Thursday, 17 November 2011

Welcome aboard

This is just a quick post to start things going, as you can see the blog is very bare.

Voidships is the name of a hard-science steampunk universe.

If you don't know what Steampunk is, go here. As for the hard-science part, that means there are no fantasy elements in this universe. No magic, no elves, trolls or hobbits. (This is not to say I don't love those things, because I do, it's just they have no place in this universe.) But we do have alien plants - like Venusian Puffballs and the Martian Iron Lotus. But more on floral arrangements another time. (We have developed hard science reasons as to why Mars and Venus can have life on them, so there.)

Voidships is not a story - it's a place where stories happen. That's why it's a universe and not just one story.

It's an alternative history where, in the 1840s, Faraday achieved the partial nullification of gravity - and from that moment on, things changed. The main Voidships period is between 1840 and 1920, but we aren't necessarily that limited - except if it's outside that range it's not technically Steampunk (and even that's pushing it).

Oh there is a proto-website at http://www.voidships.com/ which contains other timeline details. But there's not much to do there at the moment.

So, what can you expect to find here?

Currently I, and the originator and co-creator of the Voidships Universe, Chris Payne, are developing an 8-part web series called Winter set in the Voidships universe. So I'll be talking about that mostly, the whole development process, and so will Chris. I hope.

You will find adverts on this blog (maybe not right this moment but soon). Any money from adverts will be used to assist in the funding of Winter.

Creative Commons

It is our intention to make Voidships a Creative Commons enterprise - which means we will welcome the artistic creations of others into this universe - in the form of stories, illustrations, paintings, poetry, music - anything (and your art remains yours, just as ours is ours). As long as it adheres to our basic concepts and timeline.

We will get the exact details of that sorted as well. Hopefully soon.

Right this was only going to be a short post - it got out of hand.

Until we meet again.