Stella Matin and Other Things

And now I shall attempt to explain things, in my own particular, convoluted...idiom.

The Voyance in Theron and Brenon's time may or may not be a hereditary title; no one really knows. But the Voyance is in charge of regulating crafters and magicrafters, 'mancers, renegades, and the dead. I haven't figured out geography yet, but the Voyance's city is basically the center of everything magickal, cultural, otherworldly, and artistic. Magic and art are very similar skills, and most people have some amount of magickal or artistic talent, so the Voyance is also in charge of censorship and common decency laws. He weilds incredible influence over the artists but can influence the general, untalented population only indirectly through the magick and art laws he passes.

The Voyance can blacklist any artist or crafter for violation of these laws; a Black Mark doesn't just make it hard to get a job, however. Depending on the degree of the crime you commit, the Mark will do anything from crippling your hands to atrophying your vocal chords- anything short of death, really. Theron's Black Mark acts like a wasting sickness; it won't kill him directly, but he'll eventually be too weak to eat or otherwise support himself, and he'll probably die of exposure.

Being caught helping someone who has been blacklisted is nearly grounds for being blacklisted yourself; the Voyance rules with an iron fist, and doesn't like having is rulings subverted. Beyond being a tyrannical bastard, he doesn't have much of a personality at this point. Or a name. Or really, any discernable characteristics at all, beyond SUPREME POWAH.

*cough* Anyway. In Stella Matin's time, the dead have taken over the city and possibly the world; the living are second class citizens, and they're very much so in the minority. Something in the water is keeping them from reproducing, I think. Don't really know. Most people are revenants, which means that they have corporeal forms and can be injured. Ghosts like Walker are rarer, which is why he's so fucking badass.

The dead aren't crafters of any sort- they lose that ability when they wake, but by Stella Matin's time, crafting is a lost art anyway. The dead are mostly just like the living- they can die again and they need to eat and sleep. There are dead prostitutes and dead drug dealers- but there is no art or culture, so they are forced to turn to less artistic vices for entertainment. The whole world has become an underworld, of sorts, and the Voyance rules over it. He's the only one who can put a soul to complete rest; when one of the dead is killed in a conventional way, it sort of reincarnates itself if it can find a warm one nearby before it dissipates. There are always plenty of living slaves in the residential areas of the city, so that's never a problem. But the Voyance can destroy a soul before it can find a new body.

Walker can do this, too, but he's a special case.

The dead aren't nearly as prevalent in Brenon and Theron's time, and the Voyance himself is actually alive then. The events that lead to the dead taking over are probably Theron's fault, but there's a huge amount of time between the two stories. It's an expanded universe, much like the Rothcar timeline is...but it's nowhere near as extensive, thankfully. (Other things to index. Meh.) Generally the only people who become one of the dead, rather than just being unliving (I'll need to find better terminology, clearly.) are blacklisted crafters. Once they're dead, they can't practice their craft anymore, and they're forced to act as slaves until the Voyance decides they've been punished enough.

Once you're dead, you retain most of your personality, but not many of your memories, so it's a little pointless trying to punish someone who isn't aware of the crime he committed. The Voyance isn't especially nice, though, and the dead are useful servants.

This is going to slowly be reworked, I think. The city needs a personality, but it feels like it's going to be a schizophrenic personality...

More later.