No World a Day today, I'm wiped out (though all self-inflicted) and can at best putter at things. What I was able to get, though, was pretty interesting: history.
I think all my old posts got deleted, but I found my old forum account from a Warhammer 40k forum, back in 2003/2004.
It's a pretty perfect time capsule -- avatar is Largo from Megatokyo, the signature references Evangelion and El Goonish Shive, and the text reveals both a little lack of social graces and a ton of enthusiasm.
Found an account on another forum that actually had the posts still intact. I used way more exclamation marks and emoticons, and I can see a weird mix of certainty and tentativeness (over-politeness?) in what I posted, but I can hear my voice under that.
What a trip, there are times I love living in the digital era. I'd forgotten how many Friday evenings I ended up spending breaking up arguments on that board. 720 posts, eh? I believe it, wish I could access the messages.
Sep 25, 2017
World a Day, #7
Only a partial update today, not a full episode – I’m
hitting writer’s block trying to come up with the full plot for this episode,
and I’ll need to figure it out. For now, hope you like Faith and St. Mary’s, I
like that bit of worldbuilding.
I spent some of today talking with friends about the
game-side of the world and episode generators. These work great as writing
prompts, but turning them into a game or systematized collaborative
storytelling, that’s harder. I’ll probably be throwing some effort at the world
builder especially, aimed at optimizing it for tabletop players building the
world they’ll play in. The episode builder will likely be optimized for
tabletop players to build out those “first few adventures” that happened
offscreen, so you aren’t just starting a campaign the first time your
characters meet.
That said – I’m open to feedback on this stuff. If you think
there’s a use case that matches something different, let me know, I’m
interested to know! As always, the world builder is here, and the episode
builder is here.
--
New NPC: Faith. Faith is genderqueer and presents as
androgynous. When episode 3 begins, Addison is part of Faith’s crew. Faith hangs
out at the Sky’s Eye and they noticed the kinds of stuff that Savanna gets
into, eventually tailing her and seeing one of the elementals in action. They
were entranced, eventually deciding that if something like that existed, they needed
to get their hands on it – to control it, to experience it, to serve it,
whatever. What matters to them is that here’s this thing that’s edge as hell,
and if they’ve tumbled this far, they want to go deep on it.
To that end, they’re gathering like-minded folks to
hyper-analyze everything they have on the elementals and the Chasers. It’s not
a lot of info, but then again, the Chasers aren’t really hiding their battles –
it’s just that coincidentally no one’s outside when they happen, so no one
learns about them. (Yes, this is a trope with no logical explanation.) Faith’s
group is pinning grainy security-cam footage on the walls, they’re tracing
known battle locations, obsessives run amok in Saint Mary's Server Farm and
Congregarium. They got their hands on fragments of the activity logs from a few
computers infected by Garrison’s calculation, not enough to run it themselves,
but enough to understand there’s a heavy-duty calculation going on that’s tied
to the elementals. Faith’s brash enough to think that they can just reverse-engineer
parts of the calculation and just see what happens.
When this episode begins, Addison is part of Faith’s group,
trying to figure out what happened to Plasma. Plasma had been a handle, Addison
had only known her through local forums; whoever Plasma was, Addison had looked
up to her, despite Plasma being domineering and pushy. Plasma had been talking
about some esoteric computations she’d heard about, something that might really
push the limits of the possible. She’d gone silent shortly thereafter, and when
Addison heard that Faith was looking into some kind of supernatural
calculation, she joined the group as muscle, as some defense in case they were
attacked. Addison’s a bulky and tall person, and unlike the rest of the main
characters, her fashion isn’t cyberpunk – she’s got a simple zipper jacket
without emphasized lapels, with the collar half-popped. I’m using Angel from
Deadpool as the visual cue, albeit with more of a gentle-giant demeanor than
the smirking-badass that Angel is. Addison is with Faith because she’s looking
to learn more, but she also knows it’s dangerous going from a pushy
relationship with Plasma to following a hothead like Faith.
Episode 3 opens with a shot of Faith in St. Mary’s, giving
a speech to the fellow hackers in there. This is their chance to stop being
sheep and really matter. Grab data, fit it on the wall and draw conclusions,
interrupt yourself for a conversation with your neighbor, fall in love and
screw and fall out, because this is our summer vacation and anything’s possible.
Let the y’allpacas move like glass, we’re living like lightning. Addison is in
the background, out of place but not uncomfortable, just a bit distant. When
the hackers break into working groups, she sits by the door, keeping an eye
outside and on security cam footage.
Faith comes over and wants to talk, convince Addison to get
more emotionally invested in this project. They talk about the elementals, and
Plasma’s disappearing act comes up, and we realize that Faith doesn’t just want
to know about the elementals, they want to be as involved with this as they can
be, without really thinking about the consequences. If they could run the
calculation just to see what would happen, they probably would, confident that
they could handle anything that went wrong. (Not malicious, just
tech-libertarian.) Addison is guarded, mind clearly not made up, and when the
session ends, she grabs her backpack and heads out.
Sep 23, 2017
World a Day, #6
I'm continuing the Chasers series I'd outlined before and did an episode of -- I was initially thinking I'd blitz through a bunch of episodes, but it wound up being almost as hefty as the first episode. So, here's episode two of Chasers!
After working out the rough draft of the episode generator, I played around with the dice-rolling, figuring out what difficulty thresholds would give the results I was looking for. I ended up settling on 2d6 + stat + identity, with a threshold of 6-9 for a partial success and 10+ for full success, drawing some inspiration from the Powered by the Apocalypse engine. To make each episode tie up a bit better, I gave a +1 bonus to the rolls for the second conflict in each episode. All told, the first conflict has a 83% chance of partial success or better, and the second 90%. I’m a bit on the fence about this – partial successes have the most storytelling potential when played out, but viewed from a distance, it’s less interesting than a hard failure or success.
As always, the series-generator is here, and the episode-generator (rough draft) is here.
--
Episode 2:
Gauge follows Savanna to a penthouse bar she frequents, the Sky’s Eye, with the city laid out below, the lights softened and diffused by the rain. Gauge wants to talk about what the elemental said at the end of the last episode. Savanna’s uncomfortable, we get the sense she comes here to be alone and brood over the city, and she doesn’t handle Gauge’s fears well, awkwardly telling Gauge that she should be having fun, she’s pretty, there are plenty of people she could be socializing with instead of Savanna.
Hurt, Gauge makes an excuse to leave the bar. She isn’t petulant about it and she tries to hide it, but she clearly feels like Savanna just dismissed her and doesn’t want to be friends.
Savanna sits at the table for a minute with her drink, thinking about the interaction, before slamming her drink on the table and cursing herself out for how she handled that, how she handles anyone who tries to get close to her. She storms to the window and plants one hand palm-out on it, knocking back her drink with the other, then shrinks the distance to the city below – not actually traveling, but reducing the perceived distance between them, so the sounds of traffic and the smells and heat of people walking the street are as intense as if they were only a few feet away, instead of hundreds of feet below and socially distant.
Gauge doesn’t go back to the Gold Star Cuisine right away, she walks through the city; we get a shot of various buildings she’s passing, with a passing shot of the playground from the last episode, definitely in a different location than before.
Gauge suddenly notices the presence of elementals – they’ve apparently got a talent for sneaking up on the Chasers. A chase scene ensues, and she manages to get a phone call off to their crisis line; Savanna picks up. Savanna guides Gauge up stairs and onto rooftops, because if she can visually find Gauge, she can warp to her. Gauge does eventually get onto a rooftop that Savanna can see, but there’s a whole bunch of elementals there, and there aren’t any rooftops within jumping distance. Gauge starts to panic, but Savanna tells her to jump to one of the distant rooftops. I can’t make it, she yells through the comms, it’s too far! Do you trust me? It’s thirty feet, Savanna, I can’t – Just trust me!, Savanna yells as she starts to run through the bar’s outdoor seating. Gauge turns and starts to run, jumping just before the elementals can grab her –
Savanna tesseracts in behind Gauge, her own momentum added to Gauge’s jump, and she tesseracts the distance between them and the far roof. The elementals at the other roof aren’t able to catch up in time, only a few stragglers are in their way as they exit the building, and they get a cool fight sequence. We get shown that Gauge isn't incompetent and she isn't a shrinking violet, she just needs to feel confident in her friendships. When they're fighting back to back, Gauge and Savanna are both badass.
Savanna and Gauge make up. Savanna says that she’s not good at being social, especially since she lost her memory, and she won’t always be able to express how she feels, but she values the other Chasers, they’re her friends. Gauge promises to keep that in account, but she’s going to hold Savanna to that promise to try to be a better friend.
After working out the rough draft of the episode generator, I played around with the dice-rolling, figuring out what difficulty thresholds would give the results I was looking for. I ended up settling on 2d6 + stat + identity, with a threshold of 6-9 for a partial success and 10+ for full success, drawing some inspiration from the Powered by the Apocalypse engine. To make each episode tie up a bit better, I gave a +1 bonus to the rolls for the second conflict in each episode. All told, the first conflict has a 83% chance of partial success or better, and the second 90%. I’m a bit on the fence about this – partial successes have the most storytelling potential when played out, but viewed from a distance, it’s less interesting than a hard failure or success.
As always, the series-generator is here, and the episode-generator (rough draft) is here.
--
Episode 2:
Gauge follows Savanna to a penthouse bar she frequents, the Sky’s Eye, with the city laid out below, the lights softened and diffused by the rain. Gauge wants to talk about what the elemental said at the end of the last episode. Savanna’s uncomfortable, we get the sense she comes here to be alone and brood over the city, and she doesn’t handle Gauge’s fears well, awkwardly telling Gauge that she should be having fun, she’s pretty, there are plenty of people she could be socializing with instead of Savanna.
Hurt, Gauge makes an excuse to leave the bar. She isn’t petulant about it and she tries to hide it, but she clearly feels like Savanna just dismissed her and doesn’t want to be friends.
Savanna sits at the table for a minute with her drink, thinking about the interaction, before slamming her drink on the table and cursing herself out for how she handled that, how she handles anyone who tries to get close to her. She storms to the window and plants one hand palm-out on it, knocking back her drink with the other, then shrinks the distance to the city below – not actually traveling, but reducing the perceived distance between them, so the sounds of traffic and the smells and heat of people walking the street are as intense as if they were only a few feet away, instead of hundreds of feet below and socially distant.
Gauge doesn’t go back to the Gold Star Cuisine right away, she walks through the city; we get a shot of various buildings she’s passing, with a passing shot of the playground from the last episode, definitely in a different location than before.
Gauge suddenly notices the presence of elementals – they’ve apparently got a talent for sneaking up on the Chasers. A chase scene ensues, and she manages to get a phone call off to their crisis line; Savanna picks up. Savanna guides Gauge up stairs and onto rooftops, because if she can visually find Gauge, she can warp to her. Gauge does eventually get onto a rooftop that Savanna can see, but there’s a whole bunch of elementals there, and there aren’t any rooftops within jumping distance. Gauge starts to panic, but Savanna tells her to jump to one of the distant rooftops. I can’t make it, she yells through the comms, it’s too far! Do you trust me? It’s thirty feet, Savanna, I can’t – Just trust me!, Savanna yells as she starts to run through the bar’s outdoor seating. Gauge turns and starts to run, jumping just before the elementals can grab her –
Savanna tesseracts in behind Gauge, her own momentum added to Gauge’s jump, and she tesseracts the distance between them and the far roof. The elementals at the other roof aren’t able to catch up in time, only a few stragglers are in their way as they exit the building, and they get a cool fight sequence. We get shown that Gauge isn't incompetent and she isn't a shrinking violet, she just needs to feel confident in her friendships. When they're fighting back to back, Gauge and Savanna are both badass.
Savanna and Gauge make up. Savanna says that she’s not good at being social, especially since she lost her memory, and she won’t always be able to express how she feels, but she values the other Chasers, they’re her friends. Gauge promises to keep that in account, but she’s going to hold Savanna to that promise to try to be a better friend.
World a Day, #5
Something a bit different this time! I really enjoyed the Chasers' world yesterday, so I decided to expand on it instead of making a new world. I whipped up a stripped-down version of the episode randomizer I'd been planning, plugged in the info from yesterday's world, and started writing based on the results.
If you want to check out the episode randomizer, it's here. It's not user-friendly yet, and the names for various elements can't be edited yet, but if I decide to polish this version of the tool instead of completely changing it up, that'll be included. (The series generator, which is more polished, is here.)
Oh -- I wrote too much about the first episode and spent too long making the tool, so it's just a description of the first episode. I like the details, though.
--
Episode 1:
The Chasers track the dataflow of elementals to a quiet, calm part of town, a residential area that’s busy during the day, but serenely empty tonight.
As they’re trying to pinpoint the exact center building hosting whatever’s calculating the elementals into existence, Savanna suddenly has to duck and roll backwards, barely evading an elemental’s surprise attack. The other Chasers aren’t used to combat, and we see them stumbling over themselves as they try to turn book learning into practice.
Savanna reaches out, and space tesseracts between her and a monkey bar at the nearby jungle gym until she’s hanging with one hand from the bar. Her other hand crackles with a cloud of zeroes and ones, the same glitch pattern as has formed around the elemental. She stares at it, hanging from the bar with one hand, grinning as the data blast in her hand shifts through colors to a phosphorous white, then clenches her fist and snaps that aura and it spreads across her body. She grabs the monkey bar with both hands and starts swinging, and on the third swing, she launches herself with knees out to slam into the elemental, at the same time as tesseracting space towards it, so she suddenly snaps into hand-to-hand distance. We get a cool fight sequence of them fighting around the jungle gym.
When the fight’s finished, the Chasers identify the exact computers that created the botnet, though they aren’t running anymore. Thread’s able to piece the calculation together, though, and he can get a basic connection running to whatever source the calculation channels elementals from. He gets it running, and Savanna combines the logical channel with her own ability to distort spatial relationships, bringing her into a virtual space. She’s half-rendered, clipping through a wall as she sees the man we’ll come to know as Garrison, walking away from her through a pulsing red field of stalactites and stalagmites that seem to claw at him without moving, none of them finding grip. Savanna’s running the graphical calculations in her head that keep her rendered in this space, buying her the time to see him lower himself to his knees, running his hand across the ground, and seeing it pull together into curves like a giant hand starting to clench – and in the last agonized second before her calculations aren’t enough to keep her in this space, she sees his face, Garrison, the summoner of the elementals.
When she unplugs back to physical space, the rest of the Chasers have traced another elemental burst, a few miles away. They scramble there, not noticing the van parked near their destination, only noticing the giant elemental towering over the city.
Fight scene ensues. After a few halfhearted attempts from the rest of the Chasers, Savanna makes a speech about what they’re up against – this thing’s going to kill people. It’s already destroyed one building, and Savanna calls on Thread to count exactly how many people died in that attack. It’s a sobering number, and he jumps to a better vantage point, and starts calling out opportunities and dangers – basically serving as an AWACS. With that help, the team rallies and defeats the elemental. After that Savanna distorts its size down, and as it shrinks, tries to interrogate it, asking what the elementals are here for, what they fear, who they’re following. She gets no answer that she can understand -- “Nothing but pain, nothing but pleasure, and no one at all.” She’s left with a mystery as it vanishes from reality.
If you want to check out the episode randomizer, it's here. It's not user-friendly yet, and the names for various elements can't be edited yet, but if I decide to polish this version of the tool instead of completely changing it up, that'll be included. (The series generator, which is more polished, is here.)
Oh -- I wrote too much about the first episode and spent too long making the tool, so it's just a description of the first episode. I like the details, though.
--
Episode 1:
The Chasers track the dataflow of elementals to a quiet, calm part of town, a residential area that’s busy during the day, but serenely empty tonight.
As they’re trying to pinpoint the exact center building hosting whatever’s calculating the elementals into existence, Savanna suddenly has to duck and roll backwards, barely evading an elemental’s surprise attack. The other Chasers aren’t used to combat, and we see them stumbling over themselves as they try to turn book learning into practice.
Savanna reaches out, and space tesseracts between her and a monkey bar at the nearby jungle gym until she’s hanging with one hand from the bar. Her other hand crackles with a cloud of zeroes and ones, the same glitch pattern as has formed around the elemental. She stares at it, hanging from the bar with one hand, grinning as the data blast in her hand shifts through colors to a phosphorous white, then clenches her fist and snaps that aura and it spreads across her body. She grabs the monkey bar with both hands and starts swinging, and on the third swing, she launches herself with knees out to slam into the elemental, at the same time as tesseracting space towards it, so she suddenly snaps into hand-to-hand distance. We get a cool fight sequence of them fighting around the jungle gym.
When the fight’s finished, the Chasers identify the exact computers that created the botnet, though they aren’t running anymore. Thread’s able to piece the calculation together, though, and he can get a basic connection running to whatever source the calculation channels elementals from. He gets it running, and Savanna combines the logical channel with her own ability to distort spatial relationships, bringing her into a virtual space. She’s half-rendered, clipping through a wall as she sees the man we’ll come to know as Garrison, walking away from her through a pulsing red field of stalactites and stalagmites that seem to claw at him without moving, none of them finding grip. Savanna’s running the graphical calculations in her head that keep her rendered in this space, buying her the time to see him lower himself to his knees, running his hand across the ground, and seeing it pull together into curves like a giant hand starting to clench – and in the last agonized second before her calculations aren’t enough to keep her in this space, she sees his face, Garrison, the summoner of the elementals.
When she unplugs back to physical space, the rest of the Chasers have traced another elemental burst, a few miles away. They scramble there, not noticing the van parked near their destination, only noticing the giant elemental towering over the city.
Fight scene ensues. After a few halfhearted attempts from the rest of the Chasers, Savanna makes a speech about what they’re up against – this thing’s going to kill people. It’s already destroyed one building, and Savanna calls on Thread to count exactly how many people died in that attack. It’s a sobering number, and he jumps to a better vantage point, and starts calling out opportunities and dangers – basically serving as an AWACS. With that help, the team rallies and defeats the elemental. After that Savanna distorts its size down, and as it shrinks, tries to interrogate it, asking what the elementals are here for, what they fear, who they’re following. She gets no answer that she can understand -- “Nothing but pain, nothing but pleasure, and no one at all.” She’s left with a mystery as it vanishes from reality.
Sep 22, 2017
A World a Day, #4
I wound up taking yesterday off from this project – I’d been poking at the generator and the rules for playing out episodes, and by the time I felt ready to work on it, it was already 2am. (Here's the link to the tool, check it out.)
I spent today poking at additional traits, adding in some flavor elements that helped evoke a mode. I specifically went genre-agnostic, with traits like “Indie tunes soundtrack,” “Disney/Pixar influences,” and “Neon color palette.”
Speaking of which, those were the ones I rolled for this week, and with a prompt like that, I absolutely had to talk about the soundtrack. There’s most of a page of soundtrack notes for this, and if you know the songs, they really help bring out the tone I’m imagining. (I started with them, in fact.) If not, good news, I have a playlist for you.
Note: This world owes something to the setting of the Laundry novels, specifically the idea of math/computing as magic. Highly recommended.
--
Antagonist faction: Magical beings summoned incomplete by rogue botnets. By computing a summoning algorithm, a computer (or a sufficiently-smart human) could open a summoning instance and populate it with elemental forces. Whether maliciously or accidentally, though, a botnet has begun doing so with slight alterations to the formula and spotty network connections, resulting in corrupted entities. They arrive in the world determined to suborn networks and turn them into more bot nets to summon more of their kind. As the series goes on, it’s revealed that they aren’t just thoughtless elementals, they have a near-religious view of the agony that the data corruption causes them, and the firm belief that humans should be taking full advantage of the learning potential of advanced technology.
The elementals of the botnet are being led by Garrison, a logical caster who came to the formula while trying to summon data of a different sort – his own lost memories. After creating the calculation, he made a simplified version of it, one that could be run constantly on a lower-powered device, which he stored on his heavily-modified cell phone. In his phone, it manifests as a companion entity, an advisor and friend. Because of both power drain and the fact that all the entities summoned by the calculation are unstable, though, the device has to dispel and refresh the entity every ten hours. The idea of losing the companion entity terrifies Garrison, and he’s named it May. While the elementals fight in a bestial style, Garrison himself is a true mage, manipulating the physical computations of the universe into alterations – sprays of color and numbers that blast at enemies, or cause walls to crumple in on themselves, or raise and throw trucks.
Savanna is also an amnesiac, finding herself on the streets of Neo-Prague with only a wallet and a skill for logical casting. Later in the series, she’ll learn that the time of her and Thread’s awakening exactly corresponds to when Garrison first turned on his botnet, which brings up the question of whether Garrison was wiped by someone else’s botnet in turn. Savanna’s specialty is the manipulation of size and distance, shrinking herself or the distance between her and her enemies; her castings are visualized as social distortions, fish-eye effects as she bends space to close distance. She’s earned a nasty scar along her forehead from earlier battles with Garrison, a feature she accentuates with eyebrow and cheekbone piercings. For all that she’s the battle-tested leader of the Chasers, she and Thread both share a distaste for actually killing anyone: They mostly face off against the elemental beasts of the botnet, which can be dispelled without (they assume) any moral qualms. If they actually get their hands on Garrison, will they kill him, or can they control him without death? And what will they do if they face other human enemies?
Thread is the other first-among-equals of the Chasers. He’s an amnesiac like Savanna – they’ll eventually compare notes and realize the timing is the exact same – but he’s driven to hunt Garrison by one of the few memories that remained, a few frames strung together of Garrison casting a blast at someone just half-in Thread’s peripheral vision, with Thread unable to get in the way in time. Thread’s nightmares are haunted by the half-image he has from his peripheral vision, just a rough sense of a few features. He’s determined to figure out who they were, and why he feels so guilty for seeing them fall. Thread’s specialty is research magic, rather than combat magic; he’s capable of pulling the data of past experiences from his surroundings, with high-energy features like neon signs an especially observant source of information. When he does need to fight, though, he’s capable of temporarily channeling some of the data that makes up one of the elementals, taking on the claws and reflexes of their form.
The Chasers are based out of an old Thai restaurant, abandoned a few years ago and run-down. The Chasers gave it a layer of red paint and polished all the imitation gold, so even though it’s still a bit rough, the Gold Star Cuisine is now a soft glow in the rainy streets of Neo-Prague. They keep their major computational power in what used to be the kitchen, while the former dining area is makeshift-separated into rooms by hanging curtains. Anyone walking by would stop for a second, the golden glow out of the windows standing out against the dark blue of the rain and the neon purple and green of other signs.
Garrison is based out of a van, though, allowing him to deploy to wherever there’s a vulnerable network. He’s made it feel like home by modding his computers and installing a surprisingly good bed. When he’s confident that no one’s actively looking for him, he slides the van’s paneling back from its moonroof, watching the rain drops drum softly on the glass. If he’s parked in a quiet area, he can fall asleep to the sound of raccoons and other animals rustling outside. He does have to change the plates every few weeks, though; a carpet inside covers the bloodstain from the previous owner.
--
Soundtrack: Electronic-infused, indie-ish bands. Usually a pretty wide soundscape, lots of instrumentation at once.
Battle sequences: Heavy, slow, pounding electronica, playing over neon-bright sprays of magical power. When it’s showing a character casting a spell, the animation gets sketchy and drops to a few frames per second (almost like the drawings in the “Take On Me” video), so that it looks increasingly not-quite-real.
Loud backdrop to emotional-resolution moments: Like if the two characters we’ve always shipped finally admitted they liked each other and now they’re quietly getting coffee together, or running through the city for the sheer joy of it, or the opening and closing credits sequence. Regardless of how intense things are on screen, the soundtrack to these moments is big, joyous, the instruments may only be somewhat electronic but they swagger. There’s not as much emphasis on the heaviness; it may still happen, but the emphasis is on the higher ranges, on unrestrained joy, although the tempo isn’t that much faster.
I spent today poking at additional traits, adding in some flavor elements that helped evoke a mode. I specifically went genre-agnostic, with traits like “Indie tunes soundtrack,” “Disney/Pixar influences,” and “Neon color palette.”
Speaking of which, those were the ones I rolled for this week, and with a prompt like that, I absolutely had to talk about the soundtrack. There’s most of a page of soundtrack notes for this, and if you know the songs, they really help bring out the tone I’m imagining. (I started with them, in fact.) If not, good news, I have a playlist for you.
Note: This world owes something to the setting of the Laundry novels, specifically the idea of math/computing as magic. Highly recommended.
--
Antagonist faction: Magical beings summoned incomplete by rogue botnets. By computing a summoning algorithm, a computer (or a sufficiently-smart human) could open a summoning instance and populate it with elemental forces. Whether maliciously or accidentally, though, a botnet has begun doing so with slight alterations to the formula and spotty network connections, resulting in corrupted entities. They arrive in the world determined to suborn networks and turn them into more bot nets to summon more of their kind. As the series goes on, it’s revealed that they aren’t just thoughtless elementals, they have a near-religious view of the agony that the data corruption causes them, and the firm belief that humans should be taking full advantage of the learning potential of advanced technology.
The elementals of the botnet are being led by Garrison, a logical caster who came to the formula while trying to summon data of a different sort – his own lost memories. After creating the calculation, he made a simplified version of it, one that could be run constantly on a lower-powered device, which he stored on his heavily-modified cell phone. In his phone, it manifests as a companion entity, an advisor and friend. Because of both power drain and the fact that all the entities summoned by the calculation are unstable, though, the device has to dispel and refresh the entity every ten hours. The idea of losing the companion entity terrifies Garrison, and he’s named it May. While the elementals fight in a bestial style, Garrison himself is a true mage, manipulating the physical computations of the universe into alterations – sprays of color and numbers that blast at enemies, or cause walls to crumple in on themselves, or raise and throw trucks.
Savanna is also an amnesiac, finding herself on the streets of Neo-Prague with only a wallet and a skill for logical casting. Later in the series, she’ll learn that the time of her and Thread’s awakening exactly corresponds to when Garrison first turned on his botnet, which brings up the question of whether Garrison was wiped by someone else’s botnet in turn. Savanna’s specialty is the manipulation of size and distance, shrinking herself or the distance between her and her enemies; her castings are visualized as social distortions, fish-eye effects as she bends space to close distance. She’s earned a nasty scar along her forehead from earlier battles with Garrison, a feature she accentuates with eyebrow and cheekbone piercings. For all that she’s the battle-tested leader of the Chasers, she and Thread both share a distaste for actually killing anyone: They mostly face off against the elemental beasts of the botnet, which can be dispelled without (they assume) any moral qualms. If they actually get their hands on Garrison, will they kill him, or can they control him without death? And what will they do if they face other human enemies?
Thread is the other first-among-equals of the Chasers. He’s an amnesiac like Savanna – they’ll eventually compare notes and realize the timing is the exact same – but he’s driven to hunt Garrison by one of the few memories that remained, a few frames strung together of Garrison casting a blast at someone just half-in Thread’s peripheral vision, with Thread unable to get in the way in time. Thread’s nightmares are haunted by the half-image he has from his peripheral vision, just a rough sense of a few features. He’s determined to figure out who they were, and why he feels so guilty for seeing them fall. Thread’s specialty is research magic, rather than combat magic; he’s capable of pulling the data of past experiences from his surroundings, with high-energy features like neon signs an especially observant source of information. When he does need to fight, though, he’s capable of temporarily channeling some of the data that makes up one of the elementals, taking on the claws and reflexes of their form.
The Chasers are based out of an old Thai restaurant, abandoned a few years ago and run-down. The Chasers gave it a layer of red paint and polished all the imitation gold, so even though it’s still a bit rough, the Gold Star Cuisine is now a soft glow in the rainy streets of Neo-Prague. They keep their major computational power in what used to be the kitchen, while the former dining area is makeshift-separated into rooms by hanging curtains. Anyone walking by would stop for a second, the golden glow out of the windows standing out against the dark blue of the rain and the neon purple and green of other signs.
Garrison is based out of a van, though, allowing him to deploy to wherever there’s a vulnerable network. He’s made it feel like home by modding his computers and installing a surprisingly good bed. When he’s confident that no one’s actively looking for him, he slides the van’s paneling back from its moonroof, watching the rain drops drum softly on the glass. If he’s parked in a quiet area, he can fall asleep to the sound of raccoons and other animals rustling outside. He does have to change the plates every few weeks, though; a carpet inside covers the bloodstain from the previous owner.
--
Soundtrack: Electronic-infused, indie-ish bands. Usually a pretty wide soundscape, lots of instrumentation at once.
Battle sequences: Heavy, slow, pounding electronica, playing over neon-bright sprays of magical power. When it’s showing a character casting a spell, the animation gets sketchy and drops to a few frames per second (almost like the drawings in the “Take On Me” video), so that it looks increasingly not-quite-real.
- Parts of “Rocksteady,” by The Bloody Beatroots.
- “Lessons In Love,” by Kaskade and Neon Trees (from Fire & Ice).
- “Winter Born (This Sacrifice),” by The Crüxshadows.
- “Phoenix Down (Zardonix Remix)” by The Unguided, Zardonix.
- “Bloodsport,” by Skold vs KMFDM.
- “Broken Bones,” by CHVRCHES.
Loud backdrop to emotional-resolution moments: Like if the two characters we’ve always shipped finally admitted they liked each other and now they’re quietly getting coffee together, or running through the city for the sheer joy of it, or the opening and closing credits sequence. Regardless of how intense things are on screen, the soundtrack to these moments is big, joyous, the instruments may only be somewhat electronic but they swagger. There’s not as much emphasis on the heaviness; it may still happen, but the emphasis is on the higher ranges, on unrestrained joy, although the tempo isn’t that much faster.
- “Glory Days,” by Betty Who.
- “Nitronic,” by Zircon.
- The nightcore version of “Fireflies” (originally by Owl City), done by NightcoreReality on YouTube.
- “Lift,” by Poets of the Fall.
- “Leave a Trace,” by CHVRCHES. This would be for a moment of mourning, like after someone sacrifices themselves to save their friends, and they grieve but honor their sacrifice… tonally, it’s very different.
Hope you guys enjoyed this one, I think it might be my favorite yet. I really enjoyed the cyberpunk names and feel, especially when I got to focus on the soundtrack.
Sep 19, 2017
A World a Day #3
It's time for another World A Day, where I use my worldbuilder to generate the bones of a setting, then fill in the dots. I accidentally caused a re-roll while I was working on this, so I had to end it a bit early, but it worked out.
I'm starting to get a bit burnt out on some of this, maybe because I'm creating all the flavor on my own, rather than having much of the flavor provided by the generator. I may start adding in just-for-flavor details to all characters, instead of just having them for NPCs. Probably doesn't help that I'm trying to figure out how to make the settings into a series on the side, working on the list-of-episodes generator right now.
Check out the tool if you're interested!
--
I'm starting to get a bit burnt out on some of this, maybe because I'm creating all the flavor on my own, rather than having much of the flavor provided by the generator. I may start adding in just-for-flavor details to all characters, instead of just having them for NPCs. Probably doesn't help that I'm trying to figure out how to make the settings into a series on the side, working on the list-of-episodes generator right now.
Check out the tool if you're interested!
--
For centuries, the Adamin Commonwealth was the world’s
political center. That all changed when the winds shifted and started pulling hot
air from the eastern steppes. Over a few decades, the intricate irrigation systems
went dry, the lakes burned down to small oases, and the cities built on their
backs stayed just as populated, but without the power and influence that had
kept them united. The new dust towns are dominated by barons who control the cities’
cisterns – what remains of them.
At least, everyone thinks it’s because of the change in the
winds. In truth, the environmental change was only the primary factor, there
were other elements in play. The water barons took power because they were the
only ones whose water sources remained in play, and they ensured that outcome
through blood magic, manipulating the flow of sacrificial blood on a micro
level to create macro effects on water’s flow and disappearance from the
Commonwealth. The cabal emerged slowly, as the future barons realized that they
could strangle the united Commonwealth government and divide the cities between
them. Now, with the waters concentrated in their own estates and doled out under
their power, they keep the stepped pyramids of their forefathers pristine, with
floating gardens thriving in the water-filled channels carved in each layer.
Each baron on their own is weak, decadent, and inclined to underestimate the
party; if they ever unify, their hold over the populace might prove lethal to
heroes needing popular support.
Dayna is one of the few who knows the truth… though how she
knows this is a mystery, even to her. Her memory only goes back to when she was
banished from the city of Malano, cursed to be a waterless exile. As she
staggered through the desert, exhaustion giving way to auditory hallucinations,
she finally fell unconscious onto the ground. Before she hit full blackness,
though, she heard the words ring through her head: “They took the water.” While
unconscious, she dreamed as a drop of water, flowing through the lands of the
Commonwealth in its prime, coursing through irrigation channels towards fertile
farmland… until being pulled away
from gravity’s flow, being pulled through hidden channels into the cisterns of
the future water barons. When she regained consciousness, she was in the middle
of an oasis, suddenly erupted from the ground around her. More than that, she dug
away at the ground and uncovered the old underground structures the water
barons had used to pull away the water. Now she travels from city to city, trying
to break apart the water monopoly of the barons, drawing on a forgotten history
as a swordfighter to protect herself, and infiltrating cities with a different disguise
each time.
There’s only one person she can’t fool with her disguises:
Declan, the best-paid bounty hunter of the wastes. He’s chasing her and her
band of rebels, but more important is that catching Dayna would lead him to Cassandra
Caylil, the current leader of a traveling merchant culture that adapted well to
the sands. Their caravans evade the official patrols, bringing water and weapons
to the underclass in the cities, fueling the resistance. Declan is also an
amnesiac, and although he doesn’t know it, his “reawakening” happened at the
exact same point as Dayna’s. Unlike her, though, he awoke around people of
power who could tell him who he was, and his skills as a brawler backed it up.
Whether they’re telling him the truth or not, that’s another question.
A World a Day #2
It's time for another World A Day, where I use my worldbuilder to generate the bones of a setting, then fill in the dots. I'm trying to do one of these per day; this is day two, you can read day one here.
Check out the tool if you're interested!
--
Setting: A steampunk version of Victorian Europe.
Tone: It’s a bit wild and exuberant, with the heroes throwing themselves into dashing sky-battles, scarves fluttering in the wind. When they return from battle, they’re the heirs of dynastic European families, with treacherous advisors and scheming siblings trying to get between them and True Love™. Think of it as a shojo version of Gundam.
Leslie of Wales leads the fight against the Whispered Ones, a faction of British nobility that’s devised state of the art tech, and plots to turn Britain into a totalitarian state. The Whispered are devotees of the Whispered Wanderer, a mystical woman preaching of a dark Gaia. Her teachings draw on ancient Celtic imagery to reinforce the British nature of the religion, twisting the old ways into a totalitarian style that deifies women elders and demands total conformity. Sex exclusively for procreation is one of the Whispered Wanderer’s commandments, reviling those who love in LGBTQIA+ ways. Although the Whispered Ones are a secret organization rather than directly controlling Britain, they’re still extremely powerful because of their advanced steampunk technology, plus the funding provided by the converted Prince of Wales.
Leslie of Wales is the leader of the Diamond Wing, a combined pilots/special operations unit that flies steampunk fighter jets, which Leslie stole from her father’s estates. She organized the Diamond Wing from fellow adventurer-nobility of Europe, people she’d met growing up, and made an alliance with the Austrian government and German freemasons on the continent, who are also moving against the Whispered Ones. Because she has family among the Whispered Ones, she’s determined to try to save as many of them as possible, either by kidnapping them and removing them from the Wanderer’s brainwashing, or convincing them mid-battle to turn against the real enemy. She’ll often be heard mid-dogfight arguing philosophy, and the crazy thing is, sometimes it works. In addition to being an ace pilot, she’s one of the best covert operatives working against the Whispered, as she’s able to mold her features and those of her enemies, tapping into a power known mostly to the Whispered to instantly change her face. It’s proven to be dangerous, though: When escaping her father’s estates, she’d had to take the form of Elyse to get through the lines and reach Anita in France, but Anita’s guards attacked her before she could explain who she really was. She carries a scar above one eye as a result, but she doesn’t let it get her down. There’s some possibility that Leslie will fall in love with Elyse as the series progresses. If so, the B-plot may likely be trying to redeem and save Elyse.
Elyse: The bastard daughter of a British royal house, she was one of the first devotees of the Whispered Wanderer. As the series progresses, she’s becoming more and more obsessed with the idea of taking the Wanderer’s place, but for now that’s just the seed of an idea. She fights through infiltration and politics, and is currently in disguise in the Austrian royal court. Expect lots of scenes of her and the Diamond Wing at the same masquerade ball, with Elyse smiling behind her mask as she convinces lovers into betrayal, or Austrian bureaucrats into withdrawing funding. She knows that Anita is the glue that keeps the Austrians tied into the alliance with the Diamond Wing, so she’s especially looking for opportunities to assassinate or kidnap Anita.
Anita Habsburg is the second major protagonist of the series. She’s desperate to prove herself a match for the famous Habsburg women of the past. Leslie came to her with evidence of the Whispered Ones trying to take over Britain’s government, so Anita petitioned the Habsburgs to support the Diamond Wing. With the threat of a heretical cult running the greatest world superpower, the Austrian government has agreed, and keeps the Diamond Wing fueled and armed. Anita’s the team hothead, determined never to give up, and always ready to throw her badassness in the face of people who underestimate her. She makes a point of wearing her pilot’s gear as much as possible, scandalizing the nobility who think she should stick to ballroom dresses. She’ll make fun of her fellow flyers, but when the chips are down, they’re the most important thing in the world to her, and needing to protect them is what drives her to fly at peak performance.
Check out the tool if you're interested!
--
Setting: A steampunk version of Victorian Europe.
Tone: It’s a bit wild and exuberant, with the heroes throwing themselves into dashing sky-battles, scarves fluttering in the wind. When they return from battle, they’re the heirs of dynastic European families, with treacherous advisors and scheming siblings trying to get between them and True Love™. Think of it as a shojo version of Gundam.
Leslie of Wales leads the fight against the Whispered Ones, a faction of British nobility that’s devised state of the art tech, and plots to turn Britain into a totalitarian state. The Whispered are devotees of the Whispered Wanderer, a mystical woman preaching of a dark Gaia. Her teachings draw on ancient Celtic imagery to reinforce the British nature of the religion, twisting the old ways into a totalitarian style that deifies women elders and demands total conformity. Sex exclusively for procreation is one of the Whispered Wanderer’s commandments, reviling those who love in LGBTQIA+ ways. Although the Whispered Ones are a secret organization rather than directly controlling Britain, they’re still extremely powerful because of their advanced steampunk technology, plus the funding provided by the converted Prince of Wales.
Leslie of Wales is the leader of the Diamond Wing, a combined pilots/special operations unit that flies steampunk fighter jets, which Leslie stole from her father’s estates. She organized the Diamond Wing from fellow adventurer-nobility of Europe, people she’d met growing up, and made an alliance with the Austrian government and German freemasons on the continent, who are also moving against the Whispered Ones. Because she has family among the Whispered Ones, she’s determined to try to save as many of them as possible, either by kidnapping them and removing them from the Wanderer’s brainwashing, or convincing them mid-battle to turn against the real enemy. She’ll often be heard mid-dogfight arguing philosophy, and the crazy thing is, sometimes it works. In addition to being an ace pilot, she’s one of the best covert operatives working against the Whispered, as she’s able to mold her features and those of her enemies, tapping into a power known mostly to the Whispered to instantly change her face. It’s proven to be dangerous, though: When escaping her father’s estates, she’d had to take the form of Elyse to get through the lines and reach Anita in France, but Anita’s guards attacked her before she could explain who she really was. She carries a scar above one eye as a result, but she doesn’t let it get her down. There’s some possibility that Leslie will fall in love with Elyse as the series progresses. If so, the B-plot may likely be trying to redeem and save Elyse.
Elyse: The bastard daughter of a British royal house, she was one of the first devotees of the Whispered Wanderer. As the series progresses, she’s becoming more and more obsessed with the idea of taking the Wanderer’s place, but for now that’s just the seed of an idea. She fights through infiltration and politics, and is currently in disguise in the Austrian royal court. Expect lots of scenes of her and the Diamond Wing at the same masquerade ball, with Elyse smiling behind her mask as she convinces lovers into betrayal, or Austrian bureaucrats into withdrawing funding. She knows that Anita is the glue that keeps the Austrians tied into the alliance with the Diamond Wing, so she’s especially looking for opportunities to assassinate or kidnap Anita.
Anita Habsburg is the second major protagonist of the series. She’s desperate to prove herself a match for the famous Habsburg women of the past. Leslie came to her with evidence of the Whispered Ones trying to take over Britain’s government, so Anita petitioned the Habsburgs to support the Diamond Wing. With the threat of a heretical cult running the greatest world superpower, the Austrian government has agreed, and keeps the Diamond Wing fueled and armed. Anita’s the team hothead, determined never to give up, and always ready to throw her badassness in the face of people who underestimate her. She makes a point of wearing her pilot’s gear as much as possible, scandalizing the nobility who think she should stick to ballroom dresses. She’ll make fun of her fellow flyers, but when the chips are down, they’re the most important thing in the world to her, and needing to protect them is what drives her to fly at peak performance.
Sep 17, 2017
A World a Day, #1
I’ve spent the past few weeks working on a worldbuilder, which works off of random generators to make character and setting hooks. I’ve found there’s enough dots there that, when you connect them, you’ve got an interesting setting for a tabletop RPG or show, enough to build a little world. And today, I’m going to do just that – today, and for the next two weeks. I’m going to challenge myself to write out a mini-show bible a day, based off the outlines generated. (You can see what was generated for this series here.)
These are probably going to be throwaway worlds for me, like a warm-up exercise, so feel free to take any of them if you feel compelled. If you do, a shout-out of the tool would be cool, I’d love to see more people try it out.
(Note: This is a for-fun exercise for me, so it's a bit lengthy, I didn't trim it for ease of reading.)
--
Series Idea: "Romance of the Southern Kingdom"
Antagonist faction: The Mongols, during the invasion of China. They attack without warning, with flying cities arriving without warning, disgorging armies of cavalry that conquer everything in their path. Only the south-eastern part of China has held out, the Song dynasty (historically the last major dynasty in China to fall). The Mongols have been stymied there.
Antagonist: Caleigh. She’s taking the initiative and infiltrating Xianyang, one of the major cities of the Southern Song dynasty that resists them. She was born to a couple that was prophesied to raise an unstoppable child, a leader in war, someone who could possibly even take the reigns from Temüjin after he died… instead, she was born, and her mother died before having any further children. Her mother had been Gaelic, taken from the West as a child and passed along the trade routes until eventually arriving on the steppe, where she had proven so capable that she was assimilated into the tribe. Bearing a daughter, and then dying, did not endear her memory to her husband. Worse, she had no talent for the normal Mongol type of war, the rugged campaign life and battles. Where she excelled was in planning assassinations, attacking from the shadows, and especially in exploiting social divisions in enemies. Genghis Khan and the Mongol leadership do appreciate such talents, though, so she was first deployed as part of the war against the Khwarazmian dynasty. She’s been called to the east now, to help divide and conquer the remainder of China, but she’s still haunted by the memory of the prophecy, and the scorn of her father for failing to live up to it. If she can conquer China, and especially if she can lead during a major battle, she feels she can move out from under the shadow of the prophecy.
Lin Yao He: Main protagonist. She was mentored growing up by an animal spirit, who helped put her in balance and want the best for people, teaching her basic magic and some martial arts techniques. When the war broke out, the energies that the Mongolian flying cities pull on disrupted the local leylines, destroying the animal spirit. She went to one of the major cities in the borderlands and started trying to rally support against the Mongols, but there haven’t been any attacks since they fought off the last round, and people have grown complacent, especially the Purple Lotus faction, which has taken to squabbling. While there, she fell in love with Jie Tsui, one of the members of the Purple Lotus. Their courtship was intense, but the politics kept getting in the way – he toed the party line that the Mongols didn’t need to be addressed right away, while Lin was adamant about organizing a resistance right away. During a beautiful firework display hosted by the Jade Lotus, they were arguing once again, but Lin had been targeted by Caleigh for assassination – the fireworks misfired, targeted directly at where Lin and Jie had been sitting. Jie jumped in front and took most of the blast, but Lin still took enough damage to leave a permanent scar. Jie was killed, but Lin never got a clear look at Caleigh. Now Lin uses the memory of their time together to drive her towards saving China. Her goal is to gain influence and power in the city of Xianyang, and use that power to convince everyone to unite. Little does she know that she’s actually royal blood, and although no one has been able to put their finger on it, they know instinctively that she carries herself like she’s important…
Faction 1, the Jade Lotus society. A loose conglomerate of the rich merchants and nobility of Xianyang, specifically the more radical faction of them. They’re determined to use the military of the state to expand its territory and enforce trade rights with neighbors and what remains of the other Chinese states, disregarding the threat of the Mongols. The Jade Lotus isn’t antagonistic to Lin or her party – they’re actually quite happy to have them there – but they’re used to swaggering and domination. There isn’t a strong leader of the group, so if someone stepped onto the scene, they could probably take over and lead the faction towards either deeper radicalism or to resisting the Mongols. Their decadence is legendary, with tons of money being spent on beautiful fireworks and fire displays, but they’re very uptight about any displays of feminine sexuality (aside from concubines and such) or anything that might seem homosexual.
Faction 2, the Southern Song dynasty itself. The state is in conflict with the Jade Lotus right now over the direction the country should go in, although it’s just a war of words and not actual conflict just yet, just cloak and dagger and political manipulation. The capitol of the Southern Song is a fair way away from Xianyang, though, so they have limited ability to influence this situation.
This is a romance, and the main form of conflict we’ll see is Game of Thrones-style, political maneuverings, people unexpectedly falling in love and having to decide between their goals and the ones they love.
The second major protagonist is Song Tsue, Jie’s younger sister. She’s been training with magic all her life with a chip on her shoulder, determined to prove herself in battle, wielding spells that can change an enemy’s form. She stands against the Mongols, but unbeknownst to everyone (including her), she’s actually part steppe tribe herself. When the Mongols consolidated power in Central Asia, he destroyed tribes that refused to follow him. Song’s mother was part of a steppe tribe that was destroyed, but she and her immediate family fled, getting all the way to south-eastern China, where she eventually fell in love with and married a nobleman of Xianyang. She told them that she was Jurchen, part of the tribe that ruled the Jin state to the north. She feared that if she were known as part of a tribe that now rode with the Mongols, she would be hated and killed. When this comes out, Caleigh will make a point to try to tempt Song into joining the Mongol side, claiming that her true family is on horseback, that they make a point of being more open to ethnic minorities than the Chinese who taunted and looked down on her for being part Jurchen. Unlike Jie, who looked more ethnically Han, Song has never trusted the Jade Lotus, working to protect the ones she cares about from their influence, and undermining their influence with the bureaucracy.
These are probably going to be throwaway worlds for me, like a warm-up exercise, so feel free to take any of them if you feel compelled. If you do, a shout-out of the tool would be cool, I’d love to see more people try it out.
(Note: This is a for-fun exercise for me, so it's a bit lengthy, I didn't trim it for ease of reading.)
--
Series Idea: "Romance of the Southern Kingdom"
Antagonist faction: The Mongols, during the invasion of China. They attack without warning, with flying cities arriving without warning, disgorging armies of cavalry that conquer everything in their path. Only the south-eastern part of China has held out, the Song dynasty (historically the last major dynasty in China to fall). The Mongols have been stymied there.
Antagonist: Caleigh. She’s taking the initiative and infiltrating Xianyang, one of the major cities of the Southern Song dynasty that resists them. She was born to a couple that was prophesied to raise an unstoppable child, a leader in war, someone who could possibly even take the reigns from Temüjin after he died… instead, she was born, and her mother died before having any further children. Her mother had been Gaelic, taken from the West as a child and passed along the trade routes until eventually arriving on the steppe, where she had proven so capable that she was assimilated into the tribe. Bearing a daughter, and then dying, did not endear her memory to her husband. Worse, she had no talent for the normal Mongol type of war, the rugged campaign life and battles. Where she excelled was in planning assassinations, attacking from the shadows, and especially in exploiting social divisions in enemies. Genghis Khan and the Mongol leadership do appreciate such talents, though, so she was first deployed as part of the war against the Khwarazmian dynasty. She’s been called to the east now, to help divide and conquer the remainder of China, but she’s still haunted by the memory of the prophecy, and the scorn of her father for failing to live up to it. If she can conquer China, and especially if she can lead during a major battle, she feels she can move out from under the shadow of the prophecy.
Lin Yao He: Main protagonist. She was mentored growing up by an animal spirit, who helped put her in balance and want the best for people, teaching her basic magic and some martial arts techniques. When the war broke out, the energies that the Mongolian flying cities pull on disrupted the local leylines, destroying the animal spirit. She went to one of the major cities in the borderlands and started trying to rally support against the Mongols, but there haven’t been any attacks since they fought off the last round, and people have grown complacent, especially the Purple Lotus faction, which has taken to squabbling. While there, she fell in love with Jie Tsui, one of the members of the Purple Lotus. Their courtship was intense, but the politics kept getting in the way – he toed the party line that the Mongols didn’t need to be addressed right away, while Lin was adamant about organizing a resistance right away. During a beautiful firework display hosted by the Jade Lotus, they were arguing once again, but Lin had been targeted by Caleigh for assassination – the fireworks misfired, targeted directly at where Lin and Jie had been sitting. Jie jumped in front and took most of the blast, but Lin still took enough damage to leave a permanent scar. Jie was killed, but Lin never got a clear look at Caleigh. Now Lin uses the memory of their time together to drive her towards saving China. Her goal is to gain influence and power in the city of Xianyang, and use that power to convince everyone to unite. Little does she know that she’s actually royal blood, and although no one has been able to put their finger on it, they know instinctively that she carries herself like she’s important…
Faction 1, the Jade Lotus society. A loose conglomerate of the rich merchants and nobility of Xianyang, specifically the more radical faction of them. They’re determined to use the military of the state to expand its territory and enforce trade rights with neighbors and what remains of the other Chinese states, disregarding the threat of the Mongols. The Jade Lotus isn’t antagonistic to Lin or her party – they’re actually quite happy to have them there – but they’re used to swaggering and domination. There isn’t a strong leader of the group, so if someone stepped onto the scene, they could probably take over and lead the faction towards either deeper radicalism or to resisting the Mongols. Their decadence is legendary, with tons of money being spent on beautiful fireworks and fire displays, but they’re very uptight about any displays of feminine sexuality (aside from concubines and such) or anything that might seem homosexual.
Faction 2, the Southern Song dynasty itself. The state is in conflict with the Jade Lotus right now over the direction the country should go in, although it’s just a war of words and not actual conflict just yet, just cloak and dagger and political manipulation. The capitol of the Southern Song is a fair way away from Xianyang, though, so they have limited ability to influence this situation.
This is a romance, and the main form of conflict we’ll see is Game of Thrones-style, political maneuverings, people unexpectedly falling in love and having to decide between their goals and the ones they love.
The second major protagonist is Song Tsue, Jie’s younger sister. She’s been training with magic all her life with a chip on her shoulder, determined to prove herself in battle, wielding spells that can change an enemy’s form. She stands against the Mongols, but unbeknownst to everyone (including her), she’s actually part steppe tribe herself. When the Mongols consolidated power in Central Asia, he destroyed tribes that refused to follow him. Song’s mother was part of a steppe tribe that was destroyed, but she and her immediate family fled, getting all the way to south-eastern China, where she eventually fell in love with and married a nobleman of Xianyang. She told them that she was Jurchen, part of the tribe that ruled the Jin state to the north. She feared that if she were known as part of a tribe that now rode with the Mongols, she would be hated and killed. When this comes out, Caleigh will make a point to try to tempt Song into joining the Mongol side, claiming that her true family is on horseback, that they make a point of being more open to ethnic minorities than the Chinese who taunted and looked down on her for being part Jurchen. Unlike Jie, who looked more ethnically Han, Song has never trusted the Jade Lotus, working to protect the ones she cares about from their influence, and undermining their influence with the bureaucracy.
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