Story Philosophies

Backstory is overlooked way too often in fiction writing. For Aleria, the alternate reality cartoon series I’m developing, it has been a major challenge to provide a reasonable foundation for every character, action, setting and plot arc. Its more than just coming up with interesting backstories for characters and places. When you’re writing fiction, you’ve got to thoroughly understand the philosophical point of view of your characters and settings. And if your fiction invents new creatures, places or things, the word to really do this justice is PURPOSE. Here is where I went today as I thought about the reality of the universe Aleria is a part of. This is entirely off-the-cuff and is merely a brainstorming tool to develop deeper plots and settings.

Who is God to these people? Who is God to the ‘gods’ of Aleria, who have created all living things on the planet Gaul? Would these gods need or seek a God? Eventually it will all perish and there should be something else. That’s what the Aquitani sought out. There should be a supreme creator. Because that’s what honest and reasoning beings seek. Why live forever though? How can I understand this perspective? There needs to be some great resting place where all living things exist forever. Doing what though? Am I restricting my understanding to a human perspective? The idea of time is crucial to this problem. What I need to do is ‘feel’ the eternal in order to understand it.

All things with beginnings and endings must end up somewhere in the infinity ribbon, where there is no beginning or ending. But does time need to pass in infinity? Thoughts can not occur without time to place them in context. How can we understand eternal separate from time? Are eternal and endless different? Both involve time. Time must exist in eternity, its just different. Time is measured in actions. Time is not defined by beginnings and endings any longer but by actions, thoughts and accomplishments.

What is interesting here is that endlessness is only one aspect of eternity. Though eternal beings are endless, they are not equal. There is some ultimate separation of powers. This means that we do not all become eternal on equal grounds. Some are better than others. So what abilities separate us in a place that is supposed to be the ultimate existence? Taking this even further, does this imply that we can improve or decrease in ability within eternity? This idea of improvement/competition in eternity combined with time being measured by actions leads to one very interesting conclusion- Principles matter more in eternity because life or death is no longer at stake. Considering the endless of eternity in contrast to our short period in ‘life’, this definitely positions the ‘living’ portion of our existence as a training and proving grounds with principles being the techniques we are to understand and master.

Bring it even FURTHER…this means there are several key events in our lives that make the difference in eternity! Choices here take on a much larger meaning in this context. And the only way to stand confident and to win properly in ‘life’ is to maintain the wisdom/understanding that the match is truly decided after life and is determined based on factors that don’t play as crucial a role here in life. For example, you’re a top banker faced with the choice of bending the truth to keep an account with the firm or being honest and getting fired. Honesty results in real consequences in life but preps you in a great way to compete in the afterlife.

Last, it is virtually impossible to make all decisions with an eternal perspective. The wrong decisions will end up getting made for the right reasons if one attempts to always keep that perspective (eg. crusades?). Therefore, we must live life learning about existence, making mistakes. Training here in life means living in the present and turning your eye to an eternal perspective when the proving grounds appear (eg. big moral decisions). Living in the moment means improving as a person- understanding our desires, our needs, and our capabilities. There is no logical reason why we would be given these if they weren’t meant for good.