Dave
Staff member
I haven't mentioned this before, but within the next few months we will be getting a beta test of the first of probably 2 RPG games. This one will be about monsters you can collect and fight. It's like a grown up version of Pokemon, but is much, much more robust.
You can catch and fight monsters between members, but you can also BREED the monsters! So if you have 1 type and like a few of the features and a totally different type and like some of THEIR features, you can breed the two and take things from both to make a wholly new monster. In the beta the number of possible combinations will number in the thousands. By the release that number could be anywhere from 16 to 64 BILLION different combinations (color, body type, head, arms, etc.)
Anyway, I've been asked to help write the documentation for the game and have had some small input to such non-coding things as monster names, history, etc. In fact, if you see a new User/Admin named DragonByte, that's the developers. They need access to our site for the beta. Be nice to them, please.
So we're unsure which direction to go with the origin story of the monsters. Please base your judgment on the content and not the writing style, as one of the stories was written by someone of considerably less talent than the other. The story will be written by the same person, regardless of which origin is chosen.
So there we have it. Please place your vote for which origin story you prefer.
You can catch and fight monsters between members, but you can also BREED the monsters! So if you have 1 type and like a few of the features and a totally different type and like some of THEIR features, you can breed the two and take things from both to make a wholly new monster. In the beta the number of possible combinations will number in the thousands. By the release that number could be anywhere from 16 to 64 BILLION different combinations (color, body type, head, arms, etc.)
Anyway, I've been asked to help write the documentation for the game and have had some small input to such non-coding things as monster names, history, etc. In fact, if you see a new User/Admin named DragonByte, that's the developers. They need access to our site for the beta. Be nice to them, please.
So we're unsure which direction to go with the origin story of the monsters. Please base your judgment on the content and not the writing style, as one of the stories was written by someone of considerably less talent than the other. The story will be written by the same person, regardless of which origin is chosen.
Origin Story 1 said:Jonaleth the Apprentice looked at the... thing in front of him. It didn't keep to one shape for long, and the shapes it did take were odd, to say the least. He was sure he saw a bear with a babies head in there somewhere.
“What... what is it?” asked the confused acolyte
“Jonaleth, what you are looking at is the future. This will be the resolution of all of the problems of the common man. Imagine, if you will, a world where cows are as large as elephants! Where horses have the strength of bulls, and the speed of the cat. Imagine a world where no man goes hungry, and no work goes unfinished.” Explained Raziel, a slightly crazed smile on his lips.
“I'm not... I mean... This is just one thing though?” stammered the nervous youngster
“Jonaleth, do you understand how the gods created the world? The animals? Do you understand why a lion and a horse cannot mate? Every animals was created with a set of instructions placed there by Odus himself, and these instructions describe everything about the animal, mineral, plant... everything on Xi. Even you and me, if you know how to read it.”
“And... you know how to read the thoughts of the Gods!?”
“Oh heavens no, it would take a billion lifetimes, but I have come close. The being you see in front of you, the Molior, contains the entirity of the language of the gods. Every instruction, for everything ever created, exists within that abomination. It can become any combination of anything which has ever existed on Xi”
“You mean like the pegasi created by Ellian the Elder?”
“Ellian is a hack! A novice! He managed to modify a line here, fix a line there, but his creations lose the ability to procreate, the instructions of the two beasts did not allow for it. But the Molior... The Molior can infuse anything with new instructions. It can procreate, it can create a race of cows so large no man will ever go hungry! A race of giantic, docile sheep with enough wool to clothe entire households! And best of all, they retain the moliors ability to procreate. Imagine it, fields full of these wonderous creatures, and every farmer in the land free to breed more. No more inequality, no more hunger or want. The molior will change the world as we know it.”
Jonaleth stood, awed and impressed. A nagging thought tugged at the back of his mind 'If a giant sheep could be created, couldn't there also be giant wolves and bears?' He dismissed the thought. He was a lowly acolyte and his master was Raziel the Magnificent, certainly he had thought of this. No, decided Jonaleth, no more stupid questions for today...
Origin Story 2 said:It occurred to the Sorcerer that he may have made a mistake. Scratch that. He had most certainly made a mistake. And for that he and possibly the rest of the world would pay the price.
It had started - as these things usually do - with the simplest of ideas; create a series of creatures whose sole purpose was to act as guardians for the rich and powerful. But even simple ideas turn out to be more complex than originally thought.
His first experiments failed miserably, with half-formed creatures crying piteously before expiring or even melting back into the components from which they were made. While he was able to briefly capture the life essences necessary, he was never able to animate the creations for more than a minute or two.
This time, he mused, it was going to be different. He’d gone over his calculations again and again, finding minor errors which had to have been the reason for his many failures. With held breath he finished the construct and whispered the final incantation.
The tiny creature stirred briefly, wings expanding out impossibly far as if it were stretching after a long sleep. But the creature failed to relax, it’s limbs vibrating violently as its bones began to stress and break. Frustrated, the sorcerer grabbed the creature, intending to dash it against the stone wall.
Something bit into his palm.
He looked down at the tiny thing in his hand; the figure was smeared with the sorcerer’s blood where the clawed wingtip had punctured him. The creature was looking back.
The sorcerer discovered early that the creatures did not feed off the blood of the living. He’d sacrificed multiple creatures - rabbits, sheep, the occasional goat - but nothing worked like his blood had that first successful day. Yet the Ven named after venator lacarta - hunter lizard - remained alone; no other creatures had survived regardless of how much of his blood he bathed them.
The tolling of the chapel bells in the small village below brought him from his reverie and gave him an idea. What if, he thought, it was not the blood, but the essence?
Excitedly, he called in his apprentice Jonaleth, pricking the boy’s finger over his latest attempt.The effect was both startling and instant, the creature struggled to its feet and cried a plaintive call. Success!
Once he had discovered that the tiny creatures were created not by blood but by the infusion of life essence the experiments were nearly all productive. Tiny creatures flew, crawled and skittered everywhere. Creatures made of rock, creatures with bodies that resembled humans with heads like pigs ran along side of snakelike creatures. But something was wrong.
The creatures. They were breeding. Stone monstrosities were mating with lizards and their offspring were mating with doglike creatures and their offspring were mating yet again with the humanoid beings.
They were breeding, and the littler creatures were being dominated by the newer, larger offspring. And the newer creatures? They were not bonded; they would bite and hiss when the Sorcerer tried to pick them up.
The bonded creatures were all gone now, replaced with ever bigger and more aggressive monsters. The Sorcerer had long ago locked himself in his chambers, ignoring the sounds of splintering wood and the short but terrified screams of Jonaleth as he attempted to escape. Now the scraping was outside his own door and he feared it wouldn’t hold long.
The Sorcerer had most certainly made a mistake. And for that he and possibly the rest of the world would pay the price.
So there we have it. Please place your vote for which origin story you prefer.