Things That I Like: Cosmogonical Fiction

Things That I Like: Cosmogonical Fiction

What’s that, you may ask? Let’s start out with a few examples. Spoilers will be everywhere, so be warned.

Unknown Armies is a game that divides itself into three levels: street, global, and cosmic. In cosmic-level games, the players are trying to live their lives so as to imitate particular Archetypes strongly enough to ascend to a higher state of existence and become one of the 333 members of the Invisible Clergy. When their ranks are filled this universe will come to an end and a new one will be born under their direction.

Nexus War and its replacement Nexus Clash are a pair of browser-based MMORPGs that are about a conflict taking place after the end of the universe. The player characters are people taken from various worlds and points in the history of the last universe, and placed in a battlefield made partly of eternal planes and partly of post-apocalyptic flotsam. Their actions strengthen and weaken the various gods (and fixing things can be as useful as killing your god’s enemies, if he’s the craftsgod). The strongest god out of the nine will be the one who will exert the greatest amount of influence in creating the next universe. This will affect everything from how many spatial and temporal dimensions exist to how death works (or doesn’t) to how integral violence is to the very fabric of reality in that universe.

Homestuck is a really, really long webcomic (658,000 words and counting) that is, basically, about these kids who play a game called Sburb that sends them into another world. In the process this destroys Earth, and their actions in this other world will contribute to the creation of a whole new universe.

A Dry, Quiet War is a bit off from the others in that there is a war at the end of time— it’s literally called “the Big War at the End of Time”— but it isn’t being fought to determine the nature of the next universe. Rather, in crazy stable time loop shenanigans, the war is being fought in order to determine the nature of this universe. As Colonel Bone explains, “In the future, we won. I won, my command won it. Really, really big. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re all here.”

What do these have in common?

There is a conflict being fought by persons or groups. They may be fighting each other, as in Unknown Armies and Nexus War, or against the environment or another group which has no chance of influencing the universe, as in Homestuck, where the Dersites can only prevent the creation of the new universe, not twist it to their own aims.

The conflict generally involves an amount of violence, but violence typically isn’t the only factor. 

• In Unknown Armies you have to act in a way that befits your Archetype, and acting against this can actually reduce your power.
• In Homestuck, catching frogs is one of most important tasks out there, and building houses is also a pretty big thing.
• As mentioned before, in the Nexus games something as simple as repairing or building a door can help out your side.

The participants generally ascend to greater power in the course of events, whether or not they are directly responsible for creating the new universe or merely facilitating it:

• Characters in Unknown Armies gain godlike powers.
• In Homestuck, Sburb’s players have the potential to ascend to the “god tiers” and get other abilities along the way,
• The champions of the Elder Powers in the Nexus games can become angels, demons, vampires, and more.
• Those who fought in the Big War at the End of Time are almost like eldritch horrors by the end. Some of this is merely technological, such as how Colonel Bones’ nerves have been replaced by wires, but then there’s stuff like how he kills somebody so that that the other guy is plain wiped from existence.

Finally, those involved may have to destroy this universe or a part of it in the process of creating the new one. Indeed, destruction is necessary in three of the above four, and in two of those the forces of creation are apparently convinced that they are an IKEA and all universes must go.

These stories are to be distinguished from games like Mage or Esoterrorists, or stories like Fritz Leiber’s Change War series because the nature of this reality is set in stone. Even if you’re fighting for this universe’s nature, as in A Dry, Quiet War, there’s really no hope of changing the outcome. You’re just fighting because you fought, and it’s impossible to change time no matter what, or there will be other reasons for you to fight, or breaking the time loop does bad things to you but to everybody else in the timeline-as-it-should-have-happened it’s as if nothing different went down (as in Homestuck but also as in The Men Who Murdered Mohammed).

What’s the point of writing all this out?

I think that these examples represent a legitimate pattern of story. Hence why I bothered to give them a name. But, and here’s a point, I had to give them a name. It’s a real pattern, but not one that’s been recognized yet. Probably because it is, I’ll freely admit, pretty minor.

But these can’t be the only stories of their kind. Are there any other examples that come to mind? Or common elements that I’ve missed?

(And does anyone think that it’s an interesting enough pattern to use for a story, or am I the only one?)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The Hope Spot #3: Nietzsche & the Heroine’s Journey

This post originally appeared in the August issue of Sanitarium Magazine

***

I am probably not the biggest Nietzsche fanboy that you are ever going to meet, but I think that a case could be made that I am the biggest Nietzche fanboy currently writing a column for Sanitarium. One of my favorite ideas from Nietzsche is the concept of “Eternal return.”

Things That I Like: 4 Conflicts Between Order and Chaos

“In Michael Moorcock’s universe, a war is fought by two separate yet equally important groups: Law, which provides the fundamental capability of existence, and Chaos, which provides the ability for change and development. These are their stories.”

Awhile back I wrote a post with four moral dichotomies that were not so simple as “Good vs. Evil.” I mentioned that I would probably do an article specifically treating Order and Chaos and, what do you know, that day has come.

Things That I Like: The Utopians: Theory, More Practice

In light of my earlier article on dystopias, I thought it would be appropriate to bring back an aborted setting that I worked on a long, long time ago. The premise was that there was a great conflict by a number of groups, called the Utopians, who were each genuinely trying to better everyone’s lives. But they disagreed on methods and they disagreed on ends. Even though they acknowledged that they were all trying to do a good job they couldn’t work together because each of the others sacrificed or didn’t address something which they considered to be of vital importance.

That’s what this is about, by demonstrating and giving examples.  Good Guys— or at least Decent Guys— who still can’t get along because they have such differing value systems, and the myriad ways that a utopia can take root.

Fiction: Where the Minotaur (A Babylonian Medley Story)

Out of the books must you be judged, and out of the books have they been judging you. Have they judged you?

They have.

Out of books that are a pale, forged book of life. You remember the hearing of your crimes, even if the memory of them is sometimes faded in this place. You remember, and you remember knowing you were not a monster.

Things That I Like: Beyond Good & Evil: 4 Moral Dichotomies

I like moral dichotomies and moral conflicts in settings. I even, on occasion, enjoy the epic struggle between Good and Neutral, or Candy and Chocolate. But when you have a conflict between the forces of Light and Darkness and they represent Good and Evil every time, well, I get a little exhausted by it. The next go-to option is little better. Order and Chaos? Nowadays that seems to be just as overplayed as Good and Evil. Sometimes even more— or worse, it’s supposedly about Order vs Chaos but these are just synonyms for Good and Evil.

Maybe one day I’ll write up a column about other ways to treat Order and Chaos in fiction (let me know below if that would interest you) but today I want to deal with moral dichotomies in general and present four Light/Dark dichotomies that are about a little something more.

Salt City Strangers [#1, #2]: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

A review for Salt City Strangers (#1 and #2). Credits at the end. 

Nutshell: The comic is about the latest incarnation of a team of superheroes defending Salt Lake City and, indeed, the whole world (because of Magic Stuff involving the transcontinental railroad that is actually kind of interesting). The series promises to deal with matters of faith (the Strangers range from Mormon-in-name-only to hardcore-believer) but has only barely begun to dip its toes in the water. Only time will tell if it can grow legs and live up to its potential.

Fiction: A Legend of Creation

This story at Fictionpress.

After the Gods descended from the spires of the stars and made the world and all things that existed thereon, and in the depths thereof, They waited for a time in the midst of the world and observed the work which they had saw fit to form. And it came to pass that They saw many that began to grope forward toward the light of knowledge, and in the fullness of time it was to these that the Gods taught the gift of writing.

Poetry: Schicksal der Götter [Christian/Norse mashup]

This poem at Fictionpress
at Archive of Our Own

"Fate of the Gods," or Ragnarok. A fusion of Norse and Christian apocalypses.

This is a ljóðaháttr poem, a form characterized by alliteration, lifts, and caesuras (here denoted by "|").

It draws heavily on the Völuspá for the course of events, more so than the Bible.

Poetry: "The Queen (of the Moon)" and "Coyote"

These poems were previously published at Inner Sins on April 1st, 2014.

Click on the titles to view them at Inner Sins.

The Queen (of the Moon)

Wicked palms and pomegranates
Around three keys to three kingdoms
Plain blue

The Journeymen [B]

Now, this setting needs wanderers. Odysseans. Cains. You know, the Doctor. Those mysterious people who go from place to place, realm to realm, doing things and maybe, but maybe not, trying to clean the wreckage that they leave behind.

So let's have them. We'll call them the Journeymen. I can’t quite remember how I came up with this, I was just throwing ideas around in my skull, but even though it’s hokey and corny, I like it. That’s what they are, in the end. But it’s not just that they’re walking ‘round Creation doing things. No, they’re journeymen in a more literal sense.

The Journeymen [A]

So we have Star Wars, Star Trek, and Doctor Who. The greatest sci-fi stories of their time. You can see the influences of Star Wars and Star Trek in nearly every science fiction story made afterward (and there’s a lot of fantasy which can trace its way back to Star Wars, although one of these days I’ll need to come up with a Star Trek-inspired fantasy setting).

But Doctor Who?

Nothing. At least in comparison.

Idea: These twelve keep the world alive (and then there were none)

There is precisely one reason why God has not descended from On High and made the world perfect and without sin: The tzadikim.

They are men and women whose existence is a testament to humanity's ability to rise from even the greatest depths of sin and come to a full redemption. They are the proof in the pudding that there's hope for us yet, that the project shouldn't be deemed a failure and scrapped. Their continued existence prevents the end of the world as we know it, and you have never known their names. They are not Gandhi, they are not Jesus. They lead lives of little renown as they act as teachers to those who need their help, and the world makes sure that the world forgets them as they pass away.

Story Notes: Land of Ten Thousand Faces

Notes to: Land of Ten Thousand Faces

And now we get to see things from the government's point of view. I think that this is as good a time as any to mention that I plan for Babylonian Medley to go on for a little longer. An astronomer, Damocles or one of his soldiers, the sorcerers, the nobles, and maybe the Peregrines and/or the Fourth Estate.

Land is a story about identities, and shedding them, and losing them. It's about prices paid.

Tizifone is Tisiphone, the Greek Fury.

Story Notes: The Redemption of Shemesh

Notes to: The Redemption of Shemesh.

I've written about this story elsewhere, but this is more about the technical side.

I wrote a number of short stories on my mission. This is by far my favorite. It was, to be expected, the most difficult to write, and I missed my self-imposed deadline a couple of times because I wanted to make it perfect.

The story is intended to fit into a loose cycle that I call the Modern Mythology. A few of the other stories that I wrote on my mission are included in that cycle, like Afflatus and The Seller of Stars, but this is the crown of them all. Hastur is an intentional inclusion of the Cthulhu Mythos in the Modern Mythology. I intend to lift liberally from pop culture as much as the most ancient mythologies, and the association of Hastur with the moon made him a natural choice to be the Satan figure in this story.

Shemesh comes from Ir-Shemesh or Beit Shemesh, both meaning "the house of the sun." That she once borrowed light from her father is a reference to footnote five of Facsimile 2 in the Book of Abraham, and the symbolism of the moon in Redemption comes from an inversion of this. She lives atop the mountains because these are holy places, her earliest temples.

Kokaubeam comes from the Book of Abraham as well, specifically verse 13. He is and symbolizes the stars, thus completing our main ensemble of celestial bodies. His true name, Philo-Sophia, of course means "lover of wisdom," which gives another name to Shemesh besides Truth and Justice (and says something about all three of these things) and clarifies, for anyone who hasn't gotten it yet, that this is Shemesh's show. Abinadab, Shemesh's father and lord of Empyrean, can mean "Father of nobility." He's also a celestial body (as perhaps all the titans are) and could also be called Kolob, I'm sure. Hierosolyma-on-the-Hills comes from two folk etymologies of the name Jerusalem and refer to the mountains (or hills, I suppose) again.

The story is about Shemesh's redemption, but from the very beginning I didn't want it to have a prince in shining armor who comes to rescue her. Kokaubeam does not go to retrieve her but to empower her, or rather that she already has power but is failing to use it. I think that he's a very angry character, despite and even because of his love for Shemesh: he loves her because of who she is capable of being, and it angers him to see that potential squandered. But he is ever and always Mentor rather than Rescuer, which Shemesh accomplishes herself. He may lend her aid, just as he may have provided moral support during her battle with Hastur, but it is by her own action that she goes down from the mountain and by her own action that she wins the kingdom and defeats Hastur.

The confrontation between Shemesh and Hastur is the great cosmogonical battle between God and the forces of chaos that creates (or in this case recreates or restores) the universe. It draws heavily from Job 38, turning God's monologue into a dialogue between creator and leviathan. It is partly for this battle that I developed the peculiarly lethal word magic that occurs earlier in the story (I also thought it would be a neat way to make literal some phrases that would otherwise be metaphor).

Shemesh gives three items to her heir to represent the traditional three (or just two) treasures held by many royal houses. The throne that she sits on after her ascension is a physical rather than purely conceptual majesty and greatness in the same way that Shemesh is both literally and symbolically the sun, hence augustus. In the phenomenal world, meanwhile, Hastur's sword might function as a sort of Excalibur, with an added caveat: While only one who is worthy to reign in Shemesh's stead as regent (for it is still her throne and she is still Queen, but only absent from the world) may draw it from the throne in which it rests, only one who would immediately replace it in the throne would be counted as worthy. These would then follow Shemesh's example and sit at the servants' table, hence their throne of wood, which is a simple chair.

That in itself might serve as a short vignette, actually.

Idea: In Absentia Deus

There is some sort of concrete proof that God exists. Or, rather, that He did exist. It appears that He's quite gone now but this isn't common knowledge. No, this is knowledge known only by the Church, and this is at a time when there is no need to say anything but "the Church" if you want others to understand of whom you speak.

Perhaps this might work best during the days of Luther and after, when the Church is beginning to splinter. Not only do they have to struggle with the knowledge that the Lord has left this world but also with the fact that the organization of His appointed shepherds is threatening to crumble and collapse like a badly-built cathedral. There is nothing to suggest that the Devil and his ilk have been done away with, either, so the Holy Father and the rest who know are trying to prepare for the possibility of a redoubled initiative from Hell without really knowing, for sure, how to do so. Oh yes, they can double and triple their efforts to keep the Church strong and the people in faith and purity, but they don't know if entirely new tactics are going to be called for in order to combat entirely entirely new tactics from Below, deployed in consideration of the fact that there is no longer risk of interference from God.

I'd like for the Church to be presented as, if not the Good Guys, then at least possessing a significant and respectable number of Good Guys. Not everyone was corrupt. Not everyone was selfish or power-hungry, and if they and their less scrupulous colleagues agree that the secret of the Lord's Absence must remain a secret then they may still have different reasons for coming to the same conclusion. This is no time, no time at all, for the chaos in the ranks that would accompany such a revelation to the world. Even in a world of secret-keeping there's no reason for the Church to be built upon a foundation of villainy.

• Are there still angels? What of the Saved, who were in Heaven? Without directions from the Godhead is there now some disunity in the hosts of Heaven?
• Perhaps some of those who suffer near-death experiences are coming back with reports of a city with streets paved with gold but without a single sign of habitation. If there are still angels, then where are they? And how is the Church dealing with these reports that are threatening to blow the secret wide open? 
• The Morningstar is making preparations. Some of those that have returned from death's door were not bound for Heaven, and they have come back with new lives- sometimes new faces and identities to accompany this second chance at life- and peculiar laundry lists of what seem to be the most pointless tasks imaginable.

Story Notes: Absolutely Positive

Notes to: Absolutely Positive

In keeping with the ambiguity of John's sex in Things Unsaid, I made sure to avoid any use of pronouns that would settle the matter one way or another. English really needs some good gender-neutral pronouns (and I'm not talking about words like "it" and "their").

I tried another way of setting flashbacks apart from the main flow of the story in Absolutely Positive. Indenting them worked better than italicizing would have, but it does make it a bit troublesome when I'm adapting the story to a format that doesn't support easy indenting (such as private messages to Beta readers who prefer to get the story as a PM or IM rather than an email).

Fiction: Absolutely Positive

This story at Fictionpress.

See also: Things Unsaid; Sixteen Hours

A Story Across Years: Chapter five. "Tradition, of course. I wonder when it started."

Secret Life: Chapters seven and eight. Sci-fi horror. "He is afraid. Afraid that he knows why he is here."

Sadcore warning. 

Babylonian Medley: Absolutely Positive

You made the lentil soup yourself. No-one can make it the way that you do. A dash of this and that. Humble ingredients that are spun together to make a meal fit for a noble. At least, you think so. Many nobles have disagreed with you on the matter.

Perhaps that is why they needed to die.

It isn't that you killed them for lacking in good culinary taste or simply disagreeing with you. But they couldn't appreciate the simple things. They couldn't see the refinement of humility or the grandeur therein. This had many different consequences. One of them was that they were unable to appreciate the best things in life. Another was that you have been been killing them whenever you could get away with it.

Fiction: The Cup That I Shall Drink Of

The Cup That I Shall Drink Of

And on the third day after that their provisions had run out, since the storm had forced them to take up refuge in the belly of the cave, another of them perished from cleanness of teeth. And there was exceeding mourning, and lamentations, because of the loss of her that had been their mother, or their sister.

And it came to pass that one of them, who was brother to her that had perished, knelt down and cried out with many long strugglings on behalf of them that remained, saying, "Is there no help for the widow's son?" and "For what cause hast Thou led us into the wilderness, to die before we reach the city of refuge which Thou hast appointed?"

And there came unto him a voice, saying, "Put forth thy hand upon the residue of thy supplies, thy metal and thy fuel, and make a fire, and with it make thee a knife." And after the man had done so the voice commanded him again, saying, "Take the knife into thy hand, that was made by fire, for there shall be done through thy hand a miracle like unto the sacrifice for Elijah the Tishbite, for Jehovah that is his God. And take thee also the pots and cups of they that are with thee, and all containers that are in thy possession."

And the man did as was given unto him and he put the knife to his throat, and cut it. And the blood gushed out, which was gathered by him alone, for he would not that the others would see him doing these things. And he grew not faint, but the blood ceased to flow. And the voice said unto him, "And again, until every vessel is filled." And the man did as was given unto him. And he was told, "Take, drink." But the man would not, saying, "It is forbidden me. For it is said, Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings."

And the Spirit of the Lord entered into him again, saying, "Reach forth thy hand, and drink, looking forward unto the day of thy rescue. What I have sanctified by consecration, call not thou common." And the man did as was given unto him, and drank, and was filled. And the man went out unto the others, and gave unto him to drink, repeating unto them the words of God which he had heard.

And it came to pass that the vessels did not fail, neither their strength, until the time that their rescuers arrived, coming out from the city of refuge. And before they saw the first of them, they heard the Spirit of the Lord, which said unto them, "Only by the shedding of blood are you saved to-day, to reveal unto you a type of greater things, and without the shedding of blood was there no salvation herein. Ye are dead bodies, but no longer."