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| ==timeline==
| | If you're interested enough to read the following ideas, please consider leaving some feedback. |
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| The following is rather obviously incomplete, but it is a start toward a proposal. Some of this is already on the end of the backstory, but perhaps it should be placed in its own article. ([[Timeline]]?) The idea is that we just start with major events and work our way down to the more trivial ones. I would have more done, but I spent all day dealing with my sick car.
| | ==swimming & oceanwalking== |
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| | Swimming does not work in the same manner as it does, on the real world. On the mana world, the only place where one can swim, is where the water meets air. Any level of swimming ability probably determines how fast you're able to move across this top layer of airy water. You can only swim on the surface of the water and can not simply sink, or dive downward to access the ocean floor; No Z-axis. |
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| ===The Modern World===
| | However, if you have gills or some other method of waterbreathing, you can walk safely on the ocean floor. As stated, this can not be accomplished by sinking or diving, since the layer of airy water can not be penetrated. The only common places to access the ocean floor, are beaches. Beaches serve as ramps to and from the ocean floor. There probably aren't very many access points to the ocean floor. |
| this era begins the day after the gods are banished. dates can be applied later. | |
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| ===society is left in ruins===
| | With this contrast between swimming and oceanwalking, we can allow people to swim without ever having to depict under-water swimming. (which would require more sprite frames) Swimming can be portrayed as simply as it is in other 2d games, like Zelda and Graal.. where the character's head is (partially) above water, with some simple splashing graphics and sounds to assist the illusion. |
| Survivors of the great conflict awaken to varying degrees of ruin, all around the world. Since most of the able adults died fighting or protecting others, a generational gap was left in much of the population. The small amount of information salvaged from before the disaster was difficult (in many cases, impossible..) to comprehend. To make matters more troublesome, the face of the world had changed since then, rendering old maps useless. Only a few towns survived the geographical turbulence, but most were so utterly displaced, that new homes would have to be built. The necessity of exploration became a way of life for many generations, until society finally began to reassert itself.
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| ===the revival of civilization===
| | Under-water travel on the other hand, could be done fairly exactly as it's done in the SNES title "Breath of Fire".. a method of which I am very fond. |
| The Crystals would remain hidden in the twisted terrain of the new world, locking away their vast supplies of energy. People that once used magic, could no longer grasp its basic concepts. As younger generations were born and grew up, most people who claimed to have magical powers were believed to be suffering from some form of dementia.
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| ===political powers begin to emerge===
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| A Sparron noble named Sabborus Keshlam organizes the largest unified kingdom, since the destruction of civilization. He expands the initial territory in his own namesake.
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| *''Disorganized and without strong government, the rest of the world is virtually helpless against this takeover.''
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| Sabborus reaches his peak of world domination, controlling nearly 85% of the population. When he attempts to stake a claim on the ocean, the Tritan Empire emerges to oppose the annexation of what they consider to be their territory. An agreement is reached, that Sabborus will keep his business out of the water, if the Tritan stay off of the land. Sabborus subsequently solidifies a hold on most of the world.
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| For a long time, taxation of basically everything goes unchecked, because it is moderately reasonable & life doesn't seem too bad under Keshlam's rule. After a good deal of time however, Sabborus Keshlam dies and leadership begins to falter. There is a brief argument over who should take control of the entire kingdom, until the former-ruler's family decides to split power evenly between themselves, briefly forming a government known as ''the dynasty of Keshlam''.
| | ==elements and materials== |
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| From that point on, taxations increase at a maddening pace, inflating the wealth of the dynasty, at the direct expense of their populous. Countless resistance forces and militias form in light of these irritations, but most quickly disband or are destroyed, for a simple lack of power to offer a significant opposition. Eventually, Orchan Keshlam (one of the many family members in power) makes the mistake of demanding the seizure of a cargo-vessel, because it failed to pay proper taxes before leaving port. When the captain refuses to pay, the vessel is attacked, but manages to escape. A group of Tritan hunters helps the crew with injuries & repairs; the lead hunter & the ship captain, exchange information & become friends.
| | I've been trying to come up with a material tree, based on three fundamentals: The fantasy-style elements that we've adopted, the real-life table of elements and of course, as the governing guideline, the rule of cool. Unfortunately, I was once again unable to come up with a complete idea on my own, but this is the gist of it. |
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| The nation of Ancea begins to take form, through a collaborative union between the Tritan empire & a growing number of independent organizations.
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| *''a Tritan elder is selected as the lead the government & a former pirate captain is placed in charge of the military. The new government sends out a warning to everyone they can find, to stay out of the ocean until further notice, while they secure their borders. Despite their lack of interest in the ocean, the dynasty of Keshlam considers this as a threat, because of the land they now stand to lose, as a result of this new collaboration.
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| With the protection of their newly organized military, Ancea is successful in securing most of the strategically relevant coasts, ports, etc.. the exceptions focused mainly around the heart of Keshlam. In an act of desperation, the rather flustered dynasty of Keshlam sends most of its army to take control of Ancea's capital. Though Keshlam's army does reach the capital, it is met with fierce resistance & is unable to take full control of the city.
| | ===energy to matter=== |
| | Using the following forces, elemental energy can be converted in to various types of matter. |
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| | *fire = heat |
| | *lightning = electricity |
| | *air = gas? wind? |
| | *ice = cold |
| | *water = moisture |
| | *plant = acid |
| | *earth = pressure |
| | *metal = magnetics? gauss? |
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| *'''the Crystal of Water shatters, smashing a great deal of the western world to the ocean floor.'''
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| **[[Ancea]] sinks, taking most of Keshlam's invading army to a watery grave, bringing an abrupt end to a very short-lived war.
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| | These could be some of the basic forms of matter that we're able to create from elemental energy. ''Metal is the only complete set amongst these examples.'' |
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| *'''the Crystal of Air shatters, sending a the land around it skyward.'''
| | ;Earth:sulfer (heat), lithium (elec), silicon (pressure), carbon (magnet) |
| **The northern edge of [[Keshlam]] separates & floats from that point on. The city of [[Nidostahn]] survives the separation, partially intact & is eventually selected as the kingdom's new capital.
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| ***
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| | ;Metal:iron (heat), aluminum (elec), titanium (gas), cobalt (cold), tin (moisture), zinc (acid), lead (pressure), nickel (magnet) |
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| | ''Aside from the potential to be blended in to alloys, each type of metal could have various forms of modification applied to them.'' (hardened, tempered, galvanized, etc..) |
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| *'''the Crystal of Fire shatters, scorching the jungle around it.'''
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| **Most of [[Tonori]] becomes a volcanic desert.
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| | ;Air:nitrogen (cold), hydrogen (moisture), xenon (acid) |
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| *'''the Crystal of Earth shatters, forming the longest & tallest mountain-range, in the world.'''
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| **[[Gasaro]] becomes the most fertile stretch of land in the world, despite its rocky terrain.
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| | ''obviously, it's a little easier to do with Metal than the others.'' I imagined this might somehow lead to a the development of a metal / alloy-tree, that would actually have some sort of function beyond sounding cool. Another purpose was to provide a foundation for at least some level of familiarity. For example, it's fairly common knowledge that steel is usually made from a mixture of iron and carbon; wouldn't it be cool if that mixture ''actually'' resulted in a steel product, when you tried it in-game? It would definitely take some discussion to make it usable, but I would love to see a material tree developed beyond a generic list of things like, "ore, wood, blah blah blah.." |
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| ==tonori==
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| '''I will revise this a bit, but it will work with the entire "witch ''casting a spell'' on Tulimshar.." (see below)'''
| | Another piece of the idea was to reference historical alchemy. The above mentioned metals could be basic forms of the precious metals. Iron could be turned in to Gold, while titanium could be turned in to Silver. Aluminum (being relative to electricity which is between Silver and Gold) could be turned in to Electrum. If we did this, an imbalance in currency value could be avoided, by using fiat currency in all civilized areas. Precious metals might then be reduced to a value more relative to their usable qualities. |
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| The land of Tonori was once covered in dense jungle, but now it is mostly a volcanic wasteland. When the Crystal of Fire shattered, the jungle's canopy burned in what appeared to be a sudden and explosive eruption. The fire quickly killed not only most of the vegetation, but many of the inhabitants, as well. People were scattered throughout an increasingly harsh environment and had to spend most of their time trying to survive, instead of looking for lost friends and relatives; many fled Tonori completely, others began to develop nomadic customs, not conducive to life in a permanent location. Gradually however, most of the remaining ''Tonorians'' reconnected and promptly agreed to reorganize as a kingdom, but when disagreements arose about where the capitol should be, the group became divided.
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| Before the fire, the old Tonorian tribes had become aggressive toward each other; they constantly battled over boundaries, resources & minor cultural differences. Also, many illnesses that were beginning to ravage the area, were destroyed by the fire, giving people a chance to recuperate. For these reasons, many people were able to perceive the great fire as some sort of a divine cleansing. This group (comprised mostly of Ifriton) wanted their new kingdom to be built around the volcanic mountain-range, where they believed a benevolent but judgmental god(dess?) resided.
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| The rest of the group disagreed with this newfound belief, instead seeing the volcano as a threat of nature, that required aggressive analysis. When these ''disbelievers'' began to raise questions about the alleged entity in the mountains, fights erupted. After a while of posturing, the two groups were only able to agree that they should live as far apart from each other, as possible. This is how the kingdoms of [[Gispaa]] and [[Tulimshar]] came to be.
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| Since then, most of the people who chose to remain in the newborn desert, somehow learned to flourish there, continuing their lineage in a place where no one expected it possible.
| | ==comments== |
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| '''.. each of the crystal-shattering incidents could be the result of some sort of godly influence. Imagine that the crystals are such that mortals can't willfully bring themselves to touch them.. but when they are manipulated in to doing so, the crystals react explosively. Perhaps the unlucky people who were tricked by the gods, in to doing this.. were turned in to the first monsters, by the elemental blast. It could be something for a quest, or something.'''
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| [[User:Dabe|Dabe]] 04:18, 30 March 2007 (CEST): more tomorrow. be gentle with your feedback about the timeline, I know it's a skeleton.
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If you're interested enough to read the following ideas, please consider leaving some feedback.
swimming & oceanwalking
Swimming does not work in the same manner as it does, on the real world. On the mana world, the only place where one can swim, is where the water meets air. Any level of swimming ability probably determines how fast you're able to move across this top layer of airy water. You can only swim on the surface of the water and can not simply sink, or dive downward to access the ocean floor; No Z-axis.
However, if you have gills or some other method of waterbreathing, you can walk safely on the ocean floor. As stated, this can not be accomplished by sinking or diving, since the layer of airy water can not be penetrated. The only common places to access the ocean floor, are beaches. Beaches serve as ramps to and from the ocean floor. There probably aren't very many access points to the ocean floor.
With this contrast between swimming and oceanwalking, we can allow people to swim without ever having to depict under-water swimming. (which would require more sprite frames) Swimming can be portrayed as simply as it is in other 2d games, like Zelda and Graal.. where the character's head is (partially) above water, with some simple splashing graphics and sounds to assist the illusion.
Under-water travel on the other hand, could be done fairly exactly as it's done in the SNES title "Breath of Fire".. a method of which I am very fond.
elements and materials
I've been trying to come up with a material tree, based on three fundamentals: The fantasy-style elements that we've adopted, the real-life table of elements and of course, as the governing guideline, the rule of cool. Unfortunately, I was once again unable to come up with a complete idea on my own, but this is the gist of it.
energy to matter
Using the following forces, elemental energy can be converted in to various types of matter.
- fire = heat
- lightning = electricity
- air = gas? wind?
- ice = cold
- water = moisture
- plant = acid
- earth = pressure
- metal = magnetics? gauss?
These could be some of the basic forms of matter that we're able to create from elemental energy. Metal is the only complete set amongst these examples.
- Earth
- sulfer (heat), lithium (elec), silicon (pressure), carbon (magnet)
- Metal
- iron (heat), aluminum (elec), titanium (gas), cobalt (cold), tin (moisture), zinc (acid), lead (pressure), nickel (magnet)
Aside from the potential to be blended in to alloys, each type of metal could have various forms of modification applied to them. (hardened, tempered, galvanized, etc..)
- Air
- nitrogen (cold), hydrogen (moisture), xenon (acid)
obviously, it's a little easier to do with Metal than the others. I imagined this might somehow lead to a the development of a metal / alloy-tree, that would actually have some sort of function beyond sounding cool. Another purpose was to provide a foundation for at least some level of familiarity. For example, it's fairly common knowledge that steel is usually made from a mixture of iron and carbon; wouldn't it be cool if that mixture actually resulted in a steel product, when you tried it in-game? It would definitely take some discussion to make it usable, but I would love to see a material tree developed beyond a generic list of things like, "ore, wood, blah blah blah.."
Another piece of the idea was to reference historical alchemy. The above mentioned metals could be basic forms of the precious metals. Iron could be turned in to Gold, while titanium could be turned in to Silver. Aluminum (being relative to electricity which is between Silver and Gold) could be turned in to Electrum. If we did this, an imbalance in currency value could be avoided, by using fiat currency in all civilized areas. Precious metals might then be reduced to a value more relative to their usable qualities.
