Date – 2634

Place – Polynesian Archipelago

Millions escaped the worst ravages of the climate destabilisation that enveloped large parts of the world in the late 21st century.

Countless, mostly rural ‘survivor pockets’ across the world, sheltered through the storms and the decade long winter that followed. As the snow cleared, these communities began to imagine new futures. What was recoverable in the ruins around them? What memories remained useful? What questions would the children ask them and what could they answer?

In the absence of functioning global communication systems, these pockets of humanity grew and thrived in isolation. As new generations were born, the stories of the past diverged in memory and meaning, until it was impossible to imagine them having shared a culture before the catastrophe. Each community took what it needed from the past and moulded it into what would be needed in the future.

It is thought that the Flying Figure was a sacred or votive object and had some sort of spiritual or ritual function. Its mere survival may have seemed miraculous. It has also been speculated that it represents a higher form of life, echoing as it does distant memories of flight in this post flight world. It is one of the few, mostly plastic objects of this period that have been recovered across the world by archaeologists that appear to embody a spiritual or ritual function; perhaps a reflection of a universal spiritual need after the collapse of the world’s major religions.

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