A basic coverage
This section is more of a basic coverage of the main points. There are seperate pages for a more in-depth of certain things that belong on their own page...
Magic System
Phone Magic System
Man, this old magic system sucked so hard
Before 2024, the magic system that was originally used for Phone-tans/kuns was scrapped as the way I was portraying it did not work. The old magic system is not much different as it used 0G to 5G as a "power scale" of sorts but it also utilised "antennas" phones had for the "strength" of a character. Typically, this meant with phones that had a visible antenna were considered stronger while with something like the iPhone 4, the antennagate problem meant she had weaker strength.
This lead to a mess of problems such as trying to keep things consistent as it does not make sense for a phone with a visible antenna to be stronger than one that does not have a visible antenna. The whole concept of 0G to 5G as a power scale and the phones that had a visible antenna being "stronger" led to me scrapping it because it just did not work at the time.
An accidental revival
During 2024 as I was working on the next big update after transferring all the old pages over from Wordpress I researched more into Motorola and the history of car phones. I ended up finding out that AT&T proposed the concept of a cellular phone network and that by the early 1970s, AT&T and Motorola both announced plans for high-capacity mobile telephone systems based on cellular technology.
When you think of cellular technology you might think of phones or a cellular network, moreso the most common example of a cellular network being a mobile phone (cell phone) network. 1G to 5G are generations of cellular networks so this ended up being an accidental revival of the magic system. When I realised that I had done an accidental revival of the old magic system I decided that I would try it again.
The current magic system
The current magic system for phones was made by both the Motorola Motorcade and the Alliance of Telecommunication Titan after the Alliance of Telecommunication Titan proposed the concept of "cellular crystals". The Motorola Motorcade discovered then discovered the type of crystal that could solve these problems that AT&T had proposed. This new type of crystal was a game-changer. They were large crystals and putting them into metal towers allowed for the creation of small adjacent cells within the communication network, each with its own frequency.
These crystals could be broken down to smaller crystals which then could be placed in wands and staffs to draw the magic from the towers. Early experiments revealed the crystal's potential to enhance communication, but their true power is yet to be fully understood.
Species, Life, and Death
Most OS-tans and such could be considered “human” except for a few like GENIAC-tan (who is a puppet) and the older mainframes.
Humans
Humans and developers do exist in the mainframe, but words mostly speak of them and are not really seen. Think of them as your average citizens on Earth as an example but some of them are responsible for the creation of mainframes, OSes and much more.
Among these humans are higher-ups which are part of the factions. They're sorta like the bosses similar to how you have CEOs and devs in real life.
Mainframes
The mainframes are portrayed as large mechanical machines due to the fact most older machines had bits and pieces you could see, but they have human forms they can morph into.
They were created by humans for helping with tasks and they slowly gained the ability to morph into humans so they did not feel out of place. When in their human form they have all the skills and needs humans require so mainframes can appear as humans with super-human powers. Mainframes will look biologically similar to human beings.
Some of them may be hesitant to morph into their human forms like COLOSSUS who was betrayed after her helpers burned documents about her, let alone kept her existence a secret.
When a mainframe dies, its mechanical parts are usually stored in buildings or places like museums or completely tossed. If they are in their human form when this happens, they will immediately return back to their mechanical form.
Other Characters
Other characters in this case refers to two other categories that aren’t mainframes or something else. These other classes are hardware, operating systems, programs, malware and maybe some smaller ones.
Hardware
Hardware-tans/kuns includes two smaller classes within it however it is its own category to group them all together. Although mainframes can be considered hardware, they still stay in their separate section because of the differences they have for their portrayal. The two smaller classes are hardware are computer-tans/kuns and phone-tans/kuns. This also includes prototype hardware that were never released such as the Commodore 65 and iBook G5.
Most of them are not machines like the mainframes but instead are supernatural humans that have been initiated who can do “human things” such as eating, drinking human cuisine and displaying other human bodily functions but they can also do “computer things.”
Some examples of non-machiney computer-tans/kuns and phone-tans/kuns are The Mainframe’s versions of iPhone 3G-tan, Byt-8-kun and MikroMikko 1-tan.
There are some characters who are under this category that are not really human-like nor machine such as GENIAC-tan who is a puppet. It is hard for these characters to die however if they do die, they die like normal humans do. They can also live longer than most humans due to emulation.
Operating Systems
Operating systems are well, operating systems. This includes mobile OSes like Android and iOS, Multi-edition OSes like Vista and Ubuntu, OSes for mainframe systems like MULTICS and ITS and embedded OSes like QNX and ROMDOS. This also includes prototype OSes that were never released such as Windows 9.
They are the exact same as hardware with their own little differences.
Programs
The Mainframe only has one notable example of a program character which is The Mainframe version of Norton-kun. Others may come in the future.
They are the exact same as hardware with their own little differences.
Malware
Malware is portrayed as experimental creatures who can have extra body parts such as eyes and arms or are just borderline edgy like Festering Hate.
Threshold’s (Windows 10 Threshold-tan) Species
Threshold’s species is a mysterious alien race that has been on the home planet in The Mainframe since the 1990s. The first one of her kind is known to be a member of the Sun Microsystems faction. However, Threshold’s species is also a mystery. No one knows where they came from or what their ultimate goals are. Some believe that they are simply a benevolent race that wants to help the other factions in the Mainframe, while others believe that they have a more sinister agenda.
The Decimas are a notable example of the mysterious alien race. Besides this, some features of this race are elf ears, tails with furry bits on the end and a deep understanding of technology. They also look like normal humans in terms of basic anatomy. Some other examples include Windows NT-kun and the Windows 11-kuns.
The true name of this species is unknown.
The Land and Setting
The Land
When it comes to the setting of my fanon, things get a little weird. Once there was no setting at all so the idea of having one was a gradual thing.
When I first started working on my fanon before I even knew what a fanon was there was no setting beside the fact the Vintage Federation was on a floating island. A lot of ideas from this period are hard to track down since notes have been lost, therefore it is hard to determine whether there was a real setting or not for 2018. It wasn’t until 2023 that I decided to think more about the setting, a map and such.
Below is the old Appendix map from perhaps 2019 or something. I cannot remember the exact date this is from but note the old faction names such as the 3.14 Society, Hidden Onion Organization and Vaporwave. These factions no longer exist except for the Vaporwave one which may use a new name.
The only real parts of The Mainframe’s setting were seen in mainly 1955 from 2020 even though it did not get far. 1955 showed that at least a part of the land had snow and showed that OS-tans/kuns interacted with humans, let alone worked with them in normal jobs as Simon works at well, a bookshop run by humans.
In 2023 however, I decided to focus on the setting more. It’s sort of a combination of a fantasy cyberpunk world and the real world but is mainly fantasy.