World Ember 2025 Pledge

Well it's come round again as it always does at this time of year.

And naturally I shall be burning the midnight oil as they say plugging away at forging my world; Lazarus, a sort of space opera/cyberpunk setting that is influenced by Altered Carbon (Richard Morgan), Foundation (Isaac Asimov), Leviathan Wakes (James S.A Corey), Alien (Alan Dean Foster). Cowboy Bebop (Sunrise), Metallic Rouge (Studio BONES), Voice of the Whirlwind (Walter Jon Williams) & the Sprawl Trilogy (William Gibson).

Other influences include Babylon 5 (J Michael Straczynski) as well as Macross Plus & Macross Frontier (Studio Nue).

Two other major influences on this world is the place where I live; the Down Under aka Australia, and its unique heritage. Australia is a place of unique flora, fauna and ancient pre settlement societies/cultures, just like Lazarus. And tying into that place the whole concept of Tyranny of Distance. How can a central authority maintain control on a place so so far away? How can somewhere so so far away get help from the home world if the proverbial hits the fan?

After all Tyranny of Distance had a major impact on Australia in the course of two world wars, though more during the Second than the First. And it's a similar situation with Lazarus, it is literally out on it's own in the deeps of space. If something was to go horribly horribly wrong, what help would there be? And if something went catastrophically wrong in the home system how would the people of Lazarus know? It would take due to the laws of physics significant time for information to flow (unless data could bypass physics).

This is going to be the foundation & hopefully I'll be building a solid foundation upon which I can build long after this years World Ember has finished.