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The Anvil of the Sun: Mercury's Five Territories and the Art of Mutual Dependence
Blue Revere

The Anvil of the Sun: Mercury's Five Territories and the Art of Mutual Dependence

Fifty-four million people live on the closest planet to the sun, and every one of them has an opinion about the other fifty-three million, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine. Mercury is the most politically fractured inhabited world in the solar system. It

The Long Fall: How an Empire Dies
Aldermark

The Long Fall: How an Empire Dies

Aldermark is called The Last Elven Empire for a reason. It ends. This post is about how a civilization that ruled Central Europe for five centuries came apart, slowly, then all at once, and why I chose to build a world that was already over before the story begun. The

The Creed of Progress: Venus's Most Elegant Weapon
Blue Revere

The Creed of Progress: Venus's Most Elegant Weapon

Every Venusian child can recite the core tenet before they learn to read: humanity's purpose is to improve itself through science, art, and collective will. It sounds like inspiration. It functions like a cage. The Creed of Progress is not a religion. Its adherents are adamant on this

The Arsenal of the Solar System: How Mars Weaponized an Economy
Blue Revere

The Arsenal of the Solar System: How Mars Weaponized an Economy

There is a saying on Ganymede, popular among dockworkers who have dealt with Martian trade delegations: "When Mars sells you a handshake, check for a loading mechanism." It is meant as a joke, but the Martians find it accurate. Mars exports three things in significant volume: cybernetics, weapons

The Lady of Light: Mortal, Myth, or Something Else?
Empyrea

The Lady of Light: Mortal, Myth, or Something Else?

No figure in the Empyrea cosmology generates more argument than the one who supposedly runs it. Eo, the Lady of Light, the Supreme Being, the ruler of the Divine Hierarchy, is at once the most powerful entity in the setting and the one about whom almost nothing is certain. Whether

Welcome to Empyrea: The World Between Worlds
Empyrea

Welcome to Empyrea: The World Between Worlds

There is a realm that sits above the mortal world but below whatever true infinity might be: a place of breathtaking architecture, warring philosophies, and divine beings who are, despite their celestial nature, profoundly, frustratingly human in their politics and their grief. It is called Empyrea, and in this series