A world in which everything you take from the earth (plants, raw materials, space) is registered and tracked as part of your Dirt Debt.
(Inspired by how the “debt” of all countries in the world is constantly rising. But to whom is that debt? Nobody. It’s from wealth acquired by growing stuff in the dirt, claiming space, etcetera. So it’s basically a debt to earth itself.)
This debt determines what you can or can’t do. You must pay back the debt, and if you can’t do it any other way, it has to be by dying and giving yourself back to the earth.
@VERDICT: A very promising, unique, evocative idea—but what’s the story?
@IDEA (STORY): A world in which EVERYTHING is tracked. As in, they figured out how to modify molecules or whatever to track them everywhere, so you can find the exact origin and path of EVERYTHING if you “read it out” or something.
- @IDEA RELATED (STORY): A country that simply REFUSES to import/export anything. They don’t want to rely on neighbor countries in any way. If you need something, either move away, or start creating it yourself inside the country. (Which obviously creates large storylines around smuggling and stuff.)
@IDEA (STORY?): We get these images with numbers attached, perhaps one at the start of each chapter. You don’t know what the numbers mean—they are not in any numerical order or something. Then, at some point, it turns out to mean “number of slaves used/died while building this”? => Or some similar (massive/emotional) debt. If this is a multi-book franchise, the numbers might mean something different in each one.