A Prelude to a Prelude (short story)

A Prelude to a Prelude
Main character(s):	Needleborn
Main setting:	The Needle, post-War universe
Key crew
Publisher:	Obverse Books
Writer:	Nate Bumber
Release details
Part of:	The Book of the Peace Dossier
Release date:	11 February 2019
Format:	Online vignette
Faction Paradox
← Previous	A Farewell to R.M.S.
Next →	A Shift in Focus

A Prelude to a Prelude was the ninth promotional short story released in The Book of the Peace Dossier.

Summary

to be added

Characters

• Needleborn

Worldbuilding

• The War in Heaven is discussed on message boards.

Notes

• This story's title refers to a previous prelude to A Farewell to Arms which was published in the June 2018 fan anthology Shit Trips: Volume 2.5 and featured the same unnamed characters. The story was later republished on the author's blog.
• The story briefly touches on concepts from Simon Bucher-Jones's November 2013 blog post Faction Paradox Stands, which had been written in response to The Day of the Doctor and was attributed to "The Book of The Peace". Author Nate Bumber gives thanks to Bucher-Jones at the end of the story.

Continuity

• The post-war edition of the Primer for the Spiral Politic has information of the Peace. (AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire, et al.)
• An attempt at Peace via direct negotiation with an Enemy representative was made on Dronid shortly before the Cataclysm. (PROSE: Alien Bodies, The Book of the War)
• The Utterlost Accords occurred early in the War in Heaven and cemented the concept of "Hot Peace". (PROSE: Pre-narrative Briefing B)
• The Venue Accords are mentioned. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
• The Primer for the Spiral Politic is passed through the Emperor's censors. (PROSE: Father Time)
• As an expansion of the Nine Homeworlds project, (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon, et al.) the Houses created specially-primed "lesser Homeworlds" in bottle universes (PROSE: Dead Romance) and oxbow timelines (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil) which fought microscopic models of the War in Heaven. One notable example involved a race of mechanical invaders who negotiated to fight the lesser Homeworlds in exchange for time technology; (PROSE: Dead Romance) the only Homeworld to survive time war with them did so by returning to organic models of childbirth and enacting the ritual of the "entrenched last stand" to be saved by the future. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
• The "lesser Homeworlds" project was discontinued when the number of lost Homeworlds became too distasteful to bear. (PROSE: The Brakespeare Voyage)

External links

• Official A Prelude to a Prelude page at Obverse Books