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[JoshuaFH]

I like your magic system as well Frelock, but since you're dealing with raw energy, E=mc^2, and the like, would that, you know, make magical nuclear strikes possible?

Thanks for the compliments everyone, I should probably explain the plot I had in mind for the game(s), so the entire system makes sense in a way.

In the first story, we're introduced to the 7 magic users and the 6 Kingdoms they're divided amongst. Normally, all the Kingdoms would be warring violently for control, resources, trade routes, political leverage, personal glory, and the like, but at the beginning of the story they have all called a unanimous ceasefire.

(Note: Even though I listed 9 domains of magic, there's only 7 which the civilized world knows about at this time. Sun and Time are excluded, as my story synopsis will explain)

The reason that all the Kingdoms have called this ceasefire is because a truly bizarre event that only takes place every 50-60 years is about to happen. In a land that has become known as the 'forbidden land' a giant tower (Miles high, miles in diameter) will spring from the ground there. The tower itself doesn't seem to do anything other than show up, wait a few weeks, then sink back into the earth. However, as adventuring parties have found, inside the tower is vast and incredible wealth, magical items aplenty, and all sorts of other good things. However, inside the tower is a race of pale-skinned human/elfish underground creatures which live very deep underground, speak a language noone understands (However, there'd be one character that understands them) and are apparently responsible for the tower's existence, and they don't take too kindly to having all their things stolen, so they fight back with armies of their own. So, in commemoration of this Tower rising, all the Kingdoms on the continent will call a ceasefire so that they can all storm the tower all at once.

At the head of each of the 6 Kingdom's armies is one of the Marked Magic Users, however, the 7th, Earth, is a pacifist and doesn't venture into the tower. Inside the tower would be where the majority of the game takes place, and it would detail the struggles of all the magic users, their relationships with eachother, their conflicts against the underground armies, and there'd be those that betray and connive, trying to get all that they can for their Kingdom. The Kingdom's armies would turn on eachother as they go further and further up the tower, as there's a legend that at the top of the tower sits a magical artifact that would grant infinite power to any person that holds it, not just those that are Marked.

(Note: the Earth Marked Magic User is still in the game, but you'd need to fulfill some conditions in order to convince him to come up and join the battles.)

Along the way, the Marked Users would encounter increasingly outlandish enemies, the 4 major undergrounder generals which all wield incredibly powerful magical items, eachother, and then at the top there'd be a huge revelation.

When getting to the top, they'd all be struck by what they'd find. It would just be a plain flat top, and despite being above the cloudline, they'd be no ceiling or sky, just pure blackness in all directions. In every directions there'd be undergrounders, tens of thousands of undergrounders, but they pay no heed to you, focusing all their attention on worshipping a figure that sits in the middle of them. Upon encountering this figure, it would be another undergrounder, but with very dark skin and pitch black eyes. He'd greet you, somehow knowing english, snap his fingers, and the night sky would light up, the sun would appear, and the earth down below would light up. He would divulge that he is the 27^th Generation Marked Magic User of the Sun, and that over a thousand years ago, someone in the Underground civilization gave birth to a child with the Mark of the Sun, and, determined to make the best of it, they carefully raised him and his children until he was powerful enough to raise the very large tower out of the ground, into the sky, and then collect as much sunlight as possible for a couple weeks, then sink back into the ground where the power is then used to fuel the entire underground civilization for 50-60 years, where the next generation then repeats the process. He informs you that you've perpetrated a great deal of harm to his people, and that he must kill you with his near-infinite power as punishment before sinking the tower back into the ground.

Then he's the last boss in the game, and when you beat him, with his power gone there's nothing holding the tower up, and then it collapses and everyone dies.

There's a continuation, as that's just the first story.

[ein]

Sounds pretty cool.
I think Earth should actually be the strongest.
Since you'd have to go out of your way to do some special stuff and get him to join your party.

[JoshuaFH]

Yeah, he'd be pretty strong, but none of the elements are truly stronger than the others... well, except for Time, which is the strongest, but I'll write the synopsis for the second story (which entails where the Time Magic User is) after I finish eating my soup.

[Boksi]

Yeah, he'd be pretty strong, but none of the elements are truly stronger than the others... well, except for Time, which is the strongest, but I'll write the synopsis for the second story (which entails where the Time Magic User is) after I finish eating my soup.

Well, maybe Earth just has more power remaining, what with his not fighting? And perhaps having a longer, uninterrupted bloodline?

Anyway, when I started reading Frelock's system, I couldn't help but think of a powerful mage flipping someone off so hard that they die.

[Frelock]

Frelock: Interesting system, but wouldn't those last few bits make kamikaze extremely easy? Seal a large amount of mass, run into a target area, release Seals, explosively if possible.

Yes, of course, if you want to spend a good portion of your life gaining the mental concentration required to be able to seal a large mountain, you could then commit suicide and destroy everything in the general vicinity (possibly the planet, if it's a big enough mountain).  Perhaps E=mc^2 is a bit too powerful; I could just go with discworld here and say the speed of light is significantly reduced by a magical field, or something...E=mc^1/2?  I just needed some consequence for using magic incorrectly, along with some psudo-accurate science.

Anyway, when I started reading Frelock's system, I couldn't help but think of a powerful mage flipping someone off so hard that they die.

Well, flipping someone off would be with the middle finger, which is spirit.  Dunno if that would actually kill them.  I need to consider rules for sealing spirits, along with necromancy and the like.  I need some way of being able to seal away large demons and the like, while still making it difficult to simply drain the life out of a person...

But CJ, man oh man you've got one heck of a game there.  I really like the plot, although the "rocks fall, everybody dies" ending isn't usually my cup of tea.  I agree with Boksi, about Earth having a longer bloodline and thus being far more powerful.  And I pity the poor 27th generation sun user; life's got to suck for him.  e^27 the normal level tragedy in your average life?  Must've been rough.  Course, the whole civilization-destroyed-by-treasure-hungry-surface-dwellers probably was a significant part of that.

You know, one thing I can't help but wonder: what's a marked person's incentive for doing good, other than how they're raised?  I mean, you can't get sent to the hell other evil men go to, you just go into the mark.  And it's not like any law can really restrain you, if you're one of the only magic users in the world.  I could easily see a marked man becoming a bandit king, ravening the countryside, killing and pillaging, enjoying wine, woman, and song.  They'd have to risk sending another magic user to fight him, who'd probably have their own problems with their own kingdom.  Then he tempts the newer generations into the dark side.

[deadlycairn]

Your idea is awesome ChaoticJosh - love the possibility for interkingdom feuds.

And now, an idea that popped into my head a little while ago - I gave it a little bit of serious thought but I'd like to see what other people think of it (my other ideas are usually somewhat unconventional)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So I'm tired of the usual elemental approach to magic, even though my larger (more time devoted to it) fantasy background has it as a key magic. So as I was thinking about possible alternatives, my mind hit upon a solution.

The Four Temperaments/Humours. A Greek idea, that a person's body is composed of a mixture of four liquids that determine their personality. Sanguine, blood, phlegmatic, phlegm, choleric, yellow bile, and melancholic, black bile. In the brief outline I came up with, the player would have the position of a Greek mage, who has hit upon the ability to create homunculi by mixing the four components in various proportions. You would have to create an army, with different mixtures creating soldiers that were good at different purposes, honing your creations as you went on. At first you would just be fighting various enemies, until you discovered the major plot point - there is a fifth component, of which a little bit creates a mage, and too much creates a monster (you wouldn't have control over how much to use. You'd just have a small chance of mage, and otherwise a monster). Now you have a choice: Use your new found knowledge to utterly defeat your enemies with a tide of monsters, or try to bury the knowledge, killing the rival who has made the same discovery.

Anyway, like your ideas, a nice change from the magic systems I normally come across.

[JoshuaFH]

Well, the Marked Ones don't really have an incentive to be very good people, which kind of what also makes the Marks a curse to humanity. If I took the time to write out some of the character ideas I had for the Marked Ones, you'd find that more than a few are Complete Monsters.

Anyway, Bam, synopsis.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hundreds of years after the incidents of the first game, the civilized world has grown, the undergrounders, crippled by losing the only source of power they've depended on for hundreds of years, have traveled closer to the surface and made some peaceful contact with those on the surface. Upon fully learning eachother's languages, exchange of information started taking place, and what the above grounders learned was how expansive the tunnels of the undergrounders were.

Studying the miles and miles of maps that have been stored by the underground cartographers, it was safe to say that everything looked fairly mundane, except for one very peculiar spot that was considered sacred. Looking at it, they found the some unusual symbols that matched with ancients texts that were already on the surface.

As it turns out, entrance to this place could only be opened and explored with the combined efforts of all the Marked Ones, so the new Marked Ones were gathered, and they set forth into an ancient dungeon.

The dungeon is where most of the game takes place.

They find that this dungeon is many things, a repository for ancient treasures, an architectural wonder, a maze, a tomb, and most importantly, a death trap.

The 8 Marked Ones and their associates go down the cave, and fight Magic Creatures kept alive for thousands of years with forgotten rites, golems whose original purpose is forgotten, denizens of the dark (monsters that were believed to have gone extinct long ago, but have been kept alive here), and the beast at the very end.

When they get to the bottom, they find a beast that is much older than the dungeon itself. It tells you that it is the sacred beast of time, and that it has been lying dormant at the bottom of the dungeon for many millenia. It recounts the past of the world, as it was present when humanity was first born into the world.

In the beginning, there were the undergrounders, but they were not the undergrounders then, as they lived on the surface at start. However, some events transpired that seriously pissed off the gods, and then the entire race was altered to be completely intolerable of sunlight, and would die if exposed for too long, and so were driven underground to rebuild their civilization, where they eventually shut themselves off from the outside world.

When this happened, the gods took some animals and made them the sacred beasts, each symbolizing one of the domains of magic. They were each given immortality, speech, Magic, an artifact, and knowledge of all things.

When the Sacred Beasts were made, the gods then made a new race of humans, but a small group. The sacred beasts were then commanded to look after the humans, teach them, look after them, and to use their inherent magical ability to make sure that no freak accidents wiped them all out.

They did their job dutifully for a long time, but eventually the humans grew powerful enough that they no longer needed the Sacred Beasts to look after them, and things were peaceful for awhile.

Then the humans grew larger, and began warring with eachother. One group of humans was on the losing side of a war, and were about to be exterminated completely. The sacred beast of Fire saw this, and, feeling sympathy for them, went to their leader and told him that if he cut out his heart and ate it, then he (the beast) would die, and be reborn as the Mark, and that would give him magic powers that would allow him to save his peoples. The leader then happily cut out and at the beast's heart and acquired the Mark, and became the first person to use magic.

Just as promised, the leader won many decisive battles with his magic and saved his people from genocide. However, word of this process got out, and none of the other leaders wanted to be left weaker than other of the other groups, so they hunted down the remaining 7 beasts, ate their hearts, and also acquired the mark. However, the Sacred Beast of Time had been able to see into the future a thousand years before, and was aware that all this was going to happen, and if the humans acquire the Mark of Time, they would surely annihilate themselves with it. So, despite being able to see into the future, he saw only one way to prolong his death, and that was to find his way into the Undergrounder's world, and then continue digging down, making the dungeon, and then hiding himself in it for as long as possible.

Since the humans had disappointed the gods by using their Sacred Beasts as instruments of war against eachother, they damned the souls of the beasts so that they would always attract death to them, ensuring that whomever has the mark would be a nexus of tragedy and misfortune. However, since the Marks themselves cannot die, they would simply linger on in the human's world for all time, passing from person to person, until the end of TIME...

Telling them all this, and knowing that the adventurers had accidentally sealed themselves in the dungeon with him, the sacred beast asks them to accept their fate and die peacefully.

The group then figures that if they eat the beast's heart, they can get out alive.

The Sacred Beast of time is the final boss, and once defeated, one of the party members acquires his Mark, and then reverse time so that they never trap themselves in the dungeon in the first place.

However, despite having reversed time, the person still has the Mark, and now it's stuck with humanity for all eternity, and the one thing that can destroy the entire world is now in human hands.

The third and final game would detail the ramifications of releasing the Mark of Time, and would detail as it falls into the hands of someone that is truly power hungry, and everyone has to band together to TRY to avoid the end of the world.

EDIT: forgot the origin of the artifacts!

[JoshuaFH]

Man, I want to do a little bio of each of the characters, and I have almost all of them planned out. I have their roles, positions, powers, backstories, lines, important plot points, relationships, and everything all thought up, but I can't think of any names!

I don't want the names to be too mundane or simple so noone takes them seriously as fantasy characters, but I don't want them to be so bizarre and alien that people are turned off by them or confused. I can't think of anything inbetween! and I really don't like random name generators, if you can tell.

[ein]

Use real names that are archaic or uncommon.
That way, people can still (usually) pronounce them, but they won't feel to boring.
I'm a fan of Hebrew, Latin, and Greek names.

edit: this is a good site.
I use it when I can't think of a name. It's got all sorts of helpful tools including a random name selector.

[Outcast Orange]

In my universe, people of absolute power have the names of common colors or elements.
Anyone else going around using their name is considered a threat to their reputation, so to have a name like "Green", or "Mist", you have to worry about others who would steal your title. A good example:
Black used to be into the natural magics, living in the plain of forests. She was called White back then.
She was very anti-dark-magic back then, because the whole damn Natural Order was religiously bent on destroying them. She was jokingly told her nemesis "Black" was out to get her. She finds out more about the actual being going by that name, and realizes it is in her power to destroy him. He was currently the head of a skeletal army. Lying in his throne after their battle, she questions him deeply about the motives of those in control on the Dark Plain. Realizing it was all just a blind hatred, she feels sickened, for killing so many, and wiping out his entire people. So in a change of heart, she abandons the Order, and heads to the dark plains to start fresh.
She calls herself Black from then on. It was only fitting.

Note: People who seem weirded out by the whole White/Black race thing: In a universe where practically everyone is of a different race/species/type, racism is easily discarded, or you wouldn't have many allies. Especially since everyone is thousands of years old. So words like White and Black are up for grabs.

[Aldaris]

As for racism in fantasy, Pratchett has an often used quote on that, something along the lines of 'Why would black and white hate each other when they can team up and beat up green instead?' Specisism is far more likely. (Damn humies, coming to our mountains, stealing our jobs, causing constant thuds against the tunnel roofs...)


CJ: If you need help naming characters, I can usually think up original names, even though I prefer to make them at least semi-alien, my MSN is in my profile.

[JoshuaFH]

Ha, I really like that website ein. Now I want to give all my characters meaningful names.

I may still take you up on your offer though Aldaris.

[Armok]

 chaoticjos, have you considered writing a novel of this to/instead? Few of all the game ideas around ever  become reality, and I'd hate never to get to know this story.                         

[JoshuaFH]

Since, normally, the game would've had a branching story, and I actually thought of several storylines, I'd have to pick whichever one I like the most and make that one canon.

That's a real toughie though, since I like imagining the different ways the characters can develop but it would allow me to share my little story with you guys.

[Armok]

There is nothing stopping you from making a branching story on paper or on the web as far as i know. They are called "chose your own adventure" or some such I think.