Empire of Ash Announcement
Empire of Ash: Three Emperors, Three Justifications for Brutality
A cyberpunk political thriller spanning 2658-2796 AD—now available as a free illustrated story
“I wasn’t a monster by accident. I was a monster by design. And every drop of blood I spilled was a calculated investment in humanity’s future.”
These are the words of Emperor Damian Steele, written as he bleeds out in a Houston basement in 2745 AD. Three bullets in his chest. Minutes to live. And yet, he’s satisfied—because the empire he built will continue without him.
Empire of Ash is the first political thriller set in the Lumen Universe, and today we’re releasing it as a free illustrated story. Written by Terry Mba and illustrated by Lucas, it tells the story of three emperors across three generations, each convinced they’re saving humanity while building toward catastrophe.
THE STORY
Three Emperors, Three Philosophies, One Empire
Empire of Ash is told through the memoirs of three rulers of the North American Empire, spanning 2658 to 2796 AD. Each emperor inherited power, wealth, and an impossible legacy. Each believed they were correcting their predecessor’s mistakes. Each failed in a new way.
Damian Steele: The Forge-Master (2658-2745)
The architect. The calculator. The man who built an empire through pure efficiency.
Damian believed every decision could be optimized, every variable controlled, every drop of blood justified as investment. He spent 87 years making brutal choices with absolute certainty, never once questioning whether he might be wrong.
“The monster wasn’t in his methods—it was in his certainty.”
He unified North America through calculated warfare, built the first vertical cities, and established social credit systems that would define the empire for generations. He died exactly as he lived: analyzing the efficiency of his own assassination.
His final calculation: 99.7% efficiency in fulfilling his historical function.
The remaining 0.3%? He didn’t foresee that the rebels he “converted” 40 years earlier would use his own long-term planning methods against him.
Marcus Steele: The Consolidator (2745-2785)
The desperate son. The perfectionist. The man who spent 40 years chasing approval from a father who never mentioned him once in decades of memoirs.
Marcus inherited his father’s empire and tried to perfect it. He expanded the vertical cities to 90 levels. He created System 2.0—neural optimization technology that stripped away personal initiative, creativity, and emotional memory in the name of eliminating suffering.
Upper levels received filtered air with compounds that increased confidence and reduced empathy.
Lower levels received subtle sedatives to ensure compliance.
Underground levels housed the “non-essential populations”—forgotten, invisible.
“Programmed love isn’t love—it’s just obedience wearing a mask.”
Marcus knew this. He wrote those words himself. And yet he continued, because perfect control was easier than risking the invisibility he’d known as his father’s son.
His own Imperial Guard poisoned him. The system he perfected determined he was the problem.
Alexander Steele: The Last One (2785-2800)
The empathetic heir. The moral philosopher. The man who saw the horror of his inheritance and was paralyzed by it.
Alexander spent 11 years knowing things needed to change. Feeling the weight of every decision. Understanding that the systems his grandfather and father built were fundamentally broken.
He couldn’t act.
“Inaction is also a choice. Not deciding is also deciding. Passivity also has consequences.”
On July 16, 2796 AD, Alexander watched from his tower as The Great Gridlock destroyed his empire in eight minutes. A surgical cyberattack disabled autonomous vehicles across five continents. Mass-market cars plummeted through 60-story vertical cities. Elite vehicles froze mid-air in failsafe protocol—unable to move, unable to help, unable to escape witnessing their civilization collapse beneath them.
500,000 dead in the first hour.
The empathetic emperor who tried to harm no one presided over just as much death as his brutal predecessors—through the violence of inaction.
THE GREAT GRIDLOCK: When Architecture Becomes Weapon
The climax of Empire of Ash is one of the most visceral sequences in the Lumen Universe: The Great Gridlock of July 15, 2796 AD.
The North American Empire had built its power on vertical cities—literal stratification where every citizen occupied exactly the altitude their utility determined. When the cyberattack hit, those beautiful monuments to human achievement became death traps.
Wreckage cascaded DOWN through residential platforms, sky-bridges, transit tubes. Fire spread through atmospheric control systems. The elite survived in their frozen vehicles, but they couldn’t escape watching.
“The elite survived. But they couldn’t escape.”
It wasn’t just a cyberattack. It was the perfect metaphor for a civilization that believed it could rise above its problems without solving them.
WHY THIS STORY MATTERS TO THE LUMEN UNIVERSE
Empire of Ash is set during one of the most crucial periods of Earth’s history: the late Consolidation Era, just before humanity’s forced evolution into something new.
Timeline Context:
- 2796 AD: The Great Gridlock ends the North American Empire
- ~3000-4000 AD: Earth undergoes massive reshaping (details in future stories)
- 4280 AD: Project Ascendancy begins uplifting non-human species (see Aristotle)
The systems Damian, Marcus, and Alexander built—the social credit scores, the neural optimization, the vertical stratification—all influenced what came after. When humanity eventually went to the stars, they brought the lessons of the Steele Dynasty with them.
Some learned what NOT to do.
Others learned more efficient ways to do it.
THE CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Terry Mba
Terry Mba brought something special to this project: the ability to make monsters sympathetic without excusing them. Each emperor’s voice is distinct—Damian’s cold calculations, Marcus’s desperate justifications, Alexander’s anguished self-awareness. The memoir format was Terry’s idea, and it works perfectly.
This is Terry’s first published work in the Lumen Universe, but it won’t be her last.
Illustrator: Lucas L.
Lucas created three illustrations for Empire of Ash in the signature Lumen Universe style—early 2000s Disney animation aesthetic (think Treasure Planet, Atlantis: The Lost Empire) with darker thematic elements.
The three pieces capture each emperor in moments of realization rather than moments of power:
- Damian bleeding out, still analyzing
- Marcus with his holographic city, obsessed with perfection
- The cover composition showing the empire burning
Lucas is illustrating all stories in the first wave to maintain visual consistency across the Lumen Universe.
THEMES & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Empire of Ash explores questions that resonate far beyond its 2796 AD setting:
On Power:
- Is brutality ever justified if the outcomes are “efficient”?
- Can power be wielded cleanly, or does it always corrupt?
- What’s the difference between decisive action and decisive violence?
On Legacy:
- How do we escape the systems we inherit?
- Is it possible to correct for previous generations’ mistakes without making new ones?
- What do we owe to the future vs. what we owe to the present?
On Inaction:
- Is empathy without action its own form of violence?
- When paralysis comes from moral awareness, is it better than brutal certainty?
- Can good intentions excuse bad outcomes?
The story doesn’t give easy answers. That’s intentional.
HOW TO READ
Empire of Ash is available now as a free illustrated PDF. Download it, read it on any device, and share it with anyone who might be interested.
Length: Approximately 7,800 words
Reading time: 20-45 minutes
Format: PDF with embedded illustrations
Cost: Free (email signup required)
This is the first of seven stories we’re releasing in 2025 to introduce different corners of the Lumen Universe. Each story stands alone, but together they build a picture of 1.3 million years of galactic history.
WHAT’S NEXT
Empire of Ash is just the beginning.
Already Available:
- Aristotle by Jay Berg – A philosophical story about the first uplifted pigs discovering communication through scent (4280 AD)
Coming Soon:
- The Voidbreaker by Cath – Late October 2025
- Four more stories through end of 2025
Each story explores a different time period, a different species, a different corner of the Lumen Universe. Some are set millions of years apart. All connect.
Want to discuss the story? Join r/LumenUniverse on Reddit where we’re theory-crafting about what happened between the Gridlock and the uplift programs.
Want to know when new stories drop? Sign up for the mailing list. We send emails only when new stories release—no spam.
CONTENT WARNINGS
Empire of Ash deals with mature themes including:
- Political violence and warfare
- Systematic oppression and social control
- Neural manipulation and loss of autonomy
- Mass casualty events
- Assassination and poisoning
- Themes of inherited trauma and generational failure
The violence is not gratuitous, but it is present. The story is intended for mature readers.
DOWNLOAD & SHARE
Empire of Ash is free to read and free to share.
If you enjoy it:
- Share it with friends who love dystopian sci-fi
- Discuss it on r/LumenUniverse
- Leave a comment on this post with your thoughts
The best way to support the Lumen Universe is to read the stories and tell others about them.
