Infinite Ashes bundle first discussion

Authoring Publishing
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Introduction

Infinite chances, Infinite ashes.

In Infinite Ashes you find humanity strewn across the Milky Way, seeded on near infinite planets. Spread by the enigmatic Web, an immense biosynthetic system that terraforms suitable worlds and then stocks them with animal and human life. Connecting all these worlds like sail ships in the cosmic ocean are the Arks, living vessels that are part of the Web themselves. Every planet almost like an island, with its own deeply developed society with politics, economy and institutions.

There are advanced worlds like Crownshard, the vertical Ecumenopolis centered around social mobility (or the facade thereof), or the Dwang with their elaborate castes of Serviles on which the martial Udo nobility depends for everything. But most worlds are pre-modern, lacking the fossil fuels to escape the energy valley. So in any port you might find armor clad soldiers marvelling at the ethereal voice of a radio, or a Union syndicalist impatiently haggling with a cattle farmer for his beef. A world so vast and diverse that nobody can hope to conquer and rule it all, a churning foam of humanity infinitely bubbling and popping out of existence. That, is Infinite Ashes.

I wanted to build a setting you could imagine living in, one where history grows into culture and tradition rather than being decorated onto it. For the past three years that is what I have tried to do, to make sure every world here rests on a real past. Rather than hand you a wiki of lore, I have worked all of it into stories and into the Omnipedia, a collection of in-universe sources written by people who live in this world and often disagree about it. The bundle stands at 75,000 words but there is a great deal more of this world in my notes, and I mean to keep bringing it out.

How to read

This bundle is a collection of short vignettes and longer stories from the perspective of people living in the Infinite Ashes universe. I have written an in-universe FAQ and a glossary for unfamiliar terms, just hover over the highlighted words. Your first half hour of reading might feel a bit overwhelming, but don’t worry, that is the intended experience. Like the real world, Infinite Ashes is intentionally complex and at times confusing, exactly so you can take pleasure in discovering it. You’re like a farmhand from a backwards world suddenly thrust into the cacophony of the cosmos. Revel in your discovery! Immerse yourself into the world, read the disputed claims of the Omnipedia authors, and decide who you do and do not believe.

Before you jump in, I want to take the opportunity to thank you and acknowledge our shared love for worldbuilding. I have put over two thousand hours of my life into this project, in the hope that someone would want to read it. I deeply hope you will enjoy the process of reading this bundle, and if you want to get in touch about your thoughts I would be delighted to hear them.

With warm regards,

Lou

Forum post:

Edited: Earlier today I joined this wonderful community and I posted in this thread about my Sci Fi setting twine book. And by finally getting the thoughts of people who actually give a damn about trying new things with fiction, I gained clarity.

I poured 3 years of my life to make a dense world, presented as a dozen stories and a dozen or so pages of in universe sources. Throwing people in a book without a start or ending, or any point of reference. In the next month I want to explore the way the readers understands the material. I want the sources to become contested space. The element of interactivity will lie not in branching choices but in the way that you experience the story.

Thanks again so.much for everyone who responded, your words were exactly what I needed to orient me towards the next step of the project!

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(This is the link, I guess: Infinite Ashes by LoquaciousLou )

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It is!

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It is with empathy that I say that a 75k text heavy bundle is not a good fit for most of the world these days :slight_smile:

The nature of your project makes sharing it of inherently high difficulty. I expect you probably understand that.

Something which can be read/explored in an order, or to an extent, the reader wants, certainly can be perceived as a branch of IF, and in that sense is something you can bring to the IF community’s attention – and while this forum isn’t the whole community, it’s probably the chunk mostly likely to relate to this. But what you’ve made is so big it demands a major commitment, which, when nobody has seen anything else you’ve done, is your biggest obstacle, and it’s not fitting more well-worn paths (e.g. being a game, or being an RPG sourcebook – the latter sounds like a semi-close fit)

I don’t think there’s any way to magic up a response to a project of this type. But if it’s not going anywhere, maybe you can build something else, or somethings, which can either draw attention to it, or you, or make use of it, over time. For instance, could you make a digital IF game of some sort based in this world? Or convert it to RPG source material for a particular system? Or just make something related that is easier to get some eyeballs on? Those are the first ideas which come to me.

-Wade

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I am hoping to turn it into a TTRPG and later into a video game. But that would be only if people respond to the setting. I was aiming for the worldbuilding/ Sci fi lit crowd with an engaging IF format but I suppose that does come with a lot friction.

I am currently considering either breaking up the material and posting them so they can then trace back to the bundle, or maybe make new dedicated content to make people interested in reading the bundle. I would love to hear your take on this Wade.

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Yeah, that’s what I recommend. People will think: Oh, a new IF, let’s try it. And maybe they want more, maybe not. But 75k text makes people think: Oh my, not that much, please.

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To clarify: These 75k words are spread over a dozen stories, and a dozen ‘‘Wiki’’ pages made of in universe sources.

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You can add a listing for it to IFDB—that may help get a few more eyes on it, at least!

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Thanks for the tip!

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Yes, I guessed that. But as long as it is available only as a bundle (is it?) players will avoid it.

Edit: I looked at it and it is actually only “bundled” as a webpage. The stories can be played separately. So maybe not scaring players away.

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I can’t find “infinite ashes” in itchio.
Got It!

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I’ve read through some of this, nowhere near all of it I’m sure, but enough I have a few thoughts.

I understand this is supposed to be immersive, so a certain amount of “inaccessibility” is probably part of the theme. You even say the first half hour or so is intended to be a bit overwhelming, and personally I’m not a fan of this approach, I do understand you’re going for a certain aesthetic. Still, I will say, it was difficult knowing where to start. If this had been a novel with a lot of lore, then it would have a beginning: there’s a first page, and that’s where I’d start reading, and hopefully it would start to make sense… but this doesn’t seem to really provide you with a hook to start with.

Anyway, the closest thing to a “way in” is probably the “Questions” link. The condescending tone was funny, but unfortunately it kind of detracted, because the speaker refused to answer questions that probably should have been answered, which might help readers get a better feel for the place, like, a list of key planets, an overview of the technology (I get the sense they still use a lot of fossil fuels?), a general feeling of the size of “known space” and the limits of FTL in this universe, things like that.

But anyway. One other thing is, it would be nice if the browser’s back button went back to the last article instead of dumping me all the way out of the whole thing.

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Thanks for reading it! That’s a very valid point, I placed the stories in an order I hoped would best introduce the setting. But I think I should add a recommended reading order. The omnipedia pages for the Web and Arks hopefully should elucidate things somewhat. But I’ll definitely have to work on onboarding.