I've always wanted to create a world rich with it's own history; however, I have always thought that humanity's own history is a story greater than any that could have been conceived.
Today I thought of a way to incorporate both of these ideas: The world of Vitalis. Vitalis is a planet of my own creation set inside our Milky Way. If I decide to write, it would be a story of another world's history.
Set in the far future when humanity has gained interstellar travel and explored the galaxy near fully. What they found was that, while there were other planets in the galaxy that harbored life, only one harbored life that exibited free-thought patterns of intelligence: Vitalis.
Vitalis, latin for "life", is what humanity named the planet, but the inhabitants have another name for their land (name still undecided). The inhabitants are simultaneously reptilian and amphibious. They are currently in a feudal system similar to the middle ages of earth with one notable exception: the lands are ruled by Queens and Ladies and the heirs are the firstborn daughters. This is due to a long standing tradition of females being the administrators and males being the warriors and generals. Everything else mirrors Earth's own feudal period.
The Vitalians are ignorant of the partially assembled space observation platform that orbits their planet. The human scientists that occupy the platform are a lucky few out of tens of billions that were selected to observe the Vitalians.
85% of the story would focus on Vitalis from the viewpoint of key Vitalian characters. The other 15% would be conversations between the human scientists about the Vitalians and the state of the hypothetical Future Earth. There will be no interaction between humans and Vitalians. Ever. I am serious about that point. The excitement of reading about first contact is far outweighed by the risk of contaminating the development of a completely independant culture and history, in my opinion.
Why, then, are there humans in the story at all? If you have read any fantasy novel, humans are usually the centerpoint, but the story is usually set in a fictional world. This allows the author to craft a unique history while still using elements of humanity. That is all fine and dandy, and I thoroughly enjoy stories written like that, but I wanted something different. I wanted to craft a world that was fictional, but still plausible, and to do that I needed a planet in our own universe. But how would one know that said world was in our own universe, if the viewpoint was stuck at ground level in a society that does not even know what "space" is, let alone that they are on a round planet in a vast galaxy. Also, introducing humans gives the readers a unique perspective, different than typical fantasy novels. The readers are not simple onlookers from "ground level" of the Vitalian society, but are now "overwatchers" of a race with a unique place in galactic history. Exciting, isn't it?
Finally, I want to touch on the Theology of Vitalis. It will not be a primary focus of the story, but I do want to touch on it. The Vitalians believe in a single entity with infinite power they call "The Worldkeeper" or "The Loving Mother" who manifests herself (females are the "dominant" gender, remember?) in the form of her various natures, each nature being represented by an aspect of, well, nature itself. While the Vitalians believe that The Loving Mother directly intervened in certain world events, it is generally accepted that she works through chosen individuals.
Does this monotheistic religion sound similar to anything? Because it should. This Vitalian theology leaves open the possibility of God having created another intelligent race and also having revealed his unchanging nature to them through their own unique history. Nevertheless, there is no "Jesus" parallel in Vitalian religion. This is because humanity is god's chosen race (though he does not love the Vitalians any less, mind you, because they ARE his creation), much like how the Jewish people are/were (depending on who you talk to)God's chosen people within humanity. The Vitalians know sin because it is my belief (along with C.S. Lewis) that the original sin of Adam and Eve was a universal event, not an Earthly one.
As I said, none of this elaboration on the concepts of Vitalian religion will be in the story; it's just a treat for those who trudged through all the other stuff. You're welcome.
So there you go: Vitalis in a nutshell.
What do ya think?
