Weary World War

The empires of the world are tired. The populations of the West are being replaced and that of Russia is simply dying off. China steals its technology and its sources of theft are decadent, despite the advances still being made.

The Germans and Japanese of World War Two were vastly outnumbered and outgunned. They were overwhelmed, not outfought. In real terms, they were better than the empires of today.

The British Empire was a superpower until it destroyed itself against Germany. The United States was aroused to greatness. Stalin turned the Soviet Union into a superpower by industrializing before the war and by seizing territory during the war.

World War Two ended with the introduction of nuclear weapons. Such bombs did not win the war, though they ended it early. They changed the world by threatening to destroy it.

As of AD 2026, the United States of America is the only superpower... but is in decline. Russia is still powerful but has lost most of its Soviet influence. Britain and Germany are still powerful... but barely. China, despite its vast population and relative prosperity... is crippled by systemic incompetence.

World War Three today would be slapstick horror. It would be murderous buffoonery. If not for nuclear weapons, the empires of the world would collapse from within rather than conquer each other. Alas, the stupid and the cowardly can now destroy nations without a fight... and are likely to do so.

Who is to Blame

The powerless are accused of the sins of the powerful. Their crime is obedience... or disobedience. They are found guilty either way.

The weak are expected to muster their strength in numbers to overwhelm the mighty. Alas, an individual cannot sway his country unless powerful.

The powerless must be ambitious if they are to thwart the powerful. They must become the very thing they are expected to overcome... and that is pointless.

Guilt is personal, not impersonal.

The mighty are to blame for the sins of the tribes and nations. The guilt of the common folk is as individuals, not as the tribe or nation.

A thief is a thief whether his society is honest or corrupt. A murderer is a murderer whether his country as a country kills or not. When the mighty are thieves, the society is a kleptocracy. When those in power are murderers, they kill by many hands.

An honest man is not a thief because he lives in a kleptocracy. So long as he lives honestly, he does what justice expects of him. A gentle man is not a brute because he serves faithfully in the army of his people, whether the cause is right or wrong. So long as he is merciful within his power, he is righteous.

Unlike heaven and earth, where might makes right, justice does not favor the mighty. The strong are to bear the weight of the world, not the weak to do so. The rich are to be generous, not the poor.

Anyone who blames the helpless shall be condemned in accordance with the accusation. Anyone who faults the innocent shall be judged as guilty.

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Humanity Turned Against Itself

A story about heroic goodness is social commentary, whether political or not. The prize is humanity itself. The heroes serve and protect what the villains exploit and sacrifice.

The villains may care about their henchmen and or henchwomen... but probably not. If they do, it may be for personal reasons... but probably not. If they do, their concern is probably because these underlings are useful and would be difficult to replace.

What if the villains can conscript ordinary people, by law or press gangs... or hypnosis? They can indoctrinate these unwilling recruits to be selfless, loyal and obedient... by psychological manipulation or outright mind control.

The general public would assure the public enemy an endless supply of expendable goons. The heroes would slaughter droves of people they would otherwise serve and protect.

The villains may be the government... or a crime syndicate... or a terrorist organization... or a mystery cult. They are the enemies of the common folk regardless.

The foot soldiers of villainy can be hirelings or followers. They are my favorite archetype, but I much prefer that the characters are normal people repurposed by the baddies for use as expendable baddies. The irony fascinates me, especially when the heroes enjoy killing them.

The villains are the villains because they do not care... about their victims or the other villains. Everyone is expendable. The agenda is selfish. The villainy is selfishness.

The heroes are the “heroes” in the modern sense because they do care... about the victims. They are killing the same people when the foot soldiers of villainy are brainwashed conscripts mustered from the victimized population. The heroes are “villainous” for killing these people they are trying to save... and I am grimly amused.

My interest is not moral ambiguity, to be clear. The idea is not the subversion of heroic goodness.

I write what I find interesting. My ideas manifest into fiction as prose and illustrations. My thematic specialty is the foot soldiers of villainy. The archetype is unimportant characters by design. They are in a story to give the villains authority and to set a standard of ordinary by which the heroes can be measured. The context provided via the main characters is what decides the significance of these deliberately insignificant characters.

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My Creative Cycle is Perpetual Creativity

I am an artist... and have been since childhood. I drew pictures. I made costumes and toys. I directed an improvised a play. My adolescence began with me writing stories. I illustrated and colored comic books I never finished. I acted in stage plays. I designed tabletop top games. Now that I am middle-aged, I write books and design the covers. I create the title fonts. I compose music. I voice act. I directed an audio-drama.

I was never an artist for fame and fortune... but I would like fame and fortune. The fame would allow me to promote and explain my work. The fortune would give me more time and resources for my work.

I love making art, no matter the medium. I consolidate mediums as best I can. The pictures illustrate the stories and the music is the themes of the fiction. The games are based on the stories and pictures.

I do not have fame and fortune... but I have plenty of product... and am still busy making more.

Though my art is for its own sake, it is not meaningless. The stories are parables. The pictures make the parables visible. The games allow people to participate in the parables, making the stories especially immersive.

My art is from within. It is expressed outward, however. The stories are written to be read. The pictures are rendered to be seen. The games are designed to be played. My art is in vain if it is not appreciated. It is meant to inspire.

I am inspired by the art of others. I am inspired by my own, as well. I have written and rendered because I was stirred to do so by what I wrote and rendered.

I designed a cover for no other reason than to give a title something to be displayed on. The title was whimsical, the names of my three latest universes as the name of one book. I shall write the book... for no other reason that to make the cover an actual book cover. I shall compose musical themes for each of the three universes... then a remix of the three together as the theme of this whimsical book.

Sorry for the rambling... but my stream of consciousness is never in vain. It keeps me busy being an artist.

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The Fictional Reality of White Empires

I am a storyteller as a writer. My work is usually weird. The military science fiction of my White Empires universe is set in a world like our own yet quite different. It is alternate history but not really. It is not speculative. The particulars are with adventure stories in mind.

The following is an alternate history that could have happened...

The Confederate States of America won the War Between the States. It secured its claim to Missouri and Kentucky in the Second War Between the States. The Confederacy conquered Mexico and Cuba, assimilating their ruling classes at the expense of the commoners. It became the Empire of the Golden Circle and established its new capital in Havana.

The Confederacy was officially and proudly white supremacist. Only the racially European were allowed citizenship. The black people were slaves and the brown people virtually surfs.

The British and the French supported the Confederacy in the beginning. The French felt betrayed when the Confederate forces that entered Mexico to support Maximilian conquered the country instead. The Confederacy sided with the British and the French in the Great War and sent troops to Europe... only to be sanctioned by its allies after the war because of slavery.

The Confederate government was dominated by two parties: the conservative Christian Democrats and the progressive Social Democrats. Both parties were racist. The Christian Democrats argued that slavery tamed savages and using brown people as cheap labor made business affordable. The Social Democrats argued that the common white man was kept impoverished by a system that deliberately excluded him.

The Christian Democrats loathed Marxism as a threat to every tradition, especially religion and social hierarchy. The Social Democrats agreed with its notions of class struggle but disliked its atheism and notions of racial equality.

When the Social Democrat Huey Long was elected President, the Confederacy ratified the Anti-Comintern Pact, with the staunch support of both parties. The Confederate States of America became an Axis power.

The following is a notion of alternate history...

What if Adolf Hitler was born in 1989 instead of 1889? He becomes the Chancellor of Germany in 2033, while it is a member of the European Union. The indigenous population of the Continent is being overwhelmed by the black and brown people of elsewhere.

Unlike Rhodesia and South Africa, the Confederate States of America would never relinquish is systemic racism without a fight. I do not mean police actions. I mean total war. The population would fanatically resist. This was proven by the American Civil War, when the Confederate States killed hundreds of thousands of invaders before eventually and not easily conquered.

What would Hitler do if he seized control of a Europe inspired by his hopeful albeit racist message? What empire would sympathize with his cause? The Confederate States of America, of course!

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Notorious Glory

Al Capone and John Gotti are the two most famous gangsters of all time. They were famous while alive... in a business that is all about secrecy. They were brazen... in a line of work that favors caution. Both men were bosses who rose quickly only to fall just as quickly. Their supposedly inglorious downfalls instead proved dramatic tragedies, thus, legendary all the more.

A crime boss is a business man. His success can be measured by wealth and power. A legend is always a hero, even if the villain. His success can be measured by how many movies are made about him. Al Capone and John Gotti are real men who became legendary.

“For what should it profit a man, if he should gain the whole world yet lose his soul?”

– Jesus

A worldly success is a spiritual failure more often than not. The worldly successes of Al Capone and John Gotti meant nothing... no matter what. To die free and rich or imprisoned and poor is to die regardless.

Al Capone and John Gotti did not live in vain. They inspired people. They still do. Death was not the end of them.

The spiritual success of Al Capone and John Gotti was the very thing that ruined their temporal lives. They lived life to the fullest. They held nothing back. They shined their light for all to see. They did not hide it under a basket. Like the title character in the play Cyrano de Bergerac, they refused to hide their plume. They wore it proudly... and are remembered forever for it.

Like Samson, Al Capone and John Gotti did deserve to fall. It was not because they were criminals, however. It was because they were proud. They were selfish. They should have been themselves in all sincerity, not as a matter of honor. Even as criminals, they would prove morally superior to those who brought them down.

Conan the Inspiration

I have been a Conan fan since my childhood in the 1970s. My interest began with the Frank Frazetta covers. It was intensified by a gory graphic novel by Marvel comics. I read the original Robert E. Howard short story Jewels of Gwalhur. I was not allowed to watch the 1982 Conan the Barbarian movie till later because my mother disapproved of the nudity and gore.

I read every Conan story written by its original author... but they were modified by the pulp magazine Weird Tales and later by L. Sprague de Camp. I loved them... but was disappointed to learn they were not entirely true Robert E. Howard's work.

I read the true Robert E. Howard versions... and love them.

I write my own fiction. It is very much inspired by the works of Robert E. Howard. His relationship with H.P. Lovecraft encouraged me to read Lovecraft too, and I was not disappointed. I was inspired yet again.

Conan is about a hero in a world of survival-of-the-fittest. Savagery ultimately outmatches civilization. Even the civilized thrive as brutes. The universe is still one that favors good over evil, however. It simply distinguishes goodness from law and order and compassion from ethics or pity.

Like the original Conan stories, my work is mostly novellas, novelettes and short stories. The settings, like the Hyborean Age of Conan are worlds where the wars of tribes, nations and empires are not struggles of good against evil. The heroes are antiheroes until they do what they do for the sake of the innocent... and they are especially brutal when protecting or avenging the innocent.

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