The concept for this story concerns the political, social, military and economic jostling of a far-flung region of the galaxy inhabited by numerous intelligent species but primarily dominated by several human species. The theme of the story is the moral choices individual characters must make when confronted with the demands of their societies, those close to them, and their own needs during a time of political upheaval. The goal of the story is to create and write characters who are completely removed from the contemporary worldview of the writers and instead have their own consistent worldviews and ethics which come from their own societies and experiences. The writers experience the decisions the characters make and their consequences when truly roleplayed according to the characters' moralities rather than the writers'.
The key to this is 'loving all your characters', even the ones you find reprehensible, taking their backgrounds, origins and formative influences seriously, roleplaying them fearlessly, and daring to do something totally away from oneself.
Some setting items to consider:
It's the year 5000AD. Earth is a radioactive cinder. The chain of history and cultural heritage is broken. There are no ruins or artifacts on most human worlds to connect humanity with the ancient cultures of Earth. Some scholars say that all humanity originally came from Earth, but this is hotly debated in academic circles and when the general public notices at all they dismiss it as Earth Empire propaganda.
There are thousands upon thousands of inhabited worlds. They are islands in the sea of galactic darkness, and isolation has caused populations to drift apart. Even within the great empires there is no cultural norming influence and the great majority of media is local. Technology ranges from stone age to interstellar. Culture ranges from any imaginable extreme to any other.
The governmental cultures of the great empires are these:
Absolute monarchy, feudalism, almost total autonomy at the planetary level (just pay taxes and don't make trouble). Elitist totalitarian oligarchy, governors assigned at the planetary level (don't step out of line on anything). Militarist-statist bureaucracy plus economic freedom, considerable autonomy at the planetary level (pay taxes and toe the ideological and political line).
No interstellar government recognizes anything like human rights or individual freedoms and would never consider such limitations on its power. There is only law, tradition, power and realpolitik.
Faster-Than-Light travel takes at least a week, even for the shortest journeys. There are no FTL communications. It takes a year to travel in the fastest ship from one end of the largest empire to the other. This is also the speed of the fastest communications. Commercial transport is much slower.
The inspiration for this setting is Traveller, and I'm going to make much use of the published Traveller setting material.
Anyone who finds this interesting can send me a PM, and from there we can discuss plotting. Some rules are:
* This story will be posted in the Cave. * Third person, past-tense writing. * It's intended to be a multi-writer story, but if you want a solo thread we can talk about it. * It will be a slow posting story, no guarantees of anything. * This story is meant to be mentally and emotionally challenging, and the setting will be ruthless. Have backup character concepts ready. * And of course no Sues, Special Snowflakes, or characters who are just contemporary modern people wearing futuristic costumes.
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