[UA] The End of the World, and so on.

[Andrew]

Friday, June 08, 2001, 3:10:46 PM, John wrote:

JC> John Crowley's _Ægypt_ has gotten me thinking about the end of the world -- 
JC> or at least the end of the UA world.  I know that the unofficial canon is 
JC> that the world physically ends and starts over again from the beginning, but 
JC> I prefer the idea of the world simply changing.  Going with Crowley's idea, 
JC> the last time this happened would have been the Renaissance; the birth of 
JC> the "Age of Reason".  The last archetype ascended, and everything changed.  
JC> History shifted into new patterns, the laws of nature changed, certain 
JC> people, places, and things disappeared (while others simultaneously 
JC> appeared) or became suddenly fictional, and so on...but except for a few 
JC> very special individuals, no one was aware of the change.  As far as the 
JC> human race was concerned, the world had *always* been this way.

So you're heading back towards the territory of Mage and Dream of a
Thousand Cats.  It's an interesting concept, and definetly one that
allows for cycles in history as well as a stop-start evolution where
you have defined 'ages' in the world, switching from one to the next.
Previous ages may have been much more different to each other (see
the Mayan cycles, where each world is ended with an apocalypse, or the
Norse myths where the end of the world leaves a new world behind.   Or
even Elric, where the gods of Law and Chaos gather for one last
fistfight to define the new world).  Definitely lots of potential.

Hmm, you could combine that with something like Hyperion (where the
_potential winners_ of the huge battle send emisarries back in time to
make sure that their future is the one that occurs).  The next age of
man could either be open (a la Viridian movement) or closed (gibson
style cyberpunk where it's all a bit dark), with the last few
archetypes still to be chosen, the characters have some hard choices
to make about what they're willing to do to get the future they want.

Andy D
____

My son has taken up meditation - at least it's better than sitting doing nothing. --Max Kauffmann


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