Trying to tell the Story

World Building. True that is done as the story evolves, but it is something the writer needs to know in order to write the story. It is also important if there is to be more than one story from that world. The Star Wars universe, the world of Harry Potter, or any world were multiple stories of multiple characters are possible, the world has to be known, and be the same in each story. You may not know all the details or all of the history, but in general you have enough to understand what has happened leading up to the story at hand. If you knew everything, I couldn’t throw in some twist from history to make you think and make the story more interesting. This is the same for the world of the Alliance, you will in general know the history of the story, but you won’t knows everything, the details are in the stories written and unwritten.

The history of this world starts not too far in your own future. First, we begin the colonization of Mars. Years pass and the colony becomes mostly self-sufficient. Mars and the moon share responsibilities of launching ships further into the outer solar system. Mining the asteroids and the moons of Jupiter become profitable enough build a state-of-the-art station in Jupiter’s orbit. We will revisit Jupiter later.

By this time, Mars is more than just a colony, it has become an escape from earth for those with either the money or the required skills to work there. Still money or skills don’t always mean a good quality of life. Rushed construction and inadequate safety criteria causes problems for the rapidly expanding colony.

Birth rates slow, and birth defects become commonplace. The colonists turn to cloning for survival. Over the years the process becomes almost flawless and completely sustainable. Over the years they collect DNA samples from millions of donors, willing or unwilling. You can ask Coldstone about the “almost” flawless part.

During this time, Corporations on earth have been bankrolling the expansion on Mars and the mining in the asteroid belt and the moons of Jupiter. While it has been mostly profitable, with spaceship engines getting better and the travel times being reduced, a point came where growth became unsustainable. Greed had overshadowed the idea of planning for a sustainable future. Companies began to fail; government revenues began to fall. Chaos and war ran over the earth.

Mars (again, more on Jupiter later) was cut off. While they had become mostly self-sufficient, they still relied on some resources that were supplied from earth. Mars society came close to collapse as the provisional government put in place by earth collapsed.

Slowly a voice began to be heard. An officer in the peacekeepers gathered those loyal to him began to take control of the government and all major facilities on Mars. This Rivia, as he was known, offered a solution. A halt to new cloning, and any who would voluntarily join his new military regime would be given work, food and suitable accommodations to rebuild their society. The process was slow and difficult. Many opposed military leadership, but his rule was fair and even those who did not join his forces in time found their place in society. By the time Earth had recovered from their problems and re-emerged to try to take back their colony, the Rivians, as they now called themselves, were prepared to fight for their independence.

Although everything may not have been quite that simple, the victors usually write the history books.