Behind the Foundations

Another insight into the creative processes of the illustrious Merlin.

Daydreaming while driving is generally discouraged, but the results can be quite interesting. I was driving along an interstate in Virginia--or West Virginia, I can’t remember where it was I started— watching the scenery (after a while, even going 75-80 mph gets boring) and I was struck by how impressive the landscape was, mountains covered in trees, and occasional interruption of human structures. Being me I quickly deconstructed the signs of humanity and viewed the world as it would be if human activity ceased. The road would be mostly overgrown fairly quickly, the power lines would be in disarray, the buildings would be falling into ruin.

And then I wondered what people would think if they could see such ruins without the idea that they were built by humans, and without any knowledge of technology. They would probably be assumed to be the product of some advanced race more powerful than our own, and probably be viewed as magical.

So I placed a group of ignorant humans somewhere in our own world after some catastrophe that left all the cities abandoned and technology far regressed. So much time had passed that they did not remember that humans had built the ruins they saw. They assumed that there was some hyper-human almost elven magical race behind the ruins.

So I built the idea of a story I initially named What Came Before, but have since changed to Behind the Foundation.