Universe Building

Technically it's still yesterdays tomorrow. Which is always true, except for that magical millisecond in between each day when its yesterday, today, and tomorrow all at the same time. But specifically for the next twenty minutes or so its still the tomorrow of June 24th 2013, which means if I actually manage to post this in the next twenty minutes I will have kept my promise.

Ok, so Universe building is kinda time consuming, contrary to popular belief six days is probably not enough. Even if you have been percolating the story in the back of your mind for ages, getting it all out and on "paper" coherently and even semi-interestingly takes a lot of time. So in preparation for Thursdays update (in which I will finally have some story. I promise) I am posting some of the first pieces of the universe I'm assembling like cheap IKEA furniture.

Galactic Standard Time; Dates in the Galactic Standard Calendar are recorded as either Before the Dawn of Time (BDT) or After the Dawn of Time (ADT). The Dawn of Time officially being the moment the first Wise One contemplated the concept of time and decided to start recording it (they’re wise not modest). The Galactic Standard Day is broken into ten one hundred minute long sections with each galactic minute being slightly longer than one “earth minute” (.16 longer more or less) making a galactic day 19.33 earth hours long. Each galactic second is actually shorter than an earth second since there are one hundred of them in a galactic minute. There are one hundred days in a galactic year. None of this corresponds  to any particular planets night-day cycle or orbit, the Wise Ones just happened to like base ten and proceeded to apply it to pretty much everything. No one is sure why they picked ten either, they have no fingers and two tentacles and when asked, the most coherent response ever received was “It is a good number”. Most species keep two calendars, one set to Galactic Standard and one set to a calendar that actually makes sense for their planet (one Pirate Point to the first person to notice each time I incorrectly translate between Galactic Standard Time and Earth Time, More on Pirate Points later)

The Wise Ones; The (self titled) Wise Ones are basically oversized floating brains. They are encased in a fairly durable leathery shell and look something like a hovering leather beanbag chair with a fairly small mouth and two tentacles (one on either side of the mouth) at the front. They have only one orifice for waste disposal at their other end and it is often joked by the cruder species that if not for the tentacles no one would be able to tell which end is which. They are extremely capable whan manipulators, which is how they prefer to interact with the world at large, either telepathically or through voice projection for communication and telekinetically for locomotion and manipulating objects. They honestly see themselves as the font from which reason, order, and goodness flow into the universe. It is generally agreed upon by the other races that they are meddlesome self-important pricks, but they are far too powerful to cross and basically do as they please.

Whan; Whan (rhymes with swan {possibly just a placeholder name, I don’t totally love it but I’m not going to waste any more time at the moment trying to come up with something better. Maybe it’ll grow on me}) is the name of the energy field that all sentient beings are capable of generating/manipulating through force of will and through which the manipulation of reality is possible. To the uninitiated it would look like magic and in for all useful distinctions it IS magic, but it is based in reality and does follow generally logical and consistent rules. In galactic society the actual definition of sentience is the ability to whan to some degree or another, regardless of how clever or intelligent a race or being may be. No intelligent, self aware species discovered so far has failed to produce at least a few members capable of whaning, with many species displaying universal ability. No purely synthetic intelligence to date has demonstrated the ability to influence whan whatsoever. The excessive use of whan can have negative effects on the fabric of reality.

Whan lock; Whan Locking is the act of using whan to reinforce reality the point of which being to make the use of whan to change or manipulate reality more difficult if not impossible. This can be done subconsciously or deliberately and can be reinforced by others nearby. It only affects a limited area based on the number of wills involved and their willpower.

There we are, the first few tantalizing pieces and with two minutes to spare. Ha!