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The Visitor (book)

Page history last edited by Karakael 14 years, 2 months ago

Plot:

It is the early 21st century. Neil Latimier, an astronomer in California, is visited by an elderly woman that has found a strange ‘speck’ in the night sky.

 

When that ‘speck’ turns out to be a giant asteroid Neil’s world is turned upside down. Because the asteroid is going to crash into earth, and there’s nothing anyone – even Neil’s bible-thumping husband - can do about it.

 

Seven hundred years later, one of Neil’s decedents, a young woman called Disme, discovers Neil’s diary. As a Pre-Happening artifact, it is her responsibility to hand the book over to the Bastion government. After all, it could hold some of the ‘magic’ of the earlier age, and thus should be rigorously studied.

 

Instead, Disme hides the book and begins to read. Within its pages there is a world not so different from her own, though it contains such magical things as ‘matches’ and ‘telescopes’. So Disme reads, and tries to understand. Where in this marvelous past world is the explanation for her powers – the ability to call fire to her hands or see the strange ghost that hover around the bottle walls? Why is she drawn to drumming? What could Neil have meant, when she spoke of a voice crying “Come quickly and bring all your children”?

 

These questions and more propel her to escape the cruel tyranny of her step-sister (a woman on the up in the Bastions government). So she makes her slow, cautious way to find answers, gaining an odd band of travelers –

 

Doctor Jens, the man who takes her in and watches the world with a permanent smile on his face … but who knows the system of Bastions Power, and yet seems immune to the corruption that plagues it.

Michael, a childhood friend with an affinity for horses who seems to follow her everywhere, and makes her feel strange.

Bobly and Bab, self proclaimed ‘little people’ who look like children but posses hearts far stronger than any others.

Arnole, an old man confined to one of the horrendous ‘Chairs’ yet, like Jens seems to know more than he lets on.

Neil Latimer, an old woman now, kept alive with other fellow scientists by cryogenic suspension, to emerge when the world is ready for the knowledge of the past.

 

And last, but not least,

 

Disme herself; A young woman with a strange talent, trying to understand a world that no longer fits into her beliefs of it. Trying to grow up without following the untimely demises of her brother and father, yet attempting to find answers to all of her unending questions.

 

Those very same questions will lead them all to the cause of the Happening, the one who set all of the wheels in motion, and holds the entire world’s fait within her hands.

 

The Visitor.

History (Or, Bio 101 with God*)

 

But to understand the strange enigma that is The Visitor one must go first to far in the distant past, before there was even life on this planet.

 

The Visitor is not, in fact, a god. She is a super-powerful being, yes. But there are no true gods in this universe, with the exclusion of the Real One. Yet there is a council of beings that governs the universe. And it has given beings like herself the task of seed the galaxy with life, and to coax from that life first intelligence, and then civilization.

 

So The Visitor came to the planet that would be called Earth, and saw that it would be able to sustain life. Using her own powers, she encouraged combinations to form among the elements of the acid lakes. From those basic components she bent her will to creating her personal base molecule – protein, and from that RNA. She gave them codes that sparked replication. Yet this replication was imperfect, as had been her intent. And from that ‘fault’ grew the greatest single most important part of her plan.

 

For that is what The Visitor is, above all else, is a ‘god’ of change. Of progression. Of Evolution. 

 

Wait a billion years, and the Visitor had at her disposal and entire world of thriving life. And all she had to do to get it was care for her creation, by ensuring both its survival and its continued variety.

 

The first species she became truly involved in were what we today would consider the Dinosaurs. But they were a failure, as they stagnated, and did not progress. But they were the dominant species at the time. Drastic measures had to be taken to change that.

 

That drastic measure was an asteroid that destroyed the dinosaur ‘culture’ – what little there was of it. They died out, and The Visitor replaced them with two mammalian species and one arboreal one.

 

One of these species developed into humanity. And The Visitor was proud of her creation, as these creatures developed thought, and material culture, and were beginning to progress toward civilization. So she cared for them, along with her other two species, as she had the dinosaurs; ensuring their survival, encouraging variance, and teaching them when she could. But she also gave humanity conflicts to overcome, as it was only through learning by oneself that they could truly progress.

 

Humanity, in spite of its many pre-programmed flaws, behaved well. Certainly it was not ‘civilized’ yet, but it progressed as if it would eventually become so.

 

And so The Visitor made a mistake. She left.

 

This was not the first time she had been called away. Proto-organisms hardly need constant attention. Nor do dinosaurs. A few thousand years hardly makes a difference, when one thinks of the scale she worked on.

 

So she left, having inspired her last profit and cleaning up as best she could. (The Romans had to be disposed of, and the eastern nations encouraged.)

 

When she looked back, at around 1400, the world was progressing as she had planned. She was satisfied, and she went on with her business.

 

When she looked again a few hundred years later, the world, her world, was in chaos. It was dying and she could not rush back fast enough.

 

What she found horrified her.

 

Humanity had expanded exponentially. There were billions where there had originally been only a few million.

 

And what was worse, her variety had been destroyed. She loved each of her people equally, and yet her ‘innocent’ ones had been massacred in their millions. Her continent of variety had been butchered, its people exported as slaves (a sin that she had destroyed the Romans for…and had hoped that her other cultures would overcome). Her religions of peace and love had been twisted, and every where she heard her own words spoken to justify atrocities. Industrialization was destroying the earth she had worked so hard to create, and Westernization destroying the cultures she had nourished.

 

Even her two other species had suffered, one hunted almost to extinction and then kept encaged, the other having lost its home and habitat, and forced to become ‘pets’ to their human conquers.

 

This was NOT acceptable.

 

Everything she had worked the last hundred million years upon had been destroyed, decimated, and befouled. And yet she restrained herself from merely obliterating the human race (tempting as it was). No. She employed the same strategy she had last time.

 

An asteroid came. Society was destroyed. And now she is picking up the pieces.

 

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Other Good Books

 

There have been several scenarios and people referenced by the Visitor throughout her time on DDD. They are called the "Almost Earths" in her personal language, and are the lands closest to her version of Earth. Most, if not all, come from books by the same author, one Sherri S. Tepper. So here's a sample of a few of them!

 

The True Game:  Enter a land of magic and excitement! Composed of three short trillogies The True Game transports you into a world where magic exists and most people have strange powers called "Talents". With these talents entire armies are formed and wage war upon eachother - under the guise of a "game". Into this world come Peter and Jinian, two young people trying to find themselves and in a strange world where loyalties and honor mean nothing compared to the ever present demands of the True Game. Travel with Peter as he explores the world and finds out about his own unique array of Talents. Follow his mother, Maven, as she explores both her shape-shifting Talent and the unusual societies that live on the fringes of the lands of the True Game. Finally, fight to save the world along with Jinian as she learns not only the history of the world and its people, but also the strength and power she needs to save it from itself.

 

While it’s not ever been explicitly referenced, this series of nine books has been incredably influential on the mun, and has worked its way into The Visitors mindset. It was likely a crisis on this world that called her away from Earth, and someday she'll post a travel guide to it.

 

Grass: In the Future, humanity is dying from a mysterious plague. Earths religious government of the Santified send a family of diplomats to Grass, the only planet to be unaffected from the disease, with the intent to find a cure...but not to give it to the vast majority of humanity. Luckily, the family in question is lead by Marjorie Westriding Yrarier, a woman who is not only not Sanctified, but is also holds true to her beliefs...or at least tries to. So when she and her family arrive on Grass, and find a society based solely on the "Hunt", she becomes worried. For it seems that the Hunt is out of the control of the human rides, and depends completely on the will of the Horsen. And the monstrous creatures they hunt are no mere fox; they are the Foxen, fierce creatures who terrify all who look upon them. Something strange is going on Grass, and Majorie intends to find out what it is. Humanity depends on it.

 

As of yet, Grass has been mentioned by the Visitor only once. Her 'gift' to Eva was a female Foxen cub, a rarity on Grass.

 

Singer from the Sea: Remember when Karakael complained to the community that the Visitor had broken his jaw? The argument took place on the world described in this book.

 

A Plague of Angels: One of the few Human worlds The Visitor actively enjoys visiting, post cannon, at least. She hints that the Three Thrones are beings similar to herself.

The Family Tree: The 'weed' The Visitor was working on plays a key role in this book.

 

The Marianne Trilogy: A series of books that The Visitor refers to semi-regularly when explaining her World Hopping powers. Some key ideas are that of the Momentary Gods, and of the fact that all of us have several worlds in our head, which we can access or be sent into.

 

Gibbons Decline and Fall: The world that the Visitors 'daughter' Sophia oversees. Unlike our world (and the world of The Visitor) certain dinosaur species did develop civilization. They quietly allowed humanity to take over, sequestering themselves away from the less civilized species. However, when Earth is preyed upon by a World Eater (a beast much like the one that the Visitor combated in her story) both humanity, the Dragons, and the Goddess of Wisdom band together to defeat the monstrous creature.

 

Six Moon Dance: The first time The Visitor was introduced to a member of this community, it was while investigating the world chronicled in this book. In it, women hold the power in society rather than men, and it has developed in to a reverse-Muslim state, with the men wearing veils and acting as second class citizens to the rarer but stronger women.

 

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Quotes: The world of The Visitor is rich and complex. Quotes from the book itself do far more to build a picture of this amazing world than any hollow explanations.

 

"Long ago, the people of the world cried out for help. In the reaches of heaven their cry was heard, and a Visitor came in answer to it. That Visitor began helping immediately, but secretly. Now the Visitor intends to be known to the people of the world and the people of the world must deal with that knowledge."

"What did we cry out for?"

"For God to take notice of us. To correct our errors. To govern us. The first answer that came was the Happening. The second answer is about to come, and we do not yet know how terrible the governance may be."

"Why should we fear a just god?"

"I do not know that they prayed for a just God." - p. 41, Camwar and the High Preast of Everyday

 

"In the former world, there were people who said all truth was contained in this or that holy book, this or that holy image, these or these holy beliefs. No matter how complicated their world became, no matter how much it changed, the only answers permitted were those that grew ever more tortuous and convuluted."

"Until?"

"Until, some say, God turned his back on them for their failure to use the minds they had been given." - p. 76, Arnole and Disme

 

"Henceforth is still there?"

"The same cities as when you went to sleep last. Four along the New West Coast, north to south, Mungria, Secours, New Salt Lake, and Henceforth. Several dozen small communities in the Sierra Madre Islands. North of the Yellowstone Sea, a kingdom called Everday, quite civilized."

"And east of us, New Kansas and New Chicago."

"Both still dictatorships, but not particularly repressive as we would understand repression from our own time. More on the Singapore model. Traffic back and forth is fairly constant. Around Bastion the farms and ranches are getting more numerous, people who've moved over the hills. And there's a survivor group we didn't know about, a technological enclave, maybe scientific as well, a good way south of Bastion. Place called Chasm. They're hidden and secretive, but during the last decade the pings have spotted a couple of gateway trading communities out in the open. Evidently they've been there all along, but we didn't have any pings in that area..."

"Anything else?"

"Travelers have spotted a kind of fortress about midway between here and Henceforth, out on the plains. We can't get a ping near it, and all we know about it is that it wasn't there ten years ago. For some reason, the wagoneers call it Goldland."

"Anything from the Mars colony?"

"Moon base is still in touch with them, and they have a very slight increase in population. Moon base itself is still teetering. And that's it."

"Which means the human race has atleast two chances to survive, maybe three, so what are we still in here for?" p. 189-190, Nell and Raymond

 

 

 

 

This section will be edited and added to when the mun has the time!

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