Thursday, March 6, 2014

One world is not enough

In the SmallPowers multiverse, there are a host of worlds. At least one is in dire peril for each story. Each of the wizards called on to save the former come from another world. There are additional worlds that are bridging places for events before and after the primary stories, as well as places that are not worlds at all. Most of these worlds exist in universes that have limited contact with the other universes, beyond the wizards of the Order. However, the elves seem to wander between universes and to worlds within those universes, for their own reasons. Via a drab place between universes called the gray-mists. There are also other places, like the gray-mists, that span between universes. Hoonast, the ancient transport wizard, for example has built his wizard's keep in a space between a pair of universes. There is what is known as the 'cave of caves', which is a construction of time and space that links several hundred universes. And there are even zones outside of the concept of universes, such as the realm of Chaos. A self-aware entity that seems to have and be everything of every universe all mashed up and spread unseen all over the multiverse. There are even entities that look just like a planet, but are not exactly worlds.

There are a few worlds that are hot-spots of activity in the saga. Most have no names, other than 'the world', to the inhabitants. One that stands out is the home of the hillside caves that the Order has leased from a flock of fruit-bats. Other than the remarkably clever and avaricious bats, it is a rather plain and dull place in a suitably distant and obscure universe. Another spot is the world that is home to the high-tech barbarians that spawned a number of the more successful and important members of the Order. On it, other than a few locations and some general back-history, we get to see little more than the tropical island city of Hamilton. Home to Bella and Beatrix, and the rest of their family, including Stella and Olivia. In the upcoming novels there is another key world, that being the home to Penta and Bob. Their world is stuck in a feudal epoch and will, in time, become a major meeting and resting place for the questing-wizards of Order. Much as Hoonast's tower of gold and thorns has been among the transport-wizards for dozens of centuries.

Creating a list, maps or catalogues, of these places is not exactly necessary or of any help to readers. As it is the people that are much more interesting and important to look at in the SmallPowers stories.

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