Researching Source Material: Diomira (continued)

 

After researching the source material in a previous post, I identified that the earliest time period Diomira could be in is the 18th century. This is due to their ability to mine for lead efficiently, which hit its peak in Britain between the 18th and 19th century. However there are other things in the text which suggest the use of technology such as electricity, which would not have been invented until the 19th century.

 It also states that the people of Diomira are religious and worship the Gods. Since this is made quite a point throughout the text, I would like to link this into the construction of the city and possibly into the reasoning for the cities rich resources. For this reason I don't want to just focus on the idea of them having electricity through normal means. They may have an alternate power source which could be produced magically or through a made up resource found in this fantasy world. I like the idea of the people building these enormous structures to please their Gods, who provided them with a resource which can advance their technology, beyond what it should actually be. So they have the ability to produce technology ahead of their time, however they don't understand how this works. This may be how they made their money. They could have traded this source of power for the resources such as silver, which has been used to produce the 60 domes. The city has an out of time artifact, which blurs the lines between religion and science. I can further research this concept by finding real world examples of cultures who gift things to their gods.

Throughout time, different cultures have refereed to the creation of the Earth for example, Greek Gods, Chinese traditions and African Gods.  These have helped to shape my ideas.

Diwali is a festival of light celebrated in November by Hindus.  I thought this was a good example as it includes a visual aspect which I could use in my drawing to show that light always prevails over darkness.  I feel this is the same belief that the people of Diomira have.

On a final look of the text, I came up with a darker backstory for the city.

Sinister approach 

the leader of the city are aware that the gods the people worship are just myths. They are exploiting the people by forcing them to donate resources to the "cause". This has resulted in them getting rich off the people of the city. If you cannot donate you are sent to live on the perimeter of the city with the poor. They cannot afford lights, links with darkness (sinister). The golden cock found on a tower may be a way of controlling the people. It could signify a strict regiment set by the government. It also mentions aspects of the city being familiar to the traveller - he's seen them before in other cities. Is this simply because the cities trade between each other or is it because they are controlled by the same people? 

"Envy towards those who now believe they have once before lived an evening they have once before lived an evening identical to this and who think they were happy at the time". The people could be blinded (linking back to the use of light) about what's really going on in the city. The people have false hope from their belief in the gods and do not realise they are being manipulated and controlled. 

With this additional information, I am able to paint a much darker depiction of the city. I can show the different classes of people which will help add a story to my concepts. I don't just want my city to be empty houses. I want it to tell a story that the viewer can understand.