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Messages - Vacant

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 228
1
Develop Your Story / Re: Vacants World Building Dumping Ground
« on: July 20, 2022, 08:35:01 PM »
Of Blights and Breaches

Blights are the main monsters and initial antagonists in Absolver. Blights are mysterious creatures who hunger for souls. They seek out living beings to drag back to their “Breach”, in order to trap them inside and to digest them later.

They have plagued the lands of Irobor for millennia and are the sworn adversaries of the Absolvers. While their origins are not fully known, a range of theories, both scientific and spiritual exist.

They appear from tears in the fabric of reality known as “Breaches”. These are bubbles that form on the outside of the realm of the living. When the Blight has developed fully, it bursts through a small rift into the mortal realm to relentlessly hunt down living creatures to drag back to its Breach, in order to harvest their souls. There are four stages in the life cycle of a Blight. These are known as Larvae, Chrysalis, Complete and Calamity.

What Is A Breach?
-A Breach is a blister of space containing a Blight that latches onto the underside of our reality. It is currently unknown why these Breaches appear, or where Blights come from.
-As the Blight begins to develop, a slight tear in reality begins to form, barely visible to the naked eye.
-Each Blight varies with how long it takes them to mature, with some taking mere hours while others have been known to take months or even years. As it matures, the rift in the mortal realm becomes darker and more visible. 
-When the Blight is ready to emerge, the Breach tears open fully and turns a solid black. The rift it causes varies in size, depending on location and the Blight itself. The rift remains open, acting as a gateway for the Blight to re-enter their Breach and allowing them to store their victims within it.
-Not much is known about the interior of a Breach, as once a person enters a Breach, they are considered lost and impossible to recover. A Blight will capture living creatures and haul them back to its Breach, before throwing them inside.
-After a Blight has collected as many souls as it desires, it will re-enter the Breach and undergo a metamorphosis, dissolving all the souls within and restructuring the Blight into its evolved form, known as its Chrysalis stage.
-When this form reemerges, the Breach will normally close itself. However, on rare occasions it will remain intact. Thus, the Chrysalis will roam again, collecting creatures to harvest. If it is successful in this, its second evolution is known as a Complete Blight.

What Is A Blight?
-A Blight is the creature that forms within a Breach. It grows inside until it reaches maturity and  emerges from its Breach. This first stage is known as its Larvae Form. It is a mindless beast, driven on instinct alone. It seeks living creatures to drag back to its Breach.
-When the Blight deems it has enough, it will return and re-enter its Breach. At this point, it dissolves and digests the souls collected and transforms into its first evolution, known as a Chrysalis Blight.
-This Blight is more cunning and intelligent than the Larvae form and if its Breach remains intact, it is also more effective at capturing souls. If its Breach does collapse and disappear, it will still hunt for souls. However it is unable to consume them properly as it would in its Breach. This eventually drives them mad, reducing their mental capacities to its base Larvae form once more.
-If they manage to make it to their second evolution and become a Complete Blight, they attain an intellect on par with humanity and possess the ability to speak and communicate.
-Besides being stronger than their previous evolution, the key difference is that their Breach is held internally, a fissure they can open at will to trap/consume souls.
-No matter the stage in its evolution, a Blight can be very dangerous and take many forms. However, they often have wings, Antennae and insect-like vestiges. Their colour schemes often match a Butterfly/Moth pattern too.

What Is A Calamity?
-On exceptionally rare occasions, a Complete Blight will crave only for other Blights and will begin to capture these within its own Breach. It is said if it is successful in consuming 100 Blights, it will undergo its final evolution into a Calamity.
-These foes are capable of destroying entire cities and are greatly feared throughout the lands. Only the strongest and most cunning Blights can become a Calamity and only a few have ever been recorded in history.

Dealing With A Blight
-Blights are a scourge of mankind, indiscriminately hunting down people to consume. As such, the Absolvers were established to deal with them. They were powerful, magic wielding warriors led by the Farseers. A subspecies of man that were adept in Divination, as well as being formidable wizards in their own right.
-Absolvers are sworn to defeat Blights and to cleanse their Breaches, allowing any souls trapped within to pass into the Void to head to Journey's End and have done so for over 1000 years.
-Traditionally, Farseers had visions of when and where Breaches would occur and would attempt to preempt them. In modern times, as their bloodline diluted and numbers diminished, detection nodes were developed that could give an alert when a Breach appeared.
-There are dozens of these dotted around the globe. These send alerts out to the nearest outposts and human settlements. Alternatively, some too weak to be detected/too far from a node can be reported manually by people.
-Without these Nodes, Breaches can be difficult to see until the Blight within has almost matured, appearing only as small, hazy fissures in reality. Unfortunately, many of these nodes across the Mainland were damaged deliberately by Aristas during the Northern War 2 decades ago.
-When a Breach is detected, its size is assessed and recon is gathered. This informs the level of response to it. Absolvers are dispatched and civilians instructed to evacuate, keep distance etc.
-Absolvers have two options when dealing with a Breach. If the Blight is still within, they can choose to seal it, thus casting the cocoon into the Void. This is not deemed the best case scenario, as the Faith believe it to be a damned soul within and simply sealing means it hasn't been “absolved”.
-Alternatively, they can expel the creature out. This involves tampering with the Breach. The Absolvers will then defeat the creature, before performing a sanctifying rite. This purifies the soul contained within, allowing the souls to travel through the Void and to Journey’s End.
-If the creature is loose, they will combat it and seal its Breach separately, although the sealing of the Breach is generally done first to prevent the monster from capturing further souls if the Absolver is unsuccessful.
-A Blight can survive with its Breach being sealed, however if a Blight is killed, its Breach will begin to collapse in on itself and seal up on its own accord.


Stages of Blights
Larvae
-This is the first stage of a Blight, one that has yet to consume any souls. It is typically just the trapped soul that has begun to hunger and be consumed by its instincts.
-These are generally weak and pretty easily dealt with using Magic and don’t particularly have any special abilities, although they will invariably have some way of trapping targets, such as a web, tentacles, poison etc. in order to lure or transport living beings back to their Breach.


Chrysalis
-This creature takes a new form and is more cunning and dangerous than its previous form. It will either continue to capture souls for its Breach, or if its Breach collapses it will simply feast on people, unable to consume their souls.
-These Blights will often have abilities and special techniques to defend themselves. They will be larger than the Larvae form and appear more monstrous.


Complete

-It the Chrysalis’s Breach remained open and it repeated the cycle of storing souls and consuming them, it underwent a transformation to a Complete Blight. These creatures typically appear more humanoid, often far smaller than their previous forms. However they are far stronger and possess immense intelligence.




2
Develop Your Story / Vacants World Building Dumping Ground
« on: July 20, 2022, 08:11:01 PM »
I feel like I want to contribute some form of content to the Forum, but don't quite have a decent draft done yet. So in the meantime, I figured I'd just throw down some Worldbuilding stuff in the meantime :ninja:
 
I've always liked seeing "behind the curtain" and how people develop their worlds, characters and unique abilities etc.
So I want to try and incorporate how I do things and why where possible in case this is of interest to others.

Any questions and critique is welcome and appreciated, thanks you lovely lil Raiders you.

3
General Manga writer discussions / Re: Writing Log
« on: May 11, 2022, 04:36:45 AM »
Good shouts on naming. Another thing I use for when i need "fantasy" names is the license plates on any passing cars. In the UK the last three digits will be a random combo of letters and that can sometimes be shuffled about in my brain to make a name or the beginnings of one. so for example "XBN" = Xebian, "OKA"= Oukura.

On the writing front since last update I have:
-Completed full chapter notes and scenes.
-Then decided to gouge out the 2nd act and rewrite it.
-Then absolutely did not get sidetracked making maps on inkarnate for a few days :-X
-I've also wanted to flex my actual writing muscles and began writing the 1st chapter. Hot damn Its been about 4 or 5 months and I am rusty! I hope to have the first draft of chapter 1 up on here when i've done and want to get some reviews done for others in the meantime. 

4
General Manga writer discussions / Re: Writing Log
« on: April 20, 2022, 09:02:52 AM »
April 16th-19th

And why I'm here, may as well provide an update  :thumbsup:

I've written the keynotes for chapters 1-7 so far and doing 8-9 today so roughly halfway there. These chapters aren't set in stone, they're just where I get to what I consider the natural end of that set of scenes to give me an idea on whats happening. I expect to be chopping and changing when checking the pacing and flow of the narrative, but i think between 16-20 chapters is pretty much what I was expecting.


Also, quick tip if you are incredibly easily distracted like me. When I get to a part where I haven't yet named the character or place, I put "NTBA" in place and immediately move on. I used to stop dead and spend time coming up with a name, then going off on unrelated google searches and lose my mojo. Now, when I press ctrl+f i can go back and just find any entries with NTBA in and fill in these blanks accordingly at the end.

5
General Manga writer discussions / Re: Writing Log
« on: April 20, 2022, 08:54:24 AM »
It can definitely take a while to get a good routine up for stuff like that :P

I agree with the "go nuts" strategy, it's definitely helped me over the years with writer's and artist's block.

Quote
Which incidentally, I'd love to know how you guys brainstorm, or if you use a particular method/program for this?
I use Word myself as well. I have a few documents for different stages of development, this is how I generally do it at the moment:
1) "Plot Cloud" - Random ideas for the story, in any order. Mostly bullet points of anything, plot points, new characters, character developments, backstories, personalities, world building, anything goes. Basically just getting my thoughts out of my head. I often expand the bullets with developed or even opposite ideas (exploring different options basically), justification, and questions for my future self to answer, like a to-do list ("when does character A meet character B, did they know each other already?" kinda thing)
2) "Developed Plot" - chosen and accepted ideas get moved here. I develop and expand the ideas, adding more finer details and padding the story timeline-wise, to get a beginning, middle and end of each plot point, roughly speaking. Making sure the point fits with the story and doesn't create many plot holes.
3) "Consolidated Plot" - The actual story outline, in the order it comes in the story. points are moved from developed plot and placed in the right order for the story to be written. Sometimes a point gets split up and spliced with other points, to make the join more seamless (i.e. hinting at an event before it happens etc, name dropping before the character gets introduced etc, and mentioning the event later on etc)

For coming up with interesting ideas within a story I already have, I sometimes use random word prompts to inspire new scenes or characters which I then go on to develop.
For example: "stay , low pressure , Woodcrafter , dizzy , aggressive"
Often a verb/adjective/noun combination gives interesting ideas to play with. Even if the idea once developed doesn't resemble the prompt anymore, then it's still done its job.

Ah okay, I think I need to let loosen up like that and just let it all out onto a page, then make sense of it later. I feel like i get hung up on organizing the chaos before its even begun.

The word prompt idea is really interesting. Thats a good exercise to get the juices flowing, Im going to try that out when i inevitably stumble at the midpoint  :ninja:


Ah, well the real answer to how I organize things is that I don't, lol. But that's not entirely true these days. I have done some legitimate chapter outlines ghost writer style to keep events in order for shorter stories. For longer ones, I actually have what is probably a pretty unique method?

Since I have long acknowledged that my primary inspiration engine is music that I randomly come across which gets the juices flowing, I have been building playlists for several years now. Obviously I'm not writing down details with this method, but it is a way for me to mentally catalog scenes in order, and simultaneously remember the emotions felt while coming up with them in the first place. Even for stories I haven't worked on in *checks wrist* a couple of years, I can vividly remember the planned scenes, as well as where I was when coming up with them.

Will this method be useless if I die and have to leave finishing my stories to some successor since I will be a famous author whose work begs to be completed? (Big dreams I know, lol), of course! But for the hear and now, pretty useful for me.


I salute your impeccable memory, if i don't write a concept/scene idea down i forget it within a few days :P Maybe its because its associated with the music and that helps conjure it back up? I feel i'd get distracted by music too much, but that is actually an interesting method. I can imagine having a particular song could influence the tone of writing and help you get into the mindset better.



6
General Manga writer discussions / Re: Writing Log
« on: April 16, 2022, 07:23:52 AM »
I've decided 3rd or 4th times a charm with keeping a consistent log of writing  :thumbsup:

April 12th-16th

Inspiration has struck me, so while that fires burning I'm getting on with it. I've revised the initial Plot structure for my story. I had it divided into 3 parts, with several arcs contained within each of these. I had several key events written down and knew where I needed to go leading into Part 2, but the more I delved into the 1st part of the story, it felt like it was mostly set up for when the real threat appeared.

To remedy this, I've done some drastic changes and spent some time building the plot skeleton for Part 1. I did this by literally scrawling ideas onto a word doc for a few hours. Which incidentally, I'd love to know how you guys brainstorm, or if you use a particular method/program for this?

This is the first time in a long while i've shaken the shackles of pre-existing story threads in my head and just said "go nuts". I found it a hell of a lot of fun to tinker with things. Anyway, to save me rambling a bunch, I've organised the ideas i latched onto and found to work and written up the outline of three arcs that form part 1.

Next, I tried the 3 act, 9 block outline method for the 1st novel. I'm happy with the 1st/3rd Acts and the second half of the 2nd Act. That little bit I'm not too pleased with is going to need some reworking.

Today I'm writing chapter outlines for the Novel. These are basically bullet points of what will happen. After this I'm going to do a sweep of the major plotlines, ensuring they're paced correctly and that any exposition needed is done at the right time and delivered in a decent manner. I'm hoping to have these chapter keynotes finished by next weekend (Lots of working coming my way sadly). So hopefully i can report back on that.

 

7
MR Pub / Re: Chit Chat 2021
« on: September 17, 2021, 02:48:32 PM »
Ah that sucks, get well soon Suuper

8
MR Pub / Re: Chit Chat 2021
« on: August 09, 2021, 04:39:52 PM »
Damn, are you telling me I missed my chance to join a brotherhood?  :ohmy:

9
General Manga writer discussions / Re: Writing Log
« on: June 13, 2021, 05:01:24 PM »
nice progress!

that sounds like a really cool program, and bizarrely similar to the program I was going to write to solve that exact problem with moving stuff around and needed something better than Excel. I don't fancy paying out for a license though ahaha so might still make my own program :P

ahhh awesome you're doing NaNoWriMo? I might as well this year, I need the practice for sure. Dunno what form it'll take though, I might even start my own self-event earlier given the productive flow I've been in lately.


The struggle of Excel is real brother! That sounds awesome though with your own program, hope it works out nicely  :thumbsup: I'll happily purchase a license to it if you ever release it to the public :P

and yeah, its weird to think of it already, but Nanowrimo will be here before we know it.  I feel like really pushing myself to it this year.

10
MR Pub / Re: Chit Chat 2021
« on: June 13, 2021, 02:59:07 AM »
we got a discord server? :o

11
General Manga writer discussions / Re: Writing Log
« on: June 12, 2021, 07:16:18 AM »
Been neglecting this, but have been writing. For the last three weeks I've been using a program called Plottr to help draft my stories. When plotting a story, I used to do a timeline of the key events, between 7-15 beats of the story. Then i'd go in and flesh out what scenes i needed and then get a rough idea of where the chapters fall in and what scene went where. I used to use Excel to do this and move the cells around, but it was hard not to just see walls of text in each cell and super easy to lose track.

But Plottr has a time line function you can use that's essentially gives you that kind of virtual whiteboard. you have your timelines going horizontal, then the vertical columns that intersect. I currently have columns for each chapter, then broken down further into scenes. I give each scene a one sentence title and then you can fill in the notes for it with the entire breakdown. But on the timeline, i can easily slide them around into different places.

I also have a second one for each plot thread running through. So far i've really liked it. Its made planning much easier and I've enjoyed it.

I've also set myself a pretty hefty challenge too. I want my scene by scene breakdown done by the end of this month. Then from July-November I want to of finished the first draft in time for NaNoWriMo!

That way, I'd be happy to take a month off from my current work and try my hand at something a bit different. What that is, I have no clue :P but its a nice thought all the same :P

12
Welcome Center / Re: LONG TIME NO SEE >.>;;
« on: June 12, 2021, 07:05:46 AM »
Welcome back Mahlua. Im sure they are all good with that. Life gets in the way of hobbies unfortunately at times and it sounds like you've had a lot going down! This place may not be bustling all the time, but its still always there whenever the creative juices get flowing.

Congrats on the engagement, all the best to you and your fiance :cheers: ( I could've sworn there used to be a Champagne emoji on here, but cant see it anywhere  :noidea: ).

13
General Manga writer discussions / Re: Writer Discussion Table
« on: May 05, 2021, 09:12:07 AM »
Well... you could pull a Sanderson and have two prologues...!

Sometimes a way to deal with this kind of situation is to show the character at the highest high point during the prologue, do not show their fall at all yet, then have them at their lowest during the first chapter. This large contrast can do a lot of the heavy lifting in making sure readers feel the impact. You can then go back after-the-fact to fill in the details of the fall - through flashbacks or discussions with other characters (past acquaintances, those affected by their actions, their victims, those that used to idolize them etc) or just through self reflection comparing present to past. It's a more long-term way of writing the scenario, but it progresses the actual plot more quickly.

And the other way I've seen it done is to just not have a time-skip at all... just write it all out!


That's really intrigued me. I like the idea of the "hard cut" from the peak to their valley so to speak. I'm going to try and look at it from that approach and see what happens. Thanks man!  :thumbsup:


both ways are valid, but since the entire fall is essentially backstory to your actual story, it boils down to how long you want your intro to be.

One of my current stories has so much backstory I struggled finding a good palce to start from since I filled out the past more than my actual story plot.

A decent idea that I'm trying to do is put in the backstory bit by bit as flashbacks and so on.

I like NO1SEY's idea of ending the prologue on a high and then cutting striaght into the low in the next chapter. Just maknig the difference clear and that there was a fall from grace and you can fill in the missing story as you go.

Yeah, I've never been keen on writing flashbacks in prose form. But i think they're effective when done right. I feel they could work in the story if I smash them at the start of each new chapter, make it a narrative thread that we build upon each new chapter.

Thanks guys, you've sparked some new ideas for me and a different angle of approach.

14
General Manga writer discussions / Re: Writer Discussion Table
« on: May 04, 2021, 09:06:54 AM »
Question party people. For the beginning of a story, do you feel its fine to start when a character has fallen from grace and is generally down on their luck?

Or do you feel it makes for a more satisfying narrative if you actually get to witness the nose dive prior. As in starting the story when they're flying high.

The reason I ask, is for the latter I feel this has to encompass more than a single prologue or chapter to really have an impact.

I've written a story recently, where the prologue covers the Protagonist seen from another's POV, brimming with confidence and ability. Things turn sour in this prologue and chapter 1 is set 2 years after, with them crestfallen and still suffering the consequences. However, I feel this is almost diluting what happens condensing it into a Prologue and am considering cutting it altogether. But then, it brings us back to the beginning where we're starting with the MC at their lowest point! You can see where I've gotten myself into a tangle.

What are your thoughts peeps? Any insight would be appreciated.

15
General Manga writer discussions / Re: Am I overthinking social media?
« on: April 14, 2021, 04:14:05 AM »
Make a Professional account that is simply for your work and projects and only follow other artists/fans of what you like seeing is my advice.

Its good for engagement and building connections, but its murky waters out there so i would sail carefully :P



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