The Power of Hearth and Home

I've been going back and forth a lot on the Jarral's powers and I think they should be subtle. I like the idea of creating a secure place where none can be harmed without very specific laws and rules. That means that normally they'll be nice and relaxed but from time to time they'll be incredibly formal. The head of the household (male or female since that's just the way I picture them working) controls many things but not with an iron fist. There are exceptions to everything and the like. I think that they should also have a healing ability and something that helps with the crops.

I like the idea of specially carved stones being the limit of their demense. And the more powerful the community, the larger the circle that they control is. Their numbers will generally be small but tight knit.

More on the Abysmals

So the thing is, how does this actually work? I mean, the Abysmali don't just sit around in labs and the like, because they don't need them. The finished design just appears in their head. But is it that easy?

Yes and no. The way I figure it, they don't need to do lab work, but they need to define the problem. For example, if they have something really specific like say "A device which keeps my cat from sneaking out of the house at night" then they'll get an answer. Even more specific is better, like "A device which keeps my cat from sneaking out at night that uses a net, a bird and a spring." The more specific they are, the quicker they'll be able to think up the answer.

This means that they're still going to explore things, just backwards. A basic knowledge of how the universe works is required to get more specific in their instructions, though one might imagine this might lead to some fairly backward ways at looking at things.

Multiple Abysmali pooling their talents can make more impressive things, thus if they have something really important, they can put something together very quickly if they properly delegate all of the tasks involved. This means that in Abysmali society, everyone is going to have something they're in charge of when it comes to inventing and creation. A society of experts. That means education is very important to them.

One other thing to keep in mind is, under the sea there is no easy fire. Which means that while some things like Steam power might come easy to them, just burning a bunch of wood under a kettle of water isn't quite going to cut it.

Secrets of the Abysmali

OK. First thing is first.

How far can we go with technology in a fiction work and still call it 'Fantasy'?

For some people, if it goes beyond swords and crossbows, they aren't happy, but then again those people aren't the kind of people I'm writing for, at least not as a target.
Indeed, I strongly suspect that I'll never write anything that would make a 'purist' happy.

Now, steam works, for the most part. Lighter than Air craft is OK. Electricity is pushing it, but electronics definitely doesn't work. Indeed, pulp lightning guns or even Victorian era tech ('Steam Punk') is barely acceptable on the fringes and should only be rarely seen.

Fortunately, it looks like the Abysmali will not play a huge role in the vague areas of the plot that I have in mind. Still, this month I'm defining the exceptions to reality rather than the aspects of reality itself.

A far better example of what can be cutting edge tech for them would be 'Clock Punk' or the kinds of gizmos that the Leonardo Da Vinci knock off created in 'Alias'. Only the thing is that the Abysmal can create the solution of perfection such as it is possible in the world of Pickle, simply because they know the answer ahead of time. Its really the only form of time travel (via knowledge) that I'm going to allow in the world.

Now having said that, there is another problem. The basic tenet of science is the organization of world based on the idea that its laws are immutable. The problem is that if you examine the mythology I have created, it is apparent that Pickle and the creations of Fa and Sa are a morphological metaphysical situation. That is to say, when things come 'from chaos' to me that means that a mind can shape the reality around them to be anything that they want it to be. Thus it is one of those 'if enough people believe it then it can become real' scenarios.

However, the key to Pickle is that there have been many many minds going in the same direction for quite some time. Thus, the natural physical laws have more or less reached an extremely powerful inertia that isn't going to change short of an act by one of the greater powers (Sa, Fa, Ob, Hila or one of the Seven). And even they would have to fight against thousands and thousands of years of human expectation.

So what sort of a world do people imagine? They might have made the world flat, but Pickle and the other six countered that. Plus don't forget that the Green world itself and just about everything has a mind and spirit of its own. Its a very animistic world. Now having said that, 'clock punk' suddenly makes a lot more sense if only Newtonian physics apply. That also means that certain basic chemical reactions are possible, but things like relativity and advanced electronics are right out. It is too fine an observation for people to make. Of course, one could argue that since that is too small in the world for people to notice, there can't be laws applying to it, and to a certain degree that might be true, but on a larger scale that is not going to be the case.

Magic

Granting – The Granting of something is to give a metaphysical licenses to use or mimic that things essence or nature for the nature of the thing being granted.

The primary rules of Granting are that Granting must be done voluntarily, and it must fall within the power/scope of the thing to grant it.

A human being could grant sight, titles, intelligence etc. A stone could grant toughness and endurance but not motion since it does not possess the power to move. The granting of a thing does not automatically mean the reduction of that which originally gave it, if the original has enough essence to incorporate the change on their own. If it does not, then the thing that is doing the granting must give its own essence to grant.

Feats accomplished by the S’im’saur using granting:

They used their license over the creatures of Green to begin to alter them to their liking, particularly by breeding them over time.

They used their magical powers to store energy and essence to create destructive force.

They created magical memories that could be transferred to others by granting their memories and then storing them in a stone.

Gems – Certain gems possess the essence of the other six worlds. Each world has a specific gem that represents it. The gems themselves cannot grant anything, but if a Gem is from the Indigo world, it can serve as a source of essence in lieu of the cost of the granter or the grantees license.

Binding – the Mak-Ka-Fa and Mak-Ka-Ma require permission to do harm to any creature of the Green World. Thus, the terms of that permission must be laid out in explicit detail.

The Game Commences

So Pickle had done a right number of Sa and Fa alright. Back and forth they went for thousands, tens of thousands of years with over ten great human empires rising and falling during the course of it all. The fifth empire was the biggest and conquored all of the other worlds in creation, putting the Sopensen, Abysmal, Simsaur, Middle Folk and all others under their heel.

Needless to say Pickle's siblings were not happy. They began to complain, but quietly at first, respectfully. Fa didn't listen so much but Sa listened patiently to their cries and began to work up a destiny for their children as well. And for a while that worked, but Pickle was wiley and it was humans that kept coming out on top. It was Pickle's era after all and he had right of way. He was the one that had the power, that was what had worked for the others, and now he had his day in the sun.

And what a long day it was, but eventually even gods get tired of their games. By now, all of the prophesies had been fulfilled, and the old ones didn't really work any more. So many heroes and dark lords had risen and fallen that it just bored Fa and Sa, though Pickle tried many times to get them to rediscover their interest, it couldn't hold forever.

So eventually they decided they were going to put the game away, that prophesy and destiny wouldn't apply any more and that they'd retire for a while and let things run themselves. And Sa and Fa's other children grinned with anticipation. Oh there was going to be payback alright. A whole lot of payback.

And so the final wrap up of prophesy and destiny began, with Fa and Sa wanting to tie everything together in one great big bow with a nice ending. There was only one slight complication to their plans.

It is very very hard to kill a god. The Hila Monster was still out there, not quite dead, lingering around creation like a leech that sucked life rather than gave it. And she meant to destroy all of creation. And she had idea how to do it too.

But Ob wasn't dead either. And he had watched with great sadness at the games his mother and father played. He tried to stop them, but he was so weak, they couldn't hear. No he only had just enough power to give humanity a tiny chance at free will. A long shot in the dark at best.

And so begins our story.

Sa and Fa Come to an Agreement

Sa would write prophesy and Fa would carry it out. Whereas Fa would set what everyone's destiny was meant to be and Sa would carry it out. They were happy and beamed with joy at the prospect at working together yet occasionally confounding each other.

Pickle was merely content that a third great and mighty human empire came and went, lasting several thousand years. Fa and Sa had taken a while to come to their decision whilst more time was passing for humanity. This empire was more glorious than all the rest, having learned some of the secrets of magic from the Simsaur and some of the secrets of science from the Abysmal, though the world collapsed yet again.

And there was darkness in the land.

Sa and Fa get to work

And so a group of heroes arose and put together the first empire. It took a lot of work but they built it to span across three continents. They built roads and buildings and all kinds of neat things. But then there came a prophesy about a child overthrowing the king and restoring the just rule of the people. But neither Fa nor Sa knew whether the prophesy was true. They realized that the rules that they had set up for this thing.

Pickle scratched his head and realized that this was going to be a problem, especially when the First Heroes went nuts and started killing each other to keep the child from being born. Soon enough, they were all dead, and neither Sa nor Fa knew whether or not they should enforce the prophesy.

Pickle suggested that they make a special bloodline the recipients of the true prophesies. He thought that maybe Sa could make the prophesies and Fa could carry them out. Sa wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing with Destiny whilst all of this was going on, and so they realized that somehow Fa had to decide something about destiny.

While they were trying to figure out what to do, the First Empire fell down around their ears.