As you can plainly see, I'm terrible with names. Can't think of a good name to save my life.
SO I was thinking the other day, a small thought, about the typical Final Fantasy-esque airship. I rebuilt it in my head, what I'd ideally like it to look like. Then thought about what sort of world would it would exist in, then the types of characters that would pilot it and how they got about to acquiring it. Before I realized it, I had accidentally built an entire game story and world in my head, from start to nearly finish, and I thought I'd share it with everyone. It kind of takes generic concepts, and mixes them together in interesting ways:
The world of Generica (Placeholder name) united under a single banner and leader, a man by the name of Dhaos (placeholder) who controls all the nations of the world under his iron grip, unopposed in his immortality and complete control over all the magic of the world. Supposedly, he created the world of Generica just to rule over the inhabitants that would spawn and propagate through it, and so has stood peerless through the eons, lording over mankind, but also expediting Man's technological development where he saw fit. In this way, huge cities brimming with magical technology has engulfed the entirety of the world.
However, his ambitions finally reach fruition, as a world that has never known serious conflict is now ordered to build Space-faring Warships as an unknown nemesis from the deepest corners of the galaxy encroaches on Generica. Terrible war rages throughout the solar system, as the army's that Dhaos commands are gradually beaten back, and the world of Generica is devastated as energy blasts from the Galactic Nemesis char entire cities, sink the continents, and evaporate the oceans.
In desperation, the people of Generica turn on Dhaos, telling him to find a way to peacefully end the conflict or they'll all be doomed. Dhaos finds this funny, letting them know that the Galactic Nemesis cannot be reasoned with and it lusts only for the destruction of every living thing besides itself, and if they want to live, they'll fight. They'll fight and win with or without his help.
The Galactic Nemesis however, is impossibly mighty and intimidating, and it looks like the extinction of the human race is imminent. However, the greatest magical scientists of Generica think of an alternative plan. Secretly they've been building a great machine, a time machine. Among those in the Dhaos' Resistance, none step forward to use it, because each person knows of the terrifying consequences of using it. However, as the humanity is vaporized around them, Ald (placeholder), one of the staunchest of the anti-Dhaos' rebels and a jaded veteran of the war, steps forward, accepting the risk.
The time machine's carriage, being so small that only a single person and a few belonging can care to ride, he only takes himself, a rudimentary weapon, and a small magical book containing all of his civilization's knowledge. Ald and the scientists agree to only go back so far, to a time when Dhaos had not exerted his control over the human race, but humanity would still be advanced enough to understand his plea to defeat him preemptively before he antagonizes the Galactic Nemesis.
And so, with that, he salutes the brave scientists and bids farewell to his tearful comrades, for it would be the last time they see eachother, and he gets into the time machines. The machine drains the last of the his civilizations electrical and magical energy to catapult Ald backwards in time, and from Ald's perspective, time stops and moves in reverse at rapid speed before becoming undone. For you see, the risk in using the time machine was that it was more of a 'Time Bullet', and the Time Machine itself was the gun that shot it backwards in time, and as it travelled back in the timeline, it destroyed the future. Or put another way, there was no chance of paradox, because as it moved backwards in time, it destroys every moment in time it passes, so when it finally stops, the future doesn't exist any more, it's that the past becomes the new present, so to speak.
This was the risk, the risk that each person feared, because while the contents of the Time Machine's bullet were immune to these effects, the person inside would see, in a flash, the lives of themself and each person they ever knew and loved, rewind and cease to exist. In this way, the Machine's single passenger becomes an "orphan in time" with no canonical birthplace, nor parents, nor friends or home. They have only themselves remaining.
The Time Bullet is sent tens of thousands of years into the past, to a simpler age where Mankind was making it's first steps out in the world and finally making the first of what would become many towns and cities. At this point in time, nature still ruled the landscapes, powerful beasts that were extinct in Ald's time roamed the forests and plains freely, and Dhaos himself remained in his great tower that had existed since the dawn of the world, biding his time until humanity could understand him and his power. In this state, Ald knows he can be taken by surprise and overpowered, and even though Ald's future doesn't exist anymore, he can find solace in knowing that a new future will spring forth, free of Dhaos' tyranny and safe from the Galactic Nemesis.
(This is where the bulk of the game is meant to take place)
However, Ald knows that Dhaos is not alone, he has powerful allies that are complicit in his plans, and these are the four elemental lords that regulate the oceans, the earth, the wind, and the force of fire that keeps the world of Generica alive at the core and they oversee it's natural resources so they are renewing and abundant for Dhaos' future subjects. Ald knows that these Lords must be dealt with first, for their power is tied to Dhaos', and stealing this power away from the lords will rob that power from Dhaos' and it can be used against him. Defeat all the Lords and take their power, and Dhaos' will be as if he were a normal human, and then he can be defeated.
Ald takes the opportunity to quickly travel the world to deduce the location of the lords, and while he would like allies, he knows it is farfetched to believe that anyone would believe he is from the future, and so is content to find them himself. However, given his bit of advanced technology, his knowledge of the world and of events yet to come, he is able to convince people nonetheless, and these people journey with him. The first being Rait (placeholder?), a young scholar happy to learn of the magic book that holds information from a civilization thousands of years more advanced than his own. Leaving the book with his fellow scholars to have the information copied and studied, Rait goes with Ald and goes into a great Volcano to eventually defeats the Elemental Lord of Fire who initially mistakes Ald for an adventurer that had wandered into his domicile, and so is friendly towards him. He is taken completely by surprise by Ald's attack because of this. Rait takes the elemental jewel that was the source of his power, and so gains the power of fire himself.
The volcanic activity of the world runs amok, and there are terrible eruptions and earthquakes as continental drift pushes the tectonic plates harder than ever before. From this, Dhaos and the other Lords are immediately alerted that something suspicious is happening, and fly into action to find out who and why. They set forth many powerful elemental beasts to find the person responsible and to eliminate him.
This helps Ald in an odd way, as the elemental beasts frighten the people of the world and they are quick to believe him about Dhaos and the Elemental Lords, and that they need to be killed. And so the warrior woman Onya, the archer Delny, and his young apprentice Kaleen all join Ald.
(I don't have the exact order of events planned out, but this is how I imagine it)
At this point, it's necessary to point out the subplot of the story, being that Ald is, at heart, a loner. He appreciates his allies, but deep down considers them liabilities since he was always prepared to fight alone. This is displayed in-game from the fact that party members would have something like Chrono Trigger-esque team abiliites, each pairing would get several, except for Ald who would be a powerful character with a plethora of single character abilities for sure, but the rigors and brutality of the war he was in makes him emotionally distant to everyone, and so can't get close enough to anyone to use team-attacks.
They travel up a great mountain to combat the Lord of Earth, but are taken by surprise when the Lord deduces who they are, and calls for help from the Lord of Air, who controls a floating continent, rams into the mountain to preemptively obliterate Ald and his party. (The idea being that it's smarter to not engage in face to face combat with an unknown enemy, and Dhaos and the Lords are working with an extremely long timeline so it's ok to cause tremendous destruction so long as it can be repaired or built around in eventuality). However, the party manages to evade the impact and jump onto the floating continent, where they get to know the locals living there while dodging tornados and dangerous winds before diving into the core, where they find the remains of a magic powered airship from an age before recorded history. The party finds and defeates the Lord of Air, Onya takes the jewel, and they use the Air magic to power the airship and bust through the top of the floating continent before it crashes into the ground with it's power source gone.
(Remember that Airship I said I imagined right at the start? yeah...)
With the Lord of Wind Gone, not only did the Floating Continent crash, but the winds around the world stop. This deterioration of Generica's elemental forces is expected by Ald, and he knows that with all the jewels under humanity's control, they can use knowledge from the book that he gave to the scholars to build machines to control them artificially, and so mankind can have control over it's own destiny. Though because it will take so long to achieve techology of this level even with all the hard work cut out, this still has everyone worried.
The crashing of the floating continent killed nearly everyone that was living on it, and absolutely everyone that happened to be underneath it. This marks another development for Ald, in that it shows that he's completely ruthless, and doesn't really care how many people he hurts, so long as his ultimate goal is achieved. HIs party wants to stop for a week or so to help the survivors and mourn the losses, but Ald knows that giving Dhaos' any amount of time to strategize and prepare is suicide, and so forces everyone to push on back to the great mountain where the Lord of Earth dwells.
Then I imagine something like a mixture of ordinary RPG combat, and Airship battling that involves cannons and maneuvering, but I don't have the details worked out as of yet. I'm thinking Panzer Dragoon style, except with a turn-based approached.
Bombarding the Lord of Earth's mountain fortress from the safety of the ship, the party feels comfortable until the Lord tears the surface of Generica asunder, creating a fissure that greater and more powerful elemental beasts have been slumbering deep underground, who then assault the airship. The Lord of Earth mounts one and heads the attack.
Upon being defeated and retrieving the Jewel of Earth which Delny claims. This causes the soil to become unfertile, Mountains crumble and landslides are rampant, and sinkholes appears whereever the ground is not stoutly supported. Even more people suffer because of this.
Dhaos is quite flustered at the rapid success of these unknown assailants, and so fars an energy beam from his tower, clipping the propellers from the airship, hurtling it into the ocean, whereas even though it's seaworthy, is at the mercy of the Lord of Water.
Another sequence of Airship battling occurs, except this time it's on water and the controls are changed to reflect the extremely turbulent currents and you have to face the many sea-monsters being summoned from the black depths of the ocean. Being sunk or capsized means instant death of course.
The player has to navigate throught he waves and whirlpools while fighting monsters to reach the Lord of Water, who might have a time limit to defeat, such as you're being pulled down a giant whirlpool and you have to win before being sucked down. When you win, you get the Jewel of Water, which is given to Kaleen. The oceans grow silent, as the bodies of water of the world become polluted, the fish die, and the water level rises as the ice caps melt, and there is mass flooding all over the world. Even more people suffer as a result.
Thank to the all the magic the group as collected, the Airship can move around on the water just fine, and they take it to the most prolific port town, where the people are concerned about what's happening, but the group consoles them, and under the cover of night they get the airship repaired. Then they attack Dhaos' Tower which still has static defense and Dhaos himself protecting it. It looks like the airship is going to be knocked out of the air again by Dhaos, but the party rams it into the tower, giving themselves entrance.
Ascending the tower, they fight the hardest elemental beasts yet before getting to the top to face Dhaos himself. There Ald reveals that he's from the far future, and he's here to stop Dhaos before he has a chance to do the things that lead to the world's downfall.
Dhaos finds this interesting, but is upset that you killed his friends. There Dhaos reveals that it would seem that he is the last survivor of the 'Original' humans. That there was a world somewhere in the deepness of space that was originally the home of Mankind, but in man's quest to conquer the Galaxy, aggravated the Galactic Nemesis. Then war raged throughout the Universe, but Mankind lost in the end, and humanity's original home planet was destroyed completely. Him and his 'friends', who would become the Lords of the Elements, retreated to a far corner of the Universe and made terraformed a stray planet, using the last of their resources to give themselves magical immortality. All the humans on this planet are descended from the survivors that Dhaos managed to save. The Galactic Nemesis though, will never stop, and must be defeated before this last refuge is overtaken.
Ald refuses, saying that the people on this planet should be able to choose their own fate, and not be dragged into an unwinnable war. Then the party uses the four Elemental jewels to seal Dhaos' magic, and they attack. However, even in this weakened state, Dhaos draws power from a source that Ald never anticipated existing, and Ald and his party are defeated miserably.
Dhaos lets Ald know that while he fought admirably, and that he is a great fighter, that he just doesn't have what it takes, that he doesn't have the 'Inner Strength' to match his own. He then tosses Ald from his tower, and he lands in the flood waters that he himself caused, and he's carried off. He then turns to the other four, and makes a compassionate speech about how they were tricked into doing evil things, and that he loves all of mankind and wouldn't mean them harm. Telling them that he can find forgiveness in his heart for their transgression if they hand over the elemental jewels, and bow to him. At this point, in their battered state, and looking over at the view of the world from the tower, and how the world is no longer the beautiful place it was, and is ravaged from corner to corner by all the disasters they caused, the party is demoralized. They hand over the jewels and bow, weeping to themselves. Dhaos thanks them, promising to restore the world to the beautiful place it was, and instructs them to spread the word that Ald's actions were nothing but evil, and that anyone else who claims to be from the future is to be turned against and killed, "Just in case" he thinks, before transporting them back to their homes.
From here, the game time skips several years, and Onya, Delny, and Rait are trying to restore the devastated world. We then zoom to another, isolated part of the world, where a broken and depressed Ald is seen living alone in a hut in the wilderness. His spirit is broken, and he's been living in isolation to recover himself, but always finds himself too discouraged to continue his former quest in a world that sees him as the most terrible villain to have ever existed, and against a foe that he doesn't know how to defeat. In his sadness, he tosses himself from a high cliff to kill himself.
Then we find Ald bandaged and recovering, and it would seem that through chance Kaleen, now a young woman, had found his dying self and rushed to help him. Kaleen explains that she's been searching for him for years, and only now found him. She never stopped believing in him, and has hated herself for her cowardice years ago, and wants to continue to quest with Ald.
Ald tries to tell her that he is but a shadow of his former self, but Kaleen talks him out of it, and inspires him to continue. He's very touched by her sincere bravery, in that going through all that, she's still determined and confident. He drags himself out of his dregs, and continues his adventure, now in the much more inhospitable world. Because of this, Ald acknowledges her as an equal, and can now learn team attacks with her.
(I'd like to interject here that there's absolutely no romance in this game as I imagine it. Ald and Kaleen's relationship is more that of a father and daughter one, with Ald learning to be more compassionate and forgiving thanks to Kaleen and Kaleen learning to be brave and independant from Ald.)
So they restart their quest, but now the Lords of the Elements have been revived and are now the Undead Lords of the Elements, and Dhaos has taken the liberty of amplifying their magical power many times over.
The peaceful nomadic peoples of the world have now become savage barbarians to survive, and the once friendly cities have formed violent militias to defend themselves that have quickly become corrupt without a central governing power. Dhaos has restored order, but not repaired the damage, allowing Mankind to stew in an age of violence and desperation for their impudence against him, if only for a little while so that they'll appreciate him that much more when he saves them from themselves after a generation or so has passed.
(Here's where my inspiration for the story becomes a little hazy. The gist of it is:)
Ald and Kaleen travel the world to try to set right what went wrong. Ald's reappearance in the world is quickly noted and reported to intelligent Elemental Beasts that are policing the world for the time being, but only on Dhaos' behalf to make sure no surprise second-wind rebellions spring up. The people of the world are promised salvation for turning in Ald's head, and so the barbarians and corrupt militias spring out of the woodwork to impede you. As you travel, you must encounter your former party members, and help them overcome incredible personal dilemmas that unlock their greater potential and convince them to join you again.
Then you must overcome the Undead Lords of the Elements, and the Dhaos again. This time around, everyone in the party having grown as a person, they can defeat Dhaos. And they do. However, as one final stab at Ald, Dhaos let's him know that the only reason the Galactic Nemesis hasn't attacked the world yet is because Dhaos had been emitting a magical masking aura, that made them invisible to detection in the dark depths of space, so even with all their invincible might, the Galactic Nemesis was still forced to flounder around in the infinite emptiness of space for eons looking for them. With this mask gone, the magical power of the world shines like a beacon, and they'll be on your doorstep in no time at all.
However, a plethora of Dhaos' hidden technology, including an old battered space warship, from the era of the original humans is unveiled, and Ald and friends determine to use to stage a preemptive strike against the Nemesis. After Rait and the scholars of the world patch it up before launching it into space.
At this point... I'm not really sure! This is as far as I've thought about it. I don't even really have a clue how the Galactic Nemesis should be designed. I was thinking insectoid hive mind, but I was also thinking a bio-magical robot race, or a magic hungry Eldritch horror.
Just to preempt people, this is just the most bare outline for the story. There's obviously alot of gaps to be filled, and alot of places where more detail can be added. I wrote all this up in a single day, which I'm proud of, since it's been awhile since I've done something like this. I'll definitely expand on this, I like this idea just too much.
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Topic: Game Setting and Story Idea: Tales of Generica (Read 1484 times)