FIC: Pulling Out The Nails, A Short Glossary + Author's Notes [1/20]
A Short Glossary
This little AU takes place in the universe of The Bartimaeus Sequence. However, the universe is not terribly complicated, and if you haven’t read the series, you’ll probably still understand everything that’s going on; there are explanations of the world embedded in the story as it unfolds. (You should really read the series, though. It’s absolutely brilliant. And if you haven’t, but want to, minor spoiler warning for the outcome of the main trilogy. Things are mentioned in passing.) If you are familiar with the series, the only thing I’ve really fudged is the timeline; the events of Ptolemy’s Gate now take place in the early 1980s rather than the early 2000s.
If you want a handy reference sheet or get confused at any point, the following sums up most of the rules of the universe that apply for our purposes.
There are three factions in this world: the magicians, the spirits/demons, and the Resistance.
1. Magicians have been raised from a young age to enslave spirits, derogatorily known as demons, in order to do their bidding. The common population has no idea that this is how magicians achieve most of their magic, or that it’s the only way they maintain power. Generally speaking, magicians are an ambitious, bloodthirsty bunch, with a lot of rivalries and bids for power. Usually, the standing government is quickly overrun by magicians where they exist.
2. Spirits exist in five different classes, here listed from the lowest in power to the highest: imps, foliots, djinn, afrits, and marids. Within each class, there are levels-generally speaking, a fourteenth-level djinni would overpower a third-level djinni in a display of sheer strength. There are also spirits who are so low in power-or so high-that they are not given a class, but these rarely make it to Earth from their position in the Other Place, which is where spirits come from and coexist with one another peacefully. When they are called from the Other Place by magicians, they are bound by Latin and equations to do their bidding; the dynamic is very much that of master-slave. The longer a spirit is forced to manifest on Earth, the weaker it becomes. (Most angels and demons from the Supernatural universe have become spirits, though some have also become magicians.)
3. The Resistance is generally made up of people who have been directly wronged by magicians, and also have some resilience to magic itself. Some of them can see more than the human plane, and thus know spirits for what they are even if they are wearing a guise; some are completely immune to magical attack. There have been many Resistances, the most recent and active in America.
There are also commoners--the majority of the population--who have no aptitude for magic and generally no resilience to it or demons. They usually get crushed under the heel of oppression while the magicians are busy playing power games.
We are in a divergent historical period which is similar to our own, but made different by the presence of magicians. For example, the British Empire was still in power thirty years ago, having conquered most of the world in the last hundred years through the sheer power of their magic; America, until that point, was just a load of colonies instead of states. The British granted Americans their independence due to the sudden death of most English magicians in the early 1980s. Now the nation is divided between American magicians and their own problematic Resistance.
A note on planes: There are multiple levels of sight in the Bartimaeus universe. Unenhanced humans can only see the first plane. There are seven firmly-established planes, and depending on the strength of the spirit in question, they may be able to disguise themselves on all seven of them. The lower the spirit, the fewer planes they can see/disguise themselves on. Generally speaking, a djinni of Castiel’s strength can operate a disguise on all levels but the seventh, where his true form manifestation appears. However, if a human has resilience to spirits/magic, they may be able to see through all these disguises anyway.
Author’s Notes
This AU idea was handed to me on a silver platter by the lovely welpidunno, to whom I am incredibly thankful for the invitation to play in her sandbox. It wasn’t long after I read the prompt that I imagined an AU both gritty and humorous-a strange mashup of Supernatural’s End!Verse and Bartimaeus that had never occurred to me before, and that I was immediately enamored with. It has truly been a joy to work this thing out, and I hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I must also thank my incredible artist, zerda-vulpes, from the bottom of my heart. From the get-go, she was so enthusiastic about this project and about my story, and she was truly a joy to work with. It was an enormous pleasure to see her draft art for this monster and watch it evolve over the months. The final pieces make me all mushy and gooey and happy inside. (Check out all her amazing art for this piece at the link right here. Psst: she's on Tumblr and deviantart, too.)
And now, onward! To 1. Lawrence, Kansas, 1983.
This little AU takes place in the universe of The Bartimaeus Sequence. However, the universe is not terribly complicated, and if you haven’t read the series, you’ll probably still understand everything that’s going on; there are explanations of the world embedded in the story as it unfolds. (You should really read the series, though. It’s absolutely brilliant. And if you haven’t, but want to, minor spoiler warning for the outcome of the main trilogy. Things are mentioned in passing.) If you are familiar with the series, the only thing I’ve really fudged is the timeline; the events of Ptolemy’s Gate now take place in the early 1980s rather than the early 2000s.
If you want a handy reference sheet or get confused at any point, the following sums up most of the rules of the universe that apply for our purposes.
There are three factions in this world: the magicians, the spirits/demons, and the Resistance.
1. Magicians have been raised from a young age to enslave spirits, derogatorily known as demons, in order to do their bidding. The common population has no idea that this is how magicians achieve most of their magic, or that it’s the only way they maintain power. Generally speaking, magicians are an ambitious, bloodthirsty bunch, with a lot of rivalries and bids for power. Usually, the standing government is quickly overrun by magicians where they exist.
2. Spirits exist in five different classes, here listed from the lowest in power to the highest: imps, foliots, djinn, afrits, and marids. Within each class, there are levels-generally speaking, a fourteenth-level djinni would overpower a third-level djinni in a display of sheer strength. There are also spirits who are so low in power-or so high-that they are not given a class, but these rarely make it to Earth from their position in the Other Place, which is where spirits come from and coexist with one another peacefully. When they are called from the Other Place by magicians, they are bound by Latin and equations to do their bidding; the dynamic is very much that of master-slave. The longer a spirit is forced to manifest on Earth, the weaker it becomes. (Most angels and demons from the Supernatural universe have become spirits, though some have also become magicians.)
3. The Resistance is generally made up of people who have been directly wronged by magicians, and also have some resilience to magic itself. Some of them can see more than the human plane, and thus know spirits for what they are even if they are wearing a guise; some are completely immune to magical attack. There have been many Resistances, the most recent and active in America.
There are also commoners--the majority of the population--who have no aptitude for magic and generally no resilience to it or demons. They usually get crushed under the heel of oppression while the magicians are busy playing power games.
We are in a divergent historical period which is similar to our own, but made different by the presence of magicians. For example, the British Empire was still in power thirty years ago, having conquered most of the world in the last hundred years through the sheer power of their magic; America, until that point, was just a load of colonies instead of states. The British granted Americans their independence due to the sudden death of most English magicians in the early 1980s. Now the nation is divided between American magicians and their own problematic Resistance.
A note on planes: There are multiple levels of sight in the Bartimaeus universe. Unenhanced humans can only see the first plane. There are seven firmly-established planes, and depending on the strength of the spirit in question, they may be able to disguise themselves on all seven of them. The lower the spirit, the fewer planes they can see/disguise themselves on. Generally speaking, a djinni of Castiel’s strength can operate a disguise on all levels but the seventh, where his true form manifestation appears. However, if a human has resilience to spirits/magic, they may be able to see through all these disguises anyway.
Author’s Notes
This AU idea was handed to me on a silver platter by the lovely welpidunno, to whom I am incredibly thankful for the invitation to play in her sandbox. It wasn’t long after I read the prompt that I imagined an AU both gritty and humorous-a strange mashup of Supernatural’s End!Verse and Bartimaeus that had never occurred to me before, and that I was immediately enamored with. It has truly been a joy to work this thing out, and I hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I must also thank my incredible artist, zerda-vulpes, from the bottom of my heart. From the get-go, she was so enthusiastic about this project and about my story, and she was truly a joy to work with. It was an enormous pleasure to see her draft art for this monster and watch it evolve over the months. The final pieces make me all mushy and gooey and happy inside. (Check out all her amazing art for this piece at the link right here. Psst: she's on Tumblr and deviantart, too.)
And now, onward! To 1. Lawrence, Kansas, 1983.