Introducing Iron Horizons- Dieselpunk Space Opera!

Welcome back to the third part of my discussion and thoughts on dieselpunk. I have no specific plans for the length of this series, as it’s probably going to be an ongoing conversation as I find new things or have new thoughts. Today, focusing in on my dieselpunk project- Iron Horizons. If you’ve seen my older posts, you likely saw this one, which briefly touched on it. I haven’t made much progress on the TTRPG setting, but I’ll be working through the process and sharing information about working through the expanded setting sheet from Genesys Expanded Player’s Guide. That will come a bit later.

What is Iron Horizons, and is it dieselpunk?

In a nutshell, Iron Horizons is a dieselpunk and space opera setting that houses several different projects that I am working on, only one of which is titled Iron Horizons (the TTRPG setting).

We’ve already had a multi-thousand-word discussion on dieselpunk and what I think about it, but I’ll go a little deeper here, as well as space opera. Radio Retrofuture would probably call this space opera with a dieselpunk aesthetic, which I disagree with. Refer to my previous posts on dieselpunk for a fuller discussion of what I use to define dieselpunk (science fiction based on the technology and aesthetics from 1906-1947 that shares a rebellious, critical view of society originating in the punk counterculture).

For Iron Horizons, it began with a question that lingered for several years— “Why is there no space opera with a 30s aesthetic?” George Lucas pulled heavily from World War II for Star Wars, including using footage from dogfights and WW2 movies to choreograph the space battles, the term stormtrooper, and the guerrilla-style fighters of the Rebel Alliance. He went with what we would now call a “retrofuturistic” style, or a vision of the future as imagined by the people in the past. Or, in this case, what Lucas seemed to think that people might have thought the future looked like. There were hints and insinuations of stuff like wrenches and engine grease. But it was still very much a vision of the future. I wanted a space opera with more engine grease, diesel fumes, and mechanics.

So, in 2020, following the completion of my dissertation, I started work on a dieselpunk space opera for NaNoWriMo (RIP) titled The Pilgrim’s War. Pilgrim, in this case, held multiple meanings- the ship was named The Pilgrim and captained by Roland O’Carroll, and the other protagonist was a monk named Athanasius. I did not succeed that year, as I had no plot, very little worldbuilding, and no idea what I was aiming for beyond Vibes. Essentially, the plot dealt with the fallout of a war for independence and the colonizer’s violation of the peace treaty and attempt to regain their lost colonies. I was also considering introducing aliens later on, but that felt momentous enough that it should have its own story.

The foundational question of the setting is “What might have happened if humanity discovered space travel shortly after flight and faster-than-light travel shortly after?” I call it an alternate future because while its history starts in the past, most of the setting occurs in the future. In that way, I think I’m solidly in the realm of science fiction, perhaps not hard science fiction, but science fiction nonetheless. And for the punk, the stories so far have focused primarily on the inhabitants of the Kais Alpha system in their struggle against colonial rulers. In this case, it deals specifically with technological oligarchies, state capture, and the combination of state power and profit-driven interests as they intersect in interstellar chartered joint-stock companies.

What exists in Iron Horizons so far?

Most of it is notes, ideas, and drafts of two stories. You can read everything that has been shared on World Anvil here. Additionally, I have an earlier post discussing it very briefly in the context of the Genesys RPG system. If you want to dive into the setting, World Anvil is currently the best place. I’ve toyed with adding a wiki to this website for worldbuilding material, but I haven’t figured out how to make that work.

What will exist in Iron Horizons?

That’s a great question! I don’t think I’ve talked about it publicly, but I have a few irons in the fire. The first one I’m likely to finish is the TTRPG setting. Now, by finished, I mean something along the lines of a minimum viable product. Genesys is a generic, toolbox kind of system, which makes it very easy to construct settings and campaigns for it. They even have fantastic worksheets to streamline the process using the rules and system materials. I’ll be writing and sharing that process on the blog once I get a strong start on the process to avoid stalling out partway through. I’ll start with the minimum viable setting and then flesh it out into a complete setting source book.

If the basic setting guide is well-received, then I’ll continue developing it further. I may even experiment with other systems (not D&D, however). The first few rounds will focus on different locations in the setting that highlight the variety of thematic elements.

I have story pitches written up for both characters and plots. Narrative fiction will likely be the most prevalent form of material that I create for Iron Horizons. I have the aforementioned Pilgrim’s War idea simmering on the back burner. The other project under development is a series of novellas that focuses on a colonial sector’s war for independence. That one is more episodic like Horatio Hornblower and Honor Harrington. I have a bunch of other character concepts that I intend to develop as the first one begins to wrap up, to show different perspectives on the events, both in time and place.

The first ones focus on young Roland O’Carrol several decades before we meet her in The Pilgrim’s War, as she’s entering into young adulthood in a society shaken by conflict. Other than the TTRPG setting, this is my initial focus.

Okay, but what is it actually about? Or at least, what inspired it?

Dieselpunk, of course, is the biggest inspiration and theme, but another big inspiration was the Tumblr trend of “humans are space orcs.” If you’re not familiar, this was essentially an inversion of the trope that humans were the boring species in space. While there are not (yet) alien species, I wanted to play with humans coming from a death world as this indomitable warrior species.

For the alternate future aspect, Einstein develops the theory of Negative Nth Dimensions. Essentially, these are dimensions of negative space folded within the positive-dimensional space. With this and the creation of hyperdiesel and electrogravitic engines, humanity flings itself into space with astonishing rapidity, fueled by colonial and imperial ambitions, across the solar system to claim the resources necessary to rebuild after World War One. Shortly after this, World War Two (called the Solarian Anti-Fascist War in this case) which spread across the Solar System, lasted ten years, and ended with the invention of the -Nth Dimensional engine followed by the disappearance of the Nazis into faster-than-light travel.

That finally shattered the old status quo on Earth, with the Great Powers exhausted, broke, and unable to maintain their terrestrial empires. As a result, we have a period of optimism and cooperation that pushes humanity beyond the Solar System (in the opposite direction of the Nazis) as the world’s religions make peace with each other, colonial subjects are liberated, and the post-war United Nations take a much more proactive and positive role than in our own.

Brief Summary

The main time frame is several centuries later (roughly 2500s) when that cooperation and unity have faded as humanity expanded to hundreds of stars, with greed and ambition returning in force. Here we have a combination of two tropes that I focus on: space as the final frontier and nautical fiction. I very much approach the borders of human space as a frontier. The planets are newly settled, their terraforming may not be entirely complete yet, and they are often ruled by their colonial masters. These are places where fortunes might be built, with a great deal of luck and apathy toward ethics, but for the most part, wealth flows out of these regions into the richer ones.

That is where the nautical fiction comes into play. I’m a huge fan of the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian. As a result, I have put a lot of thought into the economics of interstellar trade, the impact of FTL travel without FTL communications, and I try to bring as much of that as I can into the setting.

The colonial governments in Iron Horizons are, by definition, extractive entities. They use their colonial holdings to generate wealth for themselves, and that wealth has to move back and forth between star systems. It moves in starships, and while there is faster-than-light travel, journeys are still relatively lengthy. The journey from Earth to Proxima Centauri (4.25 light years) would take just under a week, meaning ships travel roughly one light year per day. That means it would take 76.75 million years to reach Earendel. Or, for a better grasp of scale, it would take 274 years to go from one side of the Milky Way to the other (estimated 100,000 light years). To go from Earth to Bellatrix in the Orion constellation would be 244 days, or around eight months. A perfect trip for a clipper ship, isn’t it?

With all that wealth moving back and forth across vast distances, less scrupulous types take advantage of that. Privateering is a major element in Iron Horizons. Where there are privateers, there are pirates, naturally, and bounty hunters, and those trying to hide. Much of the material will focus on the interstellar aspects, aimed at the smaller crews of frontier traders, privateers, and explorers.

So, what’s next?

Well, the first thing is going through the Genesys Expanded Setting Sheet from the Expanded Player’s Guide. The next post will discuss the idea of a minimum viable setting and the Genesys system. Fortunately, the main rule books for Genesys have some excellent examples of settings. I’ll look closely at those and what they include as a model.

Otherwise, I’m still trying to work out the plot outline for the first novella. It starts as martial law is declared following the outbreak of organized hostilities and the burgeoning organization of the revolutionaries. I think it has to do with some double crosses and daring espionage gambits. That’s where I’m leaning so far, anyway.

Beyond those, much of what you will see coming down the pipeline will be happening here. We’ve finished the two dieselpunk posts to establish a groundwork. This one will be the introduction to Iron Horizons and, next week, we’ll dive into the setting creation process for Genesys.

If you want to check out the World Anvil, you can see it here.

If you want to join the Discord, it’s at this link.