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The Story Behind VoodooKobra's Avatar
Posted by voodooKobra • 5/10/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: bloviate, fiction, kasai, rpg maker, story
Okay, I've received a few comments here or there about my avatar image over the past few months, so I figure it's about time I told you guys where it came from.
If you're one of my sexy stalkers, you should already know most of this.
From April 2002 until some time in 2006, I was actively making amateur 2D games with a program called RPG Maker. Originally RPG Maker 2000, but predominantly RPG Maker 2003 in the later years. Most of my projects never saw the light of day because I've got a serious motivation problem.
One such project was called Spectra Polaris, a sequel to a story I'm writing in video game format. (I thought it would be good to make a crappy sequel to help me lay out the events in my mind. Organization purposes and all that.) I reused a couple of characters (designs and names, but not personalities) from my other crappy games, but used them better. However, the protagonist had to be an original work. I'm pretty stubborn about that.
So I invented Kasai. I forget what his last name was, but the story was going to be pretty interesting.
Kasai is a young swordsman who lives with his mother in a remote village three days away from the capital city (I suck at remembering names). After working hard all year, helping to support his mother and raise enough money to enter the tournament (while still having time to practice his technique), he leaves on foot to the capital building, hoping to obtain the prize money to repay the debts his mother accumulated while raising him.
Kasai's father was a swordsman and explorer who disappeared without a trace 10 years before the start of the game. Because his mother refused to remarry (mostly because the only people interested were total jerks), she was forced into single mother status.
The game opens with Kasai's neighbor asking him if he wants to practice again before he leaves. This was a tutorial battle explaining the duel system (which is a little different from the battle system), and could be skipped by the player.
Kasai then leaves for the capital building pretty much without incident. He runs into a few monsters, but that's pretty commonplace. Nothing major.
Kasai arrives in the capital city and meets a man named Xarda, who is on the opposite side of the tournament brackets. Xarda allows Kasai to board with him since the other rooms are filled.
The tournament is pretty straightforward (this is about where I ran out of motivation on the game development, but I knew how the story was going to play), but I tried to make it fun. You fight four duels against people with different weapons and fighting styles. (Some people focused on slashes, others on thrusts, and some on vertical cleaves.) Afterwards, a scripted battle plays out against Xarda, whose sword seems almost magical in nature. (It's not actually magical. No weapon is. I'll explain below.) Xarda and Kasai have an epic duel (well, it would've been epic by RM2K3 sprite standards) but Xarda wins. Kasai wins the second place prize money, which is just enough to pay back his family's debt.
Kasai and Xarda part ways (Xarda compliments Kasai on his swordsmanship), and Kasai returns home.
When Kasai returns, he sees smoke rising from his house. He runs into town and sees his mother lying on the ground, stabbed through the back with a javelin. One of her loansharks stands above her, spear in hand and surrounded by goons.
The loanshark explains that he suspected that Kasai and his mother would try to run away from their debt. He knows Kasai got second place in the tournament and demands Kasai give it to him. Kasai, mourning the loss of his mother, stubbornly refuses even though he is outnumbered. Kasai cuts down a few goons and runs away, the loansharks in hot pursuit.
Kasai runs through the woods, slaughtering a few monsters and a few of the faster-running goons. He begins to run out of stamina and also any hope of evading his pursuers when a flash of lightning strikes the loanshark and a familiar figure rushes past him and cuts down some more goons.
That familiar figure is Xarda, and the lightning came from his accomplice, Violet, who uses magic (something completely unfamiliar to this land, and indeed this entire world). With the three of them, they quickly overcome the mob and send them running.
Kasai explains what happened. He blames his father for not being there for him, and Xarda recognizes Kasai's father's name. Since Kasai has no place to return to, his swordsmanship is almost on par with Xarda's, and Xarda and Violet recognize his father's name, they decide to let him accompany them.
The rest of the events become less detailed. The group travels to a nearby town where Violet takes Kasai's prize money and buys some raw materials. She notices that Kasai has some latent talent for magic and teaches him how to forge his own Aura Sword* using the raw materials. The group then travels through a mountain pass and fights a group of bandits on their way to their destination: A portal to another world. Specifically, the portal Xarda and Violet used to enter this world.
Xarda and Violet have their own backstories that get very involved in the plot. Basically, in the first story, the technology to travel between worlds was realized almost simultaneously in several different universes. The Drakri, a race of reptilian humanoids living on planet Cynon in what acts as a hub universe, believe there is a single universe that all universes connect to, called Akashah. They note that some universes have stronger magical ambiance than others. Indeed, some universes (Hilaca and Ledeman, to name two) have practically zero magical ambiance. The story is long and complicated, but they eventually find a world called Torteitte that is unique: It has zero magical resistance (as in: magic is very very strong there), but magicians retain their natural mana recovery. Torteitte is a dead world. Its inhabitants were the first to discover interdimensional travel, and were the first to discover the path to Akashah. The records of how they discovered this path do not exist, for the second they opened the door everything went to crap. The antagonist is a Paladin who thinks that it is his destiny to go to Akashah to meet the goddess Adeva. When he arrives and Adeva is nowhere to be found, he decides he will become god. The protagonists stop him, he dies, and the story ends. This was 20 years ago.
Since then, the worlds have disconnected from Cynon and connected to Torteitte so that they might study the metaphysics involved in its destruction. It's also convenient that Torteitte is the only world connected to Akashah and everyone is too afraid to connect their world to Akashah directly. (Also, nobody knows how. It's a complicated process.)
Back in the present, Xarda and Violet were on a mission to search for worlds with zero magic ambiance. They believe Kasai to be evidence that his home world (which I forgot the name of) does not have zero ambiance. They report to their lord (Unnamed. I didn't forget, I just didn't assign one).
To make a long story short, the lord was looking for the antithesis to Akashah. A world of pure void, where he could destroy magic. (The destruction of magic is a recurring theme in this series. The theocracy of the first story's protagonists thought they could kill all the magic users because they deemed it evil.) He has obtained a rare relic from Torteitte that provides a hint about their method of finding the Void, and he was using Xarda and Violet to put it into place. The method goes something like this:
1. Find a world with zero ambiance.
2. Overload the core of the planet with mana. (Technology from a mana-rich world will do the trick.)
3. A shockwave of mana should flare up. To reach Akashah, open a portal in the middle of this shockwave. To reach the Void, open the portal on the exact opposite side of the planet.
Kasai finds out about the plot right before the lord realizes that Kasai's father came from another world and his world truly does have zero ambiance. Kasai, Xarda, and Violet escape to Kasai's world, but are unable to stop the lord.
Where Torteitte was destroyed by Akashah's overwhelming magic, the Void did nothing to harm the universe it was connected to. Instead, it began to siphon magic from the other universes. Like a black hole, almost.
Since the lord was unable to use Xarda and Violet to do his dirty work, he was forced to perform the risky deed himself. He ends up being sucked into the Void along with the means of closing the portal.
After this point, I hadn't decided how I would end the story. I considered making the protagonists travel to Torteitte and creating a portal to connect Akashah and Void. I also considered making Void the absence of universes and turning the lord into a Cthulhu-like demonic being bent on destroying everything.
I kinda ran out of steam.
But that's where my avatar comes from. Kasai's face graphic.
User Comments
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That's great VK...thanks for sharing the story with us. -
I'm not going to lie...I didn't have the patience to read all that.-
Me too. I got to the third paragraph and then scrolled down to the comments.
Voodoo, it's not disrespect. It's just lack of attention span.
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It's cool.
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Hmmm ... the story seemed rather cliché (for an RPG, that is) until it got to the Akashah part. Some good complexity from there onward. Too bad you didn't finish it, both the story and the game.
I also worked on a story for an RPG between my last year of high school and my first year of college. It was to take place on a redux version of the present world. But I seem to have much less motivation than you, as I didn't plan it well and ultimately gave up after two attempts at writing a first chapter. Besides, I couldn't write good stories (again, for RPGs) to save my life! -
ROFLMAO!
That's a good story Voo. Very good.
And I think you should find a way to get your steam back into play and make it happen.
I think the story itself would make a good sci-fi/fantasy novella series and you could sell it.
Of course, don't forget to put a little tiny bit of flirtatious romance in it for the girl gamers... Perhaps between Kasai and Violette... And of course - make sure that he meets his father in the end.
I think making the lord who was ultimately trying to destroy magic into an evil demon is ok -- but you could, instead of making him want to destroy it --- make him a greedy politician who wants it ALL for himself - and when he becomes the evil monster - kasai has to fight him in the end - to save the universes.
Much luck to you voo - that's a very talented story/script line - and I think not only should you do a video game on it - you should write a book series.
WW-
[I think the story itself would make a good sci-fi/fantasy novella series and you could sell it.]
Thank you. That's the idea. I want to make a book series and turn it into an Action RPG franchise.
The "I was considering" thing I wrote down in the OP was just me throwing stuff on paper to make it look like I'd put some thought into it at all. The ideas were entirely random.
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that's cute -
That's a darn long post for something that's 50x50 pixels... i couldnt bother to read your post... too lenghty!
Anyone wanna know why i am smiling in my avatar?-
[perverted joke]
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I still couldn’t bring myself to read your post. It's too obnoxiously long for a post. It's distracting to the eyes and definitely not worth spending 2 minutes learning why you chose your avatar when I can be sitting on my porch drinking a glass of cold Sangria. Now does anyone know what a Sangria is?
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GFG me hopes you're poking fun. The story itself holds interest for those who like Voodoo and/or for those who enjoy RPG games and/or sci-fi/fantasy reading.
So if those things do not interest you, you probably wouldn't be interested in reading the post - therefore it would seem entirely too long for you.
On the other hand - if you were interested in the topic, it would hold you spellbound where you could see the endless possibilities and the marketing that could be put into play.
Enjoy your Sangria... Red wine has too many tannins in it for my taste, but Sangria's are often lovely.
Unfortunately I have found that those who imbibe in Sangrias often have less time for others, but are often more interested in only things that interest themselves.
*grin* -
wagerwitch i love you
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*GRIN*
So why ARE you smiling?
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Do I count as a sexy stalker? *Evil grin*
I knew some of that, but not all, thanks for writing that up. Oh, an dyou know what I got for mother's day? A sword set LOL -
Oh yeah, and Anok made a cameo appearance in the game, too. She was going to be one of the sword master NPCs that you have to duel to raise your swordsmanship level.
Your swordsmanship level ranges from 1 to 10. Each level requires completing a task for a sword master and defeating them in a duel. When you reach a new level, you learn a new sword stance that is either automatically incorporated into your attack routine or one that replaces a less-effective stance that you start with, in addition to having a small stat boost (usually to AGI).
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Very interesting, but I choose to believe this is what you actually look like. I made that conscious decision a long time ago.-
As did I, even though I already knew some of this story. I'll always think of VK as a little, spiky-haired, RPG guy. Especially now that I've started Star Ocean, thanks to him, and I wish the lead character had more of VK's pragmatism and less emotion, as they're the same age. -
Hahaha. Fair enough.
FYI:
My hair is brown, not black, and it's curly (read: messy) as hell. My eyes are hazel, not blue, and my face doesn't look as disproportionate as my avatar's. -
Does, too.
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dude... -
k, trying saying that six times fast, just kidding, I found it interesting, but I like to peer into other peoples minds, good story!!!-
Thanks.
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That's pretty neat. I just grabbed my own cat and photo-shopped a hat and some bling on him. It makes a pretty boring story I admit. -
If i was one of the sexy stalkers, I might have the patience to read all that. I, of course have never subjected the BC community to giant gobs of text... oh wait-
No, you're one of my creepy stalkers, not one of the sexy ones.
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Oh, I forgot to footnote an explanation for the aura swords.
In the first story (which will also make its way into video game format), there are two main protagonists: A boy and a girl. I have their names written down somewhere, but it's not super important right now. At the beginning of the game, the player gets to choose which weapon fighting styles to use for both of them. You get to choose between two small swords, one medium sword, or one greatsword. Each has its own costs and benefits, and due to story element, the character is unable to change their weapon style for the rest of the game. (Note: If I ever get to make the game, the male lead is best with a longsword (medium, although it is 2-handed) and the girl is best with two short swords. Also, two main characters allows for 2-player action. )
When their fighting styles are decided upon, they are presented with a vat of molten steel in a special chamber. There, they forge their own weapons. Not by hand, but through the exercise of magic. This aligns their weapon's internal crystal structure in a way that makes it resonate with their aura. Hence, it is an aura sword.
In the first game, there are four main aura swords. The two mentioned above, the katana wielded by a swordsman named Khelzar (who teaches the protagonists how to use their weapons at the beginning of the story), and the Longsword wielded by a former Paladin named Lady Krysta.
When the protagonists reach Cynon, they refine the shape of their swords to allow the addition of a Cynon weapon technology that enables them to collect crystals that improve their weapon proficiency. Because Cynon has been connected to other worlds for many years, almost everyone has their own Crystal Augment attached. However, these were designed for traditional swords, not Aura Swords. This makes the protagonists very powerful, but it suppresses a phenomenon that only manifests in Khelzar's and Krysta's swords, and later in the protagonists of Spectra Polaris: The sword begins to take on an identity and communicate with its wielder.
In the Spectra Polaris timeframe, Crystal Augment technology has been modified to adapt to Aura Swords (which are quite popular-- even Anok has an Aura Sword ).
So in the first game, the stats look like this:
Randall
Homeworld: Tetran
Level 30
ATK 30
DEF 32
AGI 20
MAG 30
RES 32
AUR 20
Swordsmanship: [===-------] 3 (out of 10)
Weapon: Aura Longsword
|-- Augment: Ruby (SlashAura+20cm, +4 Damage to Ice Elementals)
|-- Augment: None
And in the second game, they look like this:
Kasai
Homeworld: Desvar (assumed name)
Level 32
ATK 33
DEF 31
AGI 26
MAG 33
RES 29
AUR 17+10
Swordsmanship: [=======---] 7
Weapon: Polaris (Aura Longsword)
|-- Bond: [==========] 10
|-- Augment: Bismuth (+10% Critical Hit)
|-- Augment: Diamond (+10 to AUR)
The bond is between the sword and the user. It strengthens over time.
Some explanation on the stats:
ATK - "Attack." Base physical attack damage.
DEF - "Defense." Base physical damage resistance.
AGI - "Agility." How fast you move in combat and how often you strike.
MAG - "Magic." Base magical attack damage.
RES - "Resolve." Base magical damage resistance.
AUR - "Aura." How fast you can cast spells and how well you can chain them together.
SlashAura = {(Character Level) [x 1.5 if using Greatsword] x Augment Bonuses (e.g. +50% = 1.5) x Other Bonuses} + sum(1, Swordsmanship Level) + Augment Modifiers (e.g. +20) + Other Modifiers
The SlashAura is a measurement, in centimeters, of how far your sword's aura permeates from the tip of the blade. Using skills temporarily increases the range, allowing you to strike through multiple enemies. A highly-trained swordsman using a greatsword, with the right Crystal Augments, might be able to take down enemies several feet away from the tip of his sword when using the correct skill*.
Some special attacks and some skills (used in your normal attack as per your current battle stance) give the SlashAura (designated SA in equations) a boost. For example, the Iai Strike that can be used at Swordmanship levels 6 and higher with Longswords at the beginning of a battle will grant 2SA + 100 cm range on your slash aura.
This holds true in both games.
*Example:
Base SA = {100 [x 1.5] x 1.2 x 1} + 55 (level 10 swordsmanship) + 20 + 10 = 265 cm
Cleave, another 2SA+100 skill, would have a 630 cm range (6.3 meters, or almost 21 feet).
Can you tell that I have a lot of free time?-
You have a lot of free time.
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Yep.
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I love your avatar...but i can't read all that. I'm impatient!-
Kobra casts WALL OF TEXT. It's super talkative.
(Pokemon references ftw.)
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I have read all, very entertaining, a lot of imagination, a good style but I think the theme is rather old. Maybe this SFI from S.M. Stirling (author of Terminator 2) may inspire you:
www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/sm-stirling-the-next-big-orwell -
@voodoo
A very long but fascinating story.-
Thank you.
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You've been crit by wall of text for over 9000.
You die.
I just lost the game. -
so u drew the avatar?-
Not quite. Because it would clash with the other characters' face graphics if I drew it my style, I modeled the shape of the head and the eyes after another face graphic. The hair, clothing, nose, and smirk (which are really minor features) were all I added.
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