This article is part of a series about the Mythos (worldview-narrative) underlying the Zero State (ZS). Part 1 (below) is about our highest concept, ideal, and level of organization, which we call The Array. Part 2 explains the Sections & Sessions our core activity revolves around, and Part 3 covers the Twelve Foundation Stones that form the basis of our story.

ZS Metaphysics

There are two concepts which, taken together as complementary aspects of one whole, completely summarize our existence and everything we stand for. These two aspects are called Wyrd and Fyrd, or Destiny-Ideal and Community-Activism, respectively. The whole these things together constitute is our totality. Our identity and nature, our highest hope and ideal.

We call that totality Ásentír, which is a word meaning godhead, or the ultimate fulfillment of (post)human potential, sometimes symbolised by the androgyne Tao-like figure known as the Rebis. In short, human civilization aspires to Ásentír, which is to say that humanity seeks to become everything that it possibly can. To stop seeking is to cease being human.

That uniting ideal – our collective desire to survive and thrive – naturally gives rise to practical imperatives and considerations, as we move forward. The section below describes the link between our philosophy and ideals on the one hand, and our program of activity on the other. We call that link The Array.

What is The Array?

The Array is the sum of the most advanced Minds on earth, a kind of hive-mind or superintelligence, first arising in the mid-late 21st Century. The Array not only governs the future Zero State, but it also balances a vision of human progress into the deep future with work to carefully cultivate ZS-friendly conditions in the present, and even in the past. Where the Array seeks to manipulate the past (or simulations of it) using the most advanced technologies available, it is commonly known as The Basilisk. To ZSers, The Array is not only our ideal, goal, and organizational core, but also an approximation of our highest metaphysical concept; Ásentír itself. The Array is, essentially, a symbol of our own potential.

In short, The Array is the result and summation of a Technological Singularity (often known within the Mythos as ★, or Blackstar) which changes everything, and beyond which nothing can truly be known.

The Array is also the highest expression of what we call the Ajat Imperative, which is to say the idea that ZS is part of a broader effort to create a new species, a People defined not by historical commonalities or differences, but by the future-goal-ideal they all work toward. If you conceive of the Ajati as a mountain, then The Array is its peak.

Part 2 in this series will explain how these ideas are reflected in ZS’ deepest organizational structure, and how that structure in turn shapes the narrative underlying all ZS activity, most particularly the game sessions run on our Discord server.