The inhabitants of Living Memory had already lived their lives. Their bodies were gone, their souls had moved on (or been fed into a machine) and all that was left were memories pieced together in a simulated afterlife. I wish we'd had more opportunities to push back against what was going on. They'd made it clear that all of this was at the cost of the living, who by any definition would be enemies justified in fighting back. Why do you think they were harvesting souls in Tuliyollal?

Behold, a puppet show of the dead. Dolls of its inhabitants stripped of their humanity. The trials of life overcome, the passing of time endured, stripped away leaving only their memories. Strings borne of the souls of those deemed unimportant, its gilded streets stained with unseen blood. Mechanical puppeteers parading timeless corpses for the entertainment of another lifeless doll. Yet those around me smile at its sight.

The less articulate side of me would call the entire area an allegory for dead internet theory bringing about NFTs and the environmental impact of propping up a completely artificial economy.