This piece was originally written in Dutch but has been translated into English upon request.
For a while now, I've been walking around with a (somewhat bizarre) idea for a story. For five days, I wrote every spare moment I had. It's about a world that looks like ours, where things happen that are similar to ours, like the sudden shift of the five tech giants - but with a twist.
It's a long story, so cosy up in a comfy chair with a cup of tea or a glass of wine. The reason it's such a long story is because I've never been so engrossed in a story before and worked on it with so much pleasure - not least because of my writing partner. If you want to know who that is, you'll have to read the story. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
EARLY
TIME
Samkat was
once a thriving planet teeming with life: vast fields, forests, and lakes
dotted with all sorts of beautiful animals. Scattered across Samkat were small
villages where the Samkatans lived, each with its own customs and structure.
The wild areas around the villages provided the inhabitants with everything
they needed to survive. The hunters never killed more animals than they needed
to feed and clothe the inhabitants, and they sowed as many flowers, trees,
vegetables, and fruits as they harvested and picked.
Because
people reproduced with great joy, more villages emerged, and the areas between
the villages gradually grew smaller, but that didn't matter: there was enough
space and food for everyone. Everything was in balance until the inhabitants of
Lathura and the nearby Eirenia quarreled over a tree that lay in the
overlapping area. The inhabitants of Lathura wanted to keep the tree for its
beauty and shade, while the inhabitants of Eirenia wanted to cut it down to
make furniture and firewood. The quarrel escalated, with the inhabitants
accusing each other more and more, eventually leading to fights and even
several deaths—something that had never happened before.
After days
of fighting and even more deaths, Alyndra, one of the elders of Lathura, had an
idea. She negotiated a truce of three luna with the promise to come up with a
solution afterward and ventured into the wilderness with a small bundle. She
had the main outlines of her idea in her head but needed time to further
develop it.
After three
luna, Alyndra returned. She asked the inhabitants of Lathura and Eirenia to
prepare various delicacies, dress in comfortable clothes, and gather around a
fire pit she had specially arranged for the occasion by the contested large
tree between their villages. The turnout was lower than it should have been due
to the fights—many lives had been lost. Both villages had lost powerful hunters
and planters, causing their food supplies to dwindle faster than they were
replenished. The brought delicacies were thus a great, communal sacrifice,
although the inhabitants of both villages passed each other with hateful
glances and hard shoulders.
When
everyone was finally seated and looking at Alyndra with anticipation, she stood
up and calmly let her gaze pass over all the serious faces in the circle. Then
she began to tell about her arduous journey and the important message she had
to convey.
Alyndra
told that after a few days in the wilderness, her food began to run out, and
she became so hungry that she ate strange-tasting berries. She described how it
started to rain harder and harder, how she found a cave to take shelter and
make a fire, and how she began to hallucinate from hunger, fatigue, cold, and
perhaps the berries. She spoke of the vision she received of a beautiful woman
with long, gray hair who introduced herself as Samura. Samura told Alyndra that
she was the primordial creator: with her boundless powers, she had created a
world full of lush landscapes, vibrant seas, and a vast starry sky. Then Samura
created humanity from the dust of the stars. She gave them intelligence,
emotion, and the power to create and destroy, but with that came great
responsibility. She asked Alyndra to tell the people about this and gave her
instructions on making agreements to live together harmoniously.
Alyndra
paused and looked around. Everyone sat still and listened attentively,
completely engrossed in her tale. None of it was true, but she wanted her story
to leave a deep and unforgettable impression on her fellow villagers and the
inhabitants of Eirenia. She asked for something to drink to moisten her throat
– this gave her a moment to think about the next part. What were her main goals
again? Oh yes: something that would bring people together and connect them
long-term, something that would prevent further problems, and some practical
measures.
Alyndra
took a sip, cleared her throat, and continued speaking.
Samura had
said that she was the only goddess, that only she should be worshipped, and
that people should not speak ill of her.
This would give the people something they all shared.
Samura had said that one day each week should be dedicated to her and that
people should do nothing else on that day.
This would give people one day per week for rest and reflection, so they
would act less rashly.
Samura had said to be kind to one's parents.
This would ensure that the younger generation would care for the elders when
they could no longer care for themselves.
Samura had said that people should be kind to each other, not hit or kill
others, not steal, not lie, and not take someone else's spouse. And not be
jealous of what another has.
This would prevent new quarrels, as the population had been greatly
diminished by the conflict over the tree.
Alyndra
looked around again. Everyone was nodding in agreement. This was going well.
She might as well add a little more, as she was concerned about the rapidly
decreasing population. She told that Samura had said people should have a lot
of sex and many children, and that everyone should be extra kind to the men and
ensure that nothing could happen to them (on Samkat, it is the men who can bear
children).
She
concluded with a solution to the tree problem: the tree would remain standing,
but the largest branches could be pruned so the inhabitants of Eirenia could
make some furniture from them. Only the branches that fell to the ground on
their own could be used for firewood. Everyone agreed with the compromise, and
after a few naru (what we would call minutes) of silence to commemorate the
dead, a toast was made to the newly found peace. The people enthusiastically
talked about Samura and how they could worship her. They tried to picture her
based on Alyndra's description. They kissed their parents, made plans for
exciting evenings with their partners, and agreed that Gathun would be their
day off.
-
The years (called zyrons on Samkat) slipped by. More and more villages emerged, and trade began between villages by the sea, which had plenty of fish, and villages deeper inland with more vegetables. Of Lathura's village elders from the time of what was now called the legendary Fire Pit Peace Meeting, only Alyndra remained. She was now very, very old and was surrounded by a new generation of village elders. People had long forgotten that she was the one who had told them The Story, and they had taken quite a bit of liberty with it. The more The Story was retold, the more things were added to it. For example, people had to dress a certain way or make offerings in honor of Samura. The moments of self-reflection and contemplation were now filled with texts that everyone had to memorize, leaving no room in their minds for independent thought. They had gone overboard with Samura's (or rather Alyndra's) instruction that men should be protected: men were now required to stay home and be obedient, and women could have sex with them whenever they wanted because, well, Samura had said that children needed to be made. A paradise after death was invented in The Story as a reward for good behavior—whether people actually ended up there was impossible to verify. Enormous, wondrously shaped prayer houses were built where people spent large parts of their Gathuns reciting their texts. If people did not follow The Rules, those who claimed to follow them would hurt them by excluding them, beating them, or even killing them—which was strange because one of The Rules was that people should not hurt each other. Apparently, The Rules were not only continually expanded but also applied selectively. This was not how Alyndra had intended it, but she could hardly blame them: after all, she had made up the original story herself, and there was great prosperity throughout Samkat. She was fine with it all; she had four men who were half her age, who kept the house sparkling clean and took good care of her, and she was too old and tired to set things right.
MIDDLE TIME
The
population of Samkat grew so rapidly that there were ever more mouths to feed,
ever more houses to build, and villages grew into cities. More stone had to be
quarried, more hunting, fishing, sowing, and harvesting had to be done, and it
was heavy work, so people devised ways to make it easier and faster. To trade
with each other, people had to travel between villages and cities, so means of
transportation were invented. People wanted to write down what they had traded
with whom, so pen and paper were invented. This also led to the creation of The
Book, which contained The Story and The Rules—at least, a version where the
original story and Alyndra's instructions were scarcely recognizable. Everyone
on Samkat had to have The Book in their home, so printing presses and trucks
were invented.
Some people
were very good at keeping track of everything that was traded, so their time
and knowledge became their trading commodities, and they also kept records for
others. The rooms where people kept trade records were given a name: vergetrae
(what we would call offices). Other people were good at making furniture and
tools, and their rooms were given a name: astaranii (what we would call
workshops). People who were very good at trading, discovered it was useful to
store goods in case of sudden high demand. Initially, they did this in their
homes, and when those became full, they built storage facilities. Animals were
captured and kept in large buildings. They were forced to mate, or were simply
injected with semen so that more animals would be born in captivity. This way,
people no longer had to risk their lives hunting in the wilderness, and since
slaughtering and skinning were no longer visible, people could detach
themselves from the pain it caused the animals.
Sometimes a
trade was unequal, and to avoid being indebted to someone, money was invented.
The gray of the houses and the purple of the money drove out the green of the
wilderness. Soon, people forgot what it was like to live with nature and what
the true meaning and purpose of things were. They no longer traded what they
had hunted, sown, and harvested to eat or keep warm, but bought items with
money to display. Not to store for future trade, but to show how much they
possessed.
Showing off
what you owned became the most important thing in the world. Good ideas born of
compassion turned into profit models before you could blink. Everything was
given a price tag, from water and land to entertainment and sex. Eventually,
people even traded money with money. People no longer needed to be kind to each
other because they no longer needed each other; there were so many people that
they became interchangeable. It was no longer village elders with great
knowledge, patience, and compassion who governed Samkat but Money and
Possessions. Where Samura and The Book had not yet been displaced by Money and
Possessions, they were increasingly given different versions and names, and
were misused by people to judge each other, to beat each other with, or even to
wage wars over. Meanwhile, the people kept reproducing, and reproducing, and
reproducing.
-
It was
during the Middle Time that the young Astraea Valtorin assembled the prototype
of the Connectar helmet in her workshop. She had noticed something peculiar:
more people together did not mean more connection; on the contrary. People felt
lonelier than ever. If you don't feel seen by someone from a village 100 kest
away, it doesn't matter much. If you don't feel seen by thirty people who are
less than 10 tara away from you, you increasingly become convinced that
something is wrong with you. Moreover, everything translated into Money and
Possessions. If you had that, you could use transportation, seek entertainment,
treat others to snacks and drinks, and gain recognition as a person. If you
didn't have it, you were seen as a failure and stood outside society. On
Samkat, where pebbles regularly rained down, helmets were plentiful: they were
distributed for free by the government. Astraea's plan was to offer the
government the use of her invention so that all helmets would have the
Connectar function. By putting on the helmet, you could talk with family, old,
and new friends for urus and never feel lonely again.
It was
during the Middle Time that Isolde Embron completed her studies in geology and
petroleum engineering and managed to obtain a permit and funding to start a
small oil company. She had seen how the big oil companies manipulated things,
so she wanted to set it up as a cooperative and extract and trade oil fairly so
that people with less Money and Possessions could use transportation. Those
with less Money and Possessions especially needed transportation because their
health was often worse, or they were forced to leave the big cities, away from
family and friends. They needed transportation to seek work in the city. She
knew from experience that you needed a boost to earn money: you needed money to
make money, so she offered her fuel at the fairest and therefore lowest price.
It was
during the Middle Time that Maeve Cythor set up her first media company,
feeling that people could no longer find their way among all the versions of
the truth. She wanted to bring honest news and backgrounds, and offer
distractions that would warm people's hearts and give them a hopeful outlook.
She enlisted wise women who had expertise, understood her vision, and could
translate it into beautiful programs, magazines, and newspapers that were
affordable for everyone.
It was
during the Middle Time that Dravena Solor began her career in the
pharmaceutical world. After completing her studies in medicine and
biotechnology, she devoted all her time and money to developing groundbreaking
treatments and medications. Dravena saw the urgent need for affordable
healthcare and realized that pharmaceutical companies could play a crucial role
in improving people's well-being. She founded her own pharmaceutical company,
focusing on developing medicines that were not only effective but also
affordable for everyone. Her goal was to bridge the healthcare gap and bring
healing within reach of the entire population of Samkat.
It was
during the Middle Time that Thyra Thallos made her entry into the financial
world. She had sharp analytical skills and an undeniable talent for investing
and risk management. Thyra saw how economic inequality threatened to tear
communities apart and decided to use her skills to create inclusive financial
solutions. She established an investment fund focused on social impact, aiming
for sustainable growth and economic empowerment for people with fewer
resources.
The beautiful initiatives of Astraea, Isolde, Maeve, Dravena, and Thyra were enthusiastically received. And, as it went in the Middle Time on Samkat, beautiful initiatives that gained even a bit of traction were swallowed by the Money and Possessions machine. The five, who had worked hard for years to realize their ideals, without realizing it made more and more concessions and became increasingly flexible with their principles—until, to their own surprise, they found themselves in expensive cars and luxury villas, with bills to pay every month. The modest companies they had started had grown into mega-corporations with thousands of employees who also needed to be paid. So, a lot of money had to be earned. To keep earning money, they had to participate, talk, and laugh along with others who had been swallowed up. The five were no longer part of the ordinary population, where everything had started, and they felt it. Even when they donated millions to new beautiful initiatives, they were distrusted. The ordinary population no longer believed they meant well and even became convinced that all five of them suffered from the shunya syndrome, a disease that made you not care about people. After years of trying to change public opinion, the five women gave up their resistance to the falsehoods and became increasingly lonely and cynical.
It was a feeling of coming home, of recognition, when they first met at one of the many decadent parties they had to attend to maintain their network. A close—and later decisive—friendship developed between the five.
PRESENT TIME
It became
unsustainable on Samkat. The planet's population had quadrupled within one
thaloria (equivalent to a century for us) and was growing exponentially. Due to
all the inventions and the space people occupied, nature became exhausted. More
and more animal species went extinct, and it wouldn't be long before there
wasn't enough food to feed all the mouths. Where there were once vast fields,
forests, and lakes, there were now vast barren deserts, towering cities, and
toxic lakes. Pollution and overpopulation had destroyed Samkat's beauty. More
wars broke out because people lived too close together, or entire areas became
uninhabitable due to lack of resources or natural disasters that had ravaged
the area. This led to refugee flows that could no longer be contained, and
since people no longer had time to get used to each other and each other's
cultures and customs, more conflicts arose over that as well.
People with
a lot of Money and Possessions didn't suffer much. Most had so much money that
they earned money on their money without having to do anything. The only ones
still concerned were the five women. Due to the services and products they
offered and sometimes unintentionally made larger and more popular, they had
seen the ugliest side of humanity.
Maeve
recognized the same pattern, although it manifested slightly differently within
her media companies. Programs and articles that offered knowledge, background,
and perspective were barely watched or read. People apparently no longer felt
the need to delve into something before forming an opinion—something she
secretly blamed Astraea for a bit, as she had invented Connectar, which taught
everyone to have an opinion on everything and to broadcast it loudly. Now
people couldn't think otherwise than in judgments. The wise women Maeve had
gathered around her in the early years had all been replaced by trendy young
women who knew exactly how to hold attention best: programs and articles full
of gossip and conflict, and where people made complete fools of themselves.
Those scored sky-high. Apparently, people no longer wanted a hopeful outlook
and a warm heart, but envy, anger, and schadenfreude.
Dravena's
hope to achieve affordable and accessible healthcare for everyone had also
faded. It proved impossible to sell her medicines fairly. Distribution was
controlled by political decisions and insurance companies, which drove up
prices and often made decisions without real knowledge that cost lives. She
increasingly had to make concessions and eventually lost sight of the
boundaries. Or maybe she had given up; she didn't know anymore. It also felt
rather pointless: people were willing to pay thousands of domis out of pocket
to lose weight, but a few zarnos per solar to contribute to healthcare for the
very poorest was too much.
Isolde
hadn't fared much better. With her exceptional strategic insight and the
ever-increasing demand for fuel, she had achieved a monopoly position with her
oil companies, but since Samkat didn't have endless oil reserves and people
kept reproducing endlessly, oil became increasingly scarce and the price
increasingly higher—not only in money but also for nature, as Isolde now had to
drill in places she would have preferred not to. Since not all areas of Samkat
had oil, regions became dependent on each other, influencing or clouding
political decisions, or even causing wars. She had tried to bring alternative
fuels to the market, but because people stubbornly clung to their ingrained
patterns, the costs outweighed the benefits.
Thyra was
perhaps the most disillusioned. To reach her place at the top, she had to enter
the maw of the Money and Possessions monster, where she encountered horrific
things. People were truly capable of anything to acquire Money and Possessions:
their willingness to humiliate themselves on images in Astraea's helmet and
make fools of themselves in Maeve's magazines and programs was mild compared to
the manipulation, corruption, and lying she encountered. The more Money and
Possessions people had, the less they seemed to care about the fate of the less
fortunate. Often, it was those who had faced setbacks and had little Money and
Possessions who showed the most compassion for others and offered the most
help.
The five made a pact. They had failed to improve the world with their beautiful initiatives. Now they joined forces to save Samkat. It would likely make them hated and eventually cost them their lives, but that didn't matter: they were already vilified and would never be able to lead a real life anyway.
PREPARATION TIME
They all
contributed.
Astraea
adjusted the algorithms on Connectar so that the helmet users received content
that fueled their hate and set them against each other even more. It had to be
gradual so that the people who were not yet fully immersed in the Money and
Possessions cycle could slowly get used to the changing rhetoric and not start
protesting en masse. She started small: by removing filters that had previously
blocked certain hurtful words, making those words visible again and letting the
content featuring those words appear more frequently through the algorithm, it
seemed as if those words were being used everywhere. By doing this long enough,
people who had been thinking those words but not saying them felt it was okay
to use them, and it became increasingly normal, making those who disliked it
feel it was pointless to speak out. Another clever move was to politicize
ordinary everyday actions or personal choices. And so she continued, step by
step. Maeve used all her media channels to stoke the fires even further.
Additionally, they helped Dravena spread false information about important medications, creating division in the helmets and the media. Dravena had another brilliant idea: by claiming that certain medications were unsuitable for people in specific areas, she also caused division in that area. She bought patents for medications that people needed daily and drove up the price so high that only the very wealthy could afford them, creating further discontent.
Thyra began
manipulating financial markets, causing economic instability, especially in
areas that had always prospered due to their favorable climate. She spread
disinformation that disrupted money trading, and when everyone started
encountering problems, she introduced a new bank where you could borrow large
amounts under insane conditions. Millions of people plunged into misery and
lost their homes.
Isolde only had to close several oil fields and drilling platforms for nonsensical reasons. The oil shortages caused problems everywhere. The following year, she closed even more.
END TIME
Nearly ten
zyrons had passed, but despite all the efforts of Astraea, Thyra, Maeve,
Isolde, and Dravena, the end goal had not yet been reached. It was taking too
long for them. They decided to speed things up. They delved deep into the maw
of the Money and Possessions monster to find someone with the worst case of the
shunya syndrome. They found Sigrith Sombart.
Sigrith was
known for being extremely unpredictable. With her sharp tongue and
unconventional approach, she always managed to draw attention to herself. She
had made her fortune in the construction industry, where she made a name for
herself with large-scale and often controversial building projects. That, and
her extravagant lifestyle, kept her in the headlines. She had built a
reputation as someone who never shied away from conflicts and always got her
way, regardless of the consequences. Her influence and power in the
construction sector were unmatched, but she was also plagued by accusations of
manipulation, self-enrichment, and using her power to fight personal vendettas.
Sigrith was
notorious for her polarizing statements on Connectar and in the media, creating
both fervent supporters and fierce opponents. Exactly what the five women
needed. The next moves in the endgame were simple.
They
hoisted Sigrith into the political saddle, ensuring no connections could be
traced back to them. With all the unrest on Samkat, it was rife with conspiracy
theories, and they wanted to avoid that: if the general population realized and
saw a common enemy, they might unite again.
The first time Sigrith was elected—of course, the elections were rigged, but the five didn't flinch at influencing the election results—it still caused a shockwave among part of the population, sparking a counter-movement. That part of the population briefly remembered what compassion was, but before it could get out of hand, the five had already intervened.
They had
agreed to let Sigrith have a trial term. Despite everything, people were not
used to a politician making such controversial statements as Sigrith, so if she
went full throttle now, it wouldn't work. The trial period would also be enough
to normalize things that were previously not said or done because they hurt
people, and to attract more supporters for Sigrith.
After
Sigrith's first term, they pushed forward the rather old and unremarkable Tarin
Vedis. Tarin couldn't possibly measure up to Sigrith, and even though she
wasn't at the political helm, Sigrith kept spewing pain and recruiting
followers, so the five were not worried about a sudden reversal. The course had
been set zyrons ago; the tide couldn't be turned. When Tarin's term ended, the
five hardly had to do anything for Sigrith's reelection, who immediately after
taking office declared war on various regions. Within one zyron, all of Samkat
was ablaze.
-
It was a
warm Dysor evening, and Astraea, Isolde, Maeve, Dravena, and Thyra were
lounging in the hangout pit of Dravena's villa on the coast just outside
Rytaga. It was a miracle that the villa was still standing: Rytaga had once
been one of Samkat's largest and most prosperous cities, but now only ruins
remained. The five had enjoyed a delicious meal with rare ingredients they had
saved for this special occasion, such as glowsi radh—glowing roots with a soft,
sweet taste, which grew only in the few shaded forests Samkat had before the
great war, and flurok, a mix of grains that grew only on the other side of the
planet. The best part was the quaril steaks. Once considered a delicacy, the
gentle quaril animals with their beautiful deep blue fur (or emerald green,
depending on the solara you encountered them) were now almost extinct, like so
many other species.
They were
pleasantly drowsy from the zythar they had been drinking. Four empty bottles
stood on the table. Isolde was filling the glasses with the fifth and final
bottle of zythar. It would most likely be their last evening. They had played
it smart: since all of Samkat was at war, it could have been any leader, but
Sigrith proved to be far more vindictive than they had dared to hope. Of all
the leaders, she was the one who would press the red button tonight, wiping out
all inhabited areas on Samkat.
Isolde, Astraea, Maeve, Dravena, and Thyra raised their glasses to the only beautiful alternative that truly succeeded in its intention: saving Samkat.
OBLIVION
The few
survivors looked out over the ruins of their world. They were initially shocked
and deeply saddened by the loss of their loved ones, but to their own surprise,
it also felt like a liberation—from the technology they had become so dependent
on, from the social structures that had felt like chains, from the constant
guilt that every bite of food and every new piece of clothing was damaging
their world.
They built
a few huts that formed a village. With no more pollution, Samkat quickly
recovered, and the wild area around the village provided the inhabitants with
everything they needed to survive. The hunters never killed more animals than
they needed to feed and clothe the inhabitants, and they sowed as many flowers,
trees, vegetables, and fruits as they harvested and picked.
Because
people reproduced with great joy, more villages emerged, and the areas between
the villages gradually grew smaller, but that didn't matter: there was enough
space and food for everyone.
As the
zyrons passed, people forgot what had happened and how it had started. Thyriel,
the village elder of Rathvel and the only one left from the group of survivors,
remembered everything and was concerned. She also remembered the history
lessons, where she had been particularly interested in ancient times and the
stories about the Fire Pit Peace Meeting. She packed a small bundle, told her
fellow villagers she would be gone for three luna, and ventured into the
wilderness.
After three
luna, Thyriel returned. Just as Alyndra had done long ago, she asked the
inhabitants of all nearby villages to prepare various delicacies and gather
around a fire pit she had specially arranged for the occasion.
When
everyone was finally seated and looking at Thyriel expectantly, she told them
she had done a lot of thinking during her walk and wanted to impart an
important lesson. The people became very quiet because they knew she was the
only one who carried all the knowledge of Old Samkat.
She began
to speak.
Long
ago, Samkat experienced a time of prosperity and harmony like we have now. When
the population grew too quickly, they forgot the old values. The population
worshipped five goddesses: Astraea, Isolde, Maeve, Dravena, and Thyra. The
goddesses bestowed blessings upon the population but also warned them of the
dangers of excess and greed.
When the
Samkatans ignored their warnings and indulged in the gifts of Samkat and the
goddesses, the goddesses decided to sow chaos and division among the people so
they would criticize and fight each other. The inhabitants plunged into civil
wars, which ultimately culminated in the Great War that nearly wiped out all of
humanity.
To
prevent this from happening again, I want to give you some guidelines.
Hurting
another, whether in word or deed, is hurting yourself. So be kind to each
other.
Work
together and support each other.
Think
carefully before having children, and don't have more children than we can
support with the resources we have.
Distribute
basic necessities like water and food fairly, so no inequality can arise.
I have
no more guidelines, because as long as we continue to ensure a balance between
humans and nature, there will be enough space and food, and thus peace and
prosperity.
Thyriel
looked around. Everyone was nodding in agreement. Satisfied, she raised her cup
to toast to a beautiful new world where people could do better.
-
In the
following zyrons, people worked to rebuild their world. The old Thyriel gently
slipped away in her sleep shortly after the Fire Pit Meeting, but no one forgot
that special gathering or the guidelines she had given them.
People felt the need to honor her for her wisdom and called her a goddess. Soon the gathering became The Story and her guidelines The Rules, and they were recorded in The Book. And because they couldn't help themselves, they had too many children, and when those children grew up, they too had too many children, and soon people began to get in each other's way, annoy each other, and judge each other, and The Book became a tool to beat each other with...
During the writing of this story, I – despite my great resistance to AI – used AI for the first time in the form of Copilot, and I found it (sorry) amazing.
Everything
was written by me, except for the two sentences in which Samura creates the
world (I'm not well-versed in the biblical story, and when I asked CP for a
Samkatian variant for Samura, it was exactly what I was looking for) and a few
sentences in the descriptions of the careers of Dravena, Thyra, and Sigrith,
because I didn't have the patience to figure out how careers in those specific
fields could develop – my focus was on telling the story.
I had been
mulling over the idea for a while, but I couldn't quite grasp the form and a
number of details, so I typed a rough description and asked if CP had any
ideas. CP immediately gave me suggestions for a structure with some key words
from my description, supplemented with technical writing tips on structure and
questions that challenged me. That was enough to get started. After that, CP
helped me upon my request to come up with names for people, places, and
objects, and a metric system based on specific principles such as chaos and
collapse (Rytaga means 'ruins' in Proto-Slavic, a dead language). The only name
that actually exists is Sombart, a reference to Werner Sombart with his
creative destruction. Because I left the session with CP open as long as I
wrote (about five days), it remembered all the information, knew my principles,
and could easily think along with everything. CP occasionally encouraged me
with what seemed like real, substantial compliments. When CP got stuck
three-quarters through the story, it was as if I had lost my sparring partner
and I was almost angry at the CP in the new session, because that clumsy CP
knew nothing about the story that had become so alive by now.
I didn't
invent patience and maintaining focus, so without CP's help, it would have been
a much shorter and less well-developed story. I don't think I've ever written a
story for so long and so intensively, or been so absorbed in it: every free
moment, even with a plate of food next to me, I was writing. I must admit –
although it feels strange, especially given the theme of the story – that it
was a very successful collaboration.
Praise be to Astraea.
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