Story Lines
~ in brief & in detail ~
Story Lines in Brief
🎲 The Great Game is the main story line. It has numerous sub-narratives within it, which are also marked 🎲. All of these intersect with other key story lines — marked ⭐️💍💚🧚🔮✏️🗽.
The Great Game focuses on the power-struggle between two great cosmic powers: the seemingly angelic Vicinese and the seemingly demonic Fallarians. The Vicinese Talfar (By the Light of Fractals 1) and the Fallarian Farenn (The Big Four 1) join to avert the disaster precipitated by the Baulian invasion of Earth. Together with the security agent Qayam and the Fallarian double-agent Dactalla (The Blue Bubble), Talfar and Farenn work against corruption in The Vicinese Federation and against the Fallarian Demon Priests, the most dangerous being Knifestream (The Best Laid Plans, The Nature of the Game, & The Finest Ear-Muffs Money Can Buy). This wide-ranging story line is integrated with the following story lines:
⭐️ The Soul Star ~ Algotodo (one of the Seven Sages) uses infinitesimal infraction to construct the Soul Star so that he can relive the past (And Yet) ~ Antiny spies the ship of a god-like being (Poetry in the Deep) ~ Knifestream uses his Tarry Dot machine to calculate the location of the Soul Star, which worries the Vicinese and the Anunnaki.
💍 The Ring ~ In Paris, the Anglophone Kenneth tries to figure out whether Martine is an alien or just French (The Actress)
💚 The Three Graces ~ In Italy, Lucia is plagued by celestial visions (Di Parma), Claudia re-defines herself (Pietro Parlante), and Sandra has boy-girl issues (Roma I) ~ Lucia, Claudia, & Sandra meet powerful aliens ~ Tarnar falls in love with Claudia and joins with Farenn
🧚 Fairy Tales ~ Antonio (a Fallomorph) adopts the Devil & seduces Beatrice (a Vicinamorph) ~ Ragor reports to the Blue Dream universe on Antonio, Beatrice, and their son Baldric; the town priest joins The Luxorium, an elite alien cult
🔮 The Baulomorph ~ half-human and half-Baulian, Berry is torn over the invasion of Earth (Dinner Guests from Baulis Prime) ~ Rablanar the Fractal Mystic moves to New York (Fractal Masters & Mystics) ~ the Baulian High Council passes Rule 2.7, allowing Earth to continue in its violent and chaotic ways; Rule 2.7 ✰ provides entertainment for the Baulians, ✰ allows humans to feel free, and ✰ proves that Hobbes was right after all: humans need a master race to stop them from killing each other (Rule 2.7 )
✏️ Letters ~ In an exam Matt is distracted by pretty girls and Doom (The Collected Works of Humpty Dumpty) ~ after the apocalypse, Matt falls for his alien maid ~ Matthew chronicles pre- and post-apocalypse Earth, and joins with Talfar & Farenn
🗽The Green Lady ~ Françoise despises America, but not her American family ~ Curtus watches Trump wreck the nation ~ Occasional Cortez has different plans for America
Story Lines in Detail
🎲 THE GREAT GAME
🎲 The Great Game starts with Talfar taking stock of the cosmic situation: while the Baulians imagine themselves masters of all they survey, the Fallarians and Vicinese are the real masters of the Kraslika (the 13 universes in which the storylines are set). The larger political Game between the two empires plays out chiefly in the Baulian Empire, Earth, the Soul Star, the planet Die, and the Aatari planet Kollarum, where the great intergalactic conferences take place, and where Qayam is the host of the Contabri Bar (visited by Talfar, Thalphemera, Dactalla, Qualini, X, and Y). Secondary locations include the planet Lactar8 (Kalströnw8, Glontar42, Qualini, & Zadar the Heretic in On Lactar8) and the planets Melliforium (X and Y in On Meliflorium) and Kollarum & Skrakta (Horsefly and Venoozia in Venus & the Fly - A Tale of Two Worlds)
Pages which supply the basic cosmic politics are in bold & green below. The Big Four 2 is one of the most important pages in this regard. The ‘cosmic theology’ can be found in Fra Sole.
TALFAR and THALPHEMERA align themselves with FARENN against KNIFESTREAM and the Demon Priests. — By the Light of Fractals 1: The Orb & By the Light of Fractals 2: 3 Million Years - The Big Four 1 & The Big Four 2 - Lingua Franca 1 & 2 - The Hidden Star - One: The Water Damsel - By the Light of Fractals 3: Sages & Priests - Two: Golden Letters - Three: At the Caffè - Assembly - The Nature of the Game - The Chancemasters of Die - Bar Songs - White Light on Fractal - The Book of Fractals - Farenn - The Condensation of Demon Saints - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Alive - In the Ephemera Café - On Golden Hill
QAYAM is attracted to DACTALLA, who works for Knifestream, is allied with Farenn, and plays a tricky game. - The Swarm -The Blue Bubble - [Qayam & Knifestream backstory: The Tarry Dot - Escape from Aatari Doom - The Best Laid Plans] - In the Contabri Bar - The Librarian’s Tale - Bar Songs - Spirals - The Finest Ear-Muffs Money Can Buy - [Dactalla & Knifestream backstory: Dance of the Seven Veils] - Two Friends
⭐️ THE SOUL STAR
⭐️ Built a million years ago, the Soul Star and its first planet (Algoritmo) operate as a secular afterlife - Kievan Rus - And Yet - The Seven Sages, Algoritmo, Algobrith. Arriving in our cosmos from the tiny isolated planet of Antigua, ANTINY encounters the god-like LOOKING-GLASS BEINGS, whose relation to FRA SOLE and the ANUNNAKI is a mystery to almost everyone in the Kraslika. — The Book of Fractals - Antiny the 23rd - The Hidden Star - Fra Sole - [The Tarry Dot ] - Poetry in the Deep - [Escape from Aatari Doom - The Best Laid Plans ] -The Flight of the Chronus - The Eggs of Cosmic Chance - Antiny & the Wizard Ship of Albinon - The Crazy Diamond - On Golden Hill
💍 THE RING (Paris)
💍 KENNETH tries to cope with MARTINE’s strange intuition, her unpredictability, and her French ways. Martine’s intuition is related to the pulses and infractions that are well-known phenomena among the advanced species in the Kraslika (the 13 universes, of which our Violet Hoop is one). MADAME DUPONT is an elderly holocaust survivor who reminisces about her life and attends a lecture by Kenneth. In Part II, they both meet the Baulians, who are giving Paris a makeover that would make Haussmann do somersaults in his grave. — The Actress - Equations - The Enigma - The Academic - Probabilities - Lestatique - Madame Dupont - All Shook Up - Les Mouches - At First Sight - First Contact - La Vie en Orange - The Soul Star
💚 THE THREE GRACES (Italy)
💚 LUCIA is plagued by celestial visions in Parma, Florence, and Rome. — Di Parma - Di Firenze - Di Roma. CLAUDIA falls for CLARK/TARNAR in Palermo. — Pietro Parlante - I, Claudia - Clark Kent - The English Garden - On the Rebound - Infraction 101. SANDRA is attracted to two girls and a guy in Roma I & Roma II. Lucia & Sandra meet in The Anunnaki and In the Field of Flowers, and all three women meet in Rome 2.7.
🧚 FAIRY TALES (Alberta, China, etc.)
🧚 ANTONIO owns his Fallarian nature by seducing BEATRICE, by assaulting GUSFREUDE and PRESTER JOHN, and by attempting to get revenge on the heavenly Father. — Fairy Tales - Quest - Seduction - And Carbunkle His Eyes - Mirror, Mirror - Prester John - On Becoming Alien - Güsfreude - The Mothership - The Ties That Bind - The Bind That Flies - The Monster in the Manor
RAGOR is a Blue Dreamer who documents events on Earth for the Blue Dream Directorate. He lives across the street from Antonio, Beatrice, Baldric, and Alicia. Ragor is a writer like Matthew, and also a half-alien like Berry, although he comes from an even more distant universe. — The Blue Dreamers - Black Diamond Arts - The Tyrian Corridor -The Little Merman -The Bright Hills of Yunnan - Maria de Tondo - The Brave Little Tailor - Across the Street - The Magic of Black Tea: 1. The Ancient Mariner - 2. Claudine de Montréal - 3. Yunnan Gold & the Madeleine - 4. All the Tea in China - Alicia - The Waitresses of Chengdu - Alicia del Espejo - Tourist Training - Spin the Bottle - Twenty-five Russian Dolls - The Valley of Paradise - Bien Fou
🔮 THE BAULOMORPH (Baulis Prime & Earth)
🔮 Half Baulian and half human, BERRY detachedly observes human history and the human condition, and yet can’t stop his feelings for JUNIPER. — Dinner Guests from Baulis Prime - Berry: On Becoming Human - The Stories They Told Themselves - At Sea - Still Waters - Virus - Alien Extraction - In the New Beginning - En Route to the Old Cafe. The Baulians rise from the Pink Well and eventually conquer the Milky Way (The Ascendancy of Baulis Prime), including Paris, Victoria & Vancouver, and New York. RABLANAR, a disillusioned Fractal Mystic (Fractal Masters & Mystics), relocates from Baulis Prime to a cabin in the Adirondacks, from where he intrigues with Occasional Cortez and Molotova.
✏️ LETTERS
(Vancouver, Guanajuato, Babylon, Paris, Buenos Aires, etc.)
✏️ MATTHEW tries to focus on Old Rex’s literature exam but is distracted by eco-feminist Rhein-maidens Sylvia & Juniper. — The Collected Works of Humpty Dumpty - The Homework Blues - My Own Personal Rheinmaiden - Constellations - J. Alfred & the Weird Sisters - Hammerfest - The Prophecy of the Völva - Back to Black - The Girl Who - Times New Roman -1825 - As Loki Steers Us - Transcanada: A Dream of Combustion
After the brutal takeover of Earth, Matthew falls for Baulixia, his French maid (Total Collapse - Screen Time - Dear Matthew - The French Maid - Of Sand & Salt - The Baulomorphs Get It On) and takes a job for the Baulians writing about the human condition.
🗽THE GREEN LADY (New York)
🗽 FRANÇOISE despises America but can’t help loving her husband REMY and their children. — Jason - Medea - From the Battery. CURTUS RUFIUS is an aesthete and amateur historian who approves of Trump’s fascist regime. - The Political Climate - Fax Americana - Proust in the Morning - Twilight of the Idols - The Storm Troopers Return -The Luxorium. OCCASIONAL CORTEZ, Molotova, and the Elkbalam are determined to make New York City great again, yet not in the way Trump imagines. - The Elkbalam - Molotova the Whip - Rablanar & the OC
🪐
Table of Contents - Chart of Contents - Characters - Glossary - Maps - Story Lines