Setting
The stories are all set in an undefined far future Earth, when the sun is nearing the end of its life. The sky ranges from pink to deep blue, lit by a dim red sun, and many strange plants and animals exist. Much of the story is set within the forested country of Ascolais, and in the ruined cities that dot the landscape.
The setting is marked by the presence of unaccountably ancient ruins and other fragments of now-decayed civilizations. The human population is shrinking, and most live in the remaining structures built long ago, in varying degrees of ruin, squalor, or luxury. In addition, many people make use of technology or magic which was created long ago, but which they no longer understand. No distinction is ever made between technology created through science and that created by magic; the line between the two is blurred, and it is heavily implied that the two are ultimately indistinguishable. The characters in the stories are aware that they live on a "Dying Earth" and often make carefree, nihilistic references to the fact that their planet does not have much longer to live, assuming that the sun will soon burn itself out. It is never explained how long the Earth has left to live; it could be only decades, or possibly still thousands or millions of years.
Many of the most important people in Ascolais are wizards. In the Dying Earth, wizards use magic primarily by memorizing lengthy formulas for spells, and then activating them by speaking the proper commands. Once cast, the spell formula is instantly forgotten, requiring the wizard to reread and re-memorize them. Because even talented wizards can only memorize and "load" a handful of spells, wizards also have to rely on magical relics and on their other skills and talents to protect them. There are only one hundred spells which are still known to mankind, out of thousands which were discovered over the course of history. Pandelume implies that what the people of the Dying Earth call "magic" actually has a scientific origin; he indicates that many spells were invented through the use of mathematics and mundane sciences.
Read more about this topic: The Dying Earth
Famous quotes containing the word setting:
“In my dealing with my child, my Latin and Greek, my accomplishments and my money stead me nothing; but as much soul as I have avails. If I am wilful, he sets his will against mine, one for one, and leaves me, if I please, the degradation of beating him by my superiority of strength. But if I renounce my will, and act for the soul, setting that up as umpire between us two, out of his young eyes looks the same soul; he reveres and loves with me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We believe that Carlyle has, after all, more readers, and is better known to-day for this very originality of style, and that posterity will have reason to thank him for emancipating the language, in some measure, from the fetters which a merely conservative, aimless, and pedantic literary class had imposed upon it, and setting an example of greater freedom and naturalness.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The doctrine of those who have denied that certainty could be attained at all, has some agreement with my way of proceeding at the first setting out; but they end in being infinitely separated and opposed. For the holders of that doctrine assert simply that nothing can be known; I also assert that not much can be known in nature by the way which is now in use. But then they go on to destroy the authority of the senses and understanding; whereas I proceed to devise helps for the same.”
—Francis Bacon (1560–1626)