World of Kai

The Planet Veila — a Disconnected World

Time flows differently here. The sand remembers what people have forgotten. Water here is dearer than gold, and silence dearer than water.

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The planet Veila — once a flourishing colony of the Psi-Stream civilization. Now — a disconnected world, forgotten by the Stream so completely that the very concept of “Psi” has not survived even in legend. People survive in the desert, not knowing that their ancestors once built cities by the force of thought.

Desert. Thirst. Cold nights. Life in the rhythm of wind and sand.

The Name of the Planet

The name “Veila” survives only on artifacts — in the “songs of stone” that Kai hears. The inhabitants themselves do not know what their world is called. For them there is only: Tamar, the desert, the ruins, the wells.

2. GEOGRAPHY

2.1. The Desert

Boundless sands, dunes that change shape overnight. Oases are rare and sparse. The wind is the chief force and the chief enemy. It covers tracks, changes the landscape, drives one mad with its monotonous howl.

By day — unbearable heat. The air trembles above the dunes. Shadows are short and rare. By night — piercing cold. The stars are sharp, alien. The sky is not like in Lira’s world — there it is alive, here — merely an abyss.

2.2. Tamar

The settlement where Kai lives. Flat huts of fired stone, cramped, windowless — to keep the cool. Streets — narrow passages between walls. At the center — the well and the square of the Circle of Sand.

Tamar stands on the edge of a dried-up riverbed. Once a river flowed here. Now — only stones and dust.

2.3. The Silent Walls

Ruins of an ancient building an hour’s walk from Tamar. Walls of dark stone, crumbled, with cracks. Adults avoid the place — “spirits live there.” Children come to play, until they grow up and begin to fear.

In one of the cracks of the southern wall, if you squeeze inside, there is a small chamber. There Kai will find the first crystal.

2.4. The Spire

A black crystalline obelisk, jutting from the sand several days’ journey from Tamar. Taller than any building in the settlement. Half-buried in the dunes. By day almost invisible against the rock. At sunset it flares crimson from within.

No one goes to it. “Do not look there,” the elders say. The Spire is one of the thousand beacons Lira left in the silent worlds.

2.5. The Garden of Stones

A circle of twelve statues in the heart of the desert, far from all known paths. It is on no map of the clan. Everyone who saw it as a child later “forgets” — so great is the fear.

The statues:

1. En-Ra — of frozen light. Feeling: loneliness that became a prayer for all.
2. Ki-El — of dark metal with a starry map. Feeling: the edge beyond which there is an answer.
3. Sira-Nam — of warm wood. Feeling: the world is not built — it is remembered.
4. Tal-Mor — of unmeltable ice. Feeling: the sacrifice of light for those who will come. 5–7 — rough, unfinished. Fragmentary memories.
5. Lira — of an indeterminate material. Warm. Alive. Breathing.
6. — empty. A smooth bare patch of sand. Waiting.

2.6. Temple of No Voice

A black building without windows, without doors — only a narrow passage. Perfectly smooth, without a single crack. Light does not reflect from the walls — it sinks into them. Inside — a round room with a floor like frozen water.

Not a punishment. A place where one can hear oneself.

2.7. The Tomb of the First Ones

An underground hall, hidden by a crack in the ground. Along the walls — dozens of bodies, untouched by decay. They have half-turned to crystal — they glow with an even, cold light. Not death, but a transition, halted midway.

At the center — a scatter of crystals. In them — the memory of a people who lived before forgetting.

3. SOCIETY

3.1. Clan Structure

People live in clans. Each clan — several families, bound by blood. The Water Finders’ clan is the most respected: those who know how to find water in the desert.

Main occupations:

• Finding and storing water
• Herding livestock (goats, rare camels)
• Trade with neighboring settlements (salt, cloth, pottery)
• Defense against nomads and desert beasts

3.2. The Circle of Sand

The council of elders. Seven people — the oldest and “wisest” (that is, the most frightened). They decide for the whole clan. Their word is law.

The Laws of the Circle:

1. Do not draw — drawings remember what is better forgotten.
2. Do not listen to the void — he who hears voices goes mad.
3. Do not go to the ruins — the past lives there, and it kills.
4. Do not speak of dreams — dreams belong only to the sleeper.

The Circle of Sand is not cruel. They sincerely believe they protect people from madness. They do not know that what they call madness is in fact memory, which their ancestors once lost to grief.

3.3. The Elders (by name)

• Kharan — the oldest. Remembers legends older than himself. Trembling fingers. A long gaze.
• Melar — saw the same dreams in childhood. His mother told him to be silent — and he was silent for fifty years. Now he looks at Kai and recognizes himself.
• Ziya — the youngest of the Circle. Sharper than all. She is the first to say: “He is not drawing. He is remembering.”

3.4. Kai’s Mother — Nira

A widow. Raises Kai alone. She knows something is wrong with her son — and fears it. But she protects him in silence: hides his drawings, does not ask where he goes. Her fear is stronger than her curiosity, but her love is stronger than her fear.

3.5. The Mentor and Friend of the Mother

A nameless family friend (in the author’s development). Helps Nira hide Kai’s dreams from the elders. Knows more about the ruins than he says.

4. THE SPIRITUAL WORLD

No religion. No gods. Only superstitions:

• A bird flew the wrong way — a bad omen.
• A knot tied the wrong way — to misfortune.
• If a dead person appears in a dream — they ask for water.

These are fragments of ancient knowledge that, when understanding was lost, turned from technology into superstition.

Death in Kai’s world is an end. No afterlife, no shimmer. The body is buried in the sand, and the wind covers the trace. A person is remembered only by the living — while they live.

5. PSI-HERITAGE

The planet Veila was cut off from the Psi-Stream long ago — so long that no one remembers when it happened. But the Stream did not vanish entirely. It “bleeds through”:

• Black crystals in the ruins — artifacts that have kept the connection.
• Children sometimes hear a whisper in the silence — but they are quickly untaught.
• Dreams — the only channel the elders cannot block.

On the planet remain the Spires — Lira’s beacons. There are hundreds — across the whole world. Each is a door no one can open until the one who will hear is born.

6. DAILY LIFE

Clothing: coarse cloth, sandals, sun-capes. Food: flatbread, dried meat, rare dates. Water: the daily norm — one waterskin. Illness — if you drink too much.

Children work from ages 6–7: carry water, herd goats, gather brushwood. Play — a rarity. One may play only when the work is done.

Life — survival. No one thinks of “meaning” or “destiny.” Meaning — to find water and live to tomorrow.