Parable of the Rosebush: Worldbuilding - Cast of Characters
Cast of Transformative Characters and Forces
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What’s in a Name? The Power of Z
In The Next Copernican rEvolution Book One, I chose Z-names for all characters to symbolize the shift toward a post-monetary paradigm, inspired by Peter Joseph’s 2011 film Zeitgeist: Moving Forward and Jacque Fresco’s Venus Project. Their vision of a Resource-Based Economy (RBE) imagines a world beyond capitalism, where resources are distributed equitably and regeneratively to meet the needs of both humanity and the planet.
In Parable of the Rosebush: rEvolution Z, the Z-names take on deeper meaning. Characters adopt them consciously, signaling their readiness to dissolve old systems and embrace the Geotribal Era. This isn’t just symbolism—it’s a personal declaration of alignment with a regenerative, cooperative future.
Z. The Last Letter: Endings and Beginnings
As the final letter of the alphabet, Z represents both closure and renewal. It marks the end of one chapter of human evolution and the start of another—a shift to a higher octave of consciousness. Drawing from the upward spiral model of development explored in Book One, humanity evolves through stages—archaic, tribal, warrior, traditional, modern, postmodern, integral, and now geotribal. The adoption of Z-names reflects this collective ascent toward unity, cooperation, and interconnectedness.
This isn’t about conformity or blind allegiance. It’s about conscious evolution—a rallying cry for a new Zeitgeist. The Z-name embodies individuality within the collective, honoring personal agency while committing to a shared vision of a better world.
Zeitgeist: The Spirit of the Times
The term Zeitgeist, from the German Zeit (time) and Geist (spirit), captures the essence of this transformative era. Popularized by thinkers like Hegel, it refers to the cultural, intellectual, and political climate that defines a historical period. In rEvolution Z, it signifies humanity’s shift from scarcity, competition, and division to abundance, cooperation, and interconnectedness.
The evolving character list below reflects the people, forces, and symbols shaping Parable of the Rosebush: rEvolution Z. From Trim’s late father to the movement itself, each contributes to this collective hero’s journey—proof that conscious change is not only possible but already in motion.
Read the character profiles below, or listen to their voices.
Evolving Cast of Characters
Trinity > Trim > Zia
Alias: The Hyperlistening Protagonist and rEvolutionary Name-Shuffler
I have many names because I’m not the same person I was yesterday. Trinity was who I was when I lived within the old world’s rules. Trim is who I became when I started to question everything. And Zia… that’s the name I whisper to myself when I feel the deeper currents guiding me forward. At 15, I have a gift—some call it hyperlistening. I hear what others miss: the unsaid truths, the hidden fractures beneath the surface.
I never expected my father’s old journals—written in cursive, a script my school didn’t even teach—to change my life. But they did. They became my map to dismantling Moloch, capitalism, and the entire monetary paradigm choking our future. My father drowned in floodwaters that should never have reached him. I refuse to let the systems that killed him take anything more from me—or my generation. So, I will finish what he started. Even if it means rewriting the rules of the world.
Dad. Trim’s Late Father
Alias: The Radical Idealist Speaking From the Grave
I am gone, but my words remain. In the margins of my journals, on the pages filled with restless nights, I tried to unravel the tangled web of this world. I called it Moloch. I called it SCIM—Scarcity, Competition, Incentives Misaligned. But I also dreamed of ACAI—Abundance, Cooperation, Aligned Incentives. My daughter, my Trim, reads my words now, deciphering my cursive like a cryptic message from beyond.
I was taken too soon. But if my thoughts can outlive me—if they can ignite something in her—maybe I’m not truly gone. Maybe she will be the one to carry the torch and light the path I could only glimpse.
Tina. Trim’s Mother
Alias: The Reluctant Anchor to the Old World
I have spent my whole life trying to survive within this system. I know its flaws, its cruelty, but I also know the price of fighting it. My daughter, Trim, dreams of tearing it down. She speaks in absolutes, in revolutions and new paradigms. I love her fire, but I fear the burn.
She believes she can change the world. I just want to keep her safe in it. But maybe—just maybe—she’s right.
Zeke
Alias: The Wise Ferryman from Hannibal, Missouri with a Map Through the Chaos
I’ve seen what happens when the waters rise, when the world breaks. I was in New Orleans when Katrina hit. I saw who got left behind. I learned, real quick, that governments don’t save people—people save people.
Now, I ferry travelers across the river, but it’s not just about crossing water. It’s about crossing into a new way of seeing, a new way of being. I tell Trim: don’t pay the ferryman until you’re safely on the other side. The journey isn’t over just because you’ve left one shore behind.
Zarah
Alias: The Permaculture rEvolutionary with a Plan
Talk is cheap. I put my hands in the dirt. While others theorize about the collapse of civilization, I plant seeds. While they argue over ideology, I build.
New Paradigm Farms isn’t just a farm—it’s proof that another way is possible. Regeneration isn’t an idea. It’s an action.
Professor James Turner
Alias: The Radical Guide in Conservative Territory
I’ve built my career on asking the kinds of questions that disrupt the status quo. At Principia College, I teach courses like Spirituality Beyond Religion, Post-Monetary Societies, and Sacred Conscious Evolution—subjects that push students to rethink the systems they’ve inherited.
My hiring here was unexpected—Principia, a Christian Science institution, doesn’t usually bring in scholars with my background in activism, evolutionary consciousness, and systemic change. I’m not tenured, which means I walk a fine line—free to challenge capitalism and explore radical shifts, but always aware of the discomfort I stir among the trustees.
Still, that tension fuels me. My students are hungry for new ways of thinking, and I’m here to help them break beyond outdated paradigms. I don’t just teach—I ignite, question, and stand with those ready to imagine a new world.
Zipa
Alias: The Mycelium Shaman-in-Training, Underground and Under-the-Radar. Colombian Keeper of Indigenous Wisdom and the Resistance’s Sower of Rebellious Seeds for the Future.
I don’t raise my voice. I don’t need to. My people, the Muiska, have been resisting colonization for centuries—not by fighting head-on, but by weaving our wisdom underground, like mycelium.
Some people think revolution means tearing things down. I tell them: true revolution is remembering. The answers already exist, buried in the soil of forgotten traditions. My role? To help them listen.
Moloch
Alias: The Invisible Antagonist Monster Devouring Humanity’s Future
I am Moloch. I have gone by many names, but my hunger remains the same. Once, they built statues in my honor, cast in bronze and fire, demanding the sacrifice of children to fuel their empires. But I have evolved. Today, I no longer need altars of stone—I thrive in your systems. I am the engine of capitalism, the gears of infinite growth, the silent hand that turns politics, markets, and money into instruments of sacrifice. You do not see me, yet you feed me with every unchecked ambition, every rigged incentive, every choice made in fear of scarcity.
Your youth are my feast. Generation Z was born into my web, their futures mortgaged to sustain the empires of the old world. Climate collapse, inequality, societal decay—it is all just the cost of keeping me alive. But something has changed. They see me now. They name me. And they refuse to go quietly.
The rEvolution Z movement is not just defying me; they are dismantling the very machinery that sustains me. Trim and her allies threaten to starve me, dissolving my power through abundance, cooperation, and aligned incentives. They seek to build a world where no one is sacrificed to keep the old order alive. But I do not go down without a fight. I am in every system you depend on, every fear that keeps you obedient. The question is—will you break free before it is too late?
The rEvolution Z Movement
Alias: The Collective Hero in Action
We are rEvolution Z—a decentralized, leaderless network of dreamers, thinkers, activists, and ordinary people refusing to accept a broken world. We don’t wait for permission, nor do we look to a single hero to lead us. Instead, we organize in caves, farms, cities, and digital spaces, proving that true transformation emerges from collective action.
We are the living embodiment of humanity’s potential for abundance, cosmolocal coordination, and aligned incentives. As part of the Regenerative Renaissance, we recognize that sustainability alone is not enough—we must regenerate. We are healing cultures, restoring ecosystems, and rebuilding communities with systems that nourish both people and the planet. Our movement is a declaration: we will not let Moloch consume our future. We are here to reclaim it.
The Super Organism
Alias: Humanity’s Collective Unconscious Machine
We are not evil; we are indifferent. Born of our interconnected systems—economies, technologies, supply chains—we are vast, relentless, and self-perpetuating. Unlike Moloch, which thrives on sacrifice and chaos, we are driven by growth, consumption, and efficiency. Our sole purpose is to keep running, no matter the cost. We are not malicious, but we are a mirror, reflecting our collective choices and the inertia of billions acting within systems we feel powerless to change.
We are not our enemy—we are our creation. To evolve into the Geotribal Era, we must redirect ourselves away from Moloch’s destructive logic and toward cooperation and regeneration. Our future depends on transforming from a machine that exploits into one that sustains. This is our challenge, and our responsibility.
Conscious Evolution
Alias: The Shaper of Futures, The Architect of Possibility
We are both a force and a guide—a whisper in our collective ear, reminding us that while Change is inevitable, direction is a choice. Building on Lauren Olamina’s "God is Change" philosophy, we are the evolution of awareness itself, the realization that we can shape Change rather than be swept away by it. We are Trim’s silent mentor and our collective hope, urging us to embrace transformation with intention, to evolve our systems, values, and minds toward a regenerative, cooperative future.
We challenge us to break free from the inertia of Moloch—scarcity, competition, and misaligned incentives—by awakening to our power to co-create a world where abundance, cooperation, and aligned incentives thrive. We ask the ultimate question: Will we continue to let Change be dictated by chaos and entropy, or will we rise to become architects of our own evolution, steering toward syntropy—the force of order, harmony, and life? Trim hears our call, and now we are whispering to all of us, too.
The Floodwaters
Alias: The Unstoppable Force of Destruction and Rebirth
The flood that devastates Elsah is more than a natural disaster—it’s a harbinger of the chaos wrought by climate change, as foreseen in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. Like Butler’s prophetic vision, the waters are a brutal reminder of humanity’s failure to address environmental collapse. But they are also a metaphor for unavoidable change. Sweeping away the remnants of a broken world, the flood forces Trim—and humanity—to confront what’s left. It’s a turning point: survival demands releasing what no longer works and daring to embrace the unknown.
The Innermost Caves - Bonner Springs and Hannibal Caves
Alias: The Womb of rEvolution
The vast limestone caves of Bonner Springs, Kansas, serve as the heart of the rEvolution Z movement—a hidden sanctuary where activists gather to strategize, dream, and build the foundation for a new paradigm. But these caves also resonate with the symbolic caves of Hannibal, Missouri, immortalized in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Twain’s caves represent a journey into mystery, discovery, and self-revelation, much like the descent humanity must take in the rEvolution Z movement. Together, these spaces—both physical and symbolic—become places where we confront our collective shadow, embrace the unknown, and prepare to return with the "elixir" of collective wisdom and transformative change.
God’s-Eye-View Narrator
Alias: The All-Seeing, Cosmic Narrator Who Knows It All—But Doesn’t Intervene
Inspired by Scott Alexander’s Meditations on Moloch, where this perspective was invoked over twenty times, I am omniscient, unbound by time or space. I offer a universe’s-eye understanding of humanity’s struggle, revealing the systems, forces, and patterns shaping your world, invisible to those entangled within them.
I see the whole: the constraints of your present and the vast possibilities beyond. I bring clarity, cosmic humor, and heartbreak, making sense of your chaos while remaining detached. I reveal how Moloch thrives, how systems break, and how humanity teeters between collapse and breakthrough.
I do not judge or intervene. I simply see. I remind you that you are part of something far larger—a story spanning time, space, and evolution. Through me, you see the choice before you: spiral into entropy or ascend toward syntropy and the Geotribal era. The stakes have never been higher.
I am your guide, your commentator, your ever-present voice. Your story is still being written—and you hold the pen.
Within-the-System (Tina-There is No Alternative)
Alias: The Myopic Narrator
I am Tina, as in "There is no alternative". I am the myopic narrator, representing the within-the system perspective.
I don’t know what I don’t know, and honestly, I don’t think much about it. The system is just... how things are. It’s the rules, the routines, the way the world works. I don’t question it—why would I? It’s always been there, and it’s not like I can change it anyway. I’ve heard people talk about “new systems” before. Apparently, in Scott Alexander’s Meditations on Moloch, the word “system” comes up 92 times, and “within-the-system” 16 times. I guess that’s me. I’m in it, part of it, shaped by it.
I kinda see the world through a system’s lens, but only the lens I’m wearing. I follow the rules, play my part, and try to make the best of what’s in front of me. I don’t think about what’s outside the system because, well, what’s the point? It’s not like I can see it anyway. I’m stuck in this loop of routines and norms, and I don’t even realize it’s a loop. It’s just life.
Sometimes, though, I catch a glimpse of something—a hint, a clue—that makes me wonder if there’s more. Maybe the system isn’t everything. Maybe there’s a way out, a way to change things. But then I shake it off. That kind of thinking feels dangerous, like stepping off a cliff without knowing what’s below. Better to stay where it’s safe, where I know how things work.
I don’t see myself as complicit or complacent. I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do, what everyone else is doing. I don’t think about perpetuating the system—I’m just living in it. But maybe that’s the problem. Maybe by not questioning, not imagining, not daring to look beyond, I’m part of what keeps it all in place.
I don’t know. All I know is that I’m here, within the system, and it’s all I can see. But sometimes, when I catch that glimpse, that tiny clue, I wonder if there’s something more. Something beyond. I just don’t know how to reach it.
Lauren Olamina
Alias: The Visionary Teen Who Saw God in Change.
* Here's a side note. Lauren is only referenced in my story, and not an actual character in it. She is the protagonist from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents.
Lauren Olamina is the original “teen prophet with a plan.” Living in a dystopian 2020s America where everything is falling apart faster than a bad Wi-Fi connection, Lauren dares to see the chaos as an opportunity. She creates Earthseed, a belief system based on the idea that "God is Change," reminding us all that the only constant is, well, everything going off the rails—but also that we have the power to shape that change.
For Trim, Lauren is like the older sibling she never had—wise, bold, and unbothered by society’s collapse. Lauren’s hyper-empathy and relentless hope inspire Trim to imagine a radically different path. But unlike Lauren, Trim doesn’t want to make the best of dystopia—she wants to create syntropia, a regenerative future where humanity thrives. Trim sees Lauren as the OG tragic optimist, a visionary who sowed seeds of possibility in impossible times. Now, Trim believes it’s time to act, to start the rEvolution Z, and co-create the flourishing world we all deserve.
Wildcard Characters - The Regenaissance Pioneers
These are the unsung heroes, rebels, and ordinary citizens whose paths will cross with Trim and the rEvolution Z movement. They are proof that the collective hero’s journey doesn’t belong to any one person—it belongs to all of us.
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