Post by mongoose on May 28, 2007 0:42:25 GMT -5
Some of the most fun I've had with collaborative speculative fiction was with the idea of a nexus realm. This has been done before, with this same name, but since I was the one that suggested it in the one place, I'm okay with re-using it here. Of course, it would take a different direction in this forum than it has in others.
A nexus is a point at/in which all paths, or in the case of speculative fiction, all realms come together. A place where "genres collide," if you will. The first time I saw this in the context of collaborative fiction was on "The Jungle." A Christian telnet BBS back in the day operated out of Olivet Nazarine University by a wizard who called himself "Xar." It's run today at <http://jungle.xar.us> I believe. In the Jungle, the room in which most of the role playing occured was called the "Come Fight Inn," and I continued the tradition of having an inn in the midst of a non-realm nexus realm on Tanyaerikson.proboards81.com. Obviously, I could satisfy myself with those two forums, or anyone here could go to one or both of those for their cross-realm writing needs, but here I post for y'all's information anyway.
I recall getting the name "Nexus" from a phenomenon encountered by multiple Enterprise crews in the movie "Generations" I believe. When they got sucked off the ship into the Nexus, they were basically living between life and death in a sort of paradise of their own making. Likewise, in the Narnia Chronicals, there's a realm between Narnia and the Earth we know. The White witch used this realm when she first moved from Earth to Narnia through these magical pools.
I've had a few sorts of PCs in these "nexus" realms. Most of mine were fairly modern, even near future techno-thriller type characters of the special military operations captain persuasion. One was a genetically engineered or selectively bred human, basically the good twin of Star Trek's Kahn. Another was a half Vampire. I've never seen a good explanation of how a half vampire grows to be middle aged, and then stalls there, so I didn't bother. I simply stated that he was not hurt much by sunlight or wooden stakes or holy water or anything, and that he stopped aging when he was 30, or something.
This guy was much like Blade, physically, but not nearly so brazen, mentally, and he prefered to operate in and out of the wilds. He stayed on the cutting edge of the frontier, ever moving north and west in-front of "civilization" clearing the prime-eivile forests of his un-dead and other monsterish bretheren. Occasionally, though, something would prompt him to come into town, much as a mountain man, and he would hang out or fight monsters in the urban jungle, much as he had in the rural.
Of course, there are all kinds of problems posed when I try to create a good half vampire in a Christian forum frequented by literary purists. To simplify matters, I took the same character and made him not a vampire, but simply an immortal in the "Highlander" tradition. This guy is cool, and I may well post some of what I've written about him elswhere, here.
In brief, Antonious whatshisothernames was born to a Keltoi princess mother and a Roman father, a centurion, in Northern France in the first century. Lots of history developed in that time and place, and he was a part of it, and I get to write about it. *grins* So he stays alive and doesn't age, and has to move on 'cause everyone's freaking out that he's demon posessed, or something. This is before Christianity reached the area. Never-the-less he remains long enough to fight off Germanic incursions for a few generations.
Having left and made a new life for himself accross the English Chanel, about 2nd or 3rd century, maybe, he joins a druid community. Not a lot better to do. He was tired by that point of fighting, dying, and coming back to life, only to be chased away by scared villagers. So I get to write about druids. Now, it's easier to justify long life as a druid, especially if you kill a master druid and take his power. A few generations of practicing elemental magic and the power of the Word, and Antonious is all that and a bag of chips. Of course, he has to hide it.
All that power comes to naught when a chap named Patrick, originally from Wales, return with the Christian religion to Ireland where Antonious lives by then (6th century, as I recall). Now, he's had a taste of power, which makes him hungry for more of it, and all these other immortals are after his head. So Antonious tries and fails to overcome Patrick in magic contests, and ultimatly asks to learn what's really up. A few years of study, an epiphany that I haven't written yet, and Antonious becomes one of the early Christian Druids. I thought the two were mutually exclusive, but Stephen Lawhead does a good job of justifying their existence. That and they're mad fun to write about! I've got a guy using words of command that freeze bad guys in their tracks, asking for God's help to conjure storms, fire, and the like, and then praying in the tongues of men and angels to send a message to a friend in the "netherworld." Some people said that was some of my best writing. It was certainly fun, anyway.
So he's gotta be an accomplished swordsman, as well as favored by God for a few generations of seeking him. He started out being trained in the Roman way by his Centurian father. Faught Germanic and later Norman peoples for multiple generations, as well as taking several immortal heads along with their knowledge and skill. Things get too tight in Ireland, so he goes traveling, and finds himself in China. He learns all he can over the course of several generations from the Shaolin there, somehow maintaining his faith in Christ, and over the next few hundred years moves around east asia. Practice one technique with the sword for a hundred years, another few un-armed techniques for a few more, and you wind up pretty dangerous in most kinds of fights. Like Duncan McCleoud he made a point of never revealing the true extent of his power except when taking down a fellow immortal. Unlike Conner McCleoud, he made a point of becoming an accomplished smith, so he could make his own swords and armor.
Because I'm the one writing this guy, he gets to have the sort of weapons I most appreciate. By the time he creates an identity for himself as a mercenary most often serving the black ops needs of the U.S. Government, he carries a short rapier fashioned in the same way as the Japanese Katanas, a customized 12 guage riot shotgun, whatever backup pistol and knives, and wears a ceramic plate re-enforced kevlar flack vest. The fact that he has to chop off their heads to kill them doesn't mean he can't wound them first, and the fact that most of them choose to fight only with the sword doesn't mean some mortal, or even some immortal isn't going to shoot him at some point. So he doesn't fight fair. He sees an immortal, figures the guy is out to get him, he pumps him full of lead and chops off his head while he's down. Ain't no rule against it!
Occasionally he goes up against someone old like him, or really powerful, and then he has to whip out the old tricks. Wind, disguise, dissapearance, teleportation, running through tree-tops, chopping speeding bullets in half with his rapier, whatever. Guys are said to be able to do these things after lifetime of practice, and he's had his own 4000 lifetimes, plus all those of each immortal he be-headed along the way.
Another interesting thing this character lets me explore in my writing is the whole issue of Christians and violence. I'm a pacifist, and this PC, by nature and lifestyle, is rather violent. However will I work this out? Well, we've got upward of 2000 years to find out! *grins*
A nexus is a point at/in which all paths, or in the case of speculative fiction, all realms come together. A place where "genres collide," if you will. The first time I saw this in the context of collaborative fiction was on "The Jungle." A Christian telnet BBS back in the day operated out of Olivet Nazarine University by a wizard who called himself "Xar." It's run today at <http://jungle.xar.us> I believe. In the Jungle, the room in which most of the role playing occured was called the "Come Fight Inn," and I continued the tradition of having an inn in the midst of a non-realm nexus realm on Tanyaerikson.proboards81.com. Obviously, I could satisfy myself with those two forums, or anyone here could go to one or both of those for their cross-realm writing needs, but here I post for y'all's information anyway.
I recall getting the name "Nexus" from a phenomenon encountered by multiple Enterprise crews in the movie "Generations" I believe. When they got sucked off the ship into the Nexus, they were basically living between life and death in a sort of paradise of their own making. Likewise, in the Narnia Chronicals, there's a realm between Narnia and the Earth we know. The White witch used this realm when she first moved from Earth to Narnia through these magical pools.
I've had a few sorts of PCs in these "nexus" realms. Most of mine were fairly modern, even near future techno-thriller type characters of the special military operations captain persuasion. One was a genetically engineered or selectively bred human, basically the good twin of Star Trek's Kahn. Another was a half Vampire. I've never seen a good explanation of how a half vampire grows to be middle aged, and then stalls there, so I didn't bother. I simply stated that he was not hurt much by sunlight or wooden stakes or holy water or anything, and that he stopped aging when he was 30, or something.
This guy was much like Blade, physically, but not nearly so brazen, mentally, and he prefered to operate in and out of the wilds. He stayed on the cutting edge of the frontier, ever moving north and west in-front of "civilization" clearing the prime-eivile forests of his un-dead and other monsterish bretheren. Occasionally, though, something would prompt him to come into town, much as a mountain man, and he would hang out or fight monsters in the urban jungle, much as he had in the rural.
Of course, there are all kinds of problems posed when I try to create a good half vampire in a Christian forum frequented by literary purists. To simplify matters, I took the same character and made him not a vampire, but simply an immortal in the "Highlander" tradition. This guy is cool, and I may well post some of what I've written about him elswhere, here.
In brief, Antonious whatshisothernames was born to a Keltoi princess mother and a Roman father, a centurion, in Northern France in the first century. Lots of history developed in that time and place, and he was a part of it, and I get to write about it. *grins* So he stays alive and doesn't age, and has to move on 'cause everyone's freaking out that he's demon posessed, or something. This is before Christianity reached the area. Never-the-less he remains long enough to fight off Germanic incursions for a few generations.
Having left and made a new life for himself accross the English Chanel, about 2nd or 3rd century, maybe, he joins a druid community. Not a lot better to do. He was tired by that point of fighting, dying, and coming back to life, only to be chased away by scared villagers. So I get to write about druids. Now, it's easier to justify long life as a druid, especially if you kill a master druid and take his power. A few generations of practicing elemental magic and the power of the Word, and Antonious is all that and a bag of chips. Of course, he has to hide it.
All that power comes to naught when a chap named Patrick, originally from Wales, return with the Christian religion to Ireland where Antonious lives by then (6th century, as I recall). Now, he's had a taste of power, which makes him hungry for more of it, and all these other immortals are after his head. So Antonious tries and fails to overcome Patrick in magic contests, and ultimatly asks to learn what's really up. A few years of study, an epiphany that I haven't written yet, and Antonious becomes one of the early Christian Druids. I thought the two were mutually exclusive, but Stephen Lawhead does a good job of justifying their existence. That and they're mad fun to write about! I've got a guy using words of command that freeze bad guys in their tracks, asking for God's help to conjure storms, fire, and the like, and then praying in the tongues of men and angels to send a message to a friend in the "netherworld." Some people said that was some of my best writing. It was certainly fun, anyway.
So he's gotta be an accomplished swordsman, as well as favored by God for a few generations of seeking him. He started out being trained in the Roman way by his Centurian father. Faught Germanic and later Norman peoples for multiple generations, as well as taking several immortal heads along with their knowledge and skill. Things get too tight in Ireland, so he goes traveling, and finds himself in China. He learns all he can over the course of several generations from the Shaolin there, somehow maintaining his faith in Christ, and over the next few hundred years moves around east asia. Practice one technique with the sword for a hundred years, another few un-armed techniques for a few more, and you wind up pretty dangerous in most kinds of fights. Like Duncan McCleoud he made a point of never revealing the true extent of his power except when taking down a fellow immortal. Unlike Conner McCleoud, he made a point of becoming an accomplished smith, so he could make his own swords and armor.
Because I'm the one writing this guy, he gets to have the sort of weapons I most appreciate. By the time he creates an identity for himself as a mercenary most often serving the black ops needs of the U.S. Government, he carries a short rapier fashioned in the same way as the Japanese Katanas, a customized 12 guage riot shotgun, whatever backup pistol and knives, and wears a ceramic plate re-enforced kevlar flack vest. The fact that he has to chop off their heads to kill them doesn't mean he can't wound them first, and the fact that most of them choose to fight only with the sword doesn't mean some mortal, or even some immortal isn't going to shoot him at some point. So he doesn't fight fair. He sees an immortal, figures the guy is out to get him, he pumps him full of lead and chops off his head while he's down. Ain't no rule against it!
Occasionally he goes up against someone old like him, or really powerful, and then he has to whip out the old tricks. Wind, disguise, dissapearance, teleportation, running through tree-tops, chopping speeding bullets in half with his rapier, whatever. Guys are said to be able to do these things after lifetime of practice, and he's had his own 4000 lifetimes, plus all those of each immortal he be-headed along the way.
Another interesting thing this character lets me explore in my writing is the whole issue of Christians and violence. I'm a pacifist, and this PC, by nature and lifestyle, is rather violent. However will I work this out? Well, we've got upward of 2000 years to find out! *grins*