Subject: Taking a 4th option.
Author:
Posted on: 2016-04-16 21:22:00 UTC
You could go for a ghost. Someone just died, and for the first time, can see what is going on. Just a completely neutral party. For some reason, he/she is still around. Questions: do you become a zombie post-mortem, and does said zombie retain intelligence?
For the past four years or so, I've been working on a novel series on and off. It has mostly been off for the past past four years, but that's neither here nor there. I had set it aside for a few months recently and I find myself at a bit of an impasse. I have effectively hit a wall with essentially the most important character in the series.
Basically I am looking for input on a character's species. So the basic set up is this:
There has been a supernatural war raging since the days of Cain and Able (or Pandora's Box if you prefer). In this world there are the supernatural mainstays: Vampires, Werewolves, Angels, and Zombies. As well as other creatures as they may arise (I have yet to determine how long the series will go, and thus am uncertain as to what other things will make an appearance).
Some basic facts about the races listed thus far are going to be needed. Zombies are basically Left 4 Dead style common infected. Faster than Romero Style, but otherwise the classic zombie. There are also likely to be Voodoo Zombies which will be well Voodoo Zombies.
Vampires are modeled after Stoker's Dracula, White Wolf's Vampire the Masquerade, and the Hellsing Manga. In other words these are apex predators and highly dangerous. They do not sparkle in the sunlight. The most ancient ones are basically completely unaffected, the youngest one will burst into flame. The more ancient they are the more powerful they are.
Werewolves are more in line with more modern interpretations. They have some degree over the transformation, the older and more powerful the more control (I think you might be starting to see a trend, the older a creature is the more powerful it is). Transformation is the Wolf-Man style (such as in the film Van Helsing) These are not the overgrown dogs sometimes seen.
For Angels, think St. Michael the Archangel. Or any of Magic the Gathering's Angels. Essentially Winged-Humans that serve, let's call it order (for now). Generally their purpose is to protect humans from the other creatures. But they can fall from their purpose (and at least one will).
Zombies are only created through the spread of the infection through bites (or the Voodoo process). The other main races are immune to becoming Zombies. Humans do not get any such luck.
Vampires can either be born or sired. They can be born to two Vampire Parents only. Vampires can be sired by draining a human and then giving it some of the Sire's Blood. Sired Vampires have less respect, but are otherwise capable of the same things purebloods are. Humans and Vampires can interbreed creating the fairly standard Dhampire (think Blade from Marvel Comics). Vampires cannot breed with Werewolves or Angels.
Werewolves are only created through the spread of the Werewolf curse through bites, but only during the full moon. Any Werewolf-Human offspring will be a regular human. A Werewolf-Werewolf offspring will also carry the curse.
Angels are only born. They cannot be created in anyway (except for any divine power that may or may not appear). A Male Angel-Female Human will produce a child with sensitivity to the supernatural, an immunity to the other races (i.e., cannot be transformed into one of the others.) A Female Angel-Male Human will produce an Angel with a weaker overall cap, they will never be quite as strong or fast as a pureblood, but are still winged-humanoids, etc.
So the bottom line: The wall I've hit is determining what race I want to make what will eventually be the protagonist of the series, but may not ever be the PoV character, he certainly will not be for the first book. So basically I am asking for input on what the community things. I am currently thinking a pureblooded Angel, but am not certain. The only requirements I have for this character are: Not a Zombie and Not a pureblooded Human. A pureblood human would be internally inconsistent with the story and I just do not want my main character to be a Zombie for reasons.
Also depending if people are interested I could turn this into a RPG here on the board. While I have not put a lot of the story to paper, I have the universe pretty well created and fairly consistent at this point.
If there are enough interested. You can also count this as the sign up thread if you are interested.
You could go for a ghost. Someone just died, and for the first time, can see what is going on. Just a completely neutral party. For some reason, he/she is still around. Questions: do you become a zombie post-mortem, and does said zombie retain intelligence?
As to the ghost, I had not planned on using them at all. It comes to my own personal feelings on the supernatural, which is why I will likely not use demons either. But the first book is actually designed to be a mystery were a regular human starts piecing things together on their own, but will find themselves in way over their head.
As for zombification, the infection starts to spread as soon as an individual is bitten. As part of how my version of the zombie virus will work it will kill off all but the most basic instincts in the brain. Basically just the need to feed. But it will not actually require death. Largely because I want to leave it open for the possibility of a cure. Basically my ultimate plan with the Zombies is to completely shatter the masquerade. The introduction of the zombies will basically start the final act.
So then the first book is about a human uncovering secrets, and the next few books are about the real protagonist, one of these races. That right?
The protagonist will have a role in the first book, but is more of a supporting character. But it will ultimately be his story from there on out. But I am prone to experimentation, so he may switch between "active hero" or "passive support" throughout the entire series depending how it goes.
Interesting, but I'm not entirely sure what to say. I mean, from what I've interpreted a half-angel seems to fit the bill, but there's just not enough information here on the plot to suffice.
As a RPG, this could easily become interesting. I'm not a huge fan of the supernatural fantasy/urban fantasy thing but I'm sure someone likes it. There's enough here to make it interesting but not so much that one could be restricted beyond reason(unless, of course, there's more to this).
I hope I've made that clear. I sometimes have trouble putting my thoughts down, and I think I haven't misinterpreted anything.
Part of that stems from not having an outline. I do not like using them for writing, it takes away flexibility in my mind.
Let me sketch the basic plot out. This is a series of undetermined length as of now. One can imagine this as three phases or acts.
Act I serves as an introduction of the series. Effectively a character serves as an audience surrogate and discovers that there is a whole supernatural realm that has always existed alongside the world we know. Basically as a result of the Spanish Inquisition and Counter-Reformation a set of rules were put in place to keep humans and supernaturals safe from each other for the most part. This lead to a cold war between warring sides, and the supernatural began to fade into myth and legend. This brings us to the modern day. Where a veteran homicide detective gets a haunting case that seems to defy logic. She then stumbles upon an ancient conspiracy and then things happen.
Act II. The masquerade starts to break down. Regular people are getting suspicious not everything is what it appears. Our true villain is introduced. The Cold War between supernaturals heats up. All out war between supernaturals and humans is imminent.
Act III. All out war. I have yet to decide how this will end.
I especially like how you're grounding it in real-world history. The human detective seems to be your main character, right?
Maybe in the process you'll figure out some detail that will make it obvious who your next protagonist should be.
I'm already involved in an RP along slightly similar lines (parallel fantasy realm, political drama), and it's taking a lot of the time and energy I use for this kind of thing (it's a LARP. We're doing it in the hallways at school during passing periods and lunches, so: energy-intensive).
--Key
More specifically, what's will your protagonist's story be about? What going to happen to him? What's his role in the story when he does start to become important? Is there one of the three potential species that makes good sense? Or, on the other hand, is there one of them that will make it difficult? (Conflict, yay! Obstacles, yay!)
Another angle to consider is, what are the relationships between the different species? What is your character's relationship to the other characters? Should it mirror the interspecies relationship or be different? Like, if werewolves and vampires hate each other, and one of the other characters is a vampire and you character is her friend, it would make sense for him to not be a werewolf, but it could make for great conflict (Yay!) with everyone else, who don't like them hanging out.
Ultimately the set up is that there is a masquerade that keeps the average person from realizing that there has been a war between supernatural forces that has been going on since the dawn of time. Essentially Order vs. Chaos. Not Good vs. Evil, because that's cliched. The lead up to the story set approximately now is that each group has their own things. The WWs want to be left alone, Vampires want to control everything and ensure their food source is well kept for. Angels are there to protect humans from everybody else.
Then along the course of the first book (I do not like planning out much further, because I like flexibility) only partially follows the protagonist, it is there to basically allow the readers to ask the questions. The main character in book one is basically a detective who stumbles across this ancient war and gets caught in the middle. The protagonist regardless of race wants to keep humans safe for one reason or another. If a Vampire keep the food source safe, Werewolf, would take more work but largely thinks if humans are safe less likely to hunt for his kind. Angel, it's his duty.
Any of the races will work. They all have reasons for wanting to keep humans safe and keep the status quo between sides. So naturally the masquerade will start to break down chaos will be unleashed and the protagonist and his organization will seek to maintain order.
Another way, is this a Vampire protagonist will have Blue and Orange Morality. A Werewolf will largely be a true neutral (just keeping me and mine safe) Order/Chaos or Good/Evil do not have any meaning for him. And an Angel will essentially be Lawful/Good.
Part of the entire premise of the story is breaking down the barriers on the sides. Ultimately a big bad is going to come along and threaten the entire world. And the disparate groups will need to come together to stop it.
As for relations, a rough timeline can be sketched out. From the beginning of the conflict Werewolves and Vampires have been at war. Kind of the standard Fangs vs. Fur that originated from a misunderstanding and the fact that the Vampires looked at the wolves as nothing more than animals that threatened their livestock. Angels were always present in small numbers (roughly 20 worldwide kind of thing) to try to keep humans safe. Up until the Spanish Inquisition there was a very broken masquerade, then during that time period it came to a head, and the Inquisition's real purpose was to cut down the numbers of the supernaturals (a Knight-Templar Angel was leading it). The Angels fractured and seemingly disappeared while the Werewolves/Vampires essentially agreed to truce and a cold war has been going on ever since. Skip to the modern era and someone is playing the sides off against each other to start a war between all the races that will likely wipe out humanity.
As a result of this, the time the book starts at an organization has been formed by representatives of all three groups to try to keep order. Naturally millennia old grudges do not go away so easily so there are external and internal existential threats to the organization. Basically any of the three could work, which is why I am asking.