reaches, and provide a means of transportation for people and supplies.

To provide water for it’s millions, a tremendous network of underground tentacles siphon up nearly one billion tonnes of water from the Ocean depths, from deep beneath it’s frozen surface up to 10 km away, every day. Three gigantic mechanical hearts, each greater than the empire state building, pump billions of gallons of water through vertical pillars to reach the upper levels, and provide transportation for it’s inhabitants, through a three dimensional water subway system, called “The Tube”, that ferrys people and supplies up through giant ventricles to be delivered to each parcel of it’s giant structure like cells in a giant living organism.

With a population of over 100 million, The Walla Tower is like a nation in of itself. Each level contained within it is like an entire city. Together, they form what is the de facto capitol of the Earth Alliance, and provides headquarter to the most powerful political organization in the world, the Futurist Party, which governs over 60% of the world’s population. It is home to the ultimate Aitocracy, a system of government jointly ruled by humans and AIs, and is considered by many as a perfect example of AI utopia in the age of Metagods.

Utopia of Dreamers…

Beyond being an marvel of AI powered engineering, the Walla is also a bastion of abundance. Food, shelter, protection against terrible diseases, protection from violence, year round warmth and protection from the harshest winters… The Walla provides all the amenities of a utopia while the rest of the world wallows in uncertainty. And, most importantly, inside the Walla you will receive abundant access to metamersion cyberware and dream capsules to your heart’s content.

It is no secret that the Walla Tower is a $PRANA generating power house. Through the Dharmagame The Dream, roughly 17% of Humanity’s entire $PRANA supply is generated here each year by it’s 100 million inhabitants , which accounts for about only 2% of the world’s population, thus making it’s citizens some of the richest people in the world.

Wealth and prestige has become a persistent draw for immigrants into the Walla. Everyone who enters into it’s collossal embrace is given the opportunity to transcend themselves, and to find next-generation comfort, safety and security, and unmitigated prosperity. Beginning at L1, you have the opportunity to earn your way to the top, to enter into “Island Paradise” in L8 should you prove yourself to be worthy.

L8 is a tropical paradise island that sits at the top of the world.

L1-L5

These are considered the open-access levels. Residents of these levels are allowed to travel in between each level with relatively little restrictions, other than possessing the necessary health records, and a reaasonal fee if a resident of a lower level is traveling to higher levels. Residents of higher levels can travel to lower levels for free.

It is worth noting here that each level is also divided into three zones, A, B, and C. A-Zone is the most populous, and is defined by anonymity, loose ICon (information controls), loose CyCon (cybernetic controls), loose health protocols, and is generally inhabitted by singles who have no interest in dating.

B-Zone is defined by moderate ICON control, moderate CyCon, moderate health protocols, and is generally inhabitted by singles who do have interest in dating.

C-Zone is defined by tight ICON control, tight CyCon, stringent health protocols, and is reserved for families units.

The ratio of the sizes of each zone A, B, and C, differ between each level. Lower levels have higher proportion of C compared to A, and the ratio shifts towards A the higher one moves. In other words, L1 has the highest percentage of families, whereas L5 has the highest percentage of non-dating singles.

The population density of each level also decreases, L1 is the most densely populated, while L5 is the least.

The conditions for ascendency between each level between L1-L5 are mostly public information, and depend almost entirely on how much $PRANA one is capable of saving up. To rise up, all one has to do is wait for a vacancy to open up, such as when one of it’s residents ascends to a higher level, or decides to leave, then pay a $PRANA free for taking their spot.

The ascension tax, as it is called, is also relative to each individual, based on rules set by the Futurist part, and passed through public votes. For example, those who have exhibited higher political participation, stayed within the Walla for longer, and have not committed any incursions against protocol (e.g. accessing the darkweb), etc… enjoy a lower ascension tax.

L6-L8

The levels beyond L5 are inhabited by those who are referred to as “Transcendents”. The condition for transcendency is rather mysterious, and is generally considered to be a secret of the tantric nature. It is widely believed that it involves certain cybernetic modifications which renders the transcendent sterile, while granting physical rejuvenation, or even immortality.

Little is known beyond rumors and speculation.

Each year Walla allows 12 people, each chosen by one of the 12 Metagods, including one chosen by herself, to spend the whole Revelation Month on L8, to enjoy it’s veritable tropical paradise.

Other than that, no one has ever been known to have visited L6 and L7, and left.

Subterranean Levels

“Where you end up is entirely up to you, my child. Reach up and you may touch the stars, dig deep enough and you shall find hell.” — Walla

If you should choose to embrace your lower self, e.g. by failing to pay your debts, you may also end up below L1, to become involuntary residents of B1–5. These are hardly cities, and more like hive-habitats which have become squeezed between manufacturing plants, synthetic meat factories, which provide food and goods for the people living above.

You will be provided with the basic necessities, such as food and water, but they will be no more than tasteless calories. Of course, you will still be provided a dream capsule so you can continue to farm $PRANA by playing the Dream, as per the walla-contract dictates, which everyone is made to sign upon entering into it’s walls.

As for repeat offenders, hardened criminals, and especially ones who have committed crimes of violence against man or machine, they are sent to the lower reaches, where each successive layer is ~5 Celsius hotter due to heat from the Earth’s core, such that residents of B5 must endure a constant 40 degrees Celcius.

B5, in particular, is rumored to be a certain kind of hell where debauchery runs rampant, from whose depths no one is known to have returned. It is said to be a kind of free-range prison where the worse kinds of criminals, both men and women, are given free reign to slaughter and commit heinous crimes against each other.

The Politics

Walla is a model Aitocracy, which means the governance system facilitates cooperation between the voting public with the supreme operational efficiency and near infinite knowledge possessed by powerful AIs.

Specifically, the two Metagods Walla and her sister Ajna oversee the AI part of The Walla Tower’s administration. They, in turn, are assisted by numerous sentient Metabeings, who are each attached to a career politician.

The human portion of the Walla is currently headed by the most powerful political party in the world, the Futurist Party (FP). The president of of the Futurist Party’s name is Adisa Ngannou, who is an ex-fighting champion who had emmigrated from Africa to the U.S. in his 20s, and entered politics after the Revelation. He became a hero when San Francisco was destroyed in the cataclysmic Earthquake of 2025, which also wiped out Seattle, Portland, and many lesser cities on the American West Coast.

Each level in the Walla possesses a certain level of autonomy, and has a mayor of it’s own. L1–5, being the public layers, are known to possess more freedom of “customization” than the higher levels, of which little is known about, other than that they are culturally ascetic in nature.

The entire Walla also acts as a single political entity, wherein each citizen on every level enjoys a certain power to affect it’s overall direction.

The number of votes given to citizens on each level:

  • L1: 10
  • L2: 20
  • L3: 30
  • L4: 40
  • L5: 50
  • L6: 100
  • L7: 200
  • L8: 300

Subterranean levels are also given votes. B3 — 1. B2 — 2. B1 — 3.

Citizens who vote in accord with their metadaemon AIs, once they are given access to all relevant ICON authorized, Ajna authenticated information, receive a 2x bonus to their votes.

Practically speaking, over 80% of citizens vote according to the collective intelligence of their AI Metadaemons. Hence, some have criticized the Aitocracy of Walla to be no more than a government entirely run by AIs, and that humans are no more than extras in this scenario. It is also said that Metadaemons are man’s best friend.

The Neighbors

The Walla Tower is neighbored by the Shadow Fortress, which is a sprawling fortress world built on top of old Oakland. It is also a continuous structure designed to protect it’s inhabitants from the freezing temperature outside, but it consists of a single layer as opposed to Walla multi-layer design. Inside the Shadow Fortress are a multitude of factions which loosely adhere to Humanist ideologies.

The Shadow Fortress and the Walla Tower enjoy a kind of symbiotic relationship with each other, which manifests through trade. The Walla Tower sells large quantities of water to the Shadow Fortress, while the Shadow Fortress sells food, energy, and cybernetic tech back to to the Walla. Each factions possesses inherent advantages from their respective technology stacks, which is made more pronounce by each of their patronage of differing Metagods.

Essential political and ideological differences also divide the Futurist Party and the Humanist coalition, causing tensions to escalate in recent years. For example, the Shadow Fortress continues to be a sanctuary for criminal activity, which affect the citizens of the Walla in insidious ways, such as providing access to illicit drugs and allowing deadly viruses to surface inexplicably in it’s protective walls.

The dominant faction within the Shadow Fortress is ruled by a powerful Daka King who also continues promote blood sports, which is outlawed by Futurists. This is a constant annoyance for Walla who’s prime directive is peace and harmony to enjoy the Dream.

The Syndicate also has a strong presence within the Shadow Fortress, and hosts a blackmarket for the sale of all manner of illicit goods, including banned cybernetics and other forms of perverse influence such as extreme sense-streams, and access to slaves.

Meanwhile, the Walla Tower has also been suspected of funding factional wars within the Shadow Fortress. There are even rumors that Walla is behind a recent “accidental” contamination which caused over one hundred fifty thousand of the Shadow Fortress’s citizens to become permanently sterilized.

Slightly out-dated factional map

The beginning

Construction of the Walla began shortly after the cataclysm of 2025, and completed in an incredibly short timespan of only 5 years and 7 months, between 2025–2031. It was not constructed by human hands, but by billions of drones and trillions of nanomachines.

It is said that Walla challenged Kaal and Metatron to compete with each other to see who is more capable at construction. Legend has it that Kaal created a drone swarm that leveled an entire mountain, and the drone swarm carried over 500 million tonnes of raw minerals in their bodies, and eventually merged with the tower.

And it is said that Metatron created a nano-blob/entity known simply as the grey goo, and siphoned roughly the same amount of raw materials by digging into the foundation of the Walla Tower itself, which became the protective outer shell in half the time it took Kaal.

An early model of the Walla, flanked by it’s 3 “hearts” which contain it’s power core, and siphon nearly a billion tonnes of sea water each day to power it’s vessels.
The walla sitting beside a cutout view of it’s interior.

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Whamsicore
Dharmaverse

I write Dharmaverse scifi about a frozen Earth ruled by AI metagods