http://camishakelley.deviantart.com/
Most
of the action in jackalopes takes place in the underworld. The
underworld of this story is a very dangerous place that all dead
souls must pass on their way to paradise. In my design document I
noted that the it should be based on equal measures of Mayan (the
monsters and traps), Greek (general dreariness) and particularly
Egyptian (the knowledge of protective spells and the one safe path)
view of the afterlife. Egyptian mythology is very fascinating to me
and the focus on knowing about the one true path is somewhat similar
to the Christian view of Jesus as the one true path. As I wrote in
the blog-post before this one, I want the main idea of the story
(jackalopes leaving paradise to help dead souls to safety) to be
relatable to all kind of people. Guarding the soul of the dead can be
like being a security guard or police-officer, for example.
As
I write in the last post Jackalopes is in essence, a story about
giving up or temporarily leave a privileged position. I do not
necessarily mean that in the religious sense, either. I also meant
this story to be applicable to for example rescue-workers or similar.
Even office workers fit into the story as Jane has to go through
quite a lot of paperwork, induction and training before becoming a
jackalope.
But
what of the underworld itself? The first and foremost feeling I want
to convey when designing the underworld is confusion. Not only for
the shades being stuck in a strange and dangerous place with no hope
of returning to life but also for the jackalopes sent to protect
them. The main two ways I have used in my writing in order to make
the underworld confusion is firstly to make the transition of time
and space somewhat dreamlike. Characters and places can move around
with no rhyme or reason. For example a character the main heroine met
can be sent away on a faraway mission and then reappear quite
suddenly from a nearby room without anyone noticing anything weird.
Time is also vague, and it is always uncertain how fast the days go
by since the underworld is always dark, and characters are always
surprised when talking about what time it is.
The
second way I have made the underworld confusing is by adding elements
from different mythologies, myths and surreal things that simply do
not make any sense (exactly what I mean by that you have to read the
story to find out). I wanted to imply that people have built cities,
towns and temple all over the underworld for times immemorial and as
they left everything just crumbled or was reused by people coming
after leaving a mix-maxed world of strange architecture and machines
that a few, but not all shades know what they are for. The underworld
itself has had many rulers leaving their mark on it, its borders
changing constantly (the underworld has two neighbouring countries,
so to speak, Hell and the borderworld of Xibalba).
Even
for the jackalope lot of it is very mystical and weird. The only
constant though the underworld is the safe path!
I
do plan on making a series of jackalope books (although very slowly
since I have several other ideas I wish to explore in-between books)
and in this first one we explore just the first third of the
underworld. We explore the outer darkness (a term lifted from the
bible) the borderworld of Xibalba (lifted from Mayan mythology, Sami
dream shamanism and er, Half-Life). Lastly, and most importantly, we
explore thirteen of the twenty-three pylons and are dotted along the
safe path through the underworld. These pylons are the main base of
the jackalopes and there the heroine of the story, Jane, will meet
several different friends, mentors and other denizens of the
underworld. This story was very interesting to write because the main
villain changed three times during me writing this. All three
characters are still in the book.
Can
YOU guess who were originally the main villain?
I
guess I should provide a little of the text or otherwise provide a
favourite scenario of mine. Since the whole book will be provided
for free on my website I think I will just discuss some of my two
favourite scenes. Actually, the two scenes are related. The first is
Jane stumbling upon the kitchen of a pylon and conversing with one of
the chefs. I wanted to show that work to save others is not all about
heroics but also providing for them and feeding them. The hustle and
bustle of the kitchen with people running to and fro and small imps
pushing down ingredients into the cauldrons and pans below is quite
vivid and a scene I am very happy with. The other one is Jane camping
with a couple of other jackalopes and a emissary from the religion of
Ray, the fox god. It is a nice little example of ecumenism and
understanding between religions as Jane and the emissary compares
notes between what their gods are like.
Chapter 3:
http://www.tymorthetrickster.com/Jchapter3.html
