Notes

This is roughly the beginning of the “First Conflict”. I’ve always seen the godchildren as Greece (from antiquity), and their first notable conflict is definitely with Persia. They were expanding their empire and didn’t like Greece supporting their opponent (with soldiers, supplies, etc). Thus, they decided to directly attack Greece.

This story talks a lot about the geography of the land: the search for Bella, the clashing of territory between Preza and the gods. That’s why the story mentions so many places and refers to so many situations. It makes it ideal as one of the first stories you read in the Saga of Life! Hopefully I didn’t go too far with it, to the point of confusion.

Battle of Marathon

The first major turning point in that conflict was the “Battle of Marathon”. The Greeks were heavily outnumbered, but their soldiers were better (with better weapons and armor), and they fought more tactically, so they “won”.

(Usually someone already retreated when they realized they lost ten soldiers to every one of the opponent’s. They didn’t fight pointlessly until an entire army was gone.)

Our 40 kilometer race—the marathon—also comes from the legend about someone running back from the battle. In some stories he only wanted to enthusiastically announce that they had won (to the Greek people), in other stories he ran all the way to Sparta to ask for help. (Which is a much longer distance than 40 kilometers, so it took him more than a day.)

But Sparta didn’t come. They wanted to, but Sparta had a very different culture, with other rules around soldiers and fighting, so they waited too long and arrived too late. (Something they more than made up for later at Thermopylae, which that famous movie 300 is about.)

I chose the second explanation, because it’s more interesting. Moreover, I think few readers expect that help does not arrive on time, because most fairy tales don’t end that way. But I found this plot twist acceptable because it’s based on the truth and I make clear that this “mistake” has consequences.

That was the inspiration for this story.

In the end, I removed the “battle” itself because it didn’t fit well with the other storylines. And our history consists of incredibly many battles, so if I realistically portray them in the stories, the Saga of Life saga would be 99% war and field battles.

About Paraat

For this culture, I was looking for a tough animal species, but not in the traditional way of “super big and strong”. Because that’s what the Spartans were: great warriors through training and lifestyle, not because they were, I don’t know, two meters taller than other people of that time.

Eventually, I settled on the Honey Badger. They come across quite normal and innocent, but is _very) aggressive and even able to fend off much larger predators (or groups of attackers).

(Alternatives were the mountain goat, African buffalo and Tasmanian devil. Other tough animal species didn’t live in the right environment. An arctic fox is very tough, but, well, lives in a snowy area, which Paraat certainly isn’t. By far the most resilient animals are insects, but that just doesn’t work at all.)

Their lifestyle was of course very tough, with rigorous training for all men. (Women too, actually, although they couldn’t become soldiers. They had to be fit, but otherwise had much more freedom and responsibility than, for example, in ancient Greece.)

Their only export was superhuman soldiers. They didn’t think it necessary to build walls around their city. Moreover, they didn’t think it necessary to make decent stone houses, and did little other than fight.

That is also the reason why today there is little left to find in Sparta of the great people of the past. No buildings left, no art or culture.

About everything “outside the gods”

I consciously chose not to tell what was happening outside the original continent (where the gods have their Throne), such as Preza.

This will came, don’t worry. The ancient Greeks were crushed between the Persians on the one hand and the emerging Romans on the other. Both groups, as represented in the world of the Saga of Life, you will eventually get to know very well.

Within a cycle, however, I prefer to stay on the same continent. That reads much simpler. In fact, the geography of the world is subtly designed to keep the animals in place for the first few eras. Well, not so subtle anymore now that I’ve told you.

(Consider how much effort it takes if you move every story to the other side of the world, with completely different problems, protagonists, places, names, etc.)