Browsed by
Author: Sharrukin

Aspasia

Aspasia

Comments 0 Comment

Here’s another character who’s likely to play a big part in Alexandra’s adventure in Athens.

Aspasia of Miletos (200 points)

Age 50; Human; 5′ even; 115 lbs; Petite middle-aged woman with dark hair and eyes, dresses in modest but very fine clothing.

ST 9 [-10]; DX 11 [20]; IQ 15 [100]; HT 11 [10].

Damage 1d-2/1d-1; BL 16 lbs.; HP 9 [0]; Will 15 [0]; Per 15 [0]; FP 11 [0].

Basic Speed 5.5 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0]; Block 6 (DX); Dodge 8; Parry 8 (DX).

Social Background

TL: 2 [0]. CF: Hellenic (Native) [0]; Persian [1]. Languages: Ionian Greek (Native) [0]; Persian (Accented/None) [2].

Advantages

Appearance (Beautiful) [12]; Contact Group (Athenian aristocrats and wealthy businessmen) (Effective Skill 15) (9 or less; Somewhat Reliable) [10]; Status (Average aristocrat) (+3) [15]; Wealth (Wealthy) [20].

Disadvantages

Hard of Hearing [-10]; Pacifism (Reluctant Killer) [-5]; Reputation (Among conservatives, as a foreigner and former prostitute) -3 (All the time; Large class) [-7]; Sense of Duty (Family and close friends) (Small Group) [-5]; Social Stigma (Second-Class Citizen) [-5].

          Quirks: Always soft-spoken and polite; Likes to flirt with handsome men; Nostalgic for her time with Perikles; Quietly skeptical about the gods; Very careful with money [-5].

Skills

Accounting-13 (IQ-2) [1]; Acting-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Area Knowledge (Athens)-15 (IQ+0) [1]; Brawling-11 (DX+0) [1]; Carousing-12 (HT+1) [2]; Connoisseur (Literature)-15 (IQ+0) [2]; Current Affairs/TL2 (Mainland Hellas)-16 (IQ+1) [2]; Dancing-11 (DX+0) [2]; Diplomacy-15 (IQ+0) [4]; Erotic Art (Human)-11 (DX+0) [2]; Expert Skill (Natural Philosophy)-15 (IQ+0) [4]; Fast-Talk-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Finance-14 (IQ-1) [2]; History (Athenian)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; History (Ionian)-13 (IQ-2) [1]; Interrogation-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Knife-11 (DX+0) [1]; Law (Athenian)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Literature-15 (IQ+0) [4]; Musical Instrument (Lyre)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Occultism-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Philosophy (Milesian School)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Politics-15 (IQ+0) [2]; Professional Skill (Prostitute)-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Psychology (Human)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Public Speaking (Rhetoric)-16 (IQ+1) [2]; Religious Ritual (Hellenic)-13 (IQ-2) [1]; Savoir-Faire (High Society)-16 (IQ+1) [2]; Sex Appeal (Human)-14 (HT+3) [1]; Singing-12 (HT+1) [2]; Streetwise-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Swimming-11 (HT+0) [1]; Teaching-14 (IQ-1) [1].

The problem with drawing up Aspasia in GURPS terms is that we know almost nothing about her life. We can be fairly sure that she came from an aristocratic family in the Ionian city of Miletos, that she was very well-educated for a woman of her time, that she may have worked as a hetaira (essentially a high-class prostitute) for a while after coming to Athens, that she had a long-term relationship with the statesman Perikles, and that she was extremely influential in the social circle that grew up around him. The details, unfortunately, are lost under centuries of fiction and outright slander.

I’m working with the assumption that Aspasia was born about 466 BCE, and that she came to Athens as a young woman, accompanying her older sister, and her sister’s aristocratic Athenian husband. As a foreign woman in Athens, beautiful and with a considerable education, she would likely have been able to make a small fortune as a hetaira, but I’m assuming she gave up that life when she took up with Perikles in the middle 440s BCE. This version of Aspasia never ran a brothel, although she has often offered advice and support to other women in the trade, helping them maintain their independence and invest their money.

At present, Aspasia is settling into a comfortable middle-age, married to an Athenian strategos and democratic statesman named Lysikles. From behind the scenes, she is still assisting her son by Perikles as he develops a public career. She maintains the appearance of a very private individual, but she quietly remains in contact with every intellectual and half the aristocrats in Athens. Many people visit the house she shares with Lysikles, seeking advice, hoping to make political or business bargains, or just for quiet conversation. Sokrates and Alkibiades both remain her close associates.

Although, no, this version of Aspasia is not running any world-spanning conspiracies.

Character notes:

  • Aspasia was renowned for her intelligence, wit, and education. Sokrates himself held her in very high esteem, and she and Perikles created a social circle that did much to give Athens its reputation as the center of Greek intellectual accomplishment. I don’t think an IQ score of 15 is at all unreasonable for her.
  • Aspasia is well past her youth at this point, not quite as deft or fit as she once was, and I have her growing hard of hearing with age.
  • I’m assuming that Aspasia, born to a wealthy family in Ionia, would have had opportunity to learn spoken Persian and assimilate something about Persian culture. That might make her a valuable resource for anyone having dealings in Ionia or with the Persian Empire beyond.
  • Aspasia still has some of the skills she picked up as a hetaira, although she hasn’t used them professionally in decades. Instead, she uses them to advise younger women as need arises. She remains a sharp businesswoman, managing her own investments with an iron fist and earning some income by helping others do the same.
  • At this point in her life, Aspasia is primarily a philosopher, with the emphasis on natural philosophy that comes from the Milesian School of her home city. She doesn’t teach or debate in public, nor does she accept pay for teaching like many of the Sophists, but she continues to lead an active intellectual life and maintain a circle of like-minded friends.
Alkibiades

Alkibiades

Comments 0 Comment

Here’s another character who is going to be pivotal to the Danassos stories:

Alkibiades, son of Kleinias (310 points)

Age 33; Human; 5′ 11″; 160 lbs; Tall and handsome, light brown hair, brown eyes, wears rich clothing carelessly.

ST 13 [30]; DX 13 [60]; IQ 13 [60]; HT 13 [30].

Damage 1d/2d-1; BL 34 lbs.; HP 13 [0]; Will 13 [0]; Per 13 [0]; FP 13 [0].

Basic Speed 6.5 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Block 7 (DX); Dodge 9; Parry 9 (DX).

Social Background

TL: 2 [0]. CF: Hellenic (Native) [0]. Languages: Attic Greek (Native) [0].

Advantages

Appearance (Handsome) [12]; Charisma 2 [10]; Fit [5]; Status (Wealthy aristocrat) (+4) [20]; Wealth (Filthy Rich) [50].

Disadvantages

Chummy [-5]; Code of Honor (Gentleman’s) [-10]; Lecherousness [-15]; Overconfidence (9 or less) [-7]; Reputation (Among conservatives, as an impious and unruly individual) -2 (All the time; Large class) [-5].

          Quirks: Broad-Minded; Does not take the gods seriously; Enjoys flouting social conventions; Loves to drink and party; Proud [-5].

Skills

Acting-12 (IQ-1) [1]; Animal Handling (Equines)-13 (IQ+0) [2]; Area Knowledge (Athens)-14 (IQ+1) [2]; Carousing-15 (HT+2) [4]; Connoisseur (Wine)-12 (IQ-1) [1]; Current Affairs/TL2 (Mainland Hellas)-14 (IQ+1) [2]; Dancing-12 (DX-1) [1]; Diplomacy-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Fast-Talk-15 (IQ+2) [8]; Hiking-12 (HT-1) [1]; History (Athenian)-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Lance-13 (DX+0) [2]; Law (Athenian)-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Leadership-14 (IQ+1) [1]; Literature-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Musical Instrument (Lyre)-11 (IQ-2) [1]; Philosophy (Sokratic)-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Politics-14 (IQ+1) [4]; Public Speaking-15 (IQ+2) [2]; Religious Ritual (Hellenic)-11 (IQ-2) [1]; Riding (Equines)-14 (DX+1) [4]; Running-12 (HT-1) [1]; Savoir-Faire (High Society)-13 (IQ+0) [1]; Sex Appeal (Human)-16 (HT+3) [1]; Shield (Shield)-14 (DX+1) [2]; Shortsword-12 (DX-1) [1]; Singing-13 (HT+0) [1]; Soldier/TL2-14 (IQ+1) [4]; Spear-14 (DX+1) [4]; Strategy (Land)-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Strategy (Naval)-12 (IQ-1) [2]; Streetwise-12 (IQ-1) [1]; Survival (Mountain)-12 (Per-1) [1]; Swimming-13 (HT+0) [1]; Tactics-13 (IQ+0) [4]; Teamster (Equines)-14 (IQ+1) [3]; Thrown Weapon (Spear)-14 (DX+1) [2]; Wrestling-13 (DX+0) [2].

Here’s the notorious Athenian rogue, playboy, and statesman, at the height of his powers (although not yet at the height of his influence). He’s a long-time student and friend of Sokrates, but the older man hasn’t managed to impart much in the way of philosophy or sober morals.

A few notes about this writeup:

  • Weighing all the ancient sources closely, it does appear that Alkibiades had the talent to be an all-around paragon without really being world-class in any one area. He was a trained athlete, a gifted but not world-class political and public speaker, and a competent soldier. He managed to sustain an active lifestyle while still indulging in an impressive array of vices. I therefore gave him above-average attributes all around, and was tempted to give him an even higher HT score.
  • Alkibiades was the last of the famous aristocratic clan of the Alkmaionidai, and he inherited a substantial fortune of his own as well as a large dowry from his wife. High Status and Wealth are a given.
  • A fairly long list of psychological disadvantages here. He was apparently gregarious and loved social gatherings, the more raucous the better. He was certainly overconfident to the point of hubris, and got himself in trouble more than once by over-estimating his already considerable talents.
  • Alkibiades was also famous for racking up a long list of lovers of both sexes – Sokrates (who I drew up with very strong will) was one of the few who seems to have consistently eluded his seductive reach. Alkibiades also got himself in trouble more than once by indulging his taste for sex. A full-blown Lecherousness disadvantage seems very appropriate here.
  • Wide range of skills, with the highest being his Carousing, Sex Appeal, and Fast-Talk, as befits his known career. He was also a trained athlete, although he tended not to compete personally, instead investing in horses and chariot teams. He has Strategy (both Land and Naval specializations) and Tactics, but not at master-class levels – few Hellenic statesmen took a systematic approach to war-planning or command.

Alkibiades also seems to establish an upper bound for character point totals in the Danassos stories, as I work with GURPS to write up characters. My protagonist (Alexandra) is likely to be roughly at the same power level – 300 points or so – with the main antagonists being comparable, and most other characters falling somewhere below.

Danassos: A Familiar Character

Danassos: A Familiar Character

Comments 0 Comment

Over the past few weeks, I’ve worked out a timeline for the Danassos setting, through the end of that world’s equivalent of the Peloponnesian Wars. I think I have enough material to sketch out the plot of two complete novels.

Next step is to work out some character details. At this stage in my world-building process, I often make use of the GURPS role-playing game to lay out characters, so I can be consistent about their capabilities while I write. That exercise also helps me define the fantastic elements of the story – what futuristic technology is available, what non-human species might appear, how magic and the supernatural will work. So that’s what I’m going to be working on over the next week or two.

Here’s an example, who will likely be familiar to the audience.

Sokrates, son of Sophroniskos (190 points)

Age 54; Human; 5′ 5″; 155 lbs; Stocky and muscular, bright brown eyes, balding with a fringe of grey hair, long beard, dresses very plainly.

ST 11 [10]; DX 11 [20]; IQ 15 [100]; HT 11 [10].

Damage 1d-1/1d+1; BL 24 lbs.; HP 11 [0]; Will 18 [15]; Per 15 [0]; FP 11 [0].

Basic Speed 5.5 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0]; Block 6 (DX); Dodge 8; Parry 8 (DX).

Social Background

TL: 2 [0]. CF: Hellenic (Native) [0]. Languages: Attic Greek (Native) [0].

Advantages

Fearlessness 2 [4]; Intuition (Daimonic advice) (Divine) [14]; Reputation (Among intellectuals, as a wise and honest man) 4 (All the time; Small class) [6].

Disadvantages

Appearance (Unattractive) [-4]; Honesty (6 or less) [-20]; Odious Personal Habit (Relentless questioning) -1 [-5]; Overweight [-1]; Reputation (Among conservatives, as a questioner of tradition) -2 (All the time; Large class) [-5]; Wealth (Struggling) [-10].

          Quirks: Dresses very plainly in shabby clothes; Quirky sense of humor; Spends all his time on philosophy; Strong moral principles; Uninterested in money and possessions [-5].

Skills

Area Knowledge (Athens)-15 (IQ+0) [1]; Brawling-11 (DX+0) [1]; Carousing-12 (HT+1) [2]; Current Affairs/TL2 (Mainland Hellas)-15 (IQ+0) [1]; Dancing-10 (DX-1) [1]; Detect Lies-15 (Per+0) [4]; Diplomacy-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Fast-Talk-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Hiking-11 (HT+0) [2]; History (Athenian)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Law (Athenian)-13 (IQ-2) [1]; Literature-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Occultism-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Philosophy (Sokratic)-18 (IQ+3) [16]; Psychology (Human)-13 (IQ-2) [1]; Public Speaking-15 (IQ+0) [2]; Religious Ritual (Hellenic)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Savoir-Faire (High Society)-15 (IQ+0) [1]; Shield (Shield)-12 (DX+1) [2]; Shortsword-10 (DX-1) [1]; Singing-11 (HT+0) [1]; Soldier/TL2-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Spear-11 (DX+0) [2]; Streetwise-14 (IQ-1) [1]; Survival (Mountain)-14 (Per-1) [1]; Swimming-12 (HT+1) [1]; Tactics-13 (IQ-2) [1]; Teaching-16 (IQ+1) [4]; Theology (Hellenic)-14 (IQ-1) [2]; Wrestling-10 (DX-1) [1].

The starting point here is the character profile I did for Sokrates in GURPS Greece a long time ago (see the sidebar on p. 90 of that book). This version is suitably updated for GURPS Fourth Edition, of course. Some notes:

  • This version of Sokrates is a few years older, in his early fifties, past the time when he would have served as a hoplite solider in the Peloponnesian War. He’s still in decent physical condition, but his DX has declined a bit, and he starting to go a bit soft around the edges.
  • More recent research suggests that Sokrates was probably not a member of the lower class of thetes. If he could serve as a hoplite, then he wasn’t a poor laborer by birth, even if neglect of his finances left him struggling in his later years. This version of Sokrates has Status 0.
  • In this setting, Sokrates doesn’t have the minor Delusion that a daimon occasionally gives him advice. There actually is a daimon that watches over him and gives him advice when he stops to think about things! I’m modeling this as Intuition with the Divine (-10%) power modifier; it’s the only supernatural power he has, but it’s more reliable than the Spirit modifier would indicate. What god has sent his tutelary spirit to him, not even Sokrates knows for sure.
  • The skill list is polished up a bit from the one I wrote up twenty-plus years ago. Most of the skills have been trimmed back, although he still has Philosophy (in his own school) at very high level. He has a good array of knowledge and social skills. One surprise may be the set of Occultism, Religious Ritual, and Theology. We know that Sokrates never served as a formally invested priest, but he was quite knowledgeable about esoteric mysteries and the Hellenic gods, and he taught some of his students (such as Xenophon) the art of divination through omens. He still has some of his old military skills, although those are starting to degrade for lack of use.
  • On the other hand, some of the skills we might expect him to have, he’s operating at the IQ-based default. These include Politics, Masonry, and Sculpture. Sokrates certainly understood politics, and he began his adult life working as a stonecutter and sculptor, but he seems to have refused to develop or use any of those skills.

More to come, as I develop more of the characters that my protagonist will meet in her journey. Not to mention Alexandra herself!

 

Danassos: Some Deep Back-Story

Danassos: Some Deep Back-Story

Comments 0 Comment

Just a quick post today, to share a piece of world-building I did a few years back. I was in the process of teaching myself map-making techniques in Photoshop and Inkscape, and dipped into my old notes on the Danassos setting to produce a map. Here’s a copy of the result:

That’s a pretty big file, so you may want to download it, or visit the pertinent page on DeviantArt.

(Yes, if you look closely at the map, you’ll see Atlantis. Thera, of course.)

The idea here is to trace the origins and eventual destiny of the so-called “Minoan” civilization, in the Danassos alternate history.

I’m assuming that the Minoans were originally Luwian people from southwestern Asia Minor, related to the Karian and Lykian peoples who lived there in historical times. About 3000 BCE some of them migrated into the Aegean and settled on Crete, forming the basis for Minoan culture. That would make the Minoan civilization an early outpost of the Indo-European language group, since the Luwian languages were part of the (very archaic) Anatolian branch of that family.

Centuries later, another branch of the Indo-European family made an appearance to the north, proto-Greeks migrating down into what we now think of as Thessaly. These people began as warlike nomads, using horses and primitive chariots to achieve military superiority over the pre-Greek peoples of the region. Eventually, they filtered further south, took over the small palace-states of the southern peninsula, and came into contact with the more sophisticated Minoans. The result was the Mycenaean culture, the first iteration of Greek civilization and the basis for all the later heroic myths.

All of that is entirely historical, of course. The first big divergence from our familiar history comes about 1450 BCE, when Mycenaean adventurers and warlords began to take over the Minoan palace-states on Crete. That sets up several decades of conflict, at the end of which the mainland Greeks invade and sack Crete, bringing Minoan culture to a bloody end. I’m assuming that the Minoans had long known about the existence of Italy and Sicily to the west; the major point of divergence is that some Minoan survivors escape the sack and set up the refugee colony in Sicily that later becomes the city of Danassos.

A note on dates: the calendar system I’m using is called Etos Kosmou or “era of the world.” (The Byzantine Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church once used similar nomenclature for their calendars.) The epoch is the vernal equinox in the year 3058 BCE by our reckoning. Dates BCE can therefore be roughly determined by subtracting the EK date from 3058, and vice versa.

The idea here is that the ancient Minoans were aware of the procession of the equinoxes, and had the mathematical sophistication needed to estimate the position of the sun at the vernal equinox at various points in the past. This is all rampant speculation, of course – we have not a scrap of solid evidence for Minoan astronomy. However, it’s an interesting coincidence that right about the time the Minoan culture was established (circa 3000 BCE) the position of the equinox was in the constellation of Taurus (the Bull), not far from the bright star Aldebaran (the Bull’s “heart”).

We have evidence that the constellation of Taurus has been seen as a Bull since very ancient times. In fact, the Minoans were among the ancient cultures who maintained bull-cults and saw bulls as sacred creatures. I have to wonder if there wasn’t a certain amount of astronomical lore behind those cults. Maybe, maybe not – it’s not as if bulls aren’t impressive and dangerous creatures that any ancient culture might find worthy of worship.

Regardless, it struck me as a neat idea that the Minoans might have believed that at the moment of the world’s creation, the sun was at the vernal equinox and in the heart of the constellation of the Bull. I applied some astronomical software to estimate the point at which the sun would have been closest to Aldebaran at the vernal equinox, and that gave me an epoch of 3058 BCE. All of the notes I’ve gathered about the Danassos setting in the last few years, therefore, have used this version of the Etos Kosmou reckoning.

An Old Project, Made New

An Old Project, Made New

Comments 1 comment

The first book I ever had published under my byline was GURPS Greece, a sourcebook on Heroic Age and classical Greek history for Steve Jackson Games . . . first released, good Lord, over twenty years ago (first printing in 1995).

I did a lot of research and reading for that project, which turned a passing interest in ancient Hellenic civilization into a life-long passion. Afterward I moved on to other projects for SJG – that was about when the GURPS Traveller license began, for which I eventually wrote and edited a pile of books. Yet that first book stuck with me, and gave me a concept that I’ve had in the back of my mind ever since.

One result was my first attempt to write an original novel (as an adult, anyway – I did manage to complete one novel as a pre-teenager that will mercifully never escape my dead files). That attempt failed dismally, when I realized that I had an opening and a conclusion and no idea whatsoever what to do in between. So I set the idea on a back shelf and let it gather dust for a couple of decades.

Now, partially because of the time I’ve spent playing the most recent Assassin’s Creed game, I’ve found myself reviving that old idea. Lo and behold, I think all the reading and experience I’ve had since then has given me the ability to approach that story once again. I’ve been working on that notion off and on for the past few weeks, and I think it’s mature enough that I can discuss it here.

It all started with a character, and a setting. The character was a sixteen-year-old girl, heir to the throne of a pseudo-Minoan city-state, who was forced into exile when an older sister proved a little more ruthless than anyone expected. The setting was classical-era Hellas, specifically in the middle phases of the great (Second) Peloponnesian War.

This is alternate-historical fantasy, to be sure. There were no significant Minoan survivals in the classical era of our own history, and I had in mind to bring in a few supernatural elements. My protagonist Alexandra is “goddess-touched,” an oracle who is able to see and command elements of the spirit world. She’s also a petite teenager who would be helpless in a straight-up fight, so she has to think her way out of trouble and make allies before she confronts her enemies.

The first point of divergence here is in the late Bronze Age. After the final collapse of Minoan Crete, I have a small group of survivors who manage to escape from the Mycenaean invaders by sea. They end up in the west, settling on a small island off the coast of what we know as Sicily. There they create the nucleus of a new civilization: Minoan in inspiration, strengthened by the arrival of archaic Greek refugees and colonists, interacting with the barbarian tribes of Sicily and southern Italy. Their capital city is called Danassos, meaning something like “the place of the Goddess,” and it substitutes for the city we know as Syracuse.

The second point of divergence is right around the time of the Persian invasions of Hellas. The presence of Danassos off in the west doesn’t make much difference to events in mainland Greece for a long time. After the Persian Wars, though, interaction between Danassos and Hellas begins to send events slightly off-kilter. There is still a series of Peloponnesian Wars, some of the events echo what happened in the real history, and most of the same people are involved.

Still, by about 420 BCE things are starting to look quite different. That’s when Alexandra gets curb-stomped in her first fight for the Danassan throne, and has to flee into exile. She and a single loyal soldier end up in Athens, where they struggle for a while before they begin to make allies . . . some of whom will be quite familiar to the reader.

How Alexandra gets through that situation, and returns to Danassos to kick her usurping sister back off the throne, should be enough for a complete novel. It’s a novel I think I know how to write, too, now that I’ve spent the last twenty years studying the period in detail. Better yet, the last few weeks have given me enough ideas for a second novel, and maybe the ghost of an opening for a third.

More about that as things develop. In the meantime, the stories I’ve partially developed in a Bronze Age setting could be considered a loose set of prequels here. I’ve already published one of those, and this might give me the motivation I need to finish others.

I will admit, one of my worst handicaps as a writer is that left to myself, I have a hard time finishing one project before I wander off to nibble at another. Let’s see if I can stick to this one long enough to get some stories out the door.

 

Status Report (31 October 2018)

Status Report (31 October 2018)

Comments 0 Comment

It’s been a quiet month. I’m slowly emerging from the utter shutdown of creative effort that sometimes comes when a really good new video game comes out (see my review of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey from a couple of weeks ago). Now that I’m about finished with that distraction for the time being, I’m getting back into some world-building work and writing.

One effect of this recent immersion into all things Greek has been the possible revival of a very old project. Close to twenty years ago, my first attempt at writing an original novel stalled out when I ran out of plot about 30% of the way in. That novel was, by an odd not-quite-coincidence, an alternate-historical fantasy piece set in the classical Hellenic period. In the last few weeks I’ve realized that I may actually have what I need to get through that old blockage – maybe I can finally write that novel after all. Still thinking about that and gathering some notes.

Meanwhile, I’ve gotten back to assembling setting notes for the Human Destiny stories, and may be publishing revised versions of some of those notes here soon. I’m also re-reading the draft novella In the House of War with an eye toward rewriting and publishing that.

So, in general, things are moving again.

Review: Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey

Review: Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey

Comments 4 comments

In this iteration of my blog, I’m not in the habit of reviewing things – it’s mostly about my own writing and other creative projects. However, once in a while, something is going to come along and blow me away to such an extent that I have to make an exception.

Case in point, the new video game, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, which just came out about a week ago.

The premise behind the Assassin’s Creed series is that there’s an ages-old “secret history” of the world. Unknown to most humans, opposed conspiracies driven by advanced “precursor” technology have been fighting for thousands of years to either enslave humanity, or to protect humanity’s freedom. In most of the games of the series, the protagonist is an Assassin, fighting to defend humanity from its would-be enslavers by surgically removing their human pawns. The “Creed” that the title refers to is that an Assassin will never engage in indiscriminate violence. Instead, he uses stealth and misdirection to reach his target, applying violence only with great precision.

Okay, I’m a sucker for that kind of “secret history” premise. I’ve often used it in my tabletop games and my other writing. Also, of course, it was an idea characteristic of GURPS and other Steve Jackson Games products, back when I was writing and editing for them. So, years ago, I gave the original Assassin’s Creed a try. Unfortunately, I bounced hard. I simply could not figure out the control scheme, and when I hit the end of the tutorial chapter I found myself flatly unable to progress further. I dropped the game and never looked back.

Ten games and eleven years later, I’ve come back to the franchise, and oh my what a difference a decade of polish and development makes.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is interesting in that it’s set in the same “secret history” timeline, but before the Brotherhood of Assassins was established. So, uniquely so far in the series, the protagonist is not an Assassin and isn’t subject to the Creed. As a result, the game is less dominated by stealth mechanics, and big combat scenes are more frequent. But then, that makes sense, because in this case the historical setting is . . .

Classical Greece, specifically in the first years of the Second Peloponnesian War.

Well. Anyone who knows me, or my creative history, knows that classical Greek history is kind of my catnip. The first book I ever wrote for Steve Jackson Games was a GURPS sourcebook covering ancient Hellenic civilization. I’ve spent thousands of hours since then, reading about and researching that era. I’ve even taken a stab at writing original fiction set in the period, and probably will again.

I love the ancient Greeks. Look closely at them, and all the idealization of later centuries drops away. They were hard-scrabble poor, resourceful, hard-working, earthy, short-sighted, quarrelsome, cruel and violent. The great empires and civilizations of the time tended to look down on them, poverty-stricken barbarians clinging to barren islands and promontories on the outer fringes of the true world. Yet in their time, despite their all-too-human nature, they accomplished miracles. It’s no exaggeration to say that our modern civilization is built, in part, upon the foundations that the Greeks put down.

Media adaptations of classical Greek history are vanishingly rare. There are novels by Mary Renault, Harry Turtledove, and others. There’s a fair amount of visual art. On the other hand, most films, video games, and other media have concentrated on mythological stories, or on the time of Alexander and his successors. The classical era, roughly from about 600 BCE to about 360 BCE, has been almost entirely ignored.

Until now.

I bought Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey almost on a whim. I remembered the bad experience I had with the original game. Still, the chance to experience Greece in that era, even under the distorting lens of a video game, was irresistible. I’ll be honest, that was the best gamble I’ve taken in a long time. I’ve been enjoying this game more than any other RPG since Mass Effect.

The gameplay is still oriented toward stealth mechanics and personal combat, although there seem to be more RPG elements than I remember from the original. The protagonist acquires a wide variety of armor, weapons, and gear, and can upgrade those to support several fighting styles. Open combat is much more frequent, and the protagonist can optionally participate in field battles between Athenian and Spartan forces. Sea combat is another integral part of the game; the protagonist gains command of a pentekonter early on, and can engage pirates, merchant ships, or Athenian or Spartan warships.

This is all quite well done. Combat feels smooth and fluid, you get plenty of chances to make tactical decisions, and the whole experience gives you the power-fantasy sense of being slightly superhuman. Fights can also be rather unforgiving, but you never lose more than the time since your last save point (and auto-saves are frequent even if you don’t use the quick-save function).

I really appreciate the quality-of-life features that have become common in games of this kind. For example, every object you can interact with gets a small marker in the interface, and as you approach you’ll get a subtle on-screen prompt as to which key to use. Enemy combatants provide visual cues telling you when to parry or dodge. Another feature I appreciate is that it’s easy to pause gameplay to review the map, rearrange your combat abilities, or just get reminders as to which keystroke does what! All of this is vastly improved over the original game, and it really helps one gain immersion rather than spending all our time struggling with the interface.

There’s a certain amount of linearity to the plot, but this is made up for by the fact that there are really three interwoven main plots going on, plus a ton of sidequests, plus plenty of sandbox content. You can follow the plots closely, or you can take time off to just wander the map and experience things.

And that’s what makes this game such a delight – the chance to experience the setting.

The over-world includes all of mainland Greece, most of the Aegean islands, and Crete. The major missing areas are the Asian coast, and “Greater Hellas” in the west. The scale is certainly compressed, but within the limitations of the game the level of detail is astonishing. One can find historical and mythological landmarks, even quite obscure ones, all over the place. Terrain features, landmarks, villages, and small towns are all in (more or less) the right places. The bigger cities seem to be laid out with remarkable accuracy. I’ve already spent hours wandering around Athens, for example, and everything matches the maps and descriptions I’ve seen of the city in the Periklean era. All of it is simply gorgeous, doubly so since the lighting is constantly changing with the passage of time and weather.

The map sets the tone, and the rest of the game follows suit. The development team have gone to amazing lengths to do their homework and present an authentic experience.

Wandering through the world, you will hear plenty of ambient dialogue in Greek (albeit in the koiné dialect rather than an ancient one, if I’m not mistaken). Cutscene dialogue is in English, but almost every actor has a Greek accent that’s somewhere between fair and perfect. Greek names and bits of vocabulary in dialogue are pronounced correctly; in fact, I’ve probably learned more from this game about the actual pronunciation of Greek than in years of prior reading. I understand the development team worked hard to assemble a voice-acting cast that was almost entirely either native Greek or at least of Greek descent. No lazy “Received Pronunciation to mark ancient peoples” trope here!

The cultural and historical setting are also surprisingly good. As a well-read layman in the period, I can certainly spot any number of details that are wrong:

  • Classical Greek society was profoundly misogynistic, and the possibility of women soldiers, mercenaries, and generally footloose adventurers was just not on the table at the time.
  • The very name applied to the region is odd. Everyone in the game keeps calling it “Greece” and the “Greek world,” and the name Hellas simply never shows up.
  • The story of the actual Peloponnesian War is generally ignored, in favor of an abstract system by which the protagonist can help either Athens or Sparta to dominate specific territories.
  • Land battle scenes are just completely incorrect: wild melees with no organization or formation whatsoever. (Sea battles are somewhat better, although there’s no sign of the authentic tactics there either.)
  • In one important scene, the protagonist attends what is billed as a symposion at the home of Perikles in Athens. The actual scene doesn’t look anything like a genuine symposion, more like a modern social gathering with people gathering in little standing clumps for conversation.

I could go on; no media adaptation of the period is ever going to be completely authentic. To be honest, I don’t have too much trouble with any of those. Having done game design myself, I understand that it’s sometimes necessary to over-simplify or allow some failures of authenticity, in favor of producing a playable and compelling game.

Besides, it’s abundantly clear that the development team knew better in any case. For every detail that isn’t correct, there’s one that they got right. Individual historical figures look like real-people versions of the idealized statuary we have of them. They behave as we know they did from the surviving documents of the time. Even their dialogue seems authentic – characters who later appear in Plato’s or Xenophon’s dialogues sound as they would in a good English translation. (Sokrates is just as insightful, and just as infuriating, as he was reported to be in the primary sources.)

Some of the authenticity reaches down to the level of very obscure details. Every temple or shrine in Hellas has its worshipers, presenting their prayers to the gods in exactly the manner that was used at the time (very different from the way modern people pray). Visit the symposion at the house of Perikles, and you’ll spot a few revelers playing kottabos in the corner; take a moment to watch and everything will look right, down to the way the players are holding their wine-cups. Meet the young Alkibiades in Athens, and some of his dialogue is supremely ironic, given what we know about his future career. Anyone who knows the milieu well will appreciate the eye for detail – not to mention the numerous historical in-jokes!

In short, this is probably the best media adaptation ever done for this specific period of history. Playing the game is certainly no substitute for studying primary sources, but for anyone who has even a passing interest in the reality of the Hellenic world, it’s a superb experience.

For most of my life, I’ve had the hopeless wish to one day walk on the Athenian akropolis, seeing not the haggard ghost surrounded by tourist traps that we have today, but what it was in its time of glory. Now, in a sense, I’ve been there. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is highly recommended for any video-game player who has an interest in the era of classical Greece.

Modeling Galactic History (Wrap-up)

Modeling Galactic History (Wrap-up)

Comments 0 Comment

This post is a little math-heavy, and yet I’ve left out a few explicit steps here and there. Consider this a wrap-up of the posts I made a few weeks back, laying out the assumptions I’ve made with respect to the prevalence of interstellar cultures in the galaxy.

Assumption #1: In the solar neighborhood, there exists about one stellar system for every 300 cubic light-years of space. Stellar systems average about 1.2 stars each.

Assumption #2: There exists one habitable world for every 16 stellar systems, or about one habitable world for every 4800 cubic light-years of space.

Commentary: As I remarked before, these are based on HIPPARCOS data for the solar neighborhood, with some educated guesswork as to how many very dim red dwarfs are not properly accounted for by HIPPARCOS. The Architect of Worlds draft design sequence was used to generate planetary systems for a large sample of the solar neighborhood, which yielded a rough estimate for the prevalence of habitable worlds.

Assumption #3: On any given habitable world, a sentient tool-using civilization will appear about once every 500 million years.

Commentary: Based on the experience of Earth as our one data point (one sentient tool-using civilization – that we know of – since the Earth became habitable back in the Devonian era).

Assumption #4: Left to themselves, sentient tool-using civilizations have a 75% chance of an average lifespan of about 12,400 years, remaining in a pre-industrial status, followed by extinction. They have a 25% chance of an average lifespan of about 12,800 years, attaining industrial status late in that period, followed by extinction. The probability of a sentient tool-using civilization attaining interstellar capability on its own is vanishingly small.

Commentary: This is one of the foundational assumptions of the Human Destiny setting, and a partial solution to the Fermi Paradox. Effectively, I’m arguing for a set of “Great Filters.” Most civilizations never reach an industrial era before falling to some natural disaster. The few that do almost invariably destroy themselves.

Result: Assuming no interstellar-capable civilizations appear, then at any given time there should be about one tool-using civilization for every 40,000 habitable worlds.

Assumption #4: The first culture to attain interstellar capability filled up the galaxy in a short period of time (<< 250,000 years) and gave rise to an era of pan-galactic civilization which lasted several hundred million years. This period is usually called the “era of the Precursors” today.

Assumption #5: The Precursor meta-civilization collapsed in an era of pan-galactic conflict. The winning (or surviving) Precursor faction gave rise to a meta-civilization called the Synarchy, which has carefully limited the growth of all subsequent interstellar-capable cultures. The Synarchy “cultivates” the galaxy by recruiting new interstellar-capable cultures as its proxies.

Assumption #6: Once a civilization has attained interstellar capability under the Synarchy or one of its proxies, its average lifespan after that point is about 250,000 years.

Assumption #7: The Synarchy normally permits one of its proxies, together with its client cultures, to occupy no more than about 25,000 habitable worlds. This allocation is divided between the proxy and its clients, with the expectation that the proxy itself may occupy no more than 5,000 habitable worlds, and each client culture may occupy no more than 1,000 habitable worlds. Within those constraints, a given proxy culture has broad discretion as to how to manage the volume of space under its supervision.

Commentary: More foundational assumptions. The specific numbers have been set to lead to a model which permits many small interstellar societies to exist at the same time in the galaxy. More to the point, aside from the very first “Precursor” civilization, no culture has ever had the opportunity to overrun the galaxy. The Synarchy values variety and acts to prevent such runaway growth.

Results: The policies maintained by any given Synarchy proxy can be characterized by several variables.

  • M, the number of habitable worlds considered to be within the proxy’s supervised volume. In a typical case, many or even most of these worlds will be maintained in a “fallow” condition, unoccupied and waiting for the appearance of a naturally evolved tool-using civilization.
  • N, the number of client cultures normally maintained by the proxy at any given time (can be any value but is generally <= 20).
  • KP, the number of habitable worlds occupied by the proxy (must be < 5,000).
  • KS, the average number of habitable worlds occupied by client cultures (must be < 1,000).

We observe that if RE is the rate of extinction of client cultures, then:

R_E=N/250,000

To maintain a steady state, the proxy must have a rate of uplift RU equal to RE. The rate of uplift is dependent upon M and the proxy’s level of selectivity when choosing candidate cultures to uplift. Some typical values are:

  • If the proxy uplifts no candidate cultures, then R_U=0 , N=0 , and M can be any value < 5,000.
  • If the proxy uplifts all candidate cultures which reach the industrial era, then  R_U=M/2,000,000,000 and M\approx8,000\times N .
  • If the proxy uplifts all candidate cultures, even at a pre-industrial level, then
  •  R_U=M/500,000,000 and M\approx2,000\times N .
  • If the proxy seeks out pre-sentient species for uplift, then RU is undetermined but possibly as large as  R_U=M/50,000,000 , which would imply M\geq200\times N .

Assumption #8: The volumes of space occupied by a proxy culture or by one of its clients will tend to obey the following guidelines.

  • The supervised volume of a proxy culture is likely to be a compact volume of space, such as a sphere with radius roughly equal to \sqrt[3]{1,150\times K} . A habitable world which drifts away from that volume will no longer be monitored, and any civilization which arises there will be on its own.
  • The volume occupied by a given culture will not be compact, since stellar drift and the requirement to leave certain habitable worlds “fallow” will create gaps and voids. If K is the number of habitable worlds currently occupied by a culture, and A is its age as an interstellar-capable civilization, then as a rough estimate its occupied space will be bounded by a sphere of radius S, where:

S>\sqrt[3]{1,150\times K}+\frac{A}{6,000}

  • The first term in that estimate is related to the size of the compact volume that might contain the appropriate number of habitable worlds, while the second term is related to the scattering of stellar systems over time due to their different space velocities.
  • This last estimate may be reduced if the culture in question practices migration, moving populations back toward the core as their stellar systems drift too far away. Most proxy cultures will engage in this kind of behavior. Otherwise, some of their occupied systems would tend to drift out of the supervised volume over time.

Assumption #9: For at least the last 600 million years, and until quite recently, Sol and Earth have not fallen within the volume of supervision of any Synarchy proxy culture.

Results: Within the past 600 million years, the 25,000 nearest habitable worlds to Sol would have given rise to 30,000 tool-using civilizations. This suggests that without intervention and uplift, the probability for any one tool-using civilization to attain interstellar capability is no greater than about 1 in 60,000.

Combining this with the galactic-history model developed earlier, we find that:

  • The Precursor civilization most likely appeared 9.8 billion years ago, and the era of great galactic conflicts was about 9.4 billion years ago.
  • Today, depending on the typical lifespan of a proxy culture (probably longer than the quarter-million years of a client civilization), there are likely to be several thousand such proxies in the galaxy at any given time.

Another result is that it would be very unusual for more than one proxy culture to appear independently in the same galactic neighborhood at the same time. However, it may be possible for client civilizations to “graduate” to independent proxy status rather than “ascension” or voluntary extinction. Proxy cultures might be thought of as reproducing by “budding” during periods of stability. Also, when the proxy eventually passes on, it may reproduce by “spawning” some of its last few client civilizations into independent proxy status.

Khedai Hegemony Reference Map Complete

Khedai Hegemony Reference Map Complete

Comments 0 Comment

Well, this map stretched my technique a little further than before, but after quite a bit of research and development, and a couple dozen hours of painstaking Photoshop work, it’s done. I now have a reference map for the galactic neighborhood of the Khedai Hegemony, covering a decent chunk of the Orion Spur in the process.

Here’s a thumbnail for the new map:

As before, this is a pretty hefty file, so you might do well to download it and view it locally. Alternatively, here’s a link to the pertinent page in my DeviantArt gallery.

This was world-building with a purpose! Not only did this exercise give me a new reference map for our galactic neighborhood, on a larger scale than I had ever done before, but it drove me to build a definitive model for interstellar cultures that I can continue to use later. I also came up with at least a high-concept description for over a dozen alien civilizations that I can now use in my stories.

In fact, once I get my notes collated and write down all the conceptual material that’s floating around in my head, I may have the basis for a fairly complete world-book for GURPS or some similar tabletop game. Between this map and the previous one, I have capsule descriptions for dozens of star systems, and by the time I’ve fleshed out all sixteen or so cultures I’ll have plenty of alien character templates. I may need to confer with the folks at Steve Jackson Games and see what the current limits are for publishing anything using GURPS language. It’s been a while since I was on their editorial staff, so their policies may have changed. At the very least, I ought to be able to post all of the pertinent material to the web for free.

Short term goal, though, is to buckle down and produce a publishable version of the novella In the House of War. With this map, I now have a much better idea where everything is, and what sort of aliens Aminata is likely to encounter during her first ventures out into the galaxy.

Real progress. Feels good.

Status Report (22 September 2018)

Status Report (22 September 2018)

Comments 0 Comment

Very good progress, over the last few days, on a draft map of Khedai Hegemony space. Rather than post the unfinished map here, I’ll give you a link to the item in my Scraps folder on Deviant Art. I’d encourage anyone who’s interested in this project to have a look.

Probably a few more days to work on the map itself, and then I may also be able to put together a gazetteer for Hegemony space. I’m beginning to think this may work as a high-space-opera GURPS setting, among other things. Most importantly, of course, the exercise of finally mapping all of this out is giving me lots of ideas for Human Destiny stories . . .