When I was a young teenager, I stumbled across some books known as the Chronicles of Gor, written by John Norman. I quickly became fascinated by these books and collected them as much as I could at the time, reading the first 21 of them.
As a young man, and wanting to become a better person for myself, I looked at these books as a way of life, or a code of honour to live by. The main character in those novels, Tarl Cabot, was someone I admired. And the writer, John Norman, did such a great job describing and making not only this character come to life, but the whole world.
Some people criticised the work of John Norman - I was never one to criticise. Everyone has their way of writing, and the way the books of Gor were written left great imagination on my mind of vivid worlds to explore.
Growing up even older, I became fascinated with the role-playing aspect of the Gorean chronicles, which flowed not only into Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and then into ActiveWorlds, but then became very prominent in Second Life, a place I still call home online today.
Not only could you read the books, but due to the amount of detail put into the books, even down to chess-based games described within, you could actually take on the life of a character in a role-play environment and create your own story, based on the original books.
In recent years, the Gorean saga has died off within Second Life. Maybe that’s because of the endless toxic arguments as to what was by the book or not. Maybe it was because of farming systems developed for addiction based play that dragged people away. Maybe too many people desired the captive role-play of Master/slave instead of taking on a proper story - who really knows?
What I do know is I have a desire to bring a world like this back to life through my own imagination. Loosely based on some of the aspects of the world I had learned, without directly copying anything specific, and bringing it to a level that anyone can enjoy, no matter their age.
This novel, and the role-play world that comes with it, is based on my own interests and my own imagination.
Counter Earth, which is not a new concept in philosophy, is a theory that allows the imagination to run wild. A planet where we can have a fresh start, and live a simpler life where we care more about our planet, the fauna, and flora. A place where certain technologies are permitted, but others are banned and monitored by those ultimately in charge.
Along with this novel is a 3D world I am building within Second Life, that also uses a product I am a creator of, known as SL Colonies - an RP system that enables us to set up quest lines, gathering, farming, crafting, and more. So this project, this novel, is really an amalgamation of three projects that will work with each other and improve with each other:
The Counter Earth RP Game:
Will develop and be built as I write this novel. What players do will likely reflect within the novel, and the world will expand.
SL Colonies:
The RP system will be tested and expanded upon as new ideas come to mind and new features need to be added.
The Counter Earth: Antichthon (This book):
This book is written based on everything working together. Once this main story is formed, I intend to release two other books. One book will be about actually landing on Antichthon and the character living out a life. I also intend on writing a prequel, which will be about the character that discovered this planet and started moving people there.
So as you can see, this whole concept is an ambitious project. I hope that you will enjoy reading and that your contribution ends up taking form within these works - whichever way you decide to contribute.
