Young Writers Society

Yay for world building!


Okay, so here's the SB plot so far (correct me if I'm wrong): The Sankar King and Queen have been assassinated by what is believed to be the The Guild (despite who actually might have done it), throwing the kingdom into temporary anarchy.

Impressively, Prince Quintus Darshan Ahr'Man quickly manages to regain order, and establishes two new Dragon Groups: the Order of the Dragon, and the Dragon Guard. Both groups are given the task of finding mages connected to the assassination and sending them to Irondark, the distant, nightmarish prison (as well as maintaining general order in the kingdom). Prince Quintus has also improved foreign trade relations with the neighbouring country, Belasi.

Meanwhile, mages are getting treated worse than ever. Many have been forced to flee the Sankar capital to avoid assault and abuse from other citizens. Unexplained deaths of mages have risen in number since the assassination. The mages are getting pushed to the breaking point, with some cursing and others praising the Mages of the Guild members for their historical action.

What @XxXTheSwordsmanXxX posted for his third fact of Super Secret Stuff (hehe) was interesting: In this world's ancient history, there is a legend that tells of a power-hungry mage that collected (consumed?) the souls of Dragons by tearing them from their bodies. The souls enhanced the mage's own magic abilities immensely, and the mage became so powerful that it took a fleet of dragons to defeat the mage. So basically, a crazy strong power source that, if fallen into the wrong hands, could unleash mass destruction.


This is an awesome foundation. Here's how I thought we could build on it:

There are two kingdoms: Sankar and Belasi. Many centuries ago, a drought simply referred to as 'The Mountains Tears' swept the two kingdoms. An entire decade of merciless heat passed, causing the grasslands to dry up in the south and the mountain peaks to melt and flood the north. Many people died during this time, and an entire race known as the Willowfolk -- tall, goblin-like creatures that classify as fungi -- became extinct forever.

It is believed that the drought was caused by the dragons, with their intention being to punish all mages for the unforgivable actions that the power-hungry mage (from the legend) committed against their kind. However, the drought affected all races of the two kingdoms, not just the mages. Because of this, it is speculated that the first hatred towards the mages began during this time.

Towards the end of the drought decade, a war broke out between the two kingdoms (hence the ancient battlefield known as Sayarsa in @ScarlettFire's map). A group of thieves known as the Knights of the Sun were hired by the Sankar rulers of the time to steal Belasi’s limited resources, despite their kingdoms’ survival treaty (both kingdoms would support and provide equal resources for each other until the draught was over). Belasi declared war on Sankar for its betrayal, however Sankar, due to its accumulation of better resources, surfaced victorious from the war. The relationship of the two kingdoms has never been the same since, and only the present century has shown Belasi become less bitter and more open to Sankar through trade etc.


Fast-forward to present time…

Since the assassination, the Belasi kingdom has become oddly friendly and supportive of Prince Quintus and his new reforms. (Hint: it is not being friendly, it is being sneaky and two-faced). Belasi still secretly holds a grudge against Sankar, and one could suspect that the kingdom’s rulers played some part in the Sankar King and Queen’s assassination (Prince Quintus would be clueless to this at the start of the SB).

And to be totally random…

Plot twist: the Willowfolk are not extinct. They are the prison keepers of Irondark, and posses as mysterious power that is used as a torture device against the mage prisoners (let your imagination run wild with that one). The Willowfolk never forgave the mages for nearly causing their extinction many centuries ago, and thus took up the responsibility of torturing them. Only those who have been to Irondark know about the Willowfolk, and only a handful have returned from the prison to share this knowledge.


Um, so that’s all I got so far, mostly because my brain hurts XD Let me know if you like these ideas. I’m open to any changes.

Things I left out:

What has The Guild got to do with all this? What is their motive and whom do they answer to?

Also, I'm thinking there could be some epic repetition of history. All the events and groups of this SB -- The Guild, the Dragon Groups, the Knights of the Sun, the dragons, the elves, the relationship between Sankar and Belasi etc. -- could all link to one evil mage's master plan to obtain the power of Dragons' souls (like the ancient legend) and take over the world. But no big deal XP


To clarify, all these suggestions I came up with are just that -- suggestions! You don't have to agree with me if you don't like them. I'm just putting ideas out there for us to toss around

@CoffeeCat it's just "The Guild". Mages are part of it, but not the ONLY part. I mentioned them earlier in this DT. In fact, here;

ScarlettFire wrote:The Guild includes mages, thieves, assassins and other magic and non-magic users.

The full post is on Page 3 of this DT. About 8 posts down.

EDITED TO ADD: In fact, there's nothing to say it was the Mages from the Guild who gave the order. It might have been a different sub-group...or someone else entirely. All you need to know is the Guild gave an order and sent a blood mage out as assassin.

@ScarlettFire My bad. I accidentally thought that was its title from Prince Quintus' profile:

They also were meant to try and find Mages of the Guild, and blend in with them to try and search out agents.

I'll edit my info post right now ^^

@ScarlettFire that sounds good. Just one thing, it's 'drought' not draught. Sorry, the grammar nazi in me just had to say that.

Edit: I will also be editing my cp to make it that the dragon groups are hunting for members of the guild not just mages. I didn't see that post saying the variety of members, sorry.

Also here's some stuff ScarlettFire told me about Belasi.

Me-
What is the relation between Yaska city and the rest of the world?
What is Belasi like, and why don't Yaska/Sankar and Belasi like each other?
how serious is their conflict, and how likely is it to escalate if things continue the way they are?


ScarlettFire-
Yaska's relations within the Sankarian border is pretty good.
Belasi, not so good.

Think of Sankar as more Asian and Belasi as more middle-eastern....in culture. The climates are very different, but it's not unusual to see women (and some men) wearing veils in both countries. Moreso Belasi, though.
And they don't like each before of the anti-mage stance of Sankar. Not to mention old grudges.
It's pretty serious, and the wrong move could spark off a war.

@SirenCymbaline Whoa, I didn't even know any of that stuff! I must be psychic or something. All that info sounds good to me

I just like to repost any information I learn that could be useful to my fellow players.

btw I will post more on elf culture soon, including some pictures I drew showcasing their traditional clothing style.

You know the elves probably won't play much of a role past your charrie, right, @SirenCymbaline? Of course, having the knowledge there is cool. I just don't think it's going to be relevant any time soon, if at all.

Okay, clarification time!

@CoffeeCat, I believe is merely trying to improve trade with Belasi. We don't know how that's playing out yet because he's only had a week to put things into motion and knowing politicians, there's probably a HEAP of red tape to get through. So those are probably still caught up in all kinds of politician courts and whatnot. As the SB progresses, we'll probably see some of these actually put into motion.

As for the dragon souls and mage thing.... Well, that's probably a REALLY OLD LEGEND that everyone isn't sure whether to believe or not. And any documentation on said mage or any of his "soul-stealing" spells/spells in general are probably lost to time. Any that HAVE survived are either too badly damaged or written in a language that not many people can read. And by "not many", I mean, like, literally four. Or something. This knowledge, to put it bluntly, is rare as fuck and not likely to be found. Period. So, uh, good luck with that. XD

History Stuff: Uuuh, there's never been a drought in these kingdoms, so that's out. Which would mean no Willowfolk, even though that could be interesting, let's try not add any more races to the world just yet. So that leaves who or what, exactly, is guarding the prison a mystery. A prison which probably won't come into play at any point in the SB. For the moment, anyway.

But @CoffeeCat is correct about the ancient battlefield. There was a very, very large battle fought there. Unfortunately, no one can quite remember what it was about anymore. There's rumours, of course, but if there's anything (documents, etc) left over from it, they're probably long gone. Or unreadable. Or locked up in the palace libraries. One thing to know; there was so much bloodshed, it literally turned the battlefield into mud. There is a bit of a marsh there now. So take from that what you will.

If you have any questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them.

I know, I just wanted it to be there. Even if nothing really comes of it.

The information is handy to have, regardless. I like reading about the elves. XD

@ScarlettFire Whoa, whoa! Okay, forget I suggested anything then... No need to get brutal.

Do you have any other suggestions as to what we could do to develop the plot instead? Because at the moment everything is super vague.

@CoffeeCat, you haven't even seen brutal yet xD

just a pointer: I don't understand why you are all getting so hung up on the plot. SBs are a lot more fun and successful when not everything is plotted out and the world is a bit vague. Use this time to work on character interactions, not plot.

Plot, yes. Unnecessary history/backstory that probably won't be mentioned in the SB at all? No, not really.

Plot. So, this is more character interaction than plot... Basically, the gist is everyone gets a little caught up in the hunt for the mage who killed the King and Queen. How that happens is up to you. I know how my character will be caught up. Now it's your turn to figure things out. I know some of you have ideas that you'll put into motion early on in the SB. But I'll say this now, let's try not to separate our characters too much.

Figure out where they're starting, and who with. Arryn, my mage, will be in a tavern near the West Gate at the beginning of the SB. I imagine some other characters might be there. Or they might not. I also wouldn't be surprised if there were soldiers there. (I just know that would freak Arryn out a little bit!)

So have fun! Let's not get too carried away, though.