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[penguinofhonor]

You are CORVANDER MIRTH, AMNESIAC EX-CRIMINAL EXTRAORDINAIRE. You just sort of woke up today outside a city full of HAUGHTY ELVES and are hoping to probably going to be wrapped up in SOME EPIC QUEST TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE.

Gray Cities
This is basically a "you are a" game, but instead of being a second person direct control sort of thing, it's more of a detailed story that you guys influence. So ridiculous/suicidal commands probably won't work, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try anything unique. I mean, I thought that shoestring flail idea was dumb the first time I read it, but that sure went somewhere! So we've got a bit more room than you'd think here, even if we're staying more serious than other things in this forum.

Most of your commands are towards Corvander, but you can also influence other people to a lesser extent. I mean, man, I'm not going to ignore any good ideas that you guys are willing to just sort of give me. That would be silly. Also, not all ideas will be played out exactly as you intend, and not everything will happen the chapter you submit it to. Sometimes I'll see something cool, but it gets delayed. So never assume I'm ignoring you, unless you're trolling. Then I'm probably ignoring you.

Also because of the more detailed narrative style, this might not update super often. I'll try to do updates twice a week, maybe even three times a week if I'm not lazy and I don't have too much homework. But don't be too alarmed if this only goes once a week occasionally.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

Spoiler: original OP (click to show/hide)

I've decided that I need to do a bit of fiction writing to keep myself practiced, but I have a tendency to write five pages of a story and then stop for weeks, then write five pages of another story and just keep repeating until my computer has half a dozen of these story beginnings on my computer.

Another thing I like to do is fantasy worldbuilding. I don't have any desire to seriously write fantasy, but I do really enjoy the worldbuilding you can do with it so I've decided to put my most recent stuff to use.

So I'm going to make a sort of game out of it! It's going to be like a suggestion story, but a little more serious. The goal here is that my responsibility in running this will actually get me to write more than if I was writing something for just my own eyes, therefore giving me more practice in developing characters and a plot. Try to make the suggestions nothing silly/random unless the situation calls for it, and in return I'll try to build a personality out of our (initially) generic amnesiac hero and craft a respectable story around them.

Here's what I want to set up the first chapter:
1. A name and gender for a character. The character is an adult human. I'm going to just pick my favorite name here.
2. Votes on whether it should be first or third person.

[Max White]

Sir. Gutterfon Von Applenide the 3rd.
That sort of implies male.

Also, first person!

Edit: Man, I can see it now...
Names Gutterfon Von Applenide, Sir Gutterfon Von Applenide. Friends call me Gut, and yea, I got me a knighthood. What of it? Look I know some folks aren't comfortable with how the royals done run this place, but a man's gotta eat, and frankly, I enjoy the work. I'm the embodiment of the law, and when folks break that law, I gotta go take care of em. Sometimes people have a problem with that, but sometimes I gotta kick a little ass.

[penguinofhonor]

I'm starting to feel like this should probably go in Forum Games and Roleplaying.

[fqllve]

It's probably a forum game, yes.

Daenin Towingson

3rd person

[penguinofhonor]

Well this is now in the forum games section. Let's see what other things we can get, and I might write a bit today.

[terkiey]

Liu Kang

Male

FIRST PERSON

[IronyOwl]

Liu Kang

Ooh, tempting.


Vael Marruk, Male.

Third Person.

[FuzzyZergling]

Liu Kang

Male

FIRST PERSON

Agreement.

[Elfeater]

second person?

[Tiruin]

Third Person!

Male

Name: Corvander Mirth

[RAM]

Gender: Male
Name: Shirley Rapunzel O'Shaughnessy
Third person

[Strife26]

second person?

Nah. Second Person is really tough to do, although it's a suggestion game, kinda, I don't think that it's the sort that'd work well with the never-used narration.


Head hopping 3rd Person limited, by scene.

[penguinofhonor]

Chapter 1

The man groaned, pushing himself up off the ground. He rubbed his eyes and tried to remember what had caused him to end up face-down on a forest floor. After a couple seconds, he shook his head. He couldn't even remember his own name, only that this meant something foreboding. He stood up shakily, his body clearly tired from something. He inspected his arms and noticed painful, scabby wounds on his wrists. Looking at his legs revealed similar marks on his ankles.

He looked around. He was on what appeared to be the edge of two forests, both of them seeming unnatural. One cut off sharply, having clearly been cut. There were no smaller trees growing at the edge of the forest, only severed trunks. The other forest was composed of a single species of tree, completely gray except for its dull red leaves that grew only at the top. Some of the youngest gray trees at the edge of the forest had brighter colored leaves, including red and yellow ones.

He took a couple steps and felt something fall off him. He looked down, and realized it was a piece of paper that had been attached to his shirt. What he was wearing was hardly better than torn rags, and the paper seemed in no better condition. In fact, on closer inspection, half of it was missing. The remaining half read as thus:

NAME: Corvander Mirth   AGE:

Accused by the court of the c
in the city of Viceburg on th
resisted torture for over thr
be exiled and executed if eve

So was this about him? He thought of the name: Corvander Mirth. It definitely sounded familiar. He would have to assume the paper was about him, then. But did this mean he was a criminal? The paper read of torture and exile and execution. He must have done something serious, but he wasn't sure what that meant he should do. As he pondered this, Corvander heard a noise coming from the gray forest. Looking up, he saw that a pair of figures were approaching. Tall, thin, with pointy ears... elves. High elves. He tried to think of anything else about them as he backed away a couple steps, but could remember nothing more than the simplest facts.

One of the elves spoke. "Stop, human. There have been reports of a body on the edge of the city. Do you not know that this is high elven territory that you are trespassing on?"

The second elf spoke before Corvander could. "Actually, he looks like a prisoner." The two elves reached Corvander, and the second to speak took the paper from his hands. "Yes, this paper is given to all transported criminals in Bergund. Their caravans don't often pass near here, but an exile would cause them to come out of their way. Do you have the other half of this paper, human?"

Corvander shook his head, and the elf searched his clothing. After he was satisfied, he stood up. "No weapons, and no sign of the other half of the paper. We'll have to bring him in and see if he has committed any crimes notable enough to worry us. If not, then his mind has most likely been wiped and he should be free to leave. Come with us, Corvander Mirth."

Spoiler: rewritten in chapter 2 (click to show/hide)

Corvander silently followed the elves into the gray forest, finding that the trees grew larger the deeper he entered. After a certain point, many of the trees were hollowed out and had elves living and working in them. It was a somber city - most of the elves gave him a quick glance before returning silently to their work. There were more elves above, as the branches of the trees were turned into arched bridges that were crossed to move through the higher levels of the trees. After several levels the branches and windows stopped, and the trees continued rising, gray and featureless, until they reached the dull red canopy.

They reached a certain tree and the two elves escorting Corvander turned to him. "Wait out here," one of them said. "We're going to see if you've managed to make your way onto our records. If we find anything particularly dangerous, you will be executed, but that seems unlikely if the Burgund officials didn't." The two entered the building.

---

TIME TO SUBMIT THINGS
Yeah, I'll just be picking what I think is cool, but popular ideas will have more sway.

[RAM]

Crimes:
1 count of theft of a mutated goat-toad.
1 count of inappropriate relations with a mutated goat-toad and the sheriff's parents.
1 count of extorting money from the sheriff's parents.
3 counts of loitering.

[lopocozo]

Wait, take mental inventory of things you know.