Task #168 (Nano #2): Talking about the world.
Okay I went back and forth on this but I decided that I am going to take my story off planet. So lets start with the backstory. One of the tricks here is to name as many things and people as possible as you go and make a list of all the names and who/what they relate to so you can refer to them as you work. It is beyond frustrating to get midway through your writing time and get stalled because you cant think of what to call the town your main character is journeying to. Or what someone’s mother-in-law is named. I like to type this into word and then go in with the highlighting tool and highlight every proper name I use and then double check the planning document, comparing it to my cheat sheet list before I get to work.
For my story…
The plant is named Scovan. It was once a part of a vast Galactic Empire, The Cragorian Empire. They arrived and killed/enslaved large swaths of the population before building their colony there. The colony was used for both mining and farming. By the time Earth based humans arrived the Cragorian Empire was fading out. The settlers ( a mix of empire colonists and surviving native peoples) had more or less been abandoned. When Earthers arrived a deal was struck for a settlement that was more in Earth’s networks of planets. Over time they merged into one Scovan society (but not always harmoniously). It has been several hundred years since their arrival at the time of our story (Since we deal with archaeology, I need some history of the planet).
There is no distinctly separate living Native Population (no reservations or enclaves) with marriages intermingling bloodlines. Those who do have native links often tell the old pre-Cragorian Empire myths as stories to entertain their children but nothing more, at least in the cities. In the regions closer to where the myths originated there are still some places people don’t go or if they do, they don;t linger.
Since the story features an archeological did I am going to bookmark several sites. I want the ancient city to be a temple site where these creatures were worshiped as gods and people living there sacrificed to get better weather, crops or general good fortune so I am looking at the Egyptian Amarna site as inspiration for the set up of the town and smaller shrines. The small shrines to these creatures kind of like the personal shrines to ancient Egyptian gods.
It is not a desert environment though so I may also look at some of the Mesoamerican archaeological town sites for reference as well.
Ten til Midnight 