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It has recently come to my attention that there are aspects of this universe that are fairly vague to people. And not in the way I imagined, which is in regards to the stuff I haven't written yet.
Since it is not my intention to confuse you (all the time), have a FAQ. This will be updated periodically, as I get tired of trying to explain things over and over and over...
How the hell do you pronounce "XAOS"?
"Zae-os". Basically, "chaos" only with a "z" instead of a "ch".
What does it mean? Is it an acronym?
It's not an acronym. I don't remember why it's capitalized. Probably due to how I was filing it when I first started writing. If this seems odd to you, please note that I started writing this universe on a 1992 Dell machine, with a Pentium processor (I was lucky if I was getting 233 MHz out of that thing) that was running Windows 95, and storing everything on a 3.5" floppy. I was also accessing things in DOS. All my filenames were sans spaces at that point. These days, I keep it as a force of habit. If I wanted, I could call it "Xaos".
As for what it means, well, it's a nod to the Xaoskuim that play a huge role in the universe. "Xaoskuim" roughly means "child of the chaos" in Old Calryan, "Xaos-" being "chaos". Why did I title the entire universe and series this? It sounded cool and I couldn't think of anything else. I was thirteen at the time. Now, it's just ingrained. It's XAOS, and will always be XAOS.
Wait, how old is this story?
I started writing this when I was thirteen. I'm over twenty-one now. Do the math.
What's the history behind this? There's not a lot for it being that old.
That's because it had a very limited release and I've decided not to subject the world to the continuity errors I introduced because I was thirteen and stupid. I also suffered from the "oh wow, this is a great idea and cool! I'm going to add it!" syndrome. I have since learned the art of san-checking.
The original piece was a creative writing assignment entitled "The Chaos Factor". It introduced Ashura, Xavier, Jack, and Selena (all sans last names), and quite frankly, rose more questions than it gave answers. "The Chaos Factor" became the prologue to a 6-part (chapter, really) book entitled Travelers Saga. Travelers Saga got a rewrite roughly 3 years later that retconned a Xenogears crossover out of it. It also garnered a sequel called Trials, but only one chapter was ever completed. Mostly because the second part soon became impossible to write as I struggled with making the earlier stuff mesh with what Iwanted needed to write.
Now, the entire thing is being rewritten from the ground up. I'm trying to get a decently solid framework for a universe down before I write it all again. Any ideas that come to me in the process of writing as being "cool" now get san-checked against what already exists in the universe and whether or not we end up creating paradox.
So how long is it?
Ideally, I have six books planned, with a bunch of sidestories and character pieces. Most of the stuff posted falls under the latter group.
The six books are tentatively named:
Travelers is in the process of being written. It covers a lot of the same plot as the original Travelers Saga did, but the overall feel is much darker. The characters are all older and the issue of the psychological trauma that the plot events had to have inflicted is actually present.
Who the hell are these people?
I'm assuming you mean the characters. Once I write a quick dramatis personae for the major players in the universe (or at least the protagonists), I'll post a link here.
EDIT (08.22.07): Protagonist Edition
OMG, why are they all so fucked-up?
Because the vast majority of the main characters have all undergone varying degrees of psychological trauma. And, I'm sorry, but that kind of thing has an effect on people. They're mostly functional human beings, if you allow for some interesting definitions of the word "functional".
In terms of how fucked-up people are relative to each other, Anjirousu, Sagenthir, and Ashura are all at one end of the spectrum, with Hiroshi and Selena on the other end as the more well-adjusted bunch. Everyone else tends to fall somewhere between the two ends. But they all have their demons. It's what makes them human.
I am also, as a rule, very mean to my characters. I have something called "The Grinder". I basically think "what's the worst thing that could happen to [character] right now", and then do that to them and see what comes out. Sometimes, I just have a really harrowing situation I need them to get through, and how well they get through it determines what scars, physical and mental, they get from the experience. And, by this point in time, their reactions and coping mechanisms are closer to real than some idealized, romantic thing, so they tend to come out as fairly fucked-up human beings with enough issues for a subscription.
Since it is not my intention to confuse you (all the time), have a FAQ. This will be updated periodically, as I get tired of trying to explain things over and over and over...
How the hell do you pronounce "XAOS"?
"Zae-os". Basically, "chaos" only with a "z" instead of a "ch".
What does it mean? Is it an acronym?
It's not an acronym. I don't remember why it's capitalized. Probably due to how I was filing it when I first started writing. If this seems odd to you, please note that I started writing this universe on a 1992 Dell machine, with a Pentium processor (I was lucky if I was getting 233 MHz out of that thing) that was running Windows 95, and storing everything on a 3.5" floppy. I was also accessing things in DOS. All my filenames were sans spaces at that point. These days, I keep it as a force of habit. If I wanted, I could call it "Xaos".
As for what it means, well, it's a nod to the Xaoskuim that play a huge role in the universe. "Xaoskuim" roughly means "child of the chaos" in Old Calryan, "Xaos-" being "chaos". Why did I title the entire universe and series this? It sounded cool and I couldn't think of anything else. I was thirteen at the time. Now, it's just ingrained. It's XAOS, and will always be XAOS.
Wait, how old is this story?
I started writing this when I was thirteen. I'm over twenty-one now. Do the math.
What's the history behind this? There's not a lot for it being that old.
That's because it had a very limited release and I've decided not to subject the world to the continuity errors I introduced because I was thirteen and stupid. I also suffered from the "oh wow, this is a great idea and cool! I'm going to add it!" syndrome. I have since learned the art of san-checking.
The original piece was a creative writing assignment entitled "The Chaos Factor". It introduced Ashura, Xavier, Jack, and Selena (all sans last names), and quite frankly, rose more questions than it gave answers. "The Chaos Factor" became the prologue to a 6-part (chapter, really) book entitled Travelers Saga. Travelers Saga got a rewrite roughly 3 years later that retconned a Xenogears crossover out of it. It also garnered a sequel called Trials, but only one chapter was ever completed. Mostly because the second part soon became impossible to write as I struggled with making the earlier stuff mesh with what I
Now, the entire thing is being rewritten from the ground up. I'm trying to get a decently solid framework for a universe down before I write it all again. Any ideas that come to me in the process of writing as being "cool" now get san-checked against what already exists in the universe and whether or not we end up creating paradox.
So how long is it?
Ideally, I have six books planned, with a bunch of sidestories and character pieces. Most of the stuff posted falls under the latter group.
The six books are tentatively named:
- Book 1: Travelers
- Book 2: Trials
- Book 3: Intermissions
- Book 4: Seekers
- Book 5: Pivots
- Book 6: Vagabond
Travelers is in the process of being written. It covers a lot of the same plot as the original Travelers Saga did, but the overall feel is much darker. The characters are all older and the issue of the psychological trauma that the plot events had to have inflicted is actually present.
Who the hell are these people?
I'm assuming you mean the characters. Once I write a quick dramatis personae for the major players in the universe (or at least the protagonists), I'll post a link here.
EDIT (08.22.07): Protagonist Edition
OMG, why are they all so fucked-up?
Because the vast majority of the main characters have all undergone varying degrees of psychological trauma. And, I'm sorry, but that kind of thing has an effect on people. They're mostly functional human beings, if you allow for some interesting definitions of the word "functional".
In terms of how fucked-up people are relative to each other, Anjirousu, Sagenthir, and Ashura are all at one end of the spectrum, with Hiroshi and Selena on the other end as the more well-adjusted bunch. Everyone else tends to fall somewhere between the two ends. But they all have their demons. It's what makes them human.
I am also, as a rule, very mean to my characters. I have something called "The Grinder". I basically think "what's the worst thing that could happen to [character] right now", and then do that to them and see what comes out. Sometimes, I just have a really harrowing situation I need them to get through, and how well they get through it determines what scars, physical and mental, they get from the experience. And, by this point in time, their reactions and coping mechanisms are closer to real than some idealized, romantic thing, so they tend to come out as fairly fucked-up human beings with enough issues for a subscription.
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