Master Prologue

The **Master Prologue** is the first entry that introduces the entire nine book cycle. It begins with a page that has the Riddle of the Sphinx in the center: "*What goes on four in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?*"

The riddle is presented as a question that introduces the reader to the El'yon's point of view of the history of Solverse, from which the whole story arc is generally viewed.

"Four in the morning" signifies the first four novels. It has an increasingly bright and hopeful tone leading up to *Daedalus*. The overarching theme here is the revelation of the existence of the El'yon and what that means for humans of Sol System. It is the story of mankind's infancy as we leave the cradle that is Earth.

"Two in the afternoon" - *Daedalus* is the climax of the cycle, where humanity and the El'yon collide. It is followed by *Icarus*, the ultimate failure of mankind to achieve it's goals. It is the story of mankind's adulthood. From here the tone is increasingly dark as the falling action is built.

"Three in the evening" is the final and third trilogy. The questions raised by the first two trilogies are all answered.

Similar to how a person will grow in wisdom and stature throughout their life, the same can be said of mankind as a whole. This is a central part of Solverse: both each novel ***and*** each trilogy are progressively longer and cover a longer timespan than the last. That is, *Helios* is longer than *Invictus* which is longer than *Sol*, etc... and the Third Trilogy is longer than both the Second and Third Trilogy.

The First Trilogy is primarily set in Sol System. The Second Trilogy examines humanity as a whole throughout the Milky Way Galaxy. The Third Trilogy is extragalactic and beyond.

The scope may be described thus below:

* *Sol* - Selected locales in Sol System
* *Invictus* - Whole inner Sol System
* *Helios* - Sol System
* *Centauri* - Human civilization beyond Sol System
* *Daedalus* - All of human civilization and first contact
* *Icarus* - Pancivilization
* *Andromeda* - Extragalactic
* *Galactica* - The whole known Solverse
* *Celestia* - Complete cosmology

## Master Chiasmus

The table at right is the Master Chiasmus, a graphical representation of the overall story arc of the whole nine book story cycle.

The nine books are arranged chiastically with themes uniting them around the central crux of *Daedalus*, where all the lessons learned (or failed) and questions answered (or not) lead mankind to an ultimate choice.

*Sol* and *Celestia* deal with themes of meaning, both for mankind as a whole and for individuals living within the greater scope of Solverse. *Sol* has a zoomed-in, microscopic view of ultimate meaning; *Celestia* has a macroscopic view of the entire creation revealed throughout the series.

*Invictus* and *Galactica* deal with conflict by juxtaposing two wars with one another: the Solar War and the Last War. Both are wars that define those who take part in them. But whereas *Invictus* sees a sort of glory and honor in war, *Galactica* only reluctantly embraces war and peace is the ultimate goal.

*Helios* and *Andromeda* examine growth, the former looking at the growth of individuals and how they can impact greater humanity, and the latter examining those impacts and how the course of humanity at large defines and shapes individuals. *Helios* is mankind's exodus from *Sol* in every sense of the term and Andromeda sees humanity return to the original heart of our existence.

*Centauri* and *Icarus* deal with hopes, aspirations, dreams, and their ultimate fulfillment or the lack thereof. The tone of the series is perhaps brightest in Centauri, where we learn what ideals are most dear to us; in Icarus, we see a dramatic and dark turn for humanity as some of our most cherished ideals are discarded.

## Tone and Perspective

### Tone

From beginning to end, there is a progression from pure science fiction to pure mythopoeia. *Sol* is entirely hard science fiction; *Celestia* is entirely mythopoeic. *Daedalus* is an equal mixture and has strong themes of the unity of science with spirituality.

### Perspective

Theomythny is a termed I coined to mean the total aim of Solverse as a whole. In the sense that *theosophy* takes the truth of every religion and, retaining their terms, organizes and distills them down into a singular and complex cosmology (which is a sort of unitive over-religion in and of itself), theomythny will take the truth of all humanity's myths and distill the archetypal essence of it and thereby arrange it using the language of science fiction.

Solverse, in this sense, is an *overmyth*. A quintessential mythos both encapsulating and transcending the scope of works like *The Odyssey, The Illiad, Star Wars* and *Lord of the Rings.*

Unlike other myths, the plausibility of this one is so real and imminent that in it's essence it is sometimes hard to distinguish fact from fiction, even when read from a meta perspective.

Theomythny incorporates both archetypal and cyclical mythology. Archetypal mythological elements are featured in holistic human culture and the stories of individuals. Cyclical features are found within large scale civilizations and evolve over time, often being created by the civilizations themselves (Hyperion being a perfect example).