Ride the lightning
-Metallica

Let me take you on a journey. Not a journey through time or space or even a journey through Alyria. Today we are going to take a journey through my mind and look at a slippery topic: artistic inspiration. Let me warn you in advance, though. There are few answers here. Inspiration is not something that you can crack open and analyze. Rather I hope that by retracing the steps of my journey with you, you will find it easier to discover the trails of inspiration that await you and that you will be able to follow them with confidence.

It would be impractical to explore the inspirations for all of Alyria. In a way this entire column series has been about that. Rather I want to focus on just one element of Alyria. So, let’s talk about the Ark.

Far to the east of the Citadel lies an ancient arcology. Ten miles long it is, and ten miles wide. From its mile-high roof you can see the land for leagues in every direction. For many years the Ark lay, locked to the outside world. It had been sealed in the days of the Rape to protect its inhabitants from the plague. The sensors that should have sensed the end of the plague had malfunctioned and the Ark remained closed.

I first conceived of the Ark as a political necessity. I felt that the Citadel needed a political opponent to add conflict to the world. Having read far too much Gene Wolfe, I thought that an Ascian-like race would be interesting to include. For those of you who do not know, the Ascians are a race of people who are so controlled by their political masters that they cannot even speak anything but officially approved phrases. In Citadel of the Autarch a captured Ascian relates a story to several other characters. This is done purely in these officially approved phrases. It was a fascinating concept that captured my imagination. So then, the inhabitants of my Ark would be members of an oppressive society that suppressed individualism.

Of course I needed to be careful not to plagiarize Wolfe, but gaining ideas from another is perfectly fine. In my mind, using the idea of officially selected phraseology would be plagiarism, so I needed something else. I mulled this over for a while until I finally struck on a simple idea. The inhabitants of the Ark have no names. They only have duty numbers. Ah! Now that could work! This suggested a society built around duty to the collective. Just what I wanted!

The next step was developing the logical conclusion of some of these assumptions. For example, do families exist? I think not. Children would be raised in birth crèches until they are ready to join a duty group. There would almost certainly be strict population controls in place. Women would probably be sterilized unless they possessed valuable genetic materials. Slowly a horrific image began to emerge of a society killing itself to stay alive.

The sealed Ark was soon filled with teeming masses of people. Space became cramped. Food and water were scarce. Rioting wracked the Ark with violence as groups fought for precious resources. Finally the leadership intervened. Population controls were instituted and a eugenics program was set up. Breeding was strictly controlled. Unneeded children were discarded. Everyone was organized into duty groups to ensure the survival of the colony. The leadership assured the populace that these were temporary measures for the duration of the emergency. Everyone assumed that the Ark would open soon…

Another early idea in the development of the Ark was the relationship of Ark inhabitants with technology. None of them would have been exposed to the techno-mysticism of the Keepers, so they would probably retain a fairly normal mentality about technology. On the other hand, machines would be wearing out. Spare parts do not grow on trees. What happens when the machines begin to break? The answer leaped out at me almost immediately. Humans replace the machines. Some can be fixed, perhaps, but the human structure adapts to fill the void that others leave. The most notable example of this is the Scriptorum, which is a giant computer composed completely of hard copy records and human beings. Some are trained to be “terminals”, accepting input and providing output to those with queries. Others are trained in data retrieval, finding and copying information rapidly. The list goes on and on. The Arkites have developed the Scriptorum to the point that its efficiency is nearly 100%.

Slowly the Ark settled into its new existence. Through the brutal measures imposed, peace and order were brought to the Ark. All seemed well. For many years all was still. Then the unthinkable happened. The malfunctioning sensors shorted one last time, and the Ark opened…

The Opening of the Ark was bound to be the most momentous event in recent Alyrian history short of the arrival of the Outsiders. Suddenly, this bottled-up society had access to the entire world. No more would they need to impose these population controls. They were free to fill the entire world!

Of course this was necessary to bring the Ark into conflict with the Citadel. Most wars are wars of territory, and the Ark had hundreds of years of societal pressure corked within it. When the Ark opened, the Arkites would blast across the face of Alyria in a massive colonial expansion, bringing them into conflict with the Citadel. It was perfect. Or so I thought.

But not all was well within the Ark. Dissenters had always existed and the contact with new cultures and thoughts only strengthened them. Rejecting the stratified society of the Ark, these took names for themselves, rejecting their duty numbers. The Ark split into the conforming Numbered and the dissident Named. Some of the Named were content to wear their names secretly, reveling in their rebellion. Others were not so peaceful. Once again, violence flared in the corridors of the Ark.

One of my original design goals for the Alyria setting was to include internal conflict as much as external conflict. Therefore the Named sprang into existence. Originally these were to be the noble dissenters, daring to stand against a harsh oppressive society. Over time, though, this characterization began to change in my mind. One of the basic axioms of Alyria is that, with the exception of the unicorns and dragons, no place is completely good or evil. Just like in real life, each place has strengths and weaknesses, virtues and flaws. And slowly, as the Ark unfolded in my mind, I began to wonder if I had misunderstood it. It had begun as a stereotypical Orwellian society, but as I saw it more clearly, I wondered if it was actually more complex than that. After all, I do believe that the collective is important. In fact, I often think that we in the West are far too concerned with the individual and do not give sufficient weight to the needs of the group. Why should the Ark become just another rant against the Establishment? No, this would not do.

Then it hit me. The survival of the Ark depends on the rigid structures that it has imposed. Rejecting them out of hand is as good as killing everyone who lives in the Ark. In one fell swoop, the Named ceased to be noble dissenters and became dangerous anarchists. In addition, I began to toy with a simple but powerful idea: is the Ark a democracy? Not a representative democracy, like the United States, but a direct democracy like the polis of ancient Greece. After all, how can you object to the strictures of the Ark if the majority has chosen it? Right?

And now the Ark has opened, and from it pours forth a raging torrent of people, scattering to the four winds. And as they go, they carry with them their strange culture, forming little colonies in imitation of the great Ark that they leave behind. They also wonder at those they meet, who wear the strange masks of flesh, so unlike the plastiform masks that they themselves wear…

But still the Ark was missing something. It just did not seem connected enough. Something was missing from it. For quite a long time I was stymied, at a loss for what needed to be in place. Then I had a conversation with my sister about the Iliad. The conversation had absolutely nothing to do with Alyria, until she mentioned Hector’s battle mask. I thought back on remembered pictures of Greek battles mask that I had seen. Then it hit me. Might the Arkites wear masks? Wouldn’t that drive home their subordination to their role in society? Wraith had also made use of masks as symbols of authority, an element that had appealed to me. It seemed perfect. Each person in the Ark wears a mask that indicates his role. Perhaps all corridor cleaners have a certain sort of mask, while soldiers wear another. Think of that image. A thousand soldiers race across the field of battle, each wearing the same face.

Would the Named reject the masks? Of course they would! Perhaps they hold secret meetings in secret rooms in the Ark, where each takes off his mask and revels in his own individuality. Do the Arkites normally get to remove their masks? I don’t know…not yet. I’m working on it, though.

I have learned a lesson through working on the Ark. You cannot force inspiration. I personally think that the inclusion of masks in the Ark is the best symbolic touch created so far. However I did not seek it out; it just hit me. Logical extrapolation only gets you so far. Lightning has to strike if your creation is going to have any life at all. And you cannot control the lightning. So, what do you do?

It is quite simple actually. Go through life with your eyes open. So often we fail to see what is before our eyes just because we think we know what is there. Open your eyes to the world around you. You will find the inspiration that you need. You cannot control the lightning, but you can open yourself up to it. In the meantime, work with what you have. Most ideas do not arrive in a single burst of insight. They are teased out of the tangled mess of thoughts and experiences that roam through your mind. Work with them. Mold them. And pray for lightning to strike.

There is still much work to be done on the Ark, but I am not concerned. Slowly the ideas are gelling. Slowly the Ark is solidifying in my mind. And who knows? Maybe lightning will strike.