As Jake’s Break is on sale at an Amazon near you, I thought I’d recap on the wonderful world that Jake inhabits and maybe drop some clues on where it’s all going. I think of the Wizards books as being something like a season of Buffy. For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember, a typical season of Buffy ran for 22 episodes and had an overall thematic story running through it, though individual episodes were stories in their own right. I don’t quite see 22 novels in Jake’s future, but it won’t be that far off. One day the war will start and the battle for the survival of the multiverse will begin. At the moment the players are lining up. It will not be clear even during the war as to whose side each group is on. The Multiverse contains a near infinite number of universes of which ours in one nondescript component. It isn’t a static place; new universes are born from time to time and old ones are slowly dying. Raw magic wafts around the multiverse and living things can change it into something useable by the power of their minds. Because some living things will hop (teleport) to somewhere safe under duress, lots of worlds exist with humans or their close cousins on them. Parallel evolution has taken place on millions of worlds through occasional cross pollination. Actually, there are lots of truly alien worlds with methane breathers and silicon life forms to name but two, but they don’t mix much with the oxygen breathing worlds for obvious reasons. Empires have risen and crumbled, civilisations of every conceivable kind have been tried. There are worlds where humans have risen to the status of Gods. Our close cousins who rose to sentience with rather more magic in them than us occupy the hidden worlds where elves, dwarves and the fairie hold sway. There were even the soothsaying Norns, though they mysteriously died out. The hidden worlds are purely magic oriented and tend to be deeply interwoven with the natural world. Humans tend not to be naturally talented in magic, though in some empires the majority have at least some magical power. This tends to happen when their civilisation discover how to enhance the magic power in individuals. The Valhallans are one such group, the Balmackians another. Where there are a lot of Wizards laws develop to protect the normal, where they are rare, wizards tend to use their power for personal pleasure and power. Some human worlds take the technological path and a high powered rifle can always take out a wizard if the user picks his moment. Many of these worlds hate wizards and take steps to kill them. Despite this, most of the technological worlds use magic to some extent, especially ‘chain bridges’ which are portals linking one world to another. A very small number of worlds combine high technology with sophisticated magic. Jake knows the Progenitors are such a people even though he knows next to nothing about them. A mystery exists on Earth. A world in which magic had become nothing more than fairy tales because nobody was born with a wizard’s power has suddenly produced three of the most powerful wizards ever known. Dafydd and Jake were related, but Bronwyn isn’t and yet was born only a few miles away from Jake. Thus the Earth is starting to be noticed by some of the more formidable powers in the Multiverse. Jake doesn’t want to be a hero. He wants a quiet life, though his attitude has started to change because of the fun he is having at university. He is far from ready to lead people into battle, let alone the major powers of the multiverse. All in all, he would rather move timber with a fork lift truck than fight evil. He is a ‘make love not war’ sort of guy, but others keep pushing him into situations where he has no choice but to fight. Jake has already proven that prophecy can be broken. Many have plans for him, but he is determined to stay true to himself whatever the cost.
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AuthorAuthor, imagineer Archives
July 2020
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