It is said that on ancient Terra, we once offered maidens to the dragons to keep them pacified; that they would capture our princesses, and we would send our knights to slay them.
And now, countless light-years from our homeworld, we offer our princesses up to the dragon-knights; to empower our first – and last – line of defense, against the horrors that spill from the dark places of the cosmos.
We have no royalty in this era. Thus, we must instead accept the sacrifice of those who wish to serve; to give up their former lives and wear the crown of doom, to become one of the countless lights in the night sky.
A princess is beautiful; a princess is loved; a princess’s life has unmistakable purpose to it. Yet to become a princess is to accept one’s death, and more, to know it will come far sooner than it would have.
This is known to all; and still, we are never short of princesses. For us, love is the most potent drug of all.
Far in humanity’s distant future, past the specter of war and disharmony and all the other ills of the present day, lies a new crisis; this one not within our society, but from without. The sinister enemy of all life, the great corruptor; the networked hive-mind known to us only as [AMIE]. If we stood alone against Her, we would have fallen long ago.
Yet from the depths of space came not only an enemy, but an ally as well; the dragons, a space-faring species of draconic beasts with seemingly endless lifespans and matchless intelligence – and wisdom deeper than our oceans of ages past. In them we saw our saviors, and our only friends in a vast and hostile void; in us they saw… some spark, perhaps, that would ignite the dormant flame within their hearts.
And so our union was forged, with one dragon and one woman; the First Knight and the First Princess. And from that time we have ever been by their side, and they by ours; the unbreakable bond strengthening us both against the merciless onslaught of the enemy who would see us all reduced to nothingness.
The Princess Delivery System is a story framework, a continuity of sorts for writing related stories. As many of my ideas do, it originally came from a conversation with a dear friend. It evolved into its present form over time, after much thought and a few dreams on the subject. Apart from the flavorful lore written above, the idea is fairly simple – and hopefully as a result, flexible.
Volunteers from the reasonably pleasant human society, albeit one that exists under the shadow of galactic war, travel to the princess factories to get their bodies reshaped into the Standard Princess Template. (Any volunteer is accepted in any shape or form; the factories are advanced enough to compensate.) At the end of this process, each princess is sealed in a little capsule and delivered to any one of the Princess Delivery Systems, which are found at various points in space depending on their serviced dragon-knight.
While in the PDS, the princess undergoes their mental training through a virtualized environment; this is also where the Template Body receives its final adjustments in accordance with the dragon-knight’s needs and preferences. Once the previously-numbered princess ceases functioning, the new princess’s memories will be updated with the most recent version of events, usually but not always a final pre- or post-mortem transmission. Once her mind is properly prepared, she will be launched in a drop pod or activated in place, or other means of egress as appropriate. The princess will then begin serving her knight until the end of her life, while the next capsule-bound princess continues preparations to be her replacement.
The entire process is largely transparent, though some of its specific details cannot be easily related and must simply be experienced to be understood; which is to say, those who become princesses do so voluntarily, though in some respects they can never be fully prepared for the journey.
The important additional points of the setting result from asking ‘what is a princess?’ and expanding upon the answers.
A PRINCESS IS BEAUTIFUL – Beauty comes in many forms, and each knight has her own concept of it. But no matter what, the form a full-fledged princess takes – when she exits her capsule for the final time, wearing her crown – is indeed beautiful to the one she serves.
A PRINCESS IS LOVED – If not for this love, there would be no factories, no Delivery Systems, no princesses at all. Princesses exist because they are loved; desired, wanted, needed. This too takes many forms, depending on the knight; but that love is everything to the princess.
A PRINCESS HAS PURPOSE – The dragon-knights are powerful, but they are incomplete in some sense. Each one is uplifted by her princess; there is something she does better, is better, because of her. That gain is enough to more than balance any difficulty the princess’s presence presents – as it may, at times.
A PRINCESS IS DOOMED – The enemy is not mindless, nor is She unaware of the bond between knight and princess, and how it strengthens both. Unprotected, a princess is easy prey for the hive-mind’s servants; and even behind the stalwart defense of a knight, she is ever the enemy’s primary target. She may survive for a time, especially if her knight is uncommonly devoted to her safety; but knights will always outlive their princesses, and this is perhaps the greatest tragedy of their union.
Have you any thoughts or ideas, of lady dragon-knights and their princesses? As long as the rules set forth above are not violated, all else is free to be determined. It matters not whether the princess lives in a tower upon the land or in the deep sea, or pilots a steel chariot of the void for her knight to ride upon. So long as the princess is beautiful and loved; so long as her life has purpose, yet is ultimately doomed to be cut short – she belongs here, and so too does her story.
diamonds from ash 
Leave only comments, not bad vibes