Marie Brennan's Blog, page 9

New Worlds: A Planet of Hats

From our underthings, the New Worlds Patreon proceeds onward to what we have on our heads. Did you ever notice how weird hats are? Comment on them over there . . .

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New Worlds: The Unmentionables

For a month of clothing, the New Worlds Patreon is starting off right next to the skin. That’s right, it’s time to talk underwear! Comment over there . . .

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New Worlds: Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms

The New Worlds Patreon wraps up another governmental month with a look (admittedly a brief and basic one) at pre-state societies. Comment over there!

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Behold: the Rook and Rose wiki!

This has been in the works for quite some time.

The roots of it go all the way back to when Alyc and I started writing The Mask of Mirrors. We knew there was going to be a lot of worldbuilding information and so forth to keep track of, so my husband very kindly set us up with a privately-hosted wiki we could use for that. And then, well . . . I don’t believe in astrology at all, and also I am such a goddamned Virgo. Which led to me meticulously documenting basically everything.

Having done so, it seemed a pity for all that effort to be locked away where only Alyc could see it.

Behold, the Rook and Rose wiki! We were recently approached by a fan who works at wiki.gg, who helped us export the private mediawiki and set it up over on their site. It has had some art added (check it out in dark mode; the background numinat gets super pretty then), and a fancier front page, and there are all kinds of things we can do now that I didn’t bother with before — like hiding spoilers. (There was no point in hiding those when the only people who could see the wiki were the authors.) Also, thanks to the wiki.gg folks, I now know that the total content of the wiki is a hundred and ninety thousand words, which makes it longer than any novel I’ve written that isn’t part of the Rook and Rose trilogy, and very nearly on par with those.

So if there’s anything you ever wanted to know about the world, our characters, the plot, or anything else, go check it out! It contains mentions of deleted bits, details of the setting that never made it into the story — all kinds of stuff. There’s only one specific tidbit of information we removed before making this public, as it’s a reveal we might want to deploy if we write some future work in this setting. (It is, however, an aspect of the world that a reader could potentially deduce, so have fun guessing what that might be.) Other than that, if you read this, you will know basically everything we know about the world and this story!

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New Worlds: The League of Extraordinary Governments

Just like superheroes, governments sometimes team up. The New Worlds Patreon is taking a look at confederations and leagues — comment over there!

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New Worlds: Propaganda

Legitimate messaging or dishonest manipulation? This being the lead-up to the United States election, it’s fitting that the New Worlds Patreon is talking about propaganda — comment over there!

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New Worlds: Constitutions

This month’s New Worlds Patreon essays are going to be a little bit of a grab bag, as the theme this time around is “governmental topics that haven’t fit into previous months.” We’re starting off with the notion of constitutions, which turn out not to work like I used to think — comment over there!

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New Worlds: Celestial Signs

Remember the total solar eclipse across North America earlier this year? The New Worlds Patreon does, and so we’re taking a look at comets, supernovae, and eclipses . . . comment over there!

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New Worlds: It Is Written

It was destined that sooner or later, the New Worlds Patreon would get around to talking about fate. Comment over there — or not, if it is written that you shall not do so . . .

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New Worlds: Tricksters

The New Worlds Patreon continues this month’s journey through folkloric topics with a look at the shapeshifting, untrustworthy trickster! Comment over there . . .

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