Even before it was named after the woman who populated it, Fort Underhill
was designed to become a new universe for those who had died in Salmonverse.
They had been living in a simulated reality up until that point, but the
creators wanted them to have a place to go where they couldn’t make up
whatever rules they wanted, or have literally anything given to them simply
by request. They weren’t being mean—the idea was originally conceived to be
a choice—they just thought people might eventually get tired of having
everything handed to them. For better or worse, while their consciousnesses
remained intact, they were not alive, and they knew that people would want
to have resurrection as an option. They were all transitioned there all at
once, against their will, because there was no time to ask them. The
simulation was being shut down by a group of people who essentially boil
down as the landlords. They had to get out, and they had to get out fast, or
they would all meet the true death. Despite the fact that it was necessary
to do this without warning, it has been reported to me that it caused some
unrest. As I’ve said, Fort Underhill is impenetrable to me. The membrane is
too thick to allow information to be passed back and forth, so I’m getting
all of this second hand from people who have been inside. According to what
they saw and experienced, a lot of the newly resurrected were grateful for
the gift. It was a lofty goal that the original creator of the simulation
had always hung over their heads, just out of their reach. He built levels
into the social hierarchy, with the lowest level being true death, and the
highest level being new life. So a lot of them were always trying to attain
it, and they never thought they would, because it was incredibly rare. They
were glad to have finally achieved the final level, but not everyone felt
the same way about it.
Some didn’t care either way, because they figured they could always enter a
new virtual construct now. They were immortal, and time meant nothing to
them now, so who cares how long that took, or how much earlier work they
lost? Others were less patient. They worked very hard to build their
afterlives, and to have it all ripped from them was a travesty in their
minds. As far as I can tell, they didn’t go into war, or anything, but it
was a complicated situation. Because of how efficient the level system was,
they didn’t have any preexisting form of government. Because of how long the
simulation had run, there were people from the entire history of
civilization, which meant for every form of government Earth ever had,
someone was around who had experienced it prior to their death. Which one
would they choose? There was plenty of space for them to spread out, but did
that mean each planet ran itself? Would the creators of the universe have
any say, or would they expect the people to elect new leaders? What would
they do with the levels, now that everyone was apparently on the same
playing field? Was there some way to return to the hierarchy, and was that
fair? Honestly, the main purpose of levels was to keep the afterlife
interesting. If everyone always had everything handed to them, which was
technically feasible, would people grow bored, and kill themselves for good?
Still there were those who wanted to return to the old ways, especially when
it came to the prisoners. Throughout most of history, everyone died,
including bad people, so did they deserve to have all their sentences
suddenly commuted? There were a lot of complex social questions to try to
answer now, and the creators would not have it easy.
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