Johan De Ronin

At the moment, I have almost three alternate universes that I am writing for, Arcturus Bound, Threefold Way, and Aquitaine. Each has their own site. I also plan on other stories that are not in the existing set-piece universes. All three universes have one thing in common, they explore the different ways that magic can look like science and science can look like magic.

Sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic. Likewise, sufficiently developed magic is indistinguishable from a sufficiently advanced science.

The first statement is an unabashed quote of Arthur C. Clark. The converse statement is my own.

Arcturus Bound

Arcturus Bound is the name of a starship. It is about 2 kilometers long and is the home of about 7,000 humans and an uncertain number of machine intelligences. For appearance think of a huge iridescent Faberge egg. In fact, make that a diamond egg, since its hull is over four meters of pure diamond mono-crystal.

She also carries over four flight decks of shuttle, transport, support, and defensive craft. Yes, "she". Her nickname is Abby, or A-B, and she is quite intelligent and she isn’t at all human. Her intelligence is based on a photonic quantum computer built into the very hull and fabric of the ship itself. Abby is the ship and the ship is Abby, she is her own Captain-Pilot.  She is also a Von Neumann machine in that, she is quite capable of reproduction and, in fact, had two "children" in order to establish her class.

Although she really doesn’t need a human crew component, Abby and her crew have a symbiotic relationship. She always has a human Captain-General.

Tales of Aquitaine

While Aquitaine appears to be a sword and sorcery universe, it isn’t really. These are the tales of survival, of advanced humans, trapped in a hostile world.

The Threefold Way

It is time for an ancient plan to be put in motion and it requires a human avatar. There is an ancient enemy of both Humans and Djinn. An enemy that will settle for nothing less than complete subjugation and control of both species. An enemy that has had complete and unrestricted access to manipulate human civilization and culture for almost three thousand years, since the day King Solomon spoke the curse that the enemy gave him, the curse that banished the Djinn to the Kaf for five thousand years, contrary to the will of the Nameless Creator.

So she has had to resort to scheming and manipulation, through avatars, behind the scenes, to thwart the Angelic plan. Jon is the unknowing culmination of a secret fifteen hundred year breeding and training program, undertaken personally by the Goddess, to give her a new avatar. One that will succeed where her last avatar, Christ, failed.

Finally, he learns that the commonly worshiped God, the God of Rome, Judah, and the Allah of the Muslims, isn’t the Creator of the universe. For that is a creation of the Angels and is a false God. But the true Goddess cannot interfere directly, as she would want, because it will destroy free-will. The free will that she needs her creations to enjoy fully.

Other Worlds

Stories of worlds other than the above three.