Characterization and Writing
I would like to say that this is the extra factor I focus on, when judging series especially: characterization. Do I use the dictionary definition? I've checked it before, and I think it is. But what I mean by the word, is described simplest as the manner in which the characters feel rich and real, perhaps like real-life friends and people you've met.
Shakespeare certainly had a VERY elegant command of his created personas. He's considered pretty good, but at school at times, until varsity, I felt he was overrated.
Like a great many things, I realized I was wrong. I think the reason why he should be considered superb, doesn't come across well in our culture or education. He made PLAYS. They were meant to be seen, and are best appreciated today as plays (never been to one) or films. Actually, just writing this, I realized you obviously need BOTH. Literature, plus visuals. There's no point to only teaching the written work. Even a real script would be much better than what most had.
I was lucky enough to have so many options at my disposal. Thanks, Mom and Dad! Films, books, Cliff- and Sparknotes, comic book depictions, the Internet, miaow. I HAD MANY.
Listen to this! It's the great Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant riffing about writing and it's funny as hell: :-D
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So the show and many other things have inspired me. Yesterday morning, I had a blast writing this back-story for my coming D&D campaign. It all flowed pretty easily, and multiple re-readings have convinced me that it is...legit(?). Do you have any opinion?
PLEASE DON'T read on if you're gonna be playing in my campaign. It's not the END OF THE WORLD if you read this, it will give you a lot of info, but too much perhaps. It contains MANY SPOILERS. You've been warned. :-)
SPOILERS
"The Dragons of Eberron are different from mainstream D&D ones.
Dragons in Eberron were one of the first races, if not the first. They fought the creatures of Khyber in the Demon Wars that were the first epic conflict of the world. The war ended when the good guys, the Dragons, bound all of the horrors of the conflict underneath the planet's surface."
http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon
Khyber
Dragons are like humans in that you get good ones, evil ones, and BRUTALLY EVIL ones. Khyber was/is a dragon of the latter kind. Think Hitler.
During the Age of Dragons, the great dragon Eberron trapped the evil dragon Khyber within it's unholy self, after Khyber slew their brother Siberys. Khyber's last act of defiance was to give birth to a host of fiends, ALONG WITH A SMATTERING OF DEVILS...
It was the UR-DRAGON Khyber's last hope that these minions would destroy the descendants of Siberys and Eberron.
Gastrronasza
G(h)ASTR^RONasza (say it in an near Eastern European accent, breathy almost-whispered beginning, harsh and guttural “R”) is a colossal dragon and was sired by the spawn of the epically evil archdragon, Khyber. The entire world below the surface, the subterranean realm, still uses the name Khyber.
It is said greedy G(h)ASTR^RONasza gained his immense size through the constant consumption of prey. Unfortunately, his insatiable appetite for anything foreshadowed his current state. The pseudo cannibalization of a fiend allied with him, a Rakshasa, corrupted G(h)ASTR^RONasza's very essence, distorting his body and increasing his already vast size plus his twisted nature.
His lair's impressive size was made possible by the temporary low population of the world down below along with his GREED. Not only that, the HOARD he nests on is said to be that of a type of oligarch. It's magnitude is literally unknown, but rumoured to be of incredibly vast proportions. Anything that can be put to good use? After aeons of being bathed in pure insidious thoughts, do you think mundane items can remain immune and untouched?
Delibaashixx
DEVIL COMMANDER, prefers to be addressed, in a worshipful tone, AS “ME DEVIL LORD,” not a derisive "Prince". NO SURPRISE that Dragons call him “PRINCE”. He is Delibaashixx, a Balor and a.k.a. The PRINCE/DEVIL of Lies.
Delibaashixx stands about 12 metres tall. His skin is usually an intense dark red. He weighs roughly 666 gigapounds. He is shrouded in ancient arcane pentagram ritualism. He has miraculously and unfortunately survived reckoning since being unleashed on civilization by Khyber.
10,000,000 years ago, in an exceptionally traumatic period of Eberron's history, the fiends succeeded, and composed of primarily the Rakshasa along with a renegade faction of ever-treacherous couatl, the Zeniphersians, the fiends overran the world of Eberron. That's not to even mention the OVERWHELMING DEVIL COMMANDERS. The only knowledge known of them by what exists on Eberron now, is related to their penetration of the world's resistance, BY THE LEGIONS.This rendered battlefields forever more as ancient-looking sites of palpable evil. Thus began the AGE OF DEVILS.
The fiends, in control of Eberron, turned the world into a fiery hell. High in power amongst the fiends were the Rakshasa, Zeniphersian Couatl (and priests who managed to summon them) and the DEVIL COMMANDERS, of course.
The revolt of the dragons
Not completely obliterated, though inhabiting a wasteland, the dragons hid from their demon rulers, living in a primitive state. However, 1,500,000 years ago, the dragons discovered what would be called the Draconic Prophecy. They began to build upon this knowledge, and began to fight against the demonic presence. They found other allies that had also survived; most importantly: the LOYAL couatl. Once they became powerful enough, the dragons and LOYAL COUATL joined forces and attacked the POWERS OF EVIL that inhabited Eberron.
100,000 years ago, the couatl finally came good and sacrificed most of their race to send the more powerful of the fiends back down to Khyber, to be trapped for eternity. This was after they betrayed truth and justice for their own reward during the prior Age of Devils.
The Loyal Couatl
The Loyal Couatl are so-called since only they resisted the temptation brought by the unclean minions and remained true to their progenitor, Siberys's cause. They were not like the dirty Zeniphersians. The prevailing opinion amongst scholars of such things, is that the Couatl species doesn't lend themselves to beneficent actions. They have to harden and repel their impure thoughts, like monks atop an icy inaccessible monastery would do. In exchange for this sacrifice, they appear to be able to tap into legendary pockets of deep magic. They were an instrumental ally to the dragons during the counter-offensive triggered by the Age of Devils, once they finally embraced a magnanimous attitude.
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Shakespeare certainly had a VERY elegant command of his created personas. He's considered pretty good, but at school at times, until varsity, I felt he was overrated.
Like a great many things, I realized I was wrong. I think the reason why he should be considered superb, doesn't come across well in our culture or education. He made PLAYS. They were meant to be seen, and are best appreciated today as plays (never been to one) or films. Actually, just writing this, I realized you obviously need BOTH. Literature, plus visuals. There's no point to only teaching the written work. Even a real script would be much better than what most had.
I was lucky enough to have so many options at my disposal. Thanks, Mom and Dad! Films, books, Cliff- and Sparknotes, comic book depictions, the Internet, miaow. I HAD MANY.
Listen to this! It's the great Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant riffing about writing and it's funny as hell: :-D
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So the show and many other things have inspired me. Yesterday morning, I had a blast writing this back-story for my coming D&D campaign. It all flowed pretty easily, and multiple re-readings have convinced me that it is...legit(?). Do you have any opinion?
PLEASE DON'T read on if you're gonna be playing in my campaign. It's not the END OF THE WORLD if you read this, it will give you a lot of info, but too much perhaps. It contains MANY SPOILERS. You've been warned. :-)
SPOILERS
Abstract
Whole campaign set in the pulpy world of Eberron. It builds to the final BATTLE WITH A DEVIL COMMANDER, AFTER AN encounter with a PROTO-DRAGON. Both are products of Khyber, directly and indirectly respectively. Heroes have to contend with much more than just Khyber's agents. Treacherous Zeniphersians (Couatl) feature heavily in this. Much like World War II, will the heroes ultimately end up saving THE WHOLE WORLD?"The Dragons of Eberron are different from mainstream D&D ones.
Dragons in Eberron were one of the first races, if not the first. They fought the creatures of Khyber in the Demon Wars that were the first epic conflict of the world. The war ended when the good guys, the Dragons, bound all of the horrors of the conflict underneath the planet's surface."
http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon
Villains
Khyber
Dragons are like humans in that you get good ones, evil ones, and BRUTALLY EVIL ones. Khyber was/is a dragon of the latter kind. Think Hitler.
During the Age of Dragons, the great dragon Eberron trapped the evil dragon Khyber within it's unholy self, after Khyber slew their brother Siberys. Khyber's last act of defiance was to give birth to a host of fiends, ALONG WITH A SMATTERING OF DEVILS...
It was the UR-DRAGON Khyber's last hope that these minions would destroy the descendants of Siberys and Eberron.
Gastrronasza
G(h)ASTR^RONasza (say it in an near Eastern European accent, breathy almost-whispered beginning, harsh and guttural “R”) is a colossal dragon and was sired by the spawn of the epically evil archdragon, Khyber. The entire world below the surface, the subterranean realm, still uses the name Khyber.
It is said greedy G(h)ASTR^RONasza gained his immense size through the constant consumption of prey. Unfortunately, his insatiable appetite for anything foreshadowed his current state. The pseudo cannibalization of a fiend allied with him, a Rakshasa, corrupted G(h)ASTR^RONasza's very essence, distorting his body and increasing his already vast size plus his twisted nature.
His lair's impressive size was made possible by the temporary low population of the world down below along with his GREED. Not only that, the HOARD he nests on is said to be that of a type of oligarch. It's magnitude is literally unknown, but rumoured to be of incredibly vast proportions. Anything that can be put to good use? After aeons of being bathed in pure insidious thoughts, do you think mundane items can remain immune and untouched?
Delibaashixx
DEVIL COMMANDER, prefers to be addressed, in a worshipful tone, AS “ME DEVIL LORD,” not a derisive "Prince". NO SURPRISE that Dragons call him “PRINCE”. He is Delibaashixx, a Balor and a.k.a. The PRINCE/DEVIL of Lies.
Delibaashixx stands about 12 metres tall. His skin is usually an intense dark red. He weighs roughly 666 gigapounds. He is shrouded in ancient arcane pentagram ritualism. He has miraculously and unfortunately survived reckoning since being unleashed on civilization by Khyber.
TIMELINE ------------>
Age of Devils10,000,000 years ago, in an exceptionally traumatic period of Eberron's history, the fiends succeeded, and composed of primarily the Rakshasa along with a renegade faction of ever-treacherous couatl, the Zeniphersians, the fiends overran the world of Eberron. That's not to even mention the OVERWHELMING DEVIL COMMANDERS. The only knowledge known of them by what exists on Eberron now, is related to their penetration of the world's resistance, BY THE LEGIONS.This rendered battlefields forever more as ancient-looking sites of palpable evil. Thus began the AGE OF DEVILS.
The fiends, in control of Eberron, turned the world into a fiery hell. High in power amongst the fiends were the Rakshasa, Zeniphersian Couatl (and priests who managed to summon them) and the DEVIL COMMANDERS, of course.
The revolt of the dragons
Not completely obliterated, though inhabiting a wasteland, the dragons hid from their demon rulers, living in a primitive state. However, 1,500,000 years ago, the dragons discovered what would be called the Draconic Prophecy. They began to build upon this knowledge, and began to fight against the demonic presence. They found other allies that had also survived; most importantly: the LOYAL couatl. Once they became powerful enough, the dragons and LOYAL COUATL joined forces and attacked the POWERS OF EVIL that inhabited Eberron.
100,000 years ago, the couatl finally came good and sacrificed most of their race to send the more powerful of the fiends back down to Khyber, to be trapped for eternity. This was after they betrayed truth and justice for their own reward during the prior Age of Devils.
The Loyal Couatl
The Loyal Couatl are so-called since only they resisted the temptation brought by the unclean minions and remained true to their progenitor, Siberys's cause. They were not like the dirty Zeniphersians. The prevailing opinion amongst scholars of such things, is that the Couatl species doesn't lend themselves to beneficent actions. They have to harden and repel their impure thoughts, like monks atop an icy inaccessible monastery would do. In exchange for this sacrifice, they appear to be able to tap into legendary pockets of deep magic. They were an instrumental ally to the dragons during the counter-offensive triggered by the Age of Devils, once they finally embraced a magnanimous attitude.
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