My amazing readers and followers,

All of your support has been incredible. We have 47 people following Seven Days a Servant, and 31 pre-orders! I see a lot of new faces following the project, and I’d love to fill y’all in on what’s going on! At the end of this, I make a small request, so please do give me a hand.

First, I’d love to give a shout out to Jesse Cox and Jesse Rath for talking about the book on twitter. If you were introduced to this project by either of them, thanks for checking it out. If you don’t know who they are, you can find Mr. Rath’s work on the Defiance TV show or on a number of excellent shows - such as Being Human. Mr. Cox is a phenomenal YouTube star with a wide range of gaming videos on his YouTube page. He also collaborates with Geek and Sundry from time to time and has put in an excellent appearance on TableTop.

Check them out.

Last week, we placed two new chapters onto the Seven Days a Servant Inkshares page. We’ll have two more chapters this week as well as another article about the world of Promise and the philosophy behind it. I wanted to post that article on Friday, but it needed to cook a little longer.

You can find each posted chapter by following these links:

Chapter 1: https://www.inkshares.com/books/seven-days-a-servant/book_segments/chapter-1-7135df

Chapter 2: https://www.inkshares.com/books/seven-days-a-servant/book_segments/chapter-2-6f874c

Chapter 3: https://www.inkshares.com/books/seven-days-a-servant/book_segments/chapter-3-230d10

Dear readers, I have a favor to ask. There is a recommend button on the Inkshares page, and I’d like each of you to drop by and make a little recommendation. It only takes a moment, but you will need to write something about the same length as a tweet.

Recommend us here: https://www.inkshares.com/books/seven-days-a-servant

Thank you all, and keep spreading the word!

Sincerely,

Trick Dempsey

There is no magic bullet

We can’t Star Trek our way out of this one

Bigotry, classism, elitism, hatred, and all the other ills of our times are exacerbated by unjust distribution of resources. When someone has – or appears to have – the ability to give a resource to someone in need of that resource, that’s when societal ills go from quirks to conflicts.

When a family is starving for want of bread, they don’t simply rob the nearest baker. They choose the baker most different from them. When faced with the opportunity to hire someone and uplift them from poverty, an employer chooses the applicant with which they most empathize. It’s hard to turn away someone that looks like they could be your son, or daughter, or even you from a different life.

Without scarcity – without need – these conflicts would not become violent. Without scarcity – whether that scarcity be of rights or resources – bigotry goes without harmful expression. Without scarcity, we can afford to tolerate bigotry.

Magic Bullets are Blanks

Star Trek: The Next Generation and the original series both faltered when faced with a specific conflict. Two groups which dislike each other are fighting over a limited resource. Often there has been some wrong-doing, misunderstanding, or ancient enmity that results in a conflict. In the end, the crew of the Enterprise broker an end to hostilities.

Take “When the Bough Breaks” as an example. An elusive nation kidnaps children because they can breed none of their own. The Enterprise, ready to fight to get back its stolen people, discovers the cause of the nation’s infertility. They present the solution to the people of the nation, and peace is attained. The children are returned.

This sort of solution appears time and again throughout many Star Trek series, but it is the most false of hopes. An acute problem on the edge of spilling out into violence, is resolved by the clever intervention of technology. Yes, drama still occurs, but the scarcity which caused the conflict is alleviated.

This is what it means to “Star Trek” your way out of a problem, and it rarely works in real life. Technological solutions always target the suffering of the rich. When the poor are considered, they are but a market from which the rich can benefit. Heroes who seek to solve the world’s problems with only technology, will only succeed in widening the gap between the wealthy and those that suffer the most.

Technology can cure a great variety of ills. Those who market technology as a cure-all are either grifters or marks.

The Alchemy of Brilliance

Brilliance - and the greater continent of Promise - is filthy with the fantastic. The Soaring Scar - the home of the Raptors - is a mountain range that floats above a boiling ocean. The walkwoods of Promise will march upon cities and towns to drag away sinner and saint alike. And, barring misadventure, the people of Brilliance live forever.

All this magic - well, most of this magic - is due to the influence of alchemy, and it is bound by alchemy’s limitations. Alchemy cannot bring the dead back to life. Alchemy cannot make barren lands grow food. Alchemy cannot provide energy from nothing. All energy on Promise comes from somewhere. Resources are always limited.

Reagents and the knowledge of how to use them are scarce. Perhaps the most contentious resource is the possession of the iron wells themselves. While iron water is most central to the people of Brilliance, there are other forces in the world that rely on it as well.

Unlike Star Trek or other utopian fictions, Seven Days a Servant does not present a technology which cures scarcity. In fact, all fantastic technologies on Promise increase demand for its scarce resources.

As Brilliance moves ever-closer to revolution, no technology is going to save them. They can’t Star Trek their way out of their problems. Whoever lives to tell the story of Brilliance, they won’t recall the magical solution which brought salvation on the dawn of their darkest day.

Peace will be won with negotiation, compromise, and blood.

The Masks of Brilliance

It’s always strange to present an alien world from the eyes of one of its inhabitants. In some ways its easy, nothing about the world is unusual to the people for whom this is all normal. For example, Senka will - at one point- compare something to a tegu, the dog-sized lizards the people of Brilliance keep as pets. This comparison is easy for her to make, but does not help my delightful readers.

That’s why we have dear old Frejvid around to ask about things. He’s that useful outsider that authors love to keep around. Maybe you’ve noticed your favorite sci-fi shows have intrepid reporters or scientists-in-training always asking the dumb questions.

Thanks, Frejvid, you’re doing your job well.

Well, almost. Sometimes the exchange rate on a picture is a thousand words.

Let me show you what a servant’s mask looks like in Brilliance.

In this alternate cover for Seven Days a Servant, we see a black-and-white representation of the mask of the personal servants to General Zaria Rog. The solid part of the mask is made from sacred worm chitin cut and glued together to form, well, almost a muzzle. This part is glued directly onto the face using dayglue. The glued contact points are the whole nose to the forehead and the cheeks all the way to the temple.

These masks would be uncomfortable were the glue not laced with delightful drugs.

Depending on the mask’s design, the mouth can be partially or fully covered by chitin. All masks have two pieces of sheer silk attached to them. The veil hangs down from the bottom and can go all the way to the chest. The hood attaches to the top edge, passes over the eyes, and goes over the back of the head - like a bridal veil. This veil and hood combination are intended to disguise the identity of the wearer, though this function is largely symbolic.

General Rog’s servant masks - like many palace masks - are also adorned in jewelry. Her’s have golden beads hanging from the bottom, though some houses prefer to fix jewels or even expensive alchemical creations to show off their wealth or to endow their wearers with certain... let’s say "effects". Yeah. That’ll do. "Effects."

When someone is a servant, that’s all they are. From the highest official to to the lowest field worker, all are equal when wearing the mask. That’s why you must be careful how you treat servants in Brilliance. You never know when cruelty might come back to haunt you.

Coming Soon: A trip to the Dynasty of Defense

Keep an eye on this page, we’ve got more chapters and lore coming up. Senka is about to have her first day of service, and it’s a doozy.

Sincerely,

Trick Dempsey