Summer Camp Homework 2023
Week One - Power
The theme of power in Kantostara is something that I would like to delve into more deeply.- The mysterious godlike beings known as the Singers of Songs wield a great deal of power, but they have retreated back into their Astrocyan Realms and haven't been heard from in some time now. Why is that? What are they doing and will they return?
- The ancient civilization of the Bane'ile was a major power until their two suns collided destroying their world and sending the surviving Bane'ile wandering throughout the galaxy. They were known and admired for their benevolent use of power, prefering to collaborate and lift others up. Will their legends inspire new generations of benevolent leaders?
- The current major power in Kantostara is the United Association of Guilds from the world of Taanruk. They are the corporatocracy that controls all the major trade routes now as well as the manufacture and supply of consumer goods throughout the galaxy. The UAG began as an association to protect the rights of workers on Taanruk, but as their power grew, they became greedy and exploitive, concerned only with making a profit. Now that the Bane'ile and the Singers of Songs are out of the picture, can anyone stand up to the UAG and restore balance?
- In addition to the galactic powers, there is also the question of personal power. Kantostara is a bright aspirational galaxy where even the most ordinary people have the power to change their circumstances and influence events. Lu, Sara, Ket and TZ are four women, each with their own special talents, who come from very different worlds. Can they transcend their differences and come together as a team? If so, they will be a powerful force for good.
Week Two - Frontiers
"Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the light freighter Chrysalis. Her timeless mission: to explore the trade routes of Kantostara seeking the lost songs of the Bane'ile, to restore balance to all civilizations, and to boldly go to the Astrocyan Realms where no one has gone before."-----Sorry. I just couldn't resist. I've been a trekkie since I was a little girl. Way back then, all we had was reruns of the original series on old-fasioned network TV, but that was how my love of science fiction was born. Okay, time to get serious now. Back to my homework.- First of all, I don't have any maps. At minimum, I need a star map of Kantostara, as well as world maps for Bane'ile, Navaravu, Jaleeria, Taanruk and Kataan. However, I know that if I start down that rabbit hole now, I'll spend all my time map making and never get to work on the prompts, so I've decided to set aside the map project until after Summer Camp.
- In Kantostara, interstellar space travel is accomplished by flying your ship through a portal, into the synaptical routes and emerging through another portal, so I guess any area of space or worlds near the portals, as well as the synaptical routes themselves, could be considered frontier territory. Many of these places are also manufacturing and trade hubs bringing together different cultures from different worlds throughout the galaxy.
- There are also secret portals that lead to pocket dimensions known as the Astrocyan Realms that are ruled by the Singers of Songs. These are Alice-in-Wonderland-through-the-looking-glass kind of places where the usual laws of physics don't apply and just about anything could happen. Very little is known about these realms, so they are definitely frontiers.
- Of course, the individual worlds have their own frontiers too. For instance, the Ziravu (ice) Clan from Navaravu lives in a frontier region whose climate is similar to the polar regions of Earth. I would love to explore more about the various frontier lands and cultures from all of the worlds of Kantostara.
- The Kantostaran language known as Common could also be considered a kind of frontier. It is a galactic language used to facilitate communication between the various worlds and is spoken by most everyone who has frequent interaction with people who are not native to their home world. While it helps to foster understanding between the worlds, not everything translates perfectly.
Week Three - Relics
Oooh, this is my favorite theme so far! So many ideas. So exciting. I can't wait until the third week of July! Can we have all the prompts now please? Uh-oh, I think I just fell out of camp chill and landed right in the middle of camp feral.- The ancient civilization of the Bane'ile will definitely be a great source of material for the theme of relics, but not necessarily the physical kind. The Bane'ile have always been a nomadic people, never staying in one place for long, so they're not the type to build great monuments or accumulate many belongings. Their history is not written down, but oral, passed down from generation to generation in the form of songs, which are their most precious relics. I'm sure I will discover other unusual relics of this once great civilization as well.
- Lu and her ship, the Chrysalis, could also be considered relics. The Chrysalis is an old-style Bane'ile Mabamba Class Light Freighter that was once the official transport for the Singers of Songs, long ago, before they returned to their Astrocyan Realms. Both Lu and the Chrysalis were unexpectedly deposited many years into their future and are now trying to find their way in modern day Kantostara while coping with the shock of learning that their home world no longer exists.
- I'm sure there are some interesting relics associated with the Astrocyan Realms too, starting with the crystalline keys that facillitate travel through the secret portals leading to those realms. I think the relics of the Astrocyan Realms will be highly unusual ancient technological artifacts.
- I'd also like to explore the relics, if any, of the religious sect known as the Believers from Kataan. They require their followers to lead a spartan lifestyle with only a very few utilitarian belongings, so I imagine that any relics they might have would not be the usual kind. Maybe a philosophy that one lives by rather than an object? Perhaps something related to Kataan's six moons or maybe even something that goes back to the time before the four artificial moons were added to the original two moons?
Week Four - Communication
Oooh, this is another theme that I'm excited about! As a writer for whom the characters are the most important part of the stories, communication, or the lack of it, is usually very important to my plots.- So, let's start with the obvious: languages. In an effort to keep things simple for my readers, I decided early on that there would be a language known as Common which would allow individuals from various locations throughout Kantostara to converse, assuming that they're familiar with Common. That being said, it seemed to me that some things, like names and slang expressions, might not always translate, so they should be left in their native language. Not having any knowledge of linguistitcs, I just created words that seemed to sound appropriate for the nature of the worlds that they came from. While I have a sense of all the native languages of my four main characters, I haven't tackled the one known as the language of the gods yet. It is an ancient language with some magickal properties that very, very few people speak. I'm tempted to actually create this language just because it would be so cool to have my own conlang, but like the map making project I mentioned during week two, a huge project like this would probably be best left until after Summer Camp.
- There are other forms of communication besides languages. For instance, Sara comes from the world of Navaravu where everyone is an empath. In addition to her familiarity with the languages of the five clans of Navaravu, as well as Common, her ability to sense what others are feeling helps her to get to know and understand people on a deeper level. Her abilities as an empath also make it possible for her to intuit the meaning of languages that she's not familiar with, including the communication of non-humanoid species such as animals.
- Then there is communication through symbiotic relationships like that of Jaleerians, like TZ, and the whistler trees of her world. The Jaleerians are a humanoid species with wings who make their homes in villages high up in the whistler trees so they will be safe from the dangers that lurk on the ground below. When all is safe, the whistler trees sway gently creating a soft whistling sound often referred to as the Jaleerian lullaby, but if there is danger, the trees suddenly become silent, alerting the Jaleerians that it's time to quickly escape into the sky. Because of this, Jaleerians tend to feel very uneasy in quiet places, even when they're far away from the dangers of their own world.
- Last, but not least, I'd like to talk about the unique way that each character communicates. Each one has her own voice, so when you are reading a paragraph of dialog, you should be able to tell who's speaking just by the way they communicate. Even when they're all speaking Common, the influence and speech patterns of their native worlds would still be there. For example, on Kataan, where Ket was raised, they use very few adjectives and no pleasantries or small talk. Communication is very straight forward and to the point. To people from other cultures, this makes Ket seem rude and harsh when that's not really the case at all. So differences in speech patterns and non-verbal ques can lead to a lot of misunderstandings. Bridging the cultural differences, however, can lead to lasting friendships like when Sara uses her empathic abilities to see who Ket is from the inside regardless of how her mannerisms might make her seem on the outside.
In closing, I'd like to say how excited I am for my first Summer Camp. I've found World Anvil to be a friendly, helpful, inspiring community of talented creatives, and I hope that, like irl Summer Camp, this virtual one will be a place to create lasting friendships.
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