IN An alternate reality, the star system in which the planet known by many as, URUTSK <'Crash Landing'>, encircles a brighter, slightly hotter yellow-orange star than your sun. URUTSK has many neighbours, all somewhat similar, yet very divergent those of your Solar system.
It is slightly smaller than your earth, and now, composed of far fewer heavy metals, and more simple crystalline structures. It has roughly 10% more water, in addition to its smaller size. This means that much of the world is at least somewhat flooded, or frigid, depending on local weather patterns.
The humans, yes, almost identical to you, have their own ethnicities, but most reflect blends of existing or former ethnicities found on your world, Earth.
URUTSK has a rich and radical history of major disasters befalling mankind roughly every thousand years, many brought upon the world due to the tragically-flawed efforts of the first human, Xoen. All native humans are his offspring.
Resultantly, most languages follow a similar alphabet, a central concept that has affected every endeavour of mankind, since the knowledge arrived in the 'War in Heaven'. That was when the First Parents descended from the great conflagration in the heavens, and came to commingle with the natives.
At that point, there were only a handful of ethnicities:
* Yirinn Ak
* Durn <'Unwavering Generation'>
* Kaukara <'World-wise Ones'>
Afterward, through their mating with the Imperial bloodline of the First Parents, all the ethnicities came to light in the next millennium or thereabouts.
Different 'eras', generally deliniated by the undoubted masters of URUTSK, the Vrun peoples, are either based upon discoveries, radical political changes, or wars -- often all at the same time.
Indeed, very soon after the First Parents touched the soil of URUTSK, a deadly storm that affected the entire star system showered debris from the War in Heaven down upon URUTSK. This in turn obscurred the system-star, their sun, and brought on terrible storms that scoured the planet clean of virtually all greenery.
No one knows how long the Scourge lasted, but what emerged from the Storm Age was the foundation of modern URUTSK.
Eventually, just as your earth did, we Urutskel <`I'm Born of URUTSK'>, split the atom. Unlike your world, we instantly and universally banned it. Like you, we built them by the gross. But, we were not fixated on the cheap and terrible weapons as were your scientists. No, we devised screens to filtre-out hard radiation as a countermeasure, then went on to develop Plasmatic Acids; LASERS, MASERS, XASERS, and others, beside.
Our militaries are significantly different from yours.
We believe in redundancy of command and small unit tactics, co-ordinated En Mass. Our Infantry are equipped with hypersonic caseless munitions fired from 'bullpup' carbines. The tiny rounds create horrifying wound cavities out to about [1,000 m], before friction with the atmosphere causes them to disintegrate. Most nations have true jet-packs that allow their troops limited flight, but greatly extends their ability to manoeuvre in most sorts of terrain through leaps and jumps. Each trooper has a complex communications suite in their environmentally sealed battledress, and the suits have limited life-saving capabilities, as well as environmental support.
Orbital weapons platforms are owned by only two nations: * The Peoples' Automatic Union -- a communist state administrated by an artificial intelligence known as, Mother; and, The Vrun Continental Authority -- a New-Agey Socialist society with hawkish tendencies. The VCA also patrol the inner system, and have attempted to colonise Aqmlk, the equivalent of your Mars.
Thanks for the back story. I was feeling like I had walked into a conversation already in progress :). I am impressed that you have maintained an active interest in this world since middle school (I think that I read that somewhere, but I don't see it in this entry). Are most of your stories based in the present ie, more SF than fantasy?
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that I skip around a lot, and fill in details that then link-up with stuff in the far future.
In the collection that I am editing, most of the stories do take place in the latter eras of the cycle, but these are often much more fantasy than sci-fi or even sci-fantasy. I would use the term Anachronistic Fiction more than any other term to describe the entire tale.
The first published novel is a view of the culture of Urutsk and Aqmlk as seen through two related characters whose eras are separated by thousands of years. There is a third character who is from a parallel reality closer to our own, who acts as a sort of anchor for a reader not of more contemporary fantasy. But, that series was planned out in such a way that it has more to do with our Earth than the Urutsk milieu.
I really need to buckle-down and write strictly within the milieu, and have copious notes and fragments and short fiction that does that to varying degrees.
Former associates from 'way back then' actually grew weary of always adding onto Urutsk's mythos rather than having defined and compartmentalised settings. I didn't see the point in wasting good ideas on separate settings.
That isn't to say that everything I have ever gamed or written is Urutsk-based, but that is where The Grand Tapestry comes in. It is my Metacosmos, as Michael Moorcock has his Multiverse.