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benlehman at 04:01pm on 03/03/2003
benlehman at 04:01pm on 03/03/2003Hello everyone.
This journal is largely for sporadic updates. Further, most of my updates will be creative in nature -- I will be describing characters, ideas, or setting bits from my writing or games. Day to day life may also crop up, and also analytic essays.
With that in mind
Meet Daiethion.
Daiethion is the setting of the longest piece of writing I have ever done, and it will be the setting of my first published work. Daiethion is an ancient world -- it predates the formation of our galaxy and nearly the universe itself (it is roughly 14 billion years old...) For most of this time, it was inhabited by a humanoid race that I mostly call the Ancients. The Ancients did a whole hell of a lot in their 10 billion year history.
Daiethion is located in the exact center of a binary star system. It is named for the two stars that orbit it -- the yellow sun Daie and the presently black-hole Thion. Daiethion is tidally locked to these stars -- it does not rotate with respect to the them, and thus one side is always lit by Daie, the other by Thion. The twilights -- two strips where both stars are on the horizon -- are mystical places with great spiritual power and ritual importance.
At the time of "the story of Bli," my main writing with regards to the planet, the society on Daiethion has developed into an incredibly complex theocracy. The basis of this theocracy is the pursuit of death. It is not a suicide cult, though, as all life on Daiethion is preserved in a static state by sufficiently advanced technology (or perhaps we are moved through the same, and stasis is the basic nature of the universe.) That which preserves life is breaking down, though, and so things like starvation and wounding are possible.
The Daiethians have a complicated numerology that informs most of their actions. Thus, the religious society is divided between 13 "schools,' each of which is devoted to death through a different means. These schools are massive structures, and are completely self-contained. By the time of the Story of Bli, most people are not even aware that there IS an outside. The Story of Bli takes place entirely within the 12th school, Ethess, the school of Order.
There are many factions within the school. These include:
1) The Dying. These are the basic religious acolytes who make up the bulk of the population. They are made up of
prentices, who labor
journeymen, who learn
instructors, who teach.
They are, of course, immortal. The prentices are like children, the journeymen like youths, and the structors like the elderly. Physically, at least.
2) the Fallen. The Fallen reject the heirarchy of the Dying in favor of a "kill and eat" mode. Of course, they cannot kill, only wound, so the Fallen must prey on the dying and the torchbearers. Those that they killed are stripped of everything but their hearts and brains, and left "bare and still living." They are called the Broken.
3) Torchbearers. Humanoid forms that provide light.
4) Sentinels. Metal forms that have never lived, so cannot die. They do not interact much with the Dying, but perform unseen tasks that help them.
etc.
Anyway, this is all background for further posts on the subject of the setting.
This journal is largely for sporadic updates. Further, most of my updates will be creative in nature -- I will be describing characters, ideas, or setting bits from my writing or games. Day to day life may also crop up, and also analytic essays.
With that in mind
Meet Daiethion.
Daiethion is the setting of the longest piece of writing I have ever done, and it will be the setting of my first published work. Daiethion is an ancient world -- it predates the formation of our galaxy and nearly the universe itself (it is roughly 14 billion years old...) For most of this time, it was inhabited by a humanoid race that I mostly call the Ancients. The Ancients did a whole hell of a lot in their 10 billion year history.
Daiethion is located in the exact center of a binary star system. It is named for the two stars that orbit it -- the yellow sun Daie and the presently black-hole Thion. Daiethion is tidally locked to these stars -- it does not rotate with respect to the them, and thus one side is always lit by Daie, the other by Thion. The twilights -- two strips where both stars are on the horizon -- are mystical places with great spiritual power and ritual importance.
At the time of "the story of Bli," my main writing with regards to the planet, the society on Daiethion has developed into an incredibly complex theocracy. The basis of this theocracy is the pursuit of death. It is not a suicide cult, though, as all life on Daiethion is preserved in a static state by sufficiently advanced technology (or perhaps we are moved through the same, and stasis is the basic nature of the universe.) That which preserves life is breaking down, though, and so things like starvation and wounding are possible.
The Daiethians have a complicated numerology that informs most of their actions. Thus, the religious society is divided between 13 "schools,' each of which is devoted to death through a different means. These schools are massive structures, and are completely self-contained. By the time of the Story of Bli, most people are not even aware that there IS an outside. The Story of Bli takes place entirely within the 12th school, Ethess, the school of Order.
There are many factions within the school. These include:
1) The Dying. These are the basic religious acolytes who make up the bulk of the population. They are made up of
prentices, who labor
journeymen, who learn
instructors, who teach.
They are, of course, immortal. The prentices are like children, the journeymen like youths, and the structors like the elderly. Physically, at least.
2) the Fallen. The Fallen reject the heirarchy of the Dying in favor of a "kill and eat" mode. Of course, they cannot kill, only wound, so the Fallen must prey on the dying and the torchbearers. Those that they killed are stripped of everything but their hearts and brains, and left "bare and still living." They are called the Broken.
3) Torchbearers. Humanoid forms that provide light.
4) Sentinels. Metal forms that have never lived, so cannot die. They do not interact much with the Dying, but perform unseen tasks that help them.
etc.
Anyway, this is all background for further posts on the subject of the setting.