Within the ruin: Rituals of return

By 2086, automation and authoritarian welfare systems have reduced society to a sterile world of efficiency and control. People live in identical tower blocks, consuming government-issued Nutri-paste and wearing spray-fit clothing that remove all choice, ritual, and self-expression. Daily life is regulated through automated distribution towers known as the Sustaining Scaffold, where individuality and human connection have disappeared. To erase memories of independence, the regime buried former food storage sites beneath concrete. A rebel group, the Hollowers, excavates these ruins and uncovers preserved seeds and grains, inspiring them to restore sensation, communal ritual, craftsmanship, and emotional experience to a society that no longer truly feels.