Junk AB's Writers Should Probably Know
The goal of this whole shabang is to explain the origin of Spherus Magna's seven tribes--accordingly, the serial will culminate with their creation vis a vis the Great Beings. But that's too boring, so we decided to stick a war in as well--in the grander scheme of things, it's largely irrelevant, but incredible quantities of fun to write about.
SM, at this point, is ruled by three kingdoms--
Roxtus, the Stone Kingdom, is ruled by Pior.
Magnacus, the Magma Kingdom, is ruled by Noca.
Galo, the Sea Kingdom, is ruled by Pravu.
These three leaders gained power through a series of events that occurred in the serial's prequel, Origins, and prior to those events served as the generals of the previous rulers. They double as generals.
So here's the lowdown. Pior gets power-hungry, and influenced by the Hermit's beliefs (See: Origins) starts a war with the Sea and Magma Kingdoms. A blanket of constant danger and paranoia settles over SM, and survival instinct kicks in. One separatist sect gets sick of the tension and breaks off from Magnacus, establishing itself as a mercenary faction, offering their armed forces to the highest bidder so as to be on the winning side. Pior seizes the opportunity and hires 'em, sending them on their former guildmates in Magma Kingdom. Vastly overpowered, they get killed. Survivors take refuge in the merc faction, or are enslaved by the Stone Kingdom. The war's narrowed down to the Stone and Sea Kingdoms, with the mercs serving the former.
The merc group becomes a home for refugees and pacifists who wanna avoid the war, so the normal non-fighting civilians pull it outta the war. Some more action, Stone Kingdom dominates predictably -- but not without some unexpected twists in the fighting (writers, I'll leave that mostly to you, read up on your wartime fiction) -- and the GBs descend and ally with the mercs, overpowering and executing Pior. The GBs elect the merc group as the ancestor from which SM's seven tribes descend.
I should probably mention one more thing -- the majority of the story's told from the first-person perspective of a Magma Kingdom Glatorian named Celurm (SELL-urm), the classic soldier-esque persona (check the chars topic). Read on to find out what happens to him.
Actual Storyboard
Chapter One
The only chap not told from Celurm's point of view. Pior, in his masterfully criminally inclined obsession, ambushes a squadron of Magma Tribe elite troops, of which Noca is a member of. She is one of a minority of survivors. The act is a declaration of war against the Sea Tribe. Noca beseeches the Sea Tribe for aid, but in her hot temper offends the unintelligible behemoth Pravu, who declares war on both of 'em.
Chapter Two
We're introduced to Celurm and his dryly sarcastic, realist's perspective on life and war. He was another of the few survivors of Noca's squadron. Failing to suffocate his pessimistic and yet charming persona, he inadvertently gets on good terms with her and gets promoted to her viceroy. A year passes mid-chapter, and he's already jaded and bored with the high life -- not in a snobby way, in a wannabe-country-simple-life way. He's sent to assassinate Pior, which fails miserably. He gets on the Stone king's bad side. Lotta action, stick in as much as you want besides the details listed here. Hook the reader.
Chapter Three
Celurm forges a friendship with Magma Glatorian Baturo, a charming, charismatic personality of high rank in the Magma Kingdom's hierarchy and in Noca's personal favor. They fight a battle against Galo in which Baturo displays a heroic, near-cliche valiance that for the first time in his life invokes a sense of inspiration within Celurm. Baturo quietly pitches him the idea of forming a virtuous mercenary faction in order to speed the war to its end, leaving Celurm to contemplate abandonment of his homeland and the prospect of an honored leadership.
Chapter Four
The chapter opens with Celurm providing Noca with unsolicited strategic advice, which yields a vicious disapproval accompanied by her personal insult of Celurm's character. A heated debate ensues, during which Celurm silences her by impulsively revealing Baturo's plan to split from their parent kingdom. Stupefied, she storms out, and Celurm exiles himself from Magnacus territory before someone else can do it. Baturo and a small band of loyalists he's picked up come with, forming the founding brothers of their faction (writer of chap four, come up with a cool sounding, memorable name for their faction).
Chapter Five
A few months have passed and the mercenary faction has amassed a fair number of members. Celurm, as its co-founder, has once again found himself in the position of second-in-command (he despises leadership, since it implies responsibility, which sadly he's quite good at handling). Pravu receives word of them and hires them to fight in a small skirmish against the Magma Kingdom. The fight invokes a troubled sense of guilt and disloyalty with Celurm -- he grazes steel with Noca herself, who lets him live, an action that inspires many a dizzying question in Celurm's mind. The chapter closes with him brooding over events as he guiltily denies the gold their employer has payed them.
Chapter Six
Pior seizes the opportunity and hires the guild to attack their former brethren, the Magma Kingdom, who due to the gradual attraction of mercenary life is left bereft of a substantial number of troops. The battle deepens Celurm's sense of self-disappointment and heightens his confusion of loyalty. Upon Baturo's absence in the camp after the soldiers' return, he is pronounced dead. Celurm's mental torture advances to marginal irrationality, and all the emotion he's stored over the years begins to seep out in frantic lapses. He is elected the faction's leader by a cheering crowd of hundreds. This event, blended with his depression, causes a strange, numb sense of elation.
Chapter Seven
Choosing to deal with his anxiety by not displaying it at all, the now-hardened veteran Celurm leads his troops in the good fight against Magnacus. The battle is bloody and he is ravaged by bloodthirstiness, intimidating his own fellow warriors. Pior sends him and a small number of his own troops on an assassination mission, with Noca as its target. This mission will continue into the next chapter, so leave off wherever you think's suspenseful.
Chapter Eight
The elite team of assassins breaks into the palace by Celurm's guilty admission of its hidden entrances. Unable to bring himself to slay Noca upon their entrance in her throne room, he is shoved aside and watches her die. Internally cursing himself for not taking action until now, he finally indulges his own desires instead of those of his employer and literally sprints out of the palace, hiding incognito for a few days. He encounters a mysterious, subtly terrifying being who identifies himself as a Great Being and proposes an alliance.
Chapter Nine
With the GB's aid, Celurm plans a midnight mission to Pior's throne room, where they and a few handpicked elites of the faction will assassinate the Stone Kingdom ruler. They follow through on the plan -- writer, make Pior's death dramatic and thrilling, but not too cliche. The GB offers Celurm to be the ancestor of SM's descendants. Celurm accepts the offer, but conditionally -- the promise must apply to all members of his guild, and Celurm himself will forfeit all responsibility of surveillance of those future generations to the GBs. The chapter's (and serial's) closing details a meeting between the GBs in some hidden, mystical location during which the GBs discuss how it all played out particularly well, and how they anticipated Celurm to forfeit leadership to them -- which is why they approached him in the first place. The serial ends on a somewhat wicked, cliffhanger-type note.
Check out the AB Character Profiles topic so as to make sure different writers have consistency writing about the same chars, and PM me with one or more chaps you want writing rights to. Ready, go!
Last edited by Rising Moon on 12th April 2012, 2:16 pm; edited 1 time in total