This always seems to be the busy season for me. Yardwork (winterizing), Work-work (transitioning from summer thunderstorm season to winter "ski-season" traffic patterns, and getting the house ready for the holidays tend to fill most of my time. Despite that, I have managed to do some writing, if not on Imperfect Hope, at least with the goal of getting back into the groove. With the silly season passed (er, election season), things are looking up.
Last post, I commented on "writing what I know", at least with regards to the lore and history of the D'oril world that I know very well. Writing these last two weeks has put me back into that era, 60-100 years prior to the time of Imperfect Hope. Since most of my lore from that time focuses almost exclusively on the D'oril forests of the K'tath and the incursions of the Tallux empire, I do have to provide some background on what is happening around the rest of the world. I've made an effort to divorce the D'oril lore that references the IFGS lands that surround the k'tath homelands, and made good progress on replanting the characters I want to bring from the IFGS D'oril to the 'book' D'oril lands. So, where do I begin...
Obvious to me are the K'tath characters, with one exception all of my own creation. Brandis, of course, as well as the NPC k'tath characters I developed while writing the IFGS games that took place in D'oril. The Sen'anth (in the IFGS games, never actually named, just referred to by title, was killed by plotline mid Sha'te Valley (a player motivational event that didn't have the emotional impact I'd hoped for, but one I can refer to in the book version). Kira, the deadly quiet Kel'anth, trying to hold the badly outnumbered kel together against the empire's legions. Other fringe NPC characters also created for the games include Cinda and Merrick, of the Inn of the Stumbling Friar. Their backgrounds, though never explored in the games, provide me with a great starting point for the surrounding areas. Also of the k'tath, though not of that race, is Merlissa, a PC character that was tightly intertwined with Brandis' early character history.
South of the E'tel river, the non-k'tath have a couple of regularly appearing characters. Merrick, for example, is actually an Empire refugee. He came to the lands south of D'oril from the empire some 10 years or so prior to Sha'te, one of a small handful of survivors of a shipwreck from an Empire expedition searching for wintergem sources along the western coast of D'oril. A senior non-com (I hadn't decided whether he was an imperial marine, or a legionnaire), he found the lands south of D'oril to his liking, especially the relative freedom from oppressive government. Cinda, the (in the games) stereotyped bar maid of the Inn of the Stumbling Friar, was also a refugee in a character history that was never explored in the games either. She came from the lands to the south, fleeing the chaos following the fall of "the eleven kingdoms" just prior to the confederacy beginning to pull itself together.
Then there were the villains, most notably Phorix, Beauty, Grannach, and Yam'to. Those four were the core of the Sha'te storyline, each representing an characteristic of the empire that PC's could relate to, or despise. (all had some elements of each). I'd written a lot about their pasts within my game lore, stuff not released to the players but instead intended to help me and the NPC's portraying them fill out their character.
The events surrounding Sha'te are both well defined and vague. Vague in that, for the IFGS games, the empire had the clearly stated but vaguely motivated goal of conquering the area north of the E'tel, well defined in that they had put into a straightforward strategic plan to obtain that goal, and the 'good guys' (players and k'tath) were in the way. Because of the way IFGS games are run, the sha'te storyline necessarily had the players react to the empire's plan. Had I made Yam'to's strategy too complicated or convoluted, the IFGS gameline would have been overly complex. Translating that to the Imperfect Hope world mostly involves revising the empires motivations, in part through the wintergems found in the D'oril forest, a source of magical power now hard to find in the empire but necessary for the emperors continued hold on the far-reaching lands he controls).
I've found my thought process interesting, though, as I dig deeper into the sha'te era, I find more interesting projects to tackle. So, do I sidetrack myself, or focus myself. Stay tuned for the answer, soon...
Clear skies,
Jim
Last post, I commented on "writing what I know", at least with regards to the lore and history of the D'oril world that I know very well. Writing these last two weeks has put me back into that era, 60-100 years prior to the time of Imperfect Hope. Since most of my lore from that time focuses almost exclusively on the D'oril forests of the K'tath and the incursions of the Tallux empire, I do have to provide some background on what is happening around the rest of the world. I've made an effort to divorce the D'oril lore that references the IFGS lands that surround the k'tath homelands, and made good progress on replanting the characters I want to bring from the IFGS D'oril to the 'book' D'oril lands. So, where do I begin...
Obvious to me are the K'tath characters, with one exception all of my own creation. Brandis, of course, as well as the NPC k'tath characters I developed while writing the IFGS games that took place in D'oril. The Sen'anth (in the IFGS games, never actually named, just referred to by title, was killed by plotline mid Sha'te Valley (a player motivational event that didn't have the emotional impact I'd hoped for, but one I can refer to in the book version). Kira, the deadly quiet Kel'anth, trying to hold the badly outnumbered kel together against the empire's legions. Other fringe NPC characters also created for the games include Cinda and Merrick, of the Inn of the Stumbling Friar. Their backgrounds, though never explored in the games, provide me with a great starting point for the surrounding areas. Also of the k'tath, though not of that race, is Merlissa, a PC character that was tightly intertwined with Brandis' early character history.
South of the E'tel river, the non-k'tath have a couple of regularly appearing characters. Merrick, for example, is actually an Empire refugee. He came to the lands south of D'oril from the empire some 10 years or so prior to Sha'te, one of a small handful of survivors of a shipwreck from an Empire expedition searching for wintergem sources along the western coast of D'oril. A senior non-com (I hadn't decided whether he was an imperial marine, or a legionnaire), he found the lands south of D'oril to his liking, especially the relative freedom from oppressive government. Cinda, the (in the games) stereotyped bar maid of the Inn of the Stumbling Friar, was also a refugee in a character history that was never explored in the games either. She came from the lands to the south, fleeing the chaos following the fall of "the eleven kingdoms" just prior to the confederacy beginning to pull itself together.
Then there were the villains, most notably Phorix, Beauty, Grannach, and Yam'to. Those four were the core of the Sha'te storyline, each representing an characteristic of the empire that PC's could relate to, or despise. (all had some elements of each). I'd written a lot about their pasts within my game lore, stuff not released to the players but instead intended to help me and the NPC's portraying them fill out their character.
The events surrounding Sha'te are both well defined and vague. Vague in that, for the IFGS games, the empire had the clearly stated but vaguely motivated goal of conquering the area north of the E'tel, well defined in that they had put into a straightforward strategic plan to obtain that goal, and the 'good guys' (players and k'tath) were in the way. Because of the way IFGS games are run, the sha'te storyline necessarily had the players react to the empire's plan. Had I made Yam'to's strategy too complicated or convoluted, the IFGS gameline would have been overly complex. Translating that to the Imperfect Hope world mostly involves revising the empires motivations, in part through the wintergems found in the D'oril forest, a source of magical power now hard to find in the empire but necessary for the emperors continued hold on the far-reaching lands he controls).
I've found my thought process interesting, though, as I dig deeper into the sha'te era, I find more interesting projects to tackle. So, do I sidetrack myself, or focus myself. Stay tuned for the answer, soon...
Clear skies,
Jim
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