• EsquireA narrative superstructure.
  • Hollywood ReporterAn ambitious, eye-popping universe.
  • @AsvinireadsA whole new genre taking shape.

Most funded debut novel on Kickstarter

MAYA:
Seed Takes
Root

“Sweeping and immersive.”Anil Seth, neuroscientist and author of Being You

Releasing worldwide · 25 August 2026Pre-Order Now
Goodreads4.2730 ratings, 9 reviews
maya'māyānoun
[from Sanskrit māyā (माया)]
  1. 1.

    Cosmic illusion, delusion, simulation, the indescribable.

  2. 2.
    on Planet Neh

    A tree network capable of producing vivid life-like dreams; complex emergent systems that are greater than the sum of their parts.

MAYA is an expansive narrative universe created by Anand Gandhi and Zain Memon.
It unfolds across films, games, graphic novels, books, toys, and immersive experiences.

Every word and every pixel of MAYA has been put together with care by humans, for humans.

Praise for MAYA: Seed Takes Root

  1. 01
    ★★★★★
    Reading Maya was like experiencing the great stories you encounter as a teenager—the ones that echo down through your life, the ones you come back to again and again, finding new ways to fall in.
    Raymond McCaulay · Chair of Digital Biology, Singularity University
  2. 02
    ★★★★★
    Uncomfortably close to our current relationship with technology and social media algorithms—and that's entirely the point.
    Variety
  3. 03
    ★★★★★
    The antagonist lays out his reasoning step by step, and you can't argue with it. It's ironclad. It's terrifying.
    @JoshReadsBooks

An epic science fantasy with intricate worldbuilding. Seven species, one planet, zero privacy. Enter the age of narrative warfare.

Intelligence itself is prediction. From the simplest creature retreating from harm to minds charting distant stars, all seek to answer the same question: what comes next? Those who answer correctly survive to pose the question again.

Tiresia-Sanjay

Tales From MAYA

A growing cast of memorable characters whose stories grow across multiple products

Dangsa

Vaanar

Dangsa recited her vows of vaanar service for years, until she rose to the rank of Subhedar. She recited them again on the day she was dishonorably discharged for a crime she did not commit. The disgraced are sent to the Aadri mountains, reformed, and made to begin again. Dangsa refused. Now the crimson dye that once shielded her from local law fades from her fur. Before it turns white, she must clear her name. Until then, a Divya-Scion has her mace.

  • Appears in
  • MAYA: Seed Takes Root
  • Trials of MAYA

Kshar

Naag

Twenty years ago, Kshar bared his throat in allegiance to the Secret Coil, the covert naag service that offers death before betrayal to the Divyas. Vishar, his homeland, calls him a traitor. To his handlers, he has no equal in infiltration, leverage, and the quiet art of neutralization. To cure his son, he became the only known mortal to endure Divya Maya. Kshar needs neither blade nor army. Hand him a fruit, and he will leave a city in ashes.

  • Appears in
  • MAYA: Seed Takes Root
  • Trials of MAYA

Mauravi

Garuda

Sixth-born of Great-Divya Aruna, Mauravi was never favored. Until her five elder siblings died under circumstances no one dared name. A day before her Trials, the same shadow came for her. It failed, but took a wing, and with it, her claim to Divyalok. Mauravi never entered the Games. With one wing of flesh and one of metal, she became Aruna's talon on Neh: the emissary, broker, and storm behind the throne.

  • Appears in
  • MAYA: Seed Takes Root
  • Trials of MAYA
  • MAYA: The Forgotten Egg

Prabhakar

Manushya

While the world drowned in imagined dreams, Prabhakar joined the One-Eyed Turloth and swore to topple the gods themselves. He refuses Maya, keeping his mind his own, and recruits where power forgets to look. Trained by the ghost of Sheshan, the first revolutionary, he waits in the shadows, building an army of invisible rebels. He can charm a secret loose, joke past a blade, and crack any cipher or skull.

  • Appears in
  • MAYA: Seed Takes Root
  • Trials of MAYA
  • MAYA: Whispers in the Soil

Ayn

Pragya-Gendered Rakshasi

The manushya heartland believes that rakshasis are flesh-eating monsters. Ayn chooses to venture deep into it anyway. The road to invention is paved with trials and almost-executions, but Ayn's scholarship is her shield. She knows that something is deeply wrong with the world, and her work, should it come to pass, could upset its very foundations.

  • Appears in
  • MAYA: Seed Takes Root
  • Trials of MAYA

Bird-Drink-Pot

Kulie

Kulie have no name. Kulie have no say. Kulie's hands not his. Master say. Kulie do. But Bird-Drink-Pot not like other kulie. Bird-Drink-Pot say. Bird-Drink-Pot do. Bird-Drink-Pot have name. All of Neh know it soon.

  • Appears in
  • MAYA: Seed Takes Root
  • Trials of MAYA
  • Scales: The Quest To Be Forgotten

You see lives. I see life itself. Each consciousness is a transient song, a brief organization of atoms that learned to know itself. Beautiful, yes. Sacred, even. But the real miracle isn't any single song. It's the universe's capacity to generate song from silence.

Divyendra

Welcome to Neh

Home to 7 sapient species that coexist in a delicate balance. They've invented a complex civilization but can't agree on the color of the sky.

Map of Neh — labelled by Zain Memon
Map of Neh — Western Hemisphere · Year 891 of the Maya Krama

Gandharva

Born in symbiosis with the Maya tree itself, each Gandharva has two minds in constant discourse. They serve only the will of the Divyas, pruning and upkeeping the vast network of Maya trees across Neh.

The gandharvas are content with their role as keepers of knowledge. They observe, they collect, but rarely do they correct.Tarkash, Divya-Scion

Rakshasi

The tri-gendered rakshasis can manifest the traits of whatever they consume, yet choose to only consume the fallen. They wield advanced biotechnology to build living ecosystems, repair flesh and tissue, and disseminate hard-won knowledge.

What is more repulsive? To uproot a plant for its flesh, or recycle tissue that's already come loose?Ayn, Pragya-Gendered Rakshasi

Garuda

As the chosen arms of the all-seeing Divyas, the Garudas didn't just seize power, they became it. Today, every court bows to their judgment, every vault fills at their command, and every temple sanctifies under their watch. To be born Garuda is to be born above.

Saying "neither this, nor that" over and over, the sculptor removes all that is not, revealing what simply is.High-Garuda Vyasa

Vaanar

Disciplined and rigidly hierarchical, the vaanars serve as the police and military backbone of Neh. They patrol the high grid-networks of every city, lend their hired maces to every war, and dye their fur redder with every success.

To fatherland's call and motherland's embrace, we stand for the people, in vigil and grace.From The Vaanar Vows

Naag

After being driven to the swampy ends of Neh by their ancient Garuda rivals, the Naags built their lives on shadowy dealings and tight-knit clans. Now, after centuries in exile, they are creeping back into the mainstream again.

Find me berries, build me a house, and sweep in my wake. I shall protect you from hunger, cold and disease.Naag Proverb

Manushya

Born with nothing but grit, the manushyas forge empires from stone and steel. Their spring-powered cities scrape the sky, built on the bones of a hundred-year war.

It's the manushyas, gifted with both necessity and invention, who win the trials so often. They have that one thing that all others lack. Suffering.Tarkash

Enter MAYA

One universe expanding across mediums.

Book

MAYA: Seed Takes Root

Through their planetwide network of Maya trees, the Divyas can see all that is, and therefore, predict all that will be. They intervene invisibly, ruling Neh without armies. Why force obedience when you can shape desire itself?

25 August 2026

Tabletop Game

Trials of MAYA

An arena-based expandable card game. Command champions with customizable decks across various arenas. Manage your energy, chain mind-bending combos, and strike at the right moment to win.

21 July 2026

Pedagogy

Speculative Archi-scapes

Much of MAYA's architecture emerged from a groundbreaking course created at CEPT University, India's top architecture school. Similar speculative pedagogy modules are underway at top schools around the world.

Feature Film

MAYA

The major motion picture adaptation of MAYA: Seed Takes Root (Book One).

Coming Soon

Video Game

Trials of MAYA - Digital

An adaptation with the crunchy depth of strategy games, the rapid-fire decision making of MOBAs, and the spatial puzzling of tactics games.

Coming Soon

TTRPG

MAYA Samarpayami

Create characters from a host of diverse species, solve ethical dilemmas, and explore infinite possibilities in a journey through Neh that reimagines what a tabletop role-playing experience can be.

Coming Soon

Graphic Novel

Scales - The Quest To Be Forgotten

When the city of Mythra is rocked by a series of high-profile murders, vaanar detective Taara teams up with Ulupi, a naag historian with a criminal past. Ulupi has one condition: he wants to be forgotten by Maya.

Coming Soon

Praise for MAYA: Seed Takes Root

  1. 01
    ★★★★★
    There were chapters where I had to put the book down and breathe. The pace, the ideas, the weight of everything happening. But I couldn't stay away.
    @VestCody
  2. 02
    ★★★★★
    An act of civilizational memory… a mythos that confronts the 21st century's most urgent questions.
    Esquire
  3. 03
    ★★★★★
    Every aspect of it—the politics, the culture, ecology, and technology—feels like a simulation that's been allowed to run for hundreds of years.
    @TheBookishAlchemist

Creators

We build laboratories to find out what's true, what happens, and what works. We built a world for the same reason. Five years later, it has its own languages, its own injustices, and its own excuses.Anand & Zain
Anand Gandhi

Anand Gandhi

Anand Gandhi is a defining voice in contemporary Indian cinema. His philosophical triptych Ship of Theseus and mythological horror Tumbbad are among the most celebrated films of their generation. His work has won honors at the international film festivals of Toronto, Venice, Transylvania, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.

Zain Memon

Zain Memon

Zain Memon is an acclaimed game designer. His bestselling board games SHASN and AZADI are played in over 70 countries. His work has won the Games for Change and IndieCade awards.

Together, Anand and Zain have produced films, games, VR experiences, documentaries, and shows. Many of them have been acquired or distributed by Disney, Netflix, Prime Video, BBC, and Channel 4. Their work draws from cognitive biology and game theory to examine how stories shape beliefs and behaviors.

Team

Raju Chekuri

Raju Chekuri

Investing Partner

Raju Chekuri is a serial Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and the founder of multiple successful tech ventures.

Shreya Dudheria

Shreya Dudheria

Producer

Shreya Dudheria is a filmmaker and media producer with a decade's experience of directing and producing primetime television.

Aayush Asthana

Aayush Asthana

Worldbuilder

Aayush Asthana is a writer, editor, and game designer. He is the lore guardian of the ever-expanding mythology of MAYA.

Why force obedience, when you can shape desire itself?

Sheshan

Behind the Scenes

MAYA has been built over five years in collaboration with more than 200 writers, game designers, filmmakers, biologists, architects, linguists, and artists across the globe.