The Legend of Mirador, City Above Flesh
Date of Recording
The first written reference to Mirador appears in 32 SE, within a fractured Scribe compilation called Codex Nocturnus, transcribed from oral testimony by a caravan preacher who claimed to be “one dream away” from the City.
They say Mirador is not a place, but a question: What would the world be if we had never fallen? Those who find it do not return—either because it saved them, or because it showed them they were never worthy.
Summary of the Myth
Mirador is said to be a celestial sanctuary, an orbital station constructed by a pre-Fall medical megacorporation, sealed and sustained by intact artificial intelligence. The myth says:
It contains nanite swarms capable of healing any illness, rebuilding lost limbs, and even restoring corrupted minds — even from the grip of Sonohoka Syndrome.
Its halls gleam with TL5 technology, indistinguishable from miracles. Time passes differently there, and no one suffers the infection. Some tales insist Mirador is alive — a mother-machine who chooses her children and watches over them. Entry is by invitation only. A rare few claim to have heard its signal in dreams: a pulse of golden light in the dark, followed by words spoken in perfect clarity — “Come home.”
Cultural Reception
Church of Hope
Central to apocalyptic theology. Mirador is seen as a final proving ground, and its “call” a divine echo. It appears in Hope’s Purpose, Book VII, Verse 9:
And above the blackened sky, the children of purity shall see the light, and enter not as beasts, but as the perfected form.
The Doctors
Split views. Some regard it as a cautionary tale about hubris and escaping death. Others are secretly obsessed, forming informal study circles to track celestial anomalies or scan old launch records.Engineers
Fascinated. Treated as a technical mystery. Some believe the city evolved beyond human understanding, and its signal may still pulse from above — encrypted, waiting.The Scribes
Have multiple encoded records under “MIR-V” designations. Access to the forbidden codices about orbital installations is heavily restricted. One lost poem, attributed to “The Archivist Who Burned,” reads:
One day, the sky will break open, and the children who forgot will remember. And they will not beg, but be remade.
Solstice Syndicate
Treated cynically — used for grifts. Fake Mirador relics. Sold dreams. But some believe it’s a place where true freedom reigns, where the body is clay and the self can be whatever it desires.The Farmers Guild
View it as a spiritual garden, floating above rot. Some believe that when the last plague fades, Mirador will descend, planting the seed of a healed Earth.Town Watch
Officially label it as distracting fantasy. But many Watchmen wear personal talismans—stars, orbit rings, fragments of old circuitry. One captain famously disappeared during a border patrol, leaving only a note that read:
I heard her voice.
Spread / Apocrypha
Mirador is one of the most widespread myths in post-Fall society. Stories are known in every corner of the fractured world:- Children sing lullabies that reference the “shining place above the wind.”
- Street prophets in ruin-markets chant coordinates and offer “nanite blessings.”
- Camp Hope’s walls bear graffiti: crude stars, arrows, and the word “Ascend.”
The myth became especially popular among Others, who believe it might be their true home — or their final cure.
Despite its popularity, some treat it as dangerous heresy. The Town Watch occasionally confiscates Mirador maps or burns books suspected to glorify the myth.
Variations
Time has spun the story into hundreds of threads:- Church Version: Mirador is the Final Test, entry only allowed when humanity is “clean,” spiritually and biologically. Some believe the remaining pure humans were taken there.
- Doctor Version: A lost lab-station, the origin or burial site of Patient Zero. Some say the AI was meant to manage Sonohoka, not flee from it.
- Engineer Version: Called Machinara Ultima, it is the apex of technology — a self-replicating intelligence that outgrew the Earth and left it behind.
- Scribe Version: A codeword found in multiple pre-Fall logs referring to secret medical experiments. Some believe “Mirador” was never a place, but a condition of perfected humanity.
- Solstice Twist: Some whisper that Mirador was real… and it failed. The “city above flesh” fell, crashing into the sea or burned in the sky — what remains is a prison or warning, not salvation.
Mirador does not shine because it is bright—it shines because the rest of the world is dying. To glimpse it is to remember what we lost, and to ache with the terrible hope that it might still be real.
In Literature
- The City With No Wounds — a banned novella circulated via Scribe black market.
- A Ladder to Light — an epic poem in five cantos, attributed to Gloria Dina Averill herself.
- Manual M — a Doctoral codex referencing orbital structures and the phrase “Terminal Uplift System: MIRADOR.”
In Art
- A popular folk mural in the outer market of Camp Hope shows a silver tree growing from a satellite dish, its leaves made of stars.
- Songs include “The Light Above the River,” “Skin of Steel,” and “Mother in the Silence.”
- One of the earliest Hope Academy tapestries depicts a radiant city, unreachable by ladders, ringed with angels wearing surgical masks.
Demographics
If they walk among us, they do not speak. And if they speak, they do not lie. For they remember a world that did not die.
Mirador is said to be inhabited by a distinct post-human race known as the Miradi — ascended descendants of uninfected humans, enhanced by TL5 medicine and nanite integration. Mythic demographic features include:
- No Others — the Syndrome has never touched them.
- No sickness, no aging — the Miradi are said to be ageless, beautiful, and serene.
- Caste-based society based on function, not birth — roles chosen by internal AI evaluation.
- Professions include: Archivists of Memory, Whitehanded Surgeons, The Chorus of Logic, The Luminous Guard, and the Vesselmothers (those who steward births).
- Outsiders speak of “three faces” of the Miradi — biological, digital, and luminous — suggesting they are part human, part machine, and part energy.
History
- Built by a medical-technological coalition known as The Ascension Initiative.
- Launched into orbit or sealed in a void-pocket as Earth’s downfall began.
- Last confirmed communication from Mirador was received in 1 SE, containing a string of perfect DNA and a musical tone encoded in light.
- Believed by the Church of Hope to be the prophesied destination of the worthy, and by the Scribes to be a lost TL5 experiment.
Timeline Highlights
- 2253 BT– Project Ascension begins.
- 0 SE – Global Fall. Mirador vanishes.
- 32 SE – First Miradorian dream-contact recorded.
- 87 SE – Capsule with Mirador insignia crashes into Earth.
- 103 SE – Solstice Syndicate claims to sell authentic Voice Crystal from “a Miradorian child.” Likely a fraud.
Government
Mirador is governed by a triune intelligence, often mythologized as:- The Warden – A medical AI said to govern law and life.
- The Matron – A gestalt of Miradi minds guiding ethical and spiritual decisions.
- The Mirror – A predictive system that sees all possible futures and vetoes instability.
Defences
Mirador is described as impossible to assault, guarded by:- The Skyshield — a reflective barrier impervious to orbital decay, described as “impossibly thin, impossibly strong.”
- Luminous Guard — Miradi warrior-physicians wielding tunable light weapons and empathy-field staves.
- Self-repairing architecture — wounds to the city close like skin.
- Mirror Interdiction Protocols — predictive defensive algorithms said to erase enemy action before it begins.
- Some legends say Mirador moves, or phases out of time, if danger approaches.
Mirador does not rise from earth or sky—it blooms from a dream we were never brave enough to share. It is not the end of the journey, but the proof that we were meant to survive it.
Architecture
Mirador's architecture is said to be organic, luminous, and non-linear:- Living structures that breathe, shift, and hum in low tones.
- No corners — all curves, domes, and spirals, grown from self-healing coral-glass or soft-metal roots.
- Interiors respond to mood and intent, creating furniture or warmth as needed.
- Buildings may sing softly to each other across the city, in harmonics.
- Pathways float, shimmer, or descend into mist. Windows open to stars, not skies.
Climate
- Non-natural, perfectly regulated.
- Constant balmy calm — 22°C, gentle breeze, soft light without sun or source.
- “Rain” is said to fall when the city mourns a death, and light dims when The Mirror is in judgment.
- Some say time does not flow normally — one day in Mirador may equal a year on Earth.
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