84. Transmentation, Body-Hopping, and Political Intrigue with Darkly Lem

Indie sci-fi collective Darkly Lem — five authors writing under one unified pseudonym — discuss their Transmentation series and the broader Many Worlds shared-universe project. They outline a consequence-driven multiverse of interdimensional societies defined by competing values, political systems, and internal power struggles, contrasting it with the MCU’s approach and explaining how they maintain stakes by focusing on worlds and societies rather than preserving characters.They explain how they collaborate through twice-weekly meetings, a large living “bible”, intensive multi-pass editing, and evolving drafting methods including assignment, co-writing, and “exquisite corpse.” They outline how Many Worlds began as Cadwell Turnbull’s project and has grown to over 20 authors, and aims to connect short stories and novels via a meta-narrative.We also discuss multiversal traveler mechanisms, personal proxies, identity “meshing,” and the complexities of social governance and different times and scales of a society's development.Books of his we discuss: Transmentation: Transience, Transmentation: Transgressionhttps://www.manyworldsforum.com/alternatefutures.substack.comalternatefutures.co.uk