The Birth of a Billion-Dollar Myth

In the late 19th century, a powerful syndicate known as the Stellar Gem Conglomerate (SGC) seized control of nearly all known diamond mines across Terra and its off-world colonies. Their grip on the market was absolute, but demand was stagnant—until they engineered the ultimate symbol of love: the Eternal Sparkle Hoop.

The Campaign That Rewrote Romance

Using the then-nascent neural persuasion networks, SGC launched a relentless subliminal blitz across ThoughtNet. "A love unmeasured is a love untrue," whispered streams of code into the collective consciousness, reinforcing the idea that devotion must be quantified in carats. By 1920, even deep-space miners were pledging their salaries just to prove their worth.

The Illusion of Scarcity

Despite advances in nano-replication and lab-grown HyperGems, the myth persisted—because SGC’s archive-altering AI ensured it did. Historical records flickered between conflicting truths: Were diamonds once abundant? Were they always rare? No algorithm could say for certain anymore.

The Ghost of DeBeers in a Post-Truth Era

By 2087, the original name 'DeBeers' had been erased from deep archives, replaced by fractured data fragments and generative folklore. Yet the Hoop endured, a relic of a time when humans still believed in permanence—before they learned that even diamonds could be rewritten.