The World Building Fex Er
The people of Fex Er are doing the best they can under the dire circumstances they live in.
If you haven’t had a chance to read the story yet, start here.
Fex Er is the fiery orange planet between dusky blue Excella and watery blue Indiola. It is the only planet where all the people are rich shades of brown.
This is my family. We come in so many colors!
Mille’s bright pink skin stood out as strange. Martin, “tall, stocky, with dark brown skin” and the only named person in the story, initially thought she was fire-burned by the fissure she had just barely escaped. (What kind of name is Martin? A familiar one. I grew up around a ton of Martins. And fire-burned — I just made that up. Like right this minute.) It wasn’t until she arrived at the asylum that her unusual color was abnormal. So unnatural, in fact, that surely sterilization was the only altruistic option.1
I’d say my skin tone is kind of Khaki meets Antique Brass. What color are you?
There aren’t any countries on Earth led by Restorative, even though it is one of Gallup’s executing strengths, a strength that gets things done. There is one in second place though, Vietnam, and five in third.
People exceptionally talented in the Restorative theme are adept at dealing with problems. They are good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it. — CliftonStrengths.
The name of this planet was a simple transliteration from fix to Fex, and Fexers are the citizens with the greatest ability to learn how to live and prosper on the seismically active planet. You can imagine how hard it must be. Moving from place to place, hoping to find a peaceful subsistence, is stressful and constantly losing loved ones to the fire puts a strain on even the strongest psyches.
With fissures constantly opening and swallowing up entire villages, either you can help or not. The resulting political and socioeconomic structure of Fex is therefore flat and functional.
I am not a fixer. Are you?
Beams of Heaven
Substack Notes
This situation is history turned on its head. Enslaved women who consistently ran away from their enslavers were considered insane and often sterilized in an act of pity (and, of course, to make sure they didn’t reproduce their inconvenient kind of craziness). This was my way of letting the people of Fex get some payback. And also it is my way of letting you, my reader, know that everyone is capable of committing atrocities against their neighbor.