Tuesday 17 February 2004

Pic of the day: Screenshot from the anime Saint Beast. (Not reviewed here.)

7 other worlds

As I mentioned yesterday, I am not unfamiliar with the idea of having different "levels" of worlds, parallel realities rather than actual planets. In fact, one of my fictional universes that I have returned to over several years had such a constellation of worlds, although they were not stacked as closely as those Gene Wolfe describes in The Knight. These were complete, spherical planets. Intriguingly, the sun was in different stages of its life cycle in some of them, indicating that time did flow differently there. Although perhaps not in such a regular manner as in The Knight, where each higher world has time moving faster.

Why seven worlds? I think in my case it derived from the expression "seventh heaven", which again is a relic from ancient astrology. The different "heavens" were thought to be ruled by the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. You'd expect astrology to crumble and die when new planets and moons were discovered, but what says the old proverb? "Against stupidity even the gods fight in vain"? That seems kind of fitting, since the ancients believed the planets were indeed gods or at the very least representatives of the gods.

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Anyway, here is an outline of the world first created for a feuilleton (novel in installments) I wrote on the Norwegian BBS network YothNet long ago, before I switched to the Internet. I have used it again a couple time for other unfinished works as well, with small modifications. There is a very quick sketch of it on February 18, 2002, but here it is in more detail.

It really started with the game Master of Magic and the idea of parallel worlds with different races and different amounts of magic. In MoM there were only two such planes of existence, but fans hoped there would be more in MoM2. Not that such a thing ever was made, but we kept hoping for a long time. Anyway, in my mind it expanded into this cluster of worlds, not really different planets but different Earths.

The outermost world is our own (or a reasonable facsimile thereof). The magic is diminishing, but it is not entirely gone. Visiting Earth has become dangerous. Some people blame the rise of the Dead God, a powerful necromancer who has taken control of more and more of our Earth over the last 2000 years, monopolizing magic in order to raise an army of undead servants. Terrible rumors are spreading about mages and wizards being betrayed, hunted down, tortured and killed just for using magic without the sanction of the Dead God. (This view does not coincide with the author's opinion, btw.) The fact remains that Earth has become hard to reach and hard to live in for visitors from other planes.

Things are not much better on the next world in. The second world has more magic, but the sentient race there are white supremacists with a worldwide fascist government. Their leader is hell-bent on conquest of the other worlds as well, but so far he has simply not had the power. His homeworld however is under his thumb. Well, until certain events take place. I don't know what happens to his world after his untimely passing, but presumably another insane fascist leader will take his place. The inhabitants, called "Maggots" by anyone else, are white as fine flour and utterly devoid of hair, not even eyelashes do they have over their white eyes.

The third world ("Satyaloka") is the realm of the Pale Elves. It is an utopia of sexual equality and liberty, vegetarianism and gardening. The elves live long, happy lives and practice many useful forms of magic. However, due to the incursions of maggots, they have recently been forced to keep a standing army. The army includes pretty mages and chics in chain mail.

The fourth world is the world of the Trolls, or Rakshasas as I called them. It is actually two worlds occupying the same level of magic, and both of the worlds are occupied mostly by trolls. The trolls are generally good people, the women growing smarter and smarter over hundreds of years of life, and the men growing stronger at the same pace. Reproduction takes place only until around the age of 80, and the young trolls are not unlike big humans. After the "midlife crisis" their bodies change to typical troll bodies, growing even larger and weirder.

The fifth world is the home of the Dark Elves. It is icy cold on the surface, and the sun is a small white disk, presumably dying slowly. The elves live in enormously long caves, especially in volcanic hot spots, where heat from the core of the earth supplies most of their energy. The world is also richer in magic than any of the outer worlds, so their life is not all that bad.

The sixth world is largely desert, but with oases teeming with life and some few rivers and lakes. Here live the Golden Ones, humans whose skin and hair are the color of gold. Like most races except the Pale Elves, the common people are rather xenophobic. The world is not particularly attractive except for its intense magic. It is the most magic-rich world where common people can live.

The seventh world was until recently one of the hells, worlds in which the magic was so intense that it would blow apart the mind and body of humans (or trolls or elves) who dared enter. But over the course of the last 13000 years, great mages from various races have settled near the magic vents and begun to terraform the world.

A "vent" is a natural passage between worlds, which lets some of the magic pass from a high-magic world. In the world it connects to (usually the next one up, although some bypass a world) they are called "wells". On the higher worlds, these have all been modified into more user-friendly passages between worlds, such as portals or world towers. Most trade and visits between worlds go through such modified vents, although some have been built from scratch, and there are wizards who are able to teleport between worlds anywhere, without using the normal passages.

Goldenworld has several wells from at least one hell, as well as the still almost hellish seventh world. The magic from these wells is very strong, but they also bring the occasional incursion of demons: chaotic beings, barely sentient and hungering for souls. This is the last world with Hell's Wells, and this has not helped the xenophobia or the overweening pride. Normally demons won't be able to get any further as long as the Golden Ones keep watch, but sometimes a mad wizard will summon them further up. Generally this gets harder the further up you are, but some demons are easier to transport than others.

There used to be another world outside Earth, but it became harder and harder to leave it due to its innate magic fading and specializing. Eventually people stopped returning, and shortly after people stopped going there as well. This all happened near the end of our ice age, perhaps 20-25000 years ago. That time is now known only from fading myths, and the records of its last days are translations of translations of translations, and even those are only readable by wizened sages. But it seems that even at that time, there were only 7 worlds (with the twin world or the trolls counting as one). The Netherworld was not colonized until after the outermost world was given up. This has lead magic scientists to the conclusion that all worlds "cool" naturally, their magic leaking off to higher worlds through the vents and possibly being spent through use. In time, the current hells will all be tamed and become worlds of magic, while the Seven Worlds will all be mundane and their magic fade into myth.

But before that, there are a lot of stories to be told.

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"Satyaloka" is a Hindu concept similar to our "Heaven". "Rakshasa" is a Hindu concept meaning roughly cannibal, subhuman, humanoid demon, ogre.