Go Home, Screenplay, You're Drunk: Pacific Rim

Following in the footsteps of my international sensation "Scenes I'll Never Write In Screenplays," I've decided to start a new segment here on The Fabulist, wherein I take the basic storytelling elements of movies I enjoy or admire (usually big blockbusters) and attempt to restructure or slim them down into more understandable, more digestible versions thereof.

I'm calling it "Go Home, Screenplay, You're Drunk" and, for my inaugural post, I'm starting with a very popular movie from 2013, especially among the "Timothy's girlfriend" demo. That's right, it's time to do some unasked-for script work on:

So, spoiler warning, obviously.

The film opens in Tokyo, 2016. We follow a 10-year-old Japanese girl as she runs frightened and crying through the streets, pursued by an enormous, building-destroying monster. As she does, we hear voice-over narration from an unknown voice (Charlie Hunnam), explaining the film's basic premise; massive monsters, known as kaiju, started appearing out of a portal in the Pacific Ocean, attacking coastal cities. We were defenseless against them.

As the little girl hides down an alley, suddenly a massive robot appears, which the V.O. describes as a Jaeger – a weapon designed by humanity to finally start battling the kaiju back. We watch a brief, exciting tussle between machine and monster, while the child cowers beneath a dumpster. Finally, when the monster is defeated, the girl emerges from hiding and is summarily rescued.

Title drop.

Flash forward to the Shatterdome, the headquarters of the underfunded Jaeger progam in Hong Kong. Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), now an adult, works to repair on a decrepit old Jaeger by the name of Gipsy Danger. She's summoned by her superior, Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), to report for physical compatibility training. As she hustles to the training room, we see her cross the Shatterdome, revealing its three massive Jaegers. Along the way, she briefly banters with the crews of Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha, the Chinese and Russian Jaegers, respectively, hoping today will be the day she finds a co-pilot for Gipsy Danger.

In the training room, Mako roundly defeats all her challengers in unarmed combat. Pentecost is not pleased, however, explaining that the purpose of the training isn't to best your opponent, but to anticipate their moves. He explains that piloting a Jaeger takes teamwork, requires a partner who's drift compatible and who shares some underlying experiences. Pentecost claims to have rounded up other survivors of that initial attack on Tokyo for her to train against, but none of them seem to be compatible with her. She's technically proficient, but very emotionally walled-off. This seems to give him an idea.

Pentecost is quickly accosted by a pair of scientists, Newton (Charlie Day) and Hermann (Burn Gorman), who present their competing theories about the kaiju's origin. Hermann explains the physics of the Rift and his theory that a properly placed bomb would succeed in severing the link between the dimensions. Newt's theory, however, is deemed substantially more dangerous – using the technology that allow Jaeger pilots to meld minds to drift with a kaiju. Pentecost dismisses this idea, tells Hermann to begin development on a bomb and flies off to Alaska to follow a hunch.

In Alaska, Pentecost unearths Raleigh Becket, a scruffy, partially crazed former Jaeger pilot, revealed to be one of Gipsy Danger's original pilot. Raleigh's exact past is kept mysterious, but he's offered a life rope and a chance to once again pilot a Jaeger. Raleigh is skeptical, claiming that no one on earth could possibly drift with him again. Pentecost says he's got someone in mind.

Pentecost and Raleigh arrive back at the Shatterdome and he's introduced to Mako and the other pilots. Upon returning, Pentecost learns that, against his orders, Newt went and drifted with the kaiju anyway. He explains what he learned – the kaiju are merely weapons, tools of colonization used by their intelligent designers in the parallel dimension. Claiming he could learn more, Newt is sent on a side mission; locate a man named Hannibal Chou, acquire a second kaiju brain and gather what intelligence he can.

After a short series of tests, Mako and Raleigh are proven to be physically compatible. During a dry run aboard Gipsy Danger, however, Raleigh loses his cool and Mako is given a glimpse of his flashback; during his last run in Gipsy Danger, Raleigh's brother Yancy was killed mid-drift. In this heightened emotional state, Raleigh nearly destroys the whole Shatterdome, but Mako manages to calm him down. Afterwards, they have a conversation about his past, about how there's a hole in Raleigh's mind that, with the tragedy Mako's also suffered, only she can fill. They talk about grieving and moving on and some real emotional shit.

Newt travels through the scummy streets of Hong Kong, seeking out Hannibal Chou. When he finally
locates the gangster, we learn a little bit about the kaiju black market and Newt must convince Chou to help the war effort by lending him a brain. Fortunately for Newt, there's about to be a kaiju attack – a powerful motivator.

Back at the Shatterdome, an alarm goes off – a double event! Two kaiju are coming to attack the city and all three jaegers are scrambled to defend Hong Kong. Crimson Typhoon, Cherno Alpha and Gipsy Danger all rush out to the bay's defense. The two more experienced Jaegers take point, while Gipsy Danger hangs back to defend the city. On account of their nationalistic rivalry, Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha have a difficult time working together and are nearly destroyed, but Gipsy Danger rushes to their air. In the ensuing melee, Crimson Typhoon loses one of its three arms and one of its three pilots. Cherno Alpha is also sunk, its pilots drowned but its rig more or less in tact.

Alone, then, Gipsy Danger must defeat both kaiju and save Hong Kong. Scene plays out pretty much the same as it does in the film.

Gipsy Danger is victorious, but there's no time to celebrate. According to Hermann's calculations, there's a triple event due any moment. While the crews hastily repair Crimson Typhoon and retrieve Cherno Alpha, Newt returns with a kajiu brain. When he and Hermann drift with the creature, they learn an important secret – the rift will only open for a kaiju. Meanwhile, Raleigh has a brief scene with the crew of Crimson Typhoon, telling them there's life after a drift partner is killed.

Gearing up, the two remaining Jaegers prepare to march towards the breach and deliver Hermann's bomb. Originally, Gipsy Danger attempts to claim the responsibility for the bomb, but Pentecost reveals that he can pilot Cherno Alpha alone and carry the bomb. He's revealed to be the man who rescued Mako, back in the day when the Jaegers only had one pilot. Mako begs him not too, saying the strain will be too much and he'll die. Pentecost disregards her and climbs into the Jaeger all the same.

Together, all three Jaeger move towards the breach. Two kaiju emerge and give them battle before they can arrive however. Crimson Typhoon manages to hold both of them off long enough for Gipsy Danger and Cherno Alpha to slip past, sacrificing themselves in the process. Before they can deliver the bomb, however, a Category 5 comes through the breach, the biggest kaiju we've yet seen. It summons the one surviving kaiju from Typhoon's battle back, which Gipsy Danger slays, tosses to Cherno Alpha and Pentecost leaps into the breach.

As Pentecost and Alpha fall between the dimensions, Raleigh and Mako do battle with the Category 5. Over the course of the battle, Mako and Pentecost talk briefly on the radio, about what he sees and the life Mako should lead now that he, her adopted father, will be gone. Eventually, Gipsy Danger defeats the Category 5 and they debate leaping in after Pentecost. Suddenly, however, the breach closes!

The shockwave destroys Gipsy Danger and ejects both pilots onto the surface of the ocean. They're revealed to both be fine and are rescued by incoming helicopters.

Notice:

• Mako is the protagonist, rather than another boring white American male.
• Mako is devoid of troubling "I'll defend her honor" implications in the original.
• The Australian rivalry is entirely removed because of its numerous plot-holes including, but not limited to: Who cares? A dog doesn't make you more sympathetic. How petty are you, random Australian tough guy, that you'd bully a fellow pilot over exactly nothing? Why the fuck doesn't Leatherback just destroy Striker Eureka after its EMP knocks the Jaeger out?
• The Newt/Kaiju brain plotline doesn't include that weird "hive mind" subplot that randomly dead-ends.
• The compatibility thing isn't just thrown away towards the end of the movie when we suddenly need to have Pentecost pilot a Jaeger.
• Also, no fucking GLaDOS. I'm glad he got permission, I guess, but the whole idea's just creatively bankrupt. I like Portal, let's put Portal stuff in my movie too, rather than coming up with my own idea? Sloppy.

Thoughts? Complaints? Angry defense of del Toro? Leave 'em below!

And Now For Something Completely Different

This Week on Worldblogger:

After my hiatus, I found myself unenergized by the world I'd previously been creating. On further reflection, I think I was approaching it from too cosmic a standpoint. What really interests me about worldbuilding are the details. I was so hopelessly far from details on my previous world that I had a difficult time dragging myself back to the keyboard each week.

This week, then, I've decided to do something drastically different. This week, I simply drew a map of a city and, based on that map, I'm going to brainstorm some ideas. Next Wednesday, I'll write a detailed description of the city – which you can insert, whole-cloth, into your novel, D&D setting, what have you. Let's see how this goes!

The Map:

Thoughts:
Obviously a populous city – I imagine all the interior brown boxes represent small neighborhoods, rather than actual buildings. Many criss-crossing streets, one major river that streams through the center of the city and empties into the ocean. Seven bridges cross the river and seemingly random intersections. Large walls with circular, turreted towers. It's interesting that the wall doesn't seem to encompass the entire city – does it serve some other purpose than defense? Was it never completed?

The most salient detail of the map, perhaps, is the large island some distance off the shore. When I was drawing the map, I imagined it was something like neutral territory for the citizens, where they could trade and exchange goods without some negative influence – either government or societal – over their mercantile enterprises. Hence, I drew all the colored stall tops (again, meant to represent the idea symbolically, rather than literally). Lost of docks and jetties too, which probably means many people to trade with. Ostensibly, the city's not very isolated, but those high walls might disagree.

When I was drawing, I'd sorta imagined a rich, populous Middle Eastern/Mediterranean city, the kind of place Fafhrd, Conan and the Grey Mouser would frequent. I imagine the place a spiritual cousin to the Free Cities in Martin's Essos, with more than a little influence borrowed from Gentlemen of the Road too. Maybe the land to the south is wild, expansive steppe or desert, populated by raiding hordes of nomads, who bring the goods they pillage and conquest here for trade. Perhaps bearded, red-shirted savages come down from the north, to similarly trade raided goods.

As for the city itself, I imagine it teeming, crowded and full of strange and exotic goods. The smells of cinnamon, cardamon, fresh fish, stale piss, spilled wine – all mingling together. Bravos walk the streets, urchins ply the crowd's pockets, great and unusual beasts of burden trundle through the narrow alleyways.

I'm currently toying with an unusual or atypical system of government. All the time, places like these are depicted as brutal dictatorships, like the Overlord of Lankhmar, where the common people are worthless trash than the nobles grind into the dust. What if this city was a democracy? Not even a republic like we are, but an actual Athenian democracy. What if voting was a regular, even weekly part of life? Imagine the more interesting corruption and graft you could play with in a democracy like that.

A strictly democratic, richly mercantile desert port, where much of the city's wealth is traded outside and the citizens fiercely protect their voice in civic matters? Sounds like a good starting point!

Let's maybe try one more thing – what if every week, I conclude with some question, something you spambots can vote on or suggest ideas for, that would determine some important facet of the city?

What's the predominant religion of the city?

• Monotheism (devoted to one, all-powerful deity)
• Polytheism (devoted to many smaller, less powerful deities)
• Philosophical (devoted to an ideal, a concept, a way of life)
• Irreligious (devoid of higher beliefs, an atheistic or even blasphemous state)
• Other (leave your suggestions in comments)

Feel free to vote or suggest ideas in the comments!

Next Week on Worldblogger: The City Is Named!

The Banner Saga Review

Name: The Banner Saga
Developer: Stoic Studios
Negative Review Title: The Banner Slog-a
Porn Title: The Boner Saga
Rating: 6 / 10

I purchased The Banner Saga as a post-Galactic Menace reward for finishing the book. For me, personally, a $25 sticker price represents a huge investment on my part. The promise of bleak, sprawling, turn-based Viking epic, however, was more than enough.

In the end, I got my money's worth. Just barely.

The Game:
Humans and giants struggle for survival in a forbidding frozen landscape. Steeped in Norse mythology, The Banner Saga is a ponderous, plodding game of moral choices, turn-based-combat and rich worldbuilding, with a heavy dose of resource management and tactical deployment.

The Pros:
The art is unreasonably beautiful and the first thing everyone mentions. The 60s-era Disney movie aesthetic really, really translates to this setting, with vibrant colors and sharp, storybook characters that only help to enhance the epic quality of the narrative. For me, though, it was the landscapes that were the most breathtaking part. Since so much of the game is spent in travel, you're really treated to a wide array of fucking gorgeous Nordic vistas and frosty mountainsides.

The worldbuilding, similarly, is nearly as rich and vibrant. The narrative plops you into a textured world that, in many ways, specifically recalls Middle Earth and Tolkien's Nordic influence, detailing the ancient work of gods now absent and the strained relationships between two similar, but diametrically opposed races. For all the exposition there is, it's hardly ever dumped on you; you're simply placed in the midst of all the swirling political tension. For not being Martin,  they sure manage to facsimile a decent Westerosi vibe.

It's the map, for me, that's really the strength of the worldbuilding, though. A sprawling, Jackson-era film nod, it's immense and filled with hundreds of locations, nations, geographical features and names, each one outfitted with a tiny slice of lore. I loved whenever I could make an excuse to pour over the map. (That gives me an ideal, actually...)

The combat, having played my fair share of Banner Saga: Factions, I continue to enjoy, mostly for its extreme difficulty. It's very punishing to lose and has set me swearing and stomping angrily around the apartment more than once but, when you do win, you feel clever – you feel like a tactician.

There are elements of the narrative that I enjoyed. I legitimately felt for many of the supporting cast (supporting cast exclusively – the main players bugged me) and I was heartbroken when many of them died, partially because of how unfair their deaths seemed to me. I do think, for the cast of thousands aesthetic they're going for, the game really succeeds at distinguishing the individual characters.

Hakon is a bodyguard thrust into a leadership position. Ubin is a world-weary tax collector. Oddleif is a chieftain's wife, never given the opportunity to shine until her husband's death. Some of the side characters – Ekkil and Ludin, specifically – are shockingly complex, I thought, considering how little they're used in the story. Overall, the character sketching was excellent, if the narrative less so.

The Cons:
I found Rook, the game's painful Aragon-meets-William Wallace protagonist, to be a bore and I found the game's main relationship, between Rook and his daughter Alette, to be even more boring. The game warns you early on that moral choices will define the scope of the story (more on this later), but then plants you into a character with a predefined set of principles – help people, most of all his daughter.

The empty vessel character really works best in games where I'm expected to insert my own ethics and reflect on them. If I'm trying to accurately play Rook – who only comes with half a personality – I can't really explore or address how I'd face these problems.

And that's the real tragedy of The Banner Saga; there are no moral choices. The game seems to pride itself on its divergent narrative, on the freedom it gives the player. I understand the illusion of choice as well as anyone, but not since that absolute horseshit "decision" at the end of Arkham City have I observed a game dangle choice meaninglessly out of my reach.

At one point in the game, all my forces were sequestered in a stronghold, accessible only by a narrow bridge, Khazad-Dûm style. A massive enemy army was marshaling on the opposite side of the bridge and the characters were uncertain how to proceed. At the time, there were two opposing factions within the stronghold; those who wished to blow the bridge and those who wished to preserve it. Personally, since the king of the stronghold wanted the bridge in tact and I was his guest, it was my inclination to keep the bridge in tact.

I therefore refused to destroy the bridge and, instead, waded out into what I expected would simply be a much harder battle. On its face a good choice; preserving your good reputation with the king requires a harder battle, whereas an easy victory costs you points with the king.

However, instead, the game informed me in a cutscene that a valuable member of my party was slain in battle because I refused to destroy the bridge. It then asked me a second time: wanna blow up the bridge now? Fearful of losing more characters, I complied and the train continuing chugging down the railroad it always intended to lead me down.

It only adds insult to injury, then, that battle is actually the safest place for your characters. While they can become wounded and require rest, the act of fighting the enemy won't ever actually endanger your characters. If a character dies in The Banner Saga, they die unexpectedly in a cut-scene, as an unforeseen consequence to one of your decisions. This always, always feels like punishment for choosing the wrong path, is never communicated to be inevitable and worst of all, it's telegraphed as the worst option.

The game, at points, is uninterestingly, unimaginatively bleak. There's a long stretch where your wounded and demoralized caravan is trekking through a succession of burnt and destroyed towns, all identical, all filled with more enemies and all lacking anything more interesting to do that starve. The fifth time I arrive hopeful to a village, expecting some story or at least a refueling station, only to find the place ransacked and filled with enemies, grows old very quickly.

Beyond this, the stakes of resources and morale are more or less pointless. There doesn't seem to be any real consequence to morale beyond player guilt and there's no more consequence to lack of resources than the starving of several unnamed extras, literally relegated to numbers flashing on your screen. The notion of dragging a massive caravan around is an interesting one but, if there's no enforcement of the consequences, I guess I don't really care if they die, especially when I could be using the money I would've spent on resources to outfit the heroes, the characters that actually deserve names.

My final grief is how abrupt the ending comes. Maybe I'm naive, but $25 for 10 hours of playtime is pretty egregious, in my opinion. Plus, the game simply throws up a title at the end of a pivotal battle, makes no point of suggesting any further episodes or games and doesn't conclude 90% of the story lines introduced. I was frankly shocked and appalled to see rolling credits, since I honestly felt the game was merely beginning.

Overall:
For all my griping and its serious narrative issues, The Banner Saga is a singular, enjoyable and addicting game. Even describing its flaws, I want to neglect the rest of my chores for the day and run off to play again. I eagerly await the next installment and my earliest opportunity to explore more of the game's rich tapestry.

Recommended, but with serious reservations.

Do Us A Kindie

So, Galactic Menace is up on Barnes & Noble today. Huzzah!

And, in light of this, I was wondering if you might be able to help a fellow out.

Currently, Amazon is selling Galactic Menace for $0.99 since they, a business, refuse to market free ebooks. They will, however, price match other websites who sell the book for free. The only way they'll do this, of course, is if you send them links.

Here's what I need everyone reading this to do:

1. Copy each of these links
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/443789
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/galactic-menace/id885272338?mt=11
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/galactic-menace-timothy-j-meyer/1119673863?ean=2940045981484
Each of these links takes you to a different site (Smashwords, iBooks and Barnes & Noble) where Galactic Menace is available for free.

2. Go to the Galactic Menace Amazon page and scroll to "tell us about a better price" link

On the Galactic Menace's Amazon Page, scroll down, find the "tell us about a lower price" link at the bottom of the product details section and click.








3. Fill out the form

Choose the Website (Online) option, paste each address into the URL box, fill out the price info as "0.00" and the shipping also as "0.00" and click submit feedback.

And that's that! If you wouldn't mind submitting all three addresses – Smashwords, iBooks and B&N – that would make a galaxy of difference to me!

Thanks, space pirates and spambots! With your help, we can make Galactic Menace free for everyone to read!

Back to Tatooine

Disclaimer: If you're wisely attempting to avoid leaked footage from Episode 7, you may wanna skip this week. I should probably take your advise, but they got me right where I'm weakest – scummy Tatooine spaceports.

As an avid Star Wars fan, I'm exhilarated at the prospect of more films. As heart-rendingly terrible as the prequels proved, as universally despised as they are and as much as I agree with all those sentiments, they still expended the Star Wars universe an incredible amount, adding planets, species, organizations and ideas to the setting's rich tapestry.

Gungans? Can be interesting. Jango Fett? Parsecs more interesting than Boba. Kashyyyk? Where were you my whole life? Dugs, podracing, Geonosis – much as I love to rag on them, there's some solid stuff for the worldbuilder in me.

Therefore, I don't share many people's skepticism about Abrams. I'm frustrated that he effectively called out Lucas' name while in bed with Rodenberry, but that doesn't mean that, when reunited with his true love, he won't still make the film everyone wanted Episode One to be.

And everything I've seen suggests that's exactly what's gonna happen. Puppets, practical effects, real costumes. It's all there.

Naysayers, your opinions been noted, but you may wanna leave, 'cause this grown man's about to squee over some blurry leaked set photos.

Everybody else? Wanna check deez out with me?

The main action seems to be encircling this massive bowl-like structure.
Open-air bazaar? Pitfighting arena? Uncertain

Everything seems to be fenced into this one circular area, but the interior
is mostly empty. It's like a vacated junkyard or something. Weird.

It's wholly possible this says "Warning" in Aurebesh.
I may have translated that myself. Reports vary.

Surrounding the arena is a makeshift bazaar, complete with
flapping tents, animal cages and hooded locals.

Is that a fire?
My theory, at this time, is actually a demolition derby.*

Could the podracer engine support that theory?

 And, of course, the pièce de résistance:

 Reports indicate this giant alien pachyderm is a full-size puppet, featured in two scene and, that's right, crewed by five individual people, riding around inside its belly. There's literally never been a better sign that Episode VI will return to form than this goddamn puppet.

Well, maybe except for this.

*I suddenly hoping it's not a demolition derby because how have I never even thought of a demolition derby in Bad Space

Psst! You downloaded Galactic Meance yet? Go now, while everyone's distracted!

Galactic Menace Released!

Greetings, neglected readership!

I'm posting today to inform all your spambots that Galactic Menace, Book II of the embarrassingly popular Bad Space Trilogy, was released on June 1st! It's currently free for download from Smashwords, the iBookstore and our own humble website (www.badspacebooks.com) and shall soon be free from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

We're off to a pretty good weekend, with 100+ downloads on Smashwords alone and about a dozen generous purchases on Amazon. Please, spambots, go forth – read, rate and review!

GALACTIC MENACE
Book II of the Bad Space Trilogy

Their coffers are comparatively full. Their spaceship is actually in one piece for a change. Their bounties, however, remain astronomically high.

During the explosive events of the previous book, the monomaniac Captain Nemo and his crew of spacefaring swashbucklers were plucked from the ranks of criminal obscurity and into the crosshairs of the underworld's high and mighty. Gone from surviving to thriving, the wanted space pirates now hatch a plan to collect one quiet payday, cover their tracks and go to the mattresses until the heat dies down some.

All that changes with the "piracy is pointless" gaffe. Those three little words, when spoken by an official Imperium mouthpiece, threaten to flip Bad Space on its head.

Before they can entirely react, the crew of The Unconstant Lover find themselves unwittingly set back onto a collision course with galactic politics, underworld intrigue and, most surprisingly, interstellar celebrity. Where once they sought a means to slink into the shadows, they're instead thrown quite spectacularly into the limelight. Standing at the swirling center of all this danger and destruction is, predictably, Captain Nemo.

Heavenly Bodies

The World So Far: The world is flat. On one side of disc is the exhaustively explored and urbanized home of humans, where cities, countries and nations vie for too little land to support their expanding populations. On the other side of the disc is an uncharted and largely oceanic world, dotted by islands and coastlines, full of strange wonder, abundant resources and tropical beauty.

An incoming force of humans, from a number of distinctly 15th century-feeling cultures, have sailed over the edge of their world and come to colonize the world below. Some have come to seek asylum, refuge or more converts to their maligned faith. Some have been exiled over, punished for crimes committed in the world above. Still, others come over to set down stakes in a new world, to exploit the natural resources and expand their conquest.

The new world's inhabitants, however, are four powerful undersea kingdoms, full of dynastic struggle, ancient tradition and military might. With cultures far older and far more intricate than those of the human colonists, the undersea kingdoms are as unprepared for this sudden clash of cultures as the unawares humans are.

This, sadly, is really becoming more of a biweekly thing. A shame, I suppose. I need more excuses to blog.

This week we're meant to talk about the Exodus, the possibly exiled, possibly self-exiled, possibly sinister group of religious extremists who came to the Underworld, looking for a new paradise where they could practice their religion uncontested. What, thus far, do we remember about the Exodus?

Primarily, they were the second group to arrive here and they have the closest relationship to the Brethren. Back on the Overworld, the Exodus were the blokes responsible for casting the criminals and heretics who would be the Brethren in barrels over the edge of the world. Probably isn't gonna go a long way towards endearing those two groups any.

Indeed, we even know that, prior to the Exodus' arrival in the Underworld, the castaways and refugees who would later adopt the Brethren mantle weren't even organized. It was the emergence of these, their hated enemies, that made the predatory instincts arise in these dissolute and isolated hermits.

What could be so terrible about the Exodus, besides revenge, that could inspire such vitriol?

I'm not sure if they're going to end up related, but I think I'm about to embark on an astronomy tangent. I've been reading the exceedingly relevant Quintessence by David Walton (overall, a meh book, but has some fascinating pseudo-science packed in there) and it also features, coincidentally, a flat world. The way he goes about handling this flat world is especially fascinating and led me to wonder whether or not the cosmology would work in a similar way.

In Walton's alternate history earth, the world is a flat disc and the sun continues to rotate, but in an ovular orbit. This means, when the sun rises, it's enormous to anyone on the eastern side of the disc and tiny to anyone on the western side. When the sun sets, it's enormous to anyone on the western side of the disc and tiny to anyone on the eastern side. This creates this exceedingly bizarre life cycle for creatures living on the either extreme.

In thinking about this model, I think I too would wanna majorly adapt the cosmology, but in a substantially different direction than Walton's. I think, as opposed to the sun orbiting the earth, I think the sun remains stationary, rotates and possesses a dark side. When the bright side of the sun shines down on the earth, it's daytime. When the sun is waxing, it's morning and when the sun is waning, it's evening. When the dark side faces the earth, it's nighttime.

I enjoy the effect this creates – sorta combining both heavenly bodies – moon and sun – into one celestial entity.

In a setting where the world's flat, however, a stationary sun would basically require a counterpart. I imagine the Underworld probably has it's own sun, following pretty much the same, if perhaps inverse rules. When it's daytime on the Overworld, it's nighttime on the Underworld. That seems to read.

Is there a way this could map to the Exodus faith? Historically speaking, the sun and moon are enormous figures in folklore and would probably factor prominently into whatever religion the Colonist cultures bring with them.

The obvious choice, here, would be to describe a binary religion, similar to Christianity, where the sun's bright side represents good, virtue, honor, righteousness and the sun's dark side represents evil, vice, deceit, corruption. That's definitely too on the nose. One step further would be the sorta Griffindor/Slytherin angle – the bright side represents bravery, passion, anger while the dark side represents cunning, wisdom, wit. Again, maybe closer, but too surface level, not quite interesting enough.

The few choices about the Exodus that I do like are the notion of a self-exile. Similar to the Puritans, where they voluntarily fled the nation of their birth to seek religious freedom elsewhere. I also like the implication they're less than virtuous themselves. There's something about their faith that's even outwardly bizarre or outlandish, something the average Colonist may not accept. Something with maybe even a vaguely cultish vibe.

Hm. This is proving difficult to pin down. My other instincts all run towards the supernatural but, again, we're attempting to avoid magic in this setting. 

I may need to come back to the specifics of the actual religion later. Maybe attempt to paint a surface level on their culture, particularly how they interact with other powers and cultures.

The Brethren, as I said, I think despise them. The Nations, meanwhile, are probably more or less indifferent to them – I feel as though they've adopted a much more mainstream religious view than whatever the Exodus practice. For the most part, I imagine the Kingdoms ignore them too, possibly regarding their beliefs as an academic curiosity, largely depending on which Kingdom we're talking about.

Early on, I'd had the idea that the Exodus did manage to convert one group – one of the Kingdoms in particular – to their faith and, in some ways, made much more fervent converts from them than they necessarily expected. The idea of the raiding Kingdom D culture absorbing whatever religion the Exodus brings them intrigues me and seems to suggest a few things about the core tenets of that religion – something that could permit the wanton raiding and pillaging Kingdom D's culture revolves around.

Again, all these clues with very little practical solutions. I'll probably have to percolate more on the specifics of the Exodus' actual religion before I can make that many concrete decisions about culture. Damn.


Well, whatever the case may be, next installment (hopefully next Wednesday), I'll be talking about Kingdom B, the mercantile center of the undersea world.

Next Wednesday on Worldblogger: Mermerchants!

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