Those Who Hold The Books…
The world has lost all its information. All of it. It’s just been erased. People thought Google would be forever. The old adage, “if it’s on the internet, it’s there forever” was a lie. Someone hacked the internet and started erasing everything. They would change information or straight up erase it. No one knows who did it or how they did it, it just happened. Once it started happening historians, librarians, and hackers began to gather as much information as they could.
Now, years later, information is top commodity. Many had their identities stolen and sold or erased and are now considered illegal immigrants to their country or origin. They will pay anything to get that information back. (Note: Those without identities are considered illegal and nomads. Many governments recognize that what happened was not their fault, but know per laws that are slow in changing only legal residents can be in the country or vote or drive or pay taxes so they unidentified must leave. There are many that roam nations because they have no where to go and if they’re discovered as being unidentified they will be jailed.)
The rich are constantly blackmailed and do anything possible to protect their identities and their informational footprint. Some change it constantly and others just let it be. This leaves the majority of people confused as to what is real and what’s not.
There has become a fight for information. One that the government has started to rewrite. They now get to decide what is true and what isn’t regardless of what other nations believe (they’re all writing their own histories too). Librarians have taken to protecting the written word as it is becoming targeted next. Historians are locking down museums and trying to back up librarians. Hackers are searching the internet piecing together facts to sell for profit or just for their own records.
This would follow an unidentified librarian turned hacker who is trying to protect their family as they discover that their sibling’s information which was protected, just got stolen and is now being blackmailed.
Problem: Not much of a story yet. Need more tension and a real drive in the story. I like the world though. Feels a little steampunk.