Legends of Windemere

DnD Phoenix

I bring this thing up a lot because I keep wanting to figure out how it will work and always come close.  Then, I wander off because of more urgent projects.  At this point, it feels silly to give the winding origins of ‘Project Phoenix’, which is becoming aptly named.  This thing has repeatedly risen from the ashes in my head.  To sum up:

It went from its own world with one series to having multiple series then to Windemere and then back to Super Earth and then limbo and now it’s kind of back to Windemere with about 9-10 series/one-shots under its umbrella.

Now, these are superheroes, which I first began designing back in the late 90’s.  This is before the big boom and saturation of superheroes, so I felt okay keeping them on Earth and away from Windemere.  Now, I keep fearing that the genre will be fairly dead by the time I get to this arena.  It’ll take a long time since I have to get through Clyde, Sin, and Darwin first at the very least.  For all I know, the genre could die and be coming back by the time I show up.

Anyway, that is the big reason I’ve moved them to Windemere.  Having superheroes in my fantasy world felt like a fresh idea.  Magic can help explain it and there is a big event where the magic plane merges with the physical one.  I never had anything really happen there, so having these heroes and villains emerge would work.  Yet, I still wanted it modern, so I’m keeping the idea that they angered the gods and were sealed away in mortal forms that were constantly reincarnated with no memories.  The series will start when a handful of the central heroes (Mylrixians) are woken up and it starts a chain reaction.  With the Law of Influence now around, the gods can’t do anything and Windemere is going to have a new breed of mortal . . . And that’s where I get a little stumped.

The problem is that I can’t pin down how to make it work.  I have tons of heroes, which I’ll get into later.  Every time I tackle this idea, one new piece sticks and the other additions fall away.  So, I’m currently at doing this in a short story collection format.  Some series will have multiple books, but each one will have 10-15 short stories.  Let me touch on it now and see what I’ve got.

Project Phoenix

This is the flagship, which I have at 6-7 collections.  The heroes will be awoken and establish a Mylrixian community in the first book from what I can figure.  I don’t know what else to do here since I would lack a central villain.  It could be that each story shows one of the heroes coming to grips with their awakening since this includes the hero who went mad and tried to start a war.  Another is male, but knows that he used to be female and that causes some adjustments.

Other collections were: ‘Rise of Villains’, ‘New Generation of Heroes’ . . . And then I find that I lost my notes.  The overall story typically goes that a powerful villain is showing up for a big showdown, which leads to another finale series.  That would be a final book where preparations are being made.  I considered another that involves a race to find the once mad heroes reincarnated son.  The issue with those last two ideas is that they might not be short story friendly.

Savior

This is my solitary hero who will have 4-5 books.  I have a better idea of what to do here since he hasn’t changed much.  It starts with a gnome being in a city that has been overrun with villains.  He finds a suit in his new apartment and sets out to be a hero.  The original concept had the first two books being with him, the third being a new one, the fourth being an event to claim the mantle, and then a finale with whoever wins that.  Not sure what the original will do though.

The tough thing is the third book because Savior actually began as a character in ‘The Mutant Wrestling Federation’ that my friends and I made in college.  I enjoyed seeing my friend play him so much that I felt like he needed a series.  It ended up being the ‘second’ Savior doing the wrestling and the first one was somewhere else, so I need to decide on if I’m going to to have the third one in this series do something similar.  I don’t have the MWF here, but I do have the ‘Ninja Never Wins’ competition (not real name) and it could be him being involved in that.  Except for one problem:

Ninja Never Wins

This is a 6 book series that follows 6 competitions.  Each one is created by a champion who works for this company.  There are different rules with it being Regular, Magical Medals, Weapons/Death Match, Women Only, Teams, and Grand Tour.  I made it to be a spoof on fighting games, so it makes very little sense at times.  New characters are in every book and I had a fun idea of making brackets.  The fights are made from drawing names from a hat and I roll dice to figure out winners, so I don’t have a plan until that finishes.  It’s a goofy idea that probably shouldn’t be near Savior . . . I can’t even tell if this would be a fun thing to do.  Maybe have it in the same arena as ‘Bedlam’ where it’s a silly thing?

OKAY!  I just realized how long this is getting.  I think I’m going to stop here for now with the overview and 3 of the ideas.  The other 7 can be mentioned next Sunday.  To be honest, one of them involves one of the core heroes, two might get absorbed into that ‘New Generation’ idea, and I can’t figure out what I’m doing with another.  So, next week may be a bit easier.  It’ll also be right after Thanksgiving, so people may still be in food comas.