World of Tiers
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For the song "World of Tiers" by Hawkwind, see Levitation.
The World of Tiers novels are a series of connected science fiction/fantasy novels by Philip José Farmer. These are set within a series of artificially-constructed universes, created and ruled by decadent beings (who are genetically identical to humans, but who regard themselves as superior), who are the inheritors of an advanced technology they no longer understand. This technology enables the "Lords" (or Thoans, in their own language) to create novel lifeforms, and also to prevent ageing or disease, making them effectively immortal. Their technology also allows them to create small artificial universes, and the planets and stars within them, and modify the physical laws (e.g. changing the behaviour of gravity) to create unusual or interesting phenomena within these universes. Instantaneous travel within and between these universes is achieved by the use of gates which seem to function as teleportation devices, or as a means of creating wormholes between different regions of spacetime.
The overall series title comes from the main 'pocket universe' featured in the books. This consists of a single planet with a green sky, shaped in the form of a huge stepped pyramid on five stages, with each stage being a disk or squat cylinder. A small sun and a single moon orbit around this planet. There are no other stars or astronomical bodies. This world was created by a Lord named Jadawin.
The overall storyline of the series follows the adventures of two people from Earth who independently discover gates into the World of Tiers. The earlier books focus on the character of Robert Wolff as he explores this world and tries to discover its secrets. From the third book onwards the action shifts to Paul Janus Finnegan (known as Kickaha, along with many other aliases), who is drawn into a battle between an ancient enemy of the Thoans, and ultimately into the feuds between rival Thoans as they try to take over each other's universes.
A French-language roleplaying game inspired by the World of Tiers has been released.
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[edit] Novels
The novels in the series are:
- The Maker of Universes (1965)
- The Gates of Creation (1966)
- A Private Cosmos (1968)
- Behind the Walls of Terra (1970)
- The Lavalite World (1977)
- More Than Fire (1993)
The novel Red Orc's Rage (1991) can be included in the series, but the connection is marginal rather than central. Although the main characters from the other books do not occur directly, this novel provides some background material on events and characters in the other novels.
[edit] Setting
The broad setting of the novels is a series of artificially-constructed universes. The majority of the stories take place on the world created by the Lord Jadawin. This planet consists of a series of cylindrical layers stacked one atop the other, to form an enormous, approximately conical tower. The top surfaces (levels or tiers) of each cylindrical monolith are densely inhabited, while the vertical sides of the monoliths (30-100,000 feet high, called Thayaphaeawoed, Abharhploonta, Doozvillnavava, and Idaquizzoorhruz) act as enormous cliffs which partially isolate the inhabitants of each tier from each other. These cliffs do provide some purchase for climbing, and many specialised creatures live on the cliff surfaces, so this isolation is not complete.
There is no diminuation of atmosphere from one level to the next, due to Jadawin's manipulation of the local gravitational fields. The top surfaces of each stage are populated with plants and animals creating different environments. Some of these were abducted from Earth throughout history, while many were created in Jadawin's biolabs. Many creatures have bodies created by Jadawin to replicate mythological creatures (e.g. merpeople, centaurs) implanted with the minds of abducted humans. The various inhabitants are immortal as far as physical aging is concerned, though they can be killed by most other means.
The tiers are (bottom to top, largest to smallest):
- Okeanos - watery, Garden of Eden, populated by people abducted from ancient Greece.
- Amerind - prehistoric North America, populated by people abducted from North and Central America
- Dracheland - medieval/Arthurian, populated by people from medieval Germany
- Atlantis - was a major civilization, now ruins and jungle.
- Palace of Jadawin.
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The surface area on all the levels of this planet, that is, the horizontal area on the tops of the monoliths, equaled the surface area of the watery bodies of Earth. This made the land area more than that of Earth's. In addition, the habitable areas on the verticalities of the monoliths were considerable. These alone probably equaled the land area of Earth's Africa. Moreover, there were immense subterranean territories, great caverns in vast networks that ran under the earth everywhere. |
[edit] Major characters
[edit] Robert Wolff
Robert Wolff is a retired linguistics professor, aged in his sixties. While inspecting a house to purchase and live in during retirement with his wife, a gate to the World of Tiers opens before him. He passes through this gate, arriving on the Okeanos level. There he regains his youth and health, due to the effects of drugs in the water supply provided by the Lord Jadawin. He meets and falls in love with Chryseis, and when she is kidnapped he sets out to rescue her, ascending the various levels of the planet. Most of this journey is undertaken in the company of Paul Janus Finnegan/Kickaha.
[edit] Paul Janus Finnegan/Kickaha
Paul Janus Finnegan was born in Indiana in 1918, and served in the United States army during the second world war, driving a tank. In the ruins of a museum in a small German town, he discovered a metal crescent made of an apparently indestructible metal, and took it with him as a souvenir. This crescent proved to be one half of a gate to the World of Tiers, the other half belonging to a displaced Thoan who attempted to buy (and later, steal) the crescent from Finnegan. Finnegan accidentally activated the completed gate and was transported to the World of Tiers. At the time of the start of the first novel in the series, Finnegan has been living on the World of Tiers for approximately twenty-four years. In that time he has learned many of the local languages, become extremely skilled at knife-throwing, archery, and other combat and outdoors survival skills, and lived under many assumed names and identities. In Dracheland, his identity is "Baron Horst von Horstman", whose coat of arms is a red jackass' head surmounting a fist with the middle finger extended. His favourite identity is that of Kickaha (meaning "trickster"), which is used on the Amerind level.
Note: Paul Janus Finnegan shares the initials as the author (PJF). This is also true of one of the main characters in the Riverworld series named Peter Jairus Frigate. This is not an accident. Farmer was not shy about putting alter-egos of himself in his stories.
[edit] Chryseis
Chryseis is a woman abducted from Earth by Jadawin, who has had her mind implanted into a new body created in Jadawin's biolabs. She claims to be the same Chryseis, daughter of Chryses portrayed in the tale of the Trojan war. The body created for her by Jadawin is essentially human, except that her eyes are exceptionally large in proportion to her face (like a cat's eyes), her legs are exceptionally long, and her hair is tiger-striped.
[edit] Anana
Anana is a Thoan, sister of Jadawin. She is initially arrogant and cruel, as most Thoans are, but gradually becomes sympathetic as she falls in love with Kickaha.
[edit] References
The Jadawin family (or at least their names) are taken from William Blake's mythology. This mythology is referred to by the characters in the stories (mainly in The Gates of Creation, Red Orc's Rage, and More than Fire).
The novels are at least in part a vehicle to represent mythological character archetypes. Robert Wolff is a heroic character who primarily overcomes obstacles by using strength (physical and mental) to confront the Thoans. By contrast, the character of Kickaha is a trickster, who avoids the affairs of the god-like Thoans wherever possible, and who survives and defeats his enemies by cunning, trickery and skill.
The central concept of the series is the existence of arrogant beings who possess awesome powers (as a result of technology) and use these powers to play the role of gods. They are able to travel from place to place almost instantaneously by using gates to teleport from one location or universe to another. This is extremely similar to several central concepts in the fictitious Stargate universe, although there is currently no suggestion that Stargate copied these ideas from the World of Tiers stories.
