Persona Automata - How did Trundlers come to be?

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HOW TRUNDLERS CAME TO BE?

The Trundlers as we know them found their roots in the Digital Nomads that rose in the 2010s. They were people who worked remotely and lived a nomadic lifestyle, jumping from one country to another in search of a better cost of living.

This continued through the COVID pandemic, where technology—developed in extremis—allowed for a refinement of remote work. Better infrastructure, ideas, and concepts flourished under pressure.

After COVID, when employers stubbornly tried to bring their employees back into the office, many of these nomads simply remained.

And then, the Great Collapse came.

Nomadic folk were largely immune to what followed, as they already lived lifestyles independent from stable, fixed systems. When people opted out of their debts, the nomads had little to abandon. They already lived in a cash-only economy, and the Mondo—the spiritual successor to bitcoin—became their currency.

While some landlords and businesses clung to old methods—credit scores, proof of income, and the like—others began to accept this new crypto. There were more people willing to use it, and more people willing to be paid with it.

The world economy bifurcated, and governments had no real way to stop it. Oh, they tried—but the collective blowing of raspberries became too much to contain.

The Americans were the first to fall, shaped by a culture that treated rich men as moral exemplars. The wolves of Wall Street found out that the sheep were no longer playing. North America fell, and Europe followed. Some smaller countries adapted to the Mondo, much as they once had with the Euro, finding it fairer. Many African nations adopted it as well, as buying from neighbors became less of a hassle, and many developing countries followed suit.

The nomads—skilled and willing to travel—found their name when the Dullards came along. As the automatons trundled down the roads, the nomads rode atop them, like the stagecoaches of old.

So today, when you see a Trundler signing a welcome to another, with a pack on their back and a tabby at their hip, remember: their journey began long before the road was free to walk.