The Taludrian Tales are a collection of stories all gathered in a world often called 'Ragdalae'.

A fantasy world, which I am developing in many aspects;

• The Creation, the Deities, mythological forces, and the constructs of religion
• The world: its physical organization from continents, climates, changes through the ages, and contact with less-physical worlds
• The less-physical realms of being; off-shoots and "demi-planes"
• The history of the world: changes of the planet through time, interactions of societies, gods, individuals, and aetherial forces...
• The various races and species
• The philosophic differences that should exist in a world with more species, besides humans, widely considered sentient; or in which mage-combat can and has widely changed local environments; or in which an ability to contact and speak with one of the gods, to request answers, is a culturally-comprehended concept...

Etc.

The story began when I wanted to write a fantasy novel, based partly off the ideas I'd soaked in from videogames, and so I developed basic maps, history, and a cast of characters---and weapons of choice---so I could start writing their stories and adventure.

It's been developed by my wanting them to have religious forces other than the ones I'm familiar with in real life, so I made up a few gods for different people to revere or oppose.

Elements from my philosophy classes have been leaking into my journals over the last three years, and have adjusted my interest in the story; now I see much more an exercise in world-creation, in the differences that I could play with in such a world...

and the lovely imagery that comes in a world where, yes, the most obnoxiously videogame/anime/action-cartoon styles of magic are real. Where shooting lightning, raising the dead, and other such kinds of 'magic' work with the structure of the universe.
((Despite many attempts, telekenesis has not worked for me. Neither has blatant, "hearing words in your head" telepathy, and neither has physical flight.))

When I developed an outline of a myth in a quick, fifteen minute exercise last semester, I recognized it to be the story of Somos; the all-being god, as according to a 'poem' I'd written a few years before in an insight of religious/spiritual/philosophical import:

• The Purpose of Life is Living,
• The Meaning of Life is to Find Your Own Meaning;
• All Knowledge being One,
• Life is the Act of Being.

Sketchbooks had filled with references to matter and antimatter, being and not-being. They'd filled with my wonder at exploration, at my love of the child's love of life... of the obnoxious, socially-inept, enthusiastic, nose-dribbling kids who just won't stop asking you how the world works.

I saw references to such a view of the One in Diane Duane's "So You Want To Be A Wizard" series, in references to how the One---((the ultimate, original divine power))--could 'undo' all the unhappiness in the world and make everything 'perfect', but that to do so would be against the point of life----the fun in trying to fix everything, and building the worlds together.

I saw such references in Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land, when I read it... and read 'Thou art God', and puzzled on the meaning of 'grok'.

And I decided to play with these ideas, to bring these ideas and myths and stories together into one place in which I could explore any of them.

That's where the Taludrian Tales comes from.

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Last updated: 7/14/07 at 6:05 pm