commentary

I'm writing the first brief short story that can be either incorporated into the book or can be used as a builder. I'm going to be writing a few of them and going to start e-publishing them to see If we can build a fan base, I'll post them here when they are finished of course but this thread is for me to write commentary of what I'm writing so I can tease the two of you about what's going on when you can't see it. You know cause I'm a bastard and all.

Man, Daegan, why you gotta be such a bastard.

sitherack you devious bastard foiling daegan before you ever stepped foot in the world, no wonder you two can't get along.

i'm watching you.... hahaha

dracolich DRACOLICHES hmmm

you ain't getting it out of me that easy mwuahahahaha

*cheerfully beats*

oh you cold hearted bastard. You.. how could you leave that there!

Though: killing last survivor. Pretty damn brutally. Well done, sir, well done.

Daegan does not fuck around.

That was good, GAVE ME CHILLS. ...fucking Sitherack.

so lets build out from it, How did we get there? Why is Las and Daegan at war? What happens next? Lets pull the dead world into it and tie it all together exclusively and then we will have a point with which to crank out some good plot stuff and whatnot

AIM! AIM!! AIIIIMMM!!!!!

Okay, here's what I've come up with and bounced off of Shannan thus far:

Daegan really doesn't have many fears or concerns for that matter outside of not maintaining the balance. With an abundance of Light - assuming it isn't all-encompassing - it just elongates Shadow. But with Darkness, the Shadow is completely consumed and therein lies his fear. Without the balance he will cease to be.

SO! With Lasius, Daegan and Sitherack being the Sages I think that if they were to cross over into the dead world they would keep their element and I say that to springboard into my next point.

Lasius and maybe one or two other people would be the only ones to know of his twin, Sitherack. Through some event - death itself, banishment, whatever - Sitherack ended up in the dead world seething with anger towards Lasius with the agenda to overthrow the Sage of Light and claim Sethia under the banner of Darkness. As he is 'always watching' he can easily monitor the comings and goings of Sethia THROUGH the Darkness since he would have maintained his element.

Through this, he watches Daegan and Lasius form their bonds and blah blah blah which would only make Sitherack that much more angry and vengeful. Cut to however many years later. A very powerful Life Sethi is killed and Sitherack jumps on the chance because he has been watching other 'lesser' Sethi die and have their elements switched.

With the now-Death Sethi, and the knowledge of Daegan's necromancer abilities, he can begin to chip away at Daegan's sanity by having the Death Sethi manipulate spirits and such to alert Daegan of the very real fact that soon Darkness will come. After this continues for however long, eventually Daegan would break down and perhaps even believe that Lasius has traded places with this other being. With that innate fear of Darkness overtaking everything - and in essence Daegan himself - he lashes out in a sort of last-ditch effort.

Cut to Sitherack discovering the Dracolith and his curiousity being peaked. He now knows there is a way to cross over and isn't stupid enough to test it himself. So, he has that chick do it and when he sees it is successful will begin to mount his own forces - complete with Dracoliths - to cross into the living world and perhaps that is the cataclysmic tear that starts the failing of the Elements themselves.

POW.

Well first off I'm really kinda stepping back and looking at the Sage thing. On one hand it's a powerful tool, it's the closest thing that the Sethi have to a religion, being creatures that have banished their gods from the world would be spiritual devastating to the race as a whole. The Sages replace some of that, but I have honestly considered doing away with the whole system. It has a lot of flaws, not the least of which is it perceptually unbalances the elements. See it gives an over riding importance to Light Darkness and Shadows, these elements are supposed to be a balanced force that created the world, if we start stressing the spiritual importance of certain ones then it's going to present problems. Moreover the whole Light vs Darkness thing it's so very over done in fantasy, Sure it sells and its the typical nomenclature but I feel we could do better. I haven't replaced it though mainly because I don't know what to replace it with. That is something we need to discuss as a whole.

Now since we are re starting the time-line here on the Sethian history, I have an alternative theory, which we can bounce around and toss out if it proves unfeasible. What if this war took place shortly after Lasius rose to power in Sethia? Think about it this way, we have always played Daegan as a much younger Sethi than Lasius but it doesn't HAVE to be that way, He could be second Gen too, and he could rule in Cyrida, what if after banishing the gods the Sethi fragmented and were no longer a unified race. Maybe Lasius seizes power in Sethia and because Daegan is Shadow and Lasius is Lightning the natural animosity of opposite elements causes initial distrust and resentment. Maybe each feels he is suited to rule the slowly uniting people and it erupts into a sort of civil war? That could get us to this point.

OR hey check this out, Daegan is a Shadow Sethi, he trains Shadow elites in Cyrida, legendary stealth warriors, kinda like assassins, some of the best in the world, but we got these other assassins, you know things that just appear out of nowhere and kill for the sake of taking souls to the world of the dead. Would it be so hard to believe that people would start to distrust Shadow Sethi? Thinking maybe they played some part in this? Possible cause for a conflict.

Sitherack is watching the sky because the dead dark sky is the barrier between the world of the living and the dead. He's been there so long he has adjusted to it and can watch the living world from the dead one. He is indeed gathering an army of dead Sethi and they will be raised to living in a bid for control of Terra Centillina however I haven't worked out how that's going to happen yet there's a lot to still figure out.


Hmmm yeah so we need to tackle it one problem at a time though, first things, any thought on the sages? Does anyone else feel its cliché? Or is that just me, does the system need a rework? Is it unbalanced or do you think it's fine as is?

phypmcSBell
That's a good point that it sort of unbalances everything
As, technically, there should then be a Sage for each element

which would get kinda out of control I mean I dont want to write for 14 characters with pivotal rolls in a book
25 mins ago

phypmcSBell
Exactly
Okay, so let's start here. The "starting point" more or less is after the Gods have been defeated, right?
23 mins ago

Well the starting point, chapter one is after they are banished and the barrier is erected, they still live but are locked out. that was the original start of the very first original RP so thats where the book is beginning
at least that was my intention anyway completely open to suggestion on this
20 mins ago

phypmcSBell
No, that's good, Shannan and I were just trying to get a grasp of where it was starting from - and I think that's a good point
Because then it creates a fresh slate and there aren't the daughters or the Arcs or any of that stuff
19 mins ago

I'm doing it that way to give the outside reader the chance to grow with the characters, also you know understand what has happened in their lives so they know later why they do things the way they dow

phypmcSBell
And, son of a bitch, the fact that Lasius and Daegan are opposing elements... I never fucking thought about that
Ugh
15 mins ago

thats part of why i introduced Aleynas hatred for darkness, I didnt elaborate on that but it's not a natural feeling I was thinking about the way Sethi were trained, it starts young, I was thinking maybe they were taught to hate the other elements, but to hate their opposing element above all else, that could be a reason Lasius is trying to unite them, so few lightning elements survive they may not have those prejudices, and maybe he thinks by unifying them he could overcome that hatred
13 mins ago

phypmcSBell
AND starting at this point, which will make it easier to imagine a full-scale war led by Daegan, because the bonds that were formed from all of the other conflicts aren't in place
So that's a good stepping stone forwards
10 mins ago

phypmcSBell
That also gives a better sort of backstory as to why and how Daegan took Cyrida as well, 'cause if I recall it was a pretty stupid reason back in the day
8 mins ago

phypmcSBell
Okay, so. Gods are banished, barriers are set up and everything is back to "normal". Rebuilding and all of that in peace time... which is no good for Sethi. Las is north, Daegan is south
7 mins ago

phypmcSBell
Now, what about the Arcs? Because Lasius usually had both Lightning and Light - and that might be a springboard for Daegan to begin to distrust Las, fearing that with that much Elemental power/control it could be a very real threat to Shadows
6 mins ago

Arcs are powerhouses, if we lead off the first book with them they will be commonplace to the reader, which is going to tie our hands really quick, think of the last RP board we had to keep building powerful tools like the rod of souls and managing energy and dimenional warping just to keep it interesting. lets not launch into that right away.

phypmcSBell
Hokay
3 mins ago

but i do have an idea about Daegan taking Cyrida. how about this? the Shadow temple is there, where they train the assassins, what if the leader of the temple, Daegan's mentor was assassinated, what if no one knew who did it or how, and the Daegan hears about this Lightning Sethi consolidating power in the north. taking the contested city of Sethia and setting up a new government and puts two and two together and then...
What if Lasius' father is assassinated, and all the clues point to a Shadow Sethi. He hears the news from Cyrida and assumes Daegan (having taken control) killed his mentor and Lasius' father with assassins to throw him off balance in a chance to seize power for himself
1 min ago

But all the while its this race, who unable to get enough sould through random killing decided to direct their killing more targetedly, at people who have power, casting suspicion and starting a war. a war that would kill many, and send many many souls to the world of the dead

phypmcSBell
Fucking brilliant

And why would the assassins suddenly change tactics and get organized... What if there was a DEVIOUS DARK SETHI IN THE UNDERWORLD WITH AN AGENDA EH?
fin' caps lock