Hybrids, Half-breeds, and Spirits - An Intro to The New Dawn Universe

 

In the TV show Stargate, there’s an episode called “Citizen Joe” where an average barber has been receiving visions of… everything that happens in the show. As he does not know the reality of the Stargate program, he figures his muse is feeding him stories, and he begins to share them. As he shares, his friends complain about the twists and turns, and the fact that there’s more than one type of bad guy. At one point he yells “It’s not confusing! It’s complex!”

I sometimes describe my work as Firefly meets Stargate meets Jericho, but the part of Stargate I’m thinking about is not the militaristic side. Every book faces a different culture, and allows the crew to be the alien explorer. Also, in Stargate there are these powerful ascended beings who occasionally interfere in human affairs, but mostly stay out of the way.

In the New Dawn series, I create a world where beings that exist on an alternate plane interact with different cultures in different ways. Some humans have spirits, but most don’t. Some of these spirit-carrier humans give birth to half-breeds. Some humans develop metahuman (hybrid) powers on their own. Each culture reacts to its special mix, and decides whether to welcome or reject these gifts.

I define a few basic classes of beings:

• Spirit – A non-corporeal alien who has psychic and psionic abilities. 
• Spirit-carrier – A human who has become host to a spirit, willingly or unwillingly. The carrier may be aware of the spirit’s power, but does not control them.
• Half-breed – The child of two spirit-carriers. The half-breed has distinct physical characteristics: taller than humans, jackal-like face, pointed teeth and talons, wings. Half-breeds have paranormal powers like spirits, as well as the ability to shift between parallel realms. Half-breeds can display a range of paranormal abilities, but tend to have one dominant one.
• Hybrid – A human who has psychic, telepathic, telekinetic, or other ability. Abilities occur at varying strengths. Unlike half-breeds, hybrids tend to have one paranormal ability, and they look human. Hybrids are likely to be the child of a single spirit-carrier, but don’t have to be.
• Echo – these are rare humans, and can echo the power of a hybrid or half-breed. (More about them in Book 8!)

I decided to draw a picture of a half-breed once. I’m not that much of an artist, but I wanted to see the creature I had been writing about. There’s an artist I love called Sasha R. Jones who paints very similar creatures, although their work has a bit more avian influence. You should totally check out their work. It’s absolutely breath-taking.

In the New Dawn universe, I often speak of two realms or two planes: the physical plane and the spirit plane. (Very creative, I know.) Each of these beings has a different presence in each realm. The humans and the half-breeds are the only ones that are the same in both realms (although in the spirit-plane, the human is confined to their sphere of consciousness).

When I wrote it, the world seemed to form naturally, but in retrospect, I see the influence of not only science fiction, but of supernatural thrillers and stories of spiritual warfare. It has been an incredible world to explore: spaceships, other worlds, exploring lost civilizations, and finding the threads that bind humanity together.

It’s not confusing. It’s complex. And through it all, there is hope for tomorrow.

 

Check out The New Dawn series on Amazon today.