“So, what is this August you’ve welcomed us to?” you ask. August is a planet far away from Earth where the story of Free Drove takes place.
But before I get into that. A quick note on content I will post on the blog. Some of the posts will share background information about the universe of Free Drove. The Novel itself will not rely on you knowing this information. Some of it will be revealed through the story telling, other parts may not be explicitly shared in the novel because they are not important for the plot. These universe posts are merely to share the background of the universe that my mind compulsively comes up with. Regardless if these bits show up in the novel, they are real aspects of the novel’s world and you can consider them canon. So just as a romance novel set in modern-day Canada might not mention the island of Tasmania, it doesn’t mean that Tasmania does not, indeed, exist in a world where two people in Canada happen to fall in love. Also, whoof, I restrain myself from writing complex sentences like the preceding one in the novel, but here on the blog I’m gonna go ahead and splurge on the windiest sentences grammar will allow me to write (law school anyone?).
Ok, now that we’re done with that piece of meta data, on to August. The events of Free Drove revolve primarily around the planet of August. More precisely, around August’s only permanent settlement, August City. The city’s main dome houses the majority of the 36 million inhabitants. Humans comprise a plurality of the population at about 40 percent. I will share information about the other citizens gradually.
August falls under the governance of a political union based on Earth called the Earth Domains. Of all the extra-terran* habitations in the Earth Domains, August is unique in that it is fully subscribed to the laws of Earth refereed to as the Earth Sovereign Code. Some, though not all, of Earth’s old nations also subscribe to the Earth Sovereign Code, while others retain more autonomy. For all legal purposes, August is treated as if it were physically “on earth”.
But this brings us to one very practical issue: August is really, really, far away. In fact, it is the farthest habitation from earth in the entire Earth Domains. During the war with the Aggregate, August was left to fend for itself due to its relative strategic unimportance. As the majority of Proxima’s forces retreated to defend the core worlds, August had to fend for itself in what became known as the Great Siege. For fifteen grinding months, the citizens of August waged a guerrilla war against a massive Aggregate invasion force. Through a combination of advanced technology, wily tactics, desperation, and dumb luck, August held out until the war ended and military relief arrived.
Our story is heavily intertwined with August’s ordeal, and its recovery from the Aggregate war.
Some Terms
- *Extra-terran – Not on Earth. August is physically extra-terran, although it falls under earth sovereignty and follows earth laws.
- Earth Domains – The expanse of habitations initiated from Earth. Primarily Human, a continuation of the 21st century global civilization.
- Proxima – A military alliance of which the Earth Domains are a member
- The Aggregate – A coalition of civilizations who initiated a war with Proxima
Free Drove 
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