First Age Serials
The serial is a form of literature which emerged during Creation’s First Age. In format it presented expansive works by way of short sections, known as fascicles or episodes, released on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, seasonally, annually).
The first appearance of the format came in presenting various accounts of the Primordial War prepared for newly-Exalted whose Exaltations had come in its wake… the conflict had been long and complex, but it was considered vital that the narrative of the Incarnae and elder Exalts concerning the War be conveyed to those who had not fought in it. Initial god-written volumes were massive in length, and the new Exalted were found to avoid them in favour of training and exploring their new places in society, so the decision was made to divide them into small sections which could be consumed over time, alongside other activities. These serialized histories also proved useful in educating the general population of mortal officials and functionaries who served in the growing bureaucracies of the Exalted.
From these subdivided histories, the serial format took shape in the form of ‘serial biographies’, accounts of the lives of individual Solar Exalted, drawn from biographical works meant as histories for new Exaltations should the current holders be felled. It was found that the citizens of Creation enjoyed tales of the lives and adventures of Creation’s Champions, and so adapting and serializing the biographies rose to popularity, the tales spread both as texts and as spoken tales offered up by theatre troupes and travelling minstrels, alongside traditional tales and other literary works which had been divided to match the serials in length.
The basis of these serial biographies on the lives of the Solars, whose lives unlike the already-complete text of war histories were not thought to have a set end, had a transformative effect on literature as the growing prosperity and technology of the First Age increased demand for entertainment: by the time of the Golden Age serialized fiction was flourishing. A work would continue so long as it remained popular with audiences, its author adapting reaction to an installment in writing the next. Alongside these forms, serial biographies continued to be popular, with examples such as Desus Sun-Chosen distributed in weekly episodes across the Creation-spanning pathways of I AM.
A darker side to the format emerged, however, in the form of ‘serial murder’, where regular episodes (victims) occurred according to a consistent cast of characters (the murderer and their pattern). Wether such killings were inspired by serialized stories, or the format merely provided a fitting name for them, was much disputed during the First Age. Certainly, the Golden Age saw serial fiction about serial murder, and the propagandists of the Bronze Faction spread to the Immaculate Order a tale of particularly complex and horrific serial murders believed to have been the ‘biography’ of a Night Caste Solar Exalt, forming the basis of some Immaculate accounts of the Anathema known as the Wretched.
The Usurpation has far-reaching effects on Creation, amongst them a decline in the prosperity of those mortals who had been the audiences of serial tales in the Golden Age. The close links between the serial form and the Solar Exalted also meant the works themselves and their authors underwent severe purges as the Dragonblooded assumed control over Creation. To this day, the legacy left by such events sees great distaste amongst the Dragonblooded for the concept of episodic works written without endings, or even for ‘sequel’ works which directly continue the stories of their predecessor, though despite this, some have been willing to transgress against this restriction.
The wide distribution of serial stories in the Golden Age has meant that despite vast destruction some individual fascicles still survive, recovered by Scavenger Lords from ancient ruins. Out of context of their series, these works are still perused as curiosities, taken as individual works, modern critics noting their strange, abrupt style. Amongst some mortal writers who dream of a restored Golden Age of Solar rule, this ‘style’ has been embraced as the apex of literature, those authors attempting to imitate it with tales that offers minimal introduction to their characters or settings.
Exerpts of serial works from the First Age have also survived as spoken tales in many of Creation’s cultures, though millennia of being passed by word of mouth, expanded to completeness and adapted to the preferences of local peoples, mean such stories can often be detected only as the seeds from which storytellers have woven their own tales.
