We need to speak more about the society, and time frame of my Steampunk/Fantasy series, beginning with “Journey To The Black City”. Humanity, as we found out the last time, is now divided into two societies—the tribal folk, who are hunters and farmers, and those who dwell in the huge, though widely spaced city-states. In the tribes, crime is rare, while in the vast populations of the cities, where no one knows their neighbors; crime is simply a fact of life. To make matters worse for the city dwellers of Los Angeles, a focus point in my story, much of the most degrading crime, forced prostitution, child trafficking, and narcotics, is perpetrated by the priesthood of the Cathedral, under the guidance of a mysterious figure called ‘the Bishop.’ Corruption rules. The police can be bribed, and politicians for the most part turn a blind eye. Because of this, there are severe conflicts coming between the forces of the Bishop and Kel and Lyria. They’ve come to the city to find and rescue Kel’s grandfather, their tribe’s shaman, so Kel can finish his training and marry the woman he loves.
In our discussing the history of this alternate earth, it must be remembered that the plague and war that destroyed civilization happened two thousand years previously. What remains of ‘history’ is mostly legends, stories, and mythology. Many of the languages of the old ‘city builders’ as the ancient peoples are called, cannot be read. The cities along the eastern shore were leveled in the war, and many more now lay beneath the glacier that’s been advancing south for thousands of years. What is truth and what is myth? It’s hard to tell when your looking back over two thousand years of dark ages. But now, some of the old discoveries and inventions have been reinvented or rediscovered. Steam-power rules. Almost all vehicles and locomotives, beyond horse carts, are steam-powered, and all carry an array of the large quartz crystals used to focus the sun’s power to boil the water. In a world where history is mythology, solar power has been reinvented.