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I love building new worlds, whether they are alternative Earth's or even something totally and completely different. Why? Because it allows me a freedom to play with making those worlds what I want/envision.
Of course, it's more than just building the words - while it's important to have a view of the terrain, world building should not be just about that. It's about building the social structures and acceptable behaviours/ moral and ethical roles of members of the society.
Today, I though I would use some excepts to show you a little bit about my own experience of world building. I hope you enjoy them.
In Starfire, I was able to play with everything from the various layers of the ozone down to canyon structures. (Terrain World Building aspects)
Excerpt from Starfire:
Raven broke into her concentration. “Jem, about ten-thousand meters to the upper
stratosphere.” She once more began the zig-zag movements of the shuttle, and finally the cloud
was clear in her view. “Eight thousand and falling quickly.” She grabbed the bottle of water,
took a quick pull to wet her dry mouth, and stashed it back into the holder. “Six thousand and
falling quickly.” His voice grounded her, and she continued her movements over the keypad.
“Shields and hull looking good.”
“Okay, we are about to enter the mesosphere. Hang on, as once we are in that, we will start
preparations to pull into position to enter the canyons.” Her voice was breathless as beads of
sweat pooled on her nose and chin. The gauges showed the speed of her descent, and she fought
to pull up the nose of the shuttle.
“We have entered the mesosphere! Right, boys, let’s get into position.” Suddenly, once
more, the cabin was a hive of activity, with voices calling out their position, bogey checks, and
shield diagnostics. Her hands moved fast as she altered the course of the craft with as much
speed as she could to ensure they entered the canyons at the exact location they had plotted. The
forces pushed them back into their seats, and suddenly they were through the clouds and the
ground was growing larger by the second.
Later in the same scene...
Their entry point to the canyon, no more than a rounded widening of the red crevasse, was
just ahead, the land continuing to rush toward them as she arrowed in. Closer the point loomed,
getting larger, and then finally she skewed the ship, shooting inside the rift and then pulling up,
fighting and pushing the craft to do exactly what she needed it to do. The canyon sides came
close enough to the craft that the wings pushed the air onto the walls, causing rocks to fall behind
them. An outcrop loomed before and Raven called out, “Clearance less than one meter wing side,
Jem.” She felt her face move into a grim smile as she waited until the last second and tipped the
craft slightly.
“Barsha…” The word escaped from Chowd behind her, amazement coloring his tone. There
was no time to respond, though, as they shot through the canyon, her eyes on the altimeter and
ahead to the once-more-narrowing canyon walls, striated reds and browns dotted here and there
with boulders jutting out. Below them, raging blue water crashed wildly, sending up plumes of spray that coated her forward screen. Once again, Jemma tilted the craft; this time a creak and
groan sounded as she scraped the side of the walls. Her stomach dropped, but she didn’t let up
the speed. She couldn’t.
Oops got carried away there a little! :) I love writing high tension scenes... anyway, as you can see though, Jemma is making note of all these things as she's in the middle of flying through a canyon. You can tell it's an older planet because of the striations in the canyon walls.
In Starburst, I got to play with three distinct locations:
The Admiralty, on the Ru'Edan Space Station and the Ru'Edanian ship Elvmandar. By giving these different locations, I was also able to play with the social beliefs and class systems. For anyone who has read Starburst, you will note the lesser ships are actually named after the high priestesses. (As in the one I wrote the scene for last year...)
The Space Station: (Social situations)
This time, their allocated room was much bigger, more comfortably arranged and furnished, she thought, sitting down on the edge of the bed. The bed alone had room for two, unlike the one on the ship they had just disembarked from, and she smiled as wickedly lustful thoughts came to her.
Overall, she found the station more inviting, and the staff appeared more forward thinking, to her mind. Since arriving, she had seen more women gathering around, not holding senior positions, but at least not just dead-end drudge positions. They looked happier in themselves, not downtrodden or cowed, and that heartened her somewhat.
She smiled. “Chowd? Did you see the women in the hallway?” He grunted absently, and she knew he hadn’t heard her. Meredith looked a little closer before standing and wandering over to him. He stood, looking out of the large, reinforced window into the vast, inky blackness of space. The introspective mask that he had donned many times before when lost in thought met her eyes.
Aboard the Elvmandar: (more about the societal roles)
Each person had moved out of the shuttle as Chowd named them onto the obsidian-black floor. Some looked around in interest and not a little concern, others waiting in calm silence. He understood their tension, but they had a job to do. His chest felt tight, and he expected someone—anyone—to come out and call him a traitor. To name his father and want to take him out for the crimes he had committed. He hadn’t ever considered himself Ru'Edan, but then neither did he consider himself human, but they might see it differently.
The man Chowd guessed was the captain, given his epaulets and official decorations, moved forward.
"Welcome, Ambassador, to our humble ship. We will attempt to make your time aboard as comfortable as we can. We have arranged cabins as per the agreement for you and your personal entourage." He indicated for the ambassador to move forward, and Chowd nodded to his people. They moved into position, flanking the man as directed before landing, their muscles and hulking bodies notable among the fine-figured Ru'Edan. Chowd needed a level of freedom to look around and plan, so he had taken this unusual step of splitting the party up. He hoped it wasn’t a mistake.
He trusted his people to know how to keep the ambassador safe.
The captain, tall for their kind at nearly six feet, as many Ru'Edan of the high class are, wore his uniform with pride. His gray skin stretched over his slight but sinewy frame, covered by a resplendent red-and-black-leathered flight suit. He turned, and the ambassador followed him, walking quickly through an automatic doorway and out of sight.
Chowd turned swiftly. "Jemma and Raven? I need you to supervise unloading and securing the shuttle. Meredith, come with me. I may need your skills." He nodded to Jod, knowing that he would need to follow him and find out exactly what security measures they had set in place and acquire any other information he could glean.
Information was power, and his role required him to obtain information so he could ensure the safety of the people in his guardianship, and the ambassador particularly. He also refused to allow Meredith out of his sight, or for that matter the rest of the crew. Not right now. Not until I am assured of their safety.
Meredith moved close to him, and he battled the need to take her hand and offer the support he knew she needed but wouldn't ask for. He couldn't do that though. On the Ru’Edan homeworlds and even their ships, the genders remained unequal, and he refused to put her in an even more precarious position than she already was. No, we will play it by ear. For now, anyway.
"What provisions are there for cabins?" He kept his voice terse.
"We have allocated five as per our agreement," Jod Svan’Er answered, ushering them into a long gray corridor. Their steps clanged on the floor, the lighting sufficient to see their way but no more.
Chowd nodded before saying, "We will only require four. Our teams are paired, and only the ambassador is unpaired currently."
The guardian stopped, looking at him with surprise. "Paired? As in…to stay together?"
Chowd nodded, understanding they had reached a pivotal moment for his team. Chowd waited for the reaction that could affect the balance of their mission from this Ru’Edan guardian.
"As in the women together, and the males similarly so?" Suspicion colored Jod’s voice.
"No. As in my pilot and her assistant are a pair, my two guards are paired, and I am paired with this female."
"That might cause some issues. We do not allow that in our own ranks." His eyes narrowed. "Yet, I had heard it was quite common for males and females to cohabitate, and even to carry the same rank and position. That seems rather unwise, doesn't it?"
"Not at all.”
The guardian didn't say anything as he turned to walk quietly down the long corridor, but Chowd sensed his uneasiness.
"We are placed near the ambassador, I take it?"
The guardian nodded. "Yes, two cabins to one side and two to the other. We were instructed to do so, as the ambassador was bringing a full security detail and his assistant with him."
"His assistant is indisposed." No need to go into all the details right now, in case they had something to do with it. He felt Meredith's unease but remained thankful for her silence at this time. I will find an opportunity to take on her thoughts about the situation later. He breathed deeply, holding on to his emotions as they entered a large room. The overwhelming feeling of being trapped remained, though.
"This is where the captain will hold a formal meal tonight. We have ensured that there are some of your local foodstuffs available as well." Chowd looked around quickly. The room was sparse and gray with a single long table and hard seating fastened to the floor. The room looked just like the rest of the ship they had already seen. Spartan.
They moved through the decks quickly, and Chowd memorized the layout of the ship, the security systems, and life-support pod locations. A prickle at the back of his neck continued to irk him, but he ignored it, knowing that he couldn't investigate the way he would on the Elector. His stomach churned while he filed away everything to reconsider later, leaving him unsatisfied, even while he continued the cursory inspection.
In this scene, you can see that co-habitation of the sexes is frowned upon. In actual fact, many Ru'Edanians consider women to be lesser (they really need the suffragettes to visit them.) A way of highlighting this is to keep them apart... A concept Meredith has big issues with.
I hope you've enjoyed a peak into my view of Out of this World! I truly enjoy working with the myriad facets of world building.
To enter my giveaway:
Simply leave a message telling me your fave scene. Don't forget to add your email address so I can contact you.
Oh and my prize? A copy of my latest SciFi release:
The Plan.
What happens when a former orphan, now illegal parts runner Kadie Frost falls for the new head of the Department of Authority?
Jonah Fielding has been brought in to clean up the department on Centauri, but in the course of his work, he also captures Kadie, the sprite who got away.
But what happens when work and pleasure collide?
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