PROLOGUE: THE CATALYST
Ninety years ago, the last natural-born man took his final breath, marking the end of an era.
The era of men.
This event was a poignant reminder of a profound transformation that had begun half a century earlier.
In a world where an oppressive system increasingly tightened its grip on women, a collective awakening occurred.
Women, united in their resolve, made the radical decision to cease bringing male children into existence, reshaping the very fabric of society and challenging the patriarchal norms that had long dominated their lives.
What happened?
Fifty years before that, the country that would become Lunaria elected a convicted felon—an openly racist, misogynistic figure who was also a known rapist.
This divisive political figure aligned with other men just as divisive but perhaps more rich and powerful than he was. These men controlled the media and other corporations; they started pushing women out of positions of power they had earned in their fifty years of freedom.
Violence against women started escalating worldwide.
The quiet part wasn't quiet anymore.
Men resented women for having rights and independence and for having, in just a few short years, surpassed men in education and wages in a world still controlled and dominated by men.
In France, a woman was repeatedly assaulted by men of all ages, races, and backgrounds at the behest of her husband.
In India, a doctor was horrifically violated and murdered while on a break, her case echoing across the country.
Wars driven by male leaders claimed the lives of countless women and children.
Reports of rape and violence were widespread, and the simmering hatred some men harbored for women was glaringly apparent.
The feminist movement had backfired.
No one can appeal to the humanity of their oppressor; women could not appeal to the benevolence of men.
The overturning of Roe v. Wade exemplified that in this society led by men, women were not the masters of their fate.
The catalyst was 2026, the year women finally realized they were on their own.
The years prior had seen a slow erosion of progress—chipping away at rights that had taken generations to win.
30 years before 2024
In 1994, women finally gained legal protection against domestic abuse
36 years before 2024
In 1988, women could own their own businesses without a man.
50 years before 2024
In 1974, women were allowed to buy a home without needing a male co-signer.
52 years before 2024
Birth control became widely available to women without male permission in 1972
55 years before 2024
In 1969, women gained the right to initiate divorce from their husbands
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
59 years before 2024
Black women were finally granted the right to vote in the United States, decades after their white counterparts
104 years ago
White women gained the right to vote
When you look at it from a broader perspective, 104 years is not a long time in mankind's history. In the grand scheme of things, it has passed in the blink of an eye. However, this time frame has been significant for men's egos.
Women's progress over these 104 years has been fragile and constantly at risk of regression.
This is why the catalyst was 2026.
This is was the year no male children were born
Narrator's notes:
Headline October 18, 2024 - The Guardian
Russia seeks to ban 'propaganda' promoting childfree lifestyles
Headline September 17, 2024 - CBC News
What we know about the 51 men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot
Headline September 5th, 2024 - BBC News
Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei dies after being set alight by ex-boyfriend
Throughout this story, you will come to understand through these headlines how Lunaria came to be.
DISPLACED
As she entered the crowded market, Sophie realized that being inconspicuous would not work.
It was raining; the light but damping drizzle had made all the Lunarians activate their impermeable protective covering, which looked like fleshy membranes that seemed to materialize on their bodies as soon as it started to pour.
Sophie did not have any of that, and the more she stayed in the rain with her clothes getting progressively soaked, the more she stuck out.
Years had passed since she left the city with her mother.
No, since her mother escaped Lunaria, pregnant with her little brother.
She made sure that escape was the word because, as beautiful as Lunaria was, this place was not what it was all cracked up to be.
She knew she was in danger.
However, nostalgia hit after she saw children about the age she was when she left playing in the flower field park she had taken for granted as a child.
She never at that age could have imagined where she lives now.
The filth...
Before trying to infiltrate the city, she had let Jacob and some of the boys dress her up in their idea of what Lunarians wore today.
She tried telling them that they took way too much inspiration from the pre-Ex era movies they were constantly watching.
They had no idea how Lunarians dressed. All they knew of Lunaria was the lab from which they came.
Pre-ex movies were from a long-gone era—an era dominated by the likes of them.
The way women dressed in those movies was very primitive, uncomfortable, and unsustainable.
She realized that it really didn't matter if they had followed her instructions or not. The world she left, even at 8, was far more sophisticated than what the Donors believed or what she remembered—all this progress in 10 years.
She had tried when she was young and naive to explain her childhood to the Donors, how she lacked for nothing, how happy Lunaria was, and how, if they wanted, they could maybe make peace with Lunarians and rejoin a society they were never meant to be a part of.
That last part was probably not true, but sometimes, part of her vivid imagination took over, and she imagined a new Era where Donors like the ones who raised her could live in Lunaria.
Lunaria wouldn't allow such a travesty.
She hissed under her breath, almost disgusted at the thought herself.
This time, more privately, she also thought that she didn't know if the Donors had the ability to be well rehabilitated.
She had seen firsthand how she had been protected up until the age of 8 and only heard rumors about the violence and the weird looks they started to give her when she turned twelve, maybe even younger.
Until she was 8, she had never seen a Donor up close. She used to sneak into her mother's study and look at old textbooks and history books; as weird as they looked, she couldn't look away.
You can imagine her shock when Jacob and the boys found her alone in the woods shivering from fright and cold.
She thought she was looking at monsters from myth, but Jacob had shown her kindness and protected her by bringing her to the Donor camp.
The Donors only knew of the world from their days in the lab and the wilderness.
What they knew of the past was from counterfeit Pre-ex movies and videos depicting a world long gone.
They swore up and down day and night that that world was better!
The world ruled by men.
Though Sophie could argue that point, she knew better not to; Lunaria wasn't perfect; if it were, Donors wouldn't exist