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Legolover-361

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Yeah. If "it's all connected," then whoop-dee-freaking-doo mister Storyteller, why don't you show us some of the rivets and bolts sometime? Having serious looking men in serious-looking suits just stand in front of the doors to the interesting bits of this big connectedness-thing you've built and nod and say (with serious-looking faces), "Yup. Connected. Totally. How? Uh... It just sort of is. Do not question the connectedness-thing."Because the first result of the serious-looking-suit-wearing-serious-looking-men-with-serious-looking-faces trying to get us to stop question the connectedness-thing is us questioning the connectedness-thing. Readers/Viewers/Players/People in general, really, are just like that. If we see a big red threatening button that must not be pressed under any circumstances but you don't care to tell us why we shouldn't press the button, well, we're going to want to see it pressed.

Well, to be fair, the characters of Rochard are anything but serious. But I agree with what you're saying - although a couple of stories I know have been able to get away with not saying things. BIONICLE, for example, with how Matoran come into being. LEGO never explained it in story and refuse to give an expanded universe answer, but it doesn't really matter. We know enough about the nature of Matoran to make a reasonable guess, and they never teased us with an explanation in-story. (i.e. mentioning a Matoran coming into being but refusing to specify how)

:kaukau: Actually, I think that the plot hole in Star Wars episode II wasn't really a plot hole. My assumption was that the Sith were trying to give the Jedi leads to discover Kamino without revealing themselves. Of course, that's an assumption, but it works for me.

That's what I think, too, but that really needs to be communicated better.

Anyway, this line of conversation and the reference to the big red button leads me to a pet peeve of mine: why is it that some wise mentors don't inform their pupils about crucial information that's essential to their quest?

Augh, Oromis and Brom from InhEragon (my name for the series because most people don't recognize "Inheritance") are especially bad about this.

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Well, if it's something like the origin of Matoran, then it really isn't need-to-know information - explaining it would be boring and would add nothing good to the story (kind of like how the Star Wars prequels gave us pretty much everybody's backstory when a lot of them honestly weren't interesting and didn't need to be given).

We will remember - Skies may fade and stars may wane; we won't forget


And your light shines bright - yes so much brighter shine on


We will remember - Until the skies will fall we won't forget


We will remember


We all shall follow doom

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I think the movie Signs did a great job of connecting a bunch of seemingly random coincidences. At first all the little quirks of the story seemed random, but at the end of the movie, it culminated in -- well, if you've watched the movie, you know. The best part of it was that the coincidences were still shown as coincidences, but there was the idea that something more might be behind it, a reason for everything coming together the way it did. That was back when M. Night Shymalan was still considered good. :P

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Yeah, Matoran creation also wasn't something they really even hinted at much. From the example you gave, they seemed to say "It's all connected" pretty much throughout, implying what that connection is will be important.

Yep. Actually, rewatching the ending and looking it up online, one of the characters was about to explain everything, then abruptly

got sucked into a wormhole.

One review put it best:

it’s like the writers give up and decided to just quit mid-sentence ...

There’s a difference between a satisfying cliffhanger ending and an ending that comes across as incomplete, and Rochard is definitely a case of the latter.

Another person posted on the game's forums asking if there were any other endings and how to unlock them, and got an official reply from the creators:

The game only has only one ending. There are a few gaps left open in the storyline to stimulate your imagination ^_^

That attitude from a writer makes me facepalm. There's a difference between loose ends, which can be filled in by the audience; and plot holes, which have to be either resolved or lampshaded or they will distract from the story.Another random, completely unrelated observation: characters in a TV show usually start out heavily archetyped and can be described in a few words, but gain a lot of depth as the series goes on. An example is the Office - from the pilot episode, Michael Scott could be described as an immature boss who thinks he's the funniest guy ever, but by the time he left the show, he was a very interesting (even if painful to watch) character.Contrast that to a movie or book where you usually start out knowing nothing about a character. It seems to be the difference between building up a character and filling them in. Edited by Jedi Knight Krazy

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:kaukau: WorldbuildingAlphegan Culture::
  • [*]Emperor Kraggh, upon creating the empire, sought to further unify his territories by taking ideas from the cultures of each zone and turning them into standard practice nationwide.[*]The individual zones are still separate and distinct cultures, but they have been grouped into a large overarching worldview that puts them all in the same basket, similar to how the nations of Europe are all very different cultures and yet still a part of Western culture.[*]The familiar tradition of the bride taking on the groom's surname continues on in Alphega. However, families also tend to bear a crest or a symbol of some sort, which is carried through the women, and the men tend to give up their family symbol and take the woman's.[*]President Arcane set a tradition that the executive branch would wear advanced and practical armor, fitted similar to Batman's in The Dark Knight, yet stylistically clearly harking back to an older age. This style has been mimicked by the public and dress clothes consists of fashionable yet practical body armor. Personal armor is often custom made.[*]Another fashion statement common in Alphega is for people to wear their family symbols on their clothes. Some people also have their family symbols build into their armor (think again of The Dark Knight where Batman has a raised bat emblem across his chest).[*]In its short existence, Alphega has already had a long, long military history (After the main series, Kraggh III sends the country into a 19-year-long blitzkrieg and the nation was on adrenalin the whole time). Due to this, a strong military culture has emerged. In all public schools students are trained as if they are already in the military. Public colleges are free and essentially like West Point, though again they aren't necessarily part of the military. The basic assumption is that the money lost in making college free will show up when college graduates return to the economy. In any case, it's still not a loss for the Alphegan treasury because they don't tax their citizens and instead get federal money from the peace offerings of other sovereign states.[*]Alphega's welfare policy is to offer all applicants a job in its equivalent of the National Guard.[*]The honorifics "Mr." and "Mrs." are rarely used. Instead people are referred to by specific titles such as Pvt., 2LT, 1LT, CPT, MAJ (the list goes on to cover other military titles), Dr., Master (these two indicating education level), Rev., Prof., Fr., Sen., Rep., or Sir (and so forth, showing signs of profession or social class). In general, when one person is introduced to another, their full name and title is given. In an encounter where one person does not know the title of the other beforehand, it is polite to either ask for their title when first addressing them or to call them by the common title used in that particular Alphegan subculture (which would be the equivalent of Mr. or Mrs., except it denotes a cultural context).

General IDES culture:

  • [*]Space navies are not called space navies. Instead the name for the concept is "cosmy". It rolls of the tongue with army and navy.[*]The ranking systems and individual ranks within cosmy vary across the IDES. The head of the American Cosmy is the Eisenhower (abbreviated Ei.), after the commander of the allied forces in World War II, and there are also a ranks named after Washington (Wst.), Grant (Gt.), and Taylor (Tay.) (the title of a commodore, the captain of a large ship, and the captain of a smaller ship, respectively). Their structure takes inspiration from the cosmies of Alantra, among the oldest in the IDES. Alphegan Cosmy has the same rank names as its navy.[*]Though names are different, the clothing styles are often the same. Heads of cosmies often wear full cloaks (I'd describe them as Count Dooku-style, not Superman-style). Lower Eisenhowers/Admirals tend to wear half-capes similar to that in Assassin's Creed (I haven't played the games, FYI). People at the rank or a captain or its equivalent tend to wear cape-type things like
this. Many cosmies have their officers wear white, though that's not universal. All round, capes are a popular trend for dress uniforms. Figures famous for wearing capes are Dreamcatcher (the white full cape of an Eisenhower/Admiral), Master Legious (ditto, but maroon and red), Kraggh (bright red, not draped over the shoulders), and Vizer (that O-6 level cape, though he's not a captain nor in a cosmy, though he is still a member of Master Legious's prestigious ceremonial guard).[*]In some branches of some militaries, Monosmith has popularized an ankle-length tailcoat. It follows the cape motif but isn't an actual cape. Varying styles of the tailcoat has also become more common for civilian wear. In visions, Death has often appeared in a white tailcoat.[*]Humanoid women are called by the honorific "Mr.". In general people of both sexes also cut their hair short. Attitudes toward a woman who grew her hair out would be similar to a man who grew his hair out (I don't want to say that the attitude is negative. Obviously not all men with long hair are rock stars, charmers, surfers, hippies, or jocks. I experimented with the look a while back and I'm none of those.). Preferences would still be different, just as women have different preferences with men's hair.[*]The nuadine language does not have words for "he" or "she", as gender plays little role in their society. Instead, they have a gender-neutral word for addressing a person; if I can remember correctly it's "schma". It's not the same thing as the word "it". The nuadine word for that is "quarr". While both words are gender-neutral, one is positive to the idea of a person. This actually has been mimicked by several other cultures. For example, most Anglophones have reverted to using the terms "he, him, and his" for all beings. Many Kitilikphones turned to traditionally feminine words for universal use (Though for scientific use they have invented new words for "she, her, and hers" to emphasize the femininity of something. It is also interesting since a thousand years ago Kitilika was a male's world). There are of course languages like Spanish where gender plays a huge role in its style and flow, so this trend has no chance of affecting these tongues.[*]The Catharine religion, while being centered around the evil worship of Death, has actually done some good as Master Legious has used his power as the Catharine equivalent as the pope to honor quite a few women. It has affected non-Catharine cultures and even enemies, and in some traditionally male-dominant societies women have actually risen to have a higher social standing than their counterparts.

I realize that pretty much all of this cultural development has to do with military matters and gender boundaries, which naturally show up since they're stuff I'm thinking about quite a bit. I'm interested in joining the armed forces, which shows up in how I'm beginngin to look at my IDES universe. And trying to understand people different from myself (especially women, who can be so similar and yet so different at the same time) has weighed heavily on my mind for a year or two now.By the way, I've watched Jurassic Park and am in awe of the Tyrannosaurus Rex as the single greatest monster of all time. Dang, that thing has been given so many titles. It has been called "the most formidable fighting animal for which there is any record whatever", "the king of all kings in the domain of animal life", and "the absolute warlord of the earth". Yet, what speaks for itself it that the Tyrannosaurus rex is known primarily by its full scientific name. It's "known and loved by people of all ages, cultures, and nationalities".So I was thinking of how to end the series on a high note, and I decided I wanted to use iconic forces that could inspire awe to anyone and everyone, and up until now I have never had any prominent use of the Amakor Juggerzilla/Juggersaurus (due to a dispute between Dreamcatcher and Euthanasia, amakor alternate between the two names), but I think it would be a dramatic way to end certain conflicts. It's not the king of the Amakor: it's the god of the Amakor. Imagine an indestructible 500-meter-long mechanical analogue of a T. rex. To put that into perspective, the manus claw alone would be over twice as long as a person is tall. With its 10-dimensional Amakor senses, it's aware of everything that's happening on a planet. Whever it looks at is destroyed by its heat vision. Its roar can be heard across a planet, and when it runs twice its body length in a single second it creates a sonic boom, and a single step causes a small earthquake. The final battle in an epic series ought to include a titan, and what better form for a titant to take than the shape of a Tyrannosaurus rex?Yeah, I think I can write an awesome battle around that idea. Anyway, those are my thoughts.Your Honor,Tyrannosaurus Kraggh

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In any case, it's still not a loss for the Alphegan treasury because they don't tax their citizens and instead get federal money from the peace offerings of other sovereign states.

How does this work out? Even if the "peace offerings" were actually able to cover the cost of what seems like a very militaristic government, the other countries would likely feel rather bitter about paying for the expenses of their neighbor.In other words, it's the perfect excuse for all those other countries to declare war on Alphega.That was what I first thought when I saw that sentence, if that means anything to you (which it probably doesn't).

Lacertus

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You have some very interesting worldbuilding going on. I'm not totally sold on a couple of things you mentioned, though...

The familiar tradition of the bride taking on the groom's surname continues on in Alphega. However, families also tend to bear a crest or a symbol of some sort, which is carried through the women, and the men tend to give up their family symbol and take the woman's.

That sounds confusing... there's a total mismatch of symbols and names. You might see a symbol for a guy named "Smith", then see the same symbol for a "Johnson". It sort of defeats the purpose of both the family name and crest to mix and match them like that.

Humanoid women are called by the honorific "Mr."

It makes sense from where you're going with gender equality in the universe, but it'll be distracting for us Earthling readers, especially if you don't explain it as soon as possible.For your T-rex final boss fight (yes, I call enemies like these "bosses" even outside video games), it sounds like it has potential, but also could get cheesy if you're not careful. Make sure to describe the enemy clearly long before the encounter, because dinosaurs are kind of like aliens - they're a great addition to a story when they're expected, but you don't want to surprise readers with them.Also - how the heck do you defeat something like that?...I'm gonna have to read the story to find out, aren't I?

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:kaukau: Regarding the peace offerings, I've thought a lot about it from the perspective of the governors and what makes sense to me is that Alphega, especially with Kraggh as the emperor, would only demand peace offerings from certain worlds that both it and other superpowers didn't like. Alphega has thus far been able to tax other nations whose collective economies are larger than its own because Emperor Kraggh in and of himself is his own army, which significantly cuts down the expenses of his nation. Meanwhile, Alphega also has powerful allies that keep its back because Alphega leads in the crusade against the powerful and despotic Bankish Empire. In spite of Alphega being rather militaristic, it isn't bloodthirsty and doesn't deny its citizens rights, which is how one might describe the Bankish Empire.Regarding the family symbol thing, I feel that there has to be something that both sides of the family bring to the table. And Alphega doesn't completely mirror Earth culture: the meaning of a family symbol doesn't necessarily have the same purpose as that of Middle Ages Europe, where a symbol was specifically attached to a name.Regarding the honorific "Mr.", I was initially inspired by Mr. Saavik from the Star Trek films, and the idea grew on me, except of course in my story the setting isn't already hundreds of years into the future, but rather it starts around the year 2025 and each book in the 18 book series is approximately a year long. The human culture sort of develops as they go along, sped up by foreign influences, so it doesn't just come up out of the blue. Rather, it would probably develop around book 6 or 7, and by then I might have dropped hints as to where the culture was going.Regarding the Juggersaurus, is was actually created several books prior to the final and was intended to be the ultimate Amakor. Euthanasia had mused that an Amakor's instinctive desire to hunt down entire species is limited to what they could touch and proposed the idea of what he called the Juggerzilla. Unfortunately, once it was created it mostly just stayed on the planet Amakor, partly because the common Amakor didn't want it to monopolize their prey. Regardless, it was a known force for quite some time, and other than it stepping on the long-running villain General Gold, it never played much into the story and certainly never had any dramatic redeeming moment. I figured I was saving it for something, and now that I'm nearing the end of the series it has to come up somewhere.It is a legitimate question of how something like that is defeated. However, in spite of how grand it is, it is not the final boss, though it does take part in the final battle, which revolves around Master Legious holding claim to the Mathazon Crystal. I'm still debating who the final villain to go down should be, because there's a triumvirate between Craytus, Master Legious, and Death and each of them has a very personal relationship with equally significant protagonists. Not to mention Death is the ultimate villain, therefore being the ultimate boss. Then there's the nuadine race, which I feel should be wiped out, and I feel it would be more dramatic is a single individual did it. The people I have in mind right now are Mary Maria and Dreamcatcher, and I have pretty good reasons for each (especially Dreamcatcher, who is an Amakor and Amakor were made to destroy entire species).Though you're right: how do you defeat something that's both an unstoppable force and an immovable object? Plus, I haven't even figured out which side it benefits, since it's sort of on its own. Though I'm wondering what would happen if I brought in Vogelbrand into the story (mountain sized lava being whose very breath rips time and space, and whose mind is more like that of an entire world than that of an individual) and had them face off (probably a stalemate). However, I do have something in mind as for how to save the world from it, though that's a secret I'll keep to myself.It's really hard figuring out how to end a story in the most satisfactory way. For one, it took 17 books just to lead up to it and it has to do better than all of them. Plus, after 17 books there are expectations. The last book has to go past being just a good episode and be the definitive book of the series by representing what every book was all about, by discovering its core. When all the rest of the books were part of the journey there, I have to wonder what "there" looks like anyway. Sure, the final book has to be the most grand, and for that most certainly the most iconic battles have to take place, but at the same time I have to also tie up all of the emotional storylines that the series has picked up over time. Hopefully, I can end it in the way the audience subconsciously wanted it to end.By the way, other ideas:The planet Chidgit (the "ch" is pronounced as in Dutch, or for those who aren't familiar with that I could also compare it to the "ch" in "Achmed the dead terrorist") is a gaming planet. I think I've had planets like these before, but I never officially named one or made one canon. The basic idea is that they hold futuristic gladiator tournaments like in Tron: Legacy. Alphega once considered conquering them, but Chidgit had a pretty good defense and instead Alphega demanded a yearly tribute as terms of peace since Alphega would have eventually won and would have proceeded to outlawing the tournaments. The Chidgeons have fairly advanced technology and are known for abducting warriors from other planets to fuel their tournaments. I would imagine that Blitz would have actually volunteered to be a part of a tournament and he would have survived.I'm having a lot more fun with the idea of humans being an endangered species and a minority in interdimensional America. There are still plenty of humanoids, but boy how the culture has changed. Meanwhile, over on New Earth the planetary language is slowly becoming Chinese. I think that the culture of New Earth, which is both completely familiar and yet completely foreign at the same time should be interesting to develop.The planet of Willshower, which Master Legious makes his new world, has a bright aura at the top of its atmosphere that shines outward brighter than a supernova. It doesn't shine inward, so life on the planet itself is quite bearable. Its aura is also visible across all dimensions and he has magically warped time and space so that its light travels across every universe instantaneously so that anyone in line of sight can see it if they look up into the skies of their planets. Master is proud of his world and wishes for it to be a beacon. One of the battles in the final book is when several cosmies unite together in order to breach the planet, although that's a bit difficult when Master Legious has the power to create anything he wants and is allied with the Second Empire and Third Empire.I have actually begun drawing concept art for my series, including pictures of spaceships. One of them I call a Shield Ship because it has a giant quarter-mile-thick metal umbrella in front, which looks pretty cool and makes sense. I wish I could post a picture of it here but I think I'll wait until my sketchbook it full. I have also decided that for my semester project I am going to draw a life-sized portrait of Dreamcatcher. Unfortunately, that requires that I find paper that's at least 7 feet tall, preferably 8, and thus far I haven't found any yet. I'd prefer to get started ASAP because it's going to take a while to complete, and that's something I'd love to share with these forums.Your Honor,Tyrannosaurus Kraggh Edited by Tyrannosaurus Kraggh
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Uh, out of curiosity, has the entire Nuadine race been shown to be 100% evil? I see you've got a way around the issue of having an otherwise-good character have some qualms about carrying out genocide by using a character whose entire point is genocide, so that's not really an issue, but I'm wondering how the reader is supposed to feel about this.

We will remember - Skies may fade and stars may wane; we won't forget


And your light shines bright - yes so much brighter shine on


We will remember - Until the skies will fall we won't forget


We will remember


We all shall follow doom

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Ok, my turn for worldbuilding!Since I don't specifically talk about my own story too much in this topic, I'll give a quick recap: Eons is an 8-book (maybe condensed into 4) fantasy saga.The first two books are hard to categorize - I'd compare the setting most closely to The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker or Phantom Hourglass, though everything important happens on a peninsula that's separated from its mainland by a large mountain range.The third book is more or less medieval fantasy, though I'm trying to include some subtle Western elements as well.The fourth is light steampunk with an alien invasion.5-8 have the most interesting setting, in my opinion - it's science fantasy with medieval/ancient fantasy elements as alien species, artifacts, etc.The rough timeline is:Book 1: -1 year (canon calendar starts about midway in)Book 2: 500 yearsBook 3: 501 years (direct sequel)Book 4: 700 yearsBook 5: 2980 yearsBook 6: 3000 yearsBook 7: 3002 years (more or less direct sequel)Book 8: 3004 years (ditto)Here's my races so far:Humans - human humans are human. Not too much to say. They're the weakest political and military superpower in the galaxy - the worst of the best, basically.Dwarves - Generally peaceful, industrial race, known for their workmanship with metals and stone. Their cities are blinding in the light, as their buildings are coated in a chrome-like metal for decoration. Dwarves have the ability to telepathically communicate with other dwarves within an impressive distance. Because of this, they are often stereotyped as absent-minded loners, but they are constantly in communication with others of their kind. They also give the impression of being vastly intelligent, because in reality, every decision a dwarf makes is the result of several dwarves' collaboration.Elves - Elves take the role of the highly advanced alien race that came around for a while, messed around with stuff, then left the known galaxy. I think basically every sci-fi universe has one of these... Anyways, the reasons they left are, in a way, the entire focus of the saga. Their highly advanced "technology" is basically magic, and that's what they and the rest of the universe calls it. In Eons, magic (in this form) is an energy that can be harnessed mentally to... do stuff. Only elves can do it. The only source of magical energy is dragons (surprisingly common wherever elves are), which must be killed before siphoning their power into some container for later use - or it can be used immediately, when an extremely demanding spell demands a full blast of power. The amount of power a spell requires is proportional to the magnitude of its effect, distance, precision, and inversely proportional to the skill of the caster. (Kind of like InhEragon magic, but without the annoying advantage given to microscopic-level attacks)In elven culture, there is no such thing as a leader. Elves gather around ideas and objectives, not individuals. If there is a disagreement, the dissenters simply split off into their own group, or if they don't want to be a small group, they simply accept the less-than-ideal objective of the larger group until they can persuade the rest.Hmm, this is taking longer than I expected. I've got more, but I'll just leave these here for now.

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I've tried, but I always end up drawing characters that "fit into the world, but won't exist in the actual story". Maybe it's because I'm afraid of setting their appearances in stone (or paper, as the case may be), but I can never seem to finish the job properly.Oh, and I also can't draw feet/shoes to save my life, so there's that.Although, now that I think about it, I do have a sketch for one of the characters that turned out rather well... Maybe I'll actually finish one this time! :biggrin:Is it helpful? Not particularly for me, but drawing is fairly enjoyable, and I do know people (two or three) who like to see what I draw.

Lacertus

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I've done a few drawings of my characters. I wouldn't say their appearances are totally set in stone now (I can still alter this or that if I don't like it or keep what I do like), but it's helped me a bit when visualizing my characters. It helps me put a face to the name when writing. As for drawing a map, I'm considering the idea (although, due to my setting, the geography changes constantly in the canon universe of my story, so the map itself cannot be set in stone). Still, for the areas my characters are in at the times they are in them, I think it might help me a bit to define the world itself (which is something I keep debating a lot).

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I'm not a very good artist and geography is not my strong suit, so no, I don't draw pictures of my characters or maps of my worlds. No reason to.Well, I did draw a map of the universe of one of my stories, but I am pretty sure it breaks a lot of rules of astronomy, heh.-TNTOS-

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

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I really enjoy fictional cartography and feel like that can be quite helpful in stories that involve a lot of travel, so, yes, I have made maps. Mostly, I do this so that I know I have the geography down and accurate to real-world rules (e.g., no random deserts adjacent to a tropical paradise, or forests in rain shadows). I have not drawn characters, and only once or twice drawn much else. Even then, it's only to ensure consistency--mostly for anything needing a technical description.~ BioGio

 

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At some point I'm going to have to draw some maps, even if just for my own reference. Unfortunately, I am a really bad artist, know nothing about geography, and have trouble visualizing things (You'll notice I never give much of a description of my characters and settings - I focus on actions). Maybe I'll have to get someone to draw for me... it would also help a lot to see a drawing of my non-humanoid characters.A quick note on my worldbuilding stuff from a few posts up:I don't have any really long-lived races except for the elves. Most races have a life expectancy of ~115 years, including humans. (I figured that's reasonable given futuristic medical advances) Elves can't technically die of old age, but due to their dangerous lifestyle, most only live 500-1000 years. I'm considering giving them a peak age of ~200 years where their reflexes are quickest and they're physically fittest.

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:kaukau: I'm in a drawing class and all I ever put in my sketchbook are drawings of characters, settings, and things. Something called Fractal Terrains 3 has caught my eye and I think I will buy it sometime next year because it gets me past the crutch of trying to translate an idea from a Mercator projection to an actual globe. Since much of my story is designed to have a cinematic feel and much of the stuff is made under the assumption that the visuals will tell some of the story, I find illustrations to be a rather important aspect of what I do.Anyway, regarding the genocide I've referred to, I was a bit inspired by the Dr. Who episode Dalek and a Chuck Norris joke about the dinosaurs. The nuadine are similar to the Daleks in that they were genetically engineered by a scientist and it is inherent in their nature to do sick, terrifying things. They've been around since the beginning of the universe an since their conception they have consistently been at war with the rest of the universe. By human standards, they're beyond barbaric and are completely demonic. Every single nuadine is a threat to society, and unfortunately none of them are civilians. So yeah, I've made clear that 100% of them are evil.The individual who erases them will be in a position to deliver judgment, in which case it will probably be someone such as Dreamcatcher. I won't publicly explain why he's in that position, though. It's something I'd rather reveal in the story.Regarding the whole of Alphegan culture, I thought I should explain a little better the form of their militarism. Before the country was actually a country, it was an army. Kraggh went around and conquered a bit, then united his "zones" under a centralized government. He wasn't interested in a strong sense of nationalism since many of the people have little in common, but he hopes that the centralized federal government does its job. So the militarism isn't in place for that purpose. What Kraggh believes is that the discipline of the military and the fight for a cause larger than the individual creates good citizens by instilling strong senses of purpose, morality, and brotherhood. He controls a very diverse empire, but he tries to unite the cultures with the common denominator of the soldier's mindset, which he believes is the embodiment of heroism. If high school and college graduates don't join the military, they'll still be soldiers in everyday life and help society in other ways.Interestingly, I also have in the series the country of Muzeca on the planet Neaphi run by the war hero Roteris. Muzeca eventually becomes fairly analogous to Nazi Germany. It's a strong police state with an incredible sense of nationalism, in contrast to Alphega, which has a very small police force due to a small crime rate and citizens are taught first to serve their communities.Actually I have fun with all sorts of government ideas within my series. Kitilika is an oligarchy with an unwritten constitution like England. America meanwhile is beginning to see Kitiliks become the dominant species, and doubtlessly after 35 years a natural-born Kitilik will become president. There's North Gantha, which is a consistent republic which the human presidents of America are attempting to solidify alliances with before foreign policies fall underneath the prejudices of the Kitilik mindset. There's Britain as it struggles to remain relevant in the world and leans on its monarch and Doctor Who to maintain its national identity. There's Aarde, which is a complete anarchy yet highly united.-Anyway, a development I forgot to mention earlier: I'm wondering how to pull off the idea of an immortal man called Utanapishtim located in a room within Earth's son without readers thinking I'm completely original. It's an extremely important part of the story that affects the entire series. Since it has to do with the primary mystery of the universe within my series (think of how BIONICLE was mysterious the first year) I'm afraid I can't really explain beyond that.Your Honor,Tyrannosaurus Kraggh Edited by Tyrannosaurus Kraggh
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I tend to draw many things, both because I like drawing, and because I feel like I don't truly know a fictional race until I've drawn them. The Diemawr that I ended up using for Starscape are a good example of this - the original plan for them was pretty vague, just "not designated good guys" and "reptilian." As I drew out an example of one, I got a feel for what their culture might be like, how they could end up being the antagonists of a story, etc....Then, of course, the pitfalls of working together with other writers in that sort of situation caused them to basically become the left hand of the designated good guys.I'm still sketching out the plans for the canon world setting for the Diemawr. The main thing I'm concerned about is one of the main powers in this universe, which, functionally, is similar to the Time Lords - they work to keep time and space under some kind of control. The differences that I'm hoping will be enough to convince myself and others that I'm not ripping off Doctor Who with these fellows are as follows;1. They aren't a single race, but an organization headed by a very ancient race. Members of almost any race in the universe can join them.2. They aren't any sort of objective about their work. There isn't a single timeline that has to happen, just one that they strongly believe is the best.3. They aren't passive in any way. Spy-work, manipulation, war and murder are all part of their jobs.4. What basically amounts to sci-fi racism is a big part of their portion of the story, though the whole deal is made a lot murkier by the fact that nobody except for the particular race they're afraid of knows whether the Time Lord stand-ins are right about fearing/hating them.I have yet to come up with a name for this group that I am satisfied with. Opinions on whether they've been distanced enough from the Time Lords would be appreciated.

We will remember - Skies may fade and stars may wane; we won't forget


And your light shines bright - yes so much brighter shine on


We will remember - Until the skies will fall we won't forget


We will remember


We all shall follow doom

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@Shadows out of Time:One thing I've learned is that if you're worried about getting to close to a particular plot element from another series, you can sometimes step back and see the same element with many variations in plenty of other stories, and it turns out it's more of a cliche/trope than a specific plot element.Of course, this sometimes goes the other way - sometimes if you take away the details, your totally original idea will sound just like a specific, well-known story.In this specific case, what you described sounds to me like time agents, not Time Lords. And that's fine. Time agents that don't remotely resemble Time Lords appear in plenty of stories... even Doctor Who! Honestly, your organization reminds me most strongly of the Dark Brotherhood from the game Oblivion.

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Yeah, that's great, but I always like getting somebody else's opinion in matters like this. Something that, to me, might seem fine could be far from it in someone else's eyes - and vice versa.I was particularly worried with this organization because the original idea was lifted from the Time Lords, and then twisted in a few different ways until I thought it might be far enough. While some writers may be fine with people seeing an element in their story and immediately knowing where it was taken from, I prefer to give readers at least the illusion of originality.

We will remember - Skies may fade and stars may wane; we won't forget


And your light shines bright - yes so much brighter shine on


We will remember - Until the skies will fall we won't forget


We will remember


We all shall follow doom

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Yeah, that's great, but I always like getting somebody else's opinion in matters like this. Something that, to me, might seem fine could be far from it in someone else's eyes - and vice versa.I was particularly worried with this organization because the original idea was lifted from the Time Lords, and then twisted in a few different ways until I thought it might be far enough. While some writers may be fine with people seeing an element in their story and immediately knowing where it was taken from, I prefer to give readers at least the illusion of originality.

I get what you mean. The origin story for one of my major "species" started as a direct clone of the dragon's Blood Pact from InhEragon - dragons and elves included. It's evolved since then to be (I hope) totally unrecognizable. Similarly, one of my main characters has Bourne-style amnesia - admittedly more of a cliche than directly lifted from that series, but still something to be avoided. I eventually expanded on the idea by having him forget he had forgotten anything! :) (Though in the process, lifting a concept from Artemis Fowl: when magic erases memories, the brain invents new memories to take their place)

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  • 2 weeks later...
:kaukau: I've been pondering the idea for several months now of creating and IDES RPG in order to get me back into regular writing practice and to help me brainstorm for worldbuilding ideas, especially now that I have more spare time on my hands, only there are a few unresolved problems.1. I don't know where to start the RPG in a series that spans over 18 event-packed years. One part of me wants to start the series a little later on when the world has grown a bit more and there are more opportunities for the players. Yet it that happens, then there's more history to tell in the introduction, and that gets confusing. The advantage to starting earlier, even though there are less worlds to come from, is that there is less history and it starts out as more of a pitch for a setting and people have more opportunity to shape the way the world expands later on.2. The world is huge and has many details. I'd have to put hundreds of hours into creating a catalogue of people, ideas, cultures, species, objects, and places within my universe, and each description would be fairly long. Who would want to read all that?3. It's been a while since I've been in RPing, and even then there was only one RPG I actively participated in (Robo's) and one that I founded, which failed. I don't know how well this would turn out, but then again it starts off with a lot more potential than Amakor RPG did, which had no immediate story direction visible. Yet my confidence isn't that high.4. I'm a little afraid of giving too much of my story away, but then I suppose I've already given much of it away on this topic. I just don't know what impact it would have on getting my stories published several years in the future.Your Honor,Tyrannosaurus Kraggh
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I'm assuming you're talking about a text-based RPG and not a video game :) (I've been thinking about a video game for my own universe, personally. I even have a plot ready for it if I ever decide to make it. I'll describe it sometime when the Eons saga itself is more solid)One concern I see is that text RPGs usualy take place in either a well-known universe (i.e. Star Wars, Naruto, Bionicle), a variation of a well-known universe (i.e. Bionicle alternate dimensions like on BZP), or a relatively simple universe with one or two defining features. In essence, an RPG is a universe-driven story, while a novel is typically set in a story-driven universe.I think it will definitely be a challenge if you decide to go through with this idea.For your specific concerns:1. Complicating the the matter is that there's a huge potential for players to mess up your story plan - especially if they interact with major characters or create history-changing events in major locations. I would say you should set the RPG as early as possible in your universe history so that there's the least barrier to entry.2. Maybe you could set the RPG in a small subsection of your universe where you really only have interactions with a few races, nations, etc.3. I can't really give any tips here - I haven't had luck in RPGs myself.4. I think, logically, there's really no problem with this. If/when your books get published, your audience will likely be your close friends, and the people who shared ideas with you early in its development - in other words, the frequenters of this topic and your RPG players. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, no matter how closely you guard your secrets, the first people to read your story will already know too much, because their interest will come from their early involvement. But the more people there are in the first group, the better word of mouth will work for you. In other news, I've reordered Eons after realizing that books 2 and 6, which were supposed to go into a single novel, didn't really fit - they were unrelated as far as cause and effect (which is usually how parallel timeline stories work) and they had a slightly similar plot formula (it's kind of awkward to tell the same story twice, at the same).Now, Book 1 goes with Book 4, Book 2 goes with Book 5, and 3 goes with 6 - so I've knocked it down to a trilogy instead of four novels. (Reverse Paolini!) Two two other "books" turned out to be somewhat short and irrelevant to the main plot, so they have been turned into essentially short stories that are woven into novels 2 and 3 to make things more interesting.I still don't have plot outlines for any of them - although Book 2 is pretty solidified in my head... of course it's the one I won't actually write for some time.

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ah... the wonderful world of writing and RPing and everything else in between.[and wow. it's been years--literally. all my posts are so old that they're gone.]I don't really have an idea what's being said here, but the vibe I'm getting from a couple of the latest posts is that there is some serious worldbuilding going on here and such. This is my ballpark.as JKK was saying, I would definitely also recommend trying out an RP of your world if you want to get the hang of it, and see how others react to the type of world you are giving them. I speak from experience.I'm writing a huge novel series [have been, in theory, since 2001, but the stories I have now date back to 2009 and 2011, when I gave it some final overhauling for the 5th time].so to TK, I give a few words of advice, having been there, done that, and planning to publish book 1 of 9 at the end of 2012. I'll refer to your paragraphs as points, and give my responses.POINT 1: it depends on your audience really. you defintiely want to put them into an exciting part. I assume that since it's not published yet, that it has not all been written. This usually helps in terms of RPs (RPGs) because while most people have outlines, they don't have it strictly set up where it HAS TO BE DONE ONE WAY AND CANNOT BE DONE ANY OTHER. If you have theoretical plot point A, and theoretical destination B, it's always good to leave flexibility between the two of them before it's written, because you never know what'll inspire you. And, if you have good characters, they may want to reach theoretical destination B in a different way than you had planned. A good story is always there. you just uncover it.So what does this mean for you, the writer? it means that sometims, an RP can give you inspiration as to which way that scene/part may go. it's done that for me. the main plot went roughly unchanged, but how those particular scenes played out turned out to be different than I expected simply because the RP helped develop it much more than I had planned to.POINT 2: you won't need to give every nit and pic of every detail unless you plan on making an RPG span the entire length of your series. Take Harry Potter fo example. certain elements of the story that were vital to the plot (such as Horcruxes, for example) didn't get mentioned until much later in the series. So what this means to you is that you don't need to dump everything on people at once. Start out with the basics of the world--stuff that the players will need to know in order to be able to play your game. I have done this before, and most of the information I gave my players was just basic information such as how to create a character. I gave them information on the races and species of the characters, what their abilities were, and what the limits on their apperances were and all that whatnot. I described the different settings I gave each player when I opened the RP up for them, and wove a descritpion of the state of world affairs into my posts.I also left cdiscussion open for questions and comments and whatnot, because I had a LOT of those. If you get people interested in your world, encourage questions! let them ask about your world, and they can give you an outsider's opinion on how it can all make sense. they might be able to help you piece things together a bit better. I would recommend a live chat for that though, as Q&A sessions on forums are like driving uphill trainwrecks through molasses in a Siberian January.POINT 3: the secret to starting a good RPG is to find (A) people who enjoy Role-Playing [in deep, fantasy worlds, if you can find people who are into the likes of D&D and such, you might just strike gold.], and ( http://www.bzpower.com/board/public/style_emoticons/default/cool.png people interested in the elements your world offers. Once you have that, then you can start up an RP and expect some interest. I would also recommend writing a sort of intro/hook at the top of the thread so passersby can see what it's about, and maybe the hook will get them interested enough to play. It's not a foolproof strategy, but it got me into 2 RPs that both lasted a year [the 2nd one is still going, in fact]POINT 4: not much I can say on this one other than hope that you don't get anyone like that. that would be terrible. granted, if you want some inside opinions on it befire shipping it to the publisher, you'll obviously have to give some of it away. granted, I think on forums, the most that can happen is that someone gets a little inspiration from your writings, and I doubt people will try to rip it all off and steal your limelight.So who is this namelss random schmuck walking in pretending to be the writing guru?well, at this point, I don't feel any shame in telling a little about my world.I made an RP happen during an event that became chapters 13 and 14 of the 4th book of my series. a couple of tha players that have been in it for over 2 years are STILL asking questions. you should expect this if your world is very extensive, beause it will change and grow as your ideas do, and you might find that you like some ideas and don't like others. a little openness never hurts [too much though (too much of anything is bad though) can get you walking around in circles though, so be careful].it is a world of winged humanoid creatures called Serenghe, who have the abilitiy to manipulate one of 6 elements: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Light or Darkness. There are also some that are able to manipulate all 6, and they are called Anima Sensei. the storyline itself touches on the balance and conflicts between Order and Chaos, and touches on moral concepts such as right and wrong, and accepting responsibility, yadayada.Anyone who has seen or heard of Avatar: The Last Airbender will immediately catch on some similarities between the "Bending" in the show and the "forming" that appears in my book. there are similarities. every story has similarities with other stories, and most of them are called either cliches, or more commonly, Tropes. [a handy guide to tropes, what they are, and how they apply can easily be found by googling "TVTropes"] From the website: "Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations." [the only real way to describe them would be to go to the site though. I do not know the rules of advertising, but given that this is a wiki site and not a social/forum site (let alone my site) that I am linking to, I hope it's okay]the secret is, as people have been saying, to distance your version of the trope from those of others to make it more original. for example, Avatar has 4 "bendable" elements; my world has 6. in Avatar, only one person can control all 4 elements; in my series, it's more like 1 in every 10 or so. furthermore, it's "Bending", because they band and manipulate existing specimens of the elements. in my world, it's called "forming" because Serenghe can "form" it by manipulating existing elements, or "form" it by "creating" it. (actually converting chi energy to elemental energy, but not gonna get into that right now).just a few examples out of many. I may not be very active on this site (and it certainly won't look it, seeing as aall 1500 of my posts got eaten), but I'll definitely show my face in this thread a bit more.I hope this helps any aspiring writers.=Nephi=

Edited by Headless Onua

800x300? I remember when it was 100x225. :H

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1. I don't know where to start the RPG in a series that spans over 18 event-packed years. One part of me wants to start the series a little later on when the world has grown a bit more and there are more opportunities for the players. Yet it that happens, then there's more history to tell in the introduction, and that gets confusing. The advantage to starting earlier, even though there are less worlds to come from, is that there is less history and it starts out as more of a pitch for a setting and people have more opportunity to shape the way the world expands later on.

Duh, set a specific goal for players for each year. Once each goal is complete, timeskip to the next year.

Tumblr: Where facts and logic go to die.

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2. The world is huge and has many details. I'd have to put hundreds of hours into creating a catalogue of people, ideas, cultures, species, objects, and places within my universe, and each description would be fairly long. Who would want to read all that?

This one actually has a relatively easy answer. If you combine it with the level of railroading that Am I Popular Yet? suggested, then you can provide smaller pieces of information during the game or immediately beforehand. For each objective, you might write up and send out a page or two about playable characters, locations, important customs, etc. The only downside is that the players have to be quite dedicated to following customs and describing locations consistently. As such, I would recommend just basically creating a D&D campaign or something similar that would allow you to preside over the game-play and point out problems as they arise.BTW, Headless Onua, that website does in fact have an attached forum (as well as discussion pages for articles), so you shouldn't really link to it.~ BioGio

 

"You're a scientist? The proposal you make violates parsimony; it introduces extra unknowns without proof for them. One might as well say unicorns power it."

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:kaukau: Thanks JKK and Headless Onua. That makes me feel a bit more confident in the idea. Although I am thinking of making the RPG span a considerable length of the series. How do I set up a live chat?I also just so happened to make a few plot adjustments that leave the beginning very open-ended, considering that halfway through the series there's now a 2 or 3 million year time jump and I have little idea what happens in between other than a few general ideas. It's a convenient trope for me (by the way, I know of TVTrope and find it awesome) since I was trying to find a way for my main saga to become the definitive story in my expanded universe by depicting the beginning and end of an eon. Yeah, it was almost completely inspired by STAR WARS in every way, but that's okay because STAR WARS is my greatest inspiration anyway. I just hope that the plot of my series really makes the tropes their own.Anyway, here's a rough draft for an opening synopsis:The legend started with Craytus. He was of the demonically hideous nuadine race and came into being sometime during the genesis of the universe. From his very conception he was pure evil, and though his race delighted in wickedness his black soul overshadowed even their most perverse desires. As such, he belonged to no one, and even his own race forgot who he was, and his mysterious past was forgotten to all but the red eye of Quarr, who had also been around since as long as the nuadine had known.For as long as the stars burned, Craytus searched the universe for secrets too great for any mortal to find. One day, he found what he was looking for. Yet part of his secret treasure fled him, the Knowledge. The Knowledge manifested itself on Earth in a man serving the Air Force known as Monosmith. He used the Knowledge to build what no mind in the universe could conceive, an Interdimensional Traveling Device, and it was kept in secret at a military base.The race known as the inmuns visited the planet Earth in secret and they discovered what the man had created. Finding that they could not recreate it, a team of inmuns led by Buzzy decided to steal it, as well as the inventor himself, for the inmun race was being obliterated by the nuadine. Yet, by some accident or twist of fate, four human children were accidentally taken with them, whose names were Brutus, Nixie, Gertrude, and Michael.The team flew to their home planet, but they were intercepted by nuadine raiders. Now they are being transported to the nuadine ringworld of Quarr, where they will become slaves, and worse, meet the ancient evil of Craytus. Yet, they are not alone. They will meet many slaves of many species, even some abducted humans.Become one of the slaves, or even one of the evil nuadine, and discover how one individual can make a difference. And it doesn't end there, for soon the world will become quite big for the survivors as the true nature of the conflict is revealed.I figure that's starting it right at the beginning. Right before that I tried writing a synopsis two books in, but it sucked and there was no eloquent way of writing it. Hopefully even though I start early I can be fast-paced about the beginning to skip to the more expanded universe.Anyway, I figured that through my character profiles I could reveal some more information that should come naturally and orient the new player properly. I think I can figure out how much to include by looking at other RPGs.Your Honor,Tyrannosaurus Kraggh Edited by Tyrannosaurus Kraggh
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While it's not my slice of pie [i've always been a medeival fantasy type myself, but I do appreciate sci-fi], I have to agree that it's a good opening. The last paragraph is the one I like the best, because that's where you as the writer are aiming to convince the readers to join your game, it would seem. I very much likey.although, it might also be worth noting that you have the word "cane" there where I think it should be "can".as for setting up a live chat, there are several different sites. I know that one in particular, called chatango.com, allows you to create chats that you can embed in pages, or that can stand alone if needs be. Granted, I do not know how strict BZPower's advert policy is, but it seems just as strict was it wa sin 2004 when I first joined, so... I guess I'm just saying be careful on here, but you probably alreay knew that. xBalthough if you jump into an RP scheme and want a good hook, I would recommend giving a little hook-like intro at the beginning of the post as well.This is what I used, for example.Immerse yourself in a world governed by the elemental forces that constitute it—and where the people inhabiting the world can control them. Enter a world long fought over by the supernatural forces that originally created it. This is a world where prophecies are real; where elemental manipulation is an everyday way of life. This is a world where you can fly—a world of imagination, myths, legends, and so much more to overwhelm the mind.Well, from an outsider’s perspective it is, perhaps. To the Serenghe, this was home. This was their homeland of Mencu, for which they fought, served, and died for—mostly against each other. The quarrelling inhabitants warred against each other for various reasons, many of which were not much different than he reasons wars on our world start. Considering that the world is currently at war, now might be a good time to choose your side and get in on the action.and then I proceeded to give a little backstory and introduction to the details of the world that were mentioned in that op[ening paragraph.but, that's just how I did it, and obviously it's not the only way to get it done. Just my thoughts.=Nephi=

800x300? I remember when it was 100x225. :H

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I read that out loud in a pseudo-British accent. Totally awesome.Seriously, both of these synopses are really good; I can already imagine the kinds of adventures that would be in store for players.By the way, any tips for writing synopses? I've been trying to come up with one for my book for quite some time now, but to no avail. Of course, I haven't finished writing it yet, so there's that... :P

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:kaukau: I wrote the one you see above several times trying to get it right until I was satisfied (of course, that's an intro to an RPG, so it's not quite the same thing). I think that what's helped me in my ability to write a synopses has been to orally explain what my story is all about to my friends when they ask, because then my goal is to make my story brief and to make an impression so hopefully they don't remember it as "that one story he's writing".Your Honor,Tyrannosaurus Kraggh
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well, I guess it depends on what you're aiming for. mine was to promote an RPG based off of my novel series, but even then, promoting a novel series alone is not much different. I would personally recommend making it sound inviting. When people read my books, I want them to be able to immerse themselves in the world I created, and so I write synopses accordingly. Be inviting, and also be interesting. Hope that helps.=Nephi=

800x300? I remember when it was 100x225. :H

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, I need some advice on worldbuilding and culture. Some background first: Eons Book 1 takes place on a peninsula that's cut off from the mainland by a large mountain. The land is populated by both humans and "dragons". (The dragons are technically human - descendants of a clan that got changed by elven magic into dragon-like beings. But nobody knows that... yet.) The dragons keep humans as slaves, and the story begins as the humans are beginning to revolt (it's not the first time, but obviously it's the most successful revolution because that's when the book starts :P)My problem now is exactly how the dragon-master/human-slave relationship works. Clearly, there is racism involved, but do dragons really hate humans, or just see them as weak?What do dragons actually want from the humans? Keep in mind that dragons don't have hands, so they really have no concept of material possession - the only things they consider themselves to own are land, prey, slaves, and (probably) mates. They definitely don't want humans to hunt down prey for them - dragons are just better at it, plus they consider it a sport.How are slaves treated? There must be a certain amount of cruelty, or they wouldn't want to revolt. At the same time, one of my main characters is a slave-owning dragon, so he has to be relatable without falling into the "I'm the only one in my culture that has a problem with this" cliche.This also probably isn't enough information for you to offer suggestions, but I've also got a bit of writer's block at the point where the aforementioned main dragon meets the elf who's responsible for creating the "dragons".I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

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@Jedi Knight Krazy: Well, if the humans can't provide any of the dragon's necessities, then perhaps they can provide entertainment.Say a dragon is tired after a long day of hunting and just wants to unwind and relax in his cave (or wherever dragons in your story live). So he gets out his humans and orders them to dance or sing or do whatever it is that would entertain the dragon.Or maybe the dragon wants to impress a potential mate, so he shows her just how well-trained his human slaves are by having them dance or do something else entertaining.Just throwing a couple of ideas out there. Don't know if any of them fit your story or not.-TNTOS-

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

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@TNTOS, yeah, that's what I've been leaning towards: entertainment and logistics. (As in somebody who writes records, keeps track of a calendar, etc.) What got me stuck is that those are typically luxury skills, even for humans - slaves still have to provide for their own needs, probably by farming (hunting would be impossible, dragons really thin out a game population). I'm not a farming expert, but I think it's pretty time-consuming. Although, I suppose that art and science are not really luxury skills if your "master" sees them as your only purpose for existence - you'd probably find time. Or maybe dragons also keep farmers around to feed the men that more directly benefit them. Or maybe not. Maybe that's where the cruelty comes in - that humans are expected to both care for themselves and somehow find time to entertain or serve their dragons.Hmmm - that works, I guess. Now for the writer's block. First, some more background on the situation...Elves are the only race in the galaxy that can use magic. (Well... not quite. But explaining the exceptions would take too much time). In order to use magic, they have to kill a dragon - a real dragon, they're huge, maybe 3 stories tall (My measurement has been that a human could stand on somebody's shoulders and still not come up to its knee). When killed, the dragon releases energy that can be contained by an elf and used later to do... basically anything. (I was somewhat annoyed when I started playing Skyrim and found basically the same concept) Dragons are really difficult to kill, though, not only because of their size, but because of their hypnotic power - they can freeze an elf just by making eye contact, and with some effort, they can freeze an entire group of elves by looking in their general direction. (relevant sidenote: this ability is largely ineffective on other races, including humans) Fortunately, dragons are not intelligent.The elves are also capable of space travel, so at some point they came to the human's home planet and started messing around with magic, as magicians tend to do. That's when a certain eccentric elf, for reasons irrelevant to this summary and partially by accident, wound up turning a whole clan of humans into human/dragon hybrids (known later as Draconians). While they're much smaller than dragons, they're still pretty big (Their eye level is roughly the same as a human's, but they're on four legs). To the elves' panic, they also inherited the hypnotic power. This was strengthened due to their intelligence, and they quickly learned to not only freeze an elf, but order them to do their bidding. Most of the other elves fled the planet and decided to just nuke it, but the eccentric stopped them and stayed behind to study what he considered to be his creations, promising to keep Draconians from ever leaving the planet.Whew! Backstory takes a while. The book starts about 100 years later. One of the main characters is Suveiar, a "dragon" who receives a small family (middle-aged parents with a baby) of slaves from his parents as a coming-of-age gift (cultural sidenote: A Draconian is considered to be an adult at 16 years old, for reasons that I promise exist, I just don't feel like explaining them. The humans stick with the traditional 18.) Suveiar is... well, not really ready for independence, and his "slaves" wind up taking responsibility for him. (One of them comments that he feels more like Suveiar's father than slave). While hunting, Suveiar finds a stone door in a cliff. He can't open it, but there's writing on it. A day later, he shows it to his friend Nalfaer and his slave. (I haven't named that family yet. Probably should do that). The human can read it and it turns out to be instructions to open the door; a convoluted process involving fire-breathing and fine motor skills - something that can't be done by a human or dragon, alone. After they open the door, the human locks Suveiar and Nalfaer inside (presumably revealing that he's involved in the uprising).And that's where I'm stuck. The elf is inside the cave behind the door, he set it up as a (evidently flawed) test to see if humans and Draconians could cooperate. At some point during the conversation, the elf will reveal the truth about the dragons' race, but would it realistically change Suveiar's attitude toward his slaves? And how does it even come up? Literally, in my mind, Suveair and the elf are just staring around awkwardly, waiting for somebody to say something. (I'd say staring at each other, but that would cause problems for the elf)Thanks for putting up with the wall of text!

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Good to see that someone started the topic up again ^_^ -- I was worried that it wouldn't live on.I am curious as to a certain point, though, and as this topic has the word 'advice' in the title, I might as well ask it: what is the easiest way you guys have found to keep yourselves writing? I do a lot of essays and short stories, which work well for me, but every time I try to sit down and write a full book it doesn't go anywhere because I keep wanting to go back and change things. Do any of you guys have a strategy for dealing with that?

"Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus."

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