Worldbuilding June Day 9: Nature & The Universe

Contemporary setting, so all the religions and belief systems exist.  Sayuri considers herself somewhat spiritual – she doesn’t necessarily believe in astrology or healing energies, but she see’s value in those things regardless, even if it’s only placebo.  Doctor Sarkis identifies as Egyptian and Muslim, although we most often see her in a professional capacity so it’s never really been discussed so far.  So what I’m going to do today is basically write enough summary of what my series is about.  I might include something like it in the introduction in the revised and extended version of my original story, The Little Queen:

Since the dawn of time, humans have asked the question, ‘why does shit happen?’  Nature was frightening and incomprehensible to our ancestors, so they sought to impose their own will upon it by telling stories.  Stories about great gods under the earth whose struggles caused volcanoes to erupt, or who dragged the sun across the sky and made it rain.  About spirits in the woods who wood strike men down with sickness, or demons possessing our bodies.  And while these could seem frightening in themselves, they were in fact comforting.  They meant that the universe was not random and that men could control nature by making the proper offerings.  Of course it was only a matter of time before some started to realise that actually it made no difference how many prayers or offerings you made – the sun would still come up, and there would still be sickness, famine and drought.  The universe simply refuses to play by mankind’s rules.

So some men and women decided it would better to find out what rules nature actually played by.  They eventually became known as scientists, and the more rules they uncovered, the more humans could utilise them for their own ends.  Finally, by no longer trying to impose their own will on the universe and seeing nature for what it was, they had the means to conquer sickness and hunger.  The problem humans then had was in conquering their own nature.

We now live in a time when magic is real, where we have the means to bring our dreams and fantasy to life.  But to prevent those dreams becoming nightmares we have to stuggle against our own selfishness, violence, and greed.