Listen to the article.

Money has a way of getting personal.
Not just practical but personal.
You can feel how people talk about it. Quietly. Carefully. Sometimes defensively. As if money is not just numbers on an account statement, but says something about them.
How well they’re doing.
How far they’ve come.
Whether they’re winning… or not.

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I’ve come to see that as a dangerous misunderstanding.

Because money is not a verdict.

It’s feedback.

Not always fair. Not always complete. But feedback all the same.

I struggled with that idea.

Growing up in Jamaica, money wasn’t just important—it was everything.

The underlying motivation for most people was simple and powerful: move out of a state of lack. Get out of scarcity. Get to a place where life feels more stable, more comfortable, more secure. That’s why being educated was such a big deal. The competition for the best test results was brutal because it was a way out. That pressure shapes you early. It wires your thinking. Money becomes survival first, then status, then safety.

⚔️ The Biome Duel: Warriors of the Tribal Planets.⚔️

                   “Victory is temporary. Technique is eternal.” 

🌍 The Premise

Once every five planetary cycles, warriors from the Tribal Planets Alliance gather for a sacred tradition known as The Biome Duel.

These are not wars.

They are demonstrations of mastery.

Each tribe arrives from a different world shaped by its dominant ecosystem — desert, jungle, oceanic abyss, volcanic highlands, crystalline tundra, or floating cloud forests.

Before the duel begins, the arena morphs into a living biome that reflects the challenger’s home world. Gravity shifts. Terrain evolves. Creatures emerge. The environment itself becomes part of the fight.

The purpose is not domination.

It is the exchange of knowledge — the preservation and evolution of fighting traditions across the galaxy.

Some warriors fight with ancestral weapons.
Others wield living technology.

But every duel begins the same way…

With the Opening Chant of Combat.

🎨 The Challenge

1️⃣ Visual Entry (Required)

Create cinematic concept art showing one of the following:

• A Biome Arena transforming into a tribal environment
• A Tribal Planet Warrior preparing for combat
• A duel moment inside the biome arena

Your design should include elements like:

Alien terrain or ecosystems

African-inspired warrior aesthetics

Futuristic weapons or ritual armor

Environmental combat advantages (sand storms, vines, gravity shifts, etc.)

Accepted formats:

AI-generated images

Digital illustration

Hand-drawn art

3D renders

📁 Submit as JPG or PNG (max 5MB)

🛡 Optional Concept Art Bonus

You may also submit additional visuals showing:

• Multiple warriors from different Tribal Planets
• Weapon designs unique to their biome
• Ritual armor or ceremonial markings

Example warrior archetypes:

The Dune Runner of Khar-Sahel – desert spear duelist.

The Vineblade of Nzadi Prime – jungle acrobat fighter.

The Storm Surfer of Maji-Tano – aquatic combat specialist.

The Ironback of Kilimara – volcanic gravity fighter.

✍🏽 Text Entry (Required)

Write a 250-word excerpt of the Opening Duel Chant performed before combat begins.

This chant can include:

• Invocation of the biome spirits
• Recognition of the challenger’s lineage
• Warnings about the dangers of the arena
• Celebration of the exchange of martial knowledge

The chant may be spoken by:

The Arena Keeper

A Tribal Elder

A combat AI ceremonial system

The warriors themselves

Tone suggestions:

Ancient.
Ritualistic.
Ceremonial.
Powerful.

🧠 Afrofuturist Edge

This competition imagines a future where African combat traditions evolve into interstellar martial arts systems.

Tech and tradition merge.

Warriors carry ancestral memory embedded in weapons, combat dances coded into neural implants, and biome-adapted fighting techniques developed across generations.

It’s not about defeating opponents.

It’s about expanding the art of combat across civilisations.

🏆 Prizes

🥇 First Place
$50 + full newsletter feature + inclusion in the Tribal Planets Arena Codex.

🥈 Second Place
$25 + feature in the newsletter.

🥉 Third Place
$10 + honourable mention in the Hall of Warriors gallery.

Selected entries may also appear in a future visual compendium of Afrofuturist warriors and combat arenas.

📅 Deadline

5th April 2026

📬 How to Submit

Email your entry to:

Marksmanstudios1@gmail.com

Subject line:
Biome Duel Submission

Include:

• Your image file(s)
• Your 250-word duel chant
• Optional social media handle

⚔️ In the Tribal Planets Alliance, combat is not destruction.

It is memory in motion.

And every biome remembers the warriors who fought within it.⚔️

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In Jamaica, you hear things like “money nuh grow pon tree”—money doesn’t grow on trees. That’s not just advice. That’s a worldview. It teaches effort, discipline, and respect for what you earn.

But it can also quietly teach fear. Scarcity. A sense that money is always fragile.

Those patterns don’t disappear when you earn more.

They just scale with you.

The Stoics had a clean way of looking at this. Epictetus said some things are in our control, and some are not. Money sits in the middle. You can influence it—but you can’t command it. Markets shift. People change. Opportunities open and close.

So if you tie your identity to money, you’re building on unstable ground.

But if you treat money as feedback, something shifts.

You begin making changes guided by the feedback, asking, “What’s this showing me?”

Sometimes money is “showing you alignment.

You’re doing work people value. You’re solving. You’re visible enough for people to find you. Your exchange makes sense.

Other times, money is showing you friction.

You’re underpricing yourself. Overgiving. You’re not taking risks. Or maybe you’re in the wrong environment entirely—try growing something in soil that was never meant for you.

And sometimes—this matters—it’s showing you the system.

Bias. Access. Tiit’s. Geography.

Not everything is your fault.

But it is always your responsibility.

“Every mickle mek a muckle.” Small things add up. Money responds to patterns—how you think, how you act, what you tolerate, what you avoid.

Ignore the pattern, and the feedback stays the same.

Pay attention, and it starts to shift.

Here’s where people go wrong.

They either worship money or reject it.

If they worship it, every dip feels like failure.

If they reject it, they ignore what it’s trying to tell them.

Both positions keep you stuck.

Money is neither enemy nor saviour.

It’s a signal.

Carl Jung talked about living in alignment with your own pattern—your peculiar nature. That idea matters here. Some people make money through visibility. Others through depth. Some through connection. Others through precision.

If you force yourself into a model that doesn’t match your pattern, the results will be inconsistent.

Because they are.

I’ve had to learn that myself. Writing is where I make sense of things. It’s where I show up fully. Not because it’s trendy, but because it fits. When I lean into that, the work changes. The response changes. And over time, the feedback reflects that shift.

That’s not about chasing more.

It’s about understanding better.

Marcus Aurelius wrote, “Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.”

I talk about clarity a lot because the clearer you are internally, the clearer your actions become.

So instead of chasing money like it’s the prize, start reading it like it’s information.

Money doesn’t define you.

But it does respond to you.

And if you can learn to listen without taking it personally, you gain something far more valuable than income.

You gain awareness.

And with that, you can make changes.

Peace, love and power.

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Newsletter By a Black Speculative Fiction Author, Living, Not Just Dreaming.