So, the Justicar Story
Because I’m reading so much about India, I think the concentric orbs of the hollow world will be loosely based on different areas of India. The centermost is the hottest and will be like beautiful, dry, desertlike Rajasthan. Then the orbs will cool down as one moves outward, to the outermost, which will be a bit like cold, mountainous Ladakh (dig the mood music on these sites!). This will be a fantasy India at its richest and most decadent, when the palace walls are studded with diamonds and rubies, as was the case for the Queen’s Palace in Golconda Fort, Hyderabad. The orbs are mostly warm, although cold air from the outer orbs can cause monsoon-like weather patterns (any weather experts out there are welcome to help me model, here!).
The ruling race, the avatarchs who live in the center of the world (except for those who are coryphei and rule each outer orb), will be reptilian, but perhaps like dinosaurs they will be warm-blooded and brightly colored, and even have vestigial feathers (because I just read on CNN that a velociraptor has been found with vestigial feathers — feathered velociraptors & T Rexes — how cool is that?!). The reptilian motif will be carried forward, as reptiles will be riding animals, “birds,” and so forth. The avatarchs come in a variety of breeds with different shapes and functions (I think I’ll call on my Sasiru Kian writeup for Samru for concepts here). These breeds approximately equal varnas and jatis from India. I still need a word for it, but I’ll be inventing lots of terms for this story, I think.
Humans were originally a slave race of the avatarchs who took the varna/jati of their masters. Now communities of more-or-less free humans exist, although they’ve “inherited” the varna/jati of their former masters, so that humans are artificially divided along the same lines as the avatarchs’ natural divisions. Moreover, artificial genetic tampering has occurred between the races so that humans have been bred to have some features of the avatarchs that also underlines the divisions.
Our hero, the Justicar, is mentally linked to one of the coryphei, who can take him over at will (turning him into an avatara, of course). Justicar (for lack of a name right now) is a former murderer — perhaps revenge killings for a “good” cause, to make him sympathetic — who was turned into a justicar instead of executed. He’s cranky and bad-tempered and hates having the coryphei in his head. He’s had a traumatic past that I’ll explore in the story; betrayal, lost loves, all that good stuff.
The Avatarch/Coryphei (no name here yet, either) acts as a sort of mentor/tormentor to Justicar. It has a dark sense of humor that it exercises at Justicar’s expense. It threatens to take over Justicar for laughs — or for Justicar’s own good. It’s not an evil character, though its morality isn’t entirely human. It’s rather fond of Justicar, though Justicar loathes it. That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t sacrifice Justicar if necessary.
The Would-Be Eromenos will be young, eager, active, and bouncy, the eternal optimist. He has his cap set for Justicar and won’t take “no” for an answer. He’s probably saved by Justicar early on and then keeps sticking around, even though Justicar tries to chase him off. Avatarch/Coryphei probably thinks he’s amusing.
I need the Victim … possibly an upper-”caste,” artificially tampered-with human. I need a Villain, whom I’d like to be twisted but understandably so. Because it’s me, political conflict between the coryphei will probably be a significant plot element as Justicar travels from orb to orb to do his duty and bring the Villain to justice. I may need a third character traveling in the group as a foil, the wry commentator: could be the Victim or the Avatarch/Coryphei (in Justicar’s head), but could also be someone else — I don’t have a female character yet (though the Coryphei may or may not be male), so maybe this would be her place in the story: a Warrior, perhaps, because although the Justicar is judge, jury, and executioner, he’s not necessarily capable of taking care of himself against wild animals and the like.
Yes, it’s a kind of techno-fantastic world. I don’t feel any great need to explain the whys behind the hollow world and the slave race, although I have a concept for a myth where the outer shell of the world was once pierced and let in a blinding light that withered everything it touched until it was fixed by the coryphei, and that light was the face of Ur. Interpret that as you like. It’s fantasy!
I’ll have to rely on books about India for NaNo, of course, if I use this idea; but when I get back, I’ll be able to flesh out some of the areas more realistically. Alas, not spending a lot of time in Rajasthan, and none in Leh. Some other visit….
drupagliassotti @ September 25, 2007