It has been some time. For that I apologize. I hit something of a creative wall that took time to go away and took further time to reconcile because I was constantly distracted and emotionally drained by other things over the past few months. I cannot stress how deeply saddened I was that this took too damn long to get out into the world. I felt like I was failing people, a position I hate being in because I know I can be better and I know I am more often than not in a position to do better.
With all that said, all I can do now is press forward and try to give a few thoughts concerning our next arc for Remnants.
The idea I formed concerning this chapter, and subsequent future ones, is one that's a bit more risky, perhaps even controversial. As time goes on, my reasoning and intent with these chapters will become more clear, but for now, we're dealing with a very specific scenario. That being, we're looking at the Halo universe from the eyes of a civilian.
More often than not in military science fiction, the viewpoints of the civilian caught in the crossfire is ignored. What they go through is not seen as nearly as important as the big battles and overriding politics, the heroes fighting the villians and all the other stuff that is the drive of the series. Halo is no different, we rarely see civilians and when we do they are always portrayed as hapless victims or in the way of more important things.
I wanted to use this unique opportunity to properly explore what civilian life is like in the Halo universe during the war with the Covenant. More specifically, the various colonies under threat of being glassed. We constantly hear about the immense loss of life the Covenant entoll, but it always comes across as a statistic. We hear about billions being dead and how many innocents have been killed by the Covenant, we rarely see it or the consequences of such a war on the civilian population. My idea was thus, what if there were survivors of a glassed colony and they blamed the UNSC for not protecting them?
The precedent is there, in war sacrifices are routinely made in pursuit of an objective. More often than not, Generals will weigh the strategic pros and cons of any action. At times, that might mean leaving people to die and sending them to die. That's not always soldiers though, sometimes it can mean leaving behind civilians or going forward with actions that are unfavorable to them. It's a harsh reality, but it's there.
It has been routinely documented in Halo's lore that various colonies had to be left to die as it was seen pointless to try and save them or not strategically viable to save them. And while as outside viewers we can understand those choices in the wider array, we forget about the people who don't have a choice in how those decisions affect them. Would a colonist about to watch their home and everyone they love be burned to ashes really care that much about an Admiral's reasons for not coming to save the day? All they'd see is someone with the power to help, choosing not to.
So I came up with a colony that suffered this fate and examined how they would respond to being left to their own devices and forced to survive on their own. The resentment is clear, obvious, but I felt I could go further. Where the colonists, so enraged and upset at the UNSC leaving them to die, decide to sever any ties with the UNSC. They reject the ideology, the government, everything about them and decide to go their own way.
I considered options on how to best illustrate this direct rejection of the UNSC as an entity. I dismissed them going luddite or adopting some hokey religion/philosophy. None of those idea interest me, they tried them on Star Trek and they were inadequate. You can't have space colonists who decide to outwardly reject technology, that's just stupid. On many levels in fact. No, for me the best way to illustrate this colony of survivors had removed themselves from the UNSC sphere of influence was to have them re-brand their colony's name entirely. For them to choose a different origin for their new name, separate from standard UNSC conventions.
The UNSC's terminology aesthetics have very narrow focus. They revolve around primarily Western Classical Mythology and Historical in how they give things names. It sticks primarily to Roman, Greek, Western Europe and American iconography. Spartans, Longswords, Pelicans, the very obvious connective tissue between the US Marines and the Space Marines. There are exceptions, like the Warthog for example, but primarily the naming conventions of the UNSC follow very standard hardline terminology in line with modern day aesthetics. This isn't a criticism or even something I take issue with concerning the lore of Halo. It is just something I noticed.
So, I decided I wanted the Apekis V survivors to go a different direction. They split from the UNSC, they have become wholly indepedent and have decided to forge a new identity. I decided that most of the Colonists would be of Latino descent fairly early on and from there I decided they would identify more with their ancestors' roots than of the current world government. And because it is rarely used at all in fiction as a wellspring of inspiration in defining and characterizing sci-fi worlds... I went with Aztec mythology as the new foundation of the lost colony's aesthetic terminology.
In my view, Aztec and MesoAmerican mythology at large is fountain of interesting imagery worth exploring. We sadly ignore it though in favor of more readily available and familiar myths. Norse mythology, Greek, Medieval Legends. We rarely go outside that comfort zone. The Covenant's most devastating ground weapon, the Scarab, is one of the few examples where Egyptian iconography is used in sci-fi. And even there, it's for the bad guys. See also Stargate where the entire pantheon of Egyptian gods are evil and the big heroic aliens are based on Norse myths. Again, not a criticism, but it is a shame when we overuse mythologies from one or two sources in a very specific way.
This is why I found the laest Tomb Raider refreshing. Regardless of whatever problems were inherent in that game, it was nice to have an opportunity to explore MesoAmerican mythology in depth. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little inspiration from that game in ultimately deciding to name the colony New Teteocan.
Teteocan was one of the Thirteen Heavens of Aztec Mythology. Its full name is Ilhuicatl-Teteocan, the Sky that is the Place of the Gods. It's where where you'd find all the most important dieties, the creator lords, like Quezacoatal, for example. It is only surpassed by the last heaven, where the creators of the universe and the other Gods themselves reside. Considering the Forerunners' position in Halo lore, I felt it was appropriate as did the colonists themselves.
I've tried to avoid cliche for the most part. I don't have the colony adopting Mexican or Aztec designs or dressing up like stereotypical Latinos. They're a congregation of survivors, they're not going to fall into cliches like that. It was important to me to represent them as people who respect and honor their culture but do not let it dictate everything to Epcot World Showcase levels. As always, representation matters to me. The decision to make the colony mostly Latino in heritage was motivated primarily to present something different from the norm, not for any other reason but that. I would like to hope that the colonist so far have proven to be unique and interesting that enough that everyone enjoys them. But if you are Latino, well, hopefully you get a kick out of seeing them as well and I, as a admitedly very white dude, do them justice.
Speaking of the colonists, I spent a lot of time trying to better define their personalities and quirks. I wanted them to be well-rounded and for their characters to be informed by specific traits. I'm hoping to flesh them out even more as time goes on, we will be here for a while, as you can tell.
I'm most interested I think in seeing the reactions to Maisey, Asha and Rowan as time goes on. For various reasons, as I feel I've put a lot of time into trying to define them as standouts to a degree. Rowan is certainly the most lively of the bunch, definetly the most friendly. Which helps break up the angry side glares most of the other characters give our heroes. I leave up to you, as time goes on, to decide how much grief is deserved on the either side of the aisle.
This is where the whole Sugar subplot I've been building begins to come to into its own. Sugar Cane was another reason I probably went with Latino descent for most of the colonists. That would potentially be a crop that be grown in and around Central America and the Carribean. The sugar subplot device is also relevant considering how much of a commodity sugar was for old timey pirate of the Golden Age. If you haven't noticed, Zek's ventures primarily focus on building up alcohol and now sugar deposits to seed capital. Now he finally has a means to do the same with sugar as he has with Ichor thanks to his procurement of the baby Chorkas. The next step is how Zek acquires the sugar and how that effects everything else around the colonists, the UNSC and everyone in between.
I recognize this chapter might be a bit of a slower burn, but after three whole chapters of either slapstick/high concept comedy or brutal, depressing, emotions draining apocalyptic action, this felt like the most natural progression. A moment for everyone to catch breath and figure things out. I hope you've enjoyed it and I do hope you're still with me on this despite my abseance.
I am again very sorry for how long it took for this to get out to you all. Let me say again, if it wasn't for my constant thought of how eager you all were to see the story continue, I would've given up long ago. I more than well aware of how every chapter is anticipated and not a day went by when I felt I was not doing or writing enough. I hope you understand why it was difficult and that you won't be too hard on me for taking so long. I appreciate all of your patronage and look forward to seeing your responses concerning this new chapter. The next one is already being written and is well underway. I hope you enjoy the results of this new arc for Remnants.
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