Malcolm McDonnell

by on August 26, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

There were many advantages to growing up in the Hurst Family before Contact. We were born to be kings, raised as princes of the universe, destined for immortality on the greatest and most powerful stage in all the worlds. Earth. We could do anything we wanted, with anyone we wanted, and Family lawyers were on retainer to make it all go away if someone objected after the fact. It was an amazing life for those of us blessed to live it from the inside. But nothing lasts forever. I was banished and forced to live outside the Family, which gave me a new perspective on life. And the Peloran made Contact and changed the universe for all the Families. But I have to say that I was happy to grow up in the Hurst Family. It gave me many opportunities to do things I never could have done otherwise. Wolfenheim is one of them.

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A Primer on the Races of Humanity – Branan

by on August 25, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Branan’s short-lived bodies broke down in a matter of five or six decades at most, but while we sought to lengthen our lifespan, the Branan sought immortality through a different route. They copied their minds into the computer networks and cut the cord to their old, dying meat bodies. The Branan heroes and elders lived in the networks, where they spent two millennia traveling between their stars at lightspeed. They built major electronic presences around every star within one hundred lightyears of Betelgeuse by sending out tiny probe swarms on solar sails. Those probes built numerous fully functional computer networks at their destination stars, and those networks built physical, industrial civilizations where no flesh and blood Branan had ever traveled. Then we made Contact.

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Charles Edward Wolf

by on August 24, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

I grew up with the man you know as Charles Edward Wolf. He was a Hurst back then. He was trained to dress well, because dressing well speaks well of you. He was a Family scion through and through, the chosen heir of his father’s position in the Family, and first among equals to his entire generation. Girls wanted him, boys wished they could be him, and there I was, the joker at his side. I was the Roman scribe, whispering in the ear of a conquering general that the cheering of the crowds was temporary at best. Not that he really needed the reminder. He was smart enough to know all of that, even then. And you know the really amazing thing? He was smart enough to know that he should never let it show that he was smart enough to know. And that was the most carefully held secret of his entire life.

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Malcolm McDonnell

by on August 23, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

I grew up as a cadet member of the Hurst Family before Contact. That meant I went to all of the Hurst Family schools. And yes, that meant I got to wear the Hurst Family school uniforms. Yes. I rocked the school boy uniform as a child. And I did it very well if I say so myself. One of the advantages of wearing a school uniform is that it reinforces the idea that everyone is equal. Though children are not idiots. We knew who was more equal than the others from the moment we were able to form cognitive thoughts. That is the football quarterback in most schools across America. In ours, it was the handful of true, blue Hursts in our classes. And as good as I looked in a school uniform, I never looked as good as a Hurst to those with…certain motivations. That doesn’t mean I didn’t try to look better, though. And sometimes, I succeeded.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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A Primer on the Races of Humanity – Branan

by on August 22, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Branan have an intense industrial society that China’s famous industrial districts wish they could match. People looking in from the outside are appalled at their lack of safety precautions and the conditions of their workers. And environmentalists fall into shrieking catatonia at the mere glimpse of a Branan industrial dump. But what few people understand from the outside is that the Branan outlook on life is very different than ours. Life as we know it is a temporary condition to them. They rarely live more than sixty years. But that is merely their first life. Every Branan is expected to work hard and build up a nest egg in that first life to pay for their second life. And the more honor and money they build up, the more resources they will have when they begin their second life. In the networks.

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