The WW Planning Thread

[Beowuuf]

Actually, it did seem to be a force that plots - from the Grey Star books, at least.

There's a Lord Chaos under the other franchise I like, (the Dungeon Master PC game), and any time I have to relate his actions, I always put him in emotional flux. Hence you can imagine someone who is evil, and yet their whims and distractions don't allow them to fully progress.

Destruction becomes for destructions sake, and become almost bland

It's the same theme as in the Eternal Champion books, except the Lords of Chaos were a little more focused

[crysis]

My opinion is that no one should write as the Chaos Master but that he should remain this mysterious force that is never given voice except by the impressions we get from his actions. My reasoning is that nothing we could write would be as powerful as what people could imagine the Lord of Chaos would be like. Leaving him unpersonified in this manner, I think, is more powerful.

As for his plotting and what not, he's Chaos... it doesn't really matter what he does, he has no set personality. He could be a plotting lord one minute and a swift acting blade of death the next... and then smelling the tulips a second later.

[Beowuuf]

In that case, we might need to hint at some human faces to the madness perhaps? People to actually set up as movers and shakers who know Chaos is back, and are ready to commit to him?

After all, he does seem to be a 'god', and one who grants wishes - even if twisted. Who wouldn't want to worship?

It would be great if it was some followers who were out of left field. Like intelligent Giaks, the eviltb suggested Gourgaz, Noodnics....you know, something really weird instead of the usual sinister humans!

[crysis]

Might be a good time to bring back in the beast creatures, also.

[eviltb]

Thats why Im gonna write a post of ETB and Sera getting to Temel. Basically, Chaos influence has taken over the town and they all now worship him. Which means local garrison, government etc. Maybe bringing in a Barraka-type figure who leads the worship.

Thats a good idea, no-one writing as the CM and only have him voiced through sleeper agents. Also cuts down on the amount of posts I have to write!!

[Beowuuf]

Wow, that was quick! Is that going to be revealed as the reason why he was able to manifest?

And I assume more people would have written as the CM as required.

[eviltb]

tbh the reason behind his coming to magnamund could take forever to explain. Backstory with how he survived his encounter with LW, then taking over and pretty much destroying the Meledorians, how he managed to manifest his conciousness over to Hazelae and used her as a gateway into the world, how the resurrecting of Xog was perverted by Chaos and ultimately the 'stone being near the ShadowGate in Eshnar allowed it all to happen. Hah, well thats it in a nutshell I guess ;D

Anyway, yes I know could be a little quick but Chaos doesnt wait around. Plus Temel is close enough to be affected by something like this. It was either that or Ruanon or even Casiorn! Can you imagine Chaos's influence getting to Casiron, the Vegas of Magnamund!??!

[crysis]

It might be best to show the chaos in more subtle ways first. A manifesting of chaos, in my opinion, doesn't mean that there has to be a city like Eshnar, where monsters run around and the city breathes air. I think Chaos would show in more subtle ways first.

For interest, I thought it might be interesting if Evil TB finds himself in a position to take over Temel. The idea for that goes like this, over the course of many posts this chapter...

Evil TB arrives in Temel and does his usual thing: finds a place out of sight of the law to hide. But he soon comes into contact with a rebel faction in the city that wants to lead a sort've "French Revolution." Of course, they find EVilTB to be a willing participant in this and eventually he becomes their leader. This puts him in the position, when the revolution happens, to take control of Temel.

What ETB doesn't realize is that he's actually helping Chaos here, as his take-over of the city and murder of dozens (hundreds?) of Temel nobles has createrd unbalance in the world. Chaos begins to manifest in "his" city and he finds himself powerless to halt the take over.

Thus, we have an interesting way for ETB to find himself in the midsts of Chaos as well as against Chaos. And of course, Sera will be there complicating things.

Do with that what you will or discard it if you don't like it.

[Beowuuf]

As I'd suggested before, it might be an interesting inversion of expectation that that choas draws chaos to itself, so the manifestation of it being close is that those around have lost something, are a little bit straighter and less imaginative.

If this is the case, then Temel and the general population might seem a little bit off, while the 'revolutionary' chaos worshippers are protected/unaffected to seem normal.

That might give a good reason for eviltb to 'trust' their words, and work against the incidious effects - not realising, as said, he is toppling the first city for chaos.

I like that more than anything, for eviltb it might be hurt prode from being used that would persuade him most to fight against Chaos


Completelely separate, is it worth us stating where, roughly, we see our characters going, or things we want them to do, so we can create this structure a little better?

For my part, I haven't any ideas for Beowuuf meeting anything else (So he's free to discover anyone else's plot ideas). The first node I'm working towards is the discovery of Eshar's state - and even then, maybe not him discovering it, just jumping back to him having reported to the group anddisocvered it himself. Beowuff should hook up with Simey and Armadalus as stated, and perhaps at that point Al (with Doomy) might seek them out - since he was mentioned as being at the Council - hence a good way to gte us all together.

[crysis]

Sera is going to be following "Backhand" as he takes them to Temel. Sera I'm more role-playing than anything else right now. As of yet, she doesn't have reason to leave Evil TB. I suspect that after Temel occurs she'll either be sent out by Evil or circumstances will separate them. Around that time, I plan on having her experience some kind of maturation or mutation as she comes into contact with Chaos more directly. Still playing around with that idea.

If I get some more time, I may start a side character going with Cloe as she comes into contact with the main army. As I've long said, I think she and Beo would make a nice pairing of personalities. A lot of fun possibilities for clashes there, but also fickle companionship/comradarie.

[Beowuuf]

I'm still a little dubious of throwing Cloe back in - she seems like too main a character for you to be running from the side. After all, Armadalus chased her, she knows about the blood plague, and I assume she'd have a main role if you're bringing back the beast creature clans aswell.

Still not sure how a Beowuuf/Cloe pairing would go either. Perhaps because I've still only read the start of the cloe stuff where she's just a jumble of personalities, and I think the end few posts. But I can't see Beowuuf caring about another wolf creature, and more likely to just avoid that whole social aspect since - as far as he would be concerned - it's not his world.

The ways I could see it working would be to either temporarily snuff out the Tamas or Sorba minds. If it's Tamas, then you have Sorba as a true wolf creature making an interesting pairing with cloe, because they are both arrogant and have left the tribe. And would have insights into the beast creatures if they are coming back.

It it was Sorba, that would be an interesting dynamic because Tamas would be left 'alone' in a wolf body he suddenly can't really control well (in the sense of its feral side) and would be dependant on a wolf creature like Cloe to give him a crash course in reining it in. That would of course leave him vulnerable if she had other agendas.

The trouble with the second one is that it really doesn't lend itself to anything other than an insular storyline with Cloe, or makes Beowuuf very reliant on Cloe to go anywhere - perhaps ruling out the fun of other pairings until the matter was resolved.

Funny, I had toyed with the idea ever since Beo was bound bakc to Holmgard of having him drop in on Malphis. It would have been a complete inside joke shout-out to the fact that back in the day Malphis/Zarke had cornered the forum market on bluesteel items, yet still threw me a bluesteel sword as a gift. Seemed funny to have the idea that Tamas's sword from his son was intercepted in a shipment, but because of the unique forge markings Malphis simple sent it on its way claiming it had been found my his men in a shipwreck. So Beowuuf would have gone to thank the man, and probably been psychically attacked, leading to Sorba being dominant for a while. I would have completely had it that Malphis was not implicated, as Sorba would have been confused and Tamas would have had no memory afterwards, but just played around with Sorba on his own for a hwile, trying to ironically fit in as Beowuuf and perhaps establishing what the wolf's goals were now the whole Eshnar thing that had driven him was played out.

Anyway, it would have just be a small aside, but hadn't really thought of a sufficiently good plot hook that was worth it. And now the moment has passed anyway!

[Simey]

The report at the MKC, as far as it went, would have been along the lines of Eshnar having been trashed, Xog having returned and the army camps around Eshnar having been attacked, possibly wiped out. That being the case, the scouting party will most definitely investigate the whole area, presumably culminating with entry into the ruins of Eshnar itself. What will they find there?

And yes, S, A & Beowuuf are clearly likely to reconvene at this point.

As I've mentioned before, I like the idea of Hazelae's awful essence having seeped into some of Eshnar, that she herself is totally gone, but what she's left behind is a different place, not just physically - utterly destroyed, of course - but in essence too. Some sort of ghostly encounter could be fun, a warning - though incomprehensible - that all is not as it seems. Dunno....

The Temel idea sounds good, though I favour the subtler version. As is probably obvious, I tend to err on the low-fantasy side when it comes to everyday life, so a city full of openly-chaos-worshipping people does seem a bit OTT to me, especially this quickly. But playing something like that as a building trend - in the shadows for now, but threatening real power and influence - is a nice idea. And those involved needn't be out-and-out bad guys. Just as there are credible-seeming arguments for Anarchy in our world (though I'm not sure it's ever been show to actually work), I can imagine that Chaos - seen in a certain way - might seem a better master than kings and queens, nobles and barons, rules and regulations.

I still like Beo's idea that Chaos is drawn to chaos creatures and therefore causes others nearby to lose some chaoticism, whether that be in lacking imagination all of a sudden or being oddly satisfied with falling in with general opinion or things like that. And the above notion that worshippers - those, therefore, who recognise chaos and accept it - are protected from/immune to such effects can not only be justified, but makes good sense. It might make an interesting challenge for some of the characters later on whose ability to combat the forces of chaos are diminshed through such an effect and who therefore have to reconcile themselves to chaos to a certain extent without losing themselves in it in order to have a chance at victory. Hmm....I actually like that quite a lot.

Simey - when I eventually make it out of Chapter 17 - will just be along with the main scouting group, I suppose. No particular plans for him as yet.

[crysis]

Remember, when you guys get to Eshnar, that it is now run by gangs of children (there's some chaos inherent in that, I'm sure). They would also know of Sera and would probably have raised her to some kind of religious status (as an evil being, of course) as she is the only child yet to have killed another child.

These children don't trust adults and would first hide from them, then attack them if provoked or chased down.

[Beowuuf]

Feb 14, 2010 12:14:05 GMT -5 Simey said:

It might make an interesting challenge for some of the characters later on whose ability to combat the forces of chaos are diminshed through such an effect and who therefore have to reconcile themselves to chaos to a certain extent without losing themselves in it in order to have a chance at victory. Hmm....I actually like that quite a lot.

You are not the only one - that sounds like a fantastic linked theme yto have running through any of the PCs and NPCs that wish to pick it up.

[zipp]

Okay, Beowuuf, I've given myself a lead-in to the army, albeit with a different character.