Space and Dark Space

By Megan Cutler | October 24, 2016 | Comments 8 comments

I’ve been posting writing prompts for a year now. A lot of them are interconnected in one way or another, so it may be time for a little site re-organization. It’s true I am telling stories in fragments, but it may be time to let them be stories. I have been steadily introducing the characters I use most often but, since many of my characters live in several different worlds, their individual tags might be confusing without clarification.

As usual, I’ll start with Domerin – well, one of him. Because he’s just going to shoulder his way to the front of the line anyway, so I may as well give in.

My original concept for Domerin was a fantasy character. My first attempt to tell a story with him was, predictably, clunky and overdone. Shortly after it fell apart, I dreamed of him in a modern fantasy setting – basically a high fantasy world that has simply discovered and grown into modern technology. This cemented Domerin as a man of the modern world in my mind, wielder not only of swords but of guns and computers and other sorts of high-tech gadgetry. Taking him to space seemed the next logical step, or at least it did for me. But I imagined sending Domerin to space for several years before I actually solidified the concept that formed this particular offshoot.

Space Domerin
(I tend to denote the different versions of a character with a simple qualifier… original, I know.)
Domerin’s sci-fi story starts on a beautiful planet full of forests. In fact, Erenenth culture centers around trees. Many homes and buildings are built from living branches, and they worship one tree in particular. The World Tree, so called because they believe her root system entangles the entire world due to the wide planting of her offspring. In ancient times, the Tree spoke to Domerin’s people, providing guidance to her chosen avatars. But in recent years, as they moved away from mysticism toward science and space travel, the Tree has grown silent. This has not stopped his people from revering the Tree, though.

As their technology has expanded, the Erenenth have, ironically, grown more isolated. They prefer not to make contact with other species, not to become involved in outside politics or affairs, and to live their lives without outside influence. In other words, they’re bigots. They care about the luxuries they can import from other planets, but don’t want to bother with anything else.

Space Domerin grew up in a time of galactic war. While the other sentient species of the galaxy fought over slavery, trade, travel and resources, his people kept their noses out of galactic business, willfully ignoring the galaxy’s atrocities. Few Erenenth have bothered to venture off their planet in recent years, but Domerin’s parents were among them. His father joined a mixed species military unit and sent himself to war. His mother accompanied him, leaving Domerin in the care of the Erenenth elders.

Though his parents never returned, Domerin longed to see what lay beyond his sheltered homeworld. That curiosity led to disaster. While exploring a planet deemed safe for tourism, a friend of his stepped on a landmine. The resulting explosion claimed the friend’s life and left Domerin facing the loss of three limbs.

But there was hope in the form of a mercenary company testing a new form of prosthetic. They claimed their experimental technology could restore his limbs, rather than replacing them with robotics. To receive treatment, he only had to agree to serve in their mercenary unit should the experiment prove successful. Given a choice between a life he perceived as useless or regaining his sense of independence, Domerin accepted. He left his home and went into space.

Dark Space
When my husband and I moved to England, our new friends invited us to join their game group. Their characters had been through nearly ten years worth of adventures at that point and we were happy to be invited into their world. My initial thought was to transport Space Domerin into the Dark Space (as the game is called) universe. He was a good match for the group, but I worried his detailed background would limit his future development. It’s much easier to match an undeveloped character to such a detailed game world.

So I opted to create someone new, a blank slate that I could shape according to her experience with the game group. Thus, Ves was born. She’s a funny little (as in short) goth girl who, at one point in her life, worshiped Death. Her hobbies mostly center around making things explode. She’s a bit off the wall and a lot more humorous than Domerin, which has made her a good fit for the group.

After almost two years with the group (we switched to using Skype after my husband and I came back to Canada), I decided I wanted Domerin to make a cameo appearance in the Dark Space world after all. He fit too well to pass up the opportunity. Domerin enters the Dark Space world about 50 years after his first venture into space (his species are quite long-lived, so this is not a particularly large chunk of time for him). Much has happened since his accident. He now runs his own mercenary company (the White Dragons) and has since discovered and raised a daughter he didn’t realize he had (oops). He is older, tempered and jaded by his experiences, and has picked up more than a few enemies along the way. I had such a blast with Domerin in the Dark Space world, I decided to make him a recurring character, though my main focus is still on Ves.

During our last game session, our GM threw us a curve ball. Suddenly some of the events I’ve already written (or planned to write) for Space Domerin no longer fit in the Dark Space timeline. But since alternate realities are already Domerin’s canon (long story), it seems fit to embrace Dark Space Domerin as just another branch on the cosmic tree. It’s going to be fun to see how Space Domerin and Dark Space Domerin develop now that their timelines have diverged.

If you’re interested in the stories of Space/Dark Space Domerin and Ves, I’ve compiled a timeline below of the order in which their various scenes go. I’ll try to keep this up to date (as there is definitely more coming) and mark the split when the timelines diverge.