Another novel idea. Pun intended.

No seriously, I'm going to at least attempt to write this one. This isn't like my ridiculous 'write a novel that captures the teenage experience' idea, which I think I knew was over my head before I even finished the post explaining it.

This time my central theme is a bit simpler. I want to try and explore the feeling of helplessness, the horror of watching things unfold before one's eyes without any power to make things any better, no matter how much one wants to. Also, I have long found a strange, macabre beauty in the idea of human sacrifice--not as a punishment for prisoners, but in those that honestly think they are appeasing some higher power by having someone stab them or burn them. (This makes me sound really creepy. Sorry. I'm not a psycho, I swear.) So, why not combine the two ideas, you ask? And I answer: I did.

Here's the background behind where my would-be novel is heading. Names/dates subject to change.

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It's 2459. During the years 2015-2017, there was the inevitable nuclear war that everyone had been fearing since the 50s. However there was another weapon that proved equally devastating--the EMP (electromagnetic pulse) bomb that had been secretly in development by several world powers. EMP bombs rendered useless all the electronic devices that had made modern life possible, in addition to most of the defenses against nuclear weapons. The United States was utterly devastated, as was Europe, Latin America, Asia, and most of South America. Northern Africa was hit hard by radiation, but most of the continent was able to prepare for the fallout thanks to a last-ditch United Nations effort to save at least a few humans. Eventually a few African terrorist groups came to the Americas in attempts to take over the continent but quickly realized that there was nothing valuable left anymore--only a few thousand people had survived, and they had resorted to primal tendencies, as food was short, and most of it was irradiated to dangerous levels.

In the year 2059, however, a strange individual began making appearances in regions of what was once the United States. He called himself simply the Genius. At his side was a strange, mentally unstable individual whom Genius named Amos. What happened during the Genius's appearances never changed. He stood silently in some high place, round sunglasses hiding his eyes, while Amos danced crazily and babbled frantically. Then he would walk to a water supply, pull out a Geiger counter that had somehow survived the war, and show that the water was unfit for human consumption. Then Amos would dance even more frantically, and the Genius would reveal a strange electronic instrument, touch it to the water, and then pull out a small glass from his backpack and drink the water. Then he would leave, leaving nothing behind but the Geiger counter.

As the Genius's appearances grew more frequent, some began to decipher the Prophet's babbling. They realized that he always said the same things--and every time, he seemed to be calling on the name of a deity. When enough people realized this, the Genius spoke for the first time to a crowd of many survivors. He said that the war was punishment from an angry god named Xaheros and began to preach the doctrine of this new god. In the wake of such destruction and agony all remnants of traditional religion had been lost--the few who held to their faith had been slaughtered by angry survivors. So a Aztec-like bloodthirsty, sacrifice-dependent god seemed totally reasonable to these desperate villagers. The Genius preached that Xaheros would continue to bring pain and misery on the survivors until he had been satisfied with virgin sacrifices. And immediately the survivors began a regular schedule of sacrificing young girls--most by fire.

The Genius, of course, knew every word he spoke was a lie. The Genius was, as his name implied, the possessor of an incredible scientific mind. During the war, he had secretly discovered the secret to biological immortality and a way to completely remove radioactive material from any substance, but seeing the brutality and violence around him, he deemed the world unfit to share in his discoveries--except for sixty of his similarly brilliant, like-minded companions. As the decades passed, his community grew, all sharing in his immortality and radioactive immunity. He gave them a new name--the Elites. Those who were not Elites were Primitives. The Elites had another gift as well--technology. The Genius knew the infrastructure of most common electronics, and he and his fellow Elites worked to slowly restore the world to its prewar condition. However, the Genius's love of science ensured that he could not leave the Primitives to themselves. They were not fit to share in his glory, certainly, but they must be observed--much could be learned from their activities.

By 2459, the Genius's community has expanded to about one thousand, all descendants of the original sixty.

Into this world are introduced the two protagonists. One is an Elite--Joseph Zerra, a third-generation Elite. He is sent to observe a Primitive village in eastern Pennsylvania. (No, I'm not bashing my hometown.) He is under orders to have absolutely no interaction with the Primitives--if he does, he will die.

The other protagonist is a boy of nineteen years of age named (either Ralis or Avron or something else, haven't decided yet). He has seen the pain of living in the postwar world, and he is extremely skeptical of the doctrine of Xaheros. Yet there is nothing for him to do--he will be executed as a heretic if he preaches against this god, and he's far from capable of leading any sort of rebellion.

And this, you loyal readers who've actually read this whole gargantuan post, is the setting for what I hope to make into a novel over some indeterminate amount of time. Tentative title--The Altar. More details will come with time, followed by (hopefully) the story itself, in bits and pieces.