Battle of Five Armies (Plus Rocs and a Bear Man)
So, I’m finishing up Tales of the Slumberlord tonight. Or tomorrow depending on if that tomato sauce was good or not. Sucks to find fuzzies on the bottom of the lid AFTER you at the contents. This wouldn’t be a vacation week for me if shit like this didn’t happen. Last time was the flu and the time before that was stomach issues. I’m getting off topic here, but the point is that the universe hates when I take a vacation.
I move on to the next on my list of W.I.P. to design basic plots and characters for. It should be easy . . . HA! It’s War of the Tainted, which is one that I’ve had fun dreaming of while fearing the actual work.
The plot is that an evil race has returned and enslaved all of Windemere by using magic. This would be the demon-corrupted elves (Hejinn) and they’re just nasty. Anyway, it is a good plan, but the curse says ‘all of the servant races will be under their thumb’. One group tries to rebel and are nearly wiped out by the backlash. Now, the flaw here is that the returned evil fails to realize that two species weren’t around when they ruled and are unaffected by the curse. It’s Hejinn Vs. Chaos Elves and Orcs in a global war. A few other species get involved too, but those are the major players.
Where I’m stumped a bit is the preparation. I can’t go flying in blind here because there’s a long timeline and there are so many sides and events that I feel should go. I need to make sure it’s never a one-sided war. So, do I create the characters first or the events that will unfold? Maybe create the main ones that will move throughout all of it? Anybody ever write something like this before?
Legends of Windemere 
this is very similar to the story I’m currently writing for NaNo… it’s not in Windemere… and the upset of the world I am creating is not so much by magic as it is by good old fashion war but I’ve brought the Drow back and am actually kind of heavy on the Drow perspective of things and I’ve been setting up for an epic battle of the races… I started with a couple of character names and the names of a few locations and I drew a pretty crude map… the details of the story shaped up as I thought about what such and such character would do… My most prominent character so far is Rianon the Drow High Priestess (Queen) based on my preliminary ideas I came up with thirty prompts for the thirty days of NaNo for example Day Five of NaNo my prompt was “The Five Sages” other prompts may indicate something that should occur to move the story along, which I won’t mention as I’ve yet to come to them… I find by first creating the characters the circumstances they find themselves in in context to the story are more consistent… also I like to mentally flesh out my characters before writing them…
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Good idea to start with a few characters on each side or force. That helps focus the main plot, but there are some ideas I have that don’t involve any of them. This is where I get confused here. I could create a bunch of warriors and casters, but I’m scared they’ll all turn out the same and end up in the same situations.
I guess I wonder if this could work as a set of short stories, so I can have a few interesting ‘heroes’ of the war that don’t have to be the on-going cast.
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Characters first so you can use theor personalities to mold the events. speaking of mold..no botulism allowed. Don’t worry, the universe hates me too.
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What did the universe do to you?
I wonder if I can think of general ideas of the events to guide the characters. For example, a navy battle, Thermopylae-type battle, a messenger, and a few other ‘one time heroes of the war’ type of things. I find it hard to believe the handful of major players will be involved in every battle across the world. Maybe I’m overthinking here.
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You are over thinking. Finding it hard to believe is the basis of all great books. Its making the audience believe the impossible that sets you apart from other authors. Acorn?
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Thanks. I think this being influenced by Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Dynasty Warriors is helping the confusion.
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My router let me post pictures. I’m confused about why the gods love me then hate me based on the time of day
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The Internet gods are a fickle, glitchy lot.
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Aye. They are and they seem to only hate me when it is import5
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It hasn’t been doing me any favors today. Keep getting booted.
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Sowwy. Lemme just pull that boot outta your arse.
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Thanks. Careful with the spurs.
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Me???
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Good point. I’ll just call for an ambulance now.
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you might be in the right but I am still going to pretend innocence when they get here.
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Of course. Need to keep up appearances.
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Important
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Good stuff! I’ve missed you.
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Hello. How things going?
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Okay, same ole. you?
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Working hard on the novels and trying not to go insane from the marketing. Guess that’s same old.
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I’d go with characters first.
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Probably good to get the mains done and add as the stories are thought up.
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