In the early days of personal computers, before the website. many of us ran what were called BBSes, or bulletin boards. I had the honor to be a developer of a program called Citadel. The idea was a 'site' structured around the concept of 'rooms', much as these discussion topics here. With Citadel, the commands were simplified to essentials for example... to read you typed .R , to skip a message .S , to goto the next 'room' .Goto and then the room name....thus one could breeze thru all the rooms and control which messages you dealt with. The starter room was the Lobby and was mostly reserved for board notices or welcomes to new visitors/members. Some rooms could be set to hold downloadable files as well. An idea that took root was one for a story that changed as each person added their entry to the ongoing plot. Thus a story grew entry by entry and nobody knew how it would end. Sometimes weird but usually quite fun. In honor of those 'ancient days' I begin anew -- i hope you all will enjoy it and add your bit as the spirit moves you..
Space is wide. One never knows what an encounter will bring when one set foot, claw, or tentacle to the soil of a new world. So it was with the Crown of Ischaara. The Ischaarans were a Before People whose empire lasted over a hundred thousand years. The Crown was the means by which they apparently moved about their domain. Tragicly, the early trampers and vagabonds that tried to use the Crown were 'dis-minded' in trying to use the Crown. Later studies by scientific groups built up a barebones understanding of how the Crown worked and its purpose. The Ischaarans were of a different order of thought or thinking. Whether that is why few could use the Crown, or just dumb luck...nobody really knows. The few fragments of the Ischarran culture that survive make it clear that control of the strings that bind the worlds is key. more or less like a breadcrumb trail, that you tracked to travel between the stars.
To date, seven worlds have been visited or charted - out of all the galaxy - just SEVEN. Those lucky enough to survive a first wearing became rich beyond their dreams....a world of your own to people and or use as you wish. But, you risked all to wear the Crown and seek a new 'thread' to exploit...thus most of those who succeeded once rarely had the 'stones' to try a second time - because even the good tries did strange things to one's thought processes - the hidden often came to the fore and warped a normal mind out of all recognition..but still there were those that tried....
)
