The Samsara Project - Sun Bursts Forth

Just as important as characterizing ourselves as making progress, is acknowledging progress made.

Preamble

This is the second iteration of this document. Normally I try and avoid doing that. I feel there is a certain amount of authenticity that comes with doing something like this in a single take, as it were. In works where I aim to relay narrative or teach of the world, preparation and revision beforehand is not just expected, but mandatory. In something like this where I just aim to talk, I prefer to start and then end it; a singular line from the first thought to the last, relayed as though I were sitting across from you. Circumstances did not allow that to be the case. I am not upset in the slightest.

You are reading this because you share a circle with me, whether by choice or not. For many of you, I have no claim to what I’d to ask of you; time. And that is a simple truth, you are free to leave at any moment. I won’t ask you to stay for any longer than this preamble, so that I may relay just a couple of things you might find mildly relatable. Many of you do not even know me, and we’ll get to that, but I’ll begin first with some essentials.

The first iteration of this document was titled ‘A Sunwards Ordeal’. It was rather… I don’t really have a word for it. I think I will say it read like an accounting report, or an update on a construction project, sprinkled with some lingo reminiscent of someone who runs a workplace they’d describe as ‘high-octane’, ‘fast paced’ and that they need employees who are ‘immensely flexible’. Something along those lines. It very much bore the tone of ‘we have done work and yet work remains to be done’, and while that is true, and a similar sentiment will also be relayed in this document, I have decided to take a somewhat different tone - that of acknowledging the work done as more than just a large stack of ideas given form, but rather as something greater.

We stand at the intersection of various triumphs. The public release of the Project alongside the launch of the March Expansion - the largest expansion of the canon till date. The 120k word milestone. Being nearly half a year since the work on the Project began and about a full year since the commencement of the ‘pre-Samsara’ development stages. The first look at the road to Act One. And my birthday.

There’s a lot to go over today. A lot to celebrate too. I’ll take you through it.

The Samsara Project…

…is a fictional worldbuilding endeavor about one and a half years in the making. In reality, it’s more like eleven years in the making, as that is when I would say I first began writing. In talking about the Samsara Project, I will inevitably talk about myself, and that is encapsulated in why I have chosen to call it ‘samsara’.

Samsara is a word of Buddhist origin, and it describes the ‘endless cycle of death and rebirth to which the material world is bound’. It’s a nifty concept, and one that struck me when I was closing the final chapters on the project that preceded Samsara, referred too most commonly as ‘SBL1’. At the time I shoveled the last mound of dirt on it’s coffin it numbered eighty thousand words plus and had been in the works for upwards of half a year. Then it crashed. I tried to salvage it, didn’t work, so I chose to burn it and grow something from the ashes. And it struck me that it wouldn’t be the first time this was the case. Before the eighty thousand words of SBL1 was the nearly one hundred and eighty thousand words of what I will tell you was a novel when really it is a disgrace. That died too. And what I worked on before that. And what I worked on before that. Eleven years. And as I wrote work and binned work it all carried forward - dying, reincarnating in new iterations - written by better hands and a sharper mind.

And now we stand, here. I would guess - before Samsara - I’ve written about four hundred thousand words in my twenty-one years around. What has the journey been like? People who know me will be familiar with this response; it is what it is.

And so what is the Samsara Project? When you have a hundred and twenty thousand words behind something, it becomes rather difficult to say simply ‘what it is’. How do I pack as much understanding as tightly as possible? I could tell you it’s one beloved IP meets another beloved IP but it isn’t that. I’ve drawn on many things to make Samsara, but it is so far divorced from the things that seeded its earliest concepts that to liken it to anything would only create further confusion once you realize you are unsatisfied with summary and decide to delve into the works of it. At a point I decided that maybe my answer to the question would simply be that it was ‘really fucking cool’. I’ve engaged with things on far less to go off of. I imagine you have too. But I owe it to you to at least give you an answer that - if for nothing else - justifies your time spent reading this.

The Samsara Project is a thing that will maybe, one day, become a novel. Today, we build and play in the sandbox in hope that one day, we will look upon the disturbed dunes and tell stories about it. That future is closer than we think.

And so, finally, what is the world of the Samsara Project?

That world is the Switchboard, and it is a world where mechanism has allowed for bridging the gap between the mundane and the esoteric. It is a world where, through a willingness to learn and play to its complex mechanics, all of reality becomes tactile, and you - the person in that world - are able to bridge the gaps and play fast and loose with the laws of physics. It is a world where you - via the power of the Strider Protocol - can spend seven nights under seven different moons. Where you - using the Weave Protocol and the power of tangible, touchable, interactable, downright edible information in the form of chalk - can spin a weave of calcic ribbon that lets you throw fire or teleport or reshape the path of an entire dynasty using geometry, candles and flowers in a pattern taught to you by the Strider Ritualism. It is a world where silicon meets sorcery and you as a wielder of loom-spun powers will do battle against thinking computers emerging from the calcic mind-spinning swamps of dead planet-like regions in ancient interstellar mega-construct vaults that house the annals of ages and the weapon-artifacts of paragons that forged the very roads through the stars you walk upon. It is a world where Shalkarah, King of Roads, will guide your steps to all the bounty the stars have to offer should you find yourself tenacious enough to take it. It is a world where you can stumble into Isalveh, the Challenger Dark, the yawing depths of the Amaranth Void, where stardrip will stain you violet and running your hands through the sands of its surface will dredge up the will and wealth of dead kings. It is a world where you will pursue power through ritual and doctrine; you will adhere to the principles of your ancestor-kin or forge ones of your own, you will drink from the Wellsprings seated in the Cradles of Giants and bask in the light of armillary stars so that your strength will be renewed, you will learn all that there is to learn and forge a name for yourself that will be a chisel-blow on the marble slate of the Current that flows from the primordial Astrolabe - where all that is and will be is recorded - and it will make you powerful and you will be powerful because the stars are your birthright and you yourself are one of them - a sun, bursting forth.

The Samsara Project is my aim to narratively crystallize a world where we are not bound… by anything. Where mechanics themselves will teach you to subvert them. Where the stars glitter and sing under the prospect of subjugation by the unhindered, human mind.

As I said, it is really, fucking cool.

Where We Are Now…

…is in the ‘NarratWB’ stage of development. From here on out, we’re about to go into a section that is really only interesting if you’re the kind of person who likes to build computers or watch devlogs for games, that kind of thing. We’re going into the ‘making’ of Samsara, as it were.

I will begin with saying that Samsara employs a litany of techniques and strategies in its making. Almost every obstacle I came across, I developed a means to defeat and defeat permanently. To many of them I bestowed all manners of quirky names, like the ‘Axle Design Method’, ‘Consolidation Protocol’ or the ‘Tour Guide vs. Brochure Document Design Method’. Don’t bother trying to make sense of them. Standing above them all was a decision - very early on - to divide the entirety of the work to be done on Samsara into three distinct categories of worldbuilding; pure worldbuilding or the pWB, narrative worldbuilding or the NarratWB, and pure narrative development or the pNarrat. Currently, as mentioned above, we are in the NarratWB stage.

To understand each, you can think of it as if you were worldbuilding the Roman Empire. The pWB would be their architecture, governing methods, what food they ate - that kind of thing. The NarratWB would be explaining why this one temple has this statue of a guy throwing lightning outside of it, or why they give leafy wreaths as awards to distinguished athletes. The pNarrat would be the story of a statue craver or athlete, as told the way you’ve seen and understood how stories are told.

We began with the pWB. It was multiple months in the making, as I found myself very quickly having to learn advanced physics like orbital mechanics and thermodynamics and how fourth spatial dimensions worked. I had someone at my side for a lot of this, but I’ll get to that later. Cracking the pWB was done through a series of ‘forcing’ eureka! moments. At a point, it wasn’t nearly workable to just hope for paths forward to strike me, I had to force them - brute-force them - by applying new thinking methodologies and endless study. This was the case for many documents that spent long periods of time in what I’ve dubbed ‘iterative hell’, where revision after revision of concept after concept had to be drafted, debated, perfected - only to realize it failed in one particular aspect. It was even more terrible when it was a document that served as a metaphorical seam in a piece of clothing, or a tightly-woven string in a piece of knitting, where pulling just a single loose end led to the entire thing - and multiple other things - coming undone.

Development was done with hammers that tested integrity and combs that found the deep flaws mere observation couldn’t. It was hard work. But fun work too, much the way like solving a Rubik’s cube or a crossword puzzle is. It’s hard for me to relay this to someone who isn’t familiar with crafting fictional worlds, but I must stress that even mildly pursuing even a bit of quality is work that demands downright anal attention to detail. If you want to craft something worth someone’s while, the truth is that you gotta go head-to-the-desk, fingers-on-the-grindstone, work work work until it makes sense. It’s this difficulty that made it all the more essential to have help, which I will get to - again - in a moment.

Something else that helps is having a something to shape what you are working on. For me, this was the ‘shape of the Strider’. A Strider in the Switchboard is a wielder of the Strider Protocol, and this grants them the power to walk across the cosmos like it were gravel path. Defining the Strider was an essential part of anything I planned to do for Samsara, because the most important element of any setting is the people swelling within it. Once I knew the shape of the Strider, it follows then that I would know what type of holes that shape would fill. That’s where you get the narrative.

I will tangent back to the actual works of it. The minute-over-minute building of Samsara is a workflow of idea, paper draft, paper iteration, digital draft, digital iteration and a loop between draft and iteration until something of a final iteration is reached. When I started employing the Axle Design Method, it resulted in documents that necessarily, hinged one upon the other, but it also meant that a change to one may have to be replicated in another. Interdependent and sub- systems needed careful watching to ensure that all meshed together like lathe-cut cog, all amalgamating into finely-operating machine. The goal, ultimately, is understanding. Contradiction and inconsistency is the death of that. Often, the work on Samsara was rewriting docs in new ways - much like rotating a Rubik’s cube to see what side to move next - so that newness can be mined from old and new connections and paths may emerge. Sometimes, you gotta throw things at the wall and see what sticks, or arrange pins on a corkboard and link them with strings and see what shapes and links emerge. It is riveting work if you have the mind for it. Keep these bits in mind when you go through the docs for yourself.

And I must stress that there is still, quite a lot of work to be done.

The Road to Act One…

…begins, and that’s the most important part. Act One will be the first narrative bloc of what I’ve chosen to call the ‘Post-Mysticism’. That may one day be the title on a book, but for now it defines the first few stories that will be told in the Samsara universe.

And maybe I should talk about that story now. Or maybe not. For the first time in a while I am unsure, because Samsara is still very much largely in iterative hell, where anything can change for any reason at any time. There is solid foundation in places, but I am not tying myself down in what is arguably, the most flexible aspect of the entire endeavor. And so this is really just a way to earmark a point in our history; after nearly a year of work, we finally are getting around to making some actual story. I would say something sappy and emotional about how it is ‘all so surreal’ and how ‘I never thought we’d make it this far’ but I doubt you want to hear that and neither do I. Work on anything long enough and guess what? You start making progress and marking milestones. As surely as sunrise.

The Public Release…

…is now online. Multiple thousand words of the Samsara canon, organized and indexed and available for your viewing. Previously restricted to only Patrons, it is now viewable by all as we get far enough in the project that I now would greatly benefit from more eyes on it, and not just eyes but minds contributing what they think. Very few successful journeys are made in complete isolation. If you are interested in chiming in on the work we’re doing here, reading the docs is just step one.

I will add though, that this is a very tasking step. The docs are long and necessarily so. There is a lot that goes into what we are aiming to do. If you find your way through even a quarter or half of it, you have my utmost respect. If you get through all of it - my sincerest, deepest congratulations.

Supporting in Other Ways…

I live in a third world country. Normally, I’d have no qualms with offering up all the work I do for free viewing, but I chose to open a Patreon because the funds directly pay for my crushingly expensive third-world internet. If you want to support the work I do, you can become a Patreon for some additional perks such as access to in-development and the ability to commission written work from me. You can also make a one-time donation via PayPal. Know that you have my deepest gratitude.

And Appreciation Where It is Due

I must devote this section to someone infinitely deserving of more. Kings give positions, wealthy persons give gold and precious stones, musicians give song, cooks give food, wise men give advice. As a scribe, I have only words to offer. And so I will give them.

Samsara is where it is today because despite all we know of people, there are those who choose to give and take nothing in return. There are people who - genuinely - see your pursuits as their pursuits and your success as their success. They smile when you smile and work earnestly to keep you striving forward, pursuing higher heights, daring mightier things - day over day - out of a goodness of heart that defies understanding. Were I a believer in such things and a tad bit more self-centered, I would assume that they were placed in my path solely to realize my endless ambition, but it would cheapen them to the point of grating insult to even imply that their nature is something predetermined, and not the result of a deliberate, continuous reinvention of the self according to a stringent moral code. Through their actions they have forged both the Samsara Project and I - its creator - into better versions of ourselves, and for that I am eternally grateful, far beyond what words are able to convey.

You have my utmost respect and gratitude, doctor. You are the brightest star in my sky.

Closing Thoughts…

…of which there are few. I believe I have said all that needed saying, and to the best of my ability. Today is a day for celebrating triumphs, celebrating roads walked and the more to come. To rest - briefly - on our many laurels, with the knowledge that our greatest journeys lie still, ahead of us.

I cannot wait to show you all that is come. Watch, and be awed.

Onwards, sunwards!

• Cryogen, Shattered Scribe