What I Wrote about and Why

Introduction

Hello there, eager readers. It is I, your author. You may call me Stim. If you were expecting a new chapter in the saga of the Empire, I must disappoint as this is actually an open letter from me to my readers, one to mull over the work so far, the idea of the Astoria Empire and James, to give some new facts and backstage insight. I can promise no titillating sex scenes to lead to vigorous masturbation, but to those who are interested in the setting, I can certainly tell a few things... things you might not be aware of.

The Idea of the Empire

Where did this idea come from? I bet many authors can look back and find that such ideas arrive when they do not expect it. The first idea was for James's Descent, which I wrote a good four years before the time of posting this, which I will refer to as "now". While I was playing Rimworld for the 500th time (not accurate, as I have no damn idea how many colonies I started) and I began to streamline my bases into something of a repeating pattern, one that led to particularly pleasant colonies, while I was employing some sex mods to spice things up, I thought to myself how would it be like to go in there and just enjoy such a place.

Perhaps the idea of the Empire was always that of escapism, of getting a break from the real world to go somewhere nicer. I do not doubt that reality would be different and such colonies might have plenty of issues that the colony simulator is not capable of showing... factionalism, greed, jealousy... but the idea started. After writing that first story I simply left it to rot on my hard drive, aware at a second glance that it was not the best story, rather it had plenty of elements I shall call "cringe". But it was an idea.

A while later, while playing Stellaris with sex mods, and doing my usual technocracy runs that have also started to coalesce into a pattern, the name of a space empire just came at random... "Astoria Empire". The mix of sex mods and that ultimate technologies mod let me slowly build quite an impressive empire, one where only a dozen planets out-produced empires that had fifty. I must thank some of those mods as many of the features of the empire are based on some such features... the Maginot worlds, the orbital rings (before they made those mainstream), the planetary computer, and many more.

From there, as I have this profile on which I RP on a certain website, I decided one day to create the "setting" of the empire, with most of what one sees in the written works... the planets being only what I created in that game, but the species were wholly made up. Technically, my playstyle was more about one species rather than holding several, not even employing robots as they were subpar in utility to biological species... oh, the traits you could give them. I think this also came after reading a particular series here, one where this soldier is unfrozen into a casual sex utopian station, thus why the first option was to be unfrozen into that place, the other two being about either waking up there in the "guest" scenario that Sophie experienced or taking the "vacation" option where the Empire contacts the planet and offers that cruise.

A particularly creative and eager man called Clay contacted me to start playing with that idea, and he passed with flying colors as a player. We went on to go through the scenario, one that changed as things went, eventually having him meet James and making that whole plot. At that point, the Empire started to be a solid setting, one that would continue to grow. It still had its share of early-installment weirdness, as the first Zox were more like walking trees than tentacle beings, when I played with Clay they were still using a classical economic system based on silver, and there were even a few other planets that did not make the final cut, like the other species having a planet each for themselves.

Now, Clay still feels "honored" by even being mentioned here, a great fan of my work and good friend that I can share a lot with, but let me just say that while he hasn't done AS much in the process of writing these books, I would be a liar and a thief to say he had no impact. In fact, I think that his engagement with my setting to such an extent, far longer than most others, has helped this setting go from simple "option I give to people in roleplay" into "breathing, living world that I sure hope is out there". So whatever idea he has of not having helped can go fuck itself because that man helped a ton.

One day, after we went through that RP up to the point of Clay and his sister getting to Redlight, after we stopped playing as we moved to other scenarios or life got in the way, I decided to write Deviant Empire with his blessing, changing a few things here and there... or a lot. So instead of Clay West, we have a Will Carter, and he noticed that initial switch.

James's Descent

Ah, thinking back on that work and reading it again fills me both with feelings of warmth and incredible shame. The first version was dramatically different from what I have posted here. Other than being a tad more uncensored, it went along completely different routes but got to the same conclusion. Pami had a pet wolf that I completely forgot after the first couple of chapters, the base had a different layout, their bolstering of numbers happened through more classical recruitment as back then Rimworld didn't yet have children, James's first conversation with Anna happened while she was dreaming, the ideology being given to them by him directly rather than learned from another, the idea of the ascended did not yet exist so no one hunted him, and the story ended with his peaceful death on the new planet.

I have struggled to keep plenty of "canon events" in this new version, like James and Pami's first interaction to be seeing her peeing, but this time it was her being a mischievous runt rather than just having a naked wee outside and being discovered by the man while on a smoke break, you also had Nathan trying to kill him, but that time it was with a rifle rather than bare hands, defeated with pistols being so much faster to aim, merely crippled from a shot to the spine rather than killed... but that was before the psycasts mod let you revive people so much that I had taken it for granted.

While it was not my first attempt at writing stories, nor my first attempt at writing erotic ones, JD was what started it all. The version here has seen many additions, as I have rarely thought of that time between James's Death and the empire being at its peak. I could talk for a while about the differences between the versions and what prompted some of the strange mechanics in the setting, but that was how it started.

The version I offered here was a rewrite that went in a wholly different direction, not only by including the section of Hell and how the empire developed in time, but with different characters... and others more or less the same. Phoebe was still a relatively important one in the original. Fiona didn't exist in the original, though there were some children in that colony, though they grew at a normal pace and didn't even have time to get to walking by the time James showed up.

I still think the rewrite did what I wanted to show. How you get a GOD. While a lot of this process might also involve how you get an ascended, there is less focus on it. At this point, the divine metaplot was well established and I also wanted to show why you don't have more like him. Power corrupts. Power like that corrupts absolutely, but our story is here because he has this unique blend of defiance, genius and ignorance.

The Outsider

I feel that I need to address the idea of James and his title. That title started from a randomly-generated ideology description in Rimworld, one that states "we are in the guard of a great Outsider who watches our world from outside and guides his faithful" and it sure hit me as being medium aware of being in a video game. James was and still is an author avatar, so I am quite aware of the tendency for him to come off as a Mary Sue, tendencies that I hold back by going back to my dogma when running a World of Darkness server. The other characters need not be limited in power, but whatever they do must be in service of the plot and characters.

For a while, the virtual world theory was something he believed and was a fact of life for astorians, why the Old Rules were about not needing to do stuff you need in a real world, but that kinda went away once I went with the divine metaplot. That might lead to a change of DE if I wrote it now to not include the "no need to breathe" part rather than possibly having to explain it otherwise. Such do stories change in time and why there is early-installment weirdness.

But I felt that a character like James was needed because any other attempt at utopia would fall because people are people. As it was said in DE, even all their utopian infrastructure could be turned into nightmare totalitarian dictator tools overnight, so the only way to keep it is to have someone who is incorruptible, that cannot be defeated by force, threats, or any such things. Eventually, the idea of him grew and with the idea of the ascended I came up with the whole divine metaplot and God and such.

At this point, James is such a strong idea that I think some people have begun to believe in him unironically. But with him being an author avatar, the question might be if I think myself to really be THAT good. And the answer is no, as I think I'd probably fall or fuck up in a million ways. But the narration of the empire requires that he be an uncorruptible and wise god, so he is. And yes, the whole casual sex thing being around because he is a pervert rather than having some grand wisdom is still the norm. I just wanted to have a casual sex setting.

If one asks if James is supposed to be smart or just accidentally getting everything right... he is both. Smart enough to figure out how some things work way before they come up and countermeasure it, but at the same time he is also rather ignorant of many facts which allow him to stay as he is. But the slaughter of DE is more something he wanted to DO rather than something that would have such a good effect, yet he accidentally got to killing all the ascended in the process which could have disrupted the REAL work that comes after of using education and economic incentives to turn people around.

Deviant Empire

As stated, this was my attempt at transcribing the roleplay I had with Clay into a "book", not following everything with sanctity, but there was very little difference between the roleplay and the work. The big differences were few, like the fortune system which I made up out of whole cloth for it. I dare say that is my most impressive work because I didn't even know about the Austrian School of Economics and turns out I re-invented the idea of things being valued based on subjective appreciation by consumers. Another big difference is that Clay and his sister Clara actually went into a relationship while here I agreed that Will and Win might not be such a good match, and they would have to go off and find their parents rather than having such an easy completion... and there were no Hendersons. Also, back then I had not interacted with the profile of "Teenage Satan" which made me decide to include her as a fixture of the empire.

But many other things happened there as they were read... the proposal, the scene with Hightower, Missy, the freedom section, the piss party... it was far more faithful to the original material. Reading it now, I can see how my skill has improved and the inclusion of an AI assistant made my work better, with such a grand temptation there to completely rewrite the thing, I would have nothing to give other than a slightly improved quality for far too much work. Move on, do better.

Oh, and that line saying that Hightower was gonna get transferred was a hook for another series that I did not finish, one about a science vessel where he gets to serve on, Miriam also goes there to serve as a comfort worker and they were supposed to make some big discovery to move along the divine metaplot. But that was scrapped and you got What it Takes.

Still, I find DE to be a good starter for the series, one to introduce everyone to the Empire and its workings, a utopian space empire that has achieved this level through humane treatment of its citizens, but with no technology to lead them to not need to do a thing, but such technologies allowing honest work. Having those utopias where you just have everything at your disposal is unrealistic... who does the work? Slaves? Robots? Robot slaves?

But what I wanted it to be is something to give hope. This is sci-fi, but I still have the hope that maybe our far future could contain at least a few of the measures here. Yes, the casual sex, incest, and toilet play are personal preferences based on my fetishes. However, I still believe that moving forward could include getting rid of some notions we currently have.

Clayton's Story

I will take this moment to speak of an idea that you may never see here, but it will no doubt be my next project. You might get the hint from the name "Clayton" that they are made by the same guy to play Clay, but Clayton was more of a "very adult" version of the other, a guy closer to his fifties rather than one in his twenties. After the story that you know as Deviant Empire, we had a lengthy roleplay with another character, one to be played "parallel" to this one, but not having any direct contact with James... instead being one who gets to go into one of those bunkers you heard in DE. It will no doubt see a lot of change from the original as we didn't get too far in, just to the point where they got in the bunker and saw how things were around there.

The reason it will not be seen here is because their teenage son and ten-year-old daughter will be a significant part of the story, as will be the astorian education to show how you get people like this. Despite the freedom to approach particular subjects where that will be posted, it will be treated seriously and as realistic as James might allow it. Do not think that the infamous electrochemistry class is where people go take drugs and have sex, but rather a place to learn impulse control and how to motivate yourself, which is already a scene I have envisioned. Clayton, or Lionel Edwards as they will be renamed to allow for the change in behavior, will discover bit by bit how the aliens work and how they are certainly not here to pervert them, rather they are here to teach them how to be idiots, and somewhere along the way they just figure out that their old rules are crap.

For now, I have yet to think of some dramatic ending, but the story is coming in line. I plan to address several difficult parts of life such as having Lionel barely evade getting his family into sex slavery... and that's not at the hands of the astorians, they just help him realize that it was a GOOD thing he refused that cruise from his boss. But, for the ending, or at least the fate of Lionel at the end, it would lead to him learning all these points and not just embracing the culture in whole, but wanting it to spread. Because they are really all about working together.

If you want some highlights, the first chapter will be about Lionel in that time between the Phoenix leaving and war being declared, where he meets one of the experts, a Tan who is bored out of her mind because no one is taking her suggestions, and as one things leads to another, that woman will proceed to fuck both Lionel and his wife to IMPROVE THEIR MARRIAGE. She is also their ticket into getting in the bunker much earlier than most. There was also this moment that I shall preserve as the two children are left with their new comfort worker and the teen protests that he is not ten years old, the woman dryly commenting that he is worse, which will prompt both feelings of amusement and shared pain. And to show that the relationship with the wife is indeed improved, half of the scenes in the entire "book" will involve her.

I certainly cannot wait to release most of my usual limiters in writing this story, but I will still give it the usual effort.

What it Takes

I have a bit of shame for this work. It hasn't done as well as the rest, possibly because it includes no incest and that's the big money maker on Lit. Perhaps I could have written a story of Eva and her brother going down to Earth and having a relationship as they would in the empire, pretending to be unrelated while fucking their family, but escapism is the big theme of the empire, and landing that jackpot of a GREAT girl is a scenario that many of us want to see.

Its purpose was more to move along the metaplot of the whole divinity thing, how ascended come around and how they function. These are straight copies of mages from World of Darkness, but rather than having that whole avatar deal, we have something else. Do note that I meant to do no religion bashing with that image, as it is simply my view and how things work in this setting. It may be real or it may not be. Until we have something to further show proof, all options are valid, if what people do with those options is up for debate.

Looking back, I could do a lot to improve this work, but it did not come out so bad. And to those who wonder, yes... Jack is supposed to be very similar to James, as is Eva supposed to be very similar to Pami AND Winona, in the long-running plot point of the whole soul reincarnation thing that I was supposed to lay out in another work which I almost finished but decided against posting. So, yes... the reason James is like that with these characters is because they remind him of his wife. A point I would have made in that work was to show how he was wrong and that Madeline is not of a soul with Pami, but rather with HIMSELF, why they hit it off so well in that epilogue of James's Descent.

But, WIT did what it was supposed to do, showing how you get yourself an ascended. JD came after to continue that metaplot and show how you get a GOD. Normally, such ascended might win the war with the others and claim sole rulership of a planet, then turn the people on it into fervent believers to let them ascend further, allowing them to fight the god of that world and depose them, moving further and higher... James went on a different path.

War of Two Worlds

I never posted this one, but the plan was to put it up, have that bit in the metaplot taken over as Maddie comes to the Empire after nuking her world with the help of James, which is the World of Darkness, however its god comes after her and starts trying to conquer it, having a full God's Angel assisting them to do far more and also deal with the question of "Why didn't Lucy stop it".

While it has some epic scenes, it failed at its purpose as even at the end Maddie was nowhere close to even being considered impressive by the empire, so James couldn't leave the empire to her and keep busy with his other conquests of worlds. Maybe Eva will fit that role in a couple generations. The other thing that it failed at was providing any organic reason for the sex scenes, forced in-between conflicts like awkward family members invited to Christmas. Perhaps I might be more successful in turning Maddie's journey through the Vast Expanses into such a tale, or Eli's. Though the open-ended nature of it does make an ending rather hard to achieve and when I gave up on that journey she was halfway through inciting revolution in Sig'Win.

These epic scenes that I mentioned included Eli getting in a bare-handed fight with a werewolf assassin, Pami and Maddie driving away from the wild hunt while a storm raged around them and they fought back with cold iron shot out of a minigun, Anna going into the mind of Caine and pretty much brainwashing them into undoing God's punishment which made the big fucker drop what was essentially a Tsar Bomba on Solaria so that the first defiant one was not happy, the scene of Pami and Maddie fighting off a small army of werewolves and Maddie using a really big gun to shoot the very concept of violent storms to death... AGAIN, all while quoting Ahab because the guy to do that in the WoD game also did so, and the final showdown where James and the astorian army essentially replayed the ending of Return of the King, distracting a huge army of shadows and the invading god with one big fight while Maddie was off to kill off the last thing keeping that god a god, fighting off her old nemesis with martial arts to make Bruce Lee look like his characters were played by Rowan Atkinson, ending with Eli actually stabbing that enemy in the back since those two were evenly matched. But that was all I had. Epic scenes.