Metawave

Manifesto

Rise of the Soul

999 Tokens

Rise of the Soul is a generative animated pilgrimage through Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso — journeying through fire, storm, mountain and radiant sky in search of transformation.

It follows a small cloaked soul crossing vast realms where landscape becomes emotion: caverns of shadow, terraces of ascent, and skies of living light that open into glory.

Into the Deep

Every pilgrimage begins in a place that feels like there is no way out.
In Rise of the Soul, the journey opens in caverns of red‑black stone, rivers of molten light and skies torn by storm. These are not scenes of gore but of weight: towering cliffs, spiralling pits, bridges over depths that seem to fall forever.

A single small pilgrim moves through this enormity — a silhouette on a ledge, a cloak whipped by ember‑lit wind. The realm of Inferno is less about punishment than about distance: how far the soul feels from light, and how heavy the shadows can become.

The Mountain of Ascent

From fire and storm, the world softens into mist. A holy mountain rises out of a quiet sea; stairways wind upward through terraces of stone, cypress and olive. Dawn and twilight trade places across the slopes, painting the path with pale gold and gentle blue.

Here the soul climbs. Sometimes it rests at a landing, sometimes it stands at a railing and looks back at how far it has come. The scenes of Purgatorio are not yet easy — the air is thin, the climb is long — but hope has colour now, and the sky is opening.

Cities of Living Light

At the summit, the mountain dissolves into sky. Architecture becomes almost music: floating towers, concentric rings and bridges of cloud and light. Paradiso is an abundance of open heavens — warm whites, soft blues, iridescent halos — where every structure seems to be both city and song.

The pilgrim grows smaller and smaller against this radiance, until in some pieces they can hardly be seen at all. The focus is no longer on effort, but on reception: a soul standing in a light too large to grasp, simply letting itself be surrounded.

The Soul’s Return

Rise of the Soul is not an escape from the world but a way of seeing it differently.
Fire, mountain and heaven are not three separate places, but three ways the heart encounters reality: despair, struggle, and the surprise of joy.

By following a tiny figure across 999 moments, the collection invites the viewer to recognise their own journey — the times they have walked through shadow, climbed through ambiguity, and glimpsed a peace they could not explain.

From cavern to cloud, from storm to stillness, from distant glow to blinding nearness — this is the rise of the soul toward light.

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