How would you like to have your own planet?
The galactic empire is vast, and only a tiny fraction of its history has as yet been described. Thousands of planets and millennia-long stretches of history on uncountable timelines remain to be explored. Cultures, species, technological wonders, and amazing personalities await discovery.
For authors who want to take charge of a planet or a period in the Empire's history, there are two simple rules to be followed. First of all, the laws of reality must mesh with imperial patternistic technology. Secondly, historical characters and events must fit into the framework of history sketched out on this website and align with the history in previously written novels and stories about the Empire. To achieve these goals, some study must be undertaken, less or more depending on how much the story dips into technology, and how famous or obscure the place and time in which it is set.
Imperial Technology
The Empire is distinguished by its "Deep-level" technology, technology bridging the gap between fantasy and science fiction. In this empire of the distant future, mindseas can call upon powers that seem magical, but there is a scientific explanation for all that they do.
The secret of mindsea power is in a new way of looking at reality, in which the laws of physics familiar to humans today arise as special cases within the more general operations of Patternistics. When all of the possibilities are explored, it becomes evident that what humans today regard as reality is illusion. Time and space can be taken apart and rearranged into countless alternative structures. The universe is created from patterns that take every possible variation through the working of invariant rules of recombination. The illusions of consciousness and free will arise from the superposition of patterns with the awareness that fills all combinations equally.
Stories of the Empire arise against the background of this contradiction. How will the characters meet its challenge? How do they define themselves, knowing they are bound by patterns, their lives fleeting currents in an oceanic mind? Is love possible in this new reality?
The science of Patternistics divides reality into successive levels. Home Level is the realm where humanity evolved, where the illusions of space and time prevail. Patterns of deeper levels allow awareness to see beyond ancestral limitations. By shifting their identities onto a deeper level, mindseas gain the power to break classic laws of physics, though they remain caught in the illusions of their new level.
Successively deeper levels exist, each containing more raw creative and destructive power than the shallower level it enfolds, culminating in the Center, where nothing exists because all is one undifferentiated all-encompassing awareness. In the Center, there are no patterns, only formless potentiality.
Imperial History
The history of the Empire follows the efforts of men and women who tried to grasp the Deep and change the lives of their people with its power. As it is commonly believed that only one mindsea can shape the future, wars between mindseas, each striving for a unique vision, have frequently erupted.
Only a small part of this history has made it into novels thus far. There are many planets yet to be explored, lives yet to be recorded, time periods yet to be unraveled, as well as alternative histories that branch off with every quantum refresh, as the Deep regenerates shallower levels. An author who wishes their own timeline may request one to generated by specifying the time of the split and the change in persons, society, or technology that accompanies it.
Story settings may be found among the 3010 original planets, and there are millions of possible characters to be found on the lists of prominent imperial citizens.
Stories about historical events, landmarks, and characters described in already told tales must meld with what has been written before—or have a good patternistic reason why they don't—but other times, other places, and other persons are open for interpretation.
Historical Periods Described in Novels
Using Character Lists
Names and occupations of millions of imperial citizens who could play their part in stories are contained in The Galactic List of the Thousand Most Famous Imperial Citizens Through History and Planetary Lists of the Thousand Most Famous Imperial Citizens Through History.
A record of each character's successful mating flights and offspring can be found by researching the character's date of enrollment. If a character has children with unlisted partners, those children will not be listed (except in rare cases, as with some of Thermeon's children). After the date at which they are no longer riding, a citizen will have no more listed children. The lists maintain the fiction that all citizens have horses and that mating flights have been the source of children throughout imperial history, but these rules have been broken often.
Imperial law forbids the copying of citizens older than ten thousand years or the use of gene specs from dead celebrities to create new offspring, but, although adhered to on Lal, these laws have been flouted on many planets.
The Empire's historical records have been destroyed multiple times by various galactic crises, so the lists are meant to be recreations. This leaves an author with plenty of leeway to change details as they see fit.
Researching a Character
After a character from a list has been chosen for a story, other pages on the website should be checked for mention of that character. Was he or she an emperor, a famous mindsea or non-mindsea? Did they play a role in imperial history or galactic conflicts? Did they appear in already published stories? An author should also be aware of what historic events were occuring during the character's lifetime, who were the celebrities of the day, and who was emperor. When choosing a character from a planet other than the imperial capital, their homeworld—if it is one of the original 3010—can be researched on the planets page. A number of the more important planets also appear on the Famous Places page.
What Can and Can't be Changed
Characters cannot be added or deleted from lists. A character's physical description (genetic inheritance) cannot be changed, though they may alter their appearance in a wonderdome. Test results cannot be changed, but the results are not meant to be accurate, and can be ignored in stories.
A character may change their sex, but the sex recorded on the list cannot be changed.
A character's name can be changed. Their horse can be changed. Their parents can be changed. In some circumstances, they can acquire additional listed children or be rid of listed children attributed to them.
A character still riding may in fact be dead, especially on less-prominent planets, and a character no longer riding may still be alive, though unable to produce listed offspring.
If a character has played a role in historic events, or has appeared in previous tales, the new story should be consistent with events previously described, unless an alternate timeline is involved.
Forbidden Changes
Any forbidden change to a character would cause a new timeline to split off.
Unlisted Citizens
Suppose you decide to write about imperial citizens who aren't on any of the celebrated lists? The Imperial name generator will provide a name to match your character's description, as if it had been assigned by Genetic Algorithms. Such names are created by throwing together letters that correspond to the citizen's alleles. Sometimes they spell words, and not always flattering words. In such cases, a citizen would pay for a name change. Characters who aren't imperial citizens do not need to follow these naming conventions.
Travel Stories
If your characters are planning to travel between imperial worlds, a quick way to research the mode of travel and length of journies at different times during the Empire's history is provided by the trip planning page.
Horse Racing Scenes
If your characters will be riding on a racetrack with Deep-levelintersections, you can check out sample racing scenes on the racing the mindseas page.