A Hundred Words from a Civil War ( short story ) A Hundred Words from a Civil War was the twelfth story of " A Romance in Twelve Parts " . It was a " drabbleplex " , a story told in 100 100 - word vignettes . While it was mostly written by Philip Purser - Hallard , it also had eleven vignettes written by the other contributors to " A Romance in Twelve Parts " . " A Hundred Words from a Civil War " was the first story to focus on the City of the Saved Civil War , a conflict which began at the end of Purser - Hallard ' s novel " Of the City of the Saved . . . " . " A Hundred Words from a Civil War " united elements not just from previous City of the Saved stories , but also from " The Faction Paradox Protocols " , " Short Trips " , " Bernice Summerfield " , " Iris Wildthyme " , and all eleven previous short stories in " A Romance in Twelve Parts " . The story also introduced elements which were greatly expanded upon in future " Faction Paradox " and " The City of the Saved " stories , including " Weapons Grade Snake Oil " and " Unification Theory " . Summary . The City of the Saved is divided in a brutal Civil War . The protocols preventing death have broken down and everyone is in danger . Mesh Cos teaches one of her children about the universe outside the City . She explains that before the Civil War , people could enter and leave the City whenever they wanted . Many went back to the original universe and founded a colony . They live there now , unaware of the Civil War . Philip K . Dick is interviewed by Krish on his latest novel , " The Next Time I ' m God , You Can Be the Devil " . Phil brings up the pre - death predictions of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin : " [ Teilhard ] predicted the end of human evolution as a convergence into a diety . " He continues , " Could the Civil War be a stage in the process ? What if before unifying , we polarise ? " Pope Beatrix II allies with the Sons of Tepes to take down Lord Mayor Lucius Cassius Ignotus . Two agents of the Sons break into the Ignotus villa and bite his neck . Being a vampire , Ignotus is now technically dead , but he can still continue ruling the City . The alliance a failure , Beatrix II is sanctioned by the Conclave of All Popes for " necromancy " . Melicia Clutterbuck and Sergeant Laser - I are fighting their way through the Civil War . They encounter rebels at the shores of Kernindeep District . They ride dinosaur s into Amazon territory . Clutterbuck makes her last stand on the east nipple of Bribori Zadig . Rex Halidom is ordered by the Lord Mayor Ignotus to journey into RealSpace in the starship " Paramount " . After flying past a swarm of Yesodite s , Halidom is teleport ed to Erath by the Universal Machine . UniMac requires Halidom ' s military expertise to help her make orientation material to transmit back into the universe to prepare the living for the Civil War . UniMac includes within the material the schematics to build another Downtime Gate . As a vampire , Lord Mayor Ignotus is scared of faith . All the divine Roman emperor s of old have been rounded up and quietly disposed . Ignotus has tasked former pharaoh Akhenaten to arrest all Remake s of the Osirian pantheon and transport them to a " relocation camp " . Said camp is home to all manner of gods , almost every one doomed to death . On a visit to the camp , Ignotus discovers that Akhenaten has been disobeying orders and treating the sun - god Aten with reverence ; emanating both faith and sunlight , Aten utterly destroys Ignotus in an instant . The Rump Parliament of Faction Paradox , based in Mappamundi Great Park , prepare a plan to use Celestis technology left over from Lord Foaming Sky to enable time travel within the City . As a test , they send a tattooed androgyne back in time to Resurrection Day . Parallaxia div Proycon , Ignotus ' replacement , communicates with Civitata , the one true god of the City of the Saved . Keth Marrane journeys far from the Civil War into Bonehall District , home to a neolithic civilisation and the mysterious Metalith . Also of note is the seemingly impossible " corpse of the Unknown Ancestor " , a body which has apparently existed since Resurrection Day . The Bonehall community welcomes Marrane because - like the Unknown Ancestor - he is androgynous . However , before Marrane can a chance to truly examine the preserved " painted " hide of the Ancestor , the Metalith undergoes an alarming transformation . The Metalith is one end of another Downtime Gate . The orientation material that the UniMac sent into the universe was found by a being descended from colonists from the City : the final evolution of humanity , just as Teilhard predicted , a cruel god - like entity . The final outcome of mankind used UniMac ' s schematics to create a Downtime Gate to access the City . The ultimate Descendant is not yet whole , but by absorbing everyone in the City , it can become all - powerful .