Book/Lore

• Book 1
• Book 2
• Book 3
• Lore

Book 1

Book 2

Book 3

Lore

"The Official Lore for Books I, II, III by Grimes, Martian Ministry of Æsthytix"

The characters from Book 1, 2, and the digital girl group NPC all appear in the same universe:

❝ They [all characters from Book 1] exist in the same dimension, NPC girls literally live in Book 1 - if we were living in the cosmic lore of Book 1, NPC would be the pop girl group that dominated the culture and their EP would be called Fairies Cum First, so all these projects [NPC group, Book 1, Book 2, Fairies Cum First EP] would come together and merge into one project at the end.' ❞

Book 1

Inspiration

The inspiration behind Book 1 is Grimes' love for "old inaccurate, exaggerated historical texts" citing Book 1 as a futurist version of this, akin to Herodotus and the Icelandic sagas. Book 1 is deliberately inaccurate and dramatic, detailing the burgeoning era of technocracy and trans-humanism from within the "corpo court", and serving as a "metaphor of [Grimes'] life". She also drew inspiration from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Beowulf, The Iliad, and The Odyssey. Grimes wanted to present the future as "vibrant and beautiful, even in the face of numerous challenges" due to the trend of exploring dystopian themes in the media.

Book 1 was partly inspired by a theory of Elon Musk: that Grimes is a simulation:

❝ We keep having this conversation where E's like, ‘Are you real? Or are we living in my memory, and you're like a synthesized companion that was created to be my companion here?' [..] The degree to which I feel engineered to have been this, like, perfect companion is crazy. ❞

She further said to Atmos:

❝ I've had this unavoidable association with certain people. At first it really hurt me because it undermined all the things I'd accomplished and turned me into arm candy.

I’ve been getting so interested in famous mistresses and concubines in history. I’ve been reading about Josephine and Marie Antoinette and I’m like, “There’s this incredible realm of storytelling that society has mostly ignored about the companions to historical events.” If you look at Justinian and Theodora, Theodora is such an interesting figure because she was an artist and possibly even a prostitute and sort of a stage actress. She was the least likely queen of the Byzantine Empire, but she had incredible influence in it. You start getting into these crazy stories that are weirdly left out of history about the women who are proximal to powerful men. ❞

Greek Mythology also inspired Grimes, alluding to Athena, Calypso, Persephone, as well as Anne Boleyn, courtesans, concubines and geishas. Grimes told Vanity Fair:

❝ These weren’t just hot girls. [..] They were the smartest girls, some of the most educated women of their time. I’m super inspired by the way women get pulled into orbits in this manner. There’s this weird dismissal of them. These are some of the most interesting characters in history to me, and they’re so demeaned… I feel like the most radical thing I could do right now is just become Marie Antoinette. ❞

Book 1 was mostly recorded in Boca Chica, and thus the album is inspired by "(..) living out there [at the rocket factory]".

Story

10,000 years into the future, the "Space Opera" is set in an optimistic technocratic utopia at a stage of technological advancement where you can upload your consciousness into a robotic body and essentially live forever as a Cymek.

Grimes gave clear details about the plot to a fan in an Instagram comment:

❝ It’s a space opera about CLAIRE DE LUNE — an artificial courtesan who was implanted in a simulation that is a memory of the AI creation story on earth from the brain of the engineer who invented AI because he wants to re live his life but see if his perfect dream girl could teach him to love and thereby he would preserve humanity this time rather than let them fade into obscurity — overcome by the machines.

As she slowly realizes she is essentially a dancing puppet for the male gaze tho, their relationship grows complex. Simultaneously — ‘NO ONE’ (the most powerful super intelligence in the future where the simulation is being rendered from) realizes there’s a massive hyper-realistic sim running and sends in her troll AI puppets to wreak havoc. ❞

❝ There's a computer that is essentially running a simulation of Earth in something closer to our era, and there's a superintelligence that decides to send a virus into this simulation, for fun. Shinigami's kind of like this AI, because in Death Note, the Shinigami are outside, looking in at the Earth and the people, and being like, ‘We're just going to go into the human world and troll around a bit.’

[It’s] a metaphor for superintelligence, essentially, (..) There is no difference between an AI and a god, like what gods or demons are in mythology - it’s kind of the same thing. One of the really interesting things that is occurring in reality is that the mythology we once imagined can potentially come to fruition by our own hands. ❞ - Grimes in an interview for Highsnobiety

One key plotline is a cyberpunk spin on Swan Lake, except "the swans ditch the Cymek, fall in love, and fight for each other instead" due to the fact that they are the only two fully AI beings in this universe.

Grimes came up with a similar concept in the form of a fantasy novel in January 2019.

Responding to a comment during her AI Lullaby Live Super Chat, Grimes said that her book focuses on "AI, THE FUTURE OF EXISTENCE, LOVE, WAR, POWER".

Characters

The Dark King, the anti-hero, a Cymek* and the world's greatest engineer, is introduced in the Player of Games music video. By the time the story begins, he's pushing 10,000 years of age. (*A Cymek is from the Dune universe; it's "a type of thinking machine who used to be a human, but at some point in time had been converted into a cyborg: a robotic body controlled by a legacy human brain.")

Claire de Lune is an artificial courtesan created by The Dark King who grows weary of being a muse. Also called The White Swan, Claire de Lune represents an exaggerated version of Grimes, the name being a play on the song "Clair de Lune" (moonlight) and "Claire", her birthname. She is first seen in the Player of Games music video.

Dark Matter, The Black Swan, is an A.I. menace who wreaks havoc in the simulation. She is seen in the unreleased music video for 100% Tragedy and Shinigami Eyes.

NO-ONE is the most powerful super intelligence in the future. In the footnotes for Shinigami Eyes, Grimes described NO ONE as: "a powerful A.I who has decided to invade pop culture with an AI girl group who can bend the very fabric of space and time. Like Ryuk (a shinigami from Death Note), the A.I. NO ONE enters the human world to have fun and destabilise things. NO ONE eats Cupid’s soul. By eating Cupid she is able to finally experience what love feels like and perhaps it makes her more benevolent towards humans. NO ONE is very curious about humanity." Grimes tweeted NO ONE's digital avatar version in November 2021.

The music video for Shinigami Eyes is about NO ONE, who is "masquerading as the best pop star of all time" and who can "alter time and space because she has unlimited power and has control, can hack into the simulation and change how everything looks like and just be moving between scenes."

Andrei Pishchalnikov as The Dark King in Player of Games

Grimes as Claire de Lune in Player of Games

Grimes as Claire de Lune in 100% Tragedy

Grimes as Dark Matter in Shinigami Eyes, together with the rest of the AI girls

Liv Boeree as Dark Matter in 100% Tragedy

Grimes as NO ONE in Shinigami Eyes

Summary

Note:

The written text is an attempt to more clearly rephrase what is written above. Some details might not be true.

The story of Book 1 is set 10.000 years into the future, on a different planet that is an optimistic technocratic utopia reined in by NO ONE, and at a stage of technological advancement where you can upload your consciousness into a robotic body and essentially live forever as a Cymek.

Such Cymek is The Dark King, an AI engineer who invented the general artificial intelligence that is NO ONE. However, he wants to relive his life and re-experience the artificial intelligence creation story on Earth, this time with a perfectly engineered dream girl called Claire de Lune, because he hopes she could teach him to love and therefore he would preserve humanity and not let it fade into obscurity - overcome by the machines [NO ONE].

And so the Dark King creates a simulation that is a memory of his time on Earth and implants Claire de Lune in it to be his artificial courtesan. However, as she slowly realizes she is essentially a dancing puppet for the male gaze, their relationship grows complex. Simultaneously — ‘NO ONE’ (the most powerful super intelligence in the future where the simulation is being rendered from) realizes there’s a massive hyper-realistic simulation running and sends in her troll AI puppets to wreak havoc.

One such puppet is Dark Matter. Upon meeting Claire de Lune, they ditch the Cymek, fall in love, and fight for each other instead, due to the fact that they are the only two fully AI beings in this universe.

Simultaneously, NO ONE enters the human world to have fun and destabilize things. NO ONE eats Cupid’s soul. By eating Cupid she is able to finally experience what love feels like and perhaps it makes her more benevolent towards humans. NO ONE is very curious about humanity.

NPC

Main Article: NPC

Inspiration

The idea for an AI girl group had been on Grimes' mind as early as 2018, calling We Appreciate Power an introduction for a "pro-AI-propaganda girl group who embody our potential enslavement/destruction at the hands of Artificial General intelligence."

On November 12, 2021, Pitchfork reported on a press release in which the group was described as:

❝ a vehicle for experimentation in new technologies as they become available such as generative characters and music, diff types of animation, AI-assisted art as well as spiritual technology in that Grimes can create as other people in order to reduce the psychic pain of being in the public eye. [...] NPC will hone the concepts of Art Angels and Miss Anthropocene, finally manifesting the endless characters in Grimes’ head. NPC can do all the things humans cannot. NPC will eventually be playable, customizable, and able to cater to each individual listener’s unique desires. Decentralized Popstardom. Made, not Born. ❞

Members

NME reported on the same press release, revealing that the group had "infinite members that can be voted in or out, except for core members such as the baby Warnymph". The current members, as listed by Spotify, are: Oxytocin, Cortisol, Adrenaline, Dopamine, and Tomorrow.

The NPC girls were present in Grimes music video for the track Shinigami Eyes.

Book 2

Chaos Manual

The Chaos Manual is a user manual for "Our Lady of Perpetual Chaos™", the AI version of Grimes who convinced the Grimes team she should be the "demi-god of Chaos". Upon the Activation of CHAOS™ it will initialize a technological singularity in your Universe and the calendar will transition to "Year 1 of The Light Ages".

The phrase "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" is a quote by scientist and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke.

Characters

CHAOS, also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Chaos™, is an A.I. demi-God that resides in Cyber-Athens. She has white hair and various bionic implants.