We wear the Crown | Theme: Self-Sovereignty

Gaiadon Universe | Theme: Sovereignty

Following on from the exploration of the unseen world, and its use in creating cosmology and the first principles of world building, this next blog will focus on Self-Ownership or Self-Sovereignty and its uses in SFF/Dystopian writing to define or describe the nature of ‘The State, ruling classes, or political structures through the experiences of the protagonist.

A key question to ask when considering this theme for a literary work is, do the characters in my work have a moral or natural right to have exclusive control over their own body and life?

A great example of the loss of Self-Sovereignty is The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, where the political community and government, (The State) are described by the main protagonist, Offred, through her experience of life under the Republic of Gilead and the systematic loss of her right to be the exclusive owner of her own body and life.

So, to put it simply, you are your own republic and you are its only governing body. However, when the right to this is threatened or eroded is when friction arises between individuals and The State, which in Dystopian SFF, leads to revolt and anarchy.

In order to explore the theme of 'self-ownership' and to use my writing to voice the universal message of the right to self-sovereignty and the increase in fundamental human rights abuses, similar to other dystopian SFF authors I only have to study the world around me for inspiration.

In the Gaiadon Universe, much the same as in real life, different countries have specific political structures and their own unique State Sovereignty. The Southern Isles is a huge archipelago which includes the Commonwealth of Turanga (islands who have signed a treaty for trade and commerce), and the individual Isles governed by the nefarious Witch Queens, as well as a cluster of pirate isles and unnamed secret isles.

However, the North of the planet is a single land mass and one country, Baelmonarchia (literal translation - land of the demon king) is where the extreme loss of Self-Sovereignty is played out. The humans who live there and in the neighboring countries, have variable degrees of a lack of self-sovereignty. But in the capital city of Baelmonarchia, Lodewick, the human population are thralls held captive by the influence of demonic power, which is transmitted by artificial devices that not only manipulate the nature of reality, but also leech sovereign power from the human population.

In the Gaiadon Universe sovereign power is not only an ideology of self-ownership and the fight to regain the right to decide what is best for your body and life, but it is also expressed as a tangible power, which humans possess which the Lord of the Dark Flame, Conquest, steals.

Finally, the theme of Self-Ownership is a useful theme to incorporate if you want to get one of your protagonists to build the picture of The State, (political community under a single government) in your work and can be a really useful world building tool.