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What else on the writing front (Part 1)
However, I am completely incapable of following up on these ideas. I might write a page or two of actual content, certainly, but turning that into a full story - even a short story - proves to be an insurmountable obstacle. This was what kept me from writing the many novel-sized ideas that I had until the lucky breakthrough with Scoundrels and Liberators. For example, an idea I was considering writing, inspired by D&D and Terraria. It takes place in a vaguely 'clockwork/steampunk' sort of world, where technology has advanced to using (basic) firearms and industrialization, with corporate interests jostling up against magical purists - magicians and druids that claim technology is little more than a crude facsimile of what magic can do without harming the environment:
We have two heroes to this story - a gentleman-of-sorts named Julian, and a world-weary fighter and traveler named Kyrie.
Julian hails from the Dacolis family, a well-to-do line of industrialists. About a century ago, his great-great-grandfather helped to discover the mines that would form the basis of the city of Adronis, an enormous industrial metropolis that claimed several enormous mining and smelting operations. His great-great-grandfather founded Havlock Manufacturing, an innovator and leader in the application of industrial concepts and ideas for quite some time.
However, as time passed, the Dacolis line gradually succumbed to greed over innovation, and competitors began to pop up. Havlock, originally the leading name, began to slip as Adronis produced competitors and inventors, each more clever than the last. Julian remembered his grandfather as a stingy, penny-pinching man who made many enemies through his cruel business practices, and his father only continued to cut corners and play politics instead of reviving the brand as the innovator it once was. Upon his deathbed, his father informed Julian that the business was steadily dying, and that the debtors would be coming for him before long.
Julian, uninterested in the disgusting politics and brutal competition, packed his belongings the next day and disappeared. He purchased two boats - the first, a grand luxury yacht that someone of his standing might be expected to own. The second was obtained under an anonymous purchase and was a small merchant vessel used for trading between local ports. The night of the second purchase, he set sail in the yacht, towing the second boat behind him, then sank the luxury cruiser, leaving his legacy and name behind before heading for the port of Sunwell, hoping to start anew.
Sunwell was originally founded as a 'jumping off' point for an idealistic business mogul with ties to archmages and businessmen alike. It would be the face of progress to the rest of the world. The city itself was meant to be a gateway - those interested could view the wonders that occurred when magic and industry worked together, while those skilled enough to offer their services could join the empire built below the surface. The mogul wanted a haven isolated from the rest of the world - a place where practitioners of magic could practice their art away from the rest of the world while inventors and scientists could perfect their work. Much to everyone's surprise, the 'underground empire' worked quite well - the business mogul proved to be an effective leader and was generally able to settle disputes. The fundamental arguments of technology versus magic never really went away, but mostly, it was kept in check by negotiation, and, in more dramatic disputes, isolation.
However, something happened, and the tunnel from Sunwell to the 'underground empire' was closed down without explanation. Initial attempts at contacting the civilization went unanswered, and expeditions did not return. The port town was forced to convert to construction and boatbuilding in order to keep people coming, but its reputation as a tourist destination quickly dissipated, causing much of its wealth to evaporate.
Over time, as expeditions continued to turn up nothing, the citizens of Sunwell crafted a legend that the empire had crumbled due to internal strife. The story was that a civil war had broken out, with factions taking up arms against one another in order to fight for control of the vast number of resources underneath, with hints of some sort of magical curse overtaking the city, the influence of demons or other supernatural phenomenon. The story gradually grew more complex, and each retelling of it added to the drama until a full-on war had occurred below the depths. Tourism - especially explorers interested in discovering the truth - began to pick up again, and Sunwell's council began to take people on tours through what ruins they 'were able to find' - each an elaborate construction set up to continue the legend. The explorers who probe too deep, however, tend to disappear...of course, 'taken by the magical curse/demons/other supernatural phenomenon'
Julian arrives a few days later and makes himself comfortable, curious about the stories and legends, but realizes before long that there are enough contradictions and half-truths that the story does not add up. However, he too is ensnared by the thought of discovering the fallen empire and the truth behind its disappearance, and seeks someone who's actually gone into the ruins and knows more.
His search leads him to Kyrie, a former tour guide who's seen more than her fair share of the seedy underbelly of civilization. She's used her earnings from touring to settle down, purchasing a bar on the outskirts of civilization and feeding stories to eager explorers and tourists while pocketing the sizable profits off her alcohol. Julian is led to her as the best source of information and approaches her rather bluntly. They do the usual song and dance before the gentleman asks her rather bluntly as to what the real story is.
She dodges the question - everyone's had their theories and simply wants their beliefs to be affirmed, and she assumes that Julian is no different. The gentleman pulls a platinum coin from his coat and asks the question again.
Kyrie flinches.
"You've been a tour guide before, haven't you?"
She nods.
"Then what's the real story?"
"I told you, nobody knows the real story."
"Perhaps not, but hundreds of the best-equipped explorers in the world have ventured into the ruins and either come back empty-handed or not at all. The city has something it's trying to hide."
"Why would you care?"
"Whether I care or not is irrelevant. I want to see the city, and I've been lead to believe that you are the best possible way to get there."
"The place is cursed. It'd be suicide."
"Are you saying you're uninterested in platinum?"
"I'm saying I'm uninterested in dying."
"They said you were the toughest person they knew. You fought creatures that razed caravans and won."
"So?"
"You did it for money, then. Why not now?"
"I've settled down. I own a respectable business."
"You'll make perhaps this coin..." He holds up the platinum coin. "...in the rest of your life at this business. Did you really give up a lifestyle you've lived for decades in order to lie to tourists and explorers too drunk to realize the truth?"
She scowls. "What if I did?"
"I'm willing to bet this coin..." He withdraws a pouch and shakes it, letting the coins jangle "...and the rest of the ones in here that you didn't. You're doing this for some other reason. Just like you know that I've got my own reasons for wanting to go there."
There's a pause, Kyrie pursing her lips. Julian smiles.
"Well?"
"What do you want?"
"A tour guide who knows what's actually going on and a bodyguard when things go wrong."
"If things go wrong?"
"When. I've been alive long enough to realize when a town isn't playing fair."
"What makes you think I'm not just turn you over to them, then?"
"Call it intuition. Do we have a deal?"
"...I'll think about it."
"I'll see you in the morning then." He leaves the coin on the bar.
Of course, no reader is surprised when Kyrie agrees, and the two set out, steadily finding the actual story along the way.
--
Thus, there! That's a D&D plot hook right there.
And I probably won't ever flesh out the whole story, because I just can't seem to do this sorta stuff. D'oh.
Anyway, I'll post a couple of the other snippets I've come up with in the next part!
no subject
Anyway, it was kind of hard to follow the worldbuildingness but as soon as it switched to a narrative form my interest piqued. And I found myself thinking "You shouldn't have explained it yet! We're supposed to find out the reason for all this as the story evolves!" But then, this is your journal and not a story site, so you probably had to ramble all that in order to set up for writing it. *grin* And that's what it's for!
Good luck with your next installment! Or whatever you end up writing next.
no subject
Anyway, on the off-chance I actually DO write this whole shebang, I left out almost all of the juicy details. Nobody knows the real reason the empire collapsed (or if it collapsed at all), the history that led up to the unnamed business mogul crafting the empire in the first place, what Julian and Kyrie find down there (and/if WHO they find down there)...etc.
Also I got a chuckle at the thought up there. =) I imagine a fair number have attempted to exorcise the place so that the disappearances cease, but only to no avail. Alas!