Trailokya Trilogy Inspired by Life, Mythology and Dreams.

The Trailokya Trilogy came to me in a dream. Actually, it’s come to me in a series of dreams over about 30-33 years or more. From recurring themes to continuing sagas, sleeping is quite the adventure. I guess I was always blessed with this imagination or a conduit into something like the greatest first person role play ever. (Yes, I used to game—until everything pretty much went online and this introvert backed out. Glad I did for not having to deal with trolls, but sad because there are awesome games out there I would really enjoy.)

Dare I mention that OP-DEC came in a dream too? That I was on a date with the perfect guy. Oh, yes, Carsten Reiniger is a perfect guy. We were seeing Star Wars—which is an obvious thing if you know me. Then the bead and the whole scene happened. I woke up to roll over but it continued and by then, I was being whisked away in a Junkers bomber with my aunt and mother. Upon really waking that morning, I decided I needed to write the book. So, too, Trailokya came to be Faith Fallen, a screenplay I penned back in 2006 and let lay fallow until five years later. It was going to be an enormous production to bring that into a novel, and I wasn’t prepared to do it at the time. I had a lot to learn about various subjects that were sure to crop up, and more things to dream.

The world of Trailokya comes as it is. It’s limitless in scope really, as any dreamscape is. However, it is attached to our universe, our Earth, and the spaces we occupy in waking life are limited by the rules of physics and other scientific concepts. Trailokya is a very specific term which describes the three worlds that interact heavily in the manuscript: Zion, Samsara and Jahannam. These words should be quite familiar to the average person. Zion is another word for heaven, but in the book it is the homeworld, where we all are created and visit Samsara, the universe in which Earth resides. Jahannam is an Islamic word for hell. This is the prison realm where those who have committed egregious crimes against Zion and the entities living there are put, to keep the rest of the universes safe from them. It is not fool-proof, like any other prison. It was not created by a god, but ordered into being and created by his emissaries. The myths of Judeo-Christian and Islamic faith have quite a showing in Trailokya, right beside Hindu (Lord Ganesha, overseer of the Great Council), Buddhist (Trailokya, Samsara) and the ancient faiths of the ancient world, such as Greco-Roman (Jahannam’s provinces, Duta leaders, Arcadia) and Egyptian (Order of Horus).

To keep my focus, I rely on the dreams I had. Believe it or not they started matching up after years of having them. The make sense to me, despite not always coming in linear episodes. On the side, I keep a list that applies to all three places, a quick reference, so I can remember the terminology I have applied. There is nothing like it which I have yet found, but yet it is so natural coming from my mind to the paper. I also kept a screensaver and music playlist full of inspirational art to spur me on and keep me excited. It showed throughout the process that was cataloged on Facebook 2011-2014.I’ve archived most of the process so that anyone interested could see how I made this happen. Questions come in, people want to interact. Other authors are looking for themselves in you, for that glimmer of hope they’re doing it right (yes, you are!), when there is really no one right way to do a book. The book will show you the path.

Writing Trailokya was a cathartic experience, but I don’t dare answer exactly why until Trailokya’s second installment is released. That would just be a spoiler. The music and the art and imagining something that was corked up inside my head and putting it on paper for others to see, that was therapy.

The characters of Trailokya are fleshed out in much the same way as the landscapes and concepts. A lot of them come from mythological or faith based lore: General Mikael and the other three commanders of the four legions of Zion. I’m sure you can name them without me listing them. Among them is Captain Maiel, of the Moon Order, a legion under General Mikael that is commanded by Artemis and her sister. She is sometimes mistaken for her commander, as she and her twin brother Joel look very much like Diana and Apollo. In the dreams, I am always Maiel. I feel her excitement at facing foes, her concern in missing her children and her love for those in her care. Jungian psychology would likely chalk this aberration up to desiring power in a world where women are powerless. Captain Maiel is a very strong female, who is equal with her male counterparts, in a world that doesn’t equate gender with ability.

There is also the mysterious Primus Gediel, Wolf Leader, Watcher. He is responsible for training the canine soldiers that serve in the legions. These packs are special and few. His second titles, Watcher, corresponds to the role of those angels who were charged by God with the oversight of humanity in the early days of civilization. They’re the spies and special forces of the legions. The mystery shrouding them is deepened by a conflict that happened at the outset of humanity’s occupation of earth, a very dark conflict that led to the prison of Jahannam. Gediel’s darkness is mostly made by his exile to the outskirts of Zion, but more so from his grandfather who fell to Jahannam in the conflict, and for who he is named.

Technology is another aspect of Trailokya. The series is not merely a fantasy. It uses science and hammers back myths to show a more reasoned synthesis of how and why and where do we come from. The gates the characters use to travel back and forth beyond the vales (borders between universes) are energy based, Wi-Fi even, connections and keys. Tesla would be over the moon. The seals use coordinates, to dial in a location. For instance, the seal of Samsara looks like a compass, and it is, based on the constellations of that universe. It also happens to contain Metatron’s Cube, a theory from alchemist Solomon that continues to have great meaning today to the spiritual, drawing from science and the Kabbalah.

Other scientific theories in Trailokya will be familiar to those following physics. Zion is a forever expanding universe, but not quite like Samsara. A sun and moon phase around it. There are stars, but it is the only ‘planet’ in the space, and it’s growing larger to accommodate all those beings who remain, tempered by all those who ascend beyond to Nirvana. Are the stars potential other universes? Worlds being forged? I cannot tell you. It could be argued that Nirvana is our real home, Zion is just another stop on the way in the journey away from and back to it and the stars are Nirvana leaking through the barriers.

As for the other worlds, Jahannam is a dark mirror of Zion, bereft of sky and satellites, while Samsara is a shattered reflection, encompassing the wrecks of both worlds, touching into universes between: Astral, Avernus and Oblivion. Avernus is the undoing of all physical things, a world of entropy where barriers are broken down and everything laces into everything else; the last barrier keeping Zion and the upper realms safe from invasion. Astral is a theoretical playground where all things are possible, and yet bound by the player’s limitations; a dream world. Oblivion is utter destruction, the antithesis of Nirvana and creation; a nothing place where matter is destroyed.

In the coming installments, the technology becomes increasingly prominent, but again, spoilers. So, I will leave it there before I tell you everything and spoil the read.

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 Image Credits:

• Image1 – Wolf by Pixabay.com
• Image 2 – http://priteeboy.deviantart.com/
• Image 3 – Playlist. Screencapture of the Trailokya Trilogy playlist on Spotify.
• Image 4 & 5 Captain Maielle: http://natelyon.deviantart.com/art/08-Maielle-39958972 Uknown: Is this Gediel or what? cannot find the page this was from, please let me know if you do, so I can give credit and referral.
• Image 5 – Astro Chart by Pixabay