Concepts

Firstworld

  • This is a novel series about Firstworld, the interval between Eden and the Flood, when humankind is young and headstrong, fresh and creative, yet scarred by the poor choice of the Founding Couple and their falling-out with the Maker.
  • Firstworlders refer to humankind as the Race.
  • Being thus young and not yet saddled with centuries of genetic and other disorders, many or most Firstworlders have a Skill. A Skill is a natural propensity, not magical, the sort of thing we occasionally see in the prodigies or savants of today, usually in the realm of heightened senses or thought or endurance.

Whispers and Resonants

  • When a Firstworlder dies (but this may be true even in later generations), especially if by violence, the intensity of his/her personality acts like a flashbulb on the fabric of Creation, resulting in a Resonant. A Resonant is an after-image, a snapshot of that personality that you can interact with almost like an AI; It is not a dead soul.
  • When such a person is buried, the Resonant becomes vaguely audible in that area by what we call a Whisper, hard to hear without paying great attention. The area inexplicably becomes a Field: a quiet garden of contemplation with the same recurring features only mildly differing from Field to Field.
  • If someone visits a Field and pays enough attention, he begins to participate in a Resonance. The air chills and the light dims like during a solar eclipse, and the Resonant, previously only barely audible, now becomes somewhat visible and can be engaged in conversation.

The Speculon

  • While in the Resonance state, the visitor is surrounded by a different landscape. The one major feature nearby is a seemingly endless sheet of mirror-like ice that is called the Speculon (meaning “mirror”). The Speculon is a tangible rendering of that nature which all Humankind shares, placed there at the creation of the Race.
  • The surface of the Speculon is indeed like a mirror, but it is scored by innumerable Fractures, minute scratches in intertwining patterns. Each Fracture represents an act of willful evil. As time passes and Fractures accumulate, the surface reflection becomes harder and harder to see, with long-term effects on the Race.
  • If a visitor actually walks up to the edge of the Speculon and looks into it, the nearest image is a reflection of himself. If he pays attention, he may learn something useful about his state from that image. He will also see a larger shadowy figure in the background, called the One Who Stands Behind, who just may be the Maker.
  • Walking on the Speculon can be risky. Normal referents like distance and direction do not apply reliably, so a visitor can wander from the “shore” and become totally lost. Then too, there are the Menaces: frightening manifestations of Humankind’s flawed personality, that might attack like a nightmare come true.
  • It is possible to walk along the Speculon and navigate using the Fractures as a sort of guide, like a seafarer uses constellations. If a visitor does this, he can arrive at other Fields and exit the Resonance state having literally physically traveled. Fields become like eerily similar landmarks, like traveling between railway stations.

Cain and Cerb

  • Cain is at the intersection of all of these elements. His is a story of redemption. In a fit of resentment and ego, he has killed his brother Abel, for whom he should have been a Keeper. Convinced at first of his own rightness, over time he mellows, grieves for Abel, and learns to look out for the welfare of others.
  • Cain is accompanied by a dog named Cerb, for his defense as he wanders Firstworld. Cerb only appears to be a dog. Rather, he is a creature called Cerberus, with multiple manifestations each with its own personality. Cain’s Cerb is a surly, sarcastic dog; other characters may similarly be accompanied by a different Cerb.
  • Cerberus occupies a long stretch of time and manifests here and there. He thus “remembers the future”, which allows Cerb to comment on Cain’s situation with oddly anachronistic references.
  • Cain has a literal mark on his arm, like a tattoo of a stylized dog. When in danger, he can touch that mark, and it will become hot to the touch and Cerb will appear. The mark changes appearance when Cerb is visible.

The Shard Threat

  • Cain and the Firstworld face a threat that he must combat. Humankind is bound together by the conceptual unity provided by the Speculon. A foe with an isolationist streak, fed up with the society, seeks and finds a way to break one’s own shard of the Speculon off from the whole. He misleads many citizens to try this.
  • The foe thinks that his plan will result in a new Race of fiercely independent and liberated individuals, free of authority. He does not realize that the result would be a large number of “one-member Races”, each unable to understand or interact with each other, doomed to life-long isolation in almost a separate reality.
  • Cain, like many other Firstworlders, has a Skill. His is pattern-matching. Working the land in the early morning hours, he always loved to study the constellations and marvel at their relationships. This Skill will prove indispensable as he discovers the Speculon and finds significance in the intertwining Fractures. It will also help him to save the Speculon from the Shard Threat.

Culture

  • Firstworld does not have a written language. But one Firstworlder has learned how to represent spoken speech using a spatter pattern of paint/ink called Speakscript. Taught the trick, any Firstworlder can stare at such a sign and will hear in his mind an exact reproduction of the spoken speech in the speaker’s own voice.
  • Firstworlders use pictos, which are unique personal identifiers (from “pictogram”) not unlike a family crest or an icon. It is a simple stylized shape, perhaps of an animal, flower, or even combined geometrical figures, which the owner may paint on a property sign to denote ownership. Such an identifier can also be used in the culture’s few instances of public records.