I have maladaptive daydreams. In this work, I’ll be exploring one of the many worlds I created. I won’t be writing them as traditional stories, but more just as a retelling of facts. This isn’t the Story of Victor and Gloriana Graves, just the Lore.

And who are Victor and Gloriana Graves? I guess you could say they’re my children. Yes, I remember back when I first created them. I set out to create a fantasy version of myself to daydream about. I’m not the first person to do this, by any means, but I didn’t follow the traditional path. Most people who do this might envision themselves as an actor or a rockstar, some kind of celebrity. This was too small for me, though. I told myself I wanted to be a 21st century Genghis Khan, or Alexander the Great, or Caesar.

So that’s how I came up with Victor Graves or, at least, his predecessor. He’s had a number of name throughout the years I was doing this. Those lives he lived early on are prehistory, primordial. I wasn’t setting out to create fiction when I started, I was just entertaining myself in the same way I had been doing so since I was a kid. I’ve forgotten much, but there’s still enough to write about.  

So what do I mean by a modern day Genghis Khan? Someone who conquers the world? Not exactly. The world is starkly different now than it was during Khan’s time, so a modern day Genghis would be starkly different from the original.

Victor Graves was many things in his life, but he was never really a military man, unless you count the days when he was the commander in chief. He wasn’t a general, though. His conquests weren’t military affairs. So, what did he do? He started his life out by making a video game. Later, he got into the movie and music industry. Yes, he was a man of our own time. This is all happened during the 2010s. The world of Victor Graves is a ripoff of the real world. He did a lot of things during his life, even becoming president. This doesn’t sound very interesting, though, does it? We have billionaires and politicians in the real world already, so what makes Victor so special? Well, he was an Alexander the Great. It wasn’t just that he accomplished things, but he accomplished things in ways the world had never seen before.

He conquered Hollywood, the music industry; he created his own philosophy and political ideology and dogma. He became the de facto leader of the United States for much of the remainder of his life after stepping down as president. He turned the U.S. into a mosaic of different city states and expanded its borders. He even created a new culture, a new people. He distributed his own sperm and became the biggest reproducer in human history. He was also well liked (generally) by the people he was responsible for. He championed modern day virtues, as opposed to medieval ones. If that sounds like he’s a Mary Sue, that’s because I haven’t gone into the details of his life yet.

He had his controversies, his foibles, his dark side. I think if Victor were somehow real, he would be a figure that was a mixed bag. Did he create a utopia or a dystopia? He created something, to be sure; he left his mark on the world. He was a great man but great doesn’t necessarily mean good. Me? I like him. He’s got a lot of me in him, after all. I tried to create a human being, though, not a superhero. I wanted people to look at him and see a human being. If for nothing else then simply to keep up the suspension of disbelief. I like my fantasies realistic (for the most part. Truth is stranger than fiction, after all. And this is a strange story). He’s a very complicated man with a complicated history.

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He is a man, but he’s also a fantasy. Ideas are glorious things to have. They’re truly ideal forms. It’s the bringing ideas into reality where things get sloppy. The path to Hell is paved with good intentions, after all. I tried to keep that in mind while I was creating him. But just remember, that, at the end of the day, this is the lore of a male power fantasy, first and foremost. You might find yourself rolling your eyes at a few things.  

There are two versions of Victor Graves currently in my mind: a millennial and a gen-z. One born in 1990, one born in the year 2000. The one born in 2000 is what I’m currently working on so we’ll talk about him here.

He starts his life on January 1st, 2000, because why not? He displays a remarkable intelligence for his age early on. Maybe he learned to talk and read a year or two earlier than normal. He’s young when he discovers a book about Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan or Caesar and, after reading it, is forever permanently marked by it, being injected with a fire that burns in him to be like this great (great =/= good) man.

He develops a deep interest in history as a result. And it’s not that he doesn’t have other interests. He, like all children, has interests in play and art and everything else. Movies, video games, comics, et cetera. He was fascinated with the output of human culture, regardless of the form it took. History really captured him though.

His parents are best friends with another set of parents, the parents of one Gloriana, maiden name pending. She’s a black girl of Victor’s own age whom he grows up with and one day marries. They are completely inseparable from the time of their infancy to the time they are euthanized, always known as the pair: Victor and Gloriana Graves.

Victor and Gloriana grow up together and come to share the same interests. They are as similar to one another as one can realistically expect such a pair of children to be. Their marriage, when it happens, is a happy one, one without drama or strife. Remember, this is a male fantasy, after all. It’s only as realistic as it needs to be to suspend disbelief. Victor considered Gloriana to be his equal in every way. And even when Victor was held hostage by terrorists and unsure whether or not he’d live, he slept well knowing the Gloriana was still safe and would be able to take over for him. She was, in fact, the first female president of the United States, serving the two terms after Victor himself, although people would still say he was the de facto leader, even though he technically gave up his office after the two terms.

Victor and Gloriana spend their whole childhood plotting to become great (great =/= good). They develop a unique artistic movement, philosophy, political ideology, and even a dogma to allow people to escape the nihilism of the 21st century. They also love one another more than anything else in the world, she being just as smart and as capable as he is. Growing up together made either of them stronger than they would’ve been alone.  

That’s the basis for one of my maladaptive daydreams, Victor and Gloriana Graves. I’ve written around a thousand words, so I think I’ll cut this entry there. More to come.