Scope
The motivation behind building Artemisia Emergent
The world of Artemisia Emergent concerns a particular time period in the greater timeline of Artemisia, and is being built for a new novel. The book is about hope for the future, and not letting the difficulties of the now prevent you from getting there.
The goal of the project
I am trying to create a coherent world for a story which includes brain magic and science-fantasy travel, so a strong sense of what's normal will be needed to ground characters and readers alike. The experience I want to create would contain elements of the humor and wonder of TV shows like "Bill Nye the Science Guy," Carl Sagan's "Cosmos," and some of the best "Doctor Who." It would also have some of the horror elements of that last one, however, with some characters and situations carrying seeds of H.P. Lovecraft's fear of the new and unknown.
Artemisia Emergent's Unique Selling point
Artemisia has been shattered into chunks of reality that float like islands in a dangerous ocean of dreams and void that not everyone can traverse. Sometime shortly before the novel begins, society has finally managed some tentative adaptations--like restoring communication and developing public means of travel across the new gaps. It is revealed, however, that this improvement is the result of meddling in time, and that the new reality has not solidified yet. Thus our protagonists--whose earlier selves we follow throughout the novel--can still make choices that alter or derail the fragile new reality, making many of their actions--and their perseverance--key to the hopeful ending glimpsed in the beginning of the book.
Theme
Genre
The genre is science fantasy with some psychology. The technology level is futuristic and is mixed with mind magic, but still contains enough elements of our technology to be relatable.
Reader Experience
The world can be wonder-filled or terrifying, depending entirely upon where the characters are in it. The ultimate goal is to create the sense that we had a scrape with something much bigger than ourselves, and came away with the knowledge that we were able to deal with how it changed us.
Reader Tone
This world should be somewhere in the middle and slightly swaying--shifting a hair darker during difficulties and--hopefully--becoming brighter by the end. The light and dark coming and going is part of the point, and should feel intentional.
Recurring Themes
1. Kintsugi: I accidentally already wrote a character who can embody this, and the idea of celebrating scars and breaks instead of trying to hide them is so beautiful and thematic. I'm running with it! The Healing Art of Kintsugi
2. Bare lightbulbs flickering on and off (linked to characters who have become vulnerable to the hope/despair switch shorting after significant stressors)
3. The idea that movement can be required in order to remain steady, as represented by:
- objects that move to retain balance, like spinning coins and tops
- locations that feel steady but are actually floating, like ships and tectonic plates
4. The flipside, of ossified objects that have fallen, broken, or sunk into isolated places (this would be associated particularly with the Sanctuary, but also some of the other locations they visit)
5. Blades, particularly surrounding Bernard
Character Agency
Character agency is high, though they themselves may sometimes feel it is quite the opposite. An important point is that even when they feel like they cannot change the enormous problems facing their world, continuing to hang in there is important. They can make a difference to individual people and will become more effective again if they can weather the setbacks.
Focus
Telepathy: Telepathic ability is inborn to some individuals in Artemisia, and relations between those who have it and those who don't were fraught even before the world shattered. Now, the general public associates telepaths with psions--the beings largely believed to be responsible for the cataclysm itself. Telepaths, meanwhile, are busy cloistering themselves--admittedly for safety--in the Fleet, in an increasingly ossified organization with increasingly ossified rules.
Technology: Psionics are a recent--and now outlawed--development, and the means of travel through the void is also newly developed and known only to a few. The possibilities and ethics of these new technologies are actively explored by characters throughout the story.
Government/Rule of Law (or lack therof): Since the mainland and the individual islands have largely lost touch and travel between them is exceedingly rare, government has become extremely localized (or in some locations mostly disappeared). Different locations have different rules and different means of enforcing them, which is a concern the travellers must grapple with as the story unfolds.
Drama
The cataclysm that befell Artemisia shocked society and threw individual locations into chaos. While each location has done its own adapting--complete with some problematic decisions--there has been a general resurgence of superstitious thinking everywhere. Some even insist on the existence of a curse that now haunts Artemisia and twists the flow of events (and its people) for the worse.
The Sanctuary has been growing odder and more set in its ways, with internal unrest about who is best advancing its purpose and which rules are most important to maintain. These disagreements seem to be pushing them closer and closer to schism.
Technology continues to develop on the mainland as well, with an increased demand for anything that provides an experience--VR, various neural stimulants/depressants, and other escapist activities. Some of these remain improperly tested and quite illegal, and criminal organizations run them on the sly while law enforcement cracks down from time to time.
The crime families are getting shaken up right now with all of the social upheaval, and there have been a string of infiltrations and misfortunes that have most of them believing that law enforcement is beginning to take a sneaky new tack with them. Paranoia is just starting to build, but it's there and growing.
Government got caught on the back foot with the cataclysm, and important decisions had to be made quickly by some people who were lazily elected because everything was great so what did it matter? The results were no better than could have been expected. Meanwhile, there is word amongst those at the helm that some sort of conspiracy is coming for their heads. And they're starting to act twitchy.
