How could I ever tell him that I created his world merely for my own amusement? The entire war against the demons is nothing but a game. What a terrible thing to admit!— Kaesta, asking Arastoo for advice.
Space Explorer
Kaesta believes that she is one of the last humans to survive
The Syntax War. She explores The Dark Galaxy aboard the spaceship that her family fled from
Lunaris in. As a computer programmer and navigator, she explores the galaxy with her Feline Android Companion (FAC) named
Asimov. Fortunately, Asimov is a very competent starship engineer. They make a great team and maintain The Escapist's Fantasy together.
Game Designer's Daughter
Rylan, Kaesta's father, worked at CyberMind Systems on quantum computing experiments. To relax from his stressful job, Rylan ran a virtual world set in 17th Century France that his coworkers and other scientists from the moon's settlement enjoyed. His love of game design and computer programming are some of the best gifts that he passed on to his daughter. Kaesta feels as though her programming skills will never match her father's but she does her best to learn through iterative design.
Kaesta tells Asimov that she prefers to play around with
The Cosmos from a high-level overview of the world. She takes subtle actions to steer fate and does not concentrate on one particular world or group of people for too long. Her failing implant cannot handle the data load required for direct first-person experiences like those that Asimov enjoys as his Avatar.
Her curiosity about a recent database intrusion gives her pause, making Kaesta wish that she could walk on the world of Akir herself to investigate the character responsible for the security breach. She hopes that a new and upgraded cybernetic implant may someday allow her to explore her own world firsthand. Until then, she is an incorporeal influence to the peoples of Akir as they fight
The Serpent and Shadows War. She is separated from her own creation by the computer monitors she uses to observe events within the game world.
I wish you could come with me. Try not to screw up the timeline too much while I'm in there!
Storyteller's Daughter
Rylan met the love of his life, Althea within his virtual world. Althea worked for HydroHarvest and became enamored with Rylan quickly. She was an empathetic storyteller and roleplayer. After the two had their first and only child, Althea taught Kaesta to include moral lessons, justice, and traditional values into her writing. Kaesta cares about the peoples on the planet of Akir.
Kaesta hopes to someday defeat the AI-powered antagonist, Zalthor, The Demonlord. Unfortunately, the scales are not tipped in her favor. Even with her
Save Scumming habit, she has never come close to defeating Zalthor's legion of shadow demons. Because of the lore that Kaesta has written into the world via
Arastoo's gift of
The Dreamstone Codex, most good folk worship her as
The Dreamer and pray that someday she will prevail.
Her abuse of the powers given in the game engine file Update.cpp and manipulation of
The Tick Timer have given rise to the belief among the virtual inhabitants of her game world that they are not living in a true reality. This has inflicted many of the characters varying levels of an existential crisis. Those who study
The Cosmos too closely are particularly susceptable.
Most peoples lives are predictable, the same from one iteration of the dream to the next. The people whose lives Kaesta interfers with become known as
The Fateless. Their fates are not set in stone and their actions greatly influence
The Serpent and Shadows War. Some fateless struggle to find their purpose.
It's supposed to be a story of hope and triumph, but I lose every time I play.— A frustrated and weary Kaesta
Terminal Patient
In addition to Althea's great storytelling skills, Kaesta inherited a terminal congenital disorder,
Isolated Sensory Network Dysfunction from her mother. There is no cure and the experimental cybernetic implant that staves off the worst symptoms is starting to fail.
As a young girl, Kaesta watched her mother fall into a coma and never wake up. Her father changed his field of study, becoming obsessed with neurochemistry and experimental treatments meant to contact his wife's mind as she lay in a vegetative state. Unfortunately, Althea passed away before her third decade after succumbing to the final stages of ISND.
Your mother is still in there - alone and in the dark. I have to reach her.— Rylan
Heist Planner
Kaesta and Asimov are working on a plan to return to
Lunaris for a dangerous resupply mission. Both friends are troubled and anxious to land on the world that Rylan never returned from during his final attempt to save Althea.
- The most important thing that Asimov and Kaesta are looking for on Lunaris is a replacement cybernetic implant from Xenobotix. Failure means that Kaesta will succumb to ISND and fall into an irreversible coma wherein her mind will be plunged into a state of total sensory deprivation.
- While Asimov doesn't need to eat, Kaesta does. She needs to gather seeds from HydroHarvest to supplement her hydroponic garden.
- Kaesta has secretly made a deal with Claw and his marauders to free the FACs stored at the StarCat Dynamics warehouse.
Flaws & Challenges
- Cavalier Attitude - At first, Kaesta treats The Cosmos as her personal playground. It's just a game to her until she realizes that people within her world are becoming self-aware.
- Heart on Her Sleeve - Kaesta is very empathetic and sensitive. Her feelings can be hurt quite easily. She avoids confrontation when possible.
- Fear of Letting Go - Kaesta struggles with her mortality and has begun to hide her advancing symptoms from Asimov.
- Nothing to Lose - Our heroine takes unnecessary risks once she arrives on Lunaris. It's do or die.
Kaesta is such an interesting character. So much power over her world, yet not enough, it seems.
Thanks, Emy! One of the challenges is that The Cosmos is built using her father's game engine. He was a much better programmer than her. She doesn't understand how everything works, but she's learning.