Storytelling Time: The Four Orphans

 

Just about every story idea I have ever had I can trace back to a specific genesis. I saw something very specific and it gave me an idea and that spiraled into a greater narrative. The Four Orphans is a fantasy story idea I came up with a very long time ago and it has hardly changed at all since then. But I can't seem to remember where it came from. When looking back at my life when this idea came to me I can't recall where this cast of characters came from.

Today I am just going to talk about The Four Orphans themselves as well as the main antagonist. Like many of my stories I incorporated this one into The God Factor timeline but with just a few small changes it could easily be a separate story from that. Lets meet the orphans.

 

Aurin, a young wizard of the elemental order.

Moug, a young half dragon living on his own.

Emalia, a half elf princess who longs to see the world.

Michael, a young warrior who only concerns himself with growing stronger.

 

Aurin was literally left on the doorstep of the elemental order of wizards academy.

He was raised there and soon proved to be a prodigy capable of wielding all the elements, making him a favored student of the faculty, but isolating him from his fellow students. The Archmage Cristofol became his mentor and primary father figure. His only friend growing up was a fairy named Andira. I will introduce you to them in the next post. Aurin has spent his life wondering where he came from and why he was left with the elemental wizards.

 

Like previous collages this one contains images I made in heromachine and heroforge. There is a piece that was done for me by an actual artist on deviantArt and I am embarrassed to admit I can't find the artist name right now but I know I have it written down somewhere in my records. I did not include many AI generated images because they seem to have a hard time making a young wizard instead of an old one.

 

 

Moug is the son of a female red dragon. He never met his father. He only knows his father was some kind of sorcerer powerful enough to shape shift into a dragon and court his mother. Shortly after Moug was born his mother began to suffer from a mysterious illness and his father disappeared. The dragon elders did what they could to ease her pain but they could never figure out a cure for the illness. The other dragons tolerated him but never fully accepted the boy who was clearly only half dragon. Eventually Moug's mother died and he chose to leave the red dragons mountain home to live on his own in the wild.

This collage has a few heroforge models and a few AI generated images. But the centerpiece art was done for me by Heli Horse from deviantArt. There is another piece of art done for me by an artist and I am once again embarrassed to admit that I don't have their name written down where I can find it.

 

 

Emalia is a princess, her mother was the elf king's sister. Her father was a human. It was considered a bit scandalous and made more so when her mother's human lover disappeared shortly after she found out she was pregnant. She kept the child and named her Emalia. When Emalia was still a small child her mother died in a horse riding accident. The king was grief stricken by the loss of his beloved sister and welcomed Emalia to the royal family where she was raised among her cousins and he would not tolerate any criticism of his nieces half human blood. Emalia had a good life and was even assigned her own royal bodyguard, a veteran warrior named Lenok. But her whole life no one would tell her anything about her human father, it was clear the king hated him whoever he was and would not even say his name. Emalia has grown up wondering about the other half of her lineage and the world outside the elf kingdom.

This collage has art pieces done for me by artists demoonial and lineith from deviantArt. It also has some images from a few different dress up games and some AI images.

 

 

Michael Wang Yun is the grandson of the great martial arts master Chow Wang Yun. His mother was Master Chow's only child and his father was a mysterious traveler named Darien Walker. Michael's birth was very difficult and his mother did not survive it. Darien Walker abandoned his newborn son that very night, never to be seen again. Chow raised his grandson in the ways of the warrior and the boy became his best student. Michael has had a peaceful life and focuses on his training always striving to become stronger.

I now have a nephew named Michael and I considered changing this character's name because I don't like to use the names of people I know for characters in stories. But I came up with this Michael long before I ever knew I would have a nephew so I have kept the name the same.

This collage is a mix of heroforge, heromachine, and AI images. It includes one piece of art done for me by an artist named Rebekah Spake from deviantArt.

 

 

Orion Karr is the main antagonist of The Four Orphans. He is a powerful sorcerer seeking a set of ancient artifacts that will give him the power to shape the fate of the world. His quest will lead him into direct conflict with each of the four orphans and force them to flee their homes in the hope that they can reach the artifacts before him.

Originally Orion Karr was going to looking for the artifacts of the Antalla, but if I am going to separate this tale from The God Factor timeline I can't use the Antalla lore. He can still be looking for the artifacts that once belonged to a legendary hero and are imbued with his power, but it can't be the Antalla.

This collage has heromachine and heroforge images and a few AI generated. There is one art piece in it done for me by and artist from deviantArt and once again I was sure I had the artists name in an easy to find place but now I can't find it after all. I am going to have to dig up those files.

 

 

There are several more characters who follow each of the Four Orphans on their journey as well as other supporting cast members I will show off in future blog posts.

Storytelling Time: The Girl and The Sword

Welcome to the first Storytelling Time. I don't know if I will keep this up or if it will be a one off thing but here we go.

I have been writing stories since I was a kid. The one I have been working on the longest is called The God Factor. It takes place in modern times but I also had ideas for what would happen far in the future and past of that story world. I had a whole timeline reaching to the beginning of the universe all the way to the far future. And at some point I started to incorporate a lot of story ideas into The God Factor timeline.

In recent years I have taken a look at a lot of my story ideas and made major changes to them. The God Factor is no longer primarily about the character Dominick Kellen but I chose to change the starting point of the series and make Dominick's apprentice Nadia the main focus of the narrative. And a lot of those stories that I incorporated into The God Factor timeline could easily work as stand alone stories or parts of different series with just a few small changes. Today I am going to talk about one of them.

 

THE GIRL AND THE SWORD

The Girl and the Sword is a working title that could change one day but it is indeed about a girl and the sword she wields and fights against.

 In The God Factor timeline this story would have taken place in a post-post-apocalyptic world where humanity has begun to rebuild and magic is returning to the world. It would still take place in a similar setting where the world has begun to recover from some great disaster a century or two back but now it would be unrelated to anything happening on Earth as we know it.

 

KATARINA RAO

collage includes art by artists Musspell and Waterskies from deviantArt

 When Katarina was a child she witnessed the deaths of her parents at the hands of bandits. But her mother and father were both skilled warriors and took all of the bandits down with them so their children and the rest of their caravan was safe.

Katarina grew up with people telling stories about what a great hero her father was but hardly anyone acknowledging her mother's heroics. Katarina was determine to train to be a fighter but in a community that was not very progressive on gender equality. So Katarina observed martial arts lessons whenever she could and taught herself.

Her life changes when her younger brother is chosen by the Order of the Divine Palm as a candidate to be a great hero. There is more to it but we will get to that. Katarina is able to travel with her brother to the Divine Palm temple and, well a lot of stuff happens and they eventually encounter the titular sword of the story which is incredibly powerful and dangerous. The sword once belonged to a great hero but since his death the living weapon has gone mad and just wants to destroy. And it turns out Katarina is one of the few people with an affinity to bring the sword under her control, but a lot of people want that sword and the power they think it can give them.

 

SHAWN RAO

collage contains art by jnetrocks on deviantArt

 Shawn is Katarina's younger brother. He was very much the golden boy of the village they grew up in. He was the son of a well known hero after all. They gladly trained him to be a great fighter so that he might become a great hero one day. Shawn recognizes the unfair way his sister is treated but he also knows she can fight for herself.

When the Order of the Divine Palm invited him to their temple it seemed like he was starting on the heroic path he was always destined for. But the time at the temple does not have the results he was expecting and that heroic destiny starts to feel far out of reach. This leaves Shawn vulnerable to the temptation of the evil swords deadly power.

 

ANDREW OLIN

collage contains art by jnetrocks on deviantArt

 Andrew in an orphan raised by the Order of the Divine Eye. He is a gifted spellcaster and brought to the temple as a hero candidate just like Shawn. He quickly becomes friends with Katarina and together they recognize something is off about the whole hero candidate shtick. It is clear to Andrew that it is all a scam and the Divine Palm monks are pulling in a play for power. But there are other forces at play that no one is ready for and Andrew will be forced to push himself beyond the limits he did not know he had.

 

ZACHARIAH WALKER 

collage contains art by jnetrocks from deviantArt

Zachariah is the first son and heir of a wealthy merchant family and the third hero candidate summoned by the Order of the Divine Palm. It seems he fit the bill for the final member of the heroic trio they were hoping to create with the three boys. But as the ruse behind it all is exposed, Zachariah finds himself drawn into a heroic journey with the others, whether he wants to be there or not.

 

MADAME DESCHANEL

collage contains art by jnetrocks and slashchicken from deviantArt

 Madame Deschanel makes a dramatic appearance at the Divine Palm Temple to announce that she is the true heir to the heroic legacy they are trying to co-opt for their own gain. She has had a prolific career slaying creatures that feed on humans. By trying to claim their candidates are the new heroes the Divine Palm monks have made themselves a target for Madame Deschanel's enemies, so she takes them with her to the big city to keep them safe.

Katarina is eager to learn from Madame Deschanel and so is Andrew. Zachariah tries to make the best of his confusing situation while Shawn grows bitter over the destiny he feels was denied. It is not long after this that the ancient sword comes into play.  Madame Deschanel may wish to keep her wards safe but the sword can't be allowed to run wild or nowhere will be safe.

 

BARNABUS

 And finally we come to Barnabus. His history is complicated but that is a moot point. If I am going to divorce this story from The God Factor timeline then I will probably have to cut Barnabus from the story completely and create a new character to take his place.

He is an ancient being well acquainted with the history of the evil sword and a strong interest in keeping it from being used. He joins forces with Madame Deschanel and the kids to defeat their enemies and seal the sword.

 

And that is the concept for one of my many stories. I noted in the captions where the collages have art that was done for me by actual artists where I still have a record of it. Most of them also include image from heromachine, heroforge, a few different dress up games, and a few AI generated images.

More Talking About My Writing

 I am going to talk about all the writing I am doing lately again. I have lots of story ideas. I have been coming up with stories since I was a kid and I have been trying to make something of a career of it for my adult life with varying results. And I have now lost the thread of where I was going with this paragraph so lets just get to the story stuff.

 

BALLAD OF THE DREADWALKER

The series of short stories I am working on for the Twisted Westerns anthology. I wrote some rough drafts for about half the stories during Novel Quest last November. I was getting ready to show one to my writing group but then I got an idea for a whole new framing device for them. The tales follow the adventures of Seamus of the House of Draeden AKA the Dreadwalker but he is not the one narrating those tales. I thought what if his best friend Mordecai is the narrator in the form of entries from his personal journal and cowboy adventure dime novels he wrote based on the stories Seamus told him. Now I am rewriting them with that framing device in mind so it will take a little longer before they are ready to share for critique.

 

THE BETRAYAL

This dark fantasy revenge story is one I have described as The Count of Monte Cristo meets Berserk by Kentaro Miura. I know the plot of this story. I know all the characters and scenes. I need to work a little more on some of the worldbuilding but I am not worried about that.

The problem with this story has been the first chapter. I have a solid prologue but the opening chapter keeps stumping me. It is not a complicated scene. The mysterious hero arrives in a town in a land that is oppressed by the corrupt lord. The people in the town are not friendly to strangers. The mysterious hero sees an old man and his daughter being harassed by local knights, who are basically just thugs with swords.  Mysterious hero picks a fight and kills two of them but lets the third get away to draw out the corrupt lord.

Its a pretty standard cliche scene you have seen in many stories before but I just can't seem to get it to work in a way that feels right to me. I have considered asking another writer to help me with it because this is a story where I am open to creative collaboration.

 

TALES FROM THE CROWNWORLD

My idea for a science fiction podcast that takes place on an ancient super space station in some far flung part of the universe. I wrote a few episodes but still have not done any recording. I had this idea to have a certain number of episodes ready to go before I tried to put it up anywhere. But I only have a certain number of stories and I wanted to open it up to other creatives to help flesh out the Crownworld and its characters.

 

Those are the main things I have been working on that I can think about now.

I NEED TO TALK ABOUT MY WRITING

A lot of thoughts have been swirling around my head the last few days about writing and stories I am working on and I don't really have anyone to talk about in person with them right now and attempts to engage on the internet rarely ever work out for me so I am going to talk about it on blogger because I need to vent all of this in some way.

 

It started with Giant Robo. For those not aware, Giant Robo was a manga and live action tv show in the 1960's about a boy and his giant robot in Japan fighting evil. In the 1990's there was an anime OVA revival that many consider to be one of the best anime of all time. I finally had a chance to watch the Giant Robo OVA and most of it was pretty great, we will get back to that later.

I have also been making those character collages and just kind of looking at a lot about various story ideas and what some of them are missing. That brings us to The God Factor.

The God Factor is a story I have been working on for a very long time. It is about a group of people who each gained super powers from a substance known as the Divine Element, working for an organization called The Parliament of Light and fighting against evil across the multiverse. Each of them comes from a different version of Earth. Most of them come from some version of Earth very similar to our own. They each have varying levels of extranormal/pretenatural activity that is usually kept secret from most of the world. Some worlds have so much extranormal activity that its impossible to keep any of it secret and there are government agencies that monitor or regulate it. And some worlds have been through apocalyptic events but humanity endures.

Most of the character chose to leave life on their home Earth behind to join the Parliament of Light. Some left for simple reasons like an excuse to get away from the overbearing parents. Two of them had brief superhero careers before deciding they could do more good working for the Parliament. Others lost loved ones to war or tragedy and decided there was nothing tying them to their old life anymore so they may as well help in the fight against evil. At least one of them comes from an Earth where civilization was destroyed by a zombie apocalypse so he has no home to go back to.

Over the years I have figured out a backstory for each God Factor character except one. Her name is Rosa. I know what her family was like and why she hardly ever talks to them. But I could never decide what kind of Earth she comes from and why she chose to leave it. Then I saw Giant Robo.

The Giant Robo OVA is a 7 episode direct to video anime that started in 1992 and finally finished in 1998. It is about a near future where an international police force, called the Experts of Justice, fight against Big Fire, a terrorist organization trying to take over the world. And the greatest weapon in this battle is the Giant Robo that answers to a heroic 12 year old boy. While watching Giant Robo, it hit me. This is the kind of world Rosa came from. A world where giant robots just happen to get manufactured in secret sometimes and there is super science super weapons and some people just kind of randomly have superpowers for reasons and also there are various types of magic sometimes.

Anyway I decided that Rosa could have once worked for a group just like the Experts of Justice and her power to manipulate gravity would have let her fit right in and be a powerful asset. The world she comes from is pretty cool, so why did she choose to leave it behind? Well Giant Robo gave me the perfect answer for that too.

By the time you get to the final episode of Giant Robo it is clear that many of the characters are headed for a tragic end. And there is a lot of tragedy going on in that finale. I mean they really go out of their way to rub the tragic salt in that tragedy. But the thing that bothers me about it is that all the tragedy hinges on a few characters being complete morons and keeping secrets for very stupid reasons. Now I could get into a whole debate about what makes a well written tragedy but this one just irked me for so many reasons. But it did give me the solution to my problem with Rosa.

What if the reason Rosa left the organization she worked for was because of a massively tragic event? And it was a tragedy that could have been prevented if a few people in positions of power had just told the truth instead of keeping secrets in the name of peace or order or whatever. Rosa is not the sort of person who would accept excuses like that in the face of mass death. Rosa would say to hell with you and all of this and jump at the chance to leave them behind to join the Parliament of Light instead.

But now I have to write that story out don't I? Indeed I do, among many others things. So on top of everything else I am also now building a modern earth adjacent retro futurist world and trying to figure out what kind of secret the organization of good guys would have kept that led to retaliation by a mad scientist with a doomsday weapon. But maybe I can storywall that out with some people later. I am glad I got some of this written out of my system for the moment.

Other Charaters from Nourna's World

 The other day I shared about the character Nourna and some of her allies. Today we will look at that same fantasy world setting. I have a few ideas for possible world names and I will assign one soon enough. Here are a few other heroes and minor characters wandering that world.

Tanja is a heroic beautiful archer adventurer. She travels helping those in need and fighting evil. I don't really have her character developed much beyond that. I decided she could exist on the same world as Nourna. This collage includes some heromachine models, a viking warrior dress up game. It also has two drawings, one done for me by demoonial and other by wolfram18, both are on deviantArt.

Lathan is Tanja's husband who travels with her adventuring. He is a very handsome warrior man. I made a version of him with a warrior maker dress up game. Then I got a few AI generated images from his description that look okay.

Reyna is a girl from a faraway land who has magical powers. The original drawing for this character was done for me by deyenyen on deviantArt. It was meant to be a different character but I recolored it and came up with the idea for Reyna. I had an idea for playing with the 'exotic foreigner' trope where Reyna comes from an analog of Europe and to the people of Tanja's land, Reyna is very unusual.

Haoshi is a recurring character the heroes would meet from time to time. Haoshi is a messenger with ninja skills. She uses the skills to move quickly and quietly so that she can make her deliveries safely. The centerpiece of this collage is a drawing done for me by musspell on deviantArt. I also used heromachine and got some decent versions of her from an AI image generator.

Surati is a dancer at a inn/lodge/club of some kind in the world. I have some ideas for her backstory but I want to work on them more before I get into it.

And finally Yuki is another dancer that works with Surati at the same place.

I thought I would have more to say about some of these characters but now it seems I need to develop this world and its stories more before I share anything else about it.

NOURNA'S PATROL

 Today I want to look at another God Factor spin off idea. Yes another one from the story arc idea where Dominick goes to different worlds recruiting new heroes to the forces of light. In one world he met a young soldier named Nourna.

Nourna is the last soldier of an army that no longer exists for a nation that was destroyed. Nourna was the second in command of her patrol. The enemy they fought overwhelmed them and Nourna was the only survivor. She returned home to find her nation had fallen. Now Nourna roams the land upholding the ideals of her destroyed homeland and helping those in need.

I made this collage with a few AI generated images of Nourna's description as well as heroforge.com and heromachine.com plus two actual arts from deviantArt. The one of the left was done for me by waterskies. I know I have the name of the artist who did the centerpiece image written down but I can't seem to find it right now so I will update that later if I find it.

Not long after Nourna began her travels, she met Arma who became her traveling companion and best friend. Arma is a demi-god, the daughter of Bellatorius, the god of war. No mortal weapon can harm Arma. No matter what weapon is being used, it will shatter the moment it impacts her skin. The only exception are divinely blessed weapons that are very rare, so she does not worry about them most of the time. Nourna is still dealing with a lot of trauma from losing everything and Arma provides some upbeat energy that helps lift her spirits.

The centerpiece of this collage was done for me by demoonial on deviantArt. It also includes a heromachine.com version I made and a base I used for the early concept of Arma's outfit. The rest are the AI genereated results from Arma's description.

Pyrim is a traveling adventuring archer. He met Nourna and Arma on an adventure and teamed up with them for a time. He immediately took a liking to Nourna but she was not ready for a relationship so soon after everything she lost. Pyrim continues his own travels and helps Nourna whenever he can hoping for the day when she will be ready to get close to someone again.

There is only one AI image in this one, the rest are heroforge.com and a warrior dress up game.

Athela and Berthela are beatiful twins who become allies to Nourna and Arma. The twins are in fact the demi-god daughters of the goddess of love. Athela became a spell casting priestess serving their mother's religion. Berthela on the other hand rejects their mother's power and chooses to be a warrior. They travel together doing good works and team up with Nourna when the opportunity arises.

The twins are characters than came about when I decided to recolor some line art pieces that some artists did for me. The one for Athela was done for me by demoonial. Unfortunately I can't seem to find the name of the artist that did the Berthela one. I know I had a file with all this information but I seem to have lost stuff after transferring over to this new computer. Anyway I also made versions of them in heromachine and got a few results from their description in an AI image generator.

And that will be all for today. There are a few other characters in the same world as Nourna but I will post them later. Also I need to decide on a name for the world this story takes place on.

Natalia and Friends

 I have made many more character collages over the last few weeks and I shall continue to make more.

Today I will show you Natalia and her friends. This is another God Factor spin off from the time Dominick goes around recruiting new heroes across the multiverse. At one point in the story arc Dominick finds himself in Los Angeles and he meets a girl named Natalia and some stuff happens and other characters are introduced and I will get into that more as I present the collages.

Natalia is a California beach boardwalk fitness skater girl. When Dominick meets her, he can sense that she has latent psychokinetic powers that become fully awakened by the end of the story. After that she begins her adventures as a beach boardwalk fitness skater girl with psychokinetic powers who fights the forces of evil.

This collage contains a few dress up game images that helped me figure out Natalia's fashion. It also contains two drawings done for me by actual artists on devaintArt. The one on the left was done for me by Akiko Ai Kureshi. The one on the right is an unfinished sketch that I managed to color myself done for me by Butteredeggs. And a lot of the rest are indeed AI generated collage fodder.

The next character is Natalia's best friend Julie. Julie is another California pretty girl but she is not into skating like Natalia is but they have been friends since they were kids. Julie is an ordinary human with no preternatural abilities of any kind. She is just the main heroines best friend and always there to support her. Sometimes an ordinary human point of view is just what the hero of the story needs.

This collage is made with a mix of dress up games and AI images like the others.

The next character is Jareth. Jareth is a genetically engineered shape shifter who was created in a mysterious secret corporate laboratory. Jareth escaped from the secret lab and ended up becoming friends with Natalia and Julie. The girls teach him the ways of the outside world that is ignorant of due to being born and raised in a secret lab. Jareth can't alter his mass or density but he can change his appearance and even rearrange his internal organs if needed. Jareth's base form is male but he can become a she with ease, or even an animal as long as it has equal mass.

This collage contains a dress up game image and some heroforge.com screenshots as well as the base I used for the original Jareth outfit concept.

The next member of the friend group is an alien lizard man named Etheel. He comes from the planet Lasidor. Etheel is actually the Eighth member of the Council of Light. Like all councilors he was once an ordinary mortal who was touched by the Divine Element and gained great power. But his mind could barely handle the multiversal vision of a councilor so he had to go into isolation to meditate and learn to control it. Eventually Etheel found that isolation was not helping him control his abilities. He decided it would be better to spend time on the mortal plane of existence to gain mastery over his powers. And by chance this happened at the same time Dominick was aiding Natalia. The beaches of southern California reminded Etheel of his home planet so he decided to stay and hang out with Natalia and her friends. Now Etheel does not disguise himself as a human, but he can give off a telepathic suggestive signal that just makes people kind of not notice that he is a lizard man from another planet.

This collage was made with heroforge.com screenshots, the heromachine character maker and one drawing done for me by cavyspirit of deviantArt.

Now lets talk about the villain of this story.

Rodazz Denrek Akez Lemad comes from the planet Jurhk. He was once a tyrannical monarch who was touched by the Divine Element and became a Councilor of Light. But then he murdered one of the other councilors in an attempt to usurp the council and become the one and only lord of light. He was no match for the combined power of the other five remaining councilors and they banished him to a netherrealm where he could not hurt anyone. They decided to keep him alive just in case they ever needed his abilities. But Rodazz was not one to just take his punishment and began pushing against the fabric of his prison. His voice reached many worlds and one cult after another sprang up to worship him and plot to set him free. One of those cults was in Southern California were Natalia lives. In fact her ex-boyfriend became the avatar for Rodazz to inhabit so he could break out of his prison. This was the event that caused Natalia to awaken to her full psychokinetic potential. Rodazz was defeated but his cult survived and still works to set him free.

This collage was made with some heroforge.com screenshots, a few AI generated images that did not look like total crap, and one drawing done for me by AzurexTwilight on deviantArt.

There you have the main characters and the main villain from the story of Natalia and her friends.