The Human Concordat was originally conceived and pitched to Shadis magazine as the first “AlterWorld”. My idea was to create a new “mini-setting” that would nestle into an existing setting and then develop that setting over the course of 12-18 issues of the magazine with more detailed articles and adventure scenarios. Additional AlterWorlds would have followed. The two ideas I remember being discussed were a city for the World of Darkness (which would have included material for all the different World of Darkness games) and an isolated planet in the Mechwarrior universe.

The idea was that the extended focus on a single campaign resource would create a unique audience for the magazine. What I found appealing about the AlterWorld concept was that it would allow me to explore radical ideas for settings that the original creators weren’t interested in: For example, when I first read Fading Suns I was fascinated by the idea of a gate connection opening up that would lead not just to one world, but to an entire lost civilization of worlds. And, thus, the Human Concordat was born.

Shadis folded in 1998, however, and the Human Concordat got shelved. About a year later I repackaged the pitch for Pyramid Magazine. They weren’t interested in the AlterWorld concept, but they expressed interest in the “Human Concordat” as a stand-alone article.The only problem was that it was too long for their budget: They asked me to cut it down to roughly half the size so that they could afford to pay me. I made a counter-offer: They would pay me for the article length they wanted and I’d give the rest of it to them for free.

In order to see the material realized the way I wanted it, I also personally commissioned the artwork for the various religious and political symbols. (The gorgeous jumpweb map by Keith Johnson I can take no credit for, however.)

Part 1 – The Fall
Part 2 – Government & Religion
Part 3 – Worlds of the Concordat
Part 4 – More Worlds of the Concordat
Part 5 – The Concordat as Campaign Setting

As a young author, I secretly held the hope that the article would prove to be such a huge success that Pyramid would come back and ask me to develop more material in the setting. Unsurprisingly, that never happened.

One thing that never got executed properly: The symbol for the Seven Pearls was supposed to be varied for each of the Pearls. This is what it ended up looking like:

But the original conception was that each planet in the Pearls would have a variation in which its corresponding circle-star would be the largest on the string. (So Lyonesse would have the first circle-star larger than the others, while Leicester would have had the second circle-star larger than the others.)

Reading through The Human Concordat today, I can also see that the setting comes across as significantly more utopian than I’d originally intended: The “culture of universal acceptance and emancipation” should have its dark side. (You might also note the number of terraforming engine problems found throughout the setting. The bit about terraforming technology being “the one true secret which remains, as yet, unmastered by Concordat scientists” was also unfulfilled foreshadowing.)

As a final point of miscellaneous interest, here’s my original rough draft of the Concordat jumpweb map:

Which you can compare to Keith Johnson’s superb work:

(click for larger version)

Fading Suns: The Human Concordat – Part 3: Worlds of the Concordat Fading Suns: The Human Concordat – Part 4: More Worlds of the Concordat Fading Suns: The Human Concordat – Part 5: The Concordat as Campaign Setting