Before I can delve too much into Myriad's Philosophy, I should really share the basis of my own philosophy and approach as well as Joi's, for Myriad is truly a combination of our similarities and our differences.

I have been writing books, screenplays and poetry since the age of thirteen. Writing is who I am and what I do. I have always approached my "roleplay" as simply another avenue of writing, with meta and subtext, with characters I try to make as genuinely THEM (i.e. "real") as possible, whatever "real" is to those characters. Or anyone for that matter.

My first experiences online were on small, original-themed, character-generation-free sites, where free-form roleplay was the rule rather than the exception. When those places closed after a time, as all mu*s do eventually, I tried to recapture the spirit of that free-form creativity in other mu*s, with very little success. I mostlly found that the majority of people were largely unconcerned with intense character development, internal and external politicking, or deep or intense narrative with internal and external dialogue, motivations, machinations outside of tavern or bedroom.

Joi comes at this in very different ways. Hers is, while creative, not primarily based upon a creative thrust, but is more firmly footed in academic philosophies of world creation, online societal development, and big-picture architecture. The notion of "space", of comprehensive narrative, of The Story that all of these stories creates. She has spent a great deal of time and a large amount of study in this area, as well as in topics relating to bibliography, in the various ways in which text is presented and how that affects, or can affect, the Reader and how the Reader, in turn, affects the narrative.

Myriad's theme and its philosophy is a joining of these ideas and approaches.

In 1999, at the end of a mostly successful but also frustrating experience on a World of Darkness Mush, Joi and I decided to retire from that particular universe. However, we weren't really "finished" with the narratives we had started there (William and Ian). I was certainly at the point (and had really been there for a while) at which typical roleplay and system-based storytelling was no longer interesting to me, even on a casual level. If I was going to continue online writing in any context, it would have to be in a space where I could explore a variety of characters and themes, without being obligated to a particular system, where I could have the creative license, and editorial purview, to really get into these characters and others, to explore themes I simply had not been able to explore. I wanted to return to the spirit of my first Mush experiences, where there was no character generation process, no prevailing system, where one week you could be @emitting the entire court of Isabella and Ferdinand (which I did as part of a piracy and plunder theme) and the next week delving into the gender bias and politics of a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter.

In short, for me, Myriad was about "getting back to the basics" -- getting back to the reason I started doing this online stuff in the first place. Creativity, pure and simple. For Joi, it was an opportunity to put the themes to the test, the medium to the test, and herself and our characters to the test, to really push against the notion of hypertext.

Our primary goals have been to push characters, sure, but more the idea of characters, the idea of online writing and themes, even building, past our previous experience, to push ourselves and our own notions of what these characters are or could be, what these stories have been or could be, what writers we are or could be. And we only wanted to associate with like-minded authors -- people who would also challenge themselves, take on something new. Thus, Myriad is.

Our goals and themes have shifted over time, evolving just as our characters have changed and evolved through time -- as it was designed to do. We began with the simple idea of pilgrimage, travel and protected world sites. But those were not the themes most prevalent. In fact, in many ways the stories of Myriad are just now approaching ideas of heroic journeys, pilgrimage, searching for self and identity and general travel, the notion of movement to Somewhere. Even if it's Nowhere.

Our second challenge, and perhaps the greater challenge, is to try to get to The Story of Myriad. What is the Arc of All Arcs? The need to present the text and how to present the text has taken us the entire span of Myriad's existence. It is still, perhaps, not fully realized, even after nearly 600 posted stories. How do they fit together? What does it all mean? Does it, as a coherent whole, mean anything? Or is Myriad like a digital Babel?

Posted by rowan at May 21, 2004 12:44 PM