Ecumene - Ecumenes in Fiction

Ecumenes in Fiction

• The author J. R. R. Tolkien described his Middle-earth setting for his fiction as equivalent to the Greek ecumene, the abode of Men.
• In the Demon Princes series of science fiction novels by Jack Vance, Oikumene is the term used for the human-inhabited worlds of the galaxy.
• In the science fiction novel Time's Eye co-authored by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter Oikoumene is a grassroots religious unification movement bridging the divide between Catholicism and Islam.
• In The Left Hand of Darkness and other fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin, the Ekumen is a loose confederation of inhabited worlds, linked by instantaneous communication, but separated by slower-than-light travel.
• In the science fiction trilogy The Golden Age, by John C. Wright, a polity called the Golden Oecumene spans all of the Solar System.
• In the Halo universe, more particularly in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and the Forerunner Saga novels, the Forerunner ecumene spanned the galaxy more than 100,000 years ago. Forerunner society was divided into five main social classes, called "rates" (in ascending order of social standing/power): 'Engineers', 'Warrior-Servants', 'Lifeworkers', 'Miners', and 'Builder'.