Saturday, January 25, 2014

The Survey No One Will Take

So, there are all kind of variations on the "Sword and Sorcery" and "Steampunk" themes.

I've been trying to decide how to classify Pandemonia. It's fantasy, first and foremost. But there are Sci-fi elements as well. Notably, the cultures of Pandemonia have bypassed the invention of gunpowder, and due to certain philosophical predilections, have made developments in A) Electromagnetism and B) the discovery of Radioactive elements.

The study of Electromagnetism falls under the study of Lightning, which is part of the "Unified Field/Theory of Everything" Trinity: Lightning (Electromagnetism, Light, etc.), Waves (The Way Everything Gets From Here to There), and Tides (Gravity, Strong Interaction and Weak Interaction). I haven't included elementary particles, simply because they haven't made that leap yet. I guess that goes for Strong and Weak Interactions, too.

I should also mention that alongside the absence of gunpowder is an absence of steam power. Because it annoys me. Or I should say, the glut of Steam powers as a proxy way to power everything from trains and airships to what amounts to Her Majesty's BattleMechs. I even enjoy that stuff myself, from time to time. The Iron Kingdoms from Privateer Press being an excellent example.

But, it's way overdone. And it's my world and I make the rules.

So, to get back on track, I have been tossing around a few terms.

Radiation/Punk: Radpunk?

Or Nukepunk? (But that sounds kind of Post-apocalyptic)

Particlepunk? Atompunk?

Or how about Swords and Atoms?

Swords and REMs?

Swords and Fallout? (Once again, too Post-Apocolyptic, probably)

Atoms and Sorcery?

I just don't know. So, if there are any ideas, I'm open for them.

4 comments:

  1. I can't, for the life of me, figure out why Blogger won't separate my paragraphs. WTF?

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  2. Alright! Fixed it. Blogger sure didn't make it easy to fix the line/breaks, especially when you have no Code Fu, like I have no Code Fu.

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  3. Yeah, line breaks in blogger are difficult. I've had issues from time to time too.

    As for your original question: I think the -punk attachment seems to connotate a kind of urban dystopian vibe. Is that really a feature of your setting? If not, you might want to step back a bit from calling it anything -punk.

    You could always riff off of your lightning and the term blitzkrieg ("lightning war") and call it blitzfantasy?

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  4. Lightning might be the way to go...

    Blitz Fantasy is the best I've heard thus far.

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