Craving representation in the media we consume comes naturally as a member of a marginalized group, and seeing genuine Queer representation is always at the top of my list of wants. But, what about realizing more than just representation? What about a story where queerness isn’t just accepted, it’s normal? That’s the heart of what a queernormative world is, and it’s always been a central pillar of The Neskan Chronicles. Queerness is simply a part of the everyday fabric of society, as unremarkable as tall or short. It means characters can embody a variety of sexualities or genders without that identity being the source of their primary conflict. They get to have bigger, messier problems, like fighting tyrants, navigating betrayals, and trying to save the people they love.
Creating a queernormative setting for The Neskan Chronicles was a deliberate choice. As a queer author, I want to build futures where the battles my community faces today have, in many ways, been won. I want to tell stories where queer characters could be heroes, fall in love, and experience heartbreak and triumph and betrayal, without those experiences being solely defined by their identity. I want to create a space where queer readers could simply exist in a fantastical world, seeing themselves reflected without the constant weight of societal oppression. In The Neskan Chronicles, you’ll find this threaded into the very DNA of Neskan society.
The most powerful examples of this queernormative world, and true heart of the series, lie in two of the relationships that form the bedrock of Adan’s journey. At the story’s foundation is the profound, deep-rooted love between best friends Adan and Bo. They’re brothers in all but blood, growing up together and facing the worst the world can throw at them, side-by-side. In a truly queernormative world, there’s no room for the awkwardness or suspicion our own society sometimes places on deep, emotionally intimate friendships between two young men, especially if one of them is gay. Their bond is fierce, loyal, and completely unquestioned. It’s a love that transcends romance.
Adan and Garun’s love story builds on this foundation. In a queernormative world, their conflicts are never about the fact that they are two young men in love. Instead, they struggle with universal challenges like navigating past trauma, bridging a class divide, and learning to trust each other in a world built on lies. Their queerness is a normalized fact, allowing their story to be a deep exploration of love itself, not a struggle for its acceptance.
Normalizing queerness goes beyond representing relationships into representing genders. Neska is populated with a spectrum of identities, all treated as completely normal. No one’s gender is assumed, and Neskans incorporate their pronouns into their introduction. This allows non-binary characters like Kirsa, Mannix, and Nala, and trans characters like Davi and Lev, to exist without question or explanation. In their world, their gender identities are an integrated part of Neskan language and society, completely irrelevant to their roles in the story.
None of this is to say that Neskan societies exist without conflict. Like the real world, you’ll find intense classism, deep political friction, and competing ideologies. But you won’t find homophobia and transphobia. This isn’t just a random detail. It’s a deliberate choice I made in building this world. This means my queer characters can jump headfirst into the story’s central conflicts without their main battle being for their very right to exist. Adan’s fighting a dystopian tyrant, not fighting for the right to love Garun.
The trick to depicting a queernormative world is making queerness ubiquitous, unremarkable, and incidental to the main plot conflicts. The sexualities and gender identities of the different characters are authentic parts of who they are, but the story allows them to have more substantial problems like saving their friends, overthrowing a dictator, and figuring out their place in a chaotic world. It’s creating a world where queer characters get to have stories about more than being queer. They get to be the heroes of epic sci-fi adventures, too.