We have all seen the news recently and the dustup regarding the United States and Japan, China, South Korea, North Korea and Russia. With North Korea threatening Guam, a United States territory, it seems we have moved this game to a whole other level. Hopefully this will all settle down and the rhetoric will calm. But I didn’t bring all this up because I wanted to talk about current events, instead I wanted to relate this occurrence to my novels in the grydscaen series so you can see the parallel to real life that winds through grydscaen.
Lets start with grydscaen: retribution. At the beginning of the book we see Lino riding a motorcycle through checkpoints to get into the City where he has to show his cit card which will allow him entry. If Lino cannot prove he is a citizen, then he is not getting into the City. He is stopped by the Zone Police at the Gateway Zone Cross and gets his card scanned. They question him and he is about to be taken into custody when he catches a break and is allowed through. I drew the parallel here to the crossings in Tel Aviv and other restricted areas in the West Bank. With the Palestinian and Israeli tension and the settlements still being built on disputed territory, this creates a tense situation and adding violence and random knife attacks into the mix makes it more precarious. That was the image that I wanted to invoke.
Next we talk about grydscaen: beginnings in the chapter where Riuho is sent as a sniper to take out an ambassador for the Pacific Territories. This parallels some of the covert operations and black ops in the military where targets are sometimes neutralized before they can do more damage. It is slightly unconventional that the minister that is being taken down is a Pacific Territories minister or that Riuho is an operative under mind control but there are a few parallels that I wanted to draw such as: monarch mind control programming, clandestine ops, spooks/spies, international diplomacy, covert intelligence, and ministers gone awry.
From grydscaen: war we draw the parallel with Europe and the devastation that happened in World War II with the bombings. I used France and England as the two images that I wanted to invoke, of the air raid sirens going off and then the bombs being dropped in the streets. Of the soldiers going house to house rounding people up. This is the image that I wanted to invoke when the Psi Faction team sees the Atlantea Federation invade with their Jannai troops in the City over the newsfeed. The war book brings the war to Lino’s doorstep and he can’t get away from it. The action just increases. Of course there are no Dionysis Air Fortresses in reality but the parallel about stealing information from the enemy to gain advantage makes sense in this context. The airship is just a little scifi flare.
From grydscaen: alliance we see the inner workings of a rebel group, you might call the Packrat hackers cyber terrorists as they attack the Elite government, the Corporation, the SenseNet, and other oligarchic individuals that rule the Pacific Territories. The Packrats have factions that rail against the government be it through cyber threats, physical assaults, protests, bombing attacks, sabotage, and other illegal activities such as stealing data, and trafficking in controlled substances and street drugs. The power struggles in subversive groups like the Packrats underlie the tension of the leaders who try to control their unruly bands of followers who hang on by the propaganda and the leader’s sway over the mob.
In grydscaen: insurrection we take the battle to the battleship Escalon and Commander Ima of the Essex battlefleet. This heightens the tension and we get to see the aerial combat skills of the Psi Faction pilots. Always a good day for pilots, the crew that supports them and the mechanics and technicians that keep the transformable aircraft flying are like a well oiled machine. By the time we get to the Escalon in the grydscaen series we have upped the ante and are playing the game at a whole other level. This runs parallel to what we see in current events in the world right now.
With the tensions in the Middle East and the threat of North Korean missiles and Russian cyber threats the world is no longer a safe place. Cooler heads must prevail and need to be in control. We cannot fly off at the mouth with one little statement made off the cuff that could cause a nuclear war with the push of a button and the whim of a young upstart dictator. This is dangerous. The world we live in is dangerous. I wanted to show this in grydscaen by drawing parallels to the real world and commenting on current events through a fictional backdrop which allows me more freedom to move in the world I created. By creating social structures, governments, locales, culture, technology, social customs, and even a religion for the grydscaen world, I have a full run of a flushed out and complete environment and can comment on those things that are similar and others that run contrary to current day.
This is who we are. Voila qui nous sommes. Hackers Unite. Hack Till You’re Dead. Thanks for listening.
