Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Static-Lands Saga: 1 - The Worldsetting

(Apologies for this being all one-lump post. I am new to the Blogger system and haven't the foggiest how to do cuts behind text yet. If anyone can clue me in, if it is possible on this system, I'd be very grateful).

This is the general world-setting for the Static-Lands, a world that has many stories to be told.  This is not actually the first story I've written set in this world, but it does outline the basic setting. This particular piece is meant to read a little more "textbook" than story.  All of the Static-Lands stories will refer back to it.  



The Static-Lands Saga

The World as it Stands



Somewhere in a world very far away from ours, there is a nation where the cycles of day and night are at a standstill.  On one end of the landmass is the Land-of-Always-Day.  On the opposite end of the country is the Land-of-Always-Night.  In one land, the sun never sets.  In the other, it never rises. The Gloaming Lands (or the Twilight Stretch as some call it), lies in-between.  Far from the baking and freezing that beings from our world might expect these lands to experience, the weather and climate are regular – temperate in most parts of the country.  In fact, trees and grass grow quite well beneath the moon in the Land-of-Always-Night.  The moon itself goes through phases, even though it never leaves its fixed position in the sky.  This of course means that some of the laws of nature are different in this mysterious land than in the world we know. The explanation for the way things are typically boils down to “magic.”

It has been said that the nation was put this way by some strange being or lady wizard from another universe and that she did so because she was terrible at keeping appointments and felt a need to try to stop time itself.  Not only did she fail to be on time for anything, anyway, she died (or went back to her own universe – the legends conflict) before she could set the day back to normal.  All beings within the land grew accustomed to it.  Many even thrived under the static conditions of daylight and darkness.

There are three humanoid races in the Static Lands.  One would be recognizable as consisting of ordinary humans, like those that dominate our world. One race is a mysterious desert-people with character like that of vultures.  The third race is a people with deer-like features, antlers, ears, tails and odd, digitigrade feet. 

The humans live in the core nation of Vale – sometimes a kingdom, sometimes a democratic republic, once a dictatorship.  Vale comprises most of the Land-of-Always-Day, its capitol a grand city called Fortissimo.  The deer-people call themselves the Ilkhan and keep their territories in the Land-of-Always-Night and to part of the Gloaming Lands.  They were made up of varied tribes, occasionally at war with one another until they became united to survive when the Valeians marshaled forces and conquered them.  After the conquest, the Ilkhan were allowed to live in their lands, but under the governance of the politicians in Fortissimo.  They were also given heavy taxes and burdens. 

The Vule- the vulture-folk of the desert in the east-most of the Land-of-Always-Day, were left alone entirely.  Their tribes are small, their land is considered a ruin lacking in resources and beauty, and they are greatly feared.  It is common knowledge that the Vule eat their own dead.  

The people of Vale keep to a single religion.  It was not always this way.  In Vale there are no temples, for the people’s worship is rather casual, but it is supported by the State and enforced by the prevailing prejudices of the culture.  The Valeians give reverence to Materia-Machina, a creator-goddess said to preside over all things physical.  There is no afterlife in Machinism – blessings are to be acquired in life.  It is said that wealth is the blessing of the goddess and that those who do not attain it are not blessed.  Aside from Materia-Machina (who is prayed to on occasion for matters financial and for aid in decision-making), the religion does not allow for supernatural entities or events. Many Machinists, if they think upon the matter at all, tend to think they are very clever for “seeing the world as it is,” as they would say - and those that are very ardent in praising their own cleverness do not tend to suffer disagreement well.   

As a result, when Vale went through its dictatorship phase, it purged its people.  Those that did not bow to Materia-Machina or who tried to hold to her while keeping to folk traditions regarding spirits and even the small hope for a life that transcends death were made subject to many oppressive laws, and when they were few and powerless enough to be subdued, were subdued – that is, they were murdered by their government in large scale.  When Vale embraced democracy, such harsh policies were abandoned – at least officially. 

Some laws were left on the books regarding anyone who professed beliefs other than Machinism with the exception of the Nils (Nils were they that did not believe in the goddess, but likewise did not believe in anything else immaterial.  Their philosophy was considered very close-in-kind to Machinism, so it was forgiven, although they remained a minority).  Anyone who held an open belief in “old” or “outside” religions or in folk superstitions were barred from certain kinds of work.  These laws were mostly kept in place as a measure to prevent Ilkhan that lived in Vale from having too much influence upon life there.  The Ilkhan kept to many of their own spiritual traditions, but it truly did not matter if an Ilkhan in Vale accepted Machinism – which many did.  The Ilkhan remained second-class-citizens. 

In fact, the new democratic government of Vale, having decided that outright genocide was barbarous, but still wishing they were rid of certain classes, has been running an ongoing propaganda-campaign for some time.  It is seen mostly in Vale’s ghettos in the form of posters and the prevalence of clinics of a certain kind.  Although the Ilkhan only became united recently and have many tribal differences among them, one of the things that unites their overall culture is a deep sense of honor. 

Upon learning that it was not uncommon for young Ilkhan men to kill themselves if they felt they had lost too much of their own honor, the ministers of Vale decided to use that.  Posters abound upon the city walls of the poor neighborhoods Ilkhan are relegated to encouraging those that feel alone and worthless to “Open the Exit” and other such slogans.  One widespread poster lets them know “THE FUTURE HAS NO PLACE FOR YOU writ large in sans-serif letters.  Some Valeians also take to the propaganda – ones that are too poor to have been “blessed” by their goddess and thus are considered rather worthless by most of their society.   The clinics that prevail in those areas are twenty-four hour services that assist in suicide.  They are supposed to provide quick, painless services, but there have been rumors of abuse in some locations.

Vale does not extend this propaganda into the Land-of-Always-Night, which is left mostly to the Ilkhan, but they do have their taxes and restrictions on the people there. Valien officials consider posts there to be backwater assignments. Some wonder why Vale doesn’t just let that country alone, but the farmlands and produce from the labor of Ilkhan farmers is rich, the wild country provides a playground for the Valien wealthy, who like to take hunting expeditions there, and they fear any relaxing of the iron fist will encourage uprising among the native population. 

The Static Lands as they stand are a place where, for the most part, the rich stay rich, the poor stay poor, and one must at least pretend to go along with the prevailing sentiments of the ruling class in order to have any hope of a comfortable life.  Truly, perhaps, it is not much different from our world; only that one part of the land always has the sun, while the other always has the moon. 

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Welcome Message

WELCOME TO SPARROWMILK!

Hello, I’m Shadsie.  Welcome to my mind, enter at your own risk. 

First of all, the title of this blog is meant to convey some of the utter weirdness you’ll find here.  The term started out as a joke between myself and my man regarding semantics.  He is fond of calling flocks of geese “herds,” and one day, that lead to a conversation that equated geese to cattle, talk of “milking the geese” and an offhand remark of how “you wouldn’t get much milk from a sparrow.” In need of a term to convey the quirkiness of my life and works, I thought “Sparrowmilk” just worked.

Anyway, here is a quick run-down of what you’ll find here: 

Writing – I mostly wished to get a blog to showcase my writing work.  I’m not professional quite yet, but I thought that having a blog for my stuff might attract some attention.  If not, at least I get said stuff out there for people to read and to hopefully give me the good, hard constructive criticism that I crave.  At this point in my life, I’m less concerned with “just getting published” than I am with “getting good.”  I write primarily for the pleasure of it and because worlds in my head want to exist and tend to scream at me until I make it happen. I very much want to share my work and to have people read it, enjoy it and give me helpful commentary as to how it can be improved – in other words, to open a dialogue. Even if it never makes it to print, if it’s good, that’s what matters.  

Turbo-Fangirl Nerd Geekery of the Apocalypse! – I’m a proud geek, mostly for entertainment things, particularly anime (and animation in general, I like the Western stuff, too), manga (Japanese comics), literature (particularly fantasy), and I am one of the rarest of creatures – a girl gamer. Mostly, I am a retro-gamer due to monetary constraints, but still, I both love video games and am an adult female.  I go one-up on the geekery, as well, in that I create fan art and fan fiction for a lot of the things that I like.  I actually have somewhat of a following right now for my Legend of Zelda fan fictions- that should tell you what a turbo-nerd I am.  I’m sure to air my fandom opinions on this blog at least every once in a while, and, if I feel like it, I may post my fan works (if for nothing more than to try to entice my “following” to visit the blog and maybe take a look at my original works).   

Art – Maybe, when and if I feel like it. I already have a Deviant Art account which serves me well for showcasing my visual art.

Opinions on serious matters – Maybe. Some of these overlap with my writing. 


The character of my work:  I write primarily in Fantasy.  Occasionally, science-fiction makes an appearance, but mostly my works are about other worlds, talking animals, fictional ecosystems and the like. My work, however, isn’t classifiable as the “sword and sorcery” stuff that most people seem to think of immediately when they think of Fantasy.  Someone once told me that my work reminded them of that of the late Madeline L’Engle – “Quirky with spiritual undertones.”  

As for that matter, I think it is fair to warn potential readers, since it does bleed heavily into my original writing:  I am a person who has the kind of religion/spirituality held by someone who hasn’t gone to church in years, reads a lot, but still, nonetheless, has God-stuff  stuck in her brain.  If any of that offends you, whether it’s the “doesn’t go to church” part or the “believes in God” part, let it be known here and now that you will probably be offended by the things that will be appearing on this journal and it’s frankly your own fault for not turning back now. Many people in this world seem to think in black and white – I enjoy a rainbow gleaming off a cut diamond of many facets. 

I have a few unpublished novels under my belt. To give an idea of the non-S&S style fantasy I write, these are the general characterizations of some of the protagonists thereof:

One of my novels is about a genetically-engineered gryphon that develops a strong bond to the slave who raises him.

Another story features a boy whose life dream is spent pursuing glorified bird-watching. He carries a sword that was given to him as a gift, but being an ardent pacifist, does not use it. (He does actually use it all of twice in the over-100k manuscript to defend himself in dire situations, but never uses it to kill). 

My latest “I think it may be halfway decent” completed project features a pair of young people who bond to spiritual beings and take a journey to a city where people do not believe in said spiritual beings.

Presently, I will be posting serial, loosely-related stories I am writing about a world of three nations where night and day are at a standstill because that is the current thing I’m getting out of my brain. I feel that a loose, ongoing serial is something that would be good for a blog. Chapters of the aforementioned novels may appear here if I feel like posting them at some point, as well as random, unrelated short stories.  

I am not “friendly” enough for Facebook and I am too verbose for Twitter, so this will be the primary place for me to spew my mind.

Anyway, welcome, all. Hope you survive.