White Cell Outline

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21

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, would a new setting to initially place the continuation in be too out there?

I know an outside threat was mentioned that individual heroes could eventually rise up against, and I like that idea, but I’ve been struggling to think of a way for us to write in a close knit enough setting while still acknowledging all that has come before. The White Cell thing gives me an idea, however.

In the few years between now and the end of the White Cell, a new world has been discovered. Though it has established Kingdoms, tech, magic, and the like, it may have much in the way of resources, new forms of technology, etc. that the formerly Great Powers are eager to use to regain their former statuses? I’ll use Ivalice as an example, though this could work for a variety of source worlds we have yet to touch:

Nethicite, a form of magicite capable of absorbing massive amounts of magical energy, is a sought after export from Ivalice, and numerous corporations and nations are eager to grab a piece of that pie. Ivalice may be too strongly defended to risk outright invasion from any of the diminished nations, but that does not stop the talk of treaties and contracts, nor the influx of immigrants eager to “strike gold” so to speak in harvesting the dangerous material in its raw form. Small colonies, corporate offshoots, guilds, and adventurers all set off for the new world, seeking fame, fortunate, and glory.

This could provide an initial point for starting characters from all writers, a universal theme for branching stories to relate to, and down the road more of that nation building we all love. I admit some of this is based off dieas I’ve been mulling in my head for my own future plot threads if we were to allow the introduction of it (I even downloaded a ps2 emulator to play FFXII again). Again, this could be for any new world, or honestly perhaps a pre-existing world that has seen little use.

22

[quote=“Spoon”]At the risk of sounding like a broken record, would a new setting to initially place the continuation in be too out there?

I know an outside threat was mentioned that individual heroes could eventually rise up against, and I like that idea, but I’ve been struggling to think of a way for us to write in a close knit enough setting while still acknowledging all that has come before. The White Cell thing gives me an idea, however.

In the few years between now and the end of the White Cell, a new world has been discovered. Though it has established Kingdoms, tech, magic, and the like, it may have much in the way of resources, new forms of technology, etc. that the formerly Great Powers are eager to use to regain their former statuses? I’ll use Ivalice as an example, though this could work for a variety of source worlds we have yet to touch:

Nethicite, a form of magicite capable of absorbing massive amounts of magical energy, is a sought after export from Ivalice, and numerous corporations and nations are eager to grab a piece of that pie. Ivalice may be too strongly defended to risk outright invasion from any of the diminished nations, but that does not stop the talk of treaties and contracts, nor the influx of immigrants eager to “strike gold” so to speak in harvesting the dangerous material in its raw form. Small colonies, corporate offshoots, guilds, and adventurers all set off for the new world, seeking fame, fortunate, and glory.

This could provide an initial point for starting characters from all writers, a universal theme for branching stories to relate to, and down the road more of that nation building we all love. I admit some of this is based off dieas I’ve been mulling in my head for my own future plot threads if we were to allow the introduction of it (I even downloaded a ps2 emulator to play FFXII again). Again, this could be for any new world, or honestly perhaps a pre-existing world that has seen little use.[/quote]

I think it’s possible! My thought for a starting point was the city of Kupopolis itself; if felt right, and it’s also not that well defined, if memory serves. It’s got moogles and people from across the Web. It could also serve as a hub, I think?

A place characters could also come back to, meet up, and such, so it’s not just a starting point.

23

My take on White Cell:

So, there was a while there where “active Kupopolis” was basically just me and Travis talking about neat things we wanted to do. So White Cell came up a lot, and I was privvy to a lot of Travis’ notes and outlines and ideas over the last few years.

It’s true that, after moogle.club became a thing, I said to Travis that White Cell would make for a nice starting point for Kupop Reborn – although he rightly pointed out that White Cell is more of a macro-story, and we’re at the wrong time and place for macro-stories now.

I know we’re all getting SUPER EXCITED about our macro-assets and what they’d do or be doing through and after the White Cell crisis… but, really, the entire point of the storyline as Travis envisioned it was to wind down the macro era of the story. Even before we started talking about Kupop Reborn here in the moogle.club, Travis was talking about making a fundamental change to the most macro of all Kupopolis assets: the Grand Army.

In my mind, the way White Cell serves us now is by winding down all the macro assets. Great Powers might still, relatively, be Great Powers, but they’re a shadow of their former selves. Tasnica’s extra-dimensional territories (Winlan, Kuvalla, Carrion, Prima, and a number of other countries) get their independence back. One of Gabe’s last few EU plots involved an independence movement in Doma; the post-White Cell web of worlds is probably the appropriate place for that to happen (as well as independence for Figaro and Narshe, further breaking up the larger asset). Guardia’s terrestrial assets are broken up as well, though this happens before White Cell (will discuss this in a separate post).

(also, Gabe, I sorta think Crystal unifying in the midst of all of this runs almost counter to the trend… I’d advise against it and leave the individual nations as they are, especially after the conflict that centers on Eblan [and possibly Mysidia])

I’d like to take a more optimistic view of White Cell than Gabe does. I think the end result of White Cell is a much more sober, humble web of worlds. The war isn’t ultimately as destructive as it could have been, largely because both sides were looking at capturing rather than destroying turf. Dragon (of course) takes the brunt of the actual destruction, but I think what you end up seeing in the wake of the Battle of Dragonspace is a new spirit of cooperation as the web works together to rebuild the Dragon Dimension – something that will surely shock the Dragonese people, who are used to being shit on by the web but not used to the web coming in to help clean up the shit afterward.

Though Erdeny could easily be cast as the villain of the piece, in the end her vision does end up taking shape, in a way. Some of the old institutions (like the AC and the House of Lords) remain, as do the actual terms of the Alliance itself. But the army? Hard to say. Does the actual Grand Army get replaced by a general agreement of aid and cooperation among the allies? Or do they try to rebuild and reconstitute their white and gold defenders’ ranks?

Ultimately that’s less relevant, for our purposes, than just the idea that the governments and institutions of the web are given a sound spanking by White Cell, and emerge from the experience much less brazen and scheming than before. The big power players have their hands full with post-war cleanup that will last them a few years.

And in the meantime, that frees us, the writers, up to apply our focus on much smaller things…

Heroes.

24

Well, the root for the Neo-Returners was veterans who feel like they’ve been sold out. Which is a perfectly reasonable thing to feel if your country is transforming into a class-divided magocracy.

While we’re discussing fates of major powers, Tasnica I kind of want to return to its grime and glory, cyberpunk + magic, Shadowrun inspired roots. During the war they make a deal with their various extradimensional territories to have a referendum on independence in exchange for total support during the war. This would include Albrook, though I think Winlan and Prima would stay in, because, gods, the Dragon Dimension is going to hell. (Of course, all their territories INSIDE of Mana don’t get a choice, which slots off certain people.)

Of course, some people think Tasnica should do more to reclaim its Empire. (BECAUSE NEO FORESHADOWING!)

And the AAA corporations go on, because someone still has to provide quality goods and services to the Web. Remember: You can Trust Tasnican! (The message sponsored by the Tasnican Chamber of Commerce.)

Also: Tasnica was another pronunciation kerfluffle, I’ve heard some people say TAZ-nick-a, but I’ve always said Taz-NEEK-a.

But this is more background stuff; part of the point is that the Great Powers are less active. If we compared Tasnica to the United States before, now there more like postwar Japan or even Switzerland, much more focused on economics and not as active in politics. (We’re all policsci nerds still, yeah?!?) Which is part of why my major point of view characters wouldn’t be Prime Ministers or whatever, but do-gooders and adventurers, saving the Mana Dimension from Lavos spawn and preventing various Dark God resurrection schema.

25

That’s a good point, Matt, regarding Crystal. Let’s table that; it can be a thing to explore later. I feel like we shouldn’t abandon writing political movements and conflicts entirely, but we have a cleaner slate. And a brighter take also works for me, though I’d like to keep the EU in a bad way. Mostly because I have some ideas for characters who come out of that situation and start doing some stuff with it, in a smaller-scale way at first. But, the Esper Union being worse off doesn’t mean everything has to.

We might want a side thread about what stories we’re hoping to write; it might be early, but it might help build details.

And I like that with Tasnica. I think one thing we can do is make where countries are also fun places for characters to visit; case in point, one of my characters is (probably) gonna be one of these new Esperian knights. A visit to Guardia would be an eye-opening, character-building experience.

And definitely with the Neo-Returners. Hell, I’ll peek through my cast; maybe I can throw some old faces in there. I like the idea they’re hitting beyond the EU, too. They could be antagonists across the Web, but also not unjustified, y’know?

26

My reaction to White Cell

I’ll really have to think what my circle of characters would be doing, are doing now since this event. My initial thought is Diamond survives, but most likely lost a resources and clout. (Malakim are gone, their space factories are gone, the space colonies that brought them revenue are gone–all their big guns are just gone. They were pretty much in the GA’s pocket when it came to elite mecha tech).

I could see some sort of internal conflict for Zion with GDubs with his office appointment suggestion. Man, that’s just something I would have loved to mulled over and it developed.

Also, I think the last post with Hyland (the whole Hyrule area) I was hinting at an upcoming insurgence of socio-economic strife, and I’m not sure how they’d fit into the big equation of things. I was slowly trying to develop that into something, but I always lacked the political slants and intrigue you guys are so great at creating.

27

I feel like “THERE WAS A FIREFIGHT!” needs to go at the top of the eventual wiki page for this.

I’d feel for Zion and Diamond. This’ll be rough on them. I think it’d be cool if the Sera-T’s survived, though, and maybe Clay and Zion managed to save a colony or two? That’d be neat.

Also, we need a list of who lived and who died. I’m wondering about Halder, for instance.

28

Like Travis, I’d planned to write and post a large, all-encompassing megapost for one of my main assets – or, rather, my main asset, Guardia. Over the years I’ve piled so much onto my Guardia plate that it became way too cumbersome to do anything with, so I threw it all together into one big gigantic plan for a megapost, the centerpiece of which was going to be the Guardian Civil War.

As I was writing it, I broke the whole thing up into eight tales:
•The Fallen King’s Tale: The shortest of the sections, shows the fate of King Mooloo after he’s dethroned by Brer Rabbey and exiled from Malcovia. He shows up again later.
•The Archon’s Tale: Primus, the new Lord of the Archons, has the cyborg Johnny given the archon conversion. He’s given a reading by Brieme, Minister of Chalices, who tells him something prophetic that comes true later and makes everyone go OOOOOHHHH, THAT’S what that meant!! He then travels down to Gate III’s surface just in time to be faced with a choice that was prophesied by Brieme (OOOOOHHH!!!) to save either Madrigal or Derik, and he tries to do both… resulting in Derik’s death.
•The Paladin’s Tale: Laurence Daniels is the Spekkian Council Member on the Council of the Paladins Templar, and he’s covertly tasked by Tassadar to organize a Spekkian resistance within Guardia to release Archbishop Madrigal from royal custody. (in a Proper post some years ago, after Derik’s youngest daughter died of illness, Derik went crazy and attacked the cathedral, taking Madrigal prisoner) At some point during his time with the Spekkians, Laurence’s tea for his Spekkian tea ceremony is spiked with pyra, and during the mission to rescue Madrigal the pyra’s activated and the Paladin tries to assassinate Derik. The other Spekkians are flying away in a transport with Madrigal aboard, and Laurence is fighting Derik and beating him badly (because the pyra in Derik’s system is inhibiting him). Johnny manages to stop a SAM from shooting down Madrigal’s transport, but in the process is knocked out, and Laurence kills Derik. After Laurence is recovered by the Spekkians, he finds himself in a roving caravan hiding out in the forest (because the Guardians are actively looking for them). Martin Olethros (who is part of the group) reveals to Laurence that there’s a traitor in the group’s midst, and tells him he’s been spiked with pyra. Olethros helps Laurence cope with withdrawals as he weans himself off the substance. The traitor turns out to have been one of the Church of Spekkio’s highest ranking church guard members. A fight breaks out, and Martin Olethros kills him.
•The Black Wind’s Tale: We see the story of the Black Wind Organization, the Porrean independence movement. The storyline here leans pretty heavily on stuff that M3 wrote for Iron Writer, as well as a lot of things he wrote in Neo (so if M3 had to thank me for giving him Gate in Neo, I have to thank him for giving me Porrean grist for my megapost mill). Toward the end of the tale, Michael Itica discovers the inventor of pyra: Dr. Clayton Forrestor, former Celpo mad scientist. Forrestor fills in a few blanks about “The Collegia,” the organization behind pyra’s distribution, and the truth is revealed about what pyra is: it’s not a drug, it’s nanites. Nanites that can influence the human body’s endocrine systems to simulate the effects of drug use, and similarly effect a limited form of mind control to simulate drug addiction. (though, as we see in the Daniels-Derik fight, the ability of pyra to control a human mind is much more potent than has been shown previously in the story)
•The Rebels’ Tale: This tale focuses on Dregoth and the Chorrans. Several years ago Dregoth was elected governor of Chorras, and he has been slowly consolidating his power and preparing to secede from the kingdom. Having secured military hardware from a secret benefactor (Troy Sordana, of Atreus… through a middle man to maintain his plausible deniability), the Chorran Resistance Army declares independence. Dregoth is also, at this time, using the Dragon Relics he sent his minion Maskamael to aquire in El Nido to ascend and become a deity – the Seventh Dragon, as he styles himself. There were a couple war posts in this tale, showing the back-and-forth between the Guardians trying to put down the rebels, and the rebels’ being able to cunningly outmaneuver them thanks to tactical wunderkind John Dario, who is leading the CRA. Also at some point, the Scandian ORCAs (who had been loaned out to Medina to fight pirates), are actually sent to support the Guardians and attack the Chorran navy, in a bit of a stunning twist. (that was Travis’ idea) At some point, a covert team of Guardian heroes (Sir Scorpius, Arturo Drogen [aka Janus Cage], Prince Crono and Raju Pandora [parallel universe Pandoran prince, husband of Derik’s alternate-universe “sister” Elektra… do you see why I called this “Unravelling”???]) land in Chorras because Scorpius believes it’s Arturo’s destiny to face and defeat Dregoth. These heroes face off against Dregoth, Maskamael (a fallen Archon wielding the demonic Black Mace), Eli Cromlich (Dregoth’s shapeshifting henchman) and the three Reptite high priests. The fight breaks down into appropriate pairings: Arturo and Dregoth both assume large dragonforms and go at each other (reprising their earlier battle in Medina during the Cleansing War); Sir Scorpius and Maskamael each try to out-Black-Knight each other; Crono and the Reptite Priests engage in a battle of magic; and Raju engages Eli Cromlich (in his shapeshifted guise as the busty blonde bombshell Beli Bromlich) in an epic slap-fight. The battle ends when Dregoth defeats Arturo and the entire group is taken prisoner. Dregoth attempts to ransom Prince Crono back to the Guardians in exchange for horribly unreasonable concessions (which, unknown to Dregoth, they won’t get because Derik’s been killed by this point). But the ransom demands are window-dressing; Dregoth intends to kill the Prince anyway and send the shapeshifter back in his place. This doesn’t sit right with Eli, who, it turns out, has a conscience after all. So he sets the prisoners free and helps them escape to Medina. Dregoth imprisons Eli and plans to execute him, but this, in turn, doesn’t sit right with Dario (who has formed a deep, if unlikely friendship with Eli). Dario ends up freeing Eli and they escape together… but this is bad for Chorras, since Dario was basically the only thing holding the Guardians at bay.
•The Mystics’ Tale: This is another short one, focusing on a group of Medinan soldiers. Just prior to the events of Unravelling, former GA chief of air operations Gage Rizett came to head up Medina’s military. He began reducing the size of Medina’s armed force, which meant a number of soldiers got laid off. Many of these soldiers (like the ones featured in these posts) ended up getting hired (by Eli Cromlich and his agents) to serve as mercenary reinforcements for the Chorrans. (which is a bit interesting, given the historic bad blood between Medina and Chorras)
•The Chancellor’s Tale: Here we see the story from Khalid Morris’ point of view. Khalid is indebted to the FATE conspiracy, but it’s clear he doesn’t agree with its methods. The turning point for him is when he learns that ZAPS director Daniel Chalasser ordered Derik killed. We also see that Derik’s assassination isn’t public knowledge: the conspiracy has somehow manufactured a double of Derik, who makes a public appearance on television. As a result of this, Khalid and Bynum Boothe (Khalid’s Foreign Minister) hatch a plan to coordinate with sympathetic groups (the Archons, the Spekkians, and Guardia’s expat super hero, the Shield) to bring down the FATE conspiracy.
•The Dragon’s Tale: This story focuses on Nadia and Arturo Drogen and their return to Guardia. Doan (from the alternate universe) has reached out and contacted Nadia because her father is batshit crazy. The plan is for Doan, Nadia and Elektra to go and meet with Derik and try to talk him down from having Madrigal executed. (Derik attacks them and has them imprisoned when they confront him) This leaves Arturo, Crono and Raju alone in the palace, where they are attacked by Sir Fairchilde (who’s been hunting Arturo ever since he escaped the Janus Cage Trial in Medina). Fairchilde tries to kill Arturo, but Sir Scorpius shows up and stops him. He then tells Arturo about his destiny to stop Dregoth, and this group sets out for Chorras. (setting up the events at the end of the Rebels’ Tale)
•Derik’s Tale: This was to be the LONGEST section, and would’ve tied everything else together. It opens with Johnny finding Derik’s corpse and bringing it to his sister, Jeanie, in Malcovia. They, in turn, bring Derik to King Mooloo’s sanctuary, where he and an animated voodoo doll named Mojo work some voodoo magic and bring Derik back to life. Purged of the pyra, he experiences horrible, nightmare visions of the awful things he was compelled to do. Aww, don’t worry, Derik: pathos builds character!

That’s about where I stopped writing, but here are highlights of what was supposed to happen:
•Derik links up with the Spekkians and the Archons to form a resistance. The Shield returns and lends a hand. They get secret intel from an anonymous benefactor, who turns out to be Khalid. With the help of the resistance, Khalid is able to expose Chalasser’s power grab and the fact that “Derik” is an android. The real Derik is restored, Khalid is a hero, and an appeal is sent out for an end to the Civil War.
•The Porreans make their move for independence while the shitstorm is at its thickest, first by making a bid to conquer El Nido. Unfortunately for them, right as the real Derik comes back, Dr. Forrestor betrays the Porreans’ trust. Instead of making a pyra antidote like he promised, he’s built an AI virus called the Black Knight, and infected the Guardian OmniNet through the computer access that the Black Wind Organization’s given him.
•The Black Knight was actually one of the things I was most sorry I never got to writing. It would’ve been the most fun. The Black Knight is fully sentient, a collective intelligence sort of like the Ticonderan supercomputer Skynet. Subservient to the FATE conspiracy, the Black Knight wreaks havoc on Guardia’s infrastructure, attacking Guardian government systems and generally making hell for everyone. It’s assisted in its spread by pyra addicts, who bring down firewalls and deactivate security and anti-virus protections to let it in. In this way, the Black Knight assaults the Mother Brain mainframe.
•With Mother Brain under the Black Knight’s control, Daniel Chalasser reveals his true form: it’s Rajaat.
•The Scandians see the chaos in Gate, and switch sides. The Orcas begin supporting the Chorrans. Meanwhile, Arturo Drogen (with help from Eli Cromlich) manages to convince the Medinans to get into the war and help the Guardians. Gage orchestrates a masterful Medinan aerial campaign against Chorras which devastates what’s left of the Chroran navy. Arturo Drogen leads the charge into Chorras, along with Scorpius and Fairchilde (who was tracking Arturo, but then decided to help him). Scorpius kills Maskamael. Dregoth becomes a Dragon God, and Arturo manages to slay him just when he thought he’d finally succeeded. Big fiery death scene.
•Rajaat has the Black Knight activate Guardia’s experimental NORN mecha, infected with the Black Knight’s AI. They are given an assignment by Rajaat: kill Khalid. They assault Khalid’s swank hotel, but the Knights of the Square Table rescue him.
•The NORNs destroy the Guardian Parliament building and the Cathedral. Rajaat declares the Kingdom of Guardia no more: there is only the Goddess of Fate and Her will now.
•GDF and the NORNs have a massive battle over Guardia Castle. This would have been a cool sequence. Fighter jets vs. evil AI mecha. The Shield duking it out with giant robots. King Derik in action for the first time in years. It would have been glorious. Unfortunately, the NORNs’ numbers seem endless, and they are coordinated by the singular intelligence of the Black Knight virus. It seems the Castle’s fall is inevitable.
•Primus has, in this time, been working very hard at forging new weapons and armor for the Archons. He has finished it at last by this point: the Raiment of Faith. They are distributed quickly, and several Archons descend on the battle at Guardia Castle. Their arrival is like the giant eagles. VERY DRAMATIC. But still, the NORNs appear to be winning.
•They have to stop the Black Knight virus, so of course they have to go into the computer world to do so. Just like all those movies and TV episodes from the 1990s that involve virtual reality. Makes sense, right? So they call on the old Great War veteran, Dodger (the moogle decker!.. who, it turns out, was running the IT department of the Black Wind Organization this whole time) to lead an assault on the Black Knight virus and reclaim the Mother Brain mainframe. BIG 1990s VR BATTLE, but they win. The NORNs drop out of the sky, everyone cheers. It’s wonderful.
•While one group is fighting the Black Knight inside the computer, another group (lead by Derik) is confronting Rajaat. He’s invincible while the Black Knight’s infecting Mother Brain, so they wait to kill him only after the Black Knight is defeated. He dies, probably for good this time.

•The Aftermath:
-Derik returns to his throne and a serious restructuring of things ensues. Freed from the grip of Pyra, he can see things more clearly and recognizes that peace is most important.
-Both Porre and Chorras are given autonomous rule – the Porreans out of recognition for their assistance in ending the threat of FATE (you see, Porre? All that sneaking around didn’t win you independence: helping us slay an insane computer god was all it took!), and the Chorrans out of recognition that it was kind of shitty that Doan never fulfilled his promise to give their independence back after the Syndicate Wars.
-A new GATO emerges, this time comprised entirely of Gatian nation-states (as opposed to just being Guardia and Medina and a number of other Fringe countries). The member states are:
-The Kingdom of Guardia
-The Republic of Medina
-The Republic of Chorras
-The Republic of Porre
-The El Nido Islands
-A new computer mainframe has to be built. Guardia, Porre and Medina collaborate on this; the new supercomputer is actually named GATO and it services the entire alliance by interfacing with new supercomputers built in each of the five member states.
-The “numbered” leadership of the Black Wind Organization become the military and political leaders of Porre. Sadly, it’s a militaristic autocracy; they appear to have good intentions, but it is a far cry from democracy. General Saunders (Number One in the BWO) is the head of state.
-An emergency election is held in Chorras for a new Governor (sadly, Dregoth didn’t care much for establishing a line of succession during his reign), and Dario is elected by write-in nearly unanimously.
-A state funeral is held for Mother Brain – because she was sentient, and she was effectively killed when the Black Knight infected her and allowed FATE to corrupt her personality. This might be considered a major milestone in the history of AI – that a supercomputer should be given a “burial” and the posthumous accolades of a war hero.
-It’s not all easy-going: Chorras and Porre both want a piece of the Gatian colonies, but the current arrangement divides them very nicely between Guardia and Medina. However, both larger Gate powers seem willing to at least talk, and once a deal is arranged that allows these two new countries to share 1/3 share in the colonies, El Nido jumps in and says “Hey, where’s mine?” This sinks the previous deal, and a new deal for the colonies becomes an ongoing fight with no resolution.
-In terms of military, only Chorras has its own hardware. Porre is forced to give back the assets they stole during the insurrection; defecting GDF officers are discharged from the service and integrated into a Porrean Army which doesn’t have very much when it comes right down to it. Chorras’ political alliance between Guardia and Chorras protects Atreus from any reprisals once the truth of the hardware’s origins is discovered.
-Oh! It also turns out that Chorras has its own space fleet (also Atreus made). Their gimmick is cloaking, which all/most of their ships have. It’s proprietary Atreus technology that Chorras has leased from them – with a little extra thrown in to keep Atreus from selling it to anyone else. But buying tech from Atreus and paying extra for an exclusivity clause in the contract is slowly bankrupting Chorras. Which lends some urgency to Chorras’ desire to bring in some revenue from a stake in the colonies.

29

Post-Unravelling Gate in White Cell

Almost nothing changes from Cell’s writeup. Guardia does all it does, but maybe Chorras and Porre flirt with the idea of supporting White Cell (although this likely changes when Celiose mentions that the colonies would be a target). Chorras’ fleet probably becomes part of the contingent under Thames during the Battle of Dragonspace, but other than that the Chorrans probably don’t ever get directly involved in the fighting. (they just came out of a devastating civil war)

30

[quote=“Tex”]I feel like “THERE WAS A FIREFIGHT!” needs to go at the top of the eventual wiki page for this.

I’d feel for Zion and Diamond. This’ll be rough on them. I think it’d be cool if the Sera-T’s survived, though, and maybe Clay and Zion managed to save a colony or two? That’d be neat.

Also, we need a list of who lived and who died. I’m wondering about Halder, for instance.[/quote]

Like…this???

“Where are they now?”
Celiose Cole – History records that Celiose died as he lived: saving the Web.

Torstensson Lenart – Torstensson dies, but is resurrected by White Cell through a combination of cybertechnology and magic. He fights as their main commander, but starts to have misgivings, because Erdeny is one crazy, hate-filled, wrathful bitch. Almost certainly dead again.

Kenny Brackhaven – Retired, and fly fishing somewhere in the Upperlands. He survived an assassination attempt during the GA Civil War, as the temporary suspension of certain liberties and expansion of government power in order to fight the war was massively unpopular in certain circles. (“Sic semper tyrannis!”)

Damien Gavalian - Doing quite well, thank you very much! Still very wealthy. Has no idea that is baby girl is hanging out with these Kuper Heroes types. I had a subplot with him scrapping it out with Lofwyr over Forge Mechanicals, which is probably still going on. Gavalian is actually a bit of a war hero, as he was Kenny’s Minister of Defense during the war (who better to turn Tasnica’s vast wealth and resources into warmaking potential?) Gavalian is probably separated from his wife, though they might try to keep up appearances.

Travin Rumanski – He’s dead. Erdeny used the Executor to nuke his bunker from orbit. Although she reasoned that this would end Scande’s determined resistance against White Cell, and humble and awe the Web who would naturally be grateful that she eliminated a hated and feared dictator. She horribly miscalculated, as the move inspired the GSF to ride to the Dragon Dimension’s rescue.
Many areas of the Scandian League either declared independence, or descended into lawlessness and warlordism. The “Scandian League” itself still exists, controls about half its old territory, lots of its old military power, and is run by a shady cabal seeking to resurrect Tyr. (Which is something Travin would not have stood for, no sir!)

Halder Skalice - I haven’t decided yet if he’s going to be dead or merely retired and inactive. I do like the idea of him serving very briefly as Generalissimo, because as a military commander he has a track record on the level of the other candidates, and because Guardia, Tasnica, and Esper voting to put a Scandian in charge feels like “Web unity” like nothing else. (Though, of course, Thames would command the space forces, and possibly be slotted off that he was passed over for the top spot – though, its possible that both Skalice and Thames were Generalissimo at some point during the war or after.)
Although, an essential part of his character (in my mind) was that he never had the charisma, aptitude, or ambition to become leader of the whole country, as contrasted with his Esperian counterpart, TO Halberg. As Travin put it, “Your problem, Halder, is that you lack vision.”
Halder signed a treaty officially ending the Scandian occupation of the Esperian cities of Tzen and Hostluftgrad. Both Esperian radicals and factions of his own government have tried to kill him multiple times.
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of Halder alive, as a GA commander or possibly mercenary, but not really welcome in his homeland.

Praxer Riose - Decent people shouldn’t think too much about that.
…although, seriously, I do struggle with this idea. I want Praxer’s occasional appearance to serve as deus ex machine to be an appropriately Big Deal, but it’s hard to do that with a character that barely shows up, ever. Hmm.

…though the list is far from complete. At first I was going to go all Neo EVERYONE DIES, but I decided I did that already in 2003 and don’t need to do it again.

31

[quote=“Celiose”][quote=“Tex”]I feel like “THERE WAS A FIREFIGHT!” needs to go at the top of the eventual wiki page for this.

I’d feel for Zion and Diamond. This’ll be rough on them. I think it’d be cool if the Sera-T’s survived, though, and maybe Clay and Zion managed to save a colony or two? That’d be neat.

Also, we need a list of who lived and who died. I’m wondering about Halder, for instance.[/quote]

Like…this???

“Where are they now?”
Celiose Cole – History records that Celiose died as he lived: saving the Web.

Torstensson Lenart – Torstensson dies, but is resurrected by White Cell through a combination of cybertechnology and magic. He fights as their main commander, but starts to have misgivings, because Erdeny is one crazy, hate-filled, wrathful bitch. Almost certainly dead again.

Kenny Brackhaven – Retired, and fly fishing somewhere in the Upperlands. He survived an assassination attempt during the GA Civil War, as the temporary suspension of certain liberties and expansion of government power in order to fight the war was massively unpopular in certain circles. (“Sic semper tyrannis!”)

Damien Gavalian - Doing quite well, thank you very much! Still very wealthy. Has no idea that is baby girl is hanging out with these Kuper Heroes types. I had a subplot with him scrapping it out with Lofwyr over Forge Mechanicals, which is probably still going on. Gavalian is actually a bit of a war hero, as he was Kenny’s Minister of Defense during the war (who better to turn Tasnica’s vast wealth and resources into warmaking potential?) Gavalian is probably separated from his wife, though they might try to keep up appearances.

Travin Rumanski – He’s dead. Erdeny used the Executor to nuke his bunker from orbit. Although she reasoned that this would end Scande’s determined resistance against White Cell, and humble and awe the Web who would naturally be grateful that she eliminated a hated and feared dictator. She horribly miscalculated, as the move inspired the GSF to ride to the Dragon Dimension’s rescue.
Many areas of the Scandian League either declared independence, or descended into lawlessness and warlordism. The “Scandian League” itself still exists, controls about half its old territory, lots of its old military power, and is run by a shady cabal seeking to resurrect Tyr. (Which is something Travin would not have stood for, no sir!)

Halder Skalice - I haven’t decided yet if he’s going to be dead or merely retired and inactive. I do like the idea of him serving very briefly as Generalissimo, because as a military commander he has a track record on the level of the other candidates, and because Guardia, Tasnica, and Esper voting to put a Scandian in charge feels like “Web unity” like nothing else. (Though, of course, Thames would command the space forces, and possibly be slotted off that he was passed over for the top spot – though, its possible that both Skalice and Thames were Generalissimo at some point during the war or after.)
Although, an essential part of his character (in my mind) was that he never had the charisma, aptitude, or ambition to become leader of the whole country, as contrasted with his Esperian counterpart, TO Halberg. As Travin put it, “Your problem, Halder, is that you lack vision.”
Halder signed a treaty officially ending the Scandian occupation of the Esperian cities of Tzen and Hostluftgrad. Both Esperian radicals and factions of his own government have tried to kill him multiple times.
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of Halder alive, as a GA commander or possibly mercenary, but not really welcome in his homeland. (It’s worth pointing out that the Scandian League and the Forest Clans are probably separate political entities; his league as such no longer exists.)

Praxer Riose - Decent people shouldn’t think too much about that.
…although, seriously, I do struggle with this idea. I want Praxer’s occasional appearance to serve as deus ex machine to be an appropriately Big Deal, but it’s hard to do that with a character that barely shows up, ever. Hmm.

…though the list is far from complete. At first I was going to go all Neo EVERYONE DIES, but I decided I did that already in 2003 and don’t need to do it again.[/quote]

32

I’m guessing the answer to “did Celiose survive” is “wait and see.”

I like the idea that Halder ended up Generalissimo; it’d make sense if they put a guy without a ton of vision and ambition in command of the Grand Army after the whole debacle. He would be a “safe” candidate. Thames might be a bit less safe, but it’d make sense if we had a couple Generalissimos in that time.

I think the EU lost Doma in this; it declared its independence, and the EU bureaucracy couldn’t get off its ass to stop it. This didn’t go over well. Figaro remains part of the EU, but I think it’s been granted some special status; it’s a little like Scotland in the United Kingdom, but with no plan to leave. It makes a lot of money by being one of the major industrial blocks of the Union, and now it’s actually one of the nicest places to live. They might even have the Figaran royal family living there again, just not officially enthroned. Similar to the Habsburgs living in modern day Austria.

I’m also thinking the Aerospacy got wiped out somehow – their commander was a former space pirate, so he might have gone rogue in the whole mess and supported White Cell. So the Battle of Dragonspace had the Aerospacy assisting SAGA against the SRAN, GSF, SLCM-Space, and RAF.

Also, Matt, are you good with saying that Alkar the Black and the Merge League smoked the fucking Dwarves? They need to go away already and Tycoon get liberated.

33

Pretty much what I was thinking. I could see Zion retreating into space, as early stories always told how fond he was visiting company space factories. I could see him becoming Space bros with Rhodes and building out some form of independence as the main dimensional worlds abandoned them, with Zion seeing Rhodes as a mentor. Seriously, what happens to Nova Pax? I may have missed its mentioning in the big wall of text. I think the overall story would benefit from making the remaining space colonies feel like its own setting and less of the extension of the old superpower’s clout.

Clay I could see being Zion’s Kobayashi, being the one to travel to different locations on his behalf to make deals and save the day. I also see Clay as being a sandy-haired Vin Diesel/Bruce Wayne hybrid. Story wise I think he’s 30 something now? Zion would be early 40’s maybe.

I think if I continue the plot, Clay would bring in a fighter for security as he became a proxy CEO. And thus the nearly indestructible robo-avatar would be passed to the next generation.

34

[quote=“Celiose”]Praxer Riose - Decent people shouldn’t think too much about that.
…although, seriously, I do struggle with this idea. I want Praxer’s occasional appearance to serve as deus ex machine to be an appropriately Big Deal, but it’s hard to do that with a character that barely shows up, ever. Hmm.[/quote]

I always envisioned him as the man who steped up to the “next level” of cosmic grandiose issues and takes care of them men in black style–he’s a scary Nick Fury that if he shows up, you know the helicarrier is going down in flames. Yet I still see him as this mortal, vulnerable but pragmatic person who wouldn’t mind swiping the loose change from a tip char if he needed bus fare.

35

I love that about Praxer.

And that makes a lot of sense, Mike! Clay could have a new guy helping; a third generation, of sorts, which would fit the direction we’re heading, too. I imagine there’s some torch passing.

Also, Travis, I had an idea. There should be three leaders of the Neo-Returners with code names: Doom, Poltergeist, and Goddess. (screw newer, better translations!) Dibs on Poltergeist if you like that idea.

36

Nova Pax is still around, and probably still home to the Alliance Congress. It’s not targeted during the war; White Cell wants the Alliance Congress to acknowledge its legitimacy accede to its demands, not kill all their leaders and destroy GACA. (Probably the only major political leader killed by White Cell is Travin, and that’s near the very end.)

Character age is a tough one, Mikey…but we have fudged it before and I’m sure we will again!

Consider:

4 WB - Start of Great War. (So, this is like year -4).
24 WR - GACA is founded
27 WR - end of Great War
37 WR - end of Leviathan War
47 WR - Pretty much when I stopped posting in the story, though I didn’t have a whole lot covering 46, either, it’s hard to fix a date on the “end” of Proper

I kind of like 52 WR as either our start point or White Cell, because its 25 years after the end of the Great War. If it helps anyone, that would put Celiose at 48 years old. It’s kind of neat, because potentially our new crop of protagonists grew up during all the events we wrote in proper. It’s also not so far forward that many of our old characters can’t still be around and active (assuming they exercised properly and ate healthy!)

if we want to deal with a fixed date at all, instead of fudging it with “some stuff happened a couple of years ago.” “How many years?” “After that one thing, but before that other thing.”

37

[quote=“michael”][quote=“Celiose”]Praxer Riose - Decent people shouldn’t think too much about that.
…although, seriously, I do struggle with this idea. I want Praxer’s occasional appearance to serve as deus ex machine to be an appropriately Big Deal, but it’s hard to do that with a character that barely shows up, ever. Hmm.[/quote]

I always envisioned him as the man who steped up to the “next level” of cosmic grandiose issues and takes care of them men in black style–he’s a scary Nick Fury that if he shows up, you know the helicarrier is going down in flames. Yet I still see him as this mortal, vulnerable but pragmatic person who wouldn’t mind swiping the loose change from a tip jar if he needed bus fare.[/quote]

38

[quote=“Tex”]I love that about Praxer.

And that makes a lot of sense, Mike! Clay could have a new guy helping; a third generation, of sorts, which would fit the direction we’re heading, too. I imagine there’s some torch passing.

Also, Travis, I had an idea. There should be three leaders of the Neo-Returners with code names: Doom, Poltergeist, and Goddess. (screw newer, better translations!) Dibs on Poltergeist if you like that idea.[/quote]

Yes, let’s do this.

And Mike has always had a fantastic sense of Praxer…one of the great parts of an IS is you get to see other people do really cool stuff with your ideas. Mike and Dustin probably had the best Celiose posts.

39

[quote=“Celiose”][quote=“Tex”]I love that about Praxer.

And that makes a lot of sense, Mike! Clay could have a new guy helping; a third generation, of sorts, which would fit the direction we’re heading, too. I imagine there’s some torch passing.

Also, Travis, I had an idea. There should be three leaders of the Neo-Returners with code names: Doom, Poltergeist, and Goddess. (screw newer, better translations!) Dibs on Poltergeist if you like that idea.[/quote]

Yes, let’s do this. And the Woolsey translation is a classic.

And Mike has always had a fantastic sense of Praxer…one of the great parts of an IS is you get to see other people do really cool stuff with your ideas. Mike and Dustin probably had the best Celiose posts.[/quote]

40

I was basically thinking 50-60 WR for a start date, maybe a little towards the latter. (I was thinking 60 because it’s nice and round and could be a few years after White Cell). That said: I think some fudging is good. I think I got enough time to say Imbued are at least adults, if the earliest ones were born in 28-30 WR. The first ones would be 20-25 years old.

Tomorrow, if work’s not too crazy, I’m gonna try to synthesize what we’ve said, take Spoon’s idea into account, and throw up a rough suggestion for what the background story looks like.