...the world needs to be more than a canvas, a background, upon which the actions of the heroes are projected. The world needs to breath, to move, to evolve. The actions of one ordinary person could, conceivably, influence the ultimate choices of the heroes. One act made by a hero could impact the lives of hundreds...
So far, the Empyraeum Cycle stories have dealt with either superhuman, immortal Kalshodar and Dracograth or immortal Trinity, exceptional beings who look human but might not, necessarily, be entirely human anymore.
While these characters are deeply appealing and have interesting tales to tell, the Empyraeum is not made up of them, or at least they are a small percentage of those that do. They are are a part of the vast human society making up The Empyraeum but they are, perhaps, a little removed from its day to day events.
Countless billions of people live and were born on Gaia alone, without taking into account the worlds and moons colonised by the Arks. These counteless billions are those who live with the consequences of the Kalshodar's actions and suffer (or perhaps profit) under The Union.
Those who never stopped believing, those that have stopped, and those never got the chance to. Those that have nothing more than their own talents, choices, opportunities, and fears to live by, who struggle to survive in a changing world. We have the regular military, the rebels and the revolutionaries (which is not the same thing, we assure you), the workers, misfits, and minorly disobedient. We have all kinds of shapes and behaviours, all flavours and variations.
We need to tell their stories. We need to release a new #Collection filled with only their stories!
Ok, we dabbled with some of those that filled #Anthologia with Iouri DaGoblin's adventure and Ollimur's first battle but they were always in the context of other events, directed or shaped by them, by the Kalshodar. We need some stories driven by the common people, from their point of view and in the context of the world as they see it.
For these people, bravery and heroism are completely different things because one wrong move could end their story forever. They don't have the most advanced of weapons, the best of information, or even any support. Their character. their moral system, their choices, and their decisions are shaped by the life they have lived and the information they have available.
The Challenge of Knowing
Around 90% of us spend 90% of our time using things we have could not explain the workings of accurately even if our lives depended on it!
Remember, to the common person, the Kalshodar are creatures of myth.
One of the hardest parts of adding exposition or The Explainers to your story is the idea of perspective. You and I may well use computers and/or cell phones, among other technological marvels, daily yet how much do we understand about how these devices work? For the average person, probably not at all. In my case I know how some things work but not why they do.
It is easy to have every character capable of providing detailed explanations of the rules and history or your world, its technology, magic systems, and so on but it's much harder to just let them remain ignorant of that and let some things just be mysteries. It's tempting, when using omniscient narrators, or even limited ones, to go on about how, why, and when certain things work, what caused them to happen, and so on, very tempting because you invented it and, therefore, have at least a pretty good idea.
It is tempting but I strongly advise against it. As with everything, moderation is key. Restrain yourselves, my friends, hold steady and think.
My narrative style tends to be from the perspective of someone that doesn't particularly like the character or characters, of one that will occasionally mock them or, perhaps, of some as yet un-named character whe have yet to meet. Their perceptions tend to come from a level similar to the character or characters but able to see everything that happened to them, perhaps from a slight remove. They may know a thing or two that the character do not and will sometimes reveal this in a mocking fashion. They might allude to, mention, or briefly consider event and information relevent to the current action but will not dwell on it too long.
I like to, perhaps, see that narrator as a kind of iterant storyteller persona who must be conscious of and sensitive to his audience and their moods. If he does not entertain them and keep them engaged, he isn't eating today and will sleep in the stables again, if he's lucky, under a hedge if he is not.
Envisage your audience as you write and be aware of overindulging yourself by being on the look out for wandering attention, heavy or glazed eyes, perhaps even someone sleeping...
Put their Shoes On
To know someone, really know them, it is not only important to walk a mile in their shoes, it is vital too to know why they neither cleaned them first nor thought to mention the smell before doing so...
You must consider the following things when approaching a character, to make them relateable;
Their background and experiences
Their eduacation of lack thereof
Common beliefs
Their origins
A grown-up street urchin of sorts such as Cassander is not going to have the same knowledge, understanding, education and, ultimately, viewpoint as a cynical veteran like Laèrtes. Now, it's possible that they can share some opinions and beliefs because some things may be common or endemic. They will use different language but use the same bad language, perhaps. They may have a similar opinion about The Union, similar beliefs with regards to Alexander's return and his Kalshodar, who they view as mythical saviours. So they have a similar basic foundation but also their experience builds differences.
That's the trick and the actual point of the above quote. What is base-level, what is the standard of minimum, accepted knowledge and education in your world, what things does everyone know and how is it taught to them? After that, what education, training, etc is needed to learn other things? It's all about context.
What seems to be ordinary, taken for granted knowledge by one character will be utter, indecipherable nonsense to another. The context of the character changes what they know and what experience they have.
The Coming Tales
So, writing stories about the common people of The Empyraeum seemed like both a great idea and a significant challenge. These are not immortal superbeings well in the councils of those that run things. Not soldiers from ancient times that're soldiers still. No, these are people who are very young by comparison (in case you're wondering Laèrtes is somewhere between 90-110 years old but this is in a time when improved scientific advancement and medicine has granted a lifespan of around 200-300 years to most humans, especially the militrary who get things your average citizen might not) and do not have millennia of experience on their side but they are, by definition and necessity, more changeable and flexible.
The Kalshodar are, for the most part, steady and unchanging. They have gotten stuck in a personality and habit rut, perfectly normal if you think about it. Your average human is in a state of constant adapatation, though, in a constantly changing world, doing what they need to in order to survive.
This will, I feel, give the stories and characters a greater immediacy. These people are facing soliders that are superior to them and, if that is not the case, exist in greater numbers than they. In the time leading up to Empyraeum Cycle Book One: Flame Undying, nobody had seen a Kalshodar in centuries and few still alive have seen one in person. They live in a time when stories of them are suppressed and destroyed, believers murdered or tortured. What information they have could be wildly inaccurate, whispered as it is in corners.
The new collection of short stories are already (three of them in) starker, darker, and rawer. They're stories of survival, necessity, loss, hope maintained in places it barely exists or hopes shattered. They are stories of brutal experiences and choices. The characters are not shining paragons like their Kalshodar. There are no fantasy elements to them at all, this is pure sci-fi and unflinching in it.
Honour exists but it is more of a concept that an way of life, to these characters a life lived for honour would be a short one, and a stupid one. Brutal necessities make honour a luxury among many but some still believe in it and will fight for it. Sgt. Gwydion, for example, is a man of honour and has passed it on to young Ollimur. Gwydion himself learned it from the "Lady Kat" and the sharper among you might have already guessed who she learned it from.
Perhaps that's what will make this collection, once it's ready, more relevent in the world of today, where these struggles and conflicts appear much closer to the surface than they once were?
Get ready for the stories to start appearing once they're written and edited...
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