Item from Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
The ghost of the internet — a remnant AI network from the Builder era that connects buried installations and may have spawned the Dead King from accumulated death data.
The data-space is the Broken Empire's deepest secret — a remnant of the Builder-era communications network (our internet) that persists underground, connecting Builder installations across what used to be Europe. AI personalities like Fexler Brews exist within it. The Dead King may have emerged from it. The 'magic' that permeates the Hundred Kingdoms may be radiation and data-space interference leaking into the physical world. Jorg learns to access the data-space through Builder technology and his own developing abilities. It becomes his greatest weapon — a network of information and power that no one else in the Hundred Kingdoms understands because no one else knows what they're looking at. The data-space is the series' core reveal: that the magic is technology, that the world is Earth, that the Builders are us. The fantasy is science fiction wearing a crown.
Not visible in the physical world — the data-space exists between Builder installations, in the network that once connected our civilization's computers. Those who can access it perceive a vast, cold, mathematical space where information flows like water and AI personalities persist as digital ghosts. It is the internet, a thousand years after everyone stopped logging in.
Also known as: The Network, Builder Network