Hula and Washka's joint project thread (warning, some gore and nudity involved)

[hulahuga]

Witches of the moor.... might be a cool name

[aby arty]

wow gee thanx for the invite.

umm about wch plot i got it a lil developed. "an evil wizard is sacrificing witches to summon some unimaginable horror from the depths of the other world.

we have been pleaded by the witches to help........."

[hulahuga]

Hmmm. no really the direction I thought of... interesting though .

Thought more of a story filled with suffering of innocent men and women... :P

[washka]

Why don't we write our own short story, that's what I would like to do . We can always look for inspiration in other works though...


Regarding the sheets... I think that we could, since this is a graphic piece with a possibility of a bit longer pieces of writing than in a classic comic, have bits of the story and descriptions of what is/was happening in squares with the drawings (like the squarish talk bubbles describing scenes in many regular comics). This will give us a larger freedom in our storytelling as well as in our drawing as both communicate ways supplement each other . Length might come more as we get more into the possibility of the story .

Quite agree with this, always better testing before doing da big work.

What if we have the man in the gallows at first and then we go into how it came to that... either by actually depicting what happened as a story to explore the reason or we can go on to other events that relate and follow the hanging... .
We can discover the inquisitions horrid means as well as the frustration of simple villagers with the powers unknown....

Still interesting, got some more idea to rebound onto yours. In fact the guy in the gallows is waiting something, he wanted to be there but we just learn that at the end of the story when we understand why he's there.
Now we must find the reason why, he's there?
The idea of "inquisition" can help there, he has been caught, but why?

an evil wizard is sacrificing witches to summon some unimaginable horror from the depths of the other world.

we have been pleaded by the witches to help........

That's interesting too, but we learn that a bit too soon, it's still a good mobile.
We need to enter onto the story a bit more slowly. I like the sacrifice/god idea, we could bring some magic and demons there.
I prefer sacrifice offering with some more virgins ones...
We need to add a bit more fantasy to the story too, some more secrets, maybe some secondary character.

Thought more of a story filled with suffering of innocent men and women

You should see Tales of the Black Freighter (Watchmen).
We're not onto the title yet Hula, need to work a loot more onto scenario first. But remember it and keep it for the end.

So sufferiiiing, it'll fit with some dark fantasy style, completly agree with that.
So let's work on despair, we need drama, we need struggle, and death around, something dark and cursed. Do you know Lovecraft?
The idea of curse and demon is kinda related, so don't forget the fantasy part, the dark magic, the hidden secrets...the unknown worlds, gods and powers...Why all those sacrifice? What's the objective of the guy? (It can be a woman too) Searching for originality here.
And what happened: what is the big change that created all the story?
What will be the barrier the main character will have to open/break?
How will win/attain his objective or resolve the problem forever.
Dead on the gallows is not a solution but it's part of it. He has been caught but it's part of a plan? It's because they interrupted something illegal and captured him? Or something even worst like a sacrifice?
Need more deads there...not enough suffering, maybe some magical summon research? But why? Related to its past? Destiny? Family?

Just a bunch of ideas I've just written there, nothing fixed yet, hints and tracks.

Draft I've done on paper, but my scan is broken so blurry photo with bad lightning, I've tried to make some corrections on toshop but had an hard day, a bit tired and lazy tonight, I go sleep , seeya:

[darknake]

i like the draft, it very intereting.

[aby arty]

lovely designs washka.

and hula ur "haven" name seriously got me thinking of a new plot wch is apt for a hollywood flick.

about what washka said that in the witches plot we learn too early what are the darklords plans.

so lets add a twist to it ,i have come up with two possibilities:
the witches tell us that they want to talk , so find us. and w journey to locate the witches.

or the witches have muted themselves so they too arent caught and are attacking us to catch our attention.

check thi out especially the line sketches http://www.shauntan.net/

[hulahuga]

Hmm the second idea might work aby arty....
We could also have it so that the man sacrificed himself to keep the secret of the witches identities as the inquisition and mob ravaged the land... (there we have a story)..

If we want other dark twists as well we could explore a bit what is happening in the inquisitions stronghold... The torture. The suffering. The endless need for answers... And the man who kept his vow of silence throughout this endless hell until they had to hang him to be rid of him.

[washka]

Thanks darknake and aby!

Like the twist, let's twist the scenario, and we can also put some more chaos on it, storm all da ideas.
Then when we'll have enough, we'll make something with some more order, choosing the best from it and eliminating what we don't need, everything that's not really interesting/or usable (Cleaning/refining process). And we'll get some strong scenario.

I like the darklords idea aby. In your two possibilities who is the "us" you refer to? Is it the guy who will read the image?

We can discover the inquisitions horrid means as well as the frustration of simple villagers with the powers unknown....

Like this one too hula, I passed over it, but it's quite interesting. Villagers, frustration.

So here I've got some new questions (again), even if nobody answer it... Here there are:

Why the inquisition? What's it? Why does it started? What are they doing? (Jus killing all da witch or something else?)
And what's the plot of the prisoner (gallows guy)?

So about the different ideas we've already got, for the next part, if we could put some more organisation onto it, using my next questions list (you can add other ones too), and make some TIMELINE of the action.

1)Enumerate the different groups/factions?
2)What are their objective/plots/politic and secrets?
3)What are their status/power/influence/ressource?
(How can they progress to their objectives, wich kind of mean they use?)
4)Have they got problems/opponents against them?

Who want to do that?

[hulahuga]

Hmm...

Well reading Stephen King's book "To write" (read it in Swedish so it is a translation of that title) I found out that he to mostly seems to think that when you write a story you need to flesh out the bones of the tale. Not make new ones... Don't make the intrigue at first go from the theme and softly scrape off the sand from the giant pillars of the story (great only if the story in itself is great ).

I was previously thinking, and I am now as well, of following history but with the fantasy twists and the artist's freedom...

The inquisition are sent out by the catholic church for the eradication of all heretics and witches in all of Christianity.. They inflame the mobs, make enemies of some of the people and inspire fear in all. We would also want to keep some characters with a burning faith (in all parties) as well as ones who follow their own lust for power. People are using the "words of god" to achieve their own goals.

What if we have a monk character as the main one?? A monk who firmly believes in the justness of god and goodwill of his hand. A man who has spent most of his life in a cloister with a warm prior watching over him... When he then sees the prior being taken away by the inquisition for shielding an innocent family with small children his whole world is swept away. The cloister trembles and a new prior is instated by the new bishop from Rome (a man of the inquisition). The cloister life becomes unbearable and soon he sets out helplessly finding wrongdoings everywhere made in the name of God...

Ps: The hung man might be the prior. Which leads us to the said events and then onward to the rest of the story...


Edit: I am getting more and more attached to this story and I think it has ton of potential to be honest.
If you want both a good read and a nice reference for the difference between the motivation fo men read Ken Follett's "The pillars of the Earth"...

[washka]

The inquisition are sent out by the catholic church for the eradication of all heretics and witches in all of Christianity.. They inflame the mobs, make enemies of some of the people and inspire fear in all. We would also want to keep some characters with a burning faith (in all parties) as well as ones who follow their own lust for power. People are using the "words of god" to achieve their own goals.

What if we have a monk character as the main one?? A monk who firmly believes in the justness of god and goodwill of his hand. A man who has spent most of his life in a cloister with a warm prior watching over him... When he then sees the prior being taken away by the inquisition for shielding an innocent family with small children his whole world is swept away. The cloister trembles and a new prior is instated by the new bishop from Rome (a man of the inquisition). The cloister life becomes unbearable and soon he sets out helplessly finding wrongdoings everywhere made in the name of God...

Wow, nice one, good work. We've got something there, a strong basis.
Now we can go onto the enlarge process with this scenario, we just need to forget our timelimit (6 boards), we can find more materia and more drama.

1)----------------------------------------------------------
What's really good there? => you found da changing point into the hero's life:
His master prior has been caught, the drama there with the family he protected is good, the family can be killed in the process, maybe just one small children can escape from the killing.
The young monk escape from the city (hiding da lill' boy/girl) and take it under its protection, the lill' children becomes his student and study some magic with him. But...***


2)----------------------------------------------------------

Something I would want to change (I'm building it upon your ideas):

The inquisition are sent out by the catholic church for the eradication of all heretics and witches in all of Christianity..

I agree with the inquisition and mob thing, but this inquisition has to have a real purpose, an objective, why the killing started, some secret reason behind it.
More, I would prefer not to mention christian/catholic church things, not for the censorship but it's because I believe It's some "too easy way", and also I'm thinking about something better for a fantasy theme.
"Easy way", because sooo much people have been using it during those last century, same against science/technology ("Oooh nuclear weapong are bad") "Genetic modification too", "oooh, omg")
I've seen that too much, used too much, boring.

3)----------------------------------------------------------

So, keep the faith thing and "church"'s inquisition thing but we could change with a magical academy that believe in some powerfull magic god.
It's not a church, it's an academy, thos are not christians, but cleric monks, wizards, apprentices, and old powerfull magus.
They obey the rules of their magic god(s)/godess(es), how can they do that? The can forecast future with some big spell and even if their predication are a bit numb, that lead their academy/church of magic, their god "lead" them. In fact there is some power influence coming from the hightmages themselves during the divination spell and aslo between the differents gods. The ritual is some big mind/magic fight, in apparence it's a peacefull celebration where the god gives the "words".
That's also the way those wizard replenish their power. (The god(s)) are making some kind of transfer. Then hightwizard transfer some of their power to their own school/class/apprentice and that's the way they can use magic.
So here we've got some interesting influence structure for power into the academy that rule the world.

This academy/church of magic is kinda a "good" one, but evil powers are lurking inside, a real fight between good and evil, gods/archmages have been fighting during century, good ones want to preserve peace, the evil ones want chaos.

Inquisition is chaos and torture, it means the bad gods have taken the power during the ritual, balance have been broken because of some treachery between the mages.
In fact the mages are kinda possessed by the gods when they use magic, apprentice too.
The gods are just the magical powers, so during the ritual, they just concentrate again (from nature) and distribute themselves between the mages.
But there, the mages usually try to reduce and filter, or neutralize the evil ones.
So there is a cycle there, when mages use spells, the power is released to nature, when all the mages are empty, they concentrate again the gods (from nature/the world) during the big ritual and replenish themselves.
There are two new interesting things there, more a power (of god) has been released into the world, more this god is freely influent on it, it could even take some physical form or completely possess a "human".
Those gods are kinda powerfull, in fact it's a bit like demons summoning, they're quite unstable with their power (good or evil ones, or neutral, or others).
The other interesting thing, it's more a mage use its power, less he's got power. So during the ritual, the most powerfull mage is the one with the most energy left.
Paradox here because the gods(/the magical power) will always want to go out. But the mage, if they want to keep their influence, will try to retain them.
The treachery here, is that some young evil mage could have hidden his power and said that he'd used them, but during the ritual, he'll release it and lead the ritual to its own end. You know, the: "I got you guys" trick.
don't forget the "gods" would prefer to stay into nature/world than being captured again during the ritual and being held by the mages. It's some kind of prison for them (the gods).

So the big last ritual has been some mess (in fact it's usually like that each time but...), but if the evil gods have gained powers, the good ones too could have anticipated it.
But the good mages are kinda old and stupid, they've missed something, they haven't communicate enough with the "good" gods, they don't use a lot their power to keep the balance so...

Some mess onto the good side of the mages too, they made a blunder, something could have been lost, what?


4)----------------------------------------------------------

Ok, that's for the academy part and magic part. They're also other kind of magic and other free gods onto the world, hidden ones. Unknown magic. More primitives gods, other kind of ritual/use of magic there. But those are secret ones, nobody know them onto the world, they stay hidden...They do not "belong" to the academy.

5)----------------------------------------------------------

So about the inquisition in this context:
It's recent, it's a hunt for power. The "killing witches" thing is just an excuse, a false explanation the mage give to people because they don't want them to know the truth.
On this inquisition, evil and good side (mages) are searching for some power, it's a race. In fact the first one getting it win. (Yeah the race speed god and chaos god could have done some treaty during the ritual, or two other gods like dead & hunt, just for fun )
If good side found evil power/god that could have stayed out or rejected during the ritual (special usable ones without a big transfer ritual, "free" powers),
They have to "capture it" (small easy transfer) and retain it/neutralized; it's the same for the evil side with good powers.

6)----------------------------------------------------------

What could be interesting there it's that about the neutralize thing, power anihilate each other, so the mage need the same amount of "good" power against "evil" ones, those powers "disapear" then (released into nature=> can't be used until a new big ritual)
Some complication here, if they're good mages and capture a big amount of bad magic, they'll become evil if they use their inner power.
Who wanted some twist?
Exemple:
"Omg, I wanted to save/cure your arm with my spell, but instead I've burnt/killed your child, sorry!"

7)----------------------------------------------------------

But it's even more complicated than that.
The outside gods of the academy doesn't want to be revealed or they want to. (In fact , the "witches"/hidden wizards truely exist, good an evil "outsiders")
You remember the dark sacrifice ritual?
So the inquisition was some kind of "bad move" from the academy, olders mages ones know there are "outside" uncontrollable gods they can't play with... And that has to remain secret... So evil AND good side of it could use torture and killing, corrupting themselves...

(You start to understand da big thing? or are you lost? Keep concentrated! )

8)----------------------------------------------------------


Remember the = But...***= the lill' children saved by the monk? It's a magic container (the children) of some big evil power. But it's also a real innocent children, so... And the evil god inside could wake up anytime...


That's why I would prefer some evil hero than a pure good one with big faith, or some twisted one...

9)----------------------------------------------------------

So let's talk about the hero, waiting for your ideas, then we'll see about the "witches" (outside hidden secret gods cult, bad demons and sacrifice, I'll add some more twist, two nexus onto the magic world in the same time could have created the mess of da big ritual, some two sided mage?).

[hulahuga]

Hmm...

Let me further explain what I thought, which was what I actually thought of....

The family's child survived, even though their parents were killed by the inquisition. Furthermore the inquisition force was lead by a man who turned out to be the newly instated bishop...

The bishop overrules the cloisters wish for their own selection of a prior and puts his own man on the job. A man who is the strict puppet of the bishop and who still believes in god but since he is so swept up in his own ideals the life in the cloister becomes shaded by his lust for power.

Before the new prior, when the inquisition had ravaged the land for a while they began to run out of subjects.. They begin to follow the family who just spent their peaceful life on a farm. Meanwhile the prior is horrified by the damage done to the land. He finds himself with the choice to save the family in tis hour of need and leaps for it out of pure good will. He goes to the family's farm when the inquisition sets out for them. When he comes there the sent out men are waiting restlessly with torches in their hands. He quickly makes his way to main house and brings the horrified family to the cloister.

We will start out with the monk sitting, watching his prior's hanging corpse. Caught in the thoughts on the upheaval of past events. Then comes the history with the prior and the family. You'll also quickly see something about the now unbearable life in the cloister which is furthered as he sits there. After this he heads out with the young surviving boy/girl of the family, they are brutal but they didn't kill the child, partly thanks to the last prior as well.
He finds all these atrocities happening in the name of god. He tries to help as many as possible whilst helplessly trying to shield the child from the all horrid actions as well as from being hurt.

I didn't really think of this story as a high fantasy one with a lot of magic. It was more of realistic story filled with possibilities for moral balancing, grimy scenes, dark events as well as a story of actual love and compassion...
Imagine him standing over the child desperately clinging to his little wooden crucifix trying to shield him and the child from the ravaging swordsmen...


Regarding real purpose of the inquisition... We have multiple real purposes, which we almost all can explain (even though we don't have to, remember). We have the official dictation of Rome, we also have individuals' lust for power and we do have the inflaming of a mob bereft of knowledge, only knowing love for god from before but now faced with threats of hell and torture...

What also is important is the fact that this is doable and could be really, really good . Explaining all these things about a magic academy not only seems a bit cliché in its essence (even though the twists takes away the cliché a bit) but it is also quite hard to do and I also think we might loose the reader. The reader wants a story, not a back-story...

[aby arty]

i merged two previous ideas ill continue the story after u r comments.

building on hulas "hula and washka haven" idea and washkas " it s a n acdemy idea"
i though it s better if we make it a sanctuary named after you two wch has a lots of facilities in it , and an academy of magical sciences is one of them.

the dean/principal is a sage , and the head of teachers is avatar , a great warrior , and an archmage to recon with , he is an elven prince.

why the place is named after you ? cause you guys are legends and u laid the foundation
ur 20ft high statues adorns the sides of the academy entrance.

who or what were you to be so highly reputed? Doc was an alchemist , the best professor of magiscience , and washka was a werebunny (sorry couldnt find a better creature immediately) who turned good when he met Doc ,and trained under a monk to become the best ever.

what happened to you ?
about 2000 years ago in year 10571 a.d you guys fought a huge threat to save the world. It was the corrupted 7 hearts time dragon , u were never seen after that fight nor that beast , people assumed u were killed in fight.

but there were some who believed that something has happened to you and u are unable to return.

neithere could anyone learn who was behind the incident and who could be capable of controlling the great 7hearts.

we could name this place washula haven .


now lets talk about current day events.
I am a student at the academy , a kid half dragon , trainig to be a mage and avatar is my instructor. today he sent me wth elder dragons to learn how to fly.

flapping all around made my wings ache and full dragon form took its toll on my young body. so i climbed onto the big dragons and watched his musles move and how he tackle different terrains.

as we were flying over it , a marsh caught my eye , i asked the dragons what is that place.

dont even lay ur eyes on it , he said , thoseare forbidden lands .

why is it forbidden? umm well it was a beautiful green valley once but one day it became a marsh all of a sudden , they say its been cursed and those who go there do not come back.

i still stared wide eyed at those lands as if they were calling to me.

I had always believed that one day washka will return , and i idolised him , and i felt the marsh was connected to his disappearance some how.

the dragons ripped off a tree branch loaded with fruits and said eat up kid time to go home . i nodded and gladly digged in wth my tiny teeth , it wa s tangy, juicy and the rind was crimson colored.

i was full after four only , so kept the rest in his saddle side bag, these were army dragons so they went every where mounted , except when they went to feeding grounds and ripped sheeps.

as we entered our territory he signaled with his wing for me to start flapping.
i had to spiral then drop down fast and thn just before ground i have to lift off , i chose a muddy arrea so even if i hit the ground it wont get serious , well the drop really numbed my brain but i knew i had done it as the other kids called impressive !! way to go.

they were a lil elder to me and they were real dragons so for them to praise halve was a great compliment, well it comes naturally when u idolize none other then washka!!

we flew in the haven perimeter.and by the end of it i had made up my mind to sneak out to the marshes.
***************

meanwhile , about 5 seas away the witches civilisation was in remorse as many of them were dissapearing one by one.
the head witch told her secretary she will not entertain any more grieviance for today.

the lines could show on her head, she could not cope up with the possibility of someone trying to eradicate all witches.

she asked her crystal ball , tell me what is the solution to this problem , is some one chosen to relieve us of this.

the crystal ball showed her images of the acdemy , the marshes, and the baby dragon!!

what? AOMS !! crystal ball u dare not mock me , and i am not gonna plead that sage even if it was the end of the world. and neither ill be entering in that wretched green valley, its way too disturbing than it looks.

thats the only way to stop the end of witches, mastress.

AArgh!! no no pls find another way, not those people.

hmf anyway ill send a message to that antique piece.


****************

what u guys think ? is this ok uptill now?

ill continue when u reply , gods are next up.

[washka]

hula

The prior/cloister idea you've just posted is interesting and it works. It works into a realistic style.
But the idea also work onto a dark fantasy style, the concept of cloister can be seen has an "academy class", the god concept is still in application there.
You can mix realistic with fantasy easily, that's not really a problem.

magic academy not only seems a bit cliché in its essence

agree, but again it depends of the way you see the concept, it's not really a school, it's more some kind of cult structure /god and spells learning, the concept here is quite the same as a cloister.

not a back-story...

agree too, but there again, I've just made explanation of the influence and people's will structure of the "world" on my past post.
I wasn't really onto the timeline yet there, I haven't been thinking about the character too, and I'm not considering any temporal structure for the scenario yet. Just ideas.
So my description is just a background, bunch of ideas, for the scenario, not the scenario itself, .
People doesn't have to know everything about the world, they'll just need to understand a bit how it works. We don't have to go onto all those big ritual details and mage or god's war, we will just have to speculate there and give some hints about it. You know the "mystery" tool.

And remember this:

Me and Washka have decided to start a joint project this year. We haven't set in stone exactly what we are going to do yet but thus far it is leaning towards a fantasy scenario...

I don't want to do a pure realistic style or a pure fantasy one, but the starting point is fantasy for me, we can go onto some dark realistic fantasy style.
We don't have to focus onto(/show) the magic side, gods and demons, we don't even need to show it.
And I won't do any painting that refer directly to the real church, but we can always refer to it indirectly, that's possible for me.
Lafontaine just disguised the king into a lion, he was a smart guy. )


We've got a changing point for the scenario, we've got the drama and the poor innocents, we're already quite into a dark world and we've got some nice fighting and struggling for powers.

Now what's important is how the story could end? You can think about different ends. And the main character.

And there is something you need to know, we're just starting the scenario's work, and you'll see why. Nothing's fixed yet.


Wow, I've just seen aby's when editing, now I read yours man.

[washka]

In fact the two warriors that were fighting da big dragon were caught into a big spell (kind of capture spell, frozen temporal one), they're now training into it during a few thousand years, fighting each other to raise their skills, and trying to break it from the inside. And you can imagine who'll break da spell from the outside?
Yeah.

aby, I give you 5 stars for originality and life in your story, but will it work better for a dark style or an humoristic or manga one?
I've also recon the avatar guy. Like the wererabbit!
Where Are My CAAARRROOTS!!!
Somes really good ideas there.

[hulahuga]

Ahahaha Aby .


Regarding what you said Washka, and good morning btw ..

So you don't want to refer to the Catholic church as the church, okay fine let's skip that (even though I think it is a bit odd since they've actually done a lot of these things :P). But I must say that I do think that a more realistic style (regarding story and setting) might turn out a lot cooler (which we can still do without refering to the catholic church, even though we can keep titles . Except the pope..).
What I don't really understand though is why we need the fantasy in that sense of an academy?? We must also think of what we can have as a story then?? I'm not sure the monk idea works that good in that environment...


What I recommend is that we mix the ideas... What if we keep the story but we can focus a bit more on his devotion... Premonitions and divine messages... We can also have as the story envelops (if we still want to do that then) some actual heretics. Worshipers of cults... They can be there as a contrast and consequence of the past events. Their faith in god has vanished as they must suffer of actions made in his name. Thus they turn to darker powers (powers that they might only imagine)...
The conclusion might be that the fantasy element comes in these ways but you don't really know, or at least the characters don't, what is real....

What I think is most important right now is that we need to think of what suits this graphic novel/short story best?



Ps: Regarding endings I think that depends a bit on which theme we go for...