It's complicated. :) The premise is that the world of Safehold is the last hold out of humanity after war was declared on them by an alien civilization. The only way to hide the remaining humans from the aliens was to prevent them from developing advanced technology. So the people who started this new world basically brain wiped their volunteers who were starting over civilization, gave them an entirely new (artificially created) religion, and eliminated any knowledge of what humanity had accomplished before. (And wow, playing with those ideas is amazing.)
Nimue was a soldier fighting against the aliens. The "robot" (called a PICA) is a personal adventuring device, basically -- the kind of thing where you send out your machine to do crazy stuff and then synch your memories with its experiences, so there's no risk. Well, Nimue and a small group of the settlers were against the idea of wiping out all human history, so they made it so Nimue's PICA could stow away to the new settlement, where she's in stasis for a very long time before interacting with the new civilization. The new civilization is strictly divided along gender lines, where Nimue's wasn't.
The Arthurian references -- and several references to military history, great speeches given to soldiers, that sort of thing -- are mostly Nimue stealing bits of the history of humanity and interjecting them into the world, because she can, and (I think) because it's a way to remember her purpose. She becomes Merlin as a guide to help one particular kingdom in the new civilization survive possible defeat from all the surrounding nations. In many ways, Merlin is very much like a wizard, if only because he has access to all of Nimue's (and the PICA's) skills, settings, and supplies.
Does that help place it better? It's a very complex build up, but once it all falls into place, it's a really amazing platform to deal with big ideas. :)
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-12-24 06:40 pm (UTC)Nimue was a soldier fighting against the aliens. The "robot" (called a PICA) is a personal adventuring device, basically -- the kind of thing where you send out your machine to do crazy stuff and then synch your memories with its experiences, so there's no risk. Well, Nimue and a small group of the settlers were against the idea of wiping out all human history, so they made it so Nimue's PICA could stow away to the new settlement, where she's in stasis for a very long time before interacting with the new civilization. The new civilization is strictly divided along gender lines, where Nimue's wasn't.
The Arthurian references -- and several references to military history, great speeches given to soldiers, that sort of thing -- are mostly Nimue stealing bits of the history of humanity and interjecting them into the world, because she can, and (I think) because it's a way to remember her purpose. She becomes Merlin as a guide to help one particular kingdom in the new civilization survive possible defeat from all the surrounding nations. In many ways, Merlin is very much like a wizard, if only because he has access to all of Nimue's (and the PICA's) skills, settings, and supplies.
Does that help place it better? It's a very complex build up, but once it all falls into place, it's a really amazing platform to deal with big ideas. :)