Or [...]]]>

Heaven and Hell are, in this cosmology, nothing more than siege engines endlessly pushing against each other, powered by the souls that each one takes in. There is, apparently, no escape from them.

Or rather, there wasn’t until the Russian nuclear program really got going. In Kazakhstan, there’s a bar called The Last Shot. Every photo on its walls belongs to one of “the triumphant dead” – people who died strapped to nukes detonated underground. Apparently, something in the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear detonation disrupts and destroys the soul as well as the body. Those who die this way die safe in the knowledge that their souls will be denied to both hell and heaven.

A secondary theme in Planetary – and the major theme in TORG – it the multiplicity of realities. Both settings posit an almost infinite number of realities, in which our Earth is only one, although special for various reasons. The Earth of Planetary (that of the original WildStorm Universe, if you want [...]]]> Moving right along.

A secondary theme in Planetary – and the major theme in TORG – it the multiplicity of realities. Both settings posit an almost infinite number of realities, in which our Earth is only one, although special for various reasons. The Earth of Planetary (that of the original WildStorm Universe, if you want to be picky), is simply another Cosm to be plundered by the High Lords and Darkness Devices of TORG. Or at least, that’s how they see it

Although it is clearly not the same Earth referred to as Core Earth in the TORG books, there’s clearly something special about the Earth of Planetary. In TORG, most worlds are allied to a particular genre. In Planetary, pretty much every genre imaginable exists in one world, each informing and informed by the others.

Of course, some of these genres do cross over Cosms. There are several major instances of this in Planetary.

The first is the creation of Monster Island, which seems to have been a failed cosm invasion from either the Living Land or Tz’Ravok, the home cosm of the Ravagons. Either way, Monster Island alone was transformed into a zone partaking on the characteristics of the invading cosm, now the home of giant monsters from a bygone era.

Another is the repeated incursions from the cosm-gate opened by Hark, Edison and Doc Brass in the Adironacks. (It is possible that the vast computer they created is actually Earth’s Darkness Device, which is otherwise conspicuous by its absence). The cosms seen here are not named in TORG, but appear to belong to a more superheroic genre than any known cosm.

Finally, there is the cosm-portal opened by Randall Dowling in his infamous space flight. The horrific technologies of this briefly glimpsed realm bear a striking resemblance to those of Tharkold, although the identification is not certain. And Dowling’s deal with the High Lord of that realm is a curiously short-sighted one – unless he has another plan.

Because it’s hard to imagine that Dowling would settle for anything less than being the High Lord of Earth. That seems to be the ultimate goal of his quest to learn everything he can – he’s desperately trying to find the Darkness Device of this cosm before the payment for his deal comes due.

Unfortunately for Dowling, he dies without ever finding the Darkness Device – and Snow, who has found the device, is now at liberty to pursue his more peaceful variety of inter-cosm contact.

As always, copious spoilers are to be found within.

Planetary and Unknown Armies might not appear to have much [...]]]> This week, we bid goodbye to the Lord of the Rings, and move on with Unknown Armies to another link in the chain: Planetary. It’s a strange world -let’s make it stranger still!

As always, copious spoilers are to be found within.

Planetary and Unknown Armies might not appear to have much in common – at least, not on the surface. But dig a little deeper, and the parallels start to emerge. Both settings are ultimately about the Archetypal forms that populate our culture, and the desire for Transcendence at any cost.

The Century Babies of Planetary come across a lot like Godwalkers for their respective Archetypes. Perhaps they are destined to be Godwalkers – which must leave not a few pissed off followers of those Archetypes in their wake. It seems unlikely that very many of them ever ascend and take over the roles in the Invisible Clergy, but it’s possible. Elijah Snow in particular seems to be on target for his own Ascension, one of these days (when the fabled final issue of Planetary finally arrives on the stands, mayhap).

Randall Dowling, on the other hand, is someone who’s striven all their life to become a Godwalker, and sees himself as in competition with Elijah Snow for the role – foolishly, since it seems that he and Snow follow different Archetypes. Snow is the Godwalker of the Chronicler (and should he Ascend, the nature of that Archetype would change from merely recording and cataloguing to actually employing the knowledge). Dowling, on the other hand, is a would-be Godwalker of the Secret Master, and his true competition for the role is not Snow, but rather Anna Hark. (The Secret Master Archetype has been in her family for generations, but her father’s death had left the Godwalker slot vacant, with nether Hark nor Dowling able to claim it – although recent events have left Hark in a stronger position to make that claim.)

Although there’s little doubt that Alex Abel is playing his own game, it’s likely that the New Inquisition is very much an ally of the Four and their own corporate holdings – with Abel and Dowling each telling themselves that they’re letting the other one live because it’s amusing to them.

Among the other factions of the Unknown Armies world, it seems quite like that Infomancers everywhere have a certain reverence for the Drummer – and that he, in his own way, provides covert aid to the Mak Attax. The Sleepers are, more or less by default, allied to the Four, since both sides have the same goal.

And the Comte? Depending on your interpretation of him, he may either be blithely unconcerned about what is, after all, merely a turf war between two Godwalkers, or he may be on the side of those who want to keep the world strange…