En Begynnelse

Everyone can recognize a good story. Perhaps not why it was good, or whether it was better than another good story -- but they are able to distinguish a spark of creativity, a moment of humor, a genuinely good idea or modicum of sensible thinking they'd never seen before. Stories are how we make sense of the world around us. We see a chair and tell ourselves a story about trees being cut down, sawed to bits, and carefully assembled. We see a brick wall and tell ourselves a story about a bricklayer with a trowel carefully mortaring them in place. And how are we to know whether we are right?

The stories we tell ourselves are normally wrong in most, if not all, particulars. The carpenter who made the chair may have been beardless, unlike the one in our heads. The bricks may have been assembled by machine and shipped to the construction site in panels, or they may be a facade.

We are especially dangerous when we attempt to ascribe motives to other people's actions. Those stories are the most dangerous ones of all, because we can't look out their eyes and know their thoughts -- and without the thoughts, why would we think we know the purpose of the deeds? A simple gesture may be coldly calculated -- or spontaneous. And it changes the flavor of the deed in its entirety.

So there is a recognition of action as distinct from motivation. But why does it all matter?

The crux of a good story is the conflict, and its resolution. Without something unknown, and the desire for it to be known, a revelation is unnecessary. Without a dragon, there is no need for a Knight Valiant. Without a reason, there is no story.

So actions, with motives, are the parts of a story, and their interactions cause -- and require conflict. But all actions require a reality to take place, or can they be said to have taken place at all? And if they did not, how could they conflict? So actions need a world as a thought needs a thinker, and the world must be made first of all.

And then there can be a story.

Our first world will be called "Claghen Provence", and our first story will hinge on the actions and motives of a short, grizzled fellow named Graham, who is dying.