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This is a bit of a ramble here, so it's on the really generic level... I'm likely to be a bit short on some bits. I get really into it when talking about details and specifics, but this bit? Just had a lot more ground to cover and sometimes I babble.

Just another setting, but different.

Think about it. Star systems. Planetary exploration. Spaceships. Sci-fi stuff, right? Certainly was hard for me to find these things in a fantasy setting. I mean, these things could certainly be done by magic, couldn't they? So what if fantasy made the sci-fi?

That's essentially where the whole concept of Ahtarra started. We had seen plenty of stories where 'magic' or some other fantasy element were included in a science fiction setting due to the virtues of technology. Where the fantasy element is a byproduct of the sci-fi elements. But we hadn't seen many settings where sci-fi elements were the result of the fantasy elements. Not just 'what if magic was in space' but 'what if magic is how you went to space'.

So Ahtarra is a setting where spaceships are a regular staple and faster-than-light travel is a normal convention - just like in the sci-fi stories. The difference is that instead of being the products of a warp core or a super computer these things exist because a wizard did it.

The point is wizards learn.

Building that feel meant we started small with it at first. A wizard did it. At one point, way way back when, a wizard did a thing and it was amazing. There might have even been a crowd or audience of some kind.

But if one wizard did it, another was going to want to. And another. And another would try to do it better. Eventually a Fantasy setting would evolve. So what would that look like?

Fast forward centuries and millennia later, where wizard after wizard figured out something the last wizard hadn't, and we've left the homeworld behind. Teleportation spells are no longer focused on being simple personal travel spells between rooms but to jump between stars if the practitioner is skilled enough. Levitation spells have become less about keeping yourself from falling and more about floating a ship through the air. Communication spells have have shifted from being minor niceties to being essential services out in the vastness of the void.

The world has evolved.

Thus we find these particular tales set in the area known as the 'Marilith Zone', a relatively newly settled section of the galaxy that's only just starting to get out of the 'Wild West' stage. Three systems are settled, with the oldest of the three becoming a bustling core system and the youngest still very much on the frontier. Humans had long since discovered they were not the only life in the galaxy and yet another example had been met in the early colonization here. Companies and freelancers vie for resources to build these communities while law and religion broil as hot topics among those seeking their freedoms.

Suffice to say, the place is a bit of a regular mess. That's the point.

We wanted to be able to tell stories with wide themes, that had variety to its purpose as much as it had variety in its characters. Narrow settings make for narrow stories and I wanted to spend a good amount of time exploring this one before we move on from it. That wide variety had to feel natural, of course - there had to be a lifelike genesis to where it came from. Contrast to other fantasy settings like your usual out-of-the-box tabletop fare where themes and variety are there because someone said so. We wanted to tell about something that had evolved.

There's still Some central themes, though.

Even with the wide scope and variety, there's still a core to the place. One of the defining portions of the setting is a religious conflict between several groups in the Marilith Zone. Many individual stories won't even touch on it but the conflict is what has shaped a lot of the circumstances at play even in the background.

See, that whole "Humans found out they're not alone" trope I mentioned earlier isn't just a happy aside. They provide the larger portions of one of these groups. Many of that group believe that gods or demons are not some mystical things confined to higher planes or the afterlife; they walk among all people. They swear they've met some of them. This conflicts with the core worlds who promote a view of one god above all. And yet another group of wizards who have focused on augury and divination for so long they've begun to take a religious view on fate and destiny have their own things to say on the matter. Each of these have subtle clashes with the others.

What does this have to do with central themes? Through this setup I personally enjoy promoting a focus on a specific pair of themes: communication and exploration... Of both internal and external varieties.

But it's not a Pocahontas story.

One of the big clichés we wanted to avoid was the typical 'humans invade alien world calling it a good thing' setup. Where the 'foreign' race is romanticized or cast as the victims of humanity to prop up some other message. Partly because we find it overdone, but also partly because we didn't find it very realistic on this scale.

Which isn't to say that we don't think humanity would do that in space, but instead to say space is expensive. The time, resources, and lives it takes to reach a new habitable (or close enough) system and plant a boot on the ground is ... Wait for it ... Astronomical. To spend that amount of capital only to then spend even more fighting for it doesn't really offer much in terms of a return on investment. There's enough to fight against just to survive in space, and plenty of other stars to pick from if this one is really that much of a problem. So most times it just doesn't make sense to pick a fight like that.

Instead, the conflict here brewed slowly. Ideologically. Groups deal with each other out of necessity, slowly improving their situation, and eventually something boils over. We're jumping into this pot a good simmer before that point.

So to bring all that together...

I'm rambling. On purpose, some. Ahtarra is a setting that we have come to love exploring and building onto, and there will be a lot of time spent there. Both in the things we create and the blathering I write in The Storyteller. There's a lot we haven't yet defined for the setting, a lot we have not yet put to a tale, and a lot we haven't yet even given thought to. That's part of the fun.

But I wanted to let some of these thoughts onto paper (screen?) for where all of that enjoyment came from. The starting point, as it were. The first mile post. What is Ahtarra? It is our current pride and joy. There's one or two others, like Riansen certainly, and you'll see some of that in time, but for the moment this is it. We've become fascinated with this idea... So we started writing it. And here we are. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

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