Constructed from a dream, Tales of the City of Prism is about the tales of a city of Prism and its history, told in the form of a story. This implies that all that is happening in the stories are in past tense. During that age, the city of Prism was a dying landscape with a fractured humanity divided upon the promise of immortality. But in the present era, it is almost utopian in comparison. The stories are narrated by someone who has lived through such times, teaching the children of tomorrow of their struggles to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
The City's population can be divided into 3 main groups and 1 subgroup. Robos, Digis, Sapien, and Carnos.
The People of Robos (Robots/Robotics) are the biggest percentage of Prism's population. Cheap consciousness copying programs offered many people to live in robust, undying, and practically immortal bodies. However, the companies behind these conscious copying programs did not fully integrate all software and hardware to completely simulate a human body due to how expensive it was and simply to make more money. Because of this, the people of Robos were often emotionless since there is no software in their programming to simulate such emotions and most senses beyond sight and hearing. Not only that, sometimes the data storage in their bodies simply weren't enough, often resulting in surgical amnesia in order to save space for new potential memories. Those truly unfortunate may have core memories removed since such things tend to take up a lot of space.
While it was possible to purchase and install software to simulate the five senses and expansive data hardware, it was expensive. Only the rich in the group of Robos could attain them legally.
Due to their bodies, they are also the largest workforce of Prism, the main force behind construction and all physical tasks.
The People of Digis (Digita), also called the People of Virtual (Virtual) are equal in number to the people of Robos if counting all scanned identities. If accounting for AI, the number can end up being higher. Living in virtual worlds of fantasy and reality, the Digis are only visible to those who have access to terminals or are augmented. Much of their activity is on the digital web, with their jobs being on all matters digital such as coding. If one were to see their job, then it would seem like the code is writing itself. But the truth is it's someone of Digis writing said code.
Due to their skills in coding and software creation, the people from most sides initially blamed the Digis for the Deletion Event that erased all data related to the Apex Body and immortality technology, forcing associated corporations to recreate their projects from scratch and lower quality from the intense demand to meet investment expectations. Many believed that Basilisk was either created from someone of Digis or is one of the Digis themselves. Official Prism government announcement declared that both accusations were untrue, but that didn't remove the impact nor future accusations.
The people of Digis also have their own philsophical/religious viewpoint of consciousness copying as they believed that corporeal bodies must be disposed of so that their true consciousness may arrive in their digital paradise.
Though they claim the title of homo sapien, they are the last thing that remotely related. Compared to Digis and Robos, they're the closest equivalent to a human that one could get. Bodies of meat and chemistry are expensive to maintain, so only the rich and influential had the means to remain human. But that didn't stop them from customizing themselves in the name of expression and uniqueness. Mainly in the form of animals and fictional creatures, grafting skin and muscle to acquire their newly desired form. However, meat bodies are not immortal, and bound to break and die like the living.
As insurance, the people of Sapien have Wings. Functionally speaking, it's very similar to how the people of Robos copy their consciousness into machine bodies. However, Wings are more secure, harder data encryption from potential hackers, and overall vivid memory quality and restoration. And because of the Wings, the people of Sapien slowly grew their in their depravity, effectively becoming insane due to the notion that they couldn't die, even if obliterated in the most gruesome ways. Their views of the world became distorted as they live high above everyone else, far beyond the problems of the people below.
In their eyes, the people of Robos and Digis weren't human the moment they sold their souls to become immortal. As if they had not done the same.
Rat Head is a person of Robos, living on the very outskirts of the city of Prism. Having long since put away his dream for becoming human, he lives alone in a trailer home, wasting away. He had fought long and hard to regain a semi-proper body after the Apex Body had been stolen by the Basilisk, and had spent many years to become more human before finally attempting to track down the Basilisk. However, due to years spent and no progress made, he buried his ambitions and lives stagnantly on the outskirts.
The reason why he's called Rat Head is due to the fact that his Gen 4 Police Model Robos body has a cartoonish rat animatronic head from a defunct theme park. Despite being very old (chronologically), the voice box of the rat head makes him sound he's a preteen.
Daedan is Rat Head's close associate and friend. Living in an MMORPG guild called the Millenium Hand, Daedan was the one who welcomed Rat Head into the guild when he was ejected from his own body. Daedan did everything he can to help Rat Head regain a corporeal body, and also went along with Rat Head's hunt for the Basilisk. But it was also Daedan that stopped the hunt as well, wanting to slow down as he was going to be married soon and eventually planned on having his own AI children.
Kidd Damien is someone from the high citadel buildings of Prism, a Sapien from a wealthy family. Being a test tube babe, Kidd was born with all the necessary genetic adaptations that his parents desired, practically being superhuman despite only being a teenager. He lived a life of luxury thanks to his parents, being so rich that they could replace him if they wanted to.
Which they did.
Kidd's former parents, despite being so genetically, never acted as such. He was often alone and learned many things about the world due to being killed over and over, learning what to avoid and the world below whilst his mother and father partied with the other Sapiens. Whenever Kidd talked about his adventures to his parents, he often saw that they didn't listen. They saw such words as thorns on their side, distractions from what they could be doing than listening to him.
And then one day, he was replaced. His Wings were clipped, now mortal.
As he lived on the streets, he heard of the Apex body and believes its his only ticket back to immortality. And to do that, he had to call someone that was hunting the Basilisk.