Filling in the Gaps

“Five factions to learn and be united as one. All powers and studies have two sides: a light and a dark, creation and destruction, mimicking the flow of our consciousness and hearts. You will be better at some than others, reflecting your talents and true state of being.

“The power of the body, the Physical: Known to you as Letics, they have mastered the arts of the body; its functions, capabilities and limits. They perfected the arts of speed, strength, agility, coordination, acrobatics, touch, stealth and endurance.
“The power of the mind, the Mental: Known to you as Brains, they have mastered the arts of intelligence. They are ones who have discovered the arts of learning, memory, remote manipulation, sense and awareness, mind reading, the conscious, precision, concentration and the abstract.

“The power of the soul, the Spiritual: Known to you as Happies, they have mastered the arts of feeling. The arts of empathy, heart, healing, the unconscious, dream, meditation, projection, protection, and stability are theirs to command.

“The power of the chaos, the Conflict: Known to you as Darks, they have embraced the turmoil and struggle of human experience. They may summon, consult, glimpse future and past, hide, frighten, teleport, mask and disguise, find what is lost, and know truth from lies.

“The power of communication, the Influence: Known to you as Populars or Poppies, they understand the call of the masses and the strength of the whole. They may persuade, rally, discourage, unite, build, adapt, dominate and control.

“Finally as a make-shift sixth faction, we represent the power of homoeostasis, the Balance: Known as the Freethinkers or the Freets, we seek to find harmony between all the factions and powers. Though each individual may not master all the arts, we learn from each and strive to equalize and keep our minds open to all possibilities.

“Know all these powers, learn from their ways and find your harmony and balance. Each has a light and dark side. Every Faction can be used for good or ill intentions. The Freets must acknowledge and accept both the stereotype and the contradiction. The journey will be difficult, as is with all Freets who wish to become Masters of our Order, but have faith that in time the answers you seek will come to you and you will understand.”


-+-

I need to incorporate this into the prologue of my novel. I have feedback from two sources now that tell me that the story makes sense except for why the characters in my story have these "powers". I've been struggling to figure out how to explain these powers, since obviously I can't just expect my readers to accept them. I was going to explain the HOW later on, but the WHAT is the factor that needs to be taken care of immediately.

I realized I haven't given much information on my story other than general progress and the occasional snippets of what I'm focusing on and the type of research I'm doing (mostly light weapons and martial arts with some aspects centred on technology). It is a science fiction novel set in an "alternate future" (though I may change it to an alternate world altogether, but that would be more difficult). It's definitely an alternate future because there is no way in hell this could ever happen. Essentially a war occurs in North America between the East and the West (playing on that whole East/West tension idea that's at least present in Canada...I'm not sure about the States). The war ends in a stalemate, placing a temporary border between the East and West more or less in the middle (prairie provinces and states). The West divides into 3 parts, a north, middle and south. The East remains united, and a great deal stronger because of it.

My story takes place in the middle West (obviously most easy for me to relate to) and focuses on one of the factions mentioned earlier, "The Freethinkers" or "The Freets". Now, these aren't the Freethinkers you would associate with in our day and time (at least I associate them with religious issues, but that's probably because of the university clubs I've encountered over the past few years). They are called the Freethinkers because they are a group of rebels that oppose the government of the Middle West called the "Middle West Populars" or as the Freets like to call them "The Poppies" (or simply Populars, depending if the user is joking or not). The Populars (if you read above) established their "temporary government" after the North American War. After some disputes about which parties should be the one to govern the new state, the Populars came out on top, mostly because of their use of Influence powers (convincing the populace that they were the best choice for their nation). Many were not pleased about the development, but out of fear of being attacked by the East and the other two Western nations, they accepted the MW Populars as their legitimate government. Navar Poten was one of the few to resist, believing that the use of force and control over the minds of people were not a compromise for safety. Therefore he formed the rebel faction of the Freethinkers in an attempt to bring the government down from the inside and restore a form of democracy.

Over a course of five years, Navar Poten built his organization as the Popular government became stronger and less opposed. Originally starting with a handful of people, he gathered other like-minded individuals until the organization grew to number in the thousands. My five main characters, Ash, Dedrad, Dan, Myra and Grypt all join the Freets in this time (for extremely different reasons) and become part of a special operations team led by Ash. Ash was the first of these five to become one of the Freets (was one of the first overall, joining little over a year after Poten began his faction) and became Navar Poten's apprentice. He was then given the freedom to find members for his special operations team and learn to master the five powers. At the time of the story, the Freets are preparing for their final attack with the creation of the "Clear Mind Device", a small machine which can protect their minds from the Popular's Influence powers.


-+-

Wow a really long entry, but it was about time it was done. Now when people ask "what's the book about", I can just give them this site and I won't be lost for words. I have been working on this story since I was in grade 11 (so since 2006). I have gone through 2 versions before arriving at the one I am working on now. I seem to always give up before I finish and I decided that's not going to happen this time. After I figure out how to work this information into the first few chapters, I will be finishing chapters 8 and 9 in the next few days. I have no idea when the whole book is going to be finished. I have the attention span of a goldfish (thank you internet), a job to worry about and a portfolio to finish in the next little while. I also have a video series I'm WAY behind on, so hopefully I'll be able to allocate my time a little better. My writing tips page is currently on hold because the person who said they'd give me notes on poetry can't now and I'm still trying to figure out what else to add. I'm also trying to figure out how to USE the EGAWT, but I digress. At any rate, being the paranoid writer I am I pray none of these ideas are stolen, but I really don't think I have anything to worry about.

I ran out of black forest ham. Sad day.