The World in my eyes.

Yes this is a Depeche Mode reference 

An entire cosmos has been brewing in my head since I was in single digits, it's changed and matured with me but certain core elements have remained elements have remained the same.

• Elemental Magic.
• Mystical Martial Arts Action!
• A tone of pulpy/romantic(as in Romanticism) high adventure.
• Touches of Grimdarkness. 
• Space travel&Battles!
• The Luminiferous aether is real.
• The Races of the setting are humanoids with animalistic features like the"Beastmen" of 90s Jrpgs and the Thundercats;they also have none human skin colors.

As I got older,consumed more media and learned more about genres and aesthetics I further built upon that those core Ideas.

                                                                              ***                                 

Retro Futurism.

Is a big part of how I envision the setting, in particular the Retrofutruism of the 70s to the early 90s.

"Why that particular range"?

Because I was born in 1989, I'm among the last of the 80s children and I grew up in the 90s as the digital and Internet revolutions happened.

One of the most beloved books of my youth was Transport On, a part of the World of Tomorrow series...

Unfortunately my mother was never able to find the rest of that series.

The world presented in that book is engraved into my soul.

Like a lot of old sci-fi  the "World of Tomorrow" seems odd if not laughable by today's standards, those worlds have all manor of advanced technology and yet...

Commuters are desktop sized at the smallest, there is no Internet,social media, 3D Printing,little automation, and if there are robots they won't be employed the way that drones are now and likely will be in the near future.

Seriously few of the old luminaries of sci-fi saw the Internet ad how it would change everything coming. 

 "Why is that the cases"?

Most of those authors saw the future as a better version of their presents,rather than an entirely new paradigm. Much of the modern bleeding edge,sci-fi that is coming out now will seem odd if not comical to the children of the 2040s.

                                                                              ***

Steampunk.

Steampunk Is something that I wouldn't know by name until long after my first encounter with it, the Wild Wild West staring Will Smith. My major touchstone for the genre however is the web comic "Girl Genius", though the Author/illustrator describes it as Gaslamp fantasy, there is quite a bit of aesthetic overlap.

Aesthetic is what appeals to me most about Steampunk there is something delightful premodern  about it, and in the more fantastical takes on the genre the is a sense of whimsy and wonder that I love and feel is missing in a lot of modern sci-fi.

Dieselpunk 

What I've said about Steampunk largely applies to feelings on Dieselpunk as. My touchstones for that would be the movies Indiana Jones,Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and maga/anime series Full Metal Alchemist.

Magitech.

The notion of using magic as,to fuel,or augment technology, a notion regarded as profane by many traditionalist. It is the logical outcome of how magic behaves in a number of settings.  I can't remember my first encounter with the concept, but it stuck with me and when I started encountering it I embraced it. My touchstones for it are the Metropolitan and City on Fire Novels by Walter Jon Williams, and the Blazblue game series.

Alchemy.

The quasi and sometimes outright mystical precursor to modern chemistry. Alchemy is the perfect analog for a lot of modern sciences in a fantasy world, and in a setting where the supernatural is an unquestionable fact alchemy and chemistry would have never separated.  The closest thing to a major touchstone is Sith Alchemy from the Star Wars EU. Other minor touchstones are the archetypal mad or wise man who can brew up that special something that the heroes need.

                                                                               ***

So what is this world actually supposed to be like?

Synthesizing so many disparate elements into a coherent setting isn't easy, and succinctly explaing what that synthesis is supposed to be is even more difficult. The classic it's like" X Meets Y" kinda works but only kinda because so many different elements are in the mix.

That's

1. Battle Chasers.
2. Treasure Planet.
3. Thundercats(2011).
4. Skies of Arcadia.
5. Megaman Legends.
6. The Golden Sun franchise.
7. Outlaw Star.
8. Final Fantasy X
9. Final Fantasy XII.
10. Phantasy Star Online.

Different pieces of media pictured that all have some aspect of what's in my head and would need to be "X Meets Yd" together to make a short hand for the setting;if I was going to list every source the list would be much longer.

So would I present the setting to the audience?  Ideally I'd just show it to people after I'd devised a coherent visual lexicon for it, from it's many influence.

"Visual lexicon"?

The look and feel of a setting.

When you look at any of the big sci-fi properties their is a conceptual through-line that defines those franchises and sets them apart from anything else in their respective Genres.

Star Trek.

Star Wars.

Blade Runner.

Mobile Suite Gundam.

The ideal of setting presentation is off the table for me,because I've never been able to draw. That something that enables an illustrator to translate what's in their head to an image on the page, is missing in from me.

That leaves me with two...

1. Hire an illustrator to work with me and develop the look of the setting and be what I've researched illustrators don't like being, a facilitator of someone else's artistic vision. 
2. Produce prose fiction about the setting. 

No.1 is going to be very expensive and "problematic" unless I find an artist who's mercenary about their craft or rely likes/believes in my project.

No.2 Is cheaper, though I'll still needed to pay editors and a cover artist. However going prose has other issues. "A picture is worth a thousand words", simply showing the setting to people is more expedient than describing it. Heavily descriptive writing has fallen out of vogue, and the most commonly used tool for justifying exposition is a character type that I've come to be irritated by.

They are the "Conveniently-Ignorant", The character that through reasons with varying levels of justification is ignorant of the setting's history,politics,current events, and metaphysics, they exist to ask questions on behalf of the audience,questions that no native would ever ask because they had them answered as they grew up.

Side note: Being "Conveniently-Ignorant" is why so many protagonist are young people who are living on the literal or figurative fringes of society. 

I'd prefer to write stories about people,even youth's on the fringes, who know precisely how their world works and rarely if ever ask exposition facilitating questions. Thus the audience would have to learn how the setting works by watching the characters navigate it. 

                                                                               ***
If I was going to make a more concise attempt at the "X meets Y" premise summation I'd say that my setting, The World In My eyes is...

Eberron.

                                                                               X

Outlaw Star.

Maybe that wasn't as difficult as I thought that'd be.








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Magic,Magitech and Enchantment In The Silver Sky.

Now we have come to the discussion on the Magitech of the Silver Sky the Magic as well. I mentioned "Technology in The Silver Sky"  I largely have the magic and magitech defined. However there is always room for the introduction of new ideas,refinement of current, the revision and reintroduction of old. How magic fit into the world was definitely something that I needed to be revised. Because magic as I had initially conceived it was in conflict with the vision that I had for the world. The world of the Silver Sky Stories was initially envisioned as a high-magitech world, with magitechnical comparable to Star Trek. I hung onto to that idea for a long time,as I thought and rethought the world I knew that it couldn't be allowed to remain so high-tech and still tell the kinds of stories that I wanted. The level of magitechnology would have put more capabilities in the hands of  the people than I wanted.  So The nature and availability of magic had to change and more importantly the ability produce magic items had to be constrained. My options for restricting spellcraft was to either make it weaker or less abundant. I was comfortable with magic's level power, so those who could wield it would have to be less numerous than. I'd originally thought of spell casters at roughly five percent of the total population,with the aptitude for magic being far more common than those who are actually trained. Now they are at most a little over one percent of the total population and this still might be to numerous. I also felt it necessary to change certain aspect of the magic system, so that the limitation and mechanic were more clearly defined;indecently this made enchanting easier.

I took a page from Star Ocean,Iron Kingdoms and a project which I'm afraid will never come to fruition. By introducing Glyphs/Runes to my magic system. There are six Prime-Glyphs,which were in the old system different disciplines. Radiance, Substance,Force,Life,Void,Spirit each and every person weather or not they are a practitioner,has at least one of these Glyphs engraved upon their spiritual essence;the glyphs simply take-shape in accordance with that persons nature. The number of Glyphs naturally present are commonly one,two  or three, the possession of four Glyphs is rare,five is extremely rare and Hexers(the term for those with all six Glyphs) are so rare as to be almost mythical. The Prime Glyphs control how a practitioner, a Glyphigyst is able to wield the aether and without the correct Glyph the facet of reality that the Glyph corresponds to can't be manipulated. Prime-Glyphs are complex with different aspect of a Glyph representing different facets of it's dominion. The possession of a Prime-Glyph complete is a rarity, with certain aspects being more or less common than others; For example the Void Prime-Glyph's aspect of time is rarely manifested. Every Prime-Glyph has seven Core-Glyphs, which represent the fundamental manipulations of a Prime-Glyph's dominion and can be seen as analogues to musical notes. In to the Core-Glyphs there are twenty one Subaltern-Glyphs shared between the Primes. The Subaltern-Glyphs act as modifiers and connecters for the Core Glyphs. The most important thing to understand about Glyphs is that they do no exist the way that Glyph-casters perceives them. The Glyphs are the mortal minds best attempt at interpreting metaphysical phenomenon. When viewed through an Aetherscope the spell-fields woven by Glyphigyst look like waves composed of vibrating strings,instead of a collecting of letters.

The mass production of magic items still held the possibility of flooding the Silver Sky with magic. Before revising the magic system I had already taken an idea that I had seen elsewhere in fantasy, the production of magic items requiring certain rare materials and incorporated it my world. I had called the substance Aetherium and it was to be an unholy cross between Lyrium(Dragon Age) an Tiberium(Command&Conqour). It was to be the most valuable and insidious substance in the Silver Sky a living crystal that grew from the ground like a planet,but very slowly taking decades to reach a size  and level of potency worth harvesting. Aetherium could also be grown parasitically. A germ of the crystal implanted in an animal would consume them like cancer,incorporating all of the host biomass into it's self. I soon realized the problems that this would cause. Not because of the incredible loss of life as rulers fed the undesirables of their societies to Aetherium and waged war to capture people for usage as host. It's the fact that those atrocities would have made magic item all to common.

So the nature of Aetherium and the cosmos would have to change. Fulgurite a material created when a lightning bolt strikes sand would be inspiration for Aetherium's new form.  Aether storms now occurred as a natural part of the cosmos and they rained down aether bolt. Matter struck by aether bolts is usually burned away. However there is a small chance that a minute percentage of struck matter's mass will be transformed into Aetherium. Aether storms occur semi regularly on planets as tension in the energy cycles vent. They are also signs the beginning and ending of  planer conjunctions.

With Aetherium being highly valuable and people being rather ingenuitive it stands to reason that somebody would figure out how to cook Aetherium. There Aetherium plants working round the clock, burning matter away to produce the stuff.  Researchers are always searching for more effective  production methods, increasing the likely hood of Aetherium formation and the percentage of an objects mass  that will be converted into the stuff.  Now the existence of Aetherium plants might lead to the problem of magic items flooding the world. If it were not for the fact that Aetherium is far to fragile in it's raw state to use for anything other than ornamental purposes.To use Aetherium for any practical purposes it must be synthesized with other materials and compatible substances all tend to be rare.

Echanment(called Glyph-Engravment in the Silver Sky) and Artifice are closely related disciplines. Both involve using worked Aetherium to manipulate Aether into producing stable effect-fields.

Enchantment is far simpler and expedient but very limited, Glyph-Engravers can cut spell-fields directly into Aetherium through their spellcraft in a process similar to how vinyl records are created. An enchantment is a record of a spell and will play the spell when aether is channeled into it. As mentioned before enchantments are limited, requiring a medium of a size proportionate to the spell field to be engraved,unless the Engraver has a knowledge of spell-compression and that has a limit. An enchantment can only do one thing recreate it's spell and lacks any of the ability that a spellcaster would have to modify their spells or compensate for interference to avoid a dispelling. When an enchantment's spell is dispelled the physical medium is destroyed.


Artificing is the more complex and versatile of the disciplines but at the cost of expedience.  At it's most basic the craft involves tempering Aetherium to conduct,resit,attract,store or focus aetheric currents. The composition of Aetherium-alloy effects these properties as does the percentage of Aethrium in the alloy. The more advanced levels involve the involves the creation of Aethereal-circuitry;An intricate and pain staking process. The configuration of the circuitry determine the nature of effect produced. One of the most famous artifacts are inhibitor spike, when driven into the chakra points they render spell casting impossible.




               How does Magic,Magitech and Enchantment effect life In The Silver Sky?

Magic is a river flowing through the world shaping it but not flooding it. Magic has always been a part of the world and has influenced every aspect of society. For example battle mages meant that massed armies were rarely used, for the same reasons that advancement in artillery ended the use of  massed armies in the real world. laws,enforcement and the court systems developed around telepathy and psychometry. Life magic and it's ability heal and nurture allowed larger, healthier population at than would have been possible at equivalent time period on earth. Teleportation shrank the world in ways that wouldn't be approximated on earth until the invention of the airplane. Despite magic's presence civilization didn't under a magitechnologic revolution bypassing many developmental stages going directly from the bronze age to the information age. Mages are rare, their services secured by organizations and rarely did the average person have direct access to spellcraft. With the scarcity of Aetherium and the complexity involved in working the substance. Magic-items couldn't be mass produced and have through out history been big ticket items. Many a person in the ancient world went their entire lives without personally witnessing spellcraft or possessing a magic item. Yet the presence of Magic still impacted their lives. Stories of Mages doing things impossible for lesser, unmarked persons.  Enchanted spires that loomed over fields and made the crops grow betters. Black-gates that let citizens move between the major cities and provinces of their nation. Sending spheres that let holders speak to one another over great distance. Iron-veils which protected major cities from extreme weather and invasion. Weapons of terrible power and numerous verity.

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Technology in The Silver Sky.

Of all the things in my world the mundane technology remains the most nebulous. I even have the magic and magic tech better defined,see Arcana of the Silver Sky I-II-III. Perhaps I'm pulling from to many different sources, everything inspires me and I want include of it into my own worlds. Simply picking between one of the pre or early twentieth century punk genres, steam or diesel and loading the magic and cosmotheology that I've worked out would be the easiest thing to do.


However it's not what I'm going to do.  There several things that I want for this world, projectile weapons being dominate,some manor of gravity manipulation exist,light-based computing and telecommunication,a crystalline power source, travel between worlds inspired by the age of sail with trips between system taking months if one takes the long way, some form of cybernetics and direct mind machine controls,video games despite most other computer technology being around the level
of early twentieth century earth.  Some manor of three dimensional medium of data storage. There are also some technologies that I don't, A.I, widespread use of directed energy weapons, trasnhumanist technologies beyond the cybernetics, information technology developed to a point comparable with or exceeding that which is available in the real world, atomic weapons.


A logical explanation for how and why the worlds in the cosmos went down these paths of technical development is something that eludes me and I'm more than open to ideas.

What would civilization look like in the modern cosmos? A lot like the world seen in Final Fantasy VII;which brings us back to Dieselpunk. Electrogravitic hovercraft are ubiquities ranging in sizes from one person conveyances to gargantuan fortress-ships. People go to Kinemas and watch motiles, they listen to music on portable media players encoded on data-cylinders,higher end models can display video as well. The more developed worlds can travel to their neighbors or even to other systems by cutting through sub-space also called the near-void.

A single crystal substance fuels the mundane aspects of civilization Thunderstone(unless I can come up with a cooler name), the most potent and efficient fuel source that naturally exist. It comes from the Empyrean generated by their processes. These crystals drift across the comos until they fall onto a world. People mine the veins of the Thunderstone that were formed when the crystal was trapped inside a planet as it formed;And occasionally the sites where it falls to their planets. It's power which at the highest grades is comparable to antimatter is not the only reason why Thunderstone is the Ideal fuel. It's stability is the other Thunderstone is only detonated by four things resonance,percussion,electricity and Thunderstone emissions. If heated past a certain point Thunderstone will evaporate. Higher grades of Thunderstone can be synthesized through a complex process of sublimation and condensation,with each successive cycle  compounding the potency of the product. This process carries considerable risk because the synthesis process can release the energy of Thunderstone. Synthetic stones are often unstable and must store with care. Natural or Synthetic high grade Thunderstone is the mundane WMD of choice in the Silver Sky; Stone the site from orbit it's the only way to be sure.

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Shape Of The Cosmos

The concept of the World Tree , central to the mythologies of many different peoples on earth and one that i have include into the Silver Sky-vers.


                                                                      The Titans

Fourteen in number,two sets of septuplets, were born of the union of the primordial gods Order and Chaos. Each of the two sets of Titants were closer to one of their parents than the other. Together they created two great crystal trees; six tree trunks extending from a spherical body. From each of these trunks grow innumerable branches and at the end of these branches are the Crystal Spheres.

Inside each of the Crystal Spheres is is a cosmos and all with in orbits the Cosmic Axis which exists at the exact center of the sphere.



                                                                   When the Cosmos

Was first created there were only two true planes of existence


                                                                        the Aether

A turbulent sea of primeval matter,energy and spiritual forces and the Wholeness that it sustained.

                                                                          The Wholeness

The Wholeness is how modern day people refer to the earlier and now mythical state of the cosmos of the pre Sundering cosmos. During this lost time the spiritual and physical were one and the same,dream logic was a part of the world and symbol and metaphor were as real as the ground beneath was ones feat. Modern people can only theories on what living during this time was like,because they lack the frame of reference to comprehended it.

Then the titans went to war and in their fury the connection between the twin Cosmic Trees was nearly severed, the cosmos  broke and reformed. Where there had once been to planes now there were three.


                                                                  Astral  Plane

                                                                         
                                                            Aethereal Plane
                                                           

                                                               

                                                         Terrene(Material) Plane

The Astral and Terrene planes fell into a millenia long cycle of drifting in and out of sync. With the cosmos sundered Shamanism became a dead art as the spirits could no longer be reached. And civilization was completely destroyed and had to rebuild from scratch.




 

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Broken Mirror.

                                                                Behold the multiverse.

I've posted about the world of"Stories Of The Silver Sky" even shared a writing sample, now I'm going to talk about my MASTER PLAN!  Until I think of a better title and copywrite it the story is to be called

                                        Broken Mirror Tales: A Multiversal Odyssey.



The story will center around multiple protagonist: a young woman rebelling an empire.A young Paladin of the Way fighting to stop the Arch-Heretic from conquering the Known Worlds and overturning the Way. A Hero who slew the God-Empress of the Demon Empire but do to a post battle misteleportation was lost out of time, until he was rescued a century after the war. There will be others.


All the protagonist were living coexistent lives in slightly different version of the Known Worlds,however something  happened and breaches in the multiversal membrane begin to open. The crux of the story is going to be the characters navigating the multiverse and trying find the cause of the breaches.



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Unfetered

The following is the first story set in the "Stories Of The Silver Sky" setting, while it is not "canon" it dose contain a many of the ideas that I have about the world. It's only five pages and I wrote it as part of Creative Writing assignment. Now i present Unfetered.







                                                                          Unfetered

The moons Rubuera, Sulveni, Gildium were high in sky above the Imperial stadium. The atmosphere inside was tense as the string of drawn bow, down on the field two youths battled fiercely for the honor of their chapters; for theirs was the final bout in The Tourney. The opportunity and obligation of the Conservatory’s graduating students that had perused the path of martialism, to demonstrate the fruit of their training. Arahlin Ikar of Trion chapter and Imaric Corsae of Pentacon were the last of their duelist of their teams. Arahlin snarled in frustration as he was lifted into the air by a tentacle of solidified water. His golden eyes glanced at the horologe four minutes and fifty eight seconds remained. Then to Imaric's smug grayish red face and thought “that bastard thinks he's already won; and means on running out the time”.  Arahlin's poor judgment had gotten him into his current situation but Imaric's would get him out. Arahlin peripherally looked at the tentacle holding him aloft. Fine threads of Aether were spread throughout the water like the veins of a leaf. “Have to be quick “thought Arahlin, for if Imaric realized what he was about to do he'd be thrown from the ring into the water below. Arahlin's corona flared into a crackling, pale purple silvery nimbus of aetheral power. The tentacle moved to throw Arahlin but fell apart as Imaric howled in pain. Arahlin had touched his Aether to Imaric's and drove dissonance directly into his soul! On the offensive Arahlin charged across the ring, his body surging with the aether that he was channeling through it.

*****

Imaric ceased his trembling and rose from the ring face impassive as a stone, having remembered in the midst of his agony the focal-meditate. He reached backwards to edge of the ring; Aether shot into water the Siphoning it for him. Imaric spun the water into a protective bubble around himself. He then began a flurry of stabbing motions towards the oncoming Arahlin, firing ice rods off the bubble. Undaunted by near ballistic projectiles Arahlin continued his advance. A shield of hardened, heated, air rippled before him, shattering the ice rods and boiling the shards to vapor. The fingers of Arahlin’s right hand moved as though he rapidly weaving complex string figures. Whitish silver rods of ectoplasm crystallized in the air above each of his fingers and the water vapor wrapped around them before freezing into ice. Imaric stopped his fusillade and poured the power that he’d been using to attack into reinforcing his bubble. Imaric’s own corona flared and he threw a hard punch firing a blast of aetheral force. Arahlin abandoned his shield of air; from the tone of the blast he knew that it would offer him no protection. He gritted his teeth and stabbed his left hand forwards driving a wedge of aethereal  force into the blast splitting it in twine. Its halves diffused by the barrier surrounding the field. There were subtler uses to the discipline of Fortis and Arahlin was of a mind to demonstrate. One of the ice encased rods began to vibrate with energy causing it to give off a faint whine. Arahlin flicked his hand forward launching the rod, Imaric’s bubble rippled from the force of the impact and very nearly popped! “To the void with this!” spat Imaric then he roared letting bubble collapsed and he charged out to meet Arahlin…siphoned water trailing behind him.

*****

 Arahlin fired another charged rod which Imaric dodged by the mote of a degree. He then swung his arm upwards and the trailing sprayed into the air. Imaric made a chocking gasp as two of the rods struck him in the chest and other pained sounds as he fell to the ring. With a wave of his hand and a whips of Aether, Arahlin unbounded the working that sustained the impromptus water fountain.  He walked over to Imaric and said “yield”. Imaric looked into Arahlin eyes and sneered “to you scum?! Not life chance in void”! Then he struck, the water surged off the ring and cocooned Arahlin freezing to ice in the processes. Imaric slow rose to his feet baying laughter pained, the face plate of his helmet retracted. "As if I'd let something vile as you taint the even a fraction of Tourney's majesty by being declared it's champion; your participation is insult enough". Imaric cried out in pain as the very rod that had nearly collapsed his bubble speared him in the back! As Imaric struggled to his feet he noticed the air solidify into a globe around him. To hurt tired and to muster the power to escape the air globe, he howled in impotent rage as the globe carried him out off the platform and dropped him into the water. The stone bird cried signaling the end of the match. Arahlin fixed his gaze upon the judge’s booth, they were debating fiercely. Gritting his teeth Arahlin thought “a Duelists wins match, a team wins competitions I hope that I scored enough technical points off Corsae's gentry hind to give the team what we need”. For several minutes the judges deliberated, to Arahlin it felt like an eternity. Anxious coiled about him like a serpent as the judges announced their scores. Arahlin quickly tallied the numbers in his head then began to smile. Trion’s point total was put up on the scoreboard, with the points from the final match added they were leading Pentacon by two points the tourney was theirs! The attendees erupted some chanting Trion, others cursing the defeat of Pentacon these were the only people. Among the Pentacon supports were the bulk of the people saying the name Arahlin Ikar though they spoke it in same breath as their curses.

*****

Planks extended from the sidelines to the area and battered and bruised the team of Trion dueling team limped, hobbled and ran to meet their hero. Ahead off all of them was a female Ketusin. She leapt the railing the second the barrier came down skipped across the water and bound on to the platform, long coat flapping behind her. She picked Arahlin up tossed him into the air and caught him. “You did it Rahli you showed them all”! “Tiny” said softly Arahlin. “Yes” she replied. “You’re holding me to tight”. “Oh, sorry “said Tiny sheepishly then she set him down. Arahlin looked up into her midnight blues eyes “I should them but I still haven’t told them”.  Tiny smiled with malicious anticipation then stepped back as Arahlin’s teammates surrounded him and showering him with praise. On crutches the team captain hobbled over to Arahlin” you did it, you won the tourney for us” she said. “Captain my ability should never have been in doubt”.  “I never doubted you Arahlin Ikar not once, but that isn’t the same as having a realistic estimation of your abilities, also I’m not your captain anymore”. Arahlin chuckled “I suppose your right about that Antonia”.  “While on the subject of your abilities” said Antonia annoyed. “Yes”?  Antonia punched Arahlin in the shoulder “how and when did you learn the Dissonance Spike, that is a working a very dangerous. The only way a student would normally be taught it is if they demonstrated a predilection for offensive applications Noesis; which you do not”? Arahlin shrugged “I learned it from a codex about a season age. I wanted a loaded die for the Tourney”.  “From whence did you get this codex”?  “I got it for Rahli” stated Tiny greenish silver arms folded. Antonia held her face as she gave an exasperated sigh turning to Tiny she said” Miliani please tell me that nothing untoward was involved in the acquisition of the codex. They could use something like that to try and disqualify him, costing us the Tourney”. “I swear on my ancestors that I did nothing illegal for the information” said Miliani sincerely.  A sly smile crept on to her face” However I can make no claims that my actions weren’t untoward”. “Oh gods grant me your protection” pleaded Antonia.

*****

Arahlin’s friends and team parted as Tourney Presider Caelia approached. She presented him with the champion’s ring a loop of blades made from the finest glass that pulsed with silvery purple glow of aether.  Around the ring’s black stone was the tourneys’ date and Arahlin’s full name in raised letters. Presider Caelia asked all the standard questions asked of school graduate and triumphant athlete and Arahlin answered them all gracefully. Then she asked him he would like to say a few words, Arahlin looked to tiny who gave a little nod. With the speaker in hand Arahlin swept his gave around the stadium then said” I am Arahlin Ikar of House Spinae, but it’s my patronym that’s marked me my whole life. For my parents were Amittai and Honovi Ikar the leaders of the Dark Sceran pirate fleet. My father was killed when the fleet was finally navy finally caught the fleet, my mother was captured then  hung one week after I was born. To all of you that felt need to punish me for the crimes that my parents already paid for I have one thing to say…you can get down on your knees and kiss my red stripy ass”!  Arahlin handed the speaker back to Presider Caelia whose mouth hung open. He then once more looked around the stadium and basked in their mortified silence. Then Arahlin began to laugh first a little chuckle then nigh manically as the stadium erupted in outrage.

The cosmos of "Stories of The Silver Sky".

The cosmos of "Stories of The Silver Sky" has existed in my mind in some form since I was in single digits, hard to believe but it's true; i had a very active imagination and was raised on sci-fi fantasy. Though my ideas have matured and been refined over the years, the very first images of this world came to at an early age; Islands adrift in a sea of silver ether that was lit by Sky-fire rather than stars. So what exactly is the world of "Stories of The Silver Sky".

A cosmos where space is not a vacuum and is filled with an omnipresent field of macroparticles known as the Mist,which also gives "space" which the natives refer to as the firmament a silvery coloration.  The cosmos is lit not by stars but Empyrean.

Eruptions of a volatile sub-realm into to normal reality, releasing energy and the building blocks of all matter. Some Empyrean are small others large,some last for an instant others persists for years. The rarest are the perpetuals which erupt forever,systems of planets form around them.

Conterminous with all of points in the cosmos is the Gleaming Sea.

Thought to be a manifestation or aspect of the Aethereal Plane, an ocean of energy subtly felt but rarely seen. Properly equipped ships can harness the power of the Gleaming Sea to rapidly travel the cosmos.

The Gleaming Sea has great currents that flow between Empyreans and and high mass objects creating a web of fast travel routs across the cosmos.


Magic is a major part of the Silver Sky and exist in two main forms.

A shamanistic form of magic that works by drawing upon the power of the spirits, this magic is now all but dead. When the cosmos  was sundered during the First War of the gods,reality was split in half where once there had been whole  now there was physical and spirittual, Terrene and Astral. With the Sundering the power of the spirits could no longer be invoked. Only those who are sworn to one of the Gods can still call upon the spirits. For the power,the numen  of the Gods acts as a bridge between the planes.

The other a psionic art called Aethercraft.  Aether is the most fundamental force-substance in the cosmos, it is also the very stuff from which souls are made. By natural talent or extensive training there are people who can tap into the latent power within their souls and achieve otherwise impossible feats.


"Any Sufficiently Analyzed Magic is indistinguishable from SCIENCE!"

— Agatha Heterodyne, Girl Genius

While Aethercraft remains an Art, the Aether itself has been "Sufficiently Analyzed" Aetronic devices are ubiquities. Modern civilization in the Known Worlds is closer in terms of their tech-level to cyberpunk, rather than the quasi-medieval commonly seen in fantasy. The only reason that what we on earth would recognizes as normal technology developed at all, is that the"materials" necessary for the creation of Aetronics cannot be quickly produced.

The Known Worlds, is relatively small cluster of systems. In an extremely isolated region of the firmament,there is little beyond the Known Worlds for ten-thousand light years;though their are stories of "colonies" having been established somewhere during The Before Time.With a sole exception, It's been over ten thousand years since there was any contact between the Known Worlds and the colonies.