Rebellion Cover Art

The fantastic raw cover art for Rebellion, courtesy of Gilbert Contreras:

Spiderverse Background: The Pact

As work continues on Rebellion, I figured I’d give everyone a few tidbits on some of the expanding lore for the Spiderverse. One of the things I mentioned in the galactic timeline back in March was “the Pact,” the official name for the caste system that divides Tarreen society. So what does it mean, exactly?

History
One of the major point-of-view characters in The Spider and the Fly was Tsarl Drathir, the head of the Convectorate Intelligence Ministry (CIM). My amazing readers will remember that he was a part of the Asraad caste, the purple-scaled rulers of the Convectorate. His commando escorts were Baalir, the red-scaled members of the warrior caste. And finally there are the Marid, the green-scaled Tarreen who typically serve as engineers, scientists, or technicians.

This caste delineation is heart and soul of the Pact. During previous eras, such as the height of their original Empire, Tarreen society was incredibly chaotic. Civil war and conflict were common, and that chaos was ultimately what allowed the Elari rebels and the early Sarafan to topple the Empire (the psychic powers didn’t hurt either, of course). The Tarreen retreated to a new home world they called Exodus, and for decades they continued to slaughter each other in droves.

Eventually, the leaders of the disparate factions came together and created the Pact. The idea was both simple and incredibly complex. They planned to arrange society into three basic tiers—leaders, technicians, and warriors—and they would implement one of the greatest genetic modification programs in galactic history. Over the next two centuries, the very definition of  “Tarreen” was redefined. A species with as much diversity and variation as humans was reduced to three very specific subtypes…and eventually the Convectorate was born.

Modern Day
Today, the castes are virtually immutable. The Asraad retain nearly all positions of power from planetary overseers to sector prefects to the enigmatic Hierarchs who rule the whole shebang. The only exceptions exist within the Conclave. The Ministry of Defense is often represented by a Baalir, and the Science Ministry is often represented by a Marid. This remains the case in the present day. Defense Minister Akala is a hardened Baalir warrior noted for her service in the many border skirmishes against the Norgon, and Science Minister Curaad is a Marid biochemist made famous for his many contributions to research over the past few decades.

Still, as the newfound human-led rebellion gains strength, the long-standing alliance between the castes has finally started to crack. And Markus remains convinced that breaking the Pact may be the only way to truly bring down the Convectorate…

 

Stay tuned! I hope to have the first chapter available for you to read by sometime in June.

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