| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Edial |
Posted - 30 Jun 2003 : 18:24:02
the truth is i`ve been having the idea since quite some time now, i never thought i`d actually start thinking about implementation, though.
i`m planning to write a novel. yes, a real one, with lots of pages and such; you know, a novel. like salvatore or the other giants do. the difference is that i`m not a giant, i`m a mere nobody compared to them, and i don`t really have the necessary experience to accomplish such a task. yet. that`s what i`m going to do, gather experience, learn what there is to learn, and start writing.
i can`t tell you much right now, but the main idea is the following:
the main character, an evil necromancer, tries to transform himself into a lich, after years of research. he retires to umar hills to start and complete the process there, but something goes wrong: the ritual never reaches full completion and the necromancer awakens with a complete memory loss and a huge amount of crippled bodies around him. this is where the novel actually begins, the moment he wakes up.
as a lich you get to lose your skin, flesh and internal organs. well he doesn`t really lose all of them, since the process doesn`t get to its end; this is still incomplete, i`m still gathering ideas for the whole thing. i`ll make it short, not to bore you with useless details: he gets out of the cabin, disguising himself, but the villagers soon discover his true nature (or at least they believe they know what he actually is) and they cast him out. he is not evil anymore, since he had lost his memory, but every horrible thing he did in his past life comes back as short and painful flashbacks. he is alone, until he meets with some people which he gets acquainted with; maybe they become friends or such. you know, a party.
he never becomes evil again, though he is tormented by his past deeds and gets to have countless doubts about his existence, past, present, future and all that. suffice to say, he`s confused and all alone in his world. he will want to transform into a human being once again, but i don`t know how possible this is, i`ll see about it.
of course it`s mostly speculations and such, but i really want to get this done. i have so many ideas which simply flow out of my head at once, i need to note them all down before they escape my grab. the thing is that i need as much information about liches as possible, especially the ritual of lich-transformation. i will accept suggestions and such, especially places to get information from (except the monster`s manual, which i will only get a copy of in a few weeks or so). thanks in advance.
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| 4 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| The Sage |
Posted - 01 Jul 2003 : 12:12:35
I have some thoughts I would like add to this discussion, but I am short of time. I'll try and post again on Thursday.
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| Bookwyrm |
Posted - 01 Jul 2003 : 06:31:00
Actually, in the so-called "Buffyverse" holy symbols only work against undead.
William Adams of Pillars of Faith fame (infamy?) answered that interesting problem quite well, I think. He suggested that Christian holy symbols work against vampires because they're a representation of the New Covenant, and therefore of the Resurrection. Being undead is an affront to that covenant.
I'm thinking that you're thinking "gee, he has no life." Aside from the fact that it's the same sort of stuff we do here, there's a reason he worked out this. He draws a fanfic comic at the above link. It's set in the "Buffyverse" but he doesn't use Buffy. (Angel does pop up.) It's actually about Faith, the second Slayer, who was convicted of murder. She's let out and is basically forced into an advanced training program to make her the most deadly Slayer ever. Her teacher is a former spec ops guy (think SEAL-6 for the supernatural) who got turned into a vampire. And he doesn't have a soul, so he's nothing like Angel. (Thank goodness.)
In the process, Adams manages to fix a lot of problems that I'd noticed with the series, to such satisfaction that I wish he'd been writing the scripts. He even fixed stuff my nitpicker soul missed (mostly because I never was a diehard fan, I just watched.) Basically, Pillars of Faith is everything I wish the shows had been. Er, though I wouldn't have used so many guns.
Now, before Alaundo chains me to my desk for this violation, I'd like to point out that this artist/writer (I don't like to call anyone a cartoonist if it's a serious story) also has a D&D page on his site. In fact, remember the Elemental Summoner Prestige Class I mentioned in another thread? It's actually his. |
| Mournblade |
Posted - 01 Jul 2003 : 06:08:13
quote:
Originally posted by Bookwyrm
Don't make him a goody-goody, though. The evil-into-good's been done to death, especially with the title character on the show Angel. I'm all for him not being evil, and being tormented by the memory of such; but I'm thinking he'd object more to the senselessness of it, rather than out of a feeling of "gee, you should be good because it's right to be good." Any character with no memory and a "fresh personality" like this would start out as a true neutral, in game terms.
I so wish someone would of knocked off BUFFY. ANd I wish someone would of STAKED angel. ANd why they are at it they could give all those stupid, night-club singing DEMONS a BATH in HOLY WATER.
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| Bookwyrm |
Posted - 01 Jul 2003 : 06:02:18
Hmm. Sounds interesting. (By the way, I'm a writer myself, though I have no plans on publishing yet. See my profile.)
Don't make him a goody-goody, though. The evil-into-good's been done to death, especially with the title character on the show Angel. I'm all for him not being evil, and being tormented by the memory of such; but I'm thinking he'd object more to the senselessness of it, rather than out of a feeling of "gee, you should be good because it's right to be good." Any character with no memory and a "fresh personality" like this would start out as a true neutral, in game terms.
Now, other suggestions would have to wait until I know what sort of an amnesiac he is. Has he lost all knowledge? (Meaning knowledge he'd have to think about, whereas languages would come automatically. That actually doesn't make as much sense in real life, but you can't waste time with him learning to speak and read again.) Or does he still know how to work magic? If the latter, is he still considered a necromancer? Can he still use all the death-spells he has? Does he even have his spellbook?
Some amnesiacs only forget everything that pertain to themselves. They can still do a job, as long as it doesn't require much thinking; an artist would still know his art, but a computer programer would need some retraining. The point is, these forms of amnesia block out all personal memory, rather than all memory.
If I became an amnesiac in this sense right now, I'd forget how to write fiction, though I'd know how to write in general. I'd also know how to ride a bike, but I wouldn't remember where to go. What I'd be forgetting is what I've learned in specific; especially how I learned it. I'd know how to fire a gun (and probably aim as well as now, if I didn't think about it) but I'd not remember learning how. I'd know how to fight hand-to-hand, but I'd never know the names of the karate moves I'd perform.
This type is the most commonly used one in fiction, though it's not actually the most common in real life. That's just a blank spot in someone's memory, where they don't remember the last hour, day, week, and so on. One of my professors told us that his father had a heart attack and lost memory of the previous three years. They'd no idea he'd lost anything until he looked at the news and asked what the heck was going on. Scary, isn't it? You go to bed one night and when you wake up, it's three years later. It's worse than having been in a coma. At least then you didn't do anything; in the other, you've not only lost part of your life-span, but your actual life as well. People tell you things you did, and you don't remember ever doing them.
Okay, I got sidetracked. But to a regular of these forums, that's surely no surprise. Regardless, I hope it helped you some. |
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