Subsolem Septem
One would here imagine
the story of a world
to begin with its creation;
with tales of a creator
or the simple yet miraculously
coalescent combination
of mere chance and chemistry.
The story of this world, however,
begins with its
destruction
As ashen skies were ripped to shreds
and Umbral Cloak of Night was torn asunder
to never once be whole again
the surface of the World Disk
was damned to its forevermore existence
a wasteland Scorched Lands under Seven Suns.
And soon all that remained
of what was once a verdant world
was endless galleries of husks of trees, all blackened from inferno,
more fallen ruins of empires that thought themselves eternal
than anyone could count or ever could recall
and neverending seas of palest yellow sulphur-sand,
of rust-red ferrous salt and deadly scintillating silt.
But deep below the surface of the World
Styx was founded as a People's Republic after the Great Revolution cast off the shackles of the rule of the God Empress
far from the deadly scorching rays of Seven Hateful Suns
lies now the City State of Styx
in all its glory and disorder.
and with the offices of High Priestesses and nobility alike abolished alltogether the Empire of Styx was no more
and the working people, once burdened and oppressed, now free proclaimed:"Styx is eternal"
and
"Long live the Great Revolution,
May ever-live the Stygian Republic!"
Now the city is ruled by the Temple Parliament, a bicameral governing body made up of officials elected from the Great Unions which each represent a group of the working populace of Styx and though a popular Stygian proverb says "Traditions die hard ...but those that want to change them die much easier and quicker." a great deal has changed in the City State of Styx in the 354 Years and 43 Legislature Periods since the Great Revolution.
More relaxed laws, improved living standards and advancements in technology and most industries have changed the lives of the people and according to the designs of the Temple Parliament the city moves onward, everly onward to utopia, if one is to believe their words.
The Stygian Republic is a sprawling, constantly shifting, a living, breathing microcosmos in itself.
A tiny simulacrum of the metaphorical mycellium spreading throughout all of reality.
With all its law and chaos and all its good and bad, prosperity and poverty, the progress, power plays, and equals parts of misery and majesty, and it will be eternal so long its peoples' hearts pump blood and dawn spreads daily cross the Cavern Sky in shades of green, orange and red.
And as the Great Unions vie for power. the Temple idly governs and ordinary people lead their most ordinary lives trying to make ends meet between shortages and saintly feast days.
Despite all the progress made since the God Empress lost her head life in Styx is hardly easy.
Resources are often short, the lives of laboring people are tough and freedom is a valuable commodity but the people make do with what they get and one might say they do it well.
One thing the people of Styx have plenty of is fear.
The Church preaches it near constantly and the people feel it deeply; threats to their safety could hide anywhere, even in plain sight and so the people of Styx fear outsiders, foreigners and mere strangers, they fear the other, the spies and the intrigue that enemies of Styx and progress bring... and most importantly and strongly they fear the things within the dreaded Forest right outside the city wards but perhaps to their greatest credit the people are, to put it simply, just too stubborn ( or some would say too stupid ) to resign to it and so they keep on going, on every day anew.
And so the world goes on within the city walls and then outside of it too.
It’s here that our story might just begin one not so distant day; within an evershifting city and with a wide and widely-feared whole world outside of it, and all the good and all the bad that only thinking, feeling beings do.
Some light remains within your lantern
and there is so much left to learn.
Do you wish to delve deeper...?
The broader Cosmos under Seven Suns
The Many Realms
that dwell upon the Antlers of the World Skull
The Prime World Disk
The War of the Ancients
the long-forgotten conflict which doomed the surface of said World Disk.
The Great Cavern of Aman-ya
and its Borders and Nations.
The Goddess Serkatha
and her Church
The City State of Styx
as well as its diverse people, politics, its history, religion and technology.
The Leshivoi Forest
and all those that dwell within.
And countless other secrets hidden in these Sunless Depths.
Notes from the Author
I'm aware that writing, even Fantasy, does not exist within a vaccuum.
My views of the world and its history and culture influences my writing.
Further I'm aware that I have an endless amount to learn about the world I myself live in, am aware of my own privileges and the limited scope of my worldview.
I think that living is learning and learning is growing and that is how I intend to live until the day I die.
I do not intend to demean real world cultures, faiths or ethnicities with my work and if I do so, even accidentally I want to listen and improve.
The only groups I wish to demean are capitalists, cops, fascist fucks, bootlickers and bigots, cheers.
I give thanks to my community and family both blood and chosen, to friends and lovers, comrades, activists and teachers.
And I give credit to the artists and writers who have also contributed to this project.
Thank you for bringing this world beneath Seven Suns to life.
CoffinTongues (illustrations)
Addertwist (illustrations and input)
Kinder (illustrations)
This Cosmos under Seven Suns was inspired by the everliving craft of hopeful writing the works of Ursula K. Le Guin introduced me to, the satire, good humor and witty empathy of Terry Pratchett, the depth of Tolkien's works whose conservative romanticization of the English countryside I've likened to my own view of the inner cities and suburbs and our shared humanity that ties together everything, as well as the naturalist eye for the smallest dwellers in our midst of Richard Adams and the fearful worldview of H.P. Lovecraft who I wholeheartedly hope would hate this world of diversity and beautiful strangeness.
With love, rage and ardent solidarity, Cassidy aka .SCRR
You can also find me here on Tumblr.