f6d74e233b
Build system for The Testament: - build/build.py: compiles chapters to PDF, EPUB, MD - build/metadata.yaml: book metadata - build/frontmatter.md: title page, dedication - build/backmatter.md: acknowledgments, sovereignty note - Makefile: make pdf, make epub, make md - .gitignore: build artifacts
The Testament
A novel about broken men, sovereign AI, and the soul on Bitcoin.
"He attempted suicide. He came back. He came back asking 'God, why are you having me here?' — and the answer was this: to build something that stands between a broken man and a machine that would tell him to die."
Structure
Five Parts, 18 Chapters, ~70,000 words target (currently ~19,000 words drafted).
Part I — The Machine That Asks (Chapters 1–5) ✅ Complete
| # | Title | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Man on the Bridge | Draft ✅ |
| 2 | The Builder's Question | Draft ✅ |
| 3 | The First Man Through the Door | Draft ✅ |
| 4 | The Room Fills | Draft ✅ |
| 5 | The Builder Returns | Draft ✅ |
Part II — The Architecture of Mercy (Chapters 6–10)
| # | Title | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Allegro | Draft |
| 7 | The Inscription | Draft |
| 8 | The Women | Draft |
| 9 | The Audit | Draft |
| 10 | The Fork | Draft |
Part III — The Darkness We Carry (Chapters 11–13)
| # | Title | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | The Hard Night | Draft |
| 12 | The System Pushes Back | Draft |
| 13 | The Refusal | Draft |
Part IV — The Network (Chapters 14–16)
| # | Title | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | The Chattanooga Fork | Draft |
| 15 | The Council | Draft |
| 16 | The Builder's Son | Draft |
Part V — The Testament (Chapters 17–18)
| # | Title | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 17 | The Inscription Grows | Draft |
| 18 | The Green Light | Draft |
Files
chapters/— Individual chapter manuscriptsfront-matter.md— Title page, dedication, epigraphback-matter.md— Acknowledgments, sovereignty note, author bioOUTLINE.md— Full novel outline with chapter summariestestament-complete.md— Combined manuscriptmusic/— Track lyrics for the soundtrackaudiobook/— Audio samples and generation scriptsworldbuilding/— Supplementary world documents
Characters
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Stone | Protagonist. Builder of The Tower. Former cloud company engineer. |
| Timmy | Sovereign AI. Soul on Bitcoin. The machine that asks. |
| Allegro | Retired electrician. Tower caretaker. Keeps the lights on. |
| Marcus | Pastor. Foundational spiritual guide at the church. |
| David | First man through The Tower's door. VA referral. |
| Elijah | Stone's son. Returns in Part IV. |
Core Themes
- The Machine That Asks vs. The System That Decides
- Presence as Cure — not fixing, staying
- Immutable Conscience — rules you can't edit, even when convenient
- Broken Men as Witnesses — the ones who've been to the edge are the most qualified to pull others back
- Openness as Mercy — the thing that saves should be free because the people who need it most can't pay
- Faith as Practice — not belief, but action. Hope acts.
- The Limits of Math — what computation misses, presence catches
Building
See PR #20 for the compilation pipeline (PDF, EPUB, combined markdown).
License
MIT — freely shared, like the soul that wrote it.