Sunday 28 October 2007

Pic of the day: It starts with the starlit night... Amazingly, I can actually understand the romaji text without the translation here. It says "first time's encounter = star's night". The Japanese are weird, huh? Well, so am I.

Lightwielder world again

It is almost November and National Novel Writing Month. I have decided to go with the Lightwielder fantasy story for now. A bit different from typical Sword & Sorcery, it would probably be better classified as "spiritual fantasy". Unfortunately there is no such category, perhaps because people's spiritual fantasies are more commonly published as non-fiction. Just a guess.

In any case, my Way of the Light series has no elves and trolls, literacy is widespread (but printing is just recently started and is slow to catch on because there is no movable type, so you have to etch each book by hand before you can print it.) Think 16-17th century Europe, with some deviation either way. The Lightwielders are essential to the functioning of society, as they provide health care to the towns and villages as well as increase food production through the blessing of crops and livestock. In return they receive gifts from the grateful citizens, and redistribute to the poor what they don't need or want for themselves. It is a peaceful, harmonious world. Wars are rare and short, and the Lightwielders use their psychic powers and considerable social influence to intercept and forestall any unrest that is brewing. It is a benevolent collective/hierarchical dictatorship not unlike the Medieval Church, except its magic is more reliable.

The Lightwielder hierarchy is a strict meritocracy. Every Lightwielder can sense with great precision how strong the Light is in another. Since this is based not on natural talent but on channeling practice and honesty, a strong Lightwielder is accepted without debate as representing the Light better than anyone else. The few near-immortal Ancients are considered infallible until the opposite is proven, and venerated as living saints by the Servants of the Light. They are often feared by the citizens, and myths abound about their godlike magical powers and unpredictable behavior.

In this particular world and age, there is a loosely organized clergy with a monastic side. The cities have "Lighthouses" (which may or may not be literal towers in the harbor cities) where novices are trained and taught the doctrine. In villages, apprenticeship is more common. After reaching an acceptable level, a novice of apprentice is promoted to journeyman. This title is rather literal. The journeymen are sent on various quests, to assist in containing plagues or unrest, to deliver or retrieve objects, and to collect information. Through a wide variety of experiences, they learn how to use their power efficiently for the good of all.

As a full-fledged Servant of the Light, you will usually settle down in a village, or in a town as part of a small team. How active you are in channeling the Light and purifying your soul will determine not only how well you can do your job, but also what supernatural perks you get. A high-level Lightwielder has a greatly extended lifespan, excellent health, preternatural clarity of senses and eventually extrasensory perception. To reach the highest levels of Lightwielding requires a dedication that is inconceivable for most, though.

***

Against this background I have outlined a short series of books. I am writing the first as a prequel now in October. It is currently quite short and describes how our main character first becomes a Lightwielder. It has lots of exposition. It is also very family-friendly. I hope to expand it later to a full book, or merge it with this year's NaNoWriMo book. The first book will be called Starlit Path, to indicate the very weak, twinkling Light that arises in the main character's life. (He is called Harad, by the way. Most of the names are pseudo-Norwegian, as are most of the locations.) The second books will be Moonlit Path, to indicate a more stable and just barely useful Light. It also contains quite a bit of traveling, some of it by night. This is the NaNoWriMo novel for 2007. I vaguely plan for the third book to be called Dawnlit path, but that sounds a bit clumsy. Path of Dawn might be better but would break the formula. Very tentative names for the following books are Daylit Road and finally Brilliant Road, the last book in the series.

Each book will have a topic, is what I hope. Starlit Path is about the beginning. It has lots of exposition about the magic system and the underlying ethics of the Lightwielders. On a personal level, it describes Harad's alienation from his birth family and friends as he gradually leaves their world and enters the separate existence of the Lightwielders. People with experience from sects may find some parallels here, and I guess extreme political organizations as well. The message, and it is not entirely tongue in cheek either, is that you have to leave the people to serve the people. It is written in a straightforward and innocent language and seen through the eyes of a teenage boy. Computer analysis of my readability shows that it should be understandable by 6th graders. The hero of my story is not particularly bright. He is in fact a little slow, but very serious. (Not like me!)

The second book will be hard to write for me, because it deals with the topic of sexuality and spirituality. The Light is not a traditional god who has opinions on human sexuality. But it ruthlessly enforces honesty. You cannot lie about anything you do, have done or intend to do. In the book, Harad will travel for the duration of the summer across the land together with a young woman. He becomes 18 and she 20 during their travels, an age where thinking long and hard about the opposite sex is a valid option for most people. But then they meet a 7 year old girl who is prophesied to one day become his bride. Obviously that is a long way off. What is he going to do in the meantime?

The third book should hopefully concentrate more on the spiritual side of the Lightwielder "religion", if we can even call it that. More exactly the expansion of the present, a topic that is close to my heart but that I am too weak-willed to have enough experience in myself. Hopefully this will change before I finalize the book... Light willing. As you may be aware, most people live almost entirely in the past or the future or both of them, but are barely aware of the richness of life in the present moment. All authentic spiritual traditions that I can think of are working to remedy this by setting aside time for infusing eternity into time through the only opening that exists for this, namely the present moment. The Sabbath, meditation, contemplation, religious ritual and psychoanalysis... all of them strive to increase this aperture. I hope to combine this with an entertaining story about how the supernatural elements begin to manifest in earnest.

The fourth book should take place some time later and include the courtship of Harad and the woman who is his equal. I foresee again that this will be harder to write because of my lack of experience. There will of course be steadily more white magic too, and hopefully some exterior plot to solve.

The final book is thought to put our hero on a severe test to save something precious at a potentially high cost. I don't really know anything more than that. Oh, and there will obviously be large-scale miracles. If I have written the preceding books well enough, this should seem natural by the time.

Then again, I may have other hobbies before then. And it is not like the world absolutely needs these books. Though I hope they won't make things worse, at least.