The shocking realization came not too far into creating our map: it's a southern hemisphere world. I am not sure exactly how this happened, but it did. Throw in that humans are not even remotely the dominant race, but share a pecking order with oodles of other types of humanoids, and it makes for a strange setting. In this first story arc none of the main characters is a human. Odd. Blame this one on geography.
Though we are still on break, at least until the end of September, there is still a lot of excitement about this project. We needed the break, but are eager to share this story. Pratt's wife has been reading the completed bits and it sounds like she is enjoying it. That is a huge relief because it gives me hope that Pratt and I will not be the only ones who will enjoy what comes from this process. Honestly I am content just to write for us. At the very least I will have some killer bedtime stories to tell my kids... and reap the results of the ensuing nightmares.
Me: "Why did you wet the bed?"
Hypothetical Offspring: "I was afraid that Mateus would get me. It is so dark in this room."
Me: "It's just make believe. He doesn't exist."
Hypothetical Wife: "I'm going back to sleep, Lio. Enjoy doing the late night laundry."
Creativity is the gift that keeps on giving.
(Note: In all seriousness, I would never tell a small child any story that involves Mateus. Mateus is one of the characters that truly makes my skin crawl.)
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
On Trolls...
Things are on a bit of a break at the moment. It has happened before and we always manage to get back on track. Usually with some feverish bursts of writing. Starting a new semester of school always leaves me a little discombobulated until I find my groove and figure out where my times to think of ideas and write will come. As crazy as my life is at the moment, I think Pratt's is even crazier.
When we were starting to put things together I had one vision of what the Trolls would be like and Pratt had a different idea. One similarity was size. So after some discussion we decided to keep them both. Pratt got to keep the Troll moniker (jerk!), while we renamed my concept the Fomorians. Ok, so Fomorian is not super original, but then again, neither is Troll.
The Trolls are your magical, large, roundish, bulbous-nosed, jovial suckers that really jump off your Norse Mythology woodcuts. They have their oodles of gods, some for large areas and others for households. Their government is regionally led by a Gothi, basically the High Priest of the most dominant god of the pantheon in that particular geographic locale. So citizens of the large coastal city of Heorot, for example, may pray to their own individual household gods, but there is one dominant god for the city and his high priest leads the city.
The Fomorians are larger than the Trolls, but rarely stand completely upright. They tend to squat on their hind legs and lean forward, putting some weight on their knuckles, which sit comfortably on the ground. While the Trolls have round features, the Fomorians tend to have flat features and tiny noses. The Fomorians are highly resistant to magic, incredibly tough and easily the strongest of all the races. They are friendly, but tend to be seen as isolationists because they rarely leave their homeland, which is probably the most beautiful area on the planet. It is not isolationism, so much as thorough contentment with their circumstances. No one has been stupid enough to try to eject them from their homeland.
Well there is a little taste of some more of what we are putting together. It was guilt induced since I have done so little as of late.
When we were starting to put things together I had one vision of what the Trolls would be like and Pratt had a different idea. One similarity was size. So after some discussion we decided to keep them both. Pratt got to keep the Troll moniker (jerk!), while we renamed my concept the Fomorians. Ok, so Fomorian is not super original, but then again, neither is Troll.
The Trolls are your magical, large, roundish, bulbous-nosed, jovial suckers that really jump off your Norse Mythology woodcuts. They have their oodles of gods, some for large areas and others for households. Their government is regionally led by a Gothi, basically the High Priest of the most dominant god of the pantheon in that particular geographic locale. So citizens of the large coastal city of Heorot, for example, may pray to their own individual household gods, but there is one dominant god for the city and his high priest leads the city.
The Fomorians are larger than the Trolls, but rarely stand completely upright. They tend to squat on their hind legs and lean forward, putting some weight on their knuckles, which sit comfortably on the ground. While the Trolls have round features, the Fomorians tend to have flat features and tiny noses. The Fomorians are highly resistant to magic, incredibly tough and easily the strongest of all the races. They are friendly, but tend to be seen as isolationists because they rarely leave their homeland, which is probably the most beautiful area on the planet. It is not isolationism, so much as thorough contentment with their circumstances. No one has been stupid enough to try to eject them from their homeland.
Well there is a little taste of some more of what we are putting together. It was guilt induced since I have done so little as of late.
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