The Post-Self universe is an open setting for exploring the ramifications of being able to create copies of oneself, of what it means to undergo individuation, of what it means to let memories build up and up and up within oneself. With five novels, four novellas, an anthology of short stories, and plenty more besides, there’s story to explore spanning more than three centuries of history.

Interested in a quick-start on the setting? Check out What is Post-Self? on the wiki! Post-Self is an open setting, free for anyone to write in.

Every Post-Self book all in one package

This omnibus contains all published works set in the Post-Self universe, all the way from the Post-Self Cycle and subsequent novels to the anthologies and Twine game, "Gallery Exhibition".

Contains some items that are pre-orders, which will be added soon.

The Post-Self Cycle

Qoheleth

“All artists search. I search for stories, in this post-self age. What happens when you can no longer call yourself an individual, when you have split your sense of self among several instances? How do you react? Do you withdraw into yourself, become a hermit? Do you expand until you lose all sense of identity? Do you fragment? Do you go about it deliberately, or do you let nature and chance take their course?”

With immersive technology at its peak, it's all too easy to get lost. When RJ loses emself in that virtual world, not only must ey find eir way out, but find all the answers ey can along the way.

And, nearly a century on, society still struggles the the ramifications of those answers.

Toledot

“I am saying that you trust me — really trust me — and that life in the System is more subtle than I think you know. You let me into your dreams, my dear, and your dreams influence this place as much as, if not more than, your waking mind.”

No longer bound to the physical, what lengths should one go to in a virtual world to ensure the continuity of one’s existence? Secession. Launch. Two separations from two societies, two hundred years apart. And through it all, so many parallels run on so many levels that it can be dizzying just keeping up. The more Ioan and Codrin Bălan learn, the more it calls into question the motivations of even those they hold most dear.

Content notes:

Contains themes of manipulation, depictions of poor mental health, and brief mentions of suicide.

Nevi'im

“Do you know how old I am, Dr. Brahe? I am 222 years old, a fork of an individual who is…who would be 259 years old. I am no longer the True Name of 2124. Even remembering her feels like remembering an old friend…"

The cracks are showing.

Someone picked up on the broadcast from the Dreamer Module and as the powers that be rush to organize a meeting between races, Dr. Tycho Brahe is caught up in a whirlwind of activity. And as always, when the drama goes down, there is Codrin Bălan to witness it.

When faced with eternity in a new kind of digital world, however, old traumas come to roost, and those who were once powerful are brought to their knees Growth is colliding with memory, and the cracks are showing.

Content notes:

Contains themes of manipulation, depictions of poor mental health, and brief mentions of suicide.

Mitzvot

“To be built to love is to be built to dissolve. It is to be built to unbecome. It is to have the sole purpose of falling apart all in the name of someone else."

Even the grandest of stories can feel small and immediate when it’s just one person’s life.

One of the most well-known names from one of the most well-known clades on the System, the avatar of political machinations and cool confidence, has been brought low. With help coming only from Ioan Bălan and the most grudging of support from her cocladists, all True Name has left to save herself is the ability to change.

Also includes "Selected Letters", an extended epilogue to the Post-Self cycle, and a full appendix!

Content notes:

Contains themes of manipulation and brief mentions of suicide.

Novels

Motes Played

Motes played.

She played because she was play. She played because that was her role in life, because that is just who she was. She played with color, played with life, played with death.

She played with fire.

Motes played, because how could she not? 

Note

This book relies on the plots of The Post-Self Cycle, particularly Mitzvot. It is strongly recommended that you read those works first. They may all be found here as paperbacks, ebooks, and free to read in the browser.

The tilde (~) is the punctuation mark of whimsy and on this I will not be swayed.

Content notes:

Contains mentions of rough, but consensual sex with one vague description; blood; adult characters engaging with the world as children, unrelated to sex; themes of familial abuse.

Marsh

This is a pre-order! Marsh comes out in Spring 2025

“I am seeing quiet chaos. I am seeing most of my sims emptying out. The ones that are not empty, however, remain dreadfully quiet. Most of those who are out and about have set up over themselves cones of silence. Those who have not, though, are decidedly not quiet. More than one silence has been broken by weeping and wailing.”

New Year’s Eve, 2399, and Lagrange is celebrating almost three centuries of relative peace. Yes, there have been surprises, there has been drama and political intrigue, but life has, by and large, been quite good for those who have chosen to upload their consciousnesses. The celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. They fall in and out of love. They fork, creating copies of themselves to accomplish tasks or live out their own independent lives. Their memories build up and up forever within them.

2.3 trillion souls gather in quiet homes, in bars and restaurants, in parks and along prosaic main streets, and count down seconds to the new century.

And then, without warning, everything comes grinding to a halt. The internal clock of the System hits one second before midnight, December 31, 2399, and then it hits midnight, February 11, 2401. One year, one month, and eleven days have gone missing.

And so has one percent of the population of Lagrange. 23 billion souls lost.

Marsh is a new novel in the Post-Self universe, following Reed and the rest of his cocladists, fellow instances forked from the original uploaded mind of Marsh, as they strive to discover what has happened and where Marsh has gone, rendering them unmoored, five unconnected instances with no root to connect them.

What happened? A crash? Where has time gone? Where have those billions of minds gone? And why is Earth being so cagey?

Idumea

The Woman was too present. She was too much herself, too human, too embodied within her vessel as it spiraled out of control, too stuck in her mind as it twisted in on itself.

Readers, you must understand that she was in so many ways whole still!

I think that The Woman would say, however, that she was too whole. I think she would say that she was too full, too much, too alive. I think she would say that almost three hundred years of a life that was lived as hers was too much life. I think she would laugh that hoarse, dry laugh that always sounded like tears were on the way and say that thirty years was probably too much for her.

But me, friends? What will become of me?

A tale of the escape from suffering in a digital world — and the effects of trauma on the functionally immortal.

Content notes:

This story contains themes of self-harm, suicide, and poor mental health.

Anthologies

Clade — A Post-Self Anthology

Clade (n) – /kleɪd/ – post-self theory A group of individuals patterned off a single root consciousness, formed through branching expansion of the forking of its constituent members. See also: cladistics, cocladist, up-/down-/cross-tree instance, forking, post-self theory. — The System Central Library Encyclopedia

To split oneself among however many individuals, to let the mind drift and diverge, to feel the world from points of view not your own, and then let those memories crash down into you…well, it inspires a feeling best described as ‘heady’, to say the least.

• “Sufficiently Advanced” by Rob MacWolf
• “Genre Clade” by Nathan “Domus Vocis” Hopp
• “Après un rêve” by Madison Scott-Clary
• “Support Group for Anomalies in Forking” by Michael Miele
• “True Love Lies Within and Without” by Thomas “Faux” Steele
• “Cowboy” by Alexandria Christina Leal
• “The Big O” by Evan Drake
• “She Who Haunts the Storm” by JS Hawthorne
• “Earthbound” by Kergiby
• “Cascade Failure” by Joel Kreissman

Ask. — An Odist Anthology

This is a pre-order! Ask. will be out in Spring 2025!

After uploading in the early days of the System's existence, the Odists have been around for a long time. A long time. Over the centuries, they have diverged greatly, picking up their own interests, gaining their own knowledge, living their own lives. This collection of questions and answers covers topics from identity to hobbies, life sys-side to death, and everything in between, all answered by one of the oldest clades.

Other

"Gallery Exhibition — A Love Story"

This gallery exhibition serves as the capstone for Dear, Also, The Tree That Was Felled, of the Ode Clade in its role as fellow. The fellowship in instance art was created specifically for Dear in recognition of the excellence it brings to the field.

The Simien Fang school of Art and Design is proud to invite you to the opening of the exhibition. Location, time, and your ticket are attached to this message. We kindly request that you fork and send a non-#core/non-#tracker instance. We look forward to sharing this experience with you. RSVP

When you can fork yourself - body and personality - at will, doubtless someone will make an art of it. How lonely is it to be so selfish? 

There are several paths some random chance at play.

The Post-Self art pack

A collection of all visual art associated with the Post-Self universe.