Fade [official project thread]

Here's my history of the Faded world:

I'm going to type it up...ah screw it. I'll do it here

Death is the ruler of this world

Death is the ruler of hell

his job is to collect souls for hell

and he is very good at his job

whispering in the ears of kings to cause massive wars

spreading disease

but as the centuries drolled on, Death became bored

so he decided to switch up his game

He started making deals with mortals

granting them favors in exchange for their soul

and this worked wonderfully

mortals, it seemed, were not the brightest bunch of bananas

and kept making deals with him

he granted them powers or make them kings or nobles

some even, asked to be free of Death. Good naturedly, he agreed
and carefully orchestrated situations where they would beg for death

Eventually, one man asked this same thing of death
Death obliged him

as the years went on, this man continued to elude Death, which he paid small mind to. Death was patient, death was careful. Sooner or later this man would be his

then more asked this favor of Death

and he obliged them as well

five men now walked the world without the threat of Death hanging over their shoulders

try as he might, Death could not outsmart them

it seems they found the first man and he taught them the ways to elude Death forever. To steel their minds against pain

to wait out long captivity

to endure hunger and thirst

In time, they became like gods to the mortals

and later still, God Kings of the world

Death had been cheated

Death always wins

so he searched out those in desperation, who sought a higher purpose

he gave them one

"Tell me child, that of which you most desire to be rid, and I shall take it thus. In exchange you will be my will, my Faded mortal"

Death gathered Faded and planned a way to dethrone the God Kings

Death is not forgiving

tl;dr

Death is gathering an army of Faded in order to dethrone the God Kings because they cheated him out of their souls. Thing is, the God Kings are actually doing a decent job of running the world between the five of them. They orchestrate small wars between themselves, but this is mostly to keep the populaces relatively pacified. I'm sure someone who has read 1984 can explain that part better. Not quite the Bread & Circuses method of ancient Rome, but close enough. The Faded are individuals who basically lost their way in the world because or thing or another. Death gathered them up and turned them against the world - although some of them were already against it for one reason or another. Somehow, the powers Death granted to the Faded involved enabling Death to claim their souls.

The wars are orchestrated whenever the people get restless. Usually their energy is directed at one of the other kingdoms. Since the five meet and discuss the world affairs, they decide exactly how much territory is gained or lost in the war - so long as the Kingdom remains intact. Because there are five, there will always be a decision.

Thing is, these men are incorruptible. I mean it. The actually have the best interests of the world at heart. And it's done marvelously so far.

But I don't really want it to get more political than that because the politics aren't important. What is important is the expectations of the reader. We want the reader to think that the Faded are being used to take down a secretly corrupt world regime because they are outcasts from society. The reader should expect that, as the layers of society are peeled back, the regimes would prove to be corrupt and distopian, but it turns out that everything is alright. The Faded have been used by Death himself to destroy a fairly peaceful society because he was cheated out of five souls.

Remember my whole irony shpeal? Yeah. There it is in all of its glory.



Protagonists: Faded
Antagonists: God Kings

Death is a cheating bastard.