Setting
The broad setting of the novels is a series of artificially-constructed universes. The majority of the stories take place on the world created by the Lord Jadawin. This planet consists of a series of cylindrical layers stacked one atop the other, to form an enormous, approximately conical tower (albeit much broader than it is tall). The top surfaces (levels or tiers) of each cylindrical monolith are densely inhabited, while the vertical sides of the monoliths act as enormous cliffs (30,000-100,000 feet high) which partially isolate the inhabitants of each tier from each other. These cliffs do provide some purchase for climbing, and many specialized creatures live on the cliff surfaces, so this isolation is not complete.
There is no diminution of atmosphere from one level to the next, due to Jadawin's manipulation of the local gravitational fields. The various tiers are populated with plants and animals creating different environments. Some of these were abducted from Earth throughout history, while many were created in Jadawin's biolabs. Many creatures have bodies created by Jadawin to replicate mythological creatures (e.g. merpeople, centaurs) implanted with the minds of abducted humans. The various inhabitants are immortal as far as physical aging is concerned, though they can be killed by most other means.
Read more about this topic: World Of Tiers
Famous quotes containing the word setting:
“When I consider the clouds stretched in stupendous masses across the sky, frowning with darkness or glowing with downy light, or gilded with the rays of the setting sun, like the battlements of a city in the heavens, their grandeur appears thrown away on the meanness of my employment; the drapery is altogether too rich for such poor acting. I am hardly worthy to be a suburban dweller outside those walls.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“May we two stand,
When we are dead, beyond the setting suns,
A little from other shades apart,
With mingling hair, and play upon one lute.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“it is finally as though that thing of monstrous interest
were happening in the sky
but the sun is setting and prevents you from seeing it”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)