(no subject)
It's about time I made the first installment about the other story I'm working on. I started with one premise - that humans have or gained the ability to manipulate energy - ALL of the electromagnetic spectrum. Heat, kinetic, and chemical energy (as in ability to change around the chemical makeup of objects as with alchemy) would be the focus here, since they're the least esoteric. I decided to have this ability (simply referred to as Talent) come into play at a specific time, rather than be an innate human ability, so that I could use a history similar to the dark ages as a backdrop for it to appear on.
There's a lot of threads of thought I have worked out so far - the history of politics, present-day politics, cosmological history, what Talent can and cannot do as well as ley lines, the Sun-worship religion and its system of metaphysics/symbolism (which is similar to Gnosticism), the Existing systems of thought (the religious, the humanistic, and the atheistic), the functioning of the magnesis (a sort of 'soul boundary') and the function of multiple souls within a human.
Here, the cause for its appearance is a "prophet," a man who demonstrates Talent and travels around the world teaching people how to use it. For simplicity, the world is a continent about the size of Africa. The Prophet of Sophia (not Sophia as a female name, but the Sophia from Sophistry - i.e. Wisdom) as he becomes known, teaches people in much the same way as a religious prophet would have - i.e. Jesus or Muhammad. His doctrine isn't religious in itself, but it meshes well with the pre-existing religion which is based on worship of the Sun (much like that of the Aztecs).
The prophet teaches some people, but not many, and after his death a long dark age comes, marked by Talented warlords fighting amongst each other for more power as in the post-dark age times.
At the time of this story, there are schools dedicated to education about Talent and all the other academic subjects, such that most people are able to practice Talent to some degree. It's an age of enlightenment as well, where most people believe that Talent is a great gift and is a result of the intelligence and superiority of the human race. Whether or not that gift is a result of Divine providence is still argued about, but it is mostly agreed upon by the religious and humanists that (thanks to the Prophet's blessing of such pursuits) Talent ought to be used to further human society and civilization.
Contrasting the religious group, and sometimes the humanist group, is the atheist one - they do not adhere to the Prophet's doctrine, and thus are seen as immoral (which is true some of the time). There are some who believe that the emphasis on furthering human society is damaging the earth (which is true in a way). There exist in the world natural ley lines - ley lines are the method by which humans manipulate energy - which are not being channeled by any human, but are currents for amounts of energy far more massive than any human is capable of controlling. The environmentally-minded see the "stealing" of energy from these natural ley lines as potentially damaging for the earth. Many times a tower or building will be constructed in the path of one of these large ley lines, for the purpose of tapping into it.
That's a brief overview of political history and the systems of thought.
There's a lot of threads of thought I have worked out so far - the history of politics, present-day politics, cosmological history, what Talent can and cannot do as well as ley lines, the Sun-worship religion and its system of metaphysics/symbolism (which is similar to Gnosticism), the Existing systems of thought (the religious, the humanistic, and the atheistic), the functioning of the magnesis (a sort of 'soul boundary') and the function of multiple souls within a human.
Here, the cause for its appearance is a "prophet," a man who demonstrates Talent and travels around the world teaching people how to use it. For simplicity, the world is a continent about the size of Africa. The Prophet of Sophia (not Sophia as a female name, but the Sophia from Sophistry - i.e. Wisdom) as he becomes known, teaches people in much the same way as a religious prophet would have - i.e. Jesus or Muhammad. His doctrine isn't religious in itself, but it meshes well with the pre-existing religion which is based on worship of the Sun (much like that of the Aztecs).
The prophet teaches some people, but not many, and after his death a long dark age comes, marked by Talented warlords fighting amongst each other for more power as in the post-dark age times.
At the time of this story, there are schools dedicated to education about Talent and all the other academic subjects, such that most people are able to practice Talent to some degree. It's an age of enlightenment as well, where most people believe that Talent is a great gift and is a result of the intelligence and superiority of the human race. Whether or not that gift is a result of Divine providence is still argued about, but it is mostly agreed upon by the religious and humanists that (thanks to the Prophet's blessing of such pursuits) Talent ought to be used to further human society and civilization.
Contrasting the religious group, and sometimes the humanist group, is the atheist one - they do not adhere to the Prophet's doctrine, and thus are seen as immoral (which is true some of the time). There are some who believe that the emphasis on furthering human society is damaging the earth (which is true in a way). There exist in the world natural ley lines - ley lines are the method by which humans manipulate energy - which are not being channeled by any human, but are currents for amounts of energy far more massive than any human is capable of controlling. The environmentally-minded see the "stealing" of energy from these natural ley lines as potentially damaging for the earth. Many times a tower or building will be constructed in the path of one of these large ley lines, for the purpose of tapping into it.
That's a brief overview of political history and the systems of thought.