Welcome to Hermetic Empire. This is a world that has been oozing through the folds in my brain for the past twenty or so years, evolving and growing as I have evolved and grown. Ideas and stories have reached critical mass. Now, it’s time to start sharing them.
Hermetic Empire has much of it’s shape but there is still a lot to be decided. The stories and voices you will read on this page are my effort to build a world through storytelling. There will be stories that illustrate various aspects of life in this world and voices presented as interviews to explain historical events, technology, social movements, the important minutia that makes up the small parts of a world.
One of the big questions surrounding a new fantasy setting is what role does magic play? What part of this new world does it occupy? Does it come from the individual? That means one person can have the ability while others don’t creating interesting conflicts between the haves and the have-nots. Or is it a gift from the gods? Handed down to loyal followers. I have decided that in my world magic is a fundamental part of the universe.
A while ago I read a three book series on a theory called Biocentrism. The essence of the theory is consciousness creates our universe. It is an interesting theory backed up by quite a lot of research and more science that I can claim to understand. But while I was reading it I had a thought…what if the rules of quantum physics where a little bit looser? What if we didn’t just create reality but could actually shape reality in an active way using belief and willpower. That sounds like magic. The ability to shape the world with the power of your mind.
The world of Hermetic Empire is one where a form of consciousness created the universe. And magic and consciousness are one and the same. The question is if everyone can use magic how can order and civility be maintained? If you ever get into an argument with a particularly vile person, what’s to stop you from blasting them in the face with a lightning bolt? Or turning them into a pig? This is just one of the many questions I have for this sandbox of my own imagination.
I am fascinated by post apocalyptic literature, movies, and video games. In many ways, a post-apocalyptic setting is the ultimate sandbox for the mind. You have the limitless potential of exploring the ruins of the past while drip feeding your readers clues about how it all ended. From a socioeconomic point of view, you can create societies make them work together out of necessity and then put them in direct conflict with one another when resources get scarce. You can do this in any setting but I believe it is amplified in the inherent impermanence of a post-apocalypse.
However, Hermetic Empire isn’t a simple post-apocalypse. It is a magical post apocalypse. The fallout isn’t radioactive particles it is fallout from vast amounts of destructive magical energy being expended. Large swathes of land suffer from the warping and twisting long term effects of magical warfare. If magic and consciousness are interlinked then can the expenditure of magical energy create a kind of subconscious state if it was large enough? Can the land become conscious? What if the world was terraformed with magical energy? Would that mean the entire world has a kind of global consciousness?
Another consideration for world building is the holographic nature of creation. Each choice is a snapshot of your world at large. When you say something exists in your world, like chocolate, what is implied by this is that there is a place which grows cacao beans. That means there needs to be a place which has a climate that can support cacao trees. Also an industry that transports the beans to the maker of chocolate. And another industry that creates the chocolate itself. The question as the creator becomes: How far down the rabbit hole of creation do you go? Do you use Earthling terms for everyday items like cows, coffee, broccoli, or do you invent all new common every day items? Can you ground the reader in place if everything they read is unknown to them? And will the reader even care if you spend two months creating the history and impact of a vegetable that in essence is a blue tomato?
What is happening this week? The first part of the short story I have tentatively titled The Forgotten Knight will be posted tomorrow. On Wednesday, I will post a second short story called the Steel Men. On Sunday, you can expect the first part of a third story line I have been developing. As I work on the world and regional maps, I will post some in progress shots so you can see my process.
I hope you come to love the world as I have and that it sparks your own imagination.