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Land-script: Development Claims

"Land-script, of course; the law required a Colonial Government to make land available to Federation citizens, but it did not require such land to be given free."
— H. Beam Piper, Fuzzy Sapiens

Future History | Paratime | Other Works

Modeled after the Traveller Mailing List (TML) Landgrab, Land-Script Development Claims are personal, non-commercial efforts to develop background elements of H. Beam Piper's Terro-human Future History, Paratime and Other Works settings. Each background developer should report on the claimed setting in great detail. The exact level of detail and degree of compliance with official canon is open to interpretation. Developers should survey their claim (including gathering the relevant canonical information) and submit a Developer's Report to the Piper Mailing List.

There are some key guidelines for any development effort. The first is captured in "Olson's Rule":

"Agreed that [Piper's Paratime and Terro-human Future History (TFH) yarns] could all fit together. Does that mean that they do? If you intend the definition of inclusion within Piper's future history to be 'one [which] would have little trouble fitting into the TFH as pre-30 Days War stories' then you've gotten too broad. . . .

"I think you need something a little more positive than mere non-contradiction."

While Mark was speaking specifically about including Paratime yarns in the Terro-human Future History canon, the point holds for any development of Piper's work: there must be some explicit, non-generic (e.g. not simply a shared reference to a common place such as, say, "Mars") connection in any two Piper works for them to be considered to be part of the same, distinct setting.

A second key guideline is captured in "Newton's Rule":

"Perhaps, in keeping with the spirit of the Landgrab, and so that we can both stimulate creativity and remain careful about what Piper actually wrote, we should separate material into "Canon" and "Apocrypha"—with the latter segments being so titled to represent the fact that the author is not revealing but extending. . . ."

Steve's "Canon" and "Apocrypha" distinction should serve as a basic structuring element of any development effort.

Terro-human Future History Development Claims

"Should we do more exploring and claim some more of these places, or should we come home right away and start recruiting, and then come back with a large party . . . and explore and make further claims as we have time?"
— Conn Maxwell, Junkyard Planet

The Future History claims made thus far include:

World Claim	Developer	Date of Claim
Volund	Mike McGuirk	February 2001
Fafnir	William Taylor	July 2001
Gimli	David Johnson	July 2001
Zarathustra (now Fuzzy Ergo Sum)	Wolf Diehr	June 2004
Sarpanitum (now The Last Space Viking)	Mike Robertson	July 2007
Vishnu (now The Last Space Viking)	Mike Robertson	July 2007
Poictesme	Dietmar Wehr	October 2008

In addition to development claims to the worlds of Piper's Terro-human Future History others have expressed an interest in developing specific centuries of the TFH "Atomic Era." Here are those claims:

Atomic Era Century Claim	Developer	Date of Claim
First Century, AE	Steve Newton	August 2001
Second Century, AE	David Johnson	June 2002
Tenth Century, AE	Dietmar Wehr	October 2008

At the suggestion of Piper fan Tom Rogers, Piper Development Claims have been expanded to encompass the process of comparing various editions of Piper's work for consistency and differences in order to expand and clarify the canonical material used for development. Developers in this area choose a given work and report on their comparison of the various editions. The claims made so far include:

Canon Claim	Developer	Date of Claim
Uller Uprising / "Ullr Uprising"	Tom Rogers	September 2001
"Oomphel in the Sky"	Tom Rogers	January 2002

If you wish to participate, stake your cliam on the Piper Mailing List. If none oppose you, or if you prevail in an ensuing discussion, you too may become a background developer.

Background developers may lay their claim and/or provide links to their Developer's Report by posting an announcement to the Piper Mailing List. Developers may have their Developer's Report hosted here at Zarthani.net by sending a request to the Development Claims Bureau.

Paratime Development Claims

"And you're thinking, suppose some Sino-Hindic mystic, or some Europo-American science-fiction writer, gets picked up and dumped onto, say, Second Level Interworld Empire?"
— Tortha Karf, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen

The Paratime claims made thus far include:

Timeline Claim	Developer	Date of Claim
Fourth Level, Macedonian Empire Sector, Philip subsector	John W. Braue, III	December 2001
First Level, Abzar Sector, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4	Allen McDonnell	May 2003
Third Level, Esaron Sector, Slave Trust subsector	Allen McDonnell	May 2003
Second Level, Triplanetary Empire Sector	Glenn "Gilmoure" Amspaugh	December 2007
Fourth Level, Europo-American Sector, Hispano-Columbian Subsector, unnamed timelines	Jim "Rhino" Sparr	September 2009

Other Works Development Claims

"I do a lot of stories for the pulps. Space-Trails, and Other Worlds, and Wonder-Stories; mags like that. Most of it's standardized formula-stuff; what's known to the trade as space-operas. My best stuff goes to Astonishing. . . . What I do for Astonishing is really hard work, and I enjoy it."
— Pierre Jarrett, Murder in the Gunroom

The Other Works claims made thus far include:

Background Development Claim	Developer	Date of Claim
Hartley Yarns - The Epsilon Eridani Expeditions	David Johnson	January 2001

Canon Claim	Developer	Date of Claim
Null ABC / Crisis in 2140	Eric Gimlin	September 2001
"Hunter Patrol"	Tom Rogers	January 2002

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