Themes

Drive has a lot of recurring themes, many of which build a solid conceptual foundation, driving the worldbuilding.

Empires Fall

The very inception of Drive was a Sheldon comic strip, which was all about everyone expecting their empire lasting forever, when in reality history clearly shows one trend: empires fall.

As such, it is not surprising that this is repeated throughout the history of the Drive universe:

• The 3,000-year old Grasskan empire got entirely invaded by Vinn.
• Whatever culture unleashed the Vinn culture was once thriving, now the Vinn are looking for these "Missing Gods".
• The Sill had the most advanced civilisation ever. A para-religious event almost instantly stopped their political power.
• The Second Spanish Empire seems to be on the verge of collapse, and is losing territory over time.

Procreation shapes culture

• The human empire is shaped by La Familia's line of succession.
• The Continuum of Makers is an extreme example. They are able to multiply quickly and painlessly, with likely genetically indentical copies of themselves. Therefore, a pre-Maker ranks very low - instead, their inventions and creations ("Spirits") are "birthed".
• The Vinn are a polar opposite to the Continuum. They consume other species and render their hosts infertile, leaving death behind them as the hosts die. Infecting new potential hosts is a necessity for the species's survival. They call each other "child" and they look for their mysterious progenitors.
• Fillipod culture has evolved to be artistically complex, making it a factor of selective pressure. Finding a mate truly requires a poet's heart.
• Nyx are perhaps the weirdest species the Drive universe has to offer. Their 16 genders hints at the fact that they are tremendously difficult to understand.
• Veetans are raised appropriately to their relatively short livespan, which could contribute to their incredibly resilient optimism.
• Astina have offspring in large numbers. Their survival and, later on, recognition depends on fighting in fierce competition. Their comparatively ruthless nature is a prerequisite for successful natural selection.
• Tesskans are pack creatures, territorial and aggressive and their cubs are left to fend for themselves.
• Prahsitt do not unambiguously fit into this theme as their communal farming society compares to earlier human agricultural societies.
• Sill procreate rarely nowadays, as a result, it looks like the species is slowly dying out.
• What limited culture Trankin might or could have is severely limited due to their solitary. Due to too rare breeding events and decimated habitat, they too have become rare.

Propaganda

With the Second Spanish Empire's political system, propaganda is a very necessary tool for La Familia.

Propaganda Posters

Main article: Category:Propaganda Poster

Telepathy

Main article: Category:Telepathy

Telepathy is a well-established trope in (and outside of) science fiction. There are some known telepathical species in Drive:

• The Pilot Species seems to be born with this ability.
• So is the Glow Chicken in the guest story Rare Earths.
• The Sill have engineered telepathy to the point that every member has it.

Technology

Main article: Category:Technology

Being in the 25th century and interacting with extraterrestrial sapient species has a technological advantage over, say, living in the first half of the 21st century.

This future has holograms, of course, and more powerful versions of appliances that have existed earlier, such as cross-planet communication devices (the Familia cochlear implants, for example). But some new inventions defy our current understanding of physics, this is largely due to the influence of alien inventors, such as the Continuum of Makers or the Nyx.
Most notably, the driving technology and plot device in this comic is the Ring Drive

In-universe documents

Main article: Category:Extra Pages

Creating another layer of realism, these "found" in-story contemporary documents expand on plot elements, vastly enriching the story with details. These pages range from letters to poetry, scanned book pages, broshures, leaked information, maps, organigrams and blueprints. The most prominent parts are the Enciclopedia Xenobiológica, which explain species.

It is currently unknown how the documents (or the story as a whole, for that matter) is delivered to the reader.