This universe categorizes people into five size categories: Giga, Macro, Norm, Micro, and Nano. Gigas all but rule the world, inhabiting a planet made for them. While some free macro communities exist at the edges of society, most countries and settlements for macros and below exist in the homes and businesses of gigas.
Magnus Caine created this universe.
Echoes
30 years ago, the company Resonate created an invention called an Echo. By supplying a person's DNA and mental data, echoes can perfectly recreate that person at a different scale. When an echo meets its end, the memories that filled its existence are transferred back to the original person. This grants a person a temporary life at a different scale. One can order an echo in the Resonate app. They're teleported to a given location once created.
An echo costs about $350 for a norm, meaning roughly 3 cents for micro models and over $700,000 for gigas.
Echoes can be used to "respawn" as well. With a regular memory backup, anyone can meet their end and have an echo made. It's considered rude to not pay for a smaller person's echo after eating, stomping, or otherwise "bad-ending" them, as it is colloquially known. Many older people look down on this bastardization of life, but it is what it is for the younger folk.
Rescaling
At some point in early adulthood, some people go through what is sometimes considered a second puberty. Because of this, they change size categories, typically over the course of a week. Approximately 1 in 4 people will go through a rescaling. It's believed that no matter what size you end up as, it's what you wanted deep down. As such, no one sees an issue with treating smaller people badly after they shrink. After all, you must have wanted to be crushed or eaten.
It's possible to rescale later in life, or even twice, but such cases are rare. If it doesn't happen by the age of 35, a person is most likely staying at their current size.
Society between Sizes
Before echoes were invented, much of society did not interact between size classes. Macros and micros often interacted with norms, due to the closeness of their sizes (relatively speaking). Nanos and gigas, for that reason, were usually left out. About 50 years ago, norms founded the ____ treaty, which guaranteed safety between macros, norms, and micros and established some basic laws regarding their interaction. Nanos, widely regarded as sentient germs, and gigas, seen as living landmasses, were not included in this treaty. Since then, these size classes have celebrated ____ Day on the 13th Saturday of every year.
Nanos, given their status at the bottom rung of society, are subject to the whims of their owners. While "free" nano societies exist at the fringes of norm and micro society, they are seen as pests at worst and amusements at best. If one finds a nano civ, it is wholly within their rights to take it and do as they please. Some people treat nanos as living gods, others as a fun side project. Some, as mere toys. It's common to find them in supermarkets and other stores as well.
Gigas, on the other hand, are regarded with fear and apprehension by most others. They treat macros as norms treat nanos. Given the relative millimeter height that macros hold, it's hard for gigas to view them as anything other than living specks. Much like nanos, there are societies of macros, norms, and micros that exist in the wider world, but most are owned by gigas. And, how they are treated depends on the owner.
Gigas are even more liberal with their use of macros than their smaller peers are with nanos. They are used as garnish in drinks and dishes, additives to sex toys, even used to clean the small places that gigas can't reach. It's rare for a giga to even think about their treatment of smaller folk. Given their size, gigas rarely view smaller sizes as people, and will often use the term "germ" more often than their peers, though its use has decreased over the past generation due to the prevalence of Echoes.
Size Categories
Nanos (1/2,000,000 scale)
2 cm Micros look 65 km tall
2 m Norms look 6,500 km
2 km Macros look 650k km (51 times the size of the Earth)
A macro’s sperm cell is 3x larger than a nano
Norm hair is 200x wider than a nano
Macro hair is 2000x wider than a nano
Micros (1/20th scale)
1-6cm Tall
Norms
1-2m Tall
Macros(200x scale)
350m - 1km Tall
Gigas look 30km Tall
Gigas (20,000x scale)
20,000km tall
Macros look .008cm tall
A city is 6 cm wide (palm sized)
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