I have my characters. I have my storylines. But what I don’t have are rules. Nullam is meant to be a sort of modern fantasy type of show but I’m having trouble coming up with the ‘rules’ of the Universe. I have the basics in place, stuff like how Nullam immortality works, vampire biology and stuff like that. The central idea I want the mythology of the show to be based around is ‘all myths are true’. Like Giles says in the first episode of Buffy, “Everything you feared was hiding under your bed but told yourself could never be by the light of day. They’re all real.”
The Universe I’m building in my head is huge. Massive, in fact. The Nullam protect the entire Universe. However, due to various reasons (most of them budgetary) they stay on Earth most of time. Basically, the central idea is that throughout the Universe there is a Breach that sometime lets through Those From The Other Side (think the Hellmouth or the Cardiff Rift). The Breach is a rip in the fabric of reality and remains closed most of the time. However, its at its weakest on Earth, specifically in Ireland. It’s a reason the Romans never invaded. They were scared.
The Nullam are a four-thousand year old secret society that guards the Breach and protects the Universe and the people in it. However, in 1943, most of them were wiped out in the final battle with the Darkmen (a group opposite of the Nullam, humans who want to usher in the Apocalypse, simply because it’s a certainty that it will come and they want to be on Satan’s good side when he gets here). So now, there’s only a handful left and even less on active duty. That’s the basic premise of the series, but there’s a lot more a play, really, including a space rebellion, an interplanetary war and a thousand-year love triangle that make up the backstory.
Ah, yes, the backstory. I’ve written most of the history of the Nullam, but for some reason I can’t bring myself to write the history of my main characters. I know the stories, but I just can’t get them straight in my head.
On a more cosmic scale, however, I know a lot more backstory. I know, for instance that, in the end, the Devil will win. It’s a fact of the Universe. Eventually, he will be overthrown by God, but by then, most of the Universe will be wiped out, so it won’t make a difference anyway. And this is where the Nullam/Darkman motto comes from. They share the same motto and it’s simply “The End can’t be stopped, only delayed.”
