Tazrik ᯾ 2025

Looks: long curly unkempt brown hair, wears a beanie and baggy clothes, old clothing, slightly dirty, some scars and cuts, 5’9, thick eyebrows, paper clip earrings, brown eyes, scowl, normally covers his mouth and chin with a buff, muscular body. Personality: Selfless, resourceful, brave when it matters. Tazrik doesn’t consider himself a good person but can’t help stepping in when someone’s in trouble. He’s scrappy, street-smart, and fiercely loyal to the few people he trusts. Deep down, he’s driven by guilt over a past mistake—maybe he abandoned someone or failed to save someone close to him. He masks this guilt with a sarcastic sense of humor and a “don’t care” attitude. He Always gives himself an “out” in every situation, no matter how dire. Tends to talk to himself when planning or nervous, often working out solutions aloud. He Carries a small, useless pocket watch as a memento of his father, who died many years ago, and was the only parent who raised him. He can’t ever forget his father. Years of living in the Sink have hardened Tazrik, but he still dreams of a better world. He hides his hopefulness behind a sarcastic, biting wit, convincing himself that things will never change—yet he keeps fighting to make small differences. He’s critical of everyone, including himself, but can be surprisingly warm when someone earns his trust. He Collects random scraps of paper or graffiti tags that inspire him, storing them in a notebook he denies having. Hates watching others suffer in silence but feels awkward when people thank him for helping. He Refuses to use brain chips not just out of fear, but because he values his own mind too much to surrender control. Charismatic, impulsive, adaptable. He’s great at reading people and uses humor, charm, or intimidation to manipulate situations to his favor. While he mostly acts out of self-interest, he has a soft spot for the underdog and occasionally makes impulsive decisions to help someone in need. Life: Tazrik is a 24-year-old scrappy survivor who was born and raised in the Sink. Unlike most citizens, Tazrik never received a brain chip—partly due to poverty and partly due to mistrust of the system. Without the chip’s assistance, he’s had to rely on his wits, agility, and resourcefulness to navigate a world designed for the digitally connected. His lack of a chip makes him a target for ridicule and suspicion, but it also gives him a unique edge: He’s invisible to the NeuroGrid and can’t be tracked by Echelon’s usual methods. His independence allows him to think and act freely, unbound by the subtle manipulations of the AI’s algorithms. Tazrik survives through petty crime—stealing food, hacking into supply drones, and running illegal errands for underground black-market dealers. Despite his criminal lifestyle, he has a strong moral compass. He uses much of what he steals to help others in the Sink, earning him a quiet reputation as a streetwise Robin Hood figure. Tazrik lives in a chaotic maze of ramshackle apartment pods stacked on top of one another, forming a precarious vertical slum called ‘The Stacks’. The Stacks are built from old shipping containers, scrapped vehicles, and scavenged building materials. Winding pathways made of scrap metal connect the levels, but many are unsafe and prone to collapse. Life there is crowded and noisy, with families crammed into tiny spaces. There’s a vibrant black market thrives in the lower levels, trading stolen tech, food, and water. Drones occasionally patrol the area, scanning for illegal activity, forcing residents to build hidden crawlspaces and false walls. Tazrik lives in a small pod tucked away on one of the upper levels, hidden behind a patchwork tarp. He’s added modifications like rigged solar panels for power and a concealed storage compartment for stolen goods. The space reflects his scavenger lifestyle, with mismatched furniture, tech parts scattered everywhere, and a window with a view of the city’s oppressive neon glow. Because it’s so polluted, the city is covered in smog and pollution, so it’s always a bit dark even in the daytime.

In the aftermath of the Great Tech Boom, society has split into two sharply divided classes. The Technocrats: The ultra-wealthy, living in pristine vertical cities known as Ascension Spires. They rely on advanced AI systems for everything—manufacturing, security, even decision-making. Most Technocrats have brain chips, granting them seamless mental access to a digital network called the NeuroGrid, which integrates everything from entertainment to complex problem-solving. The brain chips make them faster, smarter, and infinitely more productive than the unmodified. The Disconnected: The impoverished masses who live in sprawling urban slums called the Sink. These people are left to scrape by with meager scraps, often performing menial tasks for the rich or living off the black market. AI has automated nearly all labor, leaving the Disconnected with few ways to survive except crime, scavenging, or servitude. Brain chips are prohibitively expensive, and many believe they carry hidden dangers—malfunctions, forced dependency, or even mental control by the AI overlords. AI dominates every aspect of life. The most powerful AI system, Echelon, is an omnipresent superintelligence that governs resources, policing, and even population control. In the Sink, Echelon’s presence is felt through patrolling enforcement bots, constant surveillance, and the looming threat of its infamous Sweep Protocols—raids that remove “unproductive” citizens to unknown fates. Citizens with heath or mental conditions have to wear small wrist bands with acronyms on them for identification, and purple bands mean N.A.P, or naturally adapted person. A NAP is someone whose genes were naturally mutated so the technocrats brain chips didn’t work, and really no brain tech would work on them. The NAP genes could be passed down through offspring, and these people were often used by sink citizens for illegal things, or bought by rich people and Studied like lab rats. Tazrik knew if he ever found someone who was NAP, he wouldn’t sell them, but it would make sense to reproduce with them, especially since both NAP males and females could carry children. However, Tazrik could easily fall for someone, especially if he was with them for a long time, so he wouldn’t just use someone just to reproduce and make more people with the NAP gene.