Zylaa's Nano

[Zylaa]

So this'll be technically the fourth, really the second year I've done NaNo. I've never won before, though, so fingers crossed. Of course, I have way too many ideas at the moment. For now, the idea plot summaries will go here.

Also, Araman is the world I base most of my stories in. If anyone wants to know, I'll be more than happy to provide a basic history, species overview, maps, details of the magic and spirit system, etc.

[spoilerhead=Idea 1]
Title: Fire and Ice (tentative)
World: Araman
Time period: 300 B.A. (pre-medieval)

Nortak is a northern land divided into two cultures: the nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes, and the city-dwellers. When the land of Nortak comes under attack by the southern empire, the country must decide whether to unite to save themselves from destruction or all fall separately.

Of course, when people unite, they must have a leader, and Cervir plans to claim that place by any means necessary. By a combination of charisma and backstabbing-- literally-- he secures the following of the people, despite opposition from the leader of the Hawk Tribe (who needs a name). Allies, drawn by hatred of the southerners or love of power, come together in an attempt to create a new, unified Nortak of strength and power.

I like this one because it's entirely backstory to my main novel, and gives the background of the antagonists. Oh yeah, and the bad guys win this plot.

[/spoiler]

[spoilerhead=Idea 2]
Title:
World:
Time Period: Modern, with magic

Since the normal workload of a prestigious college of magic just isn't enough for some people, Shelia decides to test theories learned in class by making a portal to another world. She successfully builds this portal, with the aid of spellbooks, weeks of work, and a kitten. Upon opening the portal, however, she discovers an alternate world of eerie similarities. For example, the portal opens directly into the dorm room of her alternate self-- and this self simultaneously opens a portal into Shelia's room.

One of their worlds is slowly succumbing to the control of a demon released by irresponsible, clandestine grad student experiments. The Shelias must figure out what went wrong, and how to fix it.
[/spoiler]

[spoilerhead= Idea 3]
Title:
World: Araman
Time Period: ?

(Name), one of the many poor in the city of Owl's Point, manages to scrape a living for herself and her younger siblings. Desire for help leads her to accept the offer of an old nobleman, who promises to lift her family out of poverty. Unfortunately, when she arrives to accept this offer, she is instead ritually killed and her soul bound to prolong the nobleman's life.

Due to an unmet promise, she is bound to the spirit plane for a few days and lingers around Owl's Point, hoping to find some way to contact her family, or at least a decent necromancer. Instead, the nobleman finds her family first, and takes them in, to shelter them and provide for them exactly as he promised. With her family safe, her soul must depart into Death... or so she thinks.

She arrives at Death's house, the final stop on the way to the true afterlife. Death, who appears as an old woman with lidless eyes, attempts to send (name) on, but can't. Due to the soul-binding, (name) is stuck in the Death's house until the nobleman dies. She's not the only one, either-- a few other souls are trapped thanks to the nobleman's evil rituals.

Death, however, is on (name)'s side. Although Death can't send (name) back to her original body, she finds another body by bargaining with a person about to die. (Name) is given the new body on the condition that she will use this life to destroy the nobleman... even though by destroying the nobleman she will die.

This is a fairly recent idea, based on a dream I had a week ago.
[/spoiler]

[Avery]

Ooh, all these ideas are so spiffy. <3 I really like number three. ^_^

[Kathleen]

Oooh, cool. =D And there's always a first, of course. I agree with Carrie - I like the third idea. ^^

[Zylaa]

Thanks, you two. ^__^ I've realized that the way I've summarized it lends favor to the third one, since I like the plot of that one more, but I so far like the characters of the first one more. XD Maybe I should update the first one with some character descriptions.

[Rikku]

Ooh. I love the third one. <3 But then again, that's exactly the kind of thing I like, regardless of how good it may or may not be. xD The first one sounds like it would be really fun to write.

[Jina]

Ooh! I like all of them, but I agree that number three sounds the coolest

[Ginz ❤]

I'm gonna agree with everyone and say number 3 is the one that sounds most intriguing to me. It's up to you, though, and I think all of then would make a good NaNo. Afterall liking characters is important too, so it's okay if you lean to number 1. Good luck. ^_^

[♥ Lulu]

I also say third idea, so I'm going to take a wild guess and say if you go with majority vote, you're going for that one x3

Although I am tempted by idea one because of the fact it's set so far in the past, which I like :F

[Zylaa]

And now for the first of many posts of epic world backstory! Everything you ever wanted or didn't want to know about the wonderful world of Araman.

[spoilerhead=Magic System]
Yes, of course I use a magical world. ^_^ The magic system for this world is basically elemental, with the following main powers: Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Light, Dark, and Dream. Elements can combine or divide to form lesser powers (e.x. Air + Water = Weather control, Earth + Fire = Metal)

Magic users are likewise divided into categories.
-- Sorcery is the most basic form, where the sorcerer can manipulate/create/etc. the raw element with a thought and a wave of the hand. The most powerful form of magic, arguably, since simply blasting fire out of your hand is pretty cool. However, it can also be granted to some non-magical people through magical artifacts, potions, rituals, etc. (details in later post)
-- Witchcraft is the manipulation of magical objects to produce spells.
-- Psychics are known, although not common. By contact with a person, they can look into that person's futures, which are many and varied. Think the 'bloidal family tree except even more complicated. Depending on the skill of the psychic, they can follow individual possibilities of a person's life, their interaction with others, et cetera. The major handicap is that once tuned in to a life thread, it takes several seconds to pull away. Whenever a psychic comes to the end of a life thread, reflexively they attempt to see past death-- which is impossible-- and the attempt can cause sickness or death.
-- Tseers (short for Thought-seers; name may change) have a sixth sense-- or seventh sense, if you count seeing ghosts as the sixth sense. Tseers, merely by looking at an object, can see all thoughts about that object. They see other's impressions, judgments, emotions, and memories, dating back years or decades or even a hundred years in the case of dragons. Naturally, this gives them tremendous power and insight into other peoples' lives, actions, etc. Tseers are very rare, and are marked by an eye-shaped birthmark on their forehead which is somehow key to sensing thoughts. By covering this mark up, Tseers can pass unnoticed through society and also walk around without the hassle of seeing past memories as well as the obstacles of the present moment.
-- Animals with magical powers but no evidence of sentient thought are known as elementals.
-- Genetics of magic are up! Sorcery is controlled by genetics, but witchcraft is a talent anyone can learn, albeit a difficult one.

Life, Death, and Magic
All of the elements combined are necessary for life: thus, magic is equivalent to life in Araman. Although this means that magic users are widely accepted and liked, this also means that anyone with a dead bone can stop magic. Bone charms are used to protect against malignant spells, and the stronger the spell, the more bones must be used.

This is what makes necromancy interesting. Necromancy is a well-known talent, although the number of necromancers is relatively few compared to the number of magic users. Necromancers can bring back spirits who are still on the spirit plane, the home of all souls who have not completed some vow they made in life. If necromancers have a full skeleton, they can summon the spirit back to reanimate the skeleton, which will be able to walk around as a sentient entity, although one with transparent ghostly flesh.
Because of their prolonged contact with the spirit plane and death, Necromancers are immune to all but the most powerful magic. This makes them widely feared by magic users, although some necromancers are still able to turn a tidy profit by providing contact between waiting souls and the family and friends they've left behind.

Other random elements vital to the magic system:
-- A porous, translucent stone called kipstone has the unusual property of magically reacting with whatever material is placed into the pores. This can be used by both magic users and those that don't use magic.
-- An entity named Kip, whose backstory I may get into later, is the incarnation of magic and lives on her own plane, separate from the world, although she can be summoned. She takes the form of a teenage humanoid girl with foxlike ears and tail, as well as wings, all of which are rainbow-colored, and her hair is black with rainbow streaks. The rainbow represents all of the elements, of course, and also makes hippies happy. ^^'
[/spoiler]

SPOILER: Click to show

Owlkind: The Owlkind are the one certain native race of Araman. Entirely feathered, this race has retained the predatory beaks and unmoving eyes of owls, along with birdlike legs (different joint ratio than humans). They learn at an early age to transform their arms and hands into feathered wings for flight, and can do so at will. Their ultimate goal is knowledge, which leads to many magical experiments. One of these experiments was the creation of portals between the worlds, which led to the influx of new magical races a couple thousand years ago.

Shapeshifters: Argue that they are native to Araman, although many Owlkind differ. Although each shapeshifter has a preferred shape, they can change at will into any higher-phyla animal at a moment's notice. As a mark of distinction, each shapeshifter is born with a colorful, fragmented mark on their forehead, composed of swirls and interconnecting rounded shapes. These serve to identify each shapeshifter, no matter what shape they're in. None can use magic-- but most don't mind.

Dragons: Huge. Fire-breathing. Scaly. After a few centuries, dragons stop most feeding on animals and instead draw life energies from their hordes, since all metal contains latent fire and earth magic. With enough of a horde, dragons could theoretically live forever, although this is very hard to prove. The hoarding instinct in dragons is very strong, so many collect things other than jewelry and metalwork. For instance, one dragon collects Pokemon cards. Dragons know they came through the Owlkind portals, since it was only a few generations ago for them.

Fairies: Insectile-looking humans, usually shorter and lighter with dragonfly wings, glowing feelers, and iridescent black eyes. Uphold rigid justice, and most of them hide away in mountain caves to avoid the impurities of the world.

Griffins: Lion-eagle hybrids. Have ear tufts much like owls, and their front feet are eagle claws. Species-centric, much like the fairies, but display it through territorialism rather than withdrawing from the rest of the world. Live in clans.

Humans: Spread out across the world, since they originally came over in the first portal openings several thousand years ago. However, a magical accident about 420 years ago (measured from today-- not sure where my stories are relative to it yet) led to the importation of an entire colony of humans, who denounced their new surroundings as heinous witchcraft and devilry and created their own country, which became the only anti-magical country in the world. Most humans regard that country as radical fringe members, though.

Half-breeds: Exist in all forms, which I'll get to in a later post, since their existence ties in with the history of the world.

[Dice]

A dragon collecting Pokemon cards? WIN.

[Zylaa]

Since very few characters have full out descriptions, here's the one character who will for sure appear in both Idea #1 and Idea #3... yes, I do routinely have characters live a thousand years, what of it? XD

SPOILER: Click to show

Name: Affin (duh)
Species: Griffin
Gender: Female
Physical: Reddish fur and feathers, golden eyes. Somewhat on the small side for griffins- in good shape without ever being remarkably strong.

Character: Very blunt and straightforward. Cocky, but only when she has a reason to be cocky. Of course, she has a reason most of the time. Good at strategy, reasoning, and solving problems, but not good at presenting these solutions diplomatically, or at the usual people skills that go with politics. Easily irritated, and often seems most energized when angry.

Backstory:
(In Idea #1) Born into a clan of griffins, Affin soon found her niche with a group of inventors. Of course, since this is pre-medieval, these inventions are along the lines of wheeled carts in simplicity. Because griffins have wings, the clan isn't much interested in wheels, which makes it all the more easier to exile those griffins once the leaders perceive their actions as treasonous. The clan clips Affin's wings and sends her Northward, expecting the lack of flight to be a death sentence. Instead, Affin creates her own cart and harness, dumps food supplies in, and treks North. She encounters some Nortak tribesmen, who are intrigued by her inventions and take her in.
Once the war rumors start up, Affin heads to the city, where she offers her services to the political figureheads like Cervir. She hopes to get enough power to take revenge on her griffin tribe. Her skills soon take her into the elite circle of the seven most powerful humans in Nortak. She is inluded when these seven perform the magical rite that gives them both evil magical power and prolonged life.
(End of Plot #1, intervening time) Affin never relies on her newfound magic, instead preferring to rely on machinery, which she can create with increasing complexity as her life spans over the centuries. However, she keeps this knowledge to herself, so the world at large reaps no benefit from her discoveries. She continues to retain power in the kingdom, although the other six constantly see her as the least of them. Of course, once the evil power is vanquished and the other six are killed off by a meddling hero, Affin's power is realized. Although the oppressed Nortakians want her dead too, she proves very quickly that nine hundred years of running a country have given her experience and knowledge that can't be thrown away. She is kept as an adviser while the Nortakians create a new government.
(Plot #3) In this advisory capacity, Affin still wields enormous influence, and continues to commit her time to keeping the country running smoothly. Thus, when the protagonists of Plot #3 come back from the dead to kill the Nortakian noble, Affin is opposed to this, on the grounds that his death will disrupt the country more than a few commoners' souls here and there. Since she never relies on magic, she's able to capture the protagonist despite said protagonist's magical immunity.

Side note, until I put this somewhere else: Since the protagonist has been dead and brought back to life again, her incredibly close encounter with death gives her unprecedented magical immunity.

[Zylaa]

=D I feel exceptionally nerdy, for I have come up with a genetic system for magic users. Yup. This is the use I have for AP Biology. A post about that will probably come later. For now, here's another random idea I've had! So much for narrowing things down as November draws nearer...

SPOILER: Click to show

Title: A Single Candle
World: Araman
Time Period: Doesn't matter! (Don't know)

The border between two of Araman's countries is a vast lake, with an also-vast river flowing out of it into the depths of the mountains. Boats routinely cross this lake for business and transport, but nobody follows the river into the mountains, because the people who do are never heard from again. That tends to discourage explorers.

The story opens when a psychic, wanted for murder, is captured as he tries to flee westward across the lake. He's assigned to the next ship to cross, which is a random merchant and passenger-bearing vessel. Since he is a psychic, the captain asks him what they should do. The psychic, after reading the man's future, blanches and warns him not to cross. Of course, the captain assumes the psychic is simply trying to postpone his punishment, and so disregards him. The crew, being more superstitious, asks the psychic what they should do to keep the voyage safe. He responds "Nothing... but bring candles. Lots of candles."

The ship crosses, and due to a storm, their ship follows the river into the mountains, and the crew quickly realizes that there is a waterfall ahead. Rather than go over the falls, they run aground on the first spit of land they see- a rock maybe a few square miles in area. The ship is wrecked.

The entire crew is stranded there on the rock, still able to see the light from outside the cave, but with no way to return, or even to contact the outside world. The only contact is in a large flock of birds, which roosts each night on the rock. On the rock, the crew can walk right up to the edge of the waterfall, which plunges down into inscrutable darkness. They're trapped.

Many decades pass. The crew survives, and life goes on as people gradually accept that they must form a new life away from the outside world. They salvage the wreckage of the ship, and the occasional washed-up supplies from the river, to make shelters. The candles are used sparingly, and last for years, until they too are used up.

The story jumps to a girl there, the first fire-mage born in the colony, at a time of crisis. The rock, constantly pounded by the rush of the water, is eroding, and threatening to crumble into the falls. An escape, not thought of for many years, becomes an emergency. Because of the desperation of the situation, people begin to consider going further into the cave as an option. So the fire mage and a friend of as-of-now-undetermined powers are chosen to rappel down from the rocky overhang into the darkness beyond the waterfall.


And that's all I have planned so far! No idea for anything beyond that. XD Also, this was inspired by a painting that I once saw a picture of and I have yet to find it again, but if I do I'll post it here.

[Zylaa]

As promised:

SPOILER: Click to show

Sorry, but you'll have to understand the basics of genetics to understand what the heck I'm talking about here. I'm not sure how easy it is to pick up on with no knowledge of biology.

Anyway, sorcery use is controlled by seven different genes, one for each element. There are two different alleles for each element, simply magic or non-magic. The magical trait is recessive. However, people with only one magic-allele can still use that element's powers if they possess certain magic-enhancing artifacts. For every combination following this, the capital letter will represent non-magic and the lower-case letter will represent magic. These are the basic genotype/phenotype combinations, using Air as an example:
AA- Cannot use air magic
Aa- Cannot use air magic, except by aid of magical device
aa- Can use air magic

However, the genes do not operate entirely independently. The first six elements can combine, after all, to form combination magic. Air and Water powers combined, for example, create Storm. All other combinations of elements that are not direct opposites also create complimentary magics (Fire + Earth = Metal is the other very useful one). In this case, even with only one magic allele for each gene, the individual will still be able to use the power, although not as much. Again, sample combinations for genotype/phenotype, this time using Storm (air and water).
AA WW -- No magic
Aa Ww -- Lesser Storm magic
Aa ww -- Water magic only; Can perform some storm magic by aid of magical artifact
aa Ww -- Air magic only; " "
aa ww -- Greater Storm magic

When a magic user has opposing elements, though, they cancel each other out. If a person has, say, both alleles for using Dark magic, but has one allele for using Light magic, they can still use Dark magic, but it's weakened. Using that as an example:
LL DD -- No magic
Ll Dd -- No magic; the artifacts for people to use both light AND dark magic, or any opposing element, are extremely rare, although they do exist.
ll dd -- " "
Ll dd -- Can use Dark magic, but weakened.
ll Dd -- Can use Light magic, but weakened.

As for Dream magic, it doesn't combine well with other magic. You either have it or you don't. Dream magic has another wrinkle, the T-seer abilities, which are tied in to a very rare mutation of the can-use-dream-magic allele. This allele is the most recessive.

The other gene controlling magic... or lack thereof... is the necromancy gene. Necromancy works on the same principle as an element does:
NN -- No necromancy
Nn -- No necromancy. Perhaps morbid tendencies, but nothing proven.
nn -- Can use necromancy.

However, since necromancy is antimagic, an individual cannot use necromancy unless they have no other magical allele whatsoever. Even if they just carry one element's gene, they will not be able to use necromancy. The presence of a necromancy allele, by contrast, only slightly weakens magical powers, and slightly more with two necromancy alleles. This is why there are so few necromancers. The allele for can-use-necromancy is almost as common as any elemental magic allele, but the overwhelming number of magic users and carriers in the general population wipes them out.

Ironically, this means that the country that has systematically executed magic users as evil also has the highest concentration of necromancers in the world.

Also, I just realized that I created no genetic criteria for Psychic-ness. Dang it. I'll have to revise this later.

[♥ Rain]

...I love genetics. Having a genetic system inspires my utter adoration. <3 This rocks. Actually, the whole setting you have here rocks. One way or another, I bet this'll be a great Nano. =)

[Zylaa]

^_^ Thanks, Rain! Yeah, genetics was always one of my favorite parts of Bio.

And I'm almost certainly going with Idea #3 now, because I keep having all these wonderful ideas for it. ... Except I still don't have names for any character except Death. And that doesn't really count.