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Worlds I've Built In My Head, Part I:
Basically notes/overviews of some of my original fiction universes, mostly so I don't forget them myself, and partly to see which among them sounds most interesting to outsiders. *smiles faintly* Some of them have bits and pieces written for them, more of them are completely in my head. All of them have, over the course of my life, served as escape and vivid entertainment for me, and I'm very, very fond of pretty much all of them. *grins* Witness ...
Basically notes/overviews of some of my original fiction universes, mostly so I don't forget them myself, and partly to see which among them sounds most interesting to outsiders. *smiles faintly* Some of them have bits and pieces written for them, more of them are completely in my head. All of them have, over the course of my life, served as escape and vivid entertainment for me, and I'm very, very fond of pretty much all of them. *grins* Witness ...
Medath:
Definitely the biggest and most sprawling of my mental worlds, perhaps by virtue of also being the oldest of them. Medath was initially born from the games me and my sisters played when we were kids, where we imagined we were elemental sorceresses, each with a mythical familiar. *grins* I was Evelyn, an ice elemental with a dragon familiar named Argh. *sighs* Those were the days ...
Anyway. Aside from each having an element, and a familiar, we also each had an island nation as a home. Ecudor, Magico and Padudoo (we were between twelve and eight, okay, don't judge us! *grins*). Later, I took those three islands and used them as the basis for the Great Southern Archipelago, which in turn served as the window onto Medath as a whole. I was the one who gave it the name, and almost all of the world besides Magico and Padudoo was my invention, which is why I feel comfortable enough claiming it. Heh.
And Medath ... Medath has maps, and continents, and politics, and different areas of the world that carry completely different stories (the main settings were the initial island trio for the elemental story, the Jawburn Islands, also in the GSA, for the slaver/merc story (a couple of shorts for which are on LJ, under the 'femslash' tag - I RP'd Ara and Nira for a while), and most of the continents of Selfar and Felspar for the grand apocalyptic story, with occasional look-ins from the northern continents too). And yes, looking on it years later, the shapes of the landmass bear a lot of resemblance to earth (specifically, Eurasia, Africa and Oceania, if the Indian subcontinent and SE Asia was actually separated out into a discrete landmass). But the cultures and continental focus was very different, so I'm not too bothered about it. Heh.
And the characters ... Medath was where I played with big stories, so they had big chararcters. Ara and Nira, the larger-than-life slave gladitors and later mercenaries, who I didn't realise when I first thought of them were actually lesbians (well, bisexual, but committed primarily to each other). Aea and Garan and Jen and Iaka, who fought over two continents and with a couple more, and with each other, too, and whose backstories involved the genocides of at least two peoples. Garan, in particular, who was bitter and homocidal, and initially a bad guy, and later driven pretty categorically insane, but still manages to be mostly a hero by the end of it (and he's not even the main character of that story). I had so many loves in Medath.
And also a lot of subtext, which I swear to the gods I never noticed at the time, including between Ara/Nira, Ara/Nira/Slate, Aea/Garan (kinda squicky, that one, as she's waaaay younger than him, and he tried to enslave her when they first met), Jen/Iaka (who were mostly married, but unobtrusively so - both male, by the by). Apparently, even before I knew what sexuality was, I was fairly broad-minded about it. Hehe.
Medath is the oldest and the first, and will pretty much always hold a soft spot in my heart. *grins*
Dak Territories:
Which is something of a misnomer, as 'dak' in the old language of the world actually means 'territory/land/tribe', so the world is basically called "The Territory Territories". *grins* But I kinda like that, because it shows the little language drifts that can happen, even if one of the languages is completely made up. Some of the inhabitants (mostly the gods/daemons) do call it just 'The Daks', but most of the humans make the title mistake. Heh.
The Daks themselves are not a whole world, but rather a particular corner of it ruled by a single culture and a single religion, whose gods and demons are real and very, very active. There are other lands and cultures around them, but most of them don't make it into the story, and there's a strong implication that the Daks themselves deliberately hold themselves separate and insular. Indeed, one of the driving reasons the main plot is considered so apocalyptic is not because it would destroy the world, but because it would sink the Daks into civil war bad enough that outside nations could use it as an opportunity to invade uncontested. The god/daemon conflict, mirrored humanside by the Order/Guild conflict, is coming to a point where all-out war may be in the near future, and the main story is the attempts by a particular group to avoid it. Ironically enough, almost kicking it off early in the process. Heh.
The characters in the Daks are interesting to me, mostly because I started out with a clear idea of who the hero/messiah was going to be, and he did, in fact, remain the hero, messiah and focus of the story, but along the way I sort of completely fell in love with his enemies-slash-captors-slash-reluctant-allies. In particular, Meruk, the honourable and loyal servant of a war god who turns out, once the main plot turns him human, to be something of a colossal dick, which sort of throws Meruk for a complete loop. Along with the fact that Meruk, a devout servant of the Order, and thus the gods, also finds out that most of the daemons are, in fact, pretty alright folks who just happen to be his enemies, and at least half the story, for me, became about watching this one man negotiate a world where everything he thought was true isn't, and while it's getting turned on its head, he has to make decisions that could save or destroy it.
But aside from Meruk, I also loved Aruk, said asshole war god who actually learns over the course of the story. And Jung/Daes, Meruk's only surviving subordinates and Those Two Guys, who have this really weird interdependant, father-son-lover-brother-caretaker-comrade relationship that honestly defies definition for me. And Beren, said messiah, thrice touched by gods and blessed by the Sisters (natural forces, next step up from god in this world). Zen, his sneaky-ass cousin who runs the Guild, and thus is Meruk's and the Order's implacable enemy. Shaiar, the God of Death, who may or may not have been sort of stalking Beren ever since the man was nice to him as a kid (not many of Shaiar's 'customers' are actually friendly, all things considered). Rayhden, Beren's godling friend, who definitely does stalk him, and also turns out to have a tempestous relationship with Aruk, which complicates things. Mellanie, the Thief Daemon who stole Aruk's godhood/immortality. Shanra, Daemon of Shadows, Zen's patron and compatriot. *grins* So many. I sorta fell in love with the entire cast of this one. Mostly Meruk, but sort of all of them. Heh.
Only one main story, for this world. There may be more, if I ever step outside the Daks themselves, but for now, the one is enough, and ongoing in my head - we've just about gotten to the part where the mostly-enemies have agreed not to kill each other, and Aruk has managed to learn the value of human life, which is a huge step for him but not exactly the end-game. We've also gotten to the part where, while our heroes are off adventuring in the Landak and trying to beat some sense into Aruk's head, the rest of the Daks are venturing increasingly close to all-out war as the Orders look to avenge the destruction of the Order of Aruk, and the Guild under Zen are panicking slightly because none of the daemons actually responsible for said destruction thought to warn them about it. Heh.
In short, the whole world is a lot of fun, and an ongoing source of story for me. *smiles*
Galactic Duality:
This is one of the few worlds I've actually written stories down for. You can find them here on LJ, under the 'galactic duality' tag (or from the masterlist). One of my ventures into grand-scale sci-fi, as opposed to fantasy, and probably my favourite. Heh. That could just be because I fell rabidly in love with the two main characters, though. *grins sheepishly*
The basic setting is the future of the Milky Way, in which the galaxy is dominated by the Duality, two opposing and equal telepathic unities. One 'human' and one 'machine'. Those are misleading in some ways, though, as they're mostly Dowling's carry-over terms based on which Earth form of life went into which. Physically, there's a great deal of variety within and between both, and you can have wholly mechanical 'humans' and wholly organic 'machines', and other, stranger physical contructions. The dividing line is telepathic. As in, the machines are any creatures that can communicate telepathically with the Machine Unity but not the Human Unity, and vice versa. There are reasons for this, or rather, one reason, a particular form of thought/idea that the Machine Unity embrace and the Human Unity does not. Dowling, whose mind is more flexible by virtue of have flirted with insanity for most of his life, is the first (or first documented) human to cross over into the Machine Unity.
This universe is one where my focus was wholly split between multiple time frame, expressed as 'arcs' in the stories. One of the major arcs takes places 300 years in the Duality's past, on pre-Duality Earth, where Dowling first contracts telepathy and unwittingly spreads it to the planet, initiating Earth out into the wider Duality, and also where he first meets Isander, his robotic partner and the machine for whom he later breaks all Galactic protocol/culture to join with, shattering perceptions of a fundamental divide in the process. The Earth Arc is ... mostly a study in insanity and love, and the consequences of fear, as Dowling slowly deals with first his own telepathy, and later what he's done to the planet out of fear (he never forgave the Human Unity for using him as essentially a Typhoid Mary in order to spread telepathy to the planet, mostly because the form it took, the Gestalt, utterly terrified him. But he also knows he's completely to blame, because he was a Typhoid Mary, and kept spreading it even after he realised what he was doing, out of fear).
The later arcs, the Galactic and War arcs, take place 300 years later, in the 'present', and concern Integration, and Dowling inadvertently shattering the precepts of the Duality, and the subsequent reactions against him and Isander because of it. These arcs are more a study of what is essentially an inter-racial relationship, the first public one of a very segregated society, and the massive backlash against it. Some themes from the Earth arc are carried forward (what are you willing to do for love, how many worlds will you let fall to preserve what you care about), but more are added in terms of the old cultures and biases of the Duality.
Overall ... the setting is fascinating to me, but pretty much the entire point of this universe for me is the relationship between Dowling and Isander (they both code as male, but compared to the robot/human thing, that's not really the point), the lengths they are willing to go for each other and to be allowed to stay together (Isander let a world fall, Dowling may possibly destroy a galaxy), the trials they've suffered through (Earth and Dowling's insanity/Isander's non-person status, the Duality, Isander gaining telepathy but not the kind to touch Dowling's thoughts, the problems inherant in the segregation of the society and what it meant for their relationship, and then Integration and basically the whole galaxy declaring war on them). It's all about those two, and how much I utterly, utterly adore them. And also, how much I sort of suspect that they may, in fact, be sort of bad guys, or at least selfish. Heh.
Alchemy Verse:
The Alchemy verse is essentially my urban fantasy universe. *grins* So far, it's focused almost entirely on one city, a few scales waaay down from the above worlds, and the adventures of what is basically an experimental magical forensics team. Heh. It was born from an RP character I played on DW, and has changed some since the RP, and I'm rather fond of it.
The world is basically structured around functional magic, where everyone in Shirkan city and the surrounding country (everyone - the story does not have a non-magical race/species/sub-set of humanity) has some degree of magical power. The magic is divided into two categories: Magecraft and Alchemy, with Vivimancy as a possible third set, though it's mostly Magecraft applied to a very specific area (that of living creatures). Vivimancy also bears a very strong resemblance to some forms of shamanism, making it something of a grey area. But. Magecraft and Alchemy are usually regarded as the primary avenues. The difference being mostly level of Power, and range of Affinity. Mages usually have a narrow range of Affinity (elements and materials they can use magic on) and great-to-massive levels of Power (internal energy used to power spells), while Alchemists usually have wider ranges of Affinities (from whole fields (eg metals) to most of the goddamn world (called Full Alchemical Range)) and bugger all personal Power, relying on the interaction of the inherant magics of external materials to create the desired effects. Most of the ruling class/military/polices forces are Mages (with a few key exceptions), while most craftsmen and academics tend to be Alchemists (again, with exceptions). Alchemy, because of its greater range of mundane usage (most technology in the setting is actually alchemically altered), is considered the 'commoner's' discipline, while Magecraft is the preserve of nobles, warriors, and 'people who actually do shit'. It also has considerable use in terms of things like weather-control and agriculture, but the upper mage classes don't like to mention that too much.
The actual main story in this world focuses on Finn 'Finicky' Winters, a librarian, sometime-craftsman, and unwilling member of the new experimental forensics unit of the Shirkan Police Force. I say unwilling, because he never intended to have anything to do with crime at all, but a favour to a friend had him investigate what turned out to be a Blood Mage serial killer, and after surviving by the skin of his teeth, he caught people's eyes. For his part, once was enough to spend as the target of every bloodthirsty maniac out there trying to escape detection, thank you very much, but he doesn't get a lot of choice. Finn has full alchemical range Affinity, enough actual power to just about warm a cup of tea, and a humungous chip on his shoulder.
The friend, John Whistler, is a Vivimancer whose Affinity is 'trace', or the echoes of personality/emotion people leave behind them as they move through the world. Whistler is infuriatingly serene all the time, but there's actually a great deal of very, very calm rage floating behind that, which occasionally scares the every-loving hell out of Finn. Whistler is the other member of the experimental unit, and the one who dragged Finn in whether he wanted to or not. There may be an underlying motive for this, and it may actually be pretty damn dark, but I'm not actually sure yet. John is fairly inscrutable.
Rounding out the main cast is Jeannette White (all W names, for some reason), the police mage who is basically their baby-sitter/protector, since the both of them demonstrated pretty categorically during the Blood Mage debacle that they're trouble magnets of the highest order. Jeannette is a Sound Mage of middling-to-strong Power, and massively bigotted towards alchemists and 'the lesser classes'. She does her job, shepherding the boys around, but she lets it be known at all times that she thinks they're beneath her. Finn loathes her, and spends most of his time on the job sniping at her, which is ususual for the mostly easy-going alchemist, but he does have a temper. Jeannette, for her part, does her damn job and screw him anyway. Whistler ... I'm not sure. Heh.
Supporting them, we have Miriam, who's the scary-as-all-hell head of the Shirkan Security Forces, the authority responsible for both army and police forces. She's a Mage of considerable power and Wind Affinity who's not at all hesitant to paste people to the ceiling should they annoy her. *grins* She's Jeannette's superior, and the one who gives them most of their assignments. Finn is scared crapless of her. And her Alchemical counterpart, Gregori, who's the head of the Alchemical College and one of the Ruling Council, who's taken a great deal of personal interest in Finn. Gregori is has a large earth-based Affinity range, mostly focused on metals and metallic minerals, and a suspiciously large degree of Power for an alchemist. There's also Lisanna, Head Librarian at the Alchemical Simulacra Library, which is where Finn actually works when he's not being drafted to investigate crimes.
*smiles* There are others, but this is a very young universe for me, and I've only seen a couple of cases. The first one, the Blood Mage, and a couple of smaller ones later. I've seen enough to start being very suspicious of John Whistler, and of Vivimancers in general. I've a suspicion there's a large social conflict brewing there, rebelling against the hold magecraft and alchemy have on 'legitimate' magic. And enough to start wondering about Gregori, too, though I think his motives may be considerably more benign, if also sneaky as hell. Heh. This is a world I've yet to really explore in any great detail, but I look forward to more.
Cheelin Verse:
Back to sci-fi, now. This grew out of a story snippet (the first of the four pieces here), though that yet remains the only part of it actually written down. This is urban sci-fi, and focuses on basically an alien cop, on an alien world. No humans whatsoever. It's basically an exploration of another culture for me, through the window of a crime and the world's reaction to it.
The setting is actually nameless to me, so far. Neither the city nor the world it's on have a name in my head. The aliens are the 'Cheelin', but I'm not sure if that's the species name, or the nationality of the protagonist. I do know that young people in this world are called 'chitterlings', which is basically a dimutive of 'cheelin', so I suspect it's the species name. The Cheelin themselves are large, furry humanoids (as in, bipedal, with a torso and head upright from the legs) with six arms arranged in three pairs. The arms are very important to the culture of the Cheelin, and the symbology built up around them play a very important role in the nature of the crimes that form the main plot of the story.
Said plot follows the investigation into a serial killer by Caltra, a police detective, with a side order of exploring Caltra's relatively complex personal relationships. The story has a major focus on the biology of the Cheelin, and how it has influenced the construction of their culture, with the specific physical violations perpetrated by the killer providing a window on that. The case, as built in my head, focuses on what the killer does with the bones, the arms, and the bare throat (which acts as a Cheelin's 'heartplace') of his victims, and what these tell Caltra about the mind of the killer, and the audience about the culture of the Cheelin. As a mirror to that, there is the complex family relationship Caltra has with his wife, his consort (who also happens to be a coworker), and his consort's wife, which in turn has more bearing on the crime itself than Caltra knows, or would ever desire. Heh.
Basically, the story is crime fiction through a sci-fi lens. It's one of my smaller stories, and I haven't gone back to it in quite some time, but I think I really ought to. Especially since I haven't actually written down the details of the case anywhere, and that could be forgotten all too easily ...
Circus:
Everybody has a superhero team amongst the stories in their heads, right? People with powers, playing out in a mostly-normal world? *grins* Well, the Circus was mine. Though in some ways it was more Gen-13 or Fringe than Avengers, X-men or Justice League. Heh.
The Circus, like most superhero stories, focuses almost entirely on the characters rather than the world, which often seems to act more as a game-board than a functioning setting. I did put some work into the setting, with an mythology at work in the background, but most of the story was pretty much the building of the team from a bunch of disparate people, mostly by force (which was where the plot came in - who was forcing it and why). There's less plot in this world than many of mine, though, because mostly I was playing with the powers and the people. Heh.
So. The Circus is a team of superheroes (or at least, super-powered people), so called because two of the characters are circus performers, one of whom is the sarcastic bastard who got to name the team by virtue of being quietly persistant about it. Heh. They were forcibly recruited for an unknown purpose by a largely unknown agency working through the team's leader, Joseph, who may possibly have been bred and raised by them specifically for that purpose. If that's the case, they may well be in for a nasty shock sooner or later, because Joseph is ... not a safe bet, shall we say.
The main characters and powers are as follows:
- Joseph. Truth-speaking. Every word he says is true, because some force makes him incapable of saying an untruth. This is more useful than it sounds, because the truth he speaks does not have to be one he knows. As in, it's objectively true, not just his truth. So you can do things like ask him to say 'No-one in this room has betrayed us', and if he can't say it, then you know someone in that room is a traitor. Also, there may be later hints that his power, if he could break the compulsion that stops him from saying an untruth, may make what he says true. As in, the compulsion is not to stop him telling a lie, but to stop him overwriting reality. This is an entirely sensible precaution on the part of the unknown force, because Joseph is not, shall we say, particularly sane, though quiet enough about it.
- Alban. His 'catching field', which makes what he desires a teensy-tiny bit more likely within a certain range, so, for example, he can jump than little higher, reach that little farther, suddenly be that vital inch to the left that makes the bullet miss his heart, etc. Notable in that he's incredibly secretive about said power, and it's not all that noticable, so all the others save his sister just know that he's got something, but not what. Alban is the sarcastic SOB mentioned above, a stage-magician by trade who named the group 'the Circus'. He was recruited very unwillingly, and holds a grudge about it.
- Clarity, Alban's sister. Clairevoyance, through the means of 'windows' that allow her to see far-off events, provided she knows where to open them to. There is some speculation that her 'windows' might also be capable of becoming 'doors', enabling effective teleportation, but this has never manifested yet. Clarity is sweet enough, but largely apathetic/indifferent to most happenings around her. Though she is very protective of her brother, and vice verse. Also, the object of both Joseph's and Sandy's affections, which doesn't help any of the parties involved.
- Frank. Three-second pre-cog. This mostly helps him in terms of fighting ability, as he's always three-seconds ahead of his opponent, but has some other uses. He was thought to be a telepath for quite a while by the forces that recruited the team, because he always knew what people were going to say/do slightly ahead of time, before they figured out it was low-level precognition instead. Frank, for his part, would almost rather they hadn't, because it negates a lot of his advantage. He's generally amiable, and one of the few people who can tolerate Joseph for long periods of time
- Ethan. Ghost-walker. Ethan can effectively teleport, unlike Clarity, by means of travel through the shadow-world between things, but this is far from a straight-forward affair. More useful, perhaps, are his familiars from said shadow-world, which come in very, very handy in a fight. Ethan is almost as insular as Clarity, and almost as sarcastic as Alban, with whom he maintains a constant, low-burning aggression from an incident involving his brother
- Michael, Ethan's little brother, uncertain abilities. Michael is far and away the youngest of them, about 12 when the story starts. He shows signs of superhuman agility and some speed, but it's not confirmed. He was bascially a package deal with Ethan, since they're orphans. Was involved in a training incident with Alban which almost resulted in Ethan attempting to take Alban's head literally off, once.
- Sandy, electricity-based powers, uncertain extent. Her powers mostly manifest as sympathy with and control over electrical currents, which she used on a professional level as a stage electrician before being recruited, but if refined it's possible that her powers could be used to alter things on an atomic level by manipulating the charges of atoms, among other ramifications. Sandy herself has no real interest in investigating this possibility, but may not have much choice about it. Sandy's generally cheerful and easy-going, with only rare shows of temper. She also nurses an attraction for Clarity, which does her no favours, as Joseph is also interested, rather homophobic and, again, not exactly sane, which makes revealing her interest not a safe prospect.
The actual plot is, as I said, largely co-incidental, but there are whisperings in the background concerning what they were recruited for, what their powers might be capable of if expanded/developed, and what might be done to them in the interests of making said powers expand. There's also the ongoing worry over Joseph's mental state, his history as the superhuman the Agency first found (or possibly made), and what happens if his compulsion is broken. But, mostly, this universe is an excuse to play around with superheroes. *grins*
Necropolis Dreams:
One of my few ventures into horror, this, crossed with urban sci-fi. This took significant inspiration from China Meiville's Perdido Street Station, and the Matrix, and Metropolis (anime version), among other things. It was actually born out of a dream I had that involved, very specifially for some reason, a man sitting at an outdoor cafe, in the shadow of a tower, drinking a cup of hot chocolate laced with arsenic. *shrugs sheepishly* I have strange dreams sometimes, yes? Also, Necropolis Dreams was one of the few stories I ever envisioned as being a graphic novel, rather than straight prose. I have a few sketches somewhere, of said man at the cafe, of the Necropolis Towers themselves, and a couple of storyboarded pages. Never panned out (I haven't the artistic talent), but I did manage to plot out most of the first volume of story (with my sister's help).
The story is set in Ellysium, a future megacity sitting beneath the shadow of the three Necropolis Towers, and on top of a plateau/tabletop mountain the innards of which are honeycombed with caves that serve as the lower extremities of the Necropolis complex itself. The city is entirely insular and cut off from the outside world, and this insularity is ruthlessly maintained by the powers that be. The economy and culture of Ellysium are built around the industry of death, as most of the workers are zombies raised by the Necropolis from the remains of the dead. The highest mark of status in this city is a permanent grave, an honour won by blood or social standing, meaning that your corpse will not be used after your death. Very, very few people can afford a permanent grave, as the corpse-workers wear out fast, and the Necropolis needs constant fresh supplies. Everyone else (living) competes and struggles, through working in the service industries or competing in games of chance, to earn more time in a quiet grave after death, though potential decomp places a cap on what you're allowed no matter how well you do.
All of this, by the time of the main story, may shortly be brought to a crashing halt as civil unrest has slowly been building to a head over the past few years out of dissatisfaction and a degree of horror among the living inhabitants. The entire city teeters on the brink of all-out violence pointed directly at the Towers and the police forces (colloquially known as 'Leatherfaces', who may or may not be a more advanced form of zombie created by the Necropolis) that represent them, and from the Powers that Be within the Necropolis itself towards the living, in effort to defend themselves and bring the city firmly back under their control.
At the center of this are two figures, one on each side of the living/dead divide. One, on the side of the living, is the insurgent and political activist Tynne Lowe, our heroine (or at least protagonist), who with has spearheaded a number of protests around the industrial complexes staffed by Necropolis zombies, and graveyards where only the ultra-rich and old families get to rest in peace. She's about to become involved, perhaps fatally so, with the saturnine figure of Ivan, the dead man beneath the Towers drinking arsenic in a cup of chocolate, who knows far, far more about the Necropolis and its purpose than anyone in the city, and intends to use her and her movement for his own inscrutable purposes. Ivan is known, by the Old Blood and the Necropolis Council, as "Her Son, the Prince", but few know what this means, and while civil unrest grows between the Council and the population, Ivan is a side all to himself, and his aims are far more sinister than merely the perpetuation of death as an economic reality.
There are other characters scattered around them, the principal one being Jacques, Tynne's loyal friend and compatriot, who spends most of the story attempting to disentangle her from Ivan's clutches and plans, and ultimately fails. The inter-relationships between Tynne and Ivan, Tynne and Jacques, and the desperately unbalanced rivalry between Jacques and Ivan, form the backbone of the story, as Ellysium slowly falls to unrest, revolution, and something much, much darker that lies at the heart of the Necropolis Towers and Ivan's plans. Heh.
By far one of the darker of my stories, and one of the few that has what could be considered an unhappy ending, at least for the first volume/book, though a key figure does survive free enough to possibly change that in later ones. This is also the one of my stories that I'm perhaps likely to actually write down at some point. *grins* Also, one of the few stories where the villain, as such, is someone I actually loathe, though I still find him entirely understandable. Heh. All in all, one of my fonder efforts, for all it's darkness.
Other worlds that I might get to in a later post: (now completed in this post)
Some of which will be familiar, as I've posted either snippets or meta about them on LJ before. This is, by the way, by no means a complete list. *grins faintly* I have had a lot of stories in my head over the years ...
- Shadow Mage (multiple iterations) - fantasy (small scale)
- Southwark - fantasy (grand scale)
- Wolf Kingdom - supernatural/fantasy
- Fleet Logistics - sci-fi/space opera, short story here
- Spindlebone - fantasy/horror, some religious elements
- The Wizard (multiple iterations) - fantasy (small scale)
- Dreamwraith - sci-fi short story here that may be expanded later
- Carogne - urban fantasy, shared universe (with my sisters)
- The Whore Prince - fantasy (medium scale?)
That's all she wrote, for now. Heh. What do y'all think?
Definitely the biggest and most sprawling of my mental worlds, perhaps by virtue of also being the oldest of them. Medath was initially born from the games me and my sisters played when we were kids, where we imagined we were elemental sorceresses, each with a mythical familiar. *grins* I was Evelyn, an ice elemental with a dragon familiar named Argh. *sighs* Those were the days ...
Anyway. Aside from each having an element, and a familiar, we also each had an island nation as a home. Ecudor, Magico and Padudoo (we were between twelve and eight, okay, don't judge us! *grins*). Later, I took those three islands and used them as the basis for the Great Southern Archipelago, which in turn served as the window onto Medath as a whole. I was the one who gave it the name, and almost all of the world besides Magico and Padudoo was my invention, which is why I feel comfortable enough claiming it. Heh.
And Medath ... Medath has maps, and continents, and politics, and different areas of the world that carry completely different stories (the main settings were the initial island trio for the elemental story, the Jawburn Islands, also in the GSA, for the slaver/merc story (a couple of shorts for which are on LJ, under the 'femslash' tag - I RP'd Ara and Nira for a while), and most of the continents of Selfar and Felspar for the grand apocalyptic story, with occasional look-ins from the northern continents too). And yes, looking on it years later, the shapes of the landmass bear a lot of resemblance to earth (specifically, Eurasia, Africa and Oceania, if the Indian subcontinent and SE Asia was actually separated out into a discrete landmass). But the cultures and continental focus was very different, so I'm not too bothered about it. Heh.
And the characters ... Medath was where I played with big stories, so they had big chararcters. Ara and Nira, the larger-than-life slave gladitors and later mercenaries, who I didn't realise when I first thought of them were actually lesbians (well, bisexual, but committed primarily to each other). Aea and Garan and Jen and Iaka, who fought over two continents and with a couple more, and with each other, too, and whose backstories involved the genocides of at least two peoples. Garan, in particular, who was bitter and homocidal, and initially a bad guy, and later driven pretty categorically insane, but still manages to be mostly a hero by the end of it (and he's not even the main character of that story). I had so many loves in Medath.
And also a lot of subtext, which I swear to the gods I never noticed at the time, including between Ara/Nira, Ara/Nira/Slate, Aea/Garan (kinda squicky, that one, as she's waaaay younger than him, and he tried to enslave her when they first met), Jen/Iaka (who were mostly married, but unobtrusively so - both male, by the by). Apparently, even before I knew what sexuality was, I was fairly broad-minded about it. Hehe.
Medath is the oldest and the first, and will pretty much always hold a soft spot in my heart. *grins*
Dak Territories:
Which is something of a misnomer, as 'dak' in the old language of the world actually means 'territory/land/tribe', so the world is basically called "The Territory Territories". *grins* But I kinda like that, because it shows the little language drifts that can happen, even if one of the languages is completely made up. Some of the inhabitants (mostly the gods/daemons) do call it just 'The Daks', but most of the humans make the title mistake. Heh.
The Daks themselves are not a whole world, but rather a particular corner of it ruled by a single culture and a single religion, whose gods and demons are real and very, very active. There are other lands and cultures around them, but most of them don't make it into the story, and there's a strong implication that the Daks themselves deliberately hold themselves separate and insular. Indeed, one of the driving reasons the main plot is considered so apocalyptic is not because it would destroy the world, but because it would sink the Daks into civil war bad enough that outside nations could use it as an opportunity to invade uncontested. The god/daemon conflict, mirrored humanside by the Order/Guild conflict, is coming to a point where all-out war may be in the near future, and the main story is the attempts by a particular group to avoid it. Ironically enough, almost kicking it off early in the process. Heh.
The characters in the Daks are interesting to me, mostly because I started out with a clear idea of who the hero/messiah was going to be, and he did, in fact, remain the hero, messiah and focus of the story, but along the way I sort of completely fell in love with his enemies-slash-captors-slash-reluctant-allies. In particular, Meruk, the honourable and loyal servant of a war god who turns out, once the main plot turns him human, to be something of a colossal dick, which sort of throws Meruk for a complete loop. Along with the fact that Meruk, a devout servant of the Order, and thus the gods, also finds out that most of the daemons are, in fact, pretty alright folks who just happen to be his enemies, and at least half the story, for me, became about watching this one man negotiate a world where everything he thought was true isn't, and while it's getting turned on its head, he has to make decisions that could save or destroy it.
But aside from Meruk, I also loved Aruk, said asshole war god who actually learns over the course of the story. And Jung/Daes, Meruk's only surviving subordinates and Those Two Guys, who have this really weird interdependant, father-son-lover-brother-caretaker-comrade relationship that honestly defies definition for me. And Beren, said messiah, thrice touched by gods and blessed by the Sisters (natural forces, next step up from god in this world). Zen, his sneaky-ass cousin who runs the Guild, and thus is Meruk's and the Order's implacable enemy. Shaiar, the God of Death, who may or may not have been sort of stalking Beren ever since the man was nice to him as a kid (not many of Shaiar's 'customers' are actually friendly, all things considered). Rayhden, Beren's godling friend, who definitely does stalk him, and also turns out to have a tempestous relationship with Aruk, which complicates things. Mellanie, the Thief Daemon who stole Aruk's godhood/immortality. Shanra, Daemon of Shadows, Zen's patron and compatriot. *grins* So many. I sorta fell in love with the entire cast of this one. Mostly Meruk, but sort of all of them. Heh.
Only one main story, for this world. There may be more, if I ever step outside the Daks themselves, but for now, the one is enough, and ongoing in my head - we've just about gotten to the part where the mostly-enemies have agreed not to kill each other, and Aruk has managed to learn the value of human life, which is a huge step for him but not exactly the end-game. We've also gotten to the part where, while our heroes are off adventuring in the Landak and trying to beat some sense into Aruk's head, the rest of the Daks are venturing increasingly close to all-out war as the Orders look to avenge the destruction of the Order of Aruk, and the Guild under Zen are panicking slightly because none of the daemons actually responsible for said destruction thought to warn them about it. Heh.
In short, the whole world is a lot of fun, and an ongoing source of story for me. *smiles*
Galactic Duality:
This is one of the few worlds I've actually written stories down for. You can find them here on LJ, under the 'galactic duality' tag (or from the masterlist). One of my ventures into grand-scale sci-fi, as opposed to fantasy, and probably my favourite. Heh. That could just be because I fell rabidly in love with the two main characters, though. *grins sheepishly*
The basic setting is the future of the Milky Way, in which the galaxy is dominated by the Duality, two opposing and equal telepathic unities. One 'human' and one 'machine'. Those are misleading in some ways, though, as they're mostly Dowling's carry-over terms based on which Earth form of life went into which. Physically, there's a great deal of variety within and between both, and you can have wholly mechanical 'humans' and wholly organic 'machines', and other, stranger physical contructions. The dividing line is telepathic. As in, the machines are any creatures that can communicate telepathically with the Machine Unity but not the Human Unity, and vice versa. There are reasons for this, or rather, one reason, a particular form of thought/idea that the Machine Unity embrace and the Human Unity does not. Dowling, whose mind is more flexible by virtue of have flirted with insanity for most of his life, is the first (or first documented) human to cross over into the Machine Unity.
This universe is one where my focus was wholly split between multiple time frame, expressed as 'arcs' in the stories. One of the major arcs takes places 300 years in the Duality's past, on pre-Duality Earth, where Dowling first contracts telepathy and unwittingly spreads it to the planet, initiating Earth out into the wider Duality, and also where he first meets Isander, his robotic partner and the machine for whom he later breaks all Galactic protocol/culture to join with, shattering perceptions of a fundamental divide in the process. The Earth Arc is ... mostly a study in insanity and love, and the consequences of fear, as Dowling slowly deals with first his own telepathy, and later what he's done to the planet out of fear (he never forgave the Human Unity for using him as essentially a Typhoid Mary in order to spread telepathy to the planet, mostly because the form it took, the Gestalt, utterly terrified him. But he also knows he's completely to blame, because he was a Typhoid Mary, and kept spreading it even after he realised what he was doing, out of fear).
The later arcs, the Galactic and War arcs, take place 300 years later, in the 'present', and concern Integration, and Dowling inadvertently shattering the precepts of the Duality, and the subsequent reactions against him and Isander because of it. These arcs are more a study of what is essentially an inter-racial relationship, the first public one of a very segregated society, and the massive backlash against it. Some themes from the Earth arc are carried forward (what are you willing to do for love, how many worlds will you let fall to preserve what you care about), but more are added in terms of the old cultures and biases of the Duality.
Overall ... the setting is fascinating to me, but pretty much the entire point of this universe for me is the relationship between Dowling and Isander (they both code as male, but compared to the robot/human thing, that's not really the point), the lengths they are willing to go for each other and to be allowed to stay together (Isander let a world fall, Dowling may possibly destroy a galaxy), the trials they've suffered through (Earth and Dowling's insanity/Isander's non-person status, the Duality, Isander gaining telepathy but not the kind to touch Dowling's thoughts, the problems inherant in the segregation of the society and what it meant for their relationship, and then Integration and basically the whole galaxy declaring war on them). It's all about those two, and how much I utterly, utterly adore them. And also, how much I sort of suspect that they may, in fact, be sort of bad guys, or at least selfish. Heh.
Alchemy Verse:
The Alchemy verse is essentially my urban fantasy universe. *grins* So far, it's focused almost entirely on one city, a few scales waaay down from the above worlds, and the adventures of what is basically an experimental magical forensics team. Heh. It was born from an RP character I played on DW, and has changed some since the RP, and I'm rather fond of it.
The world is basically structured around functional magic, where everyone in Shirkan city and the surrounding country (everyone - the story does not have a non-magical race/species/sub-set of humanity) has some degree of magical power. The magic is divided into two categories: Magecraft and Alchemy, with Vivimancy as a possible third set, though it's mostly Magecraft applied to a very specific area (that of living creatures). Vivimancy also bears a very strong resemblance to some forms of shamanism, making it something of a grey area. But. Magecraft and Alchemy are usually regarded as the primary avenues. The difference being mostly level of Power, and range of Affinity. Mages usually have a narrow range of Affinity (elements and materials they can use magic on) and great-to-massive levels of Power (internal energy used to power spells), while Alchemists usually have wider ranges of Affinities (from whole fields (eg metals) to most of the goddamn world (called Full Alchemical Range)) and bugger all personal Power, relying on the interaction of the inherant magics of external materials to create the desired effects. Most of the ruling class/military/polices forces are Mages (with a few key exceptions), while most craftsmen and academics tend to be Alchemists (again, with exceptions). Alchemy, because of its greater range of mundane usage (most technology in the setting is actually alchemically altered), is considered the 'commoner's' discipline, while Magecraft is the preserve of nobles, warriors, and 'people who actually do shit'. It also has considerable use in terms of things like weather-control and agriculture, but the upper mage classes don't like to mention that too much.
The actual main story in this world focuses on Finn 'Finicky' Winters, a librarian, sometime-craftsman, and unwilling member of the new experimental forensics unit of the Shirkan Police Force. I say unwilling, because he never intended to have anything to do with crime at all, but a favour to a friend had him investigate what turned out to be a Blood Mage serial killer, and after surviving by the skin of his teeth, he caught people's eyes. For his part, once was enough to spend as the target of every bloodthirsty maniac out there trying to escape detection, thank you very much, but he doesn't get a lot of choice. Finn has full alchemical range Affinity, enough actual power to just about warm a cup of tea, and a humungous chip on his shoulder.
The friend, John Whistler, is a Vivimancer whose Affinity is 'trace', or the echoes of personality/emotion people leave behind them as they move through the world. Whistler is infuriatingly serene all the time, but there's actually a great deal of very, very calm rage floating behind that, which occasionally scares the every-loving hell out of Finn. Whistler is the other member of the experimental unit, and the one who dragged Finn in whether he wanted to or not. There may be an underlying motive for this, and it may actually be pretty damn dark, but I'm not actually sure yet. John is fairly inscrutable.
Rounding out the main cast is Jeannette White (all W names, for some reason), the police mage who is basically their baby-sitter/protector, since the both of them demonstrated pretty categorically during the Blood Mage debacle that they're trouble magnets of the highest order. Jeannette is a Sound Mage of middling-to-strong Power, and massively bigotted towards alchemists and 'the lesser classes'. She does her job, shepherding the boys around, but she lets it be known at all times that she thinks they're beneath her. Finn loathes her, and spends most of his time on the job sniping at her, which is ususual for the mostly easy-going alchemist, but he does have a temper. Jeannette, for her part, does her damn job and screw him anyway. Whistler ... I'm not sure. Heh.
Supporting them, we have Miriam, who's the scary-as-all-hell head of the Shirkan Security Forces, the authority responsible for both army and police forces. She's a Mage of considerable power and Wind Affinity who's not at all hesitant to paste people to the ceiling should they annoy her. *grins* She's Jeannette's superior, and the one who gives them most of their assignments. Finn is scared crapless of her. And her Alchemical counterpart, Gregori, who's the head of the Alchemical College and one of the Ruling Council, who's taken a great deal of personal interest in Finn. Gregori is has a large earth-based Affinity range, mostly focused on metals and metallic minerals, and a suspiciously large degree of Power for an alchemist. There's also Lisanna, Head Librarian at the Alchemical Simulacra Library, which is where Finn actually works when he's not being drafted to investigate crimes.
*smiles* There are others, but this is a very young universe for me, and I've only seen a couple of cases. The first one, the Blood Mage, and a couple of smaller ones later. I've seen enough to start being very suspicious of John Whistler, and of Vivimancers in general. I've a suspicion there's a large social conflict brewing there, rebelling against the hold magecraft and alchemy have on 'legitimate' magic. And enough to start wondering about Gregori, too, though I think his motives may be considerably more benign, if also sneaky as hell. Heh. This is a world I've yet to really explore in any great detail, but I look forward to more.
Cheelin Verse:
Back to sci-fi, now. This grew out of a story snippet (the first of the four pieces here), though that yet remains the only part of it actually written down. This is urban sci-fi, and focuses on basically an alien cop, on an alien world. No humans whatsoever. It's basically an exploration of another culture for me, through the window of a crime and the world's reaction to it.
The setting is actually nameless to me, so far. Neither the city nor the world it's on have a name in my head. The aliens are the 'Cheelin', but I'm not sure if that's the species name, or the nationality of the protagonist. I do know that young people in this world are called 'chitterlings', which is basically a dimutive of 'cheelin', so I suspect it's the species name. The Cheelin themselves are large, furry humanoids (as in, bipedal, with a torso and head upright from the legs) with six arms arranged in three pairs. The arms are very important to the culture of the Cheelin, and the symbology built up around them play a very important role in the nature of the crimes that form the main plot of the story.
Said plot follows the investigation into a serial killer by Caltra, a police detective, with a side order of exploring Caltra's relatively complex personal relationships. The story has a major focus on the biology of the Cheelin, and how it has influenced the construction of their culture, with the specific physical violations perpetrated by the killer providing a window on that. The case, as built in my head, focuses on what the killer does with the bones, the arms, and the bare throat (which acts as a Cheelin's 'heartplace') of his victims, and what these tell Caltra about the mind of the killer, and the audience about the culture of the Cheelin. As a mirror to that, there is the complex family relationship Caltra has with his wife, his consort (who also happens to be a coworker), and his consort's wife, which in turn has more bearing on the crime itself than Caltra knows, or would ever desire. Heh.
Basically, the story is crime fiction through a sci-fi lens. It's one of my smaller stories, and I haven't gone back to it in quite some time, but I think I really ought to. Especially since I haven't actually written down the details of the case anywhere, and that could be forgotten all too easily ...
Circus:
Everybody has a superhero team amongst the stories in their heads, right? People with powers, playing out in a mostly-normal world? *grins* Well, the Circus was mine. Though in some ways it was more Gen-13 or Fringe than Avengers, X-men or Justice League. Heh.
The Circus, like most superhero stories, focuses almost entirely on the characters rather than the world, which often seems to act more as a game-board than a functioning setting. I did put some work into the setting, with an mythology at work in the background, but most of the story was pretty much the building of the team from a bunch of disparate people, mostly by force (which was where the plot came in - who was forcing it and why). There's less plot in this world than many of mine, though, because mostly I was playing with the powers and the people. Heh.
So. The Circus is a team of superheroes (or at least, super-powered people), so called because two of the characters are circus performers, one of whom is the sarcastic bastard who got to name the team by virtue of being quietly persistant about it. Heh. They were forcibly recruited for an unknown purpose by a largely unknown agency working through the team's leader, Joseph, who may possibly have been bred and raised by them specifically for that purpose. If that's the case, they may well be in for a nasty shock sooner or later, because Joseph is ... not a safe bet, shall we say.
The main characters and powers are as follows:
- Joseph. Truth-speaking. Every word he says is true, because some force makes him incapable of saying an untruth. This is more useful than it sounds, because the truth he speaks does not have to be one he knows. As in, it's objectively true, not just his truth. So you can do things like ask him to say 'No-one in this room has betrayed us', and if he can't say it, then you know someone in that room is a traitor. Also, there may be later hints that his power, if he could break the compulsion that stops him from saying an untruth, may make what he says true. As in, the compulsion is not to stop him telling a lie, but to stop him overwriting reality. This is an entirely sensible precaution on the part of the unknown force, because Joseph is not, shall we say, particularly sane, though quiet enough about it.
- Alban. His 'catching field', which makes what he desires a teensy-tiny bit more likely within a certain range, so, for example, he can jump than little higher, reach that little farther, suddenly be that vital inch to the left that makes the bullet miss his heart, etc. Notable in that he's incredibly secretive about said power, and it's not all that noticable, so all the others save his sister just know that he's got something, but not what. Alban is the sarcastic SOB mentioned above, a stage-magician by trade who named the group 'the Circus'. He was recruited very unwillingly, and holds a grudge about it.
- Clarity, Alban's sister. Clairevoyance, through the means of 'windows' that allow her to see far-off events, provided she knows where to open them to. There is some speculation that her 'windows' might also be capable of becoming 'doors', enabling effective teleportation, but this has never manifested yet. Clarity is sweet enough, but largely apathetic/indifferent to most happenings around her. Though she is very protective of her brother, and vice verse. Also, the object of both Joseph's and Sandy's affections, which doesn't help any of the parties involved.
- Frank. Three-second pre-cog. This mostly helps him in terms of fighting ability, as he's always three-seconds ahead of his opponent, but has some other uses. He was thought to be a telepath for quite a while by the forces that recruited the team, because he always knew what people were going to say/do slightly ahead of time, before they figured out it was low-level precognition instead. Frank, for his part, would almost rather they hadn't, because it negates a lot of his advantage. He's generally amiable, and one of the few people who can tolerate Joseph for long periods of time
- Ethan. Ghost-walker. Ethan can effectively teleport, unlike Clarity, by means of travel through the shadow-world between things, but this is far from a straight-forward affair. More useful, perhaps, are his familiars from said shadow-world, which come in very, very handy in a fight. Ethan is almost as insular as Clarity, and almost as sarcastic as Alban, with whom he maintains a constant, low-burning aggression from an incident involving his brother
- Michael, Ethan's little brother, uncertain abilities. Michael is far and away the youngest of them, about 12 when the story starts. He shows signs of superhuman agility and some speed, but it's not confirmed. He was bascially a package deal with Ethan, since they're orphans. Was involved in a training incident with Alban which almost resulted in Ethan attempting to take Alban's head literally off, once.
- Sandy, electricity-based powers, uncertain extent. Her powers mostly manifest as sympathy with and control over electrical currents, which she used on a professional level as a stage electrician before being recruited, but if refined it's possible that her powers could be used to alter things on an atomic level by manipulating the charges of atoms, among other ramifications. Sandy herself has no real interest in investigating this possibility, but may not have much choice about it. Sandy's generally cheerful and easy-going, with only rare shows of temper. She also nurses an attraction for Clarity, which does her no favours, as Joseph is also interested, rather homophobic and, again, not exactly sane, which makes revealing her interest not a safe prospect.
The actual plot is, as I said, largely co-incidental, but there are whisperings in the background concerning what they were recruited for, what their powers might be capable of if expanded/developed, and what might be done to them in the interests of making said powers expand. There's also the ongoing worry over Joseph's mental state, his history as the superhuman the Agency first found (or possibly made), and what happens if his compulsion is broken. But, mostly, this universe is an excuse to play around with superheroes. *grins*
Necropolis Dreams:
One of my few ventures into horror, this, crossed with urban sci-fi. This took significant inspiration from China Meiville's Perdido Street Station, and the Matrix, and Metropolis (anime version), among other things. It was actually born out of a dream I had that involved, very specifially for some reason, a man sitting at an outdoor cafe, in the shadow of a tower, drinking a cup of hot chocolate laced with arsenic. *shrugs sheepishly* I have strange dreams sometimes, yes? Also, Necropolis Dreams was one of the few stories I ever envisioned as being a graphic novel, rather than straight prose. I have a few sketches somewhere, of said man at the cafe, of the Necropolis Towers themselves, and a couple of storyboarded pages. Never panned out (I haven't the artistic talent), but I did manage to plot out most of the first volume of story (with my sister's help).
The story is set in Ellysium, a future megacity sitting beneath the shadow of the three Necropolis Towers, and on top of a plateau/tabletop mountain the innards of which are honeycombed with caves that serve as the lower extremities of the Necropolis complex itself. The city is entirely insular and cut off from the outside world, and this insularity is ruthlessly maintained by the powers that be. The economy and culture of Ellysium are built around the industry of death, as most of the workers are zombies raised by the Necropolis from the remains of the dead. The highest mark of status in this city is a permanent grave, an honour won by blood or social standing, meaning that your corpse will not be used after your death. Very, very few people can afford a permanent grave, as the corpse-workers wear out fast, and the Necropolis needs constant fresh supplies. Everyone else (living) competes and struggles, through working in the service industries or competing in games of chance, to earn more time in a quiet grave after death, though potential decomp places a cap on what you're allowed no matter how well you do.
All of this, by the time of the main story, may shortly be brought to a crashing halt as civil unrest has slowly been building to a head over the past few years out of dissatisfaction and a degree of horror among the living inhabitants. The entire city teeters on the brink of all-out violence pointed directly at the Towers and the police forces (colloquially known as 'Leatherfaces', who may or may not be a more advanced form of zombie created by the Necropolis) that represent them, and from the Powers that Be within the Necropolis itself towards the living, in effort to defend themselves and bring the city firmly back under their control.
At the center of this are two figures, one on each side of the living/dead divide. One, on the side of the living, is the insurgent and political activist Tynne Lowe, our heroine (or at least protagonist), who with has spearheaded a number of protests around the industrial complexes staffed by Necropolis zombies, and graveyards where only the ultra-rich and old families get to rest in peace. She's about to become involved, perhaps fatally so, with the saturnine figure of Ivan, the dead man beneath the Towers drinking arsenic in a cup of chocolate, who knows far, far more about the Necropolis and its purpose than anyone in the city, and intends to use her and her movement for his own inscrutable purposes. Ivan is known, by the Old Blood and the Necropolis Council, as "Her Son, the Prince", but few know what this means, and while civil unrest grows between the Council and the population, Ivan is a side all to himself, and his aims are far more sinister than merely the perpetuation of death as an economic reality.
There are other characters scattered around them, the principal one being Jacques, Tynne's loyal friend and compatriot, who spends most of the story attempting to disentangle her from Ivan's clutches and plans, and ultimately fails. The inter-relationships between Tynne and Ivan, Tynne and Jacques, and the desperately unbalanced rivalry between Jacques and Ivan, form the backbone of the story, as Ellysium slowly falls to unrest, revolution, and something much, much darker that lies at the heart of the Necropolis Towers and Ivan's plans. Heh.
By far one of the darker of my stories, and one of the few that has what could be considered an unhappy ending, at least for the first volume/book, though a key figure does survive free enough to possibly change that in later ones. This is also the one of my stories that I'm perhaps likely to actually write down at some point. *grins* Also, one of the few stories where the villain, as such, is someone I actually loathe, though I still find him entirely understandable. Heh. All in all, one of my fonder efforts, for all it's darkness.
Other worlds that I might get to in a later post: (now completed in this post)
Some of which will be familiar, as I've posted either snippets or meta about them on LJ before. This is, by the way, by no means a complete list. *grins faintly* I have had a lot of stories in my head over the years ...
- Shadow Mage (multiple iterations) - fantasy (small scale)
- Southwark - fantasy (grand scale)
- Wolf Kingdom - supernatural/fantasy
- Fleet Logistics - sci-fi/space opera, short story here
- Spindlebone - fantasy/horror, some religious elements
- The Wizard (multiple iterations) - fantasy (small scale)
- Dreamwraith - sci-fi short story here that may be expanded later
- Carogne - urban fantasy, shared universe (with my sisters)
- The Whore Prince - fantasy (medium scale?)
That's all she wrote, for now. Heh. What do y'all think?
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