Settling on The Other Shore | Theme: Colonialism

Gaiadon Universe | Colonialism

Colonialism is a much used, and loved theme for SFF, and Dystopian fiction, as it allows the writer to explore the impacts when full or partial political control is exerted over one country/world by another, especially when the colonisers use settlers, and exploit the invaded country/world economically.

From the exploration of the experiences of indigenous peoples, and colonisers, writers can create the milieu for their fantasy world. Milieu is the social environment which includes the physical and social setting in which something occurs or develops. So, exploring how invasion/colonisation affects the physical environment and social structures of a people is an important tool in world building for SFF writers.

One of the best traditional tropes for settler, exploitation, colonisation, in my opinion is, The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K Le Guin where the colonists from Terra have enslaved the passive indigenous tribe, the Athsheans.

In the Gaiadon Universe and particularly Shadow on The Other Shore, the idea of colonialism has been slightly subverted where we discover that the Lord of The Dark Flame, Conquest, masquerading as Lord Abrecan, has colonised the North of Gaiadon (Baelmonarchia), but the settlers he has brought are the ones in chains, they are the thralls who are exploited by the demon hierarchy. To extrapolate the theme further, we discover that the settlers are human and therefore, they become the alien on the Other Shore. However, the usual trope of superior alien invaders has been subverted when we discover that the humans are the equivalent of livestock, exploited by demonkind, subjected to breeding policies, bled for magical purposes, and fed a constant download of falsehoods into a nano-device that is implanted in their wrist. However, they do possess the power, in the form of latent energy, to free themselves and this forms one of the central concepts of Shadow on The Other Shore.

Other parts of Gaiadon are free from demon colonisation because of complex political agreements, trade deals from the Commonwealth of Turanga and sanctions from Hiriwa Pourewa in relation to crystal weaponry.

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