Post by Monika on Aug 22, 2020 11:48:06 GMT -5
Oh boy.
A certain Discord discussion last night convinced me that many of you peasants still want to actively keep those creative juices flowing and, more specifically, some of you are still interested in revisiting our old stories (like good ol' Awesome Land VI here). Unfortunately, the general consensus is that there's just too much, and I'm inclined to agree. Awesome Land VI in particular, while "only" 17 pages, is extremely dense and built upon lore established over a dozen other stories since 2008. That makes for a pretty intimidating relearning curve and the inability to just jump right back in. For the goal of just getting people writing again as quickly as possible, I believe the best solution is to start a new IP, whether inside or outside of the Awesome Universe.
However, last night's discussion also convinced me that Awesome Land VI could theoretically be salvaged if that relearning curve were shortened. Naturally, I'm particularly attached to the story, since Awesome Land has been my baby for over 12 years now. At the very least, I'd like to see Awesome Land VI through to completion and resolve a few plot threads, since this is the story with the most interesting themes and (at least as far as my plan is concerned) the most thrilling conclusion. To that end, I've decided to fall on my interactive story sword and take on the burden of composing a summary of the story that will make reentry for all interested parties significantly easier.
During our discussion, we agreed that a summary of individual plot threads (e.g. "Immortals", "Awesome Land", "Space Land", "Sark's Super Happy Funtime Vampire Adventure") might not necessarily be the best approach. My initial thinking was that people would be free to ignore whichever plot threads did not concern them, read the summaries of those that did, and jump back into the story from there. However, it was pointed out that because many of our threads weave in and out of each other, overlapping and diverging as the story progresses, this kind of approach may leave someone without crucial details. For example, Kayla spends much of the beginning of the story in Awesome Land and could therefore be included in the nebulously defined "Awesome Land" plot thread (which would contain those things happening in terrestrial Awesome Land proper). However, she also takes part in the battle against Zais, which would fall under the "Immortals" plot thread. And her interactions with Sark involve her in his plot thread as well. If Calefrun did not recall each event that Kayla played a role in and just cherry picked plot lines that he thought were relevant to the character, then there is a good chance that he would miss out on important context and background information related to her story, making it difficult to continue from where he left off. But conversely, if he were to read every plot thread so as to avoid missing this information, well...that kind of defeats the purpose of making individual summaries for them in the first place.
After some thought and a cup of coffee, I've come to the conclusion that a better approach might be to summarize Awesome Land VI on a character-by-character basis. Our stories have always been character-driven, and I think it would be fair to say that the piece of information most useful to each participant is what their specific characters have been doing throughout the course of the story. I'm certain that, if provided with a few paragraphs on what Kayla has done from page 1 through page 17, Calefrun would have a significantly easier time picking her back up again. Likewise for Mizagium and Knox, Myrdraxxis and Dace, myself and Artemis, etc.
Obviously this will be a rather laborious undertaking. Awesome Land VI has several dozen characters with varying degrees of relevance to the plot. I imagine that writing summaries for all of them would take several weeks, if not longer. I wouldn't foresee Awesome Land VI restarting within the next month, that's for sure. But because of my attachment to the story and desire to see it through, I will more thanbegrudgingly happily embark on this journey of rediscovery. Of course, it is entirely possible that by the time these summaries are finished, the "writing bug" will have passed and interest will have waned again. In truth, I can't say that I wouldn't expect such an outcome and I definitely will not discount that as a possibility. But at the very least, even if Awesome Land VI doesn't see a revival by the time I'm through, having a working summary of each character will be useful for Mizagium's and my continued work on the Awesome Land!: A Rewritten Story continuity, so the effort will not be in vain.
With all that out of the way, I'll outline the format I intend to use for these character summaries. I will break them down into three categories: "major", "minor", and "background", as defined below.
Major: Major characters are those who are relevant to and play a significant role in any of the "main" plot threads of Awesome Land VI. If you're controlling a certain character for every post, find them involved in multiple plot lines, or otherwise dedicate a significant portion of your writing to them, they're probably a major character. Artemis, Knox, Kayla, and Dace would be examples.
Minor: Minor characters are those who primarily play supporting roles and, while potentially relevant to the plot, generally don't see enough screen time to be considered "major" characters. This category will also include characters who spend much of their given screen time "doing their own thing." Antitheon, Leon, Sarah, and the majority of Mizagium's Space Land crew would be put here (sorry, Miz).
Background: These are the characters who exist primarily to provide context for characters in the other categories. One-off villains and those who are only around to exchange a few lines of dialogue with more important characters will be put here. These characters are essentially just "window dressing" or glorified set pieces for the story. Leslie, one of Emperor Awesome's palace attendants, Lolandas Raymar, and Asher's parents Spike and Mariana Blackden would be put here. If they have a name but are no more than an NPC, they'll go here.
Obviously these classifications will be up to my discretion, so I apologize in advance if I offend someone by downplaying the perceived importance of one of their characters or relegate a character to a higher tier than they actually deserve. Characters can and do move from tier to tier over time, and it is entirely possible that a character that someone introduced briefly was intended to become a more significant character in the future. For example, Artemis was introduced in Awesome Land!: A Rebooted Story as a background character and member of C.O.M.A.S, but eventually evolved into the major character that she is today. Conversely, Leon and Johnny were the main characters of the original series but have since been reduced to minor characters. For the purpose of categorization, I will look exclusively at what information is available to me within the 17 pages of Awesome Land VI. Characters' prior standing or (intended) future roles won't really play a factor.
Characters will be spoiler tagged in their appropriate categories and given summaries with lengths proportional to their role in the story. Background characters will have little more than a sentence or two describing who they are and what (if any) narrative purpose they serve. For example:
Major Characters
Artemis:
Minor Characters
Leon:
Background Characters
Leslie:
So that's the kind of format I envision for this summary thread. I haven't yet decided whether I'll group the characters by their author, list them alphabetically, or present them in the order in which they appear in the story, but that kind of organization can wait until after I've written a few of the summaries. Again, this will be a very long endeavor (this introductory post alone has taken almost 3 hours now), so don't expect it to be complete anytime soon. And again, even once it is complete, that might not necessarily mean everyone will be ready to jump right back into Awesome Land VI, and that's okay too. Regardless of whether or not the story is revived, I think this will be a useful exercise, if only to make the Rewritten Story universe easier to plan in the long run.
With all that said and done, expect the next few posts to contain the actual summaries for individual characters. I'll ask that any comments, questions, concerns and the like be kept in Discord or Facebook to keep this thread clean. In the meantime, if everyone is just dying to write something and looking for a new IP, my vote is still for "Girls' Night", taking place in some alternate part of the Awesome Universe. JUST A BUNCH OF CUTE GIRLS HANGING OUT AND DOING CUTE GIRL THINGS LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
A certain Discord discussion last night convinced me that many of you peasants still want to actively keep those creative juices flowing and, more specifically, some of you are still interested in revisiting our old stories (like good ol' Awesome Land VI here). Unfortunately, the general consensus is that there's just too much, and I'm inclined to agree. Awesome Land VI in particular, while "only" 17 pages, is extremely dense and built upon lore established over a dozen other stories since 2008. That makes for a pretty intimidating relearning curve and the inability to just jump right back in. For the goal of just getting people writing again as quickly as possible, I believe the best solution is to start a new IP, whether inside or outside of the Awesome Universe.
However, last night's discussion also convinced me that Awesome Land VI could theoretically be salvaged if that relearning curve were shortened. Naturally, I'm particularly attached to the story, since Awesome Land has been my baby for over 12 years now. At the very least, I'd like to see Awesome Land VI through to completion and resolve a few plot threads, since this is the story with the most interesting themes and (at least as far as my plan is concerned) the most thrilling conclusion. To that end, I've decided to fall on my interactive story sword and take on the burden of composing a summary of the story that will make reentry for all interested parties significantly easier.
During our discussion, we agreed that a summary of individual plot threads (e.g. "Immortals", "Awesome Land", "Space Land", "Sark's Super Happy Funtime Vampire Adventure") might not necessarily be the best approach. My initial thinking was that people would be free to ignore whichever plot threads did not concern them, read the summaries of those that did, and jump back into the story from there. However, it was pointed out that because many of our threads weave in and out of each other, overlapping and diverging as the story progresses, this kind of approach may leave someone without crucial details. For example, Kayla spends much of the beginning of the story in Awesome Land and could therefore be included in the nebulously defined "Awesome Land" plot thread (which would contain those things happening in terrestrial Awesome Land proper). However, she also takes part in the battle against Zais, which would fall under the "Immortals" plot thread. And her interactions with Sark involve her in his plot thread as well. If Calefrun did not recall each event that Kayla played a role in and just cherry picked plot lines that he thought were relevant to the character, then there is a good chance that he would miss out on important context and background information related to her story, making it difficult to continue from where he left off. But conversely, if he were to read every plot thread so as to avoid missing this information, well...that kind of defeats the purpose of making individual summaries for them in the first place.
After some thought and a cup of coffee, I've come to the conclusion that a better approach might be to summarize Awesome Land VI on a character-by-character basis. Our stories have always been character-driven, and I think it would be fair to say that the piece of information most useful to each participant is what their specific characters have been doing throughout the course of the story. I'm certain that, if provided with a few paragraphs on what Kayla has done from page 1 through page 17, Calefrun would have a significantly easier time picking her back up again. Likewise for Mizagium and Knox, Myrdraxxis and Dace, myself and Artemis, etc.
Obviously this will be a rather laborious undertaking. Awesome Land VI has several dozen characters with varying degrees of relevance to the plot. I imagine that writing summaries for all of them would take several weeks, if not longer. I wouldn't foresee Awesome Land VI restarting within the next month, that's for sure. But because of my attachment to the story and desire to see it through, I will more than
With all that out of the way, I'll outline the format I intend to use for these character summaries. I will break them down into three categories: "major", "minor", and "background", as defined below.
Major: Major characters are those who are relevant to and play a significant role in any of the "main" plot threads of Awesome Land VI. If you're controlling a certain character for every post, find them involved in multiple plot lines, or otherwise dedicate a significant portion of your writing to them, they're probably a major character. Artemis, Knox, Kayla, and Dace would be examples.
Minor: Minor characters are those who primarily play supporting roles and, while potentially relevant to the plot, generally don't see enough screen time to be considered "major" characters. This category will also include characters who spend much of their given screen time "doing their own thing." Antitheon, Leon, Sarah, and the majority of Mizagium's Space Land crew would be put here (sorry, Miz).
Background: These are the characters who exist primarily to provide context for characters in the other categories. One-off villains and those who are only around to exchange a few lines of dialogue with more important characters will be put here. These characters are essentially just "window dressing" or glorified set pieces for the story. Leslie, one of Emperor Awesome's palace attendants, Lolandas Raymar, and Asher's parents Spike and Mariana Blackden would be put here. If they have a name but are no more than an NPC, they'll go here.
Obviously these classifications will be up to my discretion, so I apologize in advance if I offend someone by downplaying the perceived importance of one of their characters or relegate a character to a higher tier than they actually deserve. Characters can and do move from tier to tier over time, and it is entirely possible that a character that someone introduced briefly was intended to become a more significant character in the future. For example, Artemis was introduced in Awesome Land!: A Rebooted Story as a background character and member of C.O.M.A.S, but eventually evolved into the major character that she is today. Conversely, Leon and Johnny were the main characters of the original series but have since been reduced to minor characters. For the purpose of categorization, I will look exclusively at what information is available to me within the 17 pages of Awesome Land VI. Characters' prior standing or (intended) future roles won't really play a factor.
Characters will be spoiler tagged in their appropriate categories and given summaries with lengths proportional to their role in the story. Background characters will have little more than a sentence or two describing who they are and what (if any) narrative purpose they serve. For example:
Major Characters
Artemis:
Artemis, the Immortal of Space, declares in front of the Immortal Council in Super Land that Zais is too much of a threat to be kept alive. After a heated discussion, most of the Immortals agree and decide to eliminate him. Zais takes this as a declaration of war and invades Awesome Land with his soldiers. Artemis returns to Awesome Land to fight off the soldiers and help evacuate the citizens to safety. She finds some citizens who have been killed, but the wounds on their bodies don't match what she expects from Zais' minions. She eventually traces the injuries to Sark, a powerful vampire, whom she engages in combat. She briefly teleports away to retrieve the Mathamune, a legendary mathemagical sword. The blade gives her the upper hand, and she traps Sark in a dimension known as Eigenspace, but it is revealed that the Sark she was facing was actually a decoy - one of his Whooters waitresses. The real Sark had since escaped to safety. Furious, Artemis brings the waitress to the Awesome Land Detention Center and tortures her for information, but receives nothing of value.
Bloodied up from her battle and exhausted from her use of the Mathamune, Artemis briefly returns to Super Land to bathe, recover her energy, and change clothes. She has a brief conversation with Clyde about the existence of Seraphina before returning to Awesome Land, where she receives a telepathic call from Knox asking her to seal Zais in place so that the rest of their team can fight him without his escaping. She activates her most powerful sealing technique, the Dimensional Seal, but Zais is able to bypass it through sheer force of Darkness. Disappointed in her inability to keep him sealed, Artemis continues to supervise Awesome Land's evacuation efforts as Zais and his combatants take the fight elsewhere.
Once Zais is defeated, Dace becomes the new Immortal of Darkness. Artemis meets up with the rest of them and invites him to join the council. During this, Sark reappears and Artemis goes after him, but using some of the Darkness he absorbed from Zais, Sark is able to give Artemis the slip, further angering her. She begins to doubt her strength, and implores Knox to make good on his offer to train her in the art of Focus, a temporal manipulation ability, so that she'll stand a better chance in the battles ahead.
Artemis and Knox return to Super Land and use the library as their training ground. Artemis struggles at first to learn the skill, as it relies more on emotions than logic, something Artemis does not immediately understand. Knox pushes her to search her feelings and become more in tune with her emotions, which causes her to reveal the thoughts she had kept buried in the depths of her heart. She explains that she is devastated by murder of William Cauldwell, the former director of C.O.M.A.S., and hates Knox's girlfriend Sarah for her role in orchestrating the event that led to his death, as well as Zais for delivering the killing blow, and more generally people like Leon, Aurora, and Sark for abusing their power to hurt others. Knox warns Artemis not to keep those kinds of emotions buried anymore, and promises that he'll help her make the world a better place. The emotional release from the discussion finally enables Artemis to use Focus to slow down time.
Artemis challenges Knox to a skirmish to lighten the mood, but receives a telepathic call from Roewk, the Immortal of Wood, informing her that Olivia, the Immortal of Light, has been murdered by some unknown, inhuman entity. The call cuts their duel short, and Artemis and Knox teleport to Roewk and bring him back to Super Land to explain what happened. They conclude that this mysterious entity poses a threat to the other Immortals and decide to reassemble the Council to determine their next course of action. Before she can help Knox track down the other Immortals, Artemis receives a call from Emperor Awesome demanding that she attend his dinner party. Unable to say no to her employer, Artemis reluctantly agrees and returns to Awesome Land, leaving the assembly mission to Knox.
In Awesome Land, Artemis is given a red dress and mood necklace to wear to the party, and joins Emperor Awesome, the King and Queen of Really Cool Land, the ninja Azzi and Hrathen, Emperor Awesome's assistant Amelia, and the angel Antitheon (disguised as the human Theo) for dinner. The dinner conversation becomes awkward when Antitheon reminds the King and Queen about what Leon did to their daughter, and this triggers Artemis to remember her promise to the emperor: that she would hunt down and arrest Leon for his international crimes, by any means necessary...
Bloodied up from her battle and exhausted from her use of the Mathamune, Artemis briefly returns to Super Land to bathe, recover her energy, and change clothes. She has a brief conversation with Clyde about the existence of Seraphina before returning to Awesome Land, where she receives a telepathic call from Knox asking her to seal Zais in place so that the rest of their team can fight him without his escaping. She activates her most powerful sealing technique, the Dimensional Seal, but Zais is able to bypass it through sheer force of Darkness. Disappointed in her inability to keep him sealed, Artemis continues to supervise Awesome Land's evacuation efforts as Zais and his combatants take the fight elsewhere.
Once Zais is defeated, Dace becomes the new Immortal of Darkness. Artemis meets up with the rest of them and invites him to join the council. During this, Sark reappears and Artemis goes after him, but using some of the Darkness he absorbed from Zais, Sark is able to give Artemis the slip, further angering her. She begins to doubt her strength, and implores Knox to make good on his offer to train her in the art of Focus, a temporal manipulation ability, so that she'll stand a better chance in the battles ahead.
Artemis and Knox return to Super Land and use the library as their training ground. Artemis struggles at first to learn the skill, as it relies more on emotions than logic, something Artemis does not immediately understand. Knox pushes her to search her feelings and become more in tune with her emotions, which causes her to reveal the thoughts she had kept buried in the depths of her heart. She explains that she is devastated by murder of William Cauldwell, the former director of C.O.M.A.S., and hates Knox's girlfriend Sarah for her role in orchestrating the event that led to his death, as well as Zais for delivering the killing blow, and more generally people like Leon, Aurora, and Sark for abusing their power to hurt others. Knox warns Artemis not to keep those kinds of emotions buried anymore, and promises that he'll help her make the world a better place. The emotional release from the discussion finally enables Artemis to use Focus to slow down time.
Artemis challenges Knox to a skirmish to lighten the mood, but receives a telepathic call from Roewk, the Immortal of Wood, informing her that Olivia, the Immortal of Light, has been murdered by some unknown, inhuman entity. The call cuts their duel short, and Artemis and Knox teleport to Roewk and bring him back to Super Land to explain what happened. They conclude that this mysterious entity poses a threat to the other Immortals and decide to reassemble the Council to determine their next course of action. Before she can help Knox track down the other Immortals, Artemis receives a call from Emperor Awesome demanding that she attend his dinner party. Unable to say no to her employer, Artemis reluctantly agrees and returns to Awesome Land, leaving the assembly mission to Knox.
In Awesome Land, Artemis is given a red dress and mood necklace to wear to the party, and joins Emperor Awesome, the King and Queen of Really Cool Land, the ninja Azzi and Hrathen, Emperor Awesome's assistant Amelia, and the angel Antitheon (disguised as the human Theo) for dinner. The dinner conversation becomes awkward when Antitheon reminds the King and Queen about what Leon did to their daughter, and this triggers Artemis to remember her promise to the emperor: that she would hunt down and arrest Leon for his international crimes, by any means necessary...
Minor Characters
Leon:
There's a party in Really Cool Land, and Leon was invited! Or at least, he decided to show up anyway. A fancy event is going down at the palace, and Leon finds himself mingling with the guests. While chatting, one of the guests informs him that they overheard a child calling Johnny, the prince of Really Cool Land, "dad." Considering himself to therefore be the boy's uncle, Leon runs off the find Sarah, the princess, to discuss the good news.
Sarah is not too pleased to see him, but explains that it's Johnny's son from the future and that time travel shenanigans are involved. She continues venting to Leon and brings up the topic of the Oblivion Queen, but before she can explain any further, she is called off to a different part of the palace. Before she leaves, she asks Leon to keep the guests entertained, and promises to tell him the whole story later.
Leon obliges, and does so the only way he knows how: an indoor beach volleyball tournament. In the middle of the tournament, Lolandas Raymar, the bride of Xavian (the former Immortal of Darkness), crashes the party and uses Darkness to possess all of the guests. Using his legendary katana of Light, the Masamune, Leon teams up with Johnny to fight Lolandas. They eventually take the fight away from Really Cool Land all the way to Leon's Omnistar restaurant in Fun Land. Lolandas isn't a match for their combined power, and Leon is about to deliver the finishing blow, but Johnny stops him with a cloned version of the Masamune in order to ask Lolandas a few questions.
Lolandas reveals that Johnny is actually a Mimic, artificially created to be the next host for Xavian's spirit. Giana, one of Lolandas' servants, suddenly appears, arguing that she should have been the one to act as a vessel for Xavian. Lolandas berates Giana and sends her away, but Giana stabs Lolandas with a hidden dagger, killing her. Then Giana stabs Johnny with a mysterious shard of glass, causing energy to escape his body and putting him into a coma. Leon takes Johnny's body back to Really Cool Land and asks their head ninja, Veritaz, to look after him.
Pleased with Leon's good deed, Veritaz rewards him with a contract to handle all of the palace security to prevent similar invasions from occurring in the future. Leon takes this contract back to Omnistar Corporate Headquarters, but the board of directors displays only impatience and frustration with his continued efforts outside of their core restaurant business. Leon (forcibly) persuades them not to vote him out of his position as CEO, but it's clear that their tolerance for his antics is at an all-time low...
Sarah is not too pleased to see him, but explains that it's Johnny's son from the future and that time travel shenanigans are involved. She continues venting to Leon and brings up the topic of the Oblivion Queen, but before she can explain any further, she is called off to a different part of the palace. Before she leaves, she asks Leon to keep the guests entertained, and promises to tell him the whole story later.
Leon obliges, and does so the only way he knows how: an indoor beach volleyball tournament. In the middle of the tournament, Lolandas Raymar, the bride of Xavian (the former Immortal of Darkness), crashes the party and uses Darkness to possess all of the guests. Using his legendary katana of Light, the Masamune, Leon teams up with Johnny to fight Lolandas. They eventually take the fight away from Really Cool Land all the way to Leon's Omnistar restaurant in Fun Land. Lolandas isn't a match for their combined power, and Leon is about to deliver the finishing blow, but Johnny stops him with a cloned version of the Masamune in order to ask Lolandas a few questions.
Lolandas reveals that Johnny is actually a Mimic, artificially created to be the next host for Xavian's spirit. Giana, one of Lolandas' servants, suddenly appears, arguing that she should have been the one to act as a vessel for Xavian. Lolandas berates Giana and sends her away, but Giana stabs Lolandas with a hidden dagger, killing her. Then Giana stabs Johnny with a mysterious shard of glass, causing energy to escape his body and putting him into a coma. Leon takes Johnny's body back to Really Cool Land and asks their head ninja, Veritaz, to look after him.
Pleased with Leon's good deed, Veritaz rewards him with a contract to handle all of the palace security to prevent similar invasions from occurring in the future. Leon takes this contract back to Omnistar Corporate Headquarters, but the board of directors displays only impatience and frustration with his continued efforts outside of their core restaurant business. Leon (forcibly) persuades them not to vote him out of his position as CEO, but it's clear that their tolerance for his antics is at an all-time low...
Background Characters
Leslie:
Leslie is one of Emperor Awesome's servants and works in the Second Imperial Tower. She oversees housekeeping and interacts with characters as they enter and exit the tower.
So that's the kind of format I envision for this summary thread. I haven't yet decided whether I'll group the characters by their author, list them alphabetically, or present them in the order in which they appear in the story, but that kind of organization can wait until after I've written a few of the summaries. Again, this will be a very long endeavor (this introductory post alone has taken almost 3 hours now), so don't expect it to be complete anytime soon. And again, even once it is complete, that might not necessarily mean everyone will be ready to jump right back into Awesome Land VI, and that's okay too. Regardless of whether or not the story is revived, I think this will be a useful exercise, if only to make the Rewritten Story universe easier to plan in the long run.
With all that said and done, expect the next few posts to contain the actual summaries for individual characters. I'll ask that any comments, questions, concerns and the like be kept in Discord or Facebook to keep this thread clean. In the meantime, if everyone is just dying to write something and looking for a new IP, my vote is still for "Girls' Night", taking place in some alternate part of the Awesome Universe. JUST A BUNCH OF CUTE GIRLS HANGING OUT AND DOING CUTE GIRL THINGS LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
