I have a few story ideas that have seemingly sort-of died, so Imma at least document them so they’re not completely lost, and somebody else might use them if they want.
In the begining there was Init.
A sort-of fantasy story where all the magic and world, works as a parallel to a computer.
So as the computer starts Daemons spawn, which are obviously gods, starting with Init, and similarly to some myths they have aspects of themselves that become other gods, similar to the fork/exec.
People don\’t age but the more powerful you are the more favourable, you become for the OOM Killer to reap your existence. So immortality could be achieved by laying low, not thinking or using magic.
Spells are executables that can be run by people, a.k.a. items that if you know where they are, they can be invoked. Different programming languages would constitute, secret underlying differences in the subtle magics.
The temple of the PATH tries to accumulate as many magic items as possible and share them with others.
Killing your parent "process" sends you up the chain. The hierarchy has to play some more major role, since people can\’t kill each other because of permissions, but could use some other process to cause faults and problems for them.
There’s a lot to play with, but too little time.
Primus is chased out of a store, by a very angry storeowner, into a significantly busy high-street. He ignored what the man shouted, being far too used to this kind of behaviour by now. Multiple items flying after him.
Primus is an entity that can’t affect people around it, all of them impose their image of an ideal “protagonist” onto it.
So if a stereotypical businessman and general are arguing and Primus walks in, one sees a smooth-talking charismatic person perhaps, and the other a battle-hardened old military genius. They will probably be confused by what is happening as their testimonies of what Primus says will surely differ.
People meet an idealized center of their own story, and I don’t think many would be able to deal with that.
Which is I guess why my younger self started with him being killed and reincarnated again. And chased out of places.
This one was a hard one to let go, and realize that it’s going nowhere. I wrote a bit and that’ll remain here, but no, I am bad at writing large moving adventures, with more action than dialogue. So I decided to stop this from blocking up my queue, since I hate every sentence more than the previous and don’t want to start anything new before finishing this. But the premise seemed neat so I guess I could summarize it.
The original idea was to pull a switcheroo, have a fantasy world that ended up being sci-fi, that’s nothing new. A long lost civilization used to build machines, to automate their tasks they worked through statements and gestures as one would design an interface if one could detect anything anywhere and act magically at a distance in response. People are authenticated by their DNA, so now long long after that civilization fell, these machines still exist and there are animals that found it evolutionarily advantageous to have magic by having similar enough genetics for the machine to be confused.
There were also considerations about how potions could be made from plants close to the machines which absorbed some of their radiation, and thus powers since the plants around nuclear disasters seem to retain that quite well. But it never came into play.
Once in a very long time that can happen with humans as did for our protagonist:
In this story, it is quite important to understand that none of the characters speak English unless otherwise stated.
The art for this story comes courtesy of Artbreeder[a]
Countless cracks and searing pain shoots up Einar’s spine, as his back collides with a sharp rock on the ground. The human that did throw him there laughing, above him, tall, deceptively lean yet very strong. A classic tale of highwayman robbery, a few thugs ganging up on a lone traveller to the city. For them it’s like skewering fish in a barrel this time of year, we like to have fun and Lady Galatea’s birthday celebration is one of the biggest fairs to be hosted in our capital. Though I probably won’t get there even if they leave me alone, since urghh… my head feels like somebody is trying to rip it away and I don’t think I feel my legs. Some woman from the assailing party seeing my paralysing pain, sees an opportunity to loot my belongings. And as she was reaching over my coat I tried to defiantly defend myself arm and leg to save my possessions. To the surprise of me and thankfully everyone around me, the woman’s clothing vanished, having been replaced by strange black robes. The material was matte but strangely off, it reflected light in ways that didn’t seem natural and blue jagged shapes became visible on her skin.
“Witch, it’s a witch!”, she shouted scampering back, almost slipping before running directly in the direction of her friends. Whom her screaming and change of visage thoroughly convinced to spend no more time hesitating and run like hell as well. Relieved, Einar stood up carefully, shouted a thank you to the mysterious force that saved him, adjusted his flat-cap and attempted to start walking before falling back to the ground. He will be lying here for some time, so let’s go look at the capital.
Later, In the city of Highspire in the middle of the spire’s gardens, a large crowd is watching Lady Galatea the Beloved’s painting display. She sits upon a stool on a stage with a single brush in her hand, a few colours set out on her tripod under her painting of a great cathedral scene. The people in the crowd could smell the wet stone, they could hear the bells ring, and with every grandiose yet precise stroke of Lady Galatea’s brush, a bird or petal, flew out of the canvas, either to be carried by the wind or to fly over the heads of onlookers and burst into colorful streaks of light. Her beauty and flowing clear white robe awes everyone in the crowd including Einar, who managed to get the help of some passers by and is now sitting in a chair viewing the splendor, crutches resting against it. And as the show came to a close, and Lady Galatea bowed to the crowd with a smile, they cheered and clapped, retiring afterwards to the City’s pubs and inns which brought out all their tables into the streets so that the cheers, dances and music need not stop during the lunch hours.
Einar also went down to eat but didn’t enjoy himself for very long, since suddenly, a tall hooded figure grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up, knocking his chair and cane over. “Lift my curse Wazzack (A most hateful word for somebody with a connection to magic), or die here by my hand.”, said she. Einar was understandably confused, until the figure swiftly cleared that up. She pulled down her hood to reveal the bandit who had just attacked him, she was forsaken by her clan, for what they called “the plague”. Einar couldn’t speak, properly, as he was being hung a few feet above ground, but managed to convey “not…. mage”. She dropped him to the ground and thought for a bit out loud, “If you had access to magic, you’d’ve magiced away of whatever already, Huh?”. Neither of them had any idea how it worked so Einar shrugged. She tossed Einar’s cane at him, still being angry, she did it so that he wouldn’t catch it and it hit him in the head. Then she grabbed Einar and lifted him to his feet and extended her hand to greet him with elegant precision. Einar hesitated but, eventually shook her hand, mostly out of fear, since he knew he would have no chance against her in any way. “The name’s Kayden and you already know my game.”
“What a convenient time for a guard to show up, thought Einar.” The guard points to our duo, “By the name of Lady Liliana, you two, come with us, she wants to speak with you”. “Great, now they think I’m a criminal because I shook hands with one”, thought Einar to himself, but barely had he time to contemplate this, before he heard the sounds of Kayden skittering away behind him, but to his surprise then a rustling of metal and he saw two legs pass inches away from his head, hitting the guard dead in the chest with thundering force, knocking him on his back.
“She decked Antheus”, cried one of the other guardsmen. Antheus was the captain of the city guard, and trained his men well and just, gaining a fierce reputation in the process. Seeing their leader, knocked over so effortlessly surely, struck them hard, which gave Einar and Kayden the few second headstart they needed. Well, at first it was just Kayden, but after a few steps, guilt caught up with her, so she grabbed Einar and dragged him along. Even though Antheus quite literally jumped to his feet, before kicking his weapon from the floor into his hand, Kayden’s trick or two almost got her to safety. But climbing the wall wasn’t an option for poor Einar, whose injury was underestimated by Kayden, so they fell into the hands of the guards.
To their utmost surprise, both were treated extremely well afterwards. Left to wander beautiful rooms before the Lady returns from the Fairs outside. They even had a view of it all, since the Spire was tall and with many fully glassed walls. Although strangely, most of the servants in the Spire didn’t talk much to them. They tended to requests but nothing longer than a simple command went acknowledged by the staff, them going as far as hastening their step when Kayden and Einar spoke to each other. And they agreed that after they deal with whatever this is, they’ll join forces to find some kind of healer, since they both kind-of caused each other big problems. Einar thought to himself that it might not necessarily be his fault, but if Kayden wants to help him he won’t give up that chance.
When lady Liliana, the Queen of the land arrived with many apologies, and begun to explain. Hmm, back when the guards yelled “In the name of the Lady”, they presumed it was a figure of speech for the law, but now, what could she possibly want with them. Liliana sent away all her servants and asked about Kayden’s skin condition. We relayed what had happened on the path and with every sentence her face lit up slightly more, seemed though as if she was just mentally ticking of something she already knew or expected. After we finished she asked, “Have you ever heard about the Old King’s Visions?”. Einar had heard some bits and parts, “I’ve heard that the Old King started out as a no-lander and worked up to the King of the biggest country on this continent, after climbing Carcass mountain”. “Yes, that is so”, continued Lady Liliana, “after he climbed up he saw a prophecy of the future, he brought steam power to his kingdom and gained so much influence he overthrew the royal family. He also had a run in with some nasty people and ended up very much like the two of you, although his wouldbe assailant didn’t stick around back then. I want you to go up there and bring down the prophecy, and for my assistance, I wish that you cooperate once you do. You’ll get money, horses and maps. But I can’t afford to send anyone with you, the Wolves of the East (A powerful guild of mercenaries) aren’t exactly investigators, but they’ve been contracted to bring in any unknown individual who would happen to be travelling with my men. I am not the only one after you, but I think I am the kindest you can choose to work with.”. Einar thinks for a bit and acquiesces but inquires, “If I am and the Old king was injured, how could we possibly climb the mountain?”. “There is a place named Kai’s Fountain on the nearby island of Irea”, Liliana continues, even bringing up a map on the table, “something happened there that healed the Old King and even let him survive the Duress point (Many places in this world manifest with random magical effects, they are dangerous and best avoided) of Carcass Mountain.”. “Now, after a good nights sleep, I want you to go down to the stables, get yourself some horses and ride to Saltwharf, my good friend Captain Titus Shaw will take you further. Don’t forget to take your supplies before you leave.”
“Good luck.”
As boring as that may have been, the journey to Saltwharf was fortunately quite uneventful. But Saltwharf, what a sight to behold, a sprawling harbor, sat atop a slight hill. It is well known for that, the river that flows through the city, flows a few stories below the streets and so many cranes don the above wharfs and silos. Both Einar and Kayden stood up from the carriage to look upon its glory, the wind almost taking Einar’s hat, and after they passed through the gate, they ran… well Kayden did, Einar did his slow approximation of a run, directly all the way to the sea, it’s a wonder they didn’t fall in right away. “Okay, now what?”, asks Einar. Kayden shrugs. “I guess, let’s go ask around the docks for this Titus Shaw person”. Kayden replies, “That could attract some unwanted attention”. “Hmm, you’re right. Well, um, we could check the tax registry, they have to have a record of what goes in and out.”. “You go do that, Imma go try check if their ain’t any sort of underworld here”. “Let’s not split up Kayden, you know Liliana warned us about that.” “Sure let’s go to your boring office then, Mr. Taxes.”.
Fortunately for them, this is one of the perhaps almost too civilised and beareaucracy ridden parts of the world. It seems that the papers here were in order but there was no Titus Shaw among the docked captains, nor among those inbound in the next day or two. Though only two ships were sailing for Irea, Anna-Maria headed by captain William Taylor, and a certain brigantine Bounty of Marcus Lucius. “Perhaps he just isn’t here or got caught up in something. Maybe Lady Liliana just misspoke.”
So they just go for William Taylor, find him and arrange to travel with him. All this did was lead them to a dark place surrounded by sailors asking why they needed him. It took some convincing to… get themselves killed slower apparently, the sailors and thugs weren’t exactly convinced by anything they said. Einar finally dropped the name Lady Liliana, which just made the sailor sigh, stating “Don’t lie to us, everybody starts dropping names like that when they’re at their end.”. But fortunately for our two protagonists, somebody arrived with a loud determined step, turned the corner and there stood somebody in Captain’s clothes, a old looking hat from beneath which curly ginger hair escaped. She approached Einar and inquired from her lackeys what sorts of excuses they had for searching for her. “I just heard the last bit, what do you two have to do with Liliana?”. Einar took her to the side and explained about how she sent them to Kai’s fountain and about the Old King similarities. Halfway through which she held up her hand to stop him, “I know you’re from her now”, she extends her hand. Einar grabs it and shakes it politely. “I meant payment”, exclaims she. Einar gives her the gold they had prepared and she extends her other arm in for a handshake, prooclaiming “Titus Shaw, also known legally as William Taylor, helps with some trades, welcome aboard my ship”. She raises their hands up and set to her crew that they were not to be harmed and expected to be on the ship. “NOW”, her voice stormed, “let’s dissolve this here commotion and get to loading some cargo”. “Aye”, they responded and left. “Now let’s get you two to the ship before you get yourselves hurt. Follow me.”, Shaw beckoned and they walked.
They approached the river and Titus stepped on one of the cargo cranes as it was going down, followed by an Einar-carrying Kayden. They made themselves comfortable and as there was nothing to do, they went to sleep.
For a few days they went to sleep with the setting sun and woke up to the sailor’s songs. However, one cold morning, they were jerked awake and tied in a loud commotion. Both of them brought up to the main deck to see a plethra of unfamiliar faces, and some familiar tied up, some gagged. The cargo crates and barrels it turns out contained food and pirates that took over the ship during the night. One of the assailants, probably their leader Einar guesses, speaks up, “Mighty fine crew you got yourself here Shaw, they put up a fight and still look quite optimistic about the whole thing. Let us change that up a bit.”. He stands up and shouts to the other pirates, “We’re gonna have ourselves a good ol’ fashioned Keelhaulin’.”. Two of the tied up crewmates, scream and lunge towards him, but he just shoots one of them in the stomach undisturbed, the other having been taken care of similarly by another bystander. The crew saw their beloved captain tied up, and tossed over the bow of the ship. Emerging after many painful moments from the other side, she was pulled up and hung feet-up from one of the ship’s cranes. Her torso and hands slashed to the bone, her head too having many bruises, blood covering almost her entire body. The leader had some of the salt reserves brought up and threw them at her. This thoroughly pissed off the crew but their morale was quite thoroughly devastated.
The ship was brought into port and anchored at an island not too far off the coast of Irea, a large dimly lit cove that harboured about 5 big ships and continued with wooden paths into a tall, lightly, however sufficiently lit cave. One of the reasons the light was plentiful was that many parts of the cave’s ceiling were missing and a bright full moon shined through them. “Great work my boys”, shouted an older man, leaning on a walking stick, slowly making his way across one of the elavated paths to the ship.
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From this point on I’m just summarizing
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Titus managed to escape captivity and helps our heroes escape. That wouldn’t be possible without the help of a big kerfuffle caused by the fact that the Pirates that were hired by a well-known assasin guild find out that the guild is just one person who has illusion magic that allows him to duplicate himself. Obviously now that it’s just one person in the midst of pirate territory, they’ll try to just murder him and take the money for themselves. The guildperson although a good marketeer is also good warrior, so this creates a distraction and fire that enables the escape.
The heroes arrive at a village of warriors that basically had three purposes, one, they’ll raid Sabrodt when they find out what’s going on over there, Kayden stays with them eventually to let Einar return by himself, and they provide Einar with a boat back to Seychia.
Sabrodt is a very religious looking town, which is very wary of but courteous to the heroes, especially their leader the Maxmillian is as kind as possible.
Maxmillian, The Weeping Priest of Sabrodt
It is a safe-haven colony of werewolves that don’t know that their leader is actually a very malnourished pacifist Vampire that uses them as protection on the offchance that he is found. Maxmillian survives on goat’s blood and the rest just scavenge what they can off the land.
Kayden declares all creatures of the night immoral and runs away to Øyvindskr after a lengthy talk with Einar.
Øyvindskr raids Sabrodt burning the place to the ground and forces them and Einar to run away, towards Kai’s fountain.
The fountain was a sort of hospital machine which now keeps Kai alive and immortal. Kai had centuries to study it thoroughly and has very wide control over it now, and understands what they are from what info he managed to extract from it and decipher.
Kai is pleased with Maxmillian and considers him a worthy replacement, since he is quite tired of living but doesn’t want the fountain to fall into the hands of somebody who wouldn’t do good with it. They have a battle to prove that Maxmillian could defend the place if it ever came to that and with his victory Kai dies and enables Maxmillian access to the machine including some tutorial routine.
With the fountain’s help the new settlement of the Sabrodt villagers in the fountain deflect Øyvindskr’s assault and happily end their story there.
Einar returns after this back to Liliana who sends him to finish off the prophecy, to Carcass Mountain, a terrible place close to the machine that Einar actually can control, and which serves as a power source and preserver to the rest, because the entire system is powered from the energy of the heat death of the universe transported through time to the current point where it’s needed.
Einar nonetheless at the exact same point and time as the old king when he got his vision receives his own. The mountain gets surrounded by a massive silver ring floating above the mountain appears and floats for a bit. Before a strange effect occurs, as white streaks start jittering along the ring as if a hurricane was coming through it. But a green shining ethereal dragon rises and asks Einar if he wants to reset the machines to creation configuration.
Einar agrees and at that point, everybody is by default allowed to access the machines and since the system is reset it provides all users with a tutorial on how to operate it. Now every single living thing can use all the magic of the ancient society.
The sort of epilogue describes an apocalyptic world with a few death gods that are too powerful to kill each other, but who basically destroyed everything and everybody else that was involved.
