Some unstructured thoughts on structure

I've covered some things before here: https://whatwouldconando.blogspot.com/2018/05/troikan-bumble-logic.html

I'll re-cover those points at random in all likeliness.

We should be critically examining our presumptions regarding story. They are all artificial and in no way an essential part of storytelling. Therefore we can remove them, ignore them, or otherwise do as we please without worry.

Heroes & villains are false. This does not means we should move to "grey", that's just pulping them together in feigned maturity. It's very easy to find examples of cultures that have wildly different ideas of what is good or bad. Remove all assumptions about morality except that people will have it. The absence of a moral code is impossible, it's just a rejection of a specific code and a resulting tangled interaction with it.

All people you meet in Troika believe in something being right and something being wrong. This might not be good or evil. They all have their priorities and they are not judeo-christian. Their life is wild and dangerous, they do not have the privilege of being non-committal with their world view

Conflict is not essential. It can be replaced as a central mover. Filling the gaps isn't easy but it's possible and should be attempted. Consider a world where there are desires that do not cross others. To accomplish something doesn't require anything external. Puzzles exploded outwards. The desire to go places and a need to figure out how. Conflict can be viewed as moments where the breaks slam down and we have two wills meet where only one can continue on. Instead consider compromises. In Troika conflict is dangerous and arbitrary. Occasionally one sided and always unfair. Compromise will keep you alive.

Core loops are for products, not art. Heroes journeys are for propaganda and bedtime stories. The philosophy of hylics.

Arcs are only to be applied by historians to past events and are always abusing our need for patterns. Philosophy of psychics.

The world was created by the demiurge, there is no meaning no arc no hero no journey, just an up and a down. Stories can just start and more importantly just end. A search for meaning in media is childish. Meaning isn't a universal thing, a treasure to be found. Meaning can exist in only one person, the one who made it, or, like Holloywood films, only exist in the audience.

The only universal is that there is a way towards gnosis and we all believe we are moving in that direction and that others have chosen a divergent path. The demiurge created the pattern and the pattern is bleeding to death. Walking the pattern will take you in circles where you'll be held up above the most base. If you break the pattern you'll be considered a savior and clung to in desperation. Ignore the pattern, leave them to follow their feet, and build something buoyant.