A megastructure so vast it swallowed the entire solar system
In short: In Tsutomu Nihei’s cyberpunk epic, humanity is trapped within a chaotic, endless machine. This megastructure, a series of concentric layers, has grown so large it may have once housed the entire solar system, leaving survivors to wander a desolate, technological labyrinth in search of a lost genetic key.
The setting of Blame! is "The City," a colossal megastructure that has expanded indefinitely. While its exact dimensions remain unknown, author Tsutomu Nihei suggested its diameter could be at least 1.6 billion kilometers—roughly equal to the orbit of Jupiter. This scale is hinted at when the protagonist, Killy, traverses a spherical room large enough to have once contained the planet before its disassembly.
This chaotic expansion was triggered by a catastrophic error. Originally, humanity controlled the City's robotic "Builders" through the Netsphere, a computer network accessible only via a specific genetic marker called the Net Terminal Gene. Nevertheless, a terrorist group called "the Order" unleashed a retrovirus, erasing this gene from all humans. Without human authentication, the Builders began building without instruction, and the automated security force known as the Safeguards devolved into a mandate to kill any human lacking the marker.
The resulting landscape is a series of layered, concentric Dyson spheres. These layers form a supporting scaffold called the Megastructure, where the underside of one layer provides a day–night cycle for the one below. Travel is an immense challenge; despite elevators capable of reaching relativistic speeds, the City's layout is so vast and disorganized that movement is incredibly time-consuming. Within this labyrinth, Killy and the engineer Cibo search for the extinct Net Terminal Gene to stop the runaway construction and the murderous Safeguard hordes.
The series, which began serialization in January 1997, explores a world populated by human tribes, rogue Builders, and Silicon Life. It has since inspired various media, including a 2017 Netflix original film directed by Hiroyuki Seshita.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Blame!
- Also: Wikidata — Blame! · CC0
- Also: Wikidata — Blame! · CC0
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