The introduction of a new genere (hopefully)

[Palaskar]

Astrivian (sp?), I've been trying to do something similar with my setting The Fifth Hour. It's basically an attempt to do a metaphorical wonder story a la Tolkein or C.S. Lewis, but based more on Daoism and Millenial Judiaism than modern Christianity.

I've been taking a "Philosophy of Religion" class this semester, which broke down relgions into three major types: Pagan (the Divine is part of the Universe), Pantheist (the Divine incorporates everything) and Bilblical (the Divine is seperate from the Universe.) You've probably run into something similar in your research, so I'll leave it at that

Anyway, I did a search for 'The Meaning of Life' awhile back, and came up with a very cool humanistic psych document that I will summarize here. Basically, they found several major views of what the meaning of life is:

Life is a test,
To enjoy or experience life.Enjoy the "moment," the "journey."
To love,help,or serve others.
To show or experience compassion.
Life is a mystery.
Life is meaningless.
To serve or worship God and/or prepare for the next (or after-)life.
Life is a struggle.
To contribute to something that is greater than ourselves.
To become self-actualized.To develop or "evolve " as a person or as
a species.To pursue truth(s),wisdom,or a higher level of being.
To create your own meaning .
Life is absurd or a joke .

I then assigned a race to each of these viewpoints.

I also learned last semester that the four major divisions of ethics are Kantian ethics (absolute, inviolate standards) Social Contract ethics (ethics arrived by rational group consent) Utalitarian ethics (ethics are what produces the greatest good for the greatest number) and Virtue ethics (ethics involves following and emulating specific virtues.)

I then assigned a society to each of these viewpoints. Paladins (who BTW, don't really resemble other fantasy paladins much) follow Kantian-style ethics, for example.

I'm still learning, so please feel free to correct me, people.

As for the Fifth Hour, it's still pretty rough, consisting of typed brainstorming notes. Still, I'll post what I have if you're interested.

BTW, I can't seem to download anything from your site.