Worlds Without End (24 page)
Each told a similar tale.
I read them all, letting each slip to the floor until I stood there empty-handed. But there was still one more. I pulled it out. A letter from Dunkelzahn.
Aina,
In light of our last conversation, I thought these might be of interest to you. By the way, I’ve been keeping track of these things, and on the night you told me about, there was a spike at Crater Lake.
Dunkelzahn
I stayed there, staring off into space for a long time. Then suddenly I couldn’t bear to stay inside any longer.
The sun was going down as I left the house. There was a bit of a nip in the air. Winter had not yet completely let go. But I didn’t feel the cold.
I felt numb. As though encased in amber. Fossilized.
Oh, what a fool I’d been. Thinking to protect them all from the Enemy. To warn them. What ego. What hubris.
For I knew now that I had done the very thing I’d warned them against.
I had used the power wantonly. Wastefully. And in so doing I’d made it easier for the Enemy to come across.
I realized now that Ysrthgrathe had sacrificed himself. His defeat was too easy. He’d played me. Played my emotions, manipulated me all along until I couldn’t resist. It was his revenge. For he knew that nothing would bring me greater pain than to live with the knowledge that I’d had the means to stop them, and had let anger and fear and foolishness rule me instead.
My chest felt tight. There was nothing for me to do now but prepare. Prepare for that day which was as inevitable as death.
I stared up at the sky. The sun had set, yet a pale radiance still lingered. Then it began to rain. Black drops coming from a clear twilight sky.
I stayed there for a long time, letting the rain wash over me.
About a year and a half ago, I sent Sam Lewis, president of FASA, a sample of some of my writing. I sat on pins and needles for about three months, waiting for him to reply. Finally, I came home one day and there was a message on my answering machine from Sam: Liked what I read. Want to talk to you about a novel.
Sam was then, as he is now, a man of few words.
After I did a touchdown dance, I managed to pull myself together enough to call him back to discuss the matter in what (I hoped) was a cool and professional manner.
This event led to my writing not one, but three, novels for FASA.
The first two novels,
Scars
and
Little Treasures,
are set in the Earthdawn universe. The third novel, which you hold in your hands, was to be a Shadowrun crossover novel.
The three books are interconnected, but each can be read on its own. In each book, I tried to do something different with the characters. I won’t tell you what happened in the Earthdawn books.
You’ll just have to wait and read them for yourselves.
(Ooh, tough writer talk. Please buy them, huh?)
But
Worlds Without End
presented me with some unique challenges and opportunities.
I had to bring four of my characters forward almost six thousand years into the future. A very different future than they might have imagined. I had to think about what had happened among them during that time. And, most importantly, what did the immortal elves, or the Elders, do with themselves when the world was not replete with magic?
In writing
Worlds Without End,
I tried to imagine what it was that the Elders, the immortal elves of Shadowrun, did during the long years before the Awakening. Like any group of people, they would have different opinions on what their purpose was and how they should spend their talents. Of course there would be disagreements, love affairs, and political maneuvering among them.
And then there is the shared history of some of the immortals, from the time of Earthdawn. Earthdawn influences these immortals even when they themselves are not aware of it. The terrors of that time live in these Elders and have helped mold the spheres of their influence in Shadowrun.
Then it occurred to me that if
I
were immortal and
had beaucoups power and probably wealth, I would
get bored in a big hurry and probably end up messing about in all sorts of things that really weren’t my business. Thus I decided that these immortals spent much of their time meddling in human history—both for good and ill.
The problem with this sort of thing, of course, is that the only people who can really appreciate it are other immortals. Not to mention the fact that they are the only people on the planet who share the same history and experience. As I grow older, I find this to be more and more an important factor in my life. A shared history.
After I managed to nail down the nature of the relationships, I then had to look into the established Shadowrun universe to see how to knit all of this together.
Aina spends the first half of
Worlds Without End
in Tír na nÓg. Much of her time is spent with the more mystical side of the Tír. This is due to the influence of the Seelie Court, the mystical center of this Tír. Matters of esoteric magical importance are dealt with here.
Other mystical elements at work in Tír na nÓg include the Doineann Draoidheil, for instance. This is a series of magical storms that rage across the cairn lines. This and the Veil are potent magical forces in this Tír, and I knew that this would be at work in Aina’s reaction to the Tír.
Throughout the book, I tried to include real events, people, and folklore. For example, the eachuisge, a type of faerie creature, known for living in the bottom of lochs. It attacks unsuspecting victims, dragging them to the bottom of the loch where it then dines upon their flesh, spitting only the victims’ livers up onto the shore.
Lovely creatures, these faerie folk.
I’ve often thought that fairy tales are both horrible and wonderful. Go mess with faery and you just might wake up and find yourself face to face with your great-grandchild with everyone you know long dead.
One final note: About mondegreens. I first learned what mondegreens were last year. Since I’ve been using them myself for years, it’s good to know they have a name.
According to Jon Carroll, who uses the term in his book
Near Life Experiences,
“Mondegreens are the mishearing of the lyrics of popular songs, Christmas carols, hymns, patriotic affirmations, cliches—anything at all. The word ‘mondegreen’ was originally coined by the writer Sylvia Wright.”
Mondegreens have popped up in other places.
Details
magazine ran a piece on them (though apparently didn't use the term mondegreen). Their best example is Billy Joel’s “You may be Right.”
Real lyric: “You may be right, I may be crazy.” Mondegreen lyric: “You make the rice, I’ll make the gravy.”
Carroll likes one from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising.” Original lyric: “There’s a bad moon on the rise.” Mondegreen lyric: “There’s a bathroom on the right.”
Needless to say, such a cool thing had to show up in a book somewhere.
Love Long and Perspire.
—C. Spector, February 1995
Following is a brief history of the events that shaped the world of 2056—the social and technological upheavals that have contributed to the awesome changes the Earth and her people have undergone over the past half-century. Changes no twentieth-century forecaster could ever have imagined.
2002
New technology makes it possible to construct the first optical chip that is proof against electromagnetic pulse effects.
2002
-
2008
The Resource Rush. United Oil and other major corporations demand and get licenses to exploit oil, mineral, and land resources on U.S. federal lands, including designated Indian lands. Radical Amerindians respond by forming the Sovereign American Indian Movement (SAIM).
Libya unleashes a chemical weapon against Israel. Israel responds with a nuclear strike that destroys half of Libya’s cities.
2005
A major earthquake in New York City kills more than 200,000 people, with damage at 20 million dollars. It will take 40 years to rebuild the city.
2006
Japan announces the creation of a new Japanese Imperial State. The Japanese deploy the first solar-powered collector satellites to beam microwave energy to receptors on the Earth’s surface.
2009
Angry that the government has leased additional Indian lands to United Oil, SAIM commandos capture the Shiloh missile facility in Montana. All Amerindians occupying the facility are killed in a government raid. In the struggle, however, they launch a
Lone Eagle
missile toward the Russian Republic, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war. The crisis ends when the warheads mysteriously fail to detonate.
2010
In retaliation for the Shiloh affair, the U.S. government passes the Re-Education and Relocation Act, authorizing the detention of thousands of Native Americans in concentration camps (euphemistically known as “Re-Education Centers”).
First outbreak of Virally Induced Toxic Allergy Syndrome (VITAS), which kills 25 percent of the world’s population before year’s end.
The Year of Chaos. Governments begin to topple, famine stalks the world, nuclear power plants suffer meltdown, with extensive radiation fallout.
The first mutant and changeling children are born, signaling the start of the UGE (Unexplained Genetic Expression) Syndrome. The news media dub these new beings as “elves” and “dwarfs.”
On December 24, thousands of Japanese witness the first dragon, Ryumyo, reemerge from dormancy on Mt. Fuji. The same day, Daniel Howling Coyote leads his followers out of the Abilene Re-Education Center. He declares himself a shaman of the Great Ghost Dance, which involves powerful magic and promises to shatter the yoke of the white man once and for all.
Beginning in this year, political chaos begins to engulf the planet. The Federal government of Mexico dissolves in riots, while Tibet regains independence as magical defenses seal it off from invasion and render the region incommunicado. By the end of the year there is no question that magic has returned to the world.
2014
Ghost Dancers announce formation of the Native American Nations (NAN), with the Sovereign Tribal Council at its head. The Dancers claim responsibility for the eruption of Redondo Peak in New Mexico; Los Alamos is buried under a cloud of ash. A federal force sent in to retaliate is destroyed by tornadoes called down by the Ghost Dancers.
The United Free Republic of Ireland is established, while the white-controlled government of South Africa collapses.
2016
In a period of three weeks, U.S. President Jesse Garrety, Russian President Nikolai Chelenko, Prime Minister Lena Rodale of Great Britain, and Prime Minister Chaim Schon of Israel are assassinated. All but the Garrety assassin are killed in violent shoot-outs with local law officials.
2017
New U.S. President William Jarman issues the infamous Resolution Act, sanctioning the extermination of all Native American tribes. In response, Howling Coyote and his people begin the Great Ghost Dance. Freak weather and other uncanny events destroy or disrupt U.S. military bases slated for use in the genocidal plan. On August 17, Mount Hood, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams erupt simultaneously just as government troops are about to begin their attack. Former skeptics of the Dance begin to believe in its power.
First-generation ASIST (Artificial Sensory Induction System Technology) is created by Dr. Hosato Hikita of ESP Systems in Chicago.
The Treaty of Denver is signed. With this agreement, the federal governments of the United States, Canada, and Mexico acknowledge the sovereignty of NAN over most of western North America. Seattle remains as an extraterritorial extension of the U.S. government in Native American lands.
The U.S. spaceplane
America,
with its secret military payload, disintegrates in orbit. The wreckage lands in Australia, killing 300 in the small town of Longreach.
Goblinization. On April 30, 10 percent of the world’s population suddenly begins to metamorphose into new racial types known today as orks and trolls. This transformation, popularly known as goblinization, marks another threshold point in the reemergence of magic on Earth. Humans react violently to the presence of the metahuman races in their midst.
Quebec declares its independence, receiving immediate recognition from France.
2022
Severe rioting continues all over the world in response to the phenomenon of goblinization. The U.S. government declares martial law for several months, while reports trickling out of Russia indicate deaths on a mass scale. Many changed beings go into hiding or withdraw into separate communities.
Only another outbreak of VITAS quells the racial violence, leaving another 10 percent of the world’s population dead in its wake.
