Been a while since I came up with something -not- urban fantasy...
YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE A GREAT WORKING TITLE FOR THIS STORY? SMOKE AND PILLARS. Yeah, awesome title.
So I've been craving something a little less slice of lifey than my usual...and something a bit more action packed--and fantastical. Whimsical even.
Probably induced by my parents telling me to get all my old art shit out of their house--which consequently lead to me having a gander through the whole freaking stash and sighing at the lack of refinement and originality of my preteen imagination.
And I love revisiting old ideas. It's a favorite past time, seriously.
So I picked up two old characters...my oldest characters, Manamaraya, and Wesley.
Originally the story was crap. I'm not even going to explain it. But I've completely redone...everything to do with these character to the point that only their hair color and names have really stayed the same! Haha.
It'd take place in an entirely fictional world--but one that's still somewhat familiar. The aesthetic would probably be a mix of classy (not quite speampunk) Victorian, with a colorful, almost festive, eastern tinge to it.
The main setting would take place in a large, flamboyant city--which is built on a massive stone bridge. Though, this bridge--moves from continent to continent, island to island, according to the needs of the city itself. The city operates as a merchant republic--and is self sustaining.
The city's governmental system is a little...unique. While there are a number of moneyed political subjects whom may contribute their say and help largely in maintaining the city, the ultimate decision making is left to three individuals, fittingly referred to as the Pillars of the society. Each one has power over different aspects of the city. One is in control of the military, and all militant decisions are made by him. The other has responsibility over accounting, and anything involving fiscal needs such as trading and in general, making sure the economy doesn't tank. The third is responsible for public relations, of sorts. To find what the public is wanting, and communicate for them, with them, to appease them. The last thing a city built on a moving bridge needs--is a revolt.
However, the city is not very new. It's not old--but it's not new. And as the years passed since it's establishment, the purpose of the system has slowly begun to evaporate--and the three pillars--who should be communicating, and agreeing before any move is made--are not communicating as they should. And the system's efficiency and balance is plummeting.
When you have a city which hops from continent to continent, consequentially, you get people who have homes on continents, but have become stranded on the city. A lot of times, the city will return to the port that the stranded originate from, but in some cases, due to a bad experience or external strife, the city may not return to that port for decades. And so you get a group of people--with nothing--forced to live in the city. In fact, that's what the city's slums are mostly made up of.
And these people grow resentful.
However, in these slums--resides our sketchy little soothsayer, Wesley. Who I'm pretty sure is mostly in it for the drugs. And while he's pretty much the appointed king of rats--in that the folks living in the slums share a fair amount of respect for him--Wes does not love his public.
He would be perfectly happy to sit in his little shanty, chamber and hallucinate off opium all day, every day. But to the people surrounding him, he's too much of a fascination--and he's pestered often by people who want to hear from him--that they will someday get to return home.
Wesley's not a very vocal person. In fact, he's silent most of the time, even when prompted to reply. And when he does speak, it kind of bears a resemblance to a lion growling at a hyena who threatens to steal its meal. Though he's never really angry, his range of emotions are too dulled by the drug he inhales--but he sure does love to give off that vibe. He maintains a very closed off demeanor, but one that almost compels you to at least try and break the ice with him. Women hate him, but not without good reason since the man has a hush'd history of preying on them, though no one's bared witness.
He has a strict rule against seeing into his own future--since he knows that what's seen will happen whether he's aware of it or not. He has a cringe-worthy burn scar across his forehead and down the left side of his face as a permanent reminder from his younger days of the consequences upon trying to fool lady fate.
Mana is one of the three Pillars. She use to be in charge of militant decisions but was forced into taking up public relations when the old pillar responsible for the public died, and his successor aggressively demanded control over military. Mana has an approachable feminine demeanor--but thinks in a very focused, logical, linear way--often at the expense of emotional response. She's a fighter as well--but never at the whims of her emotion. While she's very firm, she's a cautious optimist and she cares for her public in a rather maternal sense. She's big on communication, and the fact that her two peers are not listening to her demands anymore--unsettles her. She's well aware of the situation in the slums, and urges that the city revisits a number of the coasts it hadn't see in years to help widdle down the numbers and snuff the growing resentment. But rarely to any avail. The other two don't believe in the piling urgency of the situation.
And that's when she hunts down Wesley, and talks him into being her personal seer with the promises of seclusion (since the promise of riches had no persuasive effect). He's able to tell the three Pillars honestly that the city will 'burn' from the inside out, saying nothing further--knowing full well that nothing anyone does will prevent it from happening. Fate, as he says, is a mistress who considers everything.
And the plot cascades from there.
Still needs a lot more fleshing out, faces and names to some characters, particularly the other two pillars--among other things.
But--I think this is an okay start. Does anything sound particularly lame to anyone?