ALL STATEMENTS MADE IN THE FOLLOWING BLOG APPLY TO MY FICTIONAL UNIVERSE AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO CAUSE OFFENCE OR BE APPLIED TO REALITY

Last week, we touched on how ORSE, my own FICTIONAL CREATION could potentially revolutionise human understanding in the REAL WORLD.

This week I will reign in my creative impulses and we will explore the role of ORSE within the fictional universe of The Ratchworld.

In the Ratchworld, as well as in real life, we see how misinterpretations of religion versus religion/lifestyle versus culture, over the millenia, have resulted in unfailing universal conflict.  Ratchwood attempts to subvert this trend by introducing a pan-cultural viewpoint embodied in ORSE.

People who have understood this Incommunicable truth implicitly, have tried to tell others.  They have been hailed as prophets of God, Gurus, the Messiah, component spirits of a greater god or proponents of how to live a good life.

The central, incommunicable truth of everything does not seek to be understood.  The inhabitants of The Ratchworld do not understand it. Yet it is a fact that people who have understood it, are compelled to tell others, or at least try to.  When they have done so, and this model of enlightenment and communication has been repeated down through generation upon generation, the message has been misinterpreted and distorted. Over a large period of time, this resulted in the creation of fictional religion, culture, theory or ideology built upon misunderstanding.

The eventual creation of ORSE by Ratchwood aims to present a point of view accessible to everyone.  Within the ideology of ORSE, there could be religious, cultural and even theoretical unity between all sectors of the Ratchworld on multi-faith, international and intergalactic bases.  Individual opinions or perspectives on life and existence could co-exist and even agree to disagree beneath the globally accepted umbrella paradigm of ORSE.

This view of ORSE does not come to fruition until the latter volumes of the story.  Leading up to said point, Ratchwood goes on a roller coaster ride of character development and various interpretations of his purpose.  This leads to ORSE’s role being defined and confirmed gradually. 

It was never supposed to be about us just running back and forth through time, killing everyone.  Yes, that phase played its part in the ultimate realisation of our destinies, but the eventual assimilation of everything is to be by our higher selves.

Through following their callings, Ratchwood and Wicklow uncover the truth of ORSE one revelation at a time.  They accumulate knowledge about what they have to do next on their paths and they do not always get it right.  The characters, despite their intimidating array of super powers, remain intrinsically flawed.

As comic readers but more generally, as a species, we are fallible.  As such it is easy for readers of The Ratchwood Prophecies to relate to the lead characters’ humanity and in particular, their need of ORSE.  As this echoes from the page into to readers’ consciousness, it should be possible for us to see our need for a theoretical structure like ORSE too.