WARTIDE RELEASE

I would like to take a minute and welcome everyone to the Wartide Universe. It has been a long (and short) ten years since I first had the idea to create a new sci-fi/fantasy option, and at long last it will see the light of day.

There were a lot of things I didn’t know, more that I didn’t know I didn’t know, and likely more still that I must learn. From learning to accept that the first version of the book was nowhere near acceptable, to finally being comfortable with the sixth revision. Teaching myself how to edit, format, design a cover, navigate the publishing and printing world, the list goes on …

But Enough About mE – You’RE hERE for WARTIDE

The idea of Wartide was born because I was becoming disenfranchised with the existing sci-fi options, feeling like they weren’t staying true to the reasons I fell in love with them. Star Wars was bought out by Disney, Star Trek was rewriting their entire timeline, and the only new content that was coming out wasn’t immersive enough to outlast the telling of the story.

Tired of searching, I decided to create the answer myself, drawing not only on my love of sci-fi, but also of mythology, history, military tactics, science, and finding out exactly why people make the absurd decisions that they do.

mAkEuP oF A UniVERsE

Wartide is an expansive universe based in the distant future of the Milky Way galaxy. It contains aliens based on myths from every culture, ancient or modern, as well as technology levels ranging from bronze age to high-tech interstellar empires. Elves, Bastet, Fae, Ratatoskr-inspired Metz, Reticulan’s (Roswell Greys), Dark Elves, and Nephilim are among the species you meet in the first book, Latent Command.

Of course, a universe has no depth without factions to fill it. The United Stellar Consortium (USC) fills up the central two-thirds of the galaxy, discounting the central mass where even breach drives cannot reliably navigate.

The idea of their government is representative democracy. Each of the seventy-two sectors has a sector senate with senators from every world, empire, monarchy, faction or corporation in that sector. Quai Prime is the seat of power for the USC, where senators selected by and from each sector senate meet to discuss galactic matters. The reality of their government is a bureaucratic nightmare; a gargantuan beast unable to accomplish anything of merit as the USC has grown too large to successfully manage.

The larger corporations took advantage of this fact and began expanding their own interests into the systems just outside the stagnant USC border. Here they were able to exploit resources free of taxes and meddling by the USC. Without the United Navy policing these systems, the corporations were forced to hire private security to protect their interests from pirates, local governments, and eventually each other.

It wasn’t long before the corporations began recruiting entire mercenary armies and fleets and fighting amongst themselves for control over the larger resource deposits and worker populations. These corporate wars necessitated the quick and constant recruitment of thousands of mercenaries, and there was no shortage of beings looking to make a pile of credits. Dozens of mercenary moons and outposts cropped up throughout the corporate sectors providing both a haven for soldiers of fortune to spend their money and neutral ground for corporations to do their recruiting.

Everything outside of the corporate sectors is generally known as the galactic fringe. Boasting nearly as many systems as the USC, the fringe is made up of everything from minor galactic empires to bronze age civilizations.

There are many other factions of note, such as the Galactic Order of Clerics. This former Earth religion adapted over thousands of years to hold a near-monopoly over elemental magic. They have allied themselves closely with the USC, often acting as ‘neutral’ arbiters in disputes, emergency respondents in crisis, and advisors to those with enough influence or credits.

They are a pseudo-military organization that holds the awe of the laity, widely revered and respected. The only sure sightings of a cleric are near the senate building on Quai Prime or near their headquarters at the Vatican on Earth. They are easy to pick out in a crowd, usually sporting a crimson longcoat and their preferred melee rune weapon instilled with personalized elemental spells. Rogue clerics-for-hire are not unheard of, although the Order does what they can to suppress their existence.

A uniVERsE of PEoPlE

In the end all stories are about the people in it, the choices they make, and the consequences of those choices.  Some aspire towards grandeur, while others simply fight to keep their status quo. Wartide is full of disparate characters from all backgrounds forced to react to the chaotic environment leading up to an all-out galactic war.

Some can see the horrors that are to come while others see only opportunity for credits or fun … or both. Altruism confronts ambition, greed meets hope, faith begets skepticism, betrayal births loyalty, fidelity empowers treachery.

Even though most don’t see themselves as players on the galactic stage, Wartide: Latent Command shows how their choices can affect not only their fates, but that of the Milky Way as a whole as the tide of war sweeps quickly across the stars.