Notes

Like most stories in this time period, this one takes place in the far future and is therefore not based on any real event. This is precisely what made it so interesting to me: the possibility that our future might hold a step backwards. We might become cavemen again, or an older version of our civilization, because of war, a pandemic or disasters.

The first idea for this story, though, came to me about ten years ago. I read a theory stating that humans crash landed on earth, instead of evolving here naturally and earth being our “home”. And that this disaster, or simply the passing of an unfathomable amount of time, made us forget and erase this origin. And yes, maybe humans did move several times, to several planets, where they had to start again every time.

There are quite some “arguments” supporting such a theory. For example, we found objects or inventions from very long ago that showed a surprisingly high intelligence among humans. Such as maps of the universe that are too precise, made in a time where humans weren’t supposed to have accurate tools. Humans clearly have some advantages over other animals and the speed at which we became “intelligent” (transitioning from monkey->human) is suspiciously quick.

The dinosaurs, for example, roamed earth far longer as the dominant species. They ruled for hundreds of millions of years—we can only trace back the “intelligent human” to about 100,000 years ago. Still there’s no reason to think the dinosaurs had brains that could come close to what our brains can do.

(Maybe they could. Maybe dinosaurs were secretly extremely intelligent and that’s what made them rule for so long, but we simply can’t see it because we’re really stupid compared to the dinosaurs that covered their tracks.)

There are, however, many more arguments for why this theory isn’t true. And so the conclusion is that it’s very unlikely to be true.

Nevertheless, it made for a good story. One that fit in this cycle and ended it in a good place.

The cycle started with Ardex as he received confusing lessons from his parents, the two Chiefgods. Lessons about the meaning of life and how he should just “let things happen”, even if it means letting a species die, for example. For there is no meaning or objective to life—the goal is simply to live it.

Tibre and Jassia fight with this truth and this questions, but hopefully readers can empathize with their conclusion.

The hardest part was giving this story a clear plot and pacing. That’s always the issue with stories based on mystery or some philosophical theory. The first outline, for example, didn’t even contain the crash landed pilot. I added them later, in chapter 5, to give the story an injection of pace at the midpoint … only to move it back to chapter 2 because it was far too interesting to introduce that late.

The “secret” of Holed, for which they search the entire story, similarly bounced around between different places. Many other science-fiction stories already used “traveling with the speed of light” (or simply “quick navigation among the stars”) as a great technology that everyone in the universe is eager to have.

So I wanted to do something different. I decided to claim Holed had a device that could generate infinite energy.

But that had so many problems and logical consequences! If they could generate infinite energy, they’d absolutely be the lone rulers of the galaxy! They’d never ever get in this terrible situation. It would break all the laws of physics … and most importantly the laws that the next cycle (Cycle 4 about Energy and Force) is based on! Not a good idea.

In fact, I must admit I was initially a bit “afraid” to write this story. Precisely because I feared that the mysteries and philosophical ideas would not lead to a tense plot. Ironically, this story actually has the honor to receive the prize elegantly called “fastest-written Saga story”! I’d cleared the entire week to write the first draft, but finished it with a combined effort on Monday and Tuesday morning.

Some months later, I translated it and made some major edits. (Such as the Echobelts and Jassia’s bear, which weren’t there before.) All in all, the Dwellers of Holed started ten years ago with a snippet of an idea, and became a reality in three productive days.