Worldbuilding Notes From Inner-Space

Adventures of Tylus Worran

Instead of the usual short fiction, this week I am going to share some worldbuilding notes from the story I am writing, the Adventures of Tylus Worran.

This is a book that has been living in my mind for nearly decades. It started as a conversation between my Dad and I, and has been rolling around my head all this time, in various iterations, and I think it has become a pearl of an idea. The challenge now is turning it into a pearl of a book.

Just a note before I get too deep, that all of this is subject to change if it helps me get this book completed or make the book better. This is the world as I see it right now.

Begin At The Beginning

The Adventures of Tylus Worran takes place on several worlds, and I’ve hinted at some of the history: The Jovian Union, the Theyst Republic, Koslov, Adille, etc. I’ve got a map written out—if there’s interest maybe I will share it one day. These are human beings and this is our galaxy—but how did things get here?

I wanted this story to be an inversion of an old science fiction trope: Humanity unifying, and marching into the stars under one banner, with a common purpose. No. I wanted Humanity to climb over each other, I wanted it to be a disorganized, uncoordinated, bureaucratic mess. We stumble into space and have to find our footing there. How would that look?

The inception moment—the idea that my Dad and I talked about all those years ago—I want to keep secret for now. I may write it still and I don’t want to spoil it because if I can do it right it will be a personal favorite and I want it to be your favorite too. But lets just say A Thing happens and the result of that Thing is that humanity gets the technology to go to the stars. However, not all of humanity—the technology is unevenly distributed, and so nations compete to get to space first and start claiming territory for themselves. This naturally leads to increases in conflict and political tension. There is a great war at some point, and the Jovian Union is established—so named because it is based on the Jovian planets against the rocky planets of the inner solar system. It is the Jovian Union that accelerates the step to interstellar space, and so this story dovetails in with the “unified humanity” trope, though without the peace and unity that typically accompanies the trope.

From there, star systems are colonized, factions form, revolutions happen, and the region of stars occupied by humanity—Inner-Space—becomes fragmented further still.

Where We Join Our Hero

Inner-Space at the time of Tylus consists of three powerful factions, three minor factions, and a smattering of miniscule factions. There’s also a powerful, secret, fourth faction that has not made contact yet.

The Jovian Union is a rump state weakened by war. They control two solar systems—including our mother star, around which Earth revolves—but they still have massive wealth and resources that they had as a former empire. They have imperial ambitions still, and a chip on their shoulder against the revolutionaries who stole away their empire.

Theyst Republic, so named for it’s legendary founder Huron Theyst, is a liberal democracy that stands as the foil to and villains for the Jovian Union. Theyst represents the pinnacle of unadulterated human ingenuity. They are not without their problems, nor their ambitions.

Hammond Dominion is a rival state to Theyst and (if I remember properly) originally started out as part of Theyst. Hammond is named for Lucien Hammond, frenemy and rival to Huron Theyst. They worked together against the Jovian Union but had deep philosophical differences once they were independent of the Union. Hammond is characterized by extensive use of Clones. Clones are important because that is one of the mechanisms that allowed humanity to grow so rapidly and to reach the stars: Ancient Earth passed the Genetic Protocols to allow colonists to be bred to help boost the population of the nascent interstellar colonies. The program was hugely successful, and Hammond wanted to continue to use it to provide a cheap labor force, while Theyst found the practice commoditizing and inhumane. This was the fulcrum of the split between the two.

Jandreus Confederacy is a cosmopolitan confederation of star systems, aiming to give the individual star systems more autonomy than under either the tyrannical Jovian Union or the mandates of a centralized Republic. Jandreus, it ought to be noted, is the second oldest faction, their inception coincides with the Jovian Union and they managed to keep out of it when the Jovian Union was growing. Their political model makes them weak, though, so Jandreus has no imperial ambitions of their own—only quiet, domestic tranquility.

Hrakkn is the fruit of a colony ship that was lost in space. Their hyperspace drive malfunctioned or broke, and they were way off course and not at all near the star they were supposed to arrive at. To survive, they found their own planet and founded their society there. Over time and separation, they have developed their own culture and language that is nearly unrecognizable from those rooted in Earth, and they also managed to develop technology that far exceeds those achieved by the rest of Inner-Space. Hrakkn is aware of Inner-Space, but Inner-Space is not aware of them. Hrakkn bides it’s time, waiting for the right moment, and the right reason, to reveal themselves. Hrakkn you will recognize as the faction for which I am attempting to make a Constructed Language, which was the original purpose of this Substack.

What Else?

What else do you want to know? This is by no means the only world that lives in my head, but it is the one I am writing about right now so I hope to add more later. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions—I have more details for this world than any other, so I would love to tell you more about it!

Thank you for reading, and God bless you!

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Ad Jesum Per Mariam