Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Apocalyptic Time

The title sounds cooler than what this post is about. This post is about how people in your setting might think. Really quick food-for-thought-type-shit.

Back in real-life medieval times, time had a different meaning for most, if not all, of the population. Nowadays, in our books and in our minds time works like this:
Simple shit, right? Time moves forward, we progress as a society, we save up money/knowledge/other shit, give it to our youth and so on. Things get better, technology and our understanding of the world advances. It's what makes modern times "modern." 

But what if you're a dirt poor serf who has been making food on his lord's land for the past eight generations? You don't have anything to look forward to. Your average medieval family will never move on past their little square of dirt that they don't actually own. You're just waiting around until whatever god decides it's time for the apocalypse. You try to be a faithful, decent, person have a family, and then die. Money cannot be saved up for very long. Modern science, modern philosophy, modern medicine, the fucking concept of modernity doesn't exist. You don't keep history books because it's been basically the same for the last hundred years, and there is no reason for anything to change for the next one hundred. 
Your time looks like this. 

I was a history major, not an art major, okay?

In our world's medieval Europe, it was the peasants waiting for the second coming.

The majority of the populace in my setting, Oris, mostly think this way. Most cannot even conceive of anything else.  You are waiting until death, or the church tells everyone it's time for everyone to finally "go home".

 There are wizards, of course, there are always wizards. And kings, rulers, and wealthy people who have grander designs for their heirs. The Game is still played, of course. But do these people really think in straight lines, moving forward?
On Oris it's not a game of who will win the right to the future, it's who will be remembered at the end.
And the end is fucking coming.
The gods are disappearing from the sky, and religions without pantheons are springing up. Nobody knows where these people get their powers from, and one church has taken over a third of the continent within 300 years. It's scaring the shit out of everyone else.

The Magus-King of the Magi Lamentorious wants to be there to see it.
So does The Last Empress, but she toils in spite of it all, against the Militant-Corporations who hope enough gold will shield them when the final day is here.
This is The Game, the war for the right to exists until the end (and maybe claim what is left after.) Sometimes its about achieving immortality, sure, but other times its the about preserving an idea, a family name, or a purpose.
The Game deserves its own post, so I'll stop there. I guess the point I wanted to make is: how we think about the future and where society is headed is a relativity new concept in the history of man. So take that and run with it.


2 comments:

  1. I agree with you Gen-roll Apathy "The title sounds cooler than what this post is about." I would say that this post has a cool title but a hot, spicy, meaty word salad with hot sauce and mayo. I think that this post would make it so if it were three months later I would not have to pay my heating bill for the winter time. I would like to thank you in advance for this service.

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  2. I think that your views on life are rather narrow, interesting, but narrow. Not just anyone could drop a sentence like " There are wizards, of course, there are always wizards.". I feel that is so controversial, yet at the same time so bold. Bravo Gen-Roll Apathy, Bravo!

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