Since I’m winding things down with the Tico series, let’s spend a little time talking about its embarrassing origins. I made a reference to my painfully derivative era when I was a middle schooler in my post about the utility of creative larceny. After the completion of Mesozoic World, my Jurassic Park rip-off, I started in on a sci-fi that would rip off not only Star Wars but Star Trek as well. (How’s that for resolving the fandom rivalry? A malformed amalgamation birthed in the mind of 12-year-old.) The name of this creation was Galactic Strife. (It was some time before I came to realize that raiding the thesaurus did not in fact constitute originality.) I don’t actually have the original documentation, so trying to remember the details is difficult over 20 years later. I know at very least Matt Harold and Ibrahim Mfume got their origins here. (Mfume was originally a white guy named Abner Sanford, believe it or not.)

I remember the next project better, a supernatural thriller borrowing a lot of from the vibe of Aliens called The Phantom Tower. While I never actually wrote anything for Galactic Strife, I did write The Phantom Tower, though there is no extant copy and the preliminary sketches and notes were all destroyed. In this story, a joint task force of Green Berets, Navy SEALs and Marines were tasked with investigating this skyscraper subject to bizarre occurrences. (I think the supernatural angle ended up being a fake-out to act as a distraction while a coup was launched to overthrow the US government. It was just a touch convoluted.) Jack Grisson and Ally O’Connor got their origins here as Marines in the task force and I believe Jeff Wallace was part of the technical support crew as a reworking of the Dennis Nedry expy Dennis Johnson from Mesozoic World. Miranda showed up as a Space Marine in the sequel, which tried to rehabilitate some ideas from Mesozoic World in space, blending elements of DOOM and the lesser known FPS Blake Stone (which happened to be on the shareware CD I made so much use of). No actual writing was done on the sequel, I don’t think, and though I think I wanted to have a third book, I’m pretty sure no major work went into it.

Though all the materials related to Galactic Strife and the Phantom Tower series were destroyed beforehand, I wound up recycling some of the characters when I began work on what would grow into the Ticonderoga series after completing the initial conceptual work for Knight of Gladius (or Warriors of Swordtree as it was known back then, circa ’95, I believe). However, I think I’ll save a discussion of Version 1 of the series for another time. You know, unlike the KoG series, which is now in its seventh version, there are only four versions of the Tico series, possibly because I’ve only been through the thing once. Will it see ten years of changes like KoG has? Who knows? Stay tuned.

To speak on a meta level, one of the key reasons space fighters feature so prominently in the Ticonderoga series is due to the strong influence of the Wing Commander series on the story. Also, the stakes don’t feel quite as high for remote drone operators as for pilots physically in the cockpit. Also, the deep impression in the popular consciousness of the heroic dogfighting of the two world wars have been perpetuated through major works of science fiction and will continue to be a staple even as technology seems to be bringing the classic concept of dogfighting more and more into obsolescence. However, rather than simply handwave all this, I do try to make some in-universe justification for it all, which I will explain below.

Before the start of the Sheol War, superlight spacecraft (under 50m in length and 300t in weight) were mostly limited to unmanned drones and the occasional custom curiosity. A large part of the reason for this was because the Schauer Fusion Propulsion System, which was the cornerstone of all space travel, could not safely be downscaled any further. At that time, space operations mostly fell under the Navy’s jurisdiction and the prevailing notion was that in any combat situation, the typical patrol escort was the smallest type spacecraft that would be needed. However, even before the Sheolites were identified as such, their small maneuverable craft were proving quite effective. While some in the Navy advocated warships with denser weapons arrays to deliver an impenetrable wall of interlocking fire, the risk of collateral damage was seen as too great, though the fifth generation warships developed during the war were much more heavily armed than their predecessors. Both the Air Force and Naval Aviation saw an opportunity to seize a larger role in the coming conflict and argued in favor of fighting fire with fire with superlight spacecraft.

The superlights would not have been possible without the development of the of the SFPS Mk.VId, a downscaled version of the SFPS previously thought impossible. Though much improved over previous attempts to downscale the SFPS design, the VId was nevertheless unstable and the containment could easily be broke with relatively little damage. Safety systems were put in place to shut down the reactor upon taking damage, but this did not always work and when it did, the superlight was left dead in the water and easy prey for the enemy.

While G-diffuser systems were installed to make the cockpit survivable for a human pilot, the theoretical limits of human reaction time were strained even at the reduced engagement velocity of 100kps. Given these and other concerns, there were many voices who argued against manned superlights, instead advocating either fully independent combat AIs or at least remote operators. The use of independent AI was always politically untenable in the Earth Union. For whatever flaws a human being may have, there is at least clearer accountability in the event something goes wrong. (A discussion on the complex debate on the role of AI in Earth Union society is best saved for another time.) While remote operators at least kept a human in the loop, there were concerns that the connection could be severed or even hijacked by the enemy. (Later review would confirm that the detractors overestimated the Sheolites’ electronic warfare capabilities.) In the end, the advocates of manned superlights won out.

Now that the plan to go forward with manned superlights was going forward, both the crafts themselves and the warships to carry them were being developed alongside the training of the pilots who would fly them. For instance, both Leia Han and Stalinslav Zhukov (who you would better know as Pride of the Seven Deadly Sins) were among the first midshipmen to be trained as pilots for spaceborne carrier operations. In addition, pilots from the terrestrial aviation communities and the pilots of light spacecraft adapted their skills to operate the new superlights. Casualty rates in training were high and even higher in combat, but those who survived helped refine the warfighting doctrine for superlights. Combined with technological advancement, the second generation of pilots (represented by people like Matt and Lydia) were able to gain an advantage over the Sheolites and by the third generation that emerged by the war’s end, clear superiority on the Union side was established.

Following the postwar drawdown of forces, the expense of manned superlights became harder to justify in the changing political climate and worsening economic situation. By the time of the War of the Colonies, the Union had almost completely shifted to remote operators and only when rebel forces succeeded in realizing the concerns of the opponents of remote operators did manned superlights make a resurgence, but by that point it was a race against time to relearn what had already been well-established forty years earlier.

And that should do it for now. There are a number of technological brawls in Union military history and perhaps I’ll get into another in the near future. For my next commentary post, I may talk a little on the embarrassing origins of the Ticonderoga series and some of the early weirdness that was cut before the story saw the light of day. Stay tuned.

We wrap up our coverage of the lead characters of TTWC1 with a look back on Corona the White Dragon.

I like writing nonhuman characters because it affords me the opportunity to think outside the box. I don’t take it too far because there needs to be some measure of relatability for the audience. Corona is not so recent an addition as Xenomachos, but she wasn’t in the early drafts of the story either. I honestly think her relationship with Ionathas blossomed as I wrote her.

There is no small irony in playing with the knight and lady dynamic when the lady in question happens to also be a Dragon. Elves and Dragons both have quite a bit of aloofness to them as a general rule, but Dragons also carry a great power and menace even when they masquerade as humans. Part of developing Coronas character was taking this strong, intimidating presence and softening it. It’s not like she becomes jelly or anything, but there’s a nice juxtaposition of these moments of vulnerability that I really like.

If you thought that her pursuing her revenge on Xorgoth was a poor decision on her part, I think you’ll find her bleeding and alone in a cave agreeing with you. Unfortunately, she never really thought out her rebellion and paid for it. The White Dragons were too beaten down after centuries of subjugation and too few in number to make a difference even if she could rally the entire race to her cause. It would’ve been better for her if she stuck with Ionathas (better for Ionathas too), but it’s just one more thread in the grand tapestry of tragedy that is the Trident War.

Well, I guess that’ll do it for now. I may consider doing a few of these for significant members of the supporting cast or perhaps cover characters from previous works (though a few of them have future appearances, so I may refrain and I may simply opt to do multi-parters). I’d like to get back to doing weekly commentary posts, so I’ll weigh my options. Stay tuned.

I was doing a lot of work in the peripheral materials about the Earth Union’s powered armor technology and thought I’d share some of that with you. As most of you know, powered exoskeletons have been in development for a while and we may well see field deployment in the next ten or twenty years. There are of course a number of issues to consider, but we’re not going to go too far in depth with that.

By the start of the Earth Union, the original LightSuit S saw limited deployment among heavy weapons operators, combat engineers, construction engineers and materiel transporters. For those of you who have seen Edge of Tomorrow, imagine the Jacket technology scaled down a bit and with a little more armor. Things like mobility and battery life were the primary concerns which kept them from being general issue for combat arms. Subsequent versions improved on the design with modest gains, but the version of the LightSuit without the exoskeletal frame became the standard even though that was not the original plan.

The name LightSuit came from the fact that it was a much lighter and less bulky design than competitors, but there were always plans for larger scale units, but this did not gain much traction (or funding) until the government saw a spike in research funding in the 80s. This research would prove fortuitous because a number of the projects that went into development would prove invaluable in the arms race that kicked off with the start of the Sheol War.

The MediSuit was designed to be self-contained and deployable in all environments. The Mark 15 Heavy Duty EVA Suit developed in the wake of the Lunar Revolt represented the basic template, only the MediSuit was designed specifically for combat roles. One of the first assignments of a young Donovan Graves (future Commandant of the Marine Corps and Hero of the Union) was to serve as a test operator for the MediSuit prototype. The successes of the Mark 0 prototype let to the development of the Mark 1 production model, which began service in April of 100, less than a year after the official declaration of war by the Sheol Empire. The first MEU to fully integrate Mobile Armor saw action the following year with then-Colonel Graves as its commander.

As with the LightSuit before it, the MediSuit’s design went back and forth between the competing goals of strength and mobility. Low-gravity environments made weight less of a concern, but the heavier the armor, the less the mobility in more closed environments. The Mark 3 unit fielded in 108 was the lightest version ever made, but that light armor when added to its glitchy sensors left it widely reviled. The Mark 5 that followed was perhaps an overcompensation, but there were a number of Marines who favored its thick shell and improved load-bearing capacity. The Mark 6 is what you’ll recognize from the story. The 41st MEU on the Ticonderoga was the first unit to use them. Though they had significantly lighter armor than the Mark 5, this was offset by the built-in shield projectors, though their use had to be limited or else the power cells would be used up much more quickly.

The HeavySuit doesn’t show up in the main storyline until late in Tico4. The reason for this is that the things are too big to be practical in most applications. They are more than twice the size of a MediSuit, so they can’t fit in ships or inside buildings. They did, however, prove useful as force multipliers on orbital defense platforms. The ground operations in Mars provided another opportunity for HeavySuits to shine, but for the most part, they’re seen as a waste of money, mostly useful for propaganda and PSYOPS purposes.

We’ll stop here because I don’t want to get too much into the postwar years until I start in on the War of the Colonies Cycle. Hopefully you’ve found this illuminating. Maybe I’ll get into superlight doctrine next time. Stay tuned.

If you’re not a writer and don’t have any interest in writing, this post probably won’t seem particularly interesting. I haven’t discussed it with other writers, so I don’t know if I’m peculiar or not when it comes to my interest/concern regarding wordcount. For the uninitiated, wordcount may seem completely irrelevant, but for those pursuing publication (at least via the traditional route), it makes a difference.

I got my first impression of the necessary wordcount for different classes of stories from the SFWA’s Nebula guidelines (http://www.sfwa.org/nebula-awards/rules/), which pegs a novel at 40K or more. However, when I actually started making my first attempts to submit my work, I found that publishers were generally looking more in the range for 75-100K. Why the difference? It’s mostly a matter of bang for your buck. If the novel is too short, it’s not as cost-effective to print, I believe. Now, the standards are different depending on genre and subclass. For instance, that 75-100K is the ballpark for an adult novel. If you write a children’s book or a YA novel, the desired wordcount would be lower.

Before we go further, I’d like you to take a quick look at this list of wordcounts for some well-known door-stoppers (http://www.cesspit.net/drupal/node/1869). With that in mind, would you believe that my early draft of KoG1 was only around 16K? It’s true. I actually had to bundle the entire trilogy together to get to 89K when I was doing submissions in ’03. The rejection was truly a blessing as I’ve since greatly reworked the books and they’re much better for it. Particularly starting out, I had a very sparse style of writing and it’s still rather true today. It’s not that I’m opposed to descriptive narrative, but I do generally veer toward conservation of detail. Whether this is a good or a bad thing, I’ll leave that to the reader’s judgment.

For some comparison, let’s take a look at the wordcounts of the novels I’ve completed thus far, rounded to the nearest thousand.

Knight of Gladius, Volume I – 62K
Knight of Gladius, Volume II – 74K
Knight of Gladius, Volume III – 154K
The Three Warriors – 49K
The Trident War Chronicles, Volume I – 87K
Ticonderoga, Volume I – 100K
Ticonderoga, Volume II – 104K
Ticonderoga, Volume III – 71K

Going the conventional route, getting KoG1 published as it is would be a challenge and T3W would almost be a guaranteed no-go unless I built enough rep to get a pass on it. Personally, I’m a strong believer that a story should be no longer or no shorter than it needs to be and because the current model doesn’t have to account for publishers’ requirements, it’s fine. If I would say anything on the subject to aspiring writers, I’d say not to worry about wordcount too much. Get the story where it needs to be and if you have to wrestle with your editor later, you can deal with it then.

Anyway, that should do it for now. If you found this interesting, great. If not, well, I don’t think you have to worry about a sequel.

I’ve just posted the teasers for my Arthurian Cycle and it’s been a while since my last commentary post, so now’s as good a time as any to address the question: Why Arthur? Arthurian legend has been tackled countless times, so what exactly do I think I can bring to the table? Well, it’s not so much a matter of me doing anything particularly newer and better than it is the fact that my work has always been tied to the various myths and legends of the world. Raiding the public domain for ideas isn’t a bad thing, mind you. That’s what it’s there for, a big communal pot of ideas you can freely draw from.

Specifically, the backstory of The Brothers Pendragon was tied to Arthurian legend from the beginning and I steadily began to expand on those ties to the wider Tellus Arc. It eventually reached the point where I wanted to detail this backstory in full. This led me on a grand journey, blending the English, Welsh and French traditions of the Arthurian legend with real-world history and the overarching plot of the Tellus Arc. I’ve only just begun, but there’s a lot to tell and I’m eager to tell it.

Will my own twist on Arthurian legend appeal to everyone? Of course not, but for the people who already like my work and are invested in the lore of my stories, I think it should do well. When I actually start serializing these stories is anyone’s guess, but it’s something to look forward to.

Lord Xenomachos stands out as one of the more recent additions to the story. He was invented solely for the purpose of balancing the chessboard with another rook, but I think I was able to do some interesting things with him.

Had Xenomachos simply been a loyal legate, he wouldn’t have been that much different from Lord Aristides and if his primary thing was his former exploits, he’d be much like Duke Cronos, minus the burden of contending with the Promethean Alliance. When I was thinking of his hook, I came up with a great idea to set him apart from the others. Because one of the primary conflicts within Zephyr was between Solon and the Church, why not have a character trapped in the middle? I didn’t want Xenomachos to be a calculating schemer like the Archbishop but rather a simple pious man who takes his devotion to God and King quite seriously. In fact, his simple steadfastness is the main reason the Archbishop couldn’t exploit him to the fullest.

I can’t help but feel sorry for the guy. He’s not dumb by any means, just simple and rather innocent. He hasn’t got a head for intrigue at all. Such an earnest and forthright character is really appealing to me in a story filled with so much political machination.

I feel it’s a bit of a shame I could only devote a single chapter to his love of Queen Xanthe. When I was thinking about when Xanthe psychically shared her entire heart and soul with the whole of the Zephyrian forces, it didn’t take much of a leap to realize that if you opened yourself up so fully to a person as pure-hearted as Xenomachos, he couldn’t help but love you. This is an important step for his character because while he showed all due deference to her station as Queen, he held a rather strong prejudice against the Elves. This prejudice was, of course, common throughout Zephyr, encouraged by sources sacred and secular alike, but the fact remains that he was predisposed against her just for what she was and then transcended that. Now, I’m not naive enough to say that all prejudice can be overcome through mutual understanding (and, strictly speaking, not all prejudice is a bad thing, but that’s a long and convoluted discussion for another venue), but a lot of harmful and baseless prejudice has a hard time standing if both sides open up in good faith. Xenomachos is an example that shows that Solon’s dream wasn’t entirely a vain one, just outmaneuvered and outgunned.

It was a bit of a mercy on my part to give him a heroic last stand in the Darklands because it’d be far too cruel to put him in the middle of Gamaliel’s coup against Daphne. I believe he would’ve stood with Daphne, but the conflict within him would’ve destroyed him. I know I tend to give my characters rather miserable and tragic ends, but sometimes I show a little kindness.

Because it’ll be a while before Corona’s section ends, I may consider spotlighting a character outside TTWC1. Stay tuned.

A world teeming with life was made between the Two Curtains and the time had come to awaken the common spirits that still slumbered in the Cloud of Souls. There is some dispute regarding the creation of the sapient races of the Planet. Certain scholars believe there was a council of the greater spirits that oversaw their creation and others believe that each race was the product of their particular god or gods. Regardless, there is little disputing the order in which these races were born.

The firstborn of the Firstborn were the Fair Folk. Whether they were a single race from the beginning or always divided among their many sub-races is uncertain. They were to be the representatives of the greater spirits on the Planet, to rule over it in their stead. It was they who channeled the aether into its currents after the fashion of the wind and sea, but they grew proud and spurned their given duty. Led by their king, the Fair Folk retreated beyond the First Curtain to a land of their own creation, but by leaving the protection of the First Curtain, they resided amidst Chaos and so their kind is not trusted by the Elves. It would explain their reputation for caprice. Not all the Fair Folk abandoned the world, though. Some were made to remain, the ones we know as nymphs, elementals and the like.

After the Fair Folk came the Dragons. The Dragons themselves claim descent from the Dragon Mother Tiamat and the Elves follow their account. Tiamat’s first children claimed the greatest share of her power and wisdom. These were the progenitors of the White, Black and Grey Dragons. After them were born the lesser Dragons whose birthright was much more meager in comparison. They were to be ruled by their elder brethren. Although they have the capacity for great wisdom, the Dragons were also prone to greed and violence. Without the Fair Folk to challenge them, they ruled land, sea and sky as peerless terrors.

There are those who consider the subject of the third sapient race to be taboo. Indeed, many would rather pretend they did not exist at all, though their indelible mark on the history of both the Elves and the world at large make this impossible. It has been postulated that one of the greater spirits was an outcast from the rest and turned all his bitterness and spite on Creation and so created the antithesis of life: the Lich, the Lord of Shadow. Dead and yet alive, a swirling of vortex of darkness barely contained by a mortal frame, the Lords of Shadow exist only to upend the natural order. The world’s saving grace is that their power is too great for their physical bodies to sustain and bearing a new generation serves to divide their essence and weaken them. Even so, the Dark Race would prove to be the greatest menace the world would ever know.

The last of the Firstborn are the Elves. The Divine Mother, El-Naia, is said to be the daughter of Sister Moon by some or at very least a companion of hers. She tired of the company of the greater spirits among the stars and descended to the world below. The Fair Folk were too proud, the Dragons too rapacious and the Lord of Shadow an abomination, leaving her with no suitable companions. And so she created her own. She took the light of the sun, moon and stars and combined them with the powers of earth, wind, water and fire to create the vessels for newly awakened common spirits. These were the first Elves. Long-lived but mortal, attuned to the spirits yet attached to the earth, they were to be upholders of balance, to maintain the natural order. For over a thousand years, she raised them, taught them, and when it was time for her to leave, she left a memorial behind. Five seeds took root across the world. These would grow into the great tree palaces of the Elves known as the Five Ancients. El-Naia’s work was finished, but the history of the world was just beginning.

In the beginning, all was Void and at the center of the Void was Chaos. Permeating the Void was the aether and the great Cloud of Souls. While the greater souls were awake and active, the common and lesser souls were dormant. The greater souls could exist as purely aethereal beings, but the common and lesser souls needed physical bodies in order to awaken, but physical bodies can only be sustained in a physical environment and thus we have the creation story related by Cassandra in “The Two Curtains”. The First Curtain was cast over the vortex of Chaos and became known as “earth”. The Second Curtain divided the First Curtain from the Void and became known as “sky”. A greater soul was assigned to each of the Two Curtains and so we have the Earth Mother and the Sky Father.

It is said the the stars are the grand host of greater souls shining beyond the veil of the Second Curtain. Closer at hand were the two children of the Sky Father: Brother Sun and Sister Moon. One day the two of them quarreled and the Sky Father punished them by casting them out beyond the Second Curtain. Brother Sun then began to walk about the Second Curtain, looking for a way back in, with Sister Moon following behind, and so began the cycle of night and day.

Brother Sun would not listen to his sister’s pleas to reconcile, nor would he slow his pace or even look over his shoulder to see her face as she followed after him. His stubborn pride grieved the Sky Father greatly and his tears poured out upon the First Curtain, making the seas. The surface was soon awash with his tears, so the Earth Mother began to push and pinch the First Curtain, giving rise to dry land with its mountains, its hills and its valleys. As the Sky Father continued to move about the Second Curtain, the clouds massing were a sign of his gloomy temper and the rain his tears.

The waters of the Sky Father’s tears had an unexpected consequence. Before the Earth Mother reshaped the land and everything was covered by the seas, some of the lesser spirits descended from the Cloud of Souls and took shape as the first sea plants. More followed, given flesh as the teeming fish and other creatures of the sea. However, there were many lesser spirits that remained dormant. Once the Earth Mother created dry land, though, grasses and trees sprang up and soon every beast, bird and creeping thing followed. The space between the Two Curtains was soon filled with life and the time had come to wake the common spirits from their slumber.

Next time we’ll talk about the rise of the sapient races of the Planet. Stay tuned.

I’ve devoted some time to the tenets of Photianism and I think it’s fair to give the religion of the Elves a little time of the spotlight. Note that “religion” is singular. Though there are five communities and four sub-races, there is essentially one religion uniting them all. There are multiple “denominations” if you will, but few Elves dispute the overall belief system.

The Elven religion has a certain animistic and panentheistic character to it. We have to begin with their concept of the soul. There are three degrees of souls: greater, common and lesser. The greater souls are essentially gods, the common souls belonging to sapient races and the lesser souls belonging to non-sapient lifeforms. Souls are believed to be uncreated, having existed from the beginning of time, but it was the greater souls that were active first, responsible for the creation of the universe and the waking and incarnation of the common and lesser souls. Another important element is the aether, an unfocused form of spiritual energy similar if not the same in substance to the souls but lacking any will or individuality. The aether is omnipresent and acts as a medium for the souls to operate (which is all much in line with most systems of magic on the Planet). Some Elven philosophers have posited that there is a singular Greatest Spirit from which all other souls and the aether emanated and will one day all be drawn back into it.

There are numerous deities venerated by the Elves to varying degrees, but chief among them is El-Naia, the Divine Mother. El-Naia is not the greatest of the gods, but she is regarded as the creatrix of the Elven race and so is adored above all. I will discuss her, the other gods and various myths and legends relating to them in future posts. It will be easier to go into more of the details of worship then. For now, it is sufficient to describe the Elven religion as a sort of nature worship with a personal creatrix held in highest adoration.

Unsurprisingly for a religion centered on goddess worship, the highest ranking clergy tend to be female, but there are some branches where males tend to dominate, such as the cult of the sun common among Light Elves. The clerical hierarchy isn’t terribly complicated or particularly rigid in structure. The priestly caste is largely ranked according to seniority, though certain extraordinary spiritual gifts may result in a quicker rise to higher prestige.

There are a number of major and minor festivals following patterns you might expect for a religion of nature worship: new moons, full moons, solstices, equinoxes, etc. Other than that, there’s nothing so formal as weekly services, daily prayers at set times or anything like that, though some branches of the sun cult can be a little more regimented.

I could go into greater depth, but this post is only meant to serve as an overview. I’ll go into further details in subsequent posts. Stay tuned.