Reimagining the World
As part of working on The Word and the United setting as a whole I’ve gone back and looked at some of the decisions I made about that and how I’m changing them this time round to make things more interesting.
Some of the information below is sort of spoilers for the setting of the United books so read on if you want to.
The general setting is the same. It’s a thousand years in the future and humanity has spread across the galaxy. This was done under the banner of the Commonwealth of Earth and considered the ‘Golden Age’ of our species. Until it all collapsed of course as all empires do.
The Commonwealth
Originally the idea was of this huge gap between the Collapse and the setting of the books, about 5 centuries, but I think its more interesting if the gap is smaller. If you look at that most famous of empires – the Romans – the immediate aftermath of the collapse in the West is a bunch of new kingdoms appearing all seeking to take on the mantle of the old empire as it had been in power for so long.
Related to this is how in Oranje I had it that the regions of the galaxy were pretty much isolated from each other, but I no longer think that works in a setting where there is the Net to connect all worlds together. Using the example of the fall of the Roman empire again trade continued over great distances even during the greatest periods of collapse.
This had led me to change this aspect of the setting. Instead of a hugely isolated with a dim and distant memory of the Commonwealth and humanities Golden Age, instead it is a more connected but still broken galaxy. Nations use the traditions and titles of the Commonwealth to claim their legitimacy as its successor. The Commonwealth itself is still there, though much reduced in territory.
It’s a galaxy that looks to the past to remember the glories of day gone by, and seeking powerful leaders to recreate the days of old. A galaxy where the figure of the past looms over everything that happens. Nations compete with one another to take the place of the Commonwealth and make sure that as much of possible links them to it. I think this makes for a much more interesting setting than the more black and white approach from before, and allows for stories that can be connected across the galaxy.
The other key aspects of setting that are changing from how I did them in Oranje are the Curators and the pseudos.
Curators
The Curators – protectors of the Net across the galaxy – I think were too much in it. The idea of a galaxy spanning organisation that controlled access to the Net is a bit much, and also made them less interesting than they could have been. Instead I want them to be a group that want an independently run Net, and who are seen as experts on it, but who don’t control all of it and are sort of outsiders. So more an independent group with an alternative way of having their society who want to see change than some hidden galaxy spanning group.
I think this opens up a lot more story telling possibilities, as them wanting to warn people about threats they might discover through the Net might not always go well as not everyone respects them or cares about them. It also I think lets them be more involved in the galaxy as a whole instead of so isolated from it.
Pseudos
Pseudos were a late addition to Oranje, I didn’t add them in until the 2nd draft. I know they’re not an original idea – a sentient computer program made from the combining of a human mind and code – but I felt they added an interesting dimension in the book, and allow for another way to show the differences between societies. In Oranje they’re only part of the Curators but I’m going to be changing that.
Having them be more common throughout the galaxy allows them to be part of a lot of different groups. Before, when they were just with the Curators, no longer feels right as I’ve portrayed them as having free thought and with that surely must go a decision of who they want to work with?
So they’re going to be more common in The Word and the other United novels but a lot of nations and people will still be suspicious of them and how they’re created, with some nations banning them entirely. Though how effectively you can block a sentient program that lives on the Net is a different matter entirely.
I like discussing my thought progress and how I build some aspects of the setting I’m working with. I hope this post helps explain some of the changes I’m making and how they should hopefully lead to a more interesting backdrop and scenarios for what I write.