Category: Mendaihu Universe FAQ

#atozchallenge: N is for Nick Slater & Sheila Kennedy – Team Two

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Q: Why a Team Two?  What’s their origin?

A: When I came up with the Alien Relations Unit, I already had a plan that they would work very much like an extended family of sorts, very much like how a police station or a fire house would.  I saw them as similar to the units from animes such as Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell (Chief Inspector Dylan Farraway was based on Chief Aramaki early on before I decided to make him a bit younger), and Bubblegum Crisis.

I also wanted a few characters who were involved in the story, but not as deeply as Caren and Alec.  They would be a part of any investigations, they would react to situations very much the same way, but they were able to give everyone else a clearer point of view, thanks to their distance.

Q: Are they based on anyone in particular?

A: Not really; I really wanted to give them unique personalities separate from most of the other characters in the trilogy.  Sheila is that one person in your circle of friends who’s loud and boisterous and fun and most likely the first to get into a scrap; Nick is the outsider who’s just recently joined the group and is still trying to figure out how to fit in.  Both last names are Tuckerizations of 90s memories of mine: Kennedy is the former MTV veejay, and Slater is Christian Slater.

Q: What’s their background?

A: Sheila is from quite a large family, of which she’s the second youngest; her parents were also ARU agents (they knew Caren’s parents well), her older siblings (two brothers, three sisters) are agents either in the police or fire forces.  Her little sister is training to be part of the Governor’s Special Forces Unit.  She’s extremely proud of her family’s dedication to the city and is glad to be a part of it.  She joined the Branden Hill ARU the same year that Caren did; they met during training and hit it off quickly.  She and Caren had a brief and slightly awkward romantic relationship before they broke it off for professional reasons.  They’re both still great friends.

Nick is an only child, and his parents live just south of Bridgetown at an outpost not that far from the outer B-Town hamlets across the Sachers River.  He chose to become a cadet for the B-Town Metro Police and was assigned a position in South City Sector.  He stayed there for about five years before requesting a transfer to the Branden Hill ARU.  The reason for the change in unit is unknown at this time; he never revealed it to anyone, other than stating that he wanted to work closer with the Mendaihu.  [Sheila seems to think it’s because he worked with them so often in South City that he’s created a tight connection.]

Q: Are either of them Mendaihu?

A: Sheila professes not to be, though she has very strong innerspeak and soulsensing abilities and could very easily be initiated if she so chose.  She does not want to, however.  She’s fine enough with being the ARU agent that she is.

Nick grew up with no psionic abilities whatsoever, and he doubts he’ll ever acquire them.  To make up for his shortcomings, he’s trained himself to be an incredibly resourceful and quick-thinking profiler for the Unit.

Q: Anything else?

A: Sheila is fiercely loyal to her coworkers, friends and family.  She always speaks her mind, and more than a few times she’s gotten written up by her superiors for her actions.  Despite that, she’s still highly respected by them.  She likes a physical connection, so will always be touching someone on the arm when talking to them.  She loves to listen to music and always has something playing in the background, even if it’s a contraband radio in the patrol car she’s driving.  She works out a few times a week and has a devastating right hook.

Nick is the only person who smokes as much as Alec does.  He’s also a coffee fiend.  He’s a few inches shorter than Sheila and she likes to tease him about that, as well as him being a Wilderlander (i.e., someone who grew up in the sticks).  He looks up to Caren and Alec as mentors, even if he never comments on it, and he always appreciates their help and direction.  He’s friendly with almost everyone he meets, but he’s also got a surprisingly short temper and a low tolerance for bullshit.  He tends to play the straight man to Sheila’s wildness, sometimes to comedic effect.

#atozchallenge: M is for Mendaihu and Shenaihu

Jon ChaissonLeave a comment

Yin-yang.  That’s the theme of the stories within the Mendaihu Universe.

It’s about balance.  There is both evil and good within us.  We rarely like to admit it, but we are all full of conflicting morals and ethics.  We are driven both by our own emotions and thoughts, and what we are taught or expected to feel and think, and quite often they are all at loggerheads with each other.

I wanted to play around with this idea:  what, ultimately, is the right thing to do?

This question is posited throughout the Bridgetown trilogy.  Every character faces this same dilemma at some point in their arc.  Each character is given some kind of ascension in their spirit, some form of advanced knowledge, and they must choose how to utilize it.

They are also given an advanced awareness as well: they are now conscious of other spirits around them, whether they like it or not.  And ultimately this means that if they are to use their new knowledge, they are acutely aware of how it would affect not only themselves, but those around them.

“The Mendaihu are the watchers, the protectors, the saviors.  And what of the Shenaihu?  They’re the keepers of the ethereal: the mind, the heart, and the soul.” — Matthew Davison, The Persistence of Memories

The Mendaihu are often seen as having the upper hand, as they are more physical in their presence.  They are the ones quietly doing their rounds, fully and completely aware of nearly everything and everyone around them, ensuring that every person out there is at peace.  They are the ones willing to lay down their lives for those around them, if necessary.  They may see the Shenaihu as troublemakers, the ones who are too quick to cause problems.

The Shenaihu are acutely aware of how the spiritual realm works.  They are the ones keeping to themselves, uncomfortably too aware of nearly everything and everyone around them.  They wish everyone could find their own peace, but are willing to assist if and when necessary.  They may see the Mendaihu as too quick to involve themselves in everyone else’s problems.

Both are liberal in their thoughts and actions; both are conservative in their thoughts and actions.  Both have faults, both have strengths.  They may be coming from completely opposite sides, but they both crave the same thing: peace of spirit.  Both are driven by the same goal: to do the right thing to achieve that peace.

The only answer, ultimately, is to find a perfect balance of both.  This is the cho-nyhndah [cho-NYEEN-dah] spirit.  Equally Mendaihu and Shenaihu in thought, heart, and deed.

Yin-yang.

#atozchallenge: L is for Lightwalking

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wenders_end_dream_1
Still from Wim Wenders’ Until the End of the World

Lightwalking is usually one of the first things most recently awakened Mendaihu and Shenaihu learn.  It is the process of moving from one fixed point to another by ‘stepping into Light’ — the term for allowing one’s spirit to take hold and control the movements of the physical body.  The spirit will transport itself and the body to the desired location and both will step back out of the Light again.  As the spirit is not bound by physical restraint, this travel method is much faster than even FTL.  In essence one is stepping into an advanced level of reality.

The same theory applies to commercial travel on a grander scale.  Each province has its own Nullport, where shuttles will send travelers up to a geosynchronous orbital satellite (in the case of Bridgetown, this would be Tigua Bay Station), where they would then enter nullflight ships.  These ships will slingshot a safe distance from Earth and then enter Light on a much larger scale, sending the ship to its intended destination.

The large-scale Light-travel is called nullflight, due to the early First Contacters misunderstanding the term for the Meraladian technology used in Light-Travel, called ajyinul [ah-ZHYEE-nool], thinking it referred to ‘null’, or an idea that this kind of travel took place in non-space.  The term stuck, and is still used to this day.

One’s vision while moving in Light can cause concern and confusion, depending on what you’re doing within it.  If you’re in a fixed place and not moving too much, everything you see will be in incredibly sharp focus, regardless of how near or far it is from you.  This can be rather discomforting for first-timers, but one eventually gets used to it.  The trick is to focus only on the person or thing you need to focus on and filter out everything else.  On the other hand, if you’re in motion, your surroundings will still be sharp but discolored and sometimes stretched out.  [The above still from Until the End of the World is pretty much the closest to what it looks like.]

 

I’d come up with this kind of travel early on, basing it on various things such as astral travel, as I wanted the characters to be able to visit other worlds such as Trisanda (and in effect, Meraladh and other CNF planets) in a relatively quick amount of time.  It went through quite a number of different terms over the years, but once I figured out my science behind it, relating it to all the other Light events in the Mendaihu Universe, it all fell into place.

There are, of course, a number of rules whenever I use Lightwalking.  First, exit and reentry will always cause a ‘snap’ of air and sometimes even a brief white flash.  There is no chance of reentry into an already occupied position; the movement of the spirit and its ability to sense other beings and objects makes this possible.  [However, if one isn’t quite used to Lightwalking, one may reenter at the wrong altitude and reappear a few feet up in the air.  It’s a common rookie mistake.]  A Lightwalker can take one or two people along with them with little problem, though the distance is usually shorter than intended.

And most importantly, Lightwalking is the only way to reach Trisanda at this time.

#atozchallenge: k is for kiralla

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Dragon-Wallpaper-dragons-13975575-1280-800
Creator unknown, borrowed from fanpop.com

The kiralla was the answer to the question:  what does someone’s soul look like?

Or more to the point, what is the aspect of someone whose soul has achieved a divine level and balance of both Mendaihu and Shenaihu spirit?  The ultimate ascension, where they are able to control both sides of themselves without inner turmoil.  In the context of the Mendaihu Universe, the kiralla aspect is in ancestral memory: it’s what the purest Trisandi spirit looks like.  So in essence, if one is kiralla, either naturally or awakened through ritual, then they are considered to have truly returned to their spiritual roots.

[Yeah, I know, pretty heavy stuff there.]

The idea of the kiralla came to me during the 1995-6 season of me reading all kinds of New Age books.  I’d borrowed the idea of reptilians in fantasy and conspiracy (thank you David Icke) and the Pleiadians (thank you Barbara Marciniak) and played around with it for a while.  What if aliens were a normal and integral part of human reality?  I’d chosen dragons as the physical embodiment, aware of their mythical and mystical history.  I took out the conspiracy and the trope of aliens-as-villains (as well as its overused cousin, aliens-as-overlords-because-us-humans-are-ignorant-and-weak-insects) and re-introduced them as our long-forgotten ancestral kin.

Which ultimately means that we humans are also able to ascend enough to become kiralla as well.  This fact alone makes up quite an important part of the Bridgetown Trilogy and the Mendaihu Universe.

The strength of the kiralla is as fearsome as their presence.  Generally they are about thirty feet long from snout to tail tip, about ten to fifteen feet tall.  Their wingspan is about thirty to forty feet.  Their coloring, shape and physical attributes vary and are related to the Trisandi clan they come from.  They are social creatures, but they are just as fine being on their own for extended periods of time.  Their psionic abilities are unrivaled and immeasurable.  They are able to Lightwalk very long distances in a very short amount of time, either in kiralla or in human form.  The feel their highest responsibility is in keeping an unending, protective (yet rarely interactive) watch over humans and other spiritual kin.

And yes, we will be seeing a lot more of them in The Persistence of Memories and The Balance of Light!

* * * * * *

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Dragon by Honeck Sculpture

This little youngster here was my mascot for most of the writing of the trilogy, which I picked up at one of the Readercons I went to.  It was made by Honeck Sculpture. They make excellent statues of all sizes and are definitely worth checking out.

I named it after a character you’ll meet in The Persistence of Memories.

#atozchallenge: J is for Madeleine Jakes

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Kathleen Turner

Q: What is Madeleine Jakes’ origin?

A: Even though I had Caren and Denni essentially living on their own, I still wanted to provide them some kind of an elder presence, someone who’s not taking care of them 24/7 but is there as someone to lean on when times get tough.  Originally I didn’t plan to have her in that many scenes, relegating her to a tertiary character, but like Christine Gorecki, she evolved into someone who kept popping up at the most interesting and unexpected moments.  She’ll show up in a number of important scenes in The Persistence of Memories and The Balance of Light.

Q: How is she related to Caren and Denni Johnson?

A: She’s a family friend from quite a long time back.  She’s a retired Data Research Library archivist and now writes freelance.  She lives next door to Caren and Denni, frequently checks in on them, and occasionally keeps their place clean, especially when Caren’s stuck on a particularly hard case.

Q: That’s Kathleen Turner in that picture.  Is that who Madeleine is based on?

A: Actually, Madeleine’s a character I without a real-life inspiration…I originally created her as a typical older relative.  But the more she showed up, the more I realized that she was someone who might be older in age, but still embraces life as if she was 30.  She’s someone who rarely holds back her words and thoughts, and despite her disability (she lost a leg soon after the events of the Eighth Embodiment and has a cybernetic replacement), she sure as hell isn’t going to let life pass her by.  I can totally see Kathleen Turner pulling that off, throwing shade and putting people in their place.

Q: What is her connection to the Mendaihu?

A: [Shhh — don’t tell anyone, but she’s a Mendaihu Elder.  Nobody, not even any of the main characters, knows this!]

Q: Anything else?

A: She’s got an amazingly sharp memory, which is why she chose to work as an archivist.  She’s a mid-level certificated soulhealer and occasionally performs healings upon request.  She’s also adept at Lightwalking, but she hasn’t done that in at least a decade and a half, for very personal reasons.  She never married and rarely dated.  Caren will sometimes think Madeleine shouldn’t be so overly active because of her age, but she will remind her otherwise right quick, much to Caren’s embarrassment.  Denni absolutely adores her and thinks of her as an aunt, and will visit her apartment all the time.  She will never reveal this to Caren or Denni: she made a promise to Aram and Celine, two days before they died, that she would look over their daughters if they did not survive the case they were currently working on.

#atozchallenge: I is for Inspiration

Jon ChaissonLeave a comment

The inspiration behind the stories, ideas, settings and characters of the Mendaihu Universe have come from all kinds of places over the years.  I’ve talked about quite a few of them on various blogs as well.  I’ve mentioned the albums I listened to, the movies and the books and the TV shows and and and…  There’s been a lot that I’ve read and enjoyed that inspired me to write these stories.  I made a semi-official list sometime around around late 2002 that included all of these.  Maybe one of these days I’ll update it and paste it here on the blog, just for fun.

So where does this inspiration come from, anyway?  Well, my first rule of being inspired by something has always been if it causes me to drop everything and run to the computer to start typing.  If I finish reading a book or watching a TV show or a film and my first reaction is a creative excitement, if it’s made me notice the writing and the production in a good way…then it’s done its job, and done it well.

[Good recent examples: the always level-headed Christopher Foyle in Foyle’s War, no matter what mood he may be in; the deliberate pacing of the movie adaptation of The Martian, the one-person cast of driving ninety percent of Gravity; the movements of a large cast in Kate Elliott’s Black Wolves.]

I always cite music as  an inspiration, though that tends to be more on a molecular level, as it were.  Certain songs will inspire the mood of a specific scene; some albums will be my go-to’s for writing sessions (one recent release getting heavy rotation here is Shearwater’s Jet Plane and Oxbow).  I may occasionally hear a song and imagine a scene not yet written; with those I’ll either make brief notes or I’ll listen to the song a few more times and think about whether it’ll fit in the project I’m working on.

I like to keep my eyes and ears open for these sorts of things.  I’m not one to read or see something and think I want to write THAT!  Mainly because I know by the time I finish it, it’ll no longer be in season.  It’s more on a creative level; if I’m amazed by the writer’s dexterity in weaving a complicated plot, or their ability to look at a well-used storyline from a completely different angle, that’s what will inspire me to take the same route.

I suppose it all boils down to: how did the creator get his or her creation stuck in my mind?  It has to be more than flashbangs and shock-and-awe and disturbing scenery; there’s a time and place for all of that, but it’s nothing I can or should completely rely on.  It has to be the whole as well as its elements; the artistry as well as the work.

That’s what inspires my own.

#atozchallenge: H is for Hallera and other CNF planets

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Planet-Earth-planet-earth-21056677-1920-1200

Back when I first started planning out the Mendaihu Universe — or more correctly, the Vigil Universe, as I’d envisioned it then — I’d thought of creating a multiplanetary federation in which these stories could take place.  On the same day I’d spent in that overheated laundromat on Charles Street in Boston coming up with the Bridgetown setting, I made some cursory notes on this federation, but thanks to overthinking the physics of space travel as well as realizing I was overreaching a bit, I scaled back so the story would remain on a future Earth.  I’d keep this federation idea in pocket for future ideas.

Crimson-Null Foundation was a name I came up with before I even had an idea.  Originally it was ‘Crimson Nine’ as I was going to have nine planets involved.  I knew “Crimson” was going to reference Earth, but it took me quite sometime to build something around the rest of the name.
It wasn’t until writing The Phoenix Effect that I came up with the idea of Null, which was my own personal answer to bending the laws of physics for space travel.  It was partly inspired by the New Age books I’d been reading, specifically the subjects of remote viewing and astral travel.  I let the idea simmer for a few weeks, doing some deep thinking about the ground rules before I even wrote about it.  The shortest, oversimplified version I came up with: while in reality the body carries the soul in travel, in Null travel it’s the opposite: the soul travels and pulls the body along with it.  It’s a LOT more complicated than that, of course, but that’s the elevator pitch for it.
The use of the word “Null” soon changed to “Light” as the idea expanded, but I felt Null should remain when it’s referred to commercially: the Nullport, for instance.  This is also the reason I kept the “Foundation” part of it, to hint that it this planetary group is centered around commerce as well as peace treaties, but less so about the spiritual end of things.

Trisanda is not part of the CNF, even though it’s the ancestral homeworld of everyone involved; they are not part of the commercial ventures, only spiritual ones.

The first-in-line planet on the CNF board is of course Meraladh [mey-rah-LADH, slight lisp on the dh], the current physical homeworld of the aliens in this universe.  It’s an Earthlike planet that has five major continents and numerous satellite islands.  It’s the first planet that the Trisandi colonized after starting their spacefaring age, and has become a major travel destination for both business and pleasure.  In the trilogy, we meet numerous characters who are full or half-Meraladhza.

The second planet is Mannaka [mahn-NAH-kah], which many call the Midway between Meraladh and Earth.  It started out as a colony planet during the Trisandi spacefaring age, and was originally to be closed down once they traveled to Earth.  However, many of the families that had taken root there during this age did not want to abandon it.  It’s got a much smaller population than Meraladh or Earth, but it’s one of the most important transportation hubs in the CNF.  The Mannaki are an incredibly friendly and sociable people, and are also fiercely protective of their own.  They’re the leaders in transportation and communication technologies.  Councilor Mancka Udéma, a member of the Provincial Governor’s Council, who we meet in the latter half of A Division of Souls, is Mannaki.

Earth/Gharra is the third-important planet in terms of the CNF, and was the main destination of the Trisandi spacefarers.  Eons later the Meraladians reestablished contact with Earth to strengthen their connection; both planets created the Foundation soon after to solidify the commercial and spiritual connections of all planets inhabited fully or partly by Meraladians.
Gharra [GAH-rrah, very slight glottal fricative on the rr] is the original name given by the Trisandi to the planet.  Whenever the planet is talked about in spiritual terms, both the Mendaihu and Shenaihu will always refer to it as Gharra.

Fourth is Hallera [HAH-leh-rah], a purely Meraladian-made satellite world in which its inhabitants all live within the planet, not outside of it.  It’s another midway planet and is mainly a transportation hub, both for Null travel and for shipping purposes.  There are also some minor technological and industrial companies based here as well.  [Later on when I started working second shift at a warehouse in late 2000, I came up with an MU-related story about dock workers on Hallera.  I’m yet to write it, but I’m sure I’ll be doing so soon enough.]
Hallera does have a significant population, mostly those who live and work there, such as dock workers, transportation, security, and so on.  CNF representative Jack Priestley, who we meet early on in A Division of Souls, grew up here.

Fifth is Runeia [roo-NAY-ah], a planet not too far from Hallera.  It unfortunately has gotten a bit of a bad reputation, as technically it’s a prison planet; this is where many of the worst criminals would be sent to for rehabilitation.  The world itself is actually quite beautiful and lovingly curated by its inhabitants.  It’s extremely distant from most of the other planets, which adds to its unfair reputation as a bad place to be.  [This one’s a Tuckerized name:  It’s named after the final track, “Runeii”, of Talk Talk’s 1991 album Laughing Stock.  That song title is also the inspiration of using the extra ‘i’ at the end of some clan names.]

There are other planets involved, but I have yet to sketch them out. 🙂

#atozchallenge: G is for Christine Gorecki

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Q: What’s Christine’s origin?

A: Christine is one of my favorite characters I’ve ever come up with, and she wasn’t even planned as a main character.  She originally started as a passing reference between Caren and Poe up on the Crest in a scene in A Division of Souls, but she soon took on a life of her own when I needed her later in a scene at the Moulding Warehouse.  From there she took on a life of her own and ended up part of the main cast.  Her name is two Tuckerizations: her first name is one of my cousins and her last name is that Lamb song I posted under Caren’s entry the other day.
I like to describe Christine as one of those characters that doesn’t quite fit into the story’s universe — or as my wife says of such characters, “She’s in a completely different movie.”  Someone who’s unlike everyone else, just that little bit peculiar.  And yet she’s an integral part of the story’s universe, for many and varied reasons.  She serves as the ‘alternate viewpoint’, as it were, to what’s going on.  Someone who’s far enough away from the situation and can provide a needed clarity.

Q: What is her history in the Mendaihu Universe?

A: She was a longtime agent of the Alien Relations Unit, joining a year or so before Caren and Poe.  She’s extremely dedicated in whatever work she does, sometimes to her detriment; it’s because of this (well, and a few other things that aren’t revealed until a bit later in the trilogy) that she’s taken an extended leave of absence from the ARU.  In the meantime she’s been freelancing as a private investigator as well as a certified soulhealer.  She’s still close friends with her former ARU teammates, and they fully understand that she had to take some personal time off and distance herself from everyone for a while.

Q: Is she Mendaihu as well?

A: [REDACTED]

Q: Oookay then.  What about a description?  I don’t see a picture here.  Is she not based on anyone famous?

A: She’s a mix of various people.  She has long curly blond hair that she often keeps loosely tied back.  She’s incredibly fit (she exercises regularly and goes on occasional runs, a holdover from her ARU days).  She’s about the same height as Caren, maybe a slight bit taller.

Q: She has a close relationship with Alec Poe.  What’s the background on that?

A: There isn’t much to explain, really.  They’re just longtime friends that have grown very fond of each other.  There’s nothing romantic or sexual there, nor is it familial…it’s just another example of two spirits who happen to connect and interweave with each other easily and naturally.  They learned this quite early on while they were starting out at the ARU and would often work on cases together because of it.  This is why she was the first person Poe thought of when they were trying to calm the Rain of Light in A Division of Souls.

Q: Anything else?

A: She owns the building that she works and lives in; she has a storefront office on the ground floor, three floors of apartments that she rents out (she lives in the front apartment on the top floor), and has a spiritwork shed set up on the roof.  She’s somewhat introverted when it comes to nonwork socializing; she’d rather be the one sitting back and listening to everyone else than be the center of attention.  She really loves (and misses) hanging out with her former ARU teammates, and is planning some get-togethers after the current Season of Embodiment is over.  She never seems to be able to sit still for more than a few minutes.  She used to smoke ‘socially’ — she’d only light up if anyone else (like Poe for instance) was doing the same.  Otherwise she doesn’t smoke as a habit.  [Yes, she’s well aware of how smoking kind of defeats the purpose of her exercising, but embraces that personality conflict as just a part of who she is.]  She has a lovely singing voice, but never sings in front of anyone.  She’s a bit of a foodie, but loves Meraladian cuisine in particular.
She doesn’t have a theme song, but her character tends to lean towards moody atmospheric instrumentals along the lines of Boards of Canada or Sigur Rós.

#atozchallenge: F is for Flora and Fauna

Jon Chaisson2 Comments
New-England-in-Autumn-Road-Trip-Holiday-SS
Photo courtesy of The American Road Trip Company — yes, rural New England really does look like this!

When it came time to describe Trisanda, first in The Phoenix Effect and then in the Bridgetown Trilogy, I already knew what it would look like:  New England in the autumn.  Specifically, the area of central and western Massachusetts, where I’d grown up and lived for so many years.  Far from most of the big cities, where going somewhere requires a thirty-mile drive which you don’t mind at all, because that means you get to see the foliage and listen to some tunes.  There are a hell of a lot more trees and animals than there are people in some of these towns.

I worked for my town’s Public Works back in the summers of 1989 and 1990, which meant spending the entire day pushing a lawn mower up and down and around the gravestones of the dozen or so cemeteries around the town (our town was incorporated in 1762, so there are quite a few generations buried there), or working on the sides of quiet back roads, cleaning overgrowth and collecting litter.  Each day I’d be neck deep in nature, watching the seasons and the colors change.  Years later, when I’d have to drive those thirty-plus miles to my day job, I’d drive the back roads on purpose just so I could enjoy the views.

Come 1997, I already knew that Trisanda was going to embrace that natural setting, the miles of trees and grassy fields, old farms and whatnot.  I wanted a somewhat pristine planet; one that evolved organically and with little outside influence (returning to the theme of emotional/intellectual influence there).

There are towns and cities on Trisanda, of course…the trilogy just doesn’t focus on them.  It focuses more on the outpost towns, in particular one named Bann Dassah (pronunciation: bahn DAH-sah), where one particular character, Eprysia Kaalen (aka Ampryss) lives out her life as a Watcher of Earth/Gharra.  We’ll see more of Bann Dassah in The Persistence of Memories and especially in The Balance of Light.

When I wrote the scene where Natianos Lehanna and Janoss Miradesi visit Trisanda — the first scene on Trisanda that didn’t involve the Landing Field or the Gathering Table — I wanted to show a world that would be familiar yet somehow alien.  The forest would be similar to the above photo; a mix of pines, ashes, maples, birches, and so on to give it color.  [I gave names to only a few, however…the pine-like kriosi (kree-OH-see) and the fir-like skrihad (skree-HAHD)…but you get the picture.]

And what does one see in the woods of New England, sometimes to our frustration?  Wild animals like deer, wildcats and dogs.  Similar creatures would most likely hang out in the wilds of Trisanda as well as part of the ecology.  So in comes the wolflike gundaevi (goon-DAY-vee) and the feline jenha (JENN-hah) as background elements to the above scene.  There are others that are heard or their shadows seen, but I don’t go into detail.

 

So is that all there is to worldbuilding?  Heh, if only!  It really does depend on the situation.  Since 90% of the trilogy takes place in Bridgetown, I came up with all kinds of details: communities, neighborhoods, maps, population, and so on.  The 10% that takes place on Trisanda is mostly in the woods or in three or four specific places, so I didn’t need to go into too much detail, and focused more on minor details to fill out description.  I’m sure if/when Trisanda pops up in future Mendaihu Universe stories, I’ll be more elaborate,  depending on the plot.

#atozchallenge: E is for Edwin-Akandia Sensory Device

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I’ll admit, this one was totally inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion, AKIRA and Ghost in the Shell.

While I was building up the background of the Alien Relations Unit, I was struck by the idea: is there a system or program that is able to take spirit readings, so to speak, on the same level of humans and Meraladians with the same psionic abilities?  Sure, nearly all of the ARU agents have some kind of ability they’re able to use in their job.  There are even special agents that are hired for their specific strengths; some have an exceptionally strong clairsentience (soulsensing by touch), clairaudience (strong use of innerspeak), maybe even claircognizance (reality seers).  Caren Johnson, for instance, reads at a high level of clairsentience, and has used it multiple times in A Division of Souls.

But what about those agents in the ARU and the B-Town Police Department and elsewhere?  How else would an agent like Nick Slater, who has little to no psionic ability at all, be a functioning part of this system?

That’s where the joint human/Meraladian techware company Edwin-Akandia comes in.  Working with the Provincial Governor’s Council, the Crimson-Null Foundation and Bridgetown itself, the company created a device that is able to read and process the energy waves of all sentient beings.  [Think of it along the lines of scientists that are able to read and measure the energies that are kicked out from the Sun and even distant stars.  Same theory, just enhanced and narrowed down to human level.]  The EASD scans the subject and then compares the readings to a vast database and provides a list of possible actions that subject may take, and reports their current location.

Its center of operations is in the Mirades Tower, and the system itself is in a geoscyhronous orbital satellite (Tigua Bay Station) above Bridgetown.  The operations are set up so that it cannot be controlled by a single unit; for example, the Alien Relations Unit has the clearance to use it only within its jurisdiction.  Any changes to the EASD system must go through the Provincial Governor’s Council as well as the Crimson-Null Foundation.

It’s not 100% perfect, but it’s quite reliable.  Some feel that Bridgetown’s community agencies rely on it far more than necessary.  There are also those who feel the use of the EASD is an invasion of privacy, though it has never successfully been proven.  There is no actual personal information in EASD’s database, and it is heavily regulated by the PGC and the CNF.

 

[Note: for those playing along, ‘Edwin’ is indeed a Tuckerization.  It’s named after Colin Edwin, bass player for Porcupine Tree, whose Stupid Dream, Lightbulb Sun, Stars Die: the Delerium Years and In Absentia albums were on endless repeat during my writing sessions.]