Orchestra of Chaos (Stal's NaNo '11)

[Stal]

So yeah, a little late on the planning and topic and discussions, but getting involved with NaNo this year as I always intended to.

Starting to come up with a story idea. May resurrect some old characters of mine along the way.

Basically, a swashbuckling style adventure within a steampunk alt-world. There will likely be a Heist aspect, a tale of revenge, and other fun stuff. There will be a lot (and I mean a lot) of influence from Alexandre Dumas stories (D'artagnan Romances, Count of Monte Cristo, et al), hopefully some emotional style connection similar to Tigana, and I'd be a fool not to admit that Mistborn will have some impact on style.

This will be a good time to bring back my airship pirate Captain Arthen Stalos, very gentlemanly Howl-like character.

And Fail, the girl mechanic that ended up blind after a previous NaNo attempt.

And Doctor Elias Balthazar, my eccentric Deadlands mad scientist with a lightning gun.

So yeah. We'll see what happens.

Also, you can find me on NaNo site under the stalos profile.

[Stal]

Okay, I have more bones for a story here. It all centers around Captain Arthen Stalos, which was not my original intent, but he just seems the more natural character for what I'm looking at.

I'm using liberal inspiration from Dumas stories (particularly Count of Monte Cristo), as said before, but I also had a bit of inspiration from The Man Without a Country (and I suppose the Inda cycle by Sherwood Smith).

Arthen is the son of a deposed noble family. This noble family was essentially set up for a downfall due to some kind of powerplay in guild politics (guilds are a huge part of this world). They were exiled from the Kingdom, to be kept on airships traveling from port to port but never allowed to set foot on the ground. Their family history was wiped out (as much as possible), their titles stricken, their names all but washed away except in their memory and those that may have known them (and not forgotten).

At some point the ship they're on at the time is attacked by pirates, pretty much everyone killed except for Arthen. He adopts the new name and ends up with a new band of pirates and a new life. He rises through ranks and eventually becomes a well known captain, though never really forgetting where he came from.

Somehow, the main crux of the story is that he's unknowingly presented with a way to take vengeance on those that destroyed his family. And so he goes for it.

Of course there's other aspects, such as the serving the kingdom in some ways here and there. And the economic hardships that are being faced by everyone. At least one city (maybe more) has been over thrown by a poorer class of citizens that feel they've been oppressed. But their lack of any real economic understanding has pretty much caused more woes and problems for everyone, with shockwaves being sent through the rest of the kingdom.

Fail... I don't know how or where she comes into it. Part of me thinks I need to retcon the previous attempt as never happening and redo her introduction to Arthen from scratch.

Doctor Balthazar, well, I don't know much about him and where he fits in, so I may just leave him for the more fitting stories in my Society works (such as NaNo last year)

[Stal]

"I started this idea, but it never got far. I won't be using the stuff I wrote, but it's the same idea and characters. Am I a rebel?

No. Ideas are fine! When you make biscuits from scratch, you sometimes use a recipe, and you don't make the flour and water out of nothing! As long as you set anything you've written aside, don't refer to it, and don't include any of the original prose... it's fine."

(http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/nano-rebels/threads/723)

Oh sweet! That means I can redo the meeting for Capt Stal and Fail and her being blinded just beforehand. This is great and will help a lot as I think that point in their respective timelines would be better for the story. But we'll see.

Oh, and the title of this NaNo comes from a dare Nim made me. I slightly edited it (took out the "in space"), but figured why not.

[Stal]

For the record, my writing kryptonite is names. I find it hard to name anyone or anything.

So sometimes I take a friend's name for placeholder. And sometimes that also influences the character.

For example, I have a character that is simply Countess Zy in my head. A noble woman that, sure enough, loves weasels. And I envisioned a scene where Capt Stalos* is having dinner with her. And it suddenly occurred to me that this Countess (The Countess, as she's referred to), ought to be a countess that turned to airship piracy out of sheer boredom. She may even be a privateer. Anyway, yeah.

I'm also envisioning an underworld hit boss that tends to just be called Huntress. <.< I'm an awful person, I know.


*(who is not me, I need to say. I wish I was him. XD He's the same vein of characters as Howl or Kelsier. I stole my own name when creating him originally and the felt it an honor to have it attached to that character. Self-gratifying, sure)