I recently thought of an interesting story. It is about a group of nomadic people who's bodies live forever. Or, more accurately, have an infinitely extended life-span, bu tare still mortal. They can be killed by disease, lethal wounds, and such a long those lines. The interesting thing about them is that their minds are not immortal. After a certain amount of time, which I called a "segment" their ego disintegrates and all their memories are wiped and a whole new person is created. The problem I am having is trying to figure out how exactly my main character would be separated by this closely knit group of people who consider all life to be sacred. Especially since they do not have a substantial population themselves. How would my main character be separated without being found by his family? I am have thought of several paths. The first was that he was knocked out in a fight and was left on the battlefeild to be found by some traveling musicians. Another was that he was put into stasis, but that was just silly. The latest idea was that he was sent into the future by an illegal experiment. Perhaps the setting would help expand the possibilities. These people have been traveling the universe for close to sixty thousand years. The human race is old, almost a hundred thousand years since they left earth. Now, they are scattered across the universe. The distances are so vast, communication is an impossibility. The many civilizations of man have atrophied. People live in stale existences, working toward goals that the reasons for have been lost in the ancient past. it is a universe full of immense structures and strange locales. Vast wars are fought on a regular basis, many of the battles occur because of the armies of long forgotten wars finally arrive, several centuries after the conflict has been resolved. I would appreciate and logical reasons for my character's, whose name is Diem, separation. I can post the introduction of my story, which explains the nature of the Followers of the path of Traas in greater detail. If that would help.
Oh, my goodness. I am greatly embarrassed by the title. I did not complete the word, "the". I apologize.
The story sounds interesting! So, how do people normally go through segments? Presumably some of them want to stay with their original group, so they record their life story and then what? Is there a proscribed way to transition from one segment to another? Like a planet they go to, or a ritual they perform, maybe they have to go into isolation. If so, perhaps something can go wrong, like wherever he is, doing his transitioning, the war breaks out and he finds himself with no memory, taken in by some enemy or other, as one of them. Comes back to haunt his own people, unknowingly? Something like that, maybe.
This sounds like a really interesting idea for a story. Perhaps you could open the the story with his people being attacked and he gets seperated as they are forced to leave the place they are inhabited. It could be more interesting to have him trying to get aboard as his people leave him there. Perhaps rather than getting seperated during the attack, he could have been out hunting when it happened, and is just too late by the time he gets back. An idea that occured to me as well is what if the main character is approaching the end of his "segment" and he feels he has to get back to his people before his segment ends so that a new life can begin in his body. But then during the course of the story, his time reaches his end, but nothing happens like his people were always told would. Perhaps there could be a reason that people are told they aren't allowed to live beyond their assigned "segments" (even though they are perfectly able to) and as time passes, memories of past lives could perhaps start to return to him. But I don't know, its your story
Well, the segments are not exactly anything special. That is just the limit to the amount of memory they can handle. Their ego is recorded and compressed into a corner of their mind that has been partitioned off. Because of the partition, there is a limit to their ego's life-span, but the person may interact with his past lives. I could have the story start with him coming back from trading with a merchant to find the camp of his fellow followers destroyed and all of his loved ones dead. That would give him a goal to find the culprits. Which could lead him to some unusual discoveries. =) Thank you! just these simply naive responses are a great help! Though, when I say naive, I only refer to your limited knowledge of the premise. Thank you all.
Cool story. it seems like in that type of setting, getting separated is easy. He could get "killed in war," or "dragged off to another part of the universe." I put these in quotes because, even if it didn't really happen, it could still be faked with relative ease.
Well, since it is such a close and small community, great effort would be put forth to find him; whether it be his body or not.
Right, but what if his community believes he's been dragged off to another community way across the universe?
Really interesting concept. I just kinda skimmed over the replies, but I had an idea. What if Diem woke up with no memory, having begun a new segment, in some kind of situation where he has no idea what's going on with only cryptic clues that he left himself before he began a new segment to help him figure out what's happening. Just an idea, slightly ripped from Memento.
You know, that might be a good idea. The shock of the tragedy of his fellow followers being slaughtered could cause him to begin his next segment prematurely. I was thinking that there could be a common human that follows the path of Traas independantly that finds him still alive. I was also thinking of something interesting. A small religious order devoted to protecting a group of people with a symbiotic relationship. They are connected with telepathy. One embodies their sense of touch, another embodying sense of hearing on either side of the group. A person embodying thought, taste, and smelling in the center. This "person" teaches Diem to communicate with his past lives so that he may figure out what happened. Thought of that lat night in bed.
