Pandora's Redemption General Board

[Aldersmaine]

.../stares/ One step at a time?

[Quaddy]

I know. I'm just trying to figure out which we need to do first...

[Aldersmaine]

probably basic plotting

[Quaddy]

I have the basic fundamentals of the plot already, actually. I'll type them up when it isn't 2am...

[Zephyr Shenkiken]

So are you gonna assign people specific realms to work on Prof or do we just pick em?

[Quaddy]

Well, we'll probably start with listing the realms we KNOW we'll need for the story and letting people pick which one from the list they want, then we'll develop a few others that people WANT to develop (concepts that intrigue them, etc). Then we work on an overall timeline, creating any realms we need for that as we go. Once we have a handle on the world, we can develop the characters we know we need, characters we want to develop, and then we'll start on the plot. Working on the plot will likely necessitate more character and realm plotting, but we'll get there when we get there.

[Quaddy]

OK, so a brief outline of the briefly outlined plot I have:

Heaven and Hell stop fighting and agree to a mutually beneficial ceasefire, removing themselves from the Astral Realms more or less permanently. God knows that the Prince of Hell (at the time of the ceasefire, the great-great grandson of Samael, founder of the Plane) will not be content to stay in Gahenna forever and will ultimately break the ceasefire, so He sends Alexian (the main character) down into the Realms. In order to keep from breaking the truce Himself, He asks Alexian to Fall. She does not know if she will ever be able to come back to Elysia and Michael (her lover), though her Angelic powers are left to her (unlike most Fallen) in order to do her duty.

Thirty centuries or so pass. Alexian is now Captain of the ship Pandora's Redemption. She is called by fellow captain Molly Quill to help in the Stygian Rebellion against their Demonic Overlords. Gahenna maintained control over Stygia (cold and desolate as the name suggests, the Stygians are either proficient in blood magics or in war) even after the ceasefire, as the Stygians tend to worship Demons as gods. But a small subsection of Stygia wants freedom from Gahenna and Molly Quill asks Alexian and her crew (who are renowned pirates) to help.

Meanwhile, in Hell, the Prince is aging and his sons are plotting to take the throne and begin the war once again between Gahenna and Elysia. The Prince's youngest son, Vlaaghan, wants to take the throne as well, but he is a bastard son and half Stygian besides. Cruel, merciless, and intelligent (and handsome enough, I suppose...the Darcy quote unintentional), he is STILL the least cruel and merciless of his brothers and Alexian decides to use him to further her ultimate goal of preventing war and gaining a permanent treaty of non-aggression between Heaven and Hell. Meeting with Vlaaghan, she offers to get him the throne of Hell if he will in turn promise to abide by the ceasefire and sign a treaty with Heaven (she claims to be doing this in the name of Terrans and the safety of the realms, not letting on that she is actually working for God). He agrees and they set about setting him up as the leader of the Stygian rebellion. They also go around to the various Terran lands (they stand to lose the most from a new war) pitching the whole "Hey, put Vlaaghan on the throne and no more war!" thing.

Alexian and Vlaaghan actually develop a relationship--the longer Alexian is Fallen, the more of her memories she loses and the looser her ties to Heaven become--with Vlaaghan becoming more than more "human" (Stygians are Terrans, too, just evolved differently) and less demonic. Ultimately, they win, put Vlaaghan on the throne, and a binding treaty is signed. In doing this, however, Alexian recovers herself and her memories and returns to Heaven to be with Michael, leaving Vlaaghan brokenhearted and pissed off (especially as Alexian promised to stay with him and rule Gahenna). I described the last scene earlier. Pissed off, he wants to figure out how to get back at Heaven for tricking him into signing this treaty. He is told by his adviser that the new Terran plane (our plane) has no such treaty binding it from involvement. While they cannot go physically, they can definitely invade their minds and dreams of the humans (Terrans) living there and begin the war anew via the human planes.

Another piece of information that is quite pertinent is that this last scene...well, the adviser is Loki. I kind of want Loki to be behind a lot of the crap that goes on in this story. Like...he's manipulating everything to get the outcome he wants (a world in which he can be a god, mostly, as non-residents of Heaven or Hell are not bound by the treaty). So he needs to help/hinder our characters in order to get the outcome he wants (which is the treaty, humans in their own world, and the chaos of another Heaven/Hell war that won't put him in danger and which will allow him to be worshiped as a god). Does that make sense?

Wait...does ANY of this make sense to anyone but me?

[Mynt]

Uhm, I think I'm going to get out of this one before it starts. No offense, but I'm not that interested in doing a God campfire. x:

[Quaddy]

*shrug* God doesn't appear in this, but whatevs you want to do.

[Quaddy]

Wait...God is DEFINITELY in Fall the God in Tears. You're not going to ask to drop out of that one halfway through are you?

[Mynt]

Heaven versus Hell, angels versus demons... all that. I'm just kind of meh about all that. If you want me out of Fall the God, go for it. I was under the impression it was God and Goddess though?

[Quaddy]

*nods* The Goddess is trying to bring God back to life after Satan killed him. Our characters are working for the Goddess on a search for the "pieces" of God that she can then put back together and breathe life into Him once more. It's a retelling of the Isis/Osiris myth with God and Goddess.

And this one isn't a Heaven vs. Hell story, either. Not really. The only Angel in the story until just about the very end is Alexian. And she is, technically speaking, a Fallen and thus removed from Heaven. The Demons in the story--Vlaaghan's brothers--are trying to take over the Throne of Samael. It's a politics/war/mythology story in which Loki manipulates the tensions between Heaven and Hell to get what he wants. The war between Heaven and Hell provides the backdrop/impetus for this story, but we definitely won't be writing about it.

[Quaddy]

Well, maybe flashbacks...

Alexian, for example, is going to start out having a number of flashbacks to tell her own backstory, as well as reveal some of the backstory for the Astral Planes, but as she forgets herself and Heaven, those will gradually disappear from the story.

[Mynt]

But isnt the story about getting a truce between heave and hell?

[Quaddy]

Anyway, no pressure to stay and write with us. You're welcome to sit back and read like Ldy and Lone.

[Quaddy]

No. There's already a truce. Alexian is there to make sure it doesn't ever get broken. Her idea is to trick Vlaaghan into signing a binding treaty in return for putting him on the throne of Hell.

[Mynt]

Sooo, then yeah.

[Quaddy]

*nods* Anyway, did you want to stay on in Fall the God, or does knowing the whole storyline kinda turn you off to the idea?

[Mynt]

I have no opinion one way or the other, lol.

[Quaddy]

Okie dokie. So I'll keep you in unless you decide you want out.

[Aldersmaine]

I will say that this story is a mighty large mix of religious theories and icons. I wonder how the mass public will take it, or if they will even understand half of the references within.

[Matt]

Loki as the mastermind... I wonder where I read that before *cough*gaiman*cough*

Lol. Little American Gods no?

[Quaddy]

Actually, the origins of this story actually stretch back to before I read American Gods for the first time.