Yesterday there was a post on one of the sci-fi subreddits from someone going “every time I try to write Space Wizards they just turn into Jedi, how can I make them not just Jedi, halp”. And there were a lot of responses when I got there but I sat there over dinner tapping out a long list of things Jedi don’t do along with suggestions on how that could be interesting.
And these two bits I wrote just keep on sticking with me:
Jedi aren’t psychopomps. They don’t sit down their bodies and go wandering the low astral plane, looking for lost souls who need a guide with some knowledge of the after life. Make your space wizards have a ton of favors they end up being able to call in as a side effect of this.
Jedi don’t do exorcisms. Make your space wizards clear out psychic debris from people, places, and things. “Clearing out a spaceship full of ancient alien ghosts” sounds like a great way to spend a chapter. Hell, that’s a great way to dump a bunch of plot tokens, too – one ancient alien ghost gave them a message to pass on to something halfway across the galaxy, whoever hired the wizard to do this now owes them, etc.
I wanna read this book now. If I wasn’t just getting a project going with Nick I’d be tempted to try and write it. It probably needs a few more ideas beyond “a space psychopomp would be a super neat protagonist for a space opera” but I just like the feel of it. Maybe I should just try doodling a short story of “space wizard is hired to exorcise a haunted spaceship and ends up playing psychopomp for a few of its denizens” and see how it feels.
“Exorcising haunted space ships” is an issue in Deadlands: Lost Colony, because the “Artificial Gravity” is actually a Soul Magnet- it pulls your soul towards the deck, and since your body is attached to your soul, it goes with it. Problem, is, if you die on the ship, your soul gets stuck there.
Oh wow, that’s a great reason for “space psychopomp” to be a job.