Posted: August 15th, 2009 | Author: Niko | Filed under: Fiction | Tags: brainstorm, chambers, dunsany, Fiction, gods of pegana, hpl, king in yellow, Random, space opera, spec fic, speculative fiction, world building | 2 Comments »
The universe is young and rapidly expanding. Fewer galaxies and a relative handful of bright new stars. Orbiting these closely neighboring stars are a few thousand planets cradling intelligent life.
Solar systems are closer together, and the fabric of the galaxies are lousy with tears– wormholes. Given the speed with which travel is possible between planets and systems, the sentient species sail on solar winds and the tides of space/time.
Question is, do I keep humans as one of these sentient cultures– keeping in the trope of human as touchstone and anchor for the audience– or do I do away entirely with us? Focus on what could be called, from our standpoint, older races?
Want to move away from visual stereotypes of space opera. Definitely a Froudian aesthetic. Imagine The Dark Crystal as a space opera, at least visually. Very organic technology, living ships. Space whales. But not Farscape. More an age of established empires. Empires of what we call the Old Gods, now simply the Gods. The Untenables. The great, unknowable beings of the Cthulhu Mythos. Likewise probably Dunsany’s Gods of Pegana, and Carcosa ain’t so lost, and the King in Yellow sits enthroned. Maybe not directly, but certainly inspired. If Gaiman can get away with a Lovecraft reference in everything he writes, then so can I, doggammit.
Posted: July 25th, 2009 | Author: Niko | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cyberpunk, speculative fiction, world building | 1 Comment »
2155, 15 billion population. In the City-State of Atlanta, 75 thousand per the square mile. The result of medical advancements in cancer and autoimmune disease treatments and cures. Likewise gene-washing. Seventy years of relative peace. Made-to-order offspring. Age reversal. Human cloning. That old bugaboo, the replicant. Most of the “organic android” sent, as Dick foretold, into the Vastness for exploration and colonization. Some are unfit for transport, and remain on Earth. They are not welcome. Defective replicants constitute a gross 2% of human population, and are considered an unwanted strain on our resources. They live mostly in squalor, third-class citizens. Untouchable.
Gene-washing and genetic tampering in general have brought other legacies. We have unwittingly unlocked the full capacity of mind-over-matter. Telepathy, telekinesis, psychometry, clairvoyance, and even pre- and post-cognition. These abilities come at a price– overwhelming power and physical illness. Untreatable strains of the old cancers and autoimmune diseases unfailingly accompany these “blessings”. Psychics, like replicants, are considered in many ways anathema. They often exhibit very little control over their abilities, and express symptoms of diseases that remind people far too well of the vicissitudes of the past.
With conflict between governments at a minimum, most violence is at street-level. When one considers that 75% of the population lives well below the poverty line ($150,000/annum after inflation), life at ground-level is harsh, dirty, and mean. Not because the poor are naturally corse and violent, but because resources are in no way plentiful. While healthcare is at an all time peak of availability comparatively, the population spike brings us back to the standards of the late Twentieth Century. Even so, few people die of natural causes any more. The technical average life span is 150 years, but few people at ground level see that.
The super-wealthy .5% live, at the very least, in mile-high tower-cities. 1% of the rich live in sky hooks– incredible sky cities in low orbit, tethered to Earth by space elevators. There’s is the life promised by the most optimistic of the speculative fiction of the last 200 years.
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