Friday, February 17, 2012

What About A Villain?

OK, so I have introduced our hero and our heroine. But what about a villain? That is going to be more complicated.

Villain is a hard term to describe. For our purposes, you must follow the old joke:

A small bird fell out of a nest. Lying on the ground wondering how he would ever get back up into the tree, a horse came along and pooped on top of the little bird. Indignant, the bird began to tweet for help. Soon a hawk came along, cleaned the poop of the little bird and then ate him. The moral of the story (and what you need to keep in mind here):

Not everyone who dumps on you means to hurt you, and not everyone who helps you out is working for your benefit!

Cryptic, but appropriate!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The Kingdoms

The aftermath of the nuclear holocaust on the earth caused many geographic changes to all seven of the continents. Land masses moved, rivers changed their course and mountains arose where previous only hills existed. While the Sanctuaries were mostly immune to these geographic shifts, the land changed in other ways. The mighty river which split the Five Kingdoms into two distinct areas was now a large Inland Sea. This separation caused not only a physical slit in the land, but a split among the people of the Kingdoms as well.

Originally the people housed in the Central Valley Pinnacle were genetically close to Northern and Southerns. All had common ancestors from the old world from the First Families of North American. The major differences would not begin to surface until many generations had already been raised. Differences in physical changes were few, but major differences came through in their philosophy.

For centuries since the rebirth, the four contiguous Kingdoms began to share opinions in the important area of what direction the remnant of humanity should take to rebuild and repopulate the planet. Prior to the desecration there were close to 8 billion humans crawling across the face of the earth. The first estimate placed the Creator's children after the holocaust at around 140,000. That did not count people groups such as the Northerners who had no regard for the Druids or their creations and had not participated in the Sanctuaries, preferring instead to trust their own histories for survival.

Divided from their fifth brother by miles of turbulent water, the Four Kingdoms learn to trade and band together as a four pronged unit. Now the Eastern Kingdom stands alone from the others, unsure of their place in this alliance and highly distrustful of the new young queen of the West and her supposed 'witch' powers. That caution will become fodder for those who seek to destroy the fragile evolution of humanities' regeneration.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Talent Is In Our Blood

There are three major talent categories: Mystic, Warrior and Healer. Each has their own physical characteristics and each has their own set of codes and regulations under which the Druids have dictated they may function. Not all become full Druids, most function within the wider context of the Kingdoms.

Healers range from full empathic to those who can diagnose and treat illness by merely running their hands over the patient. Some deal with children while others prefer the company of the elderly. Healers are born with grey eyes, which vary in shade by the intensity of the illness.

Warriors come in two types: Blood Warriors and War Masters. Blood Warrior is the term given to the Northern Tribal Warriors, recognition of the purity of their human blood and the evolution of their natural skill into an inborn trait. While not all Northerns are Blood Warriors all Blood Warriors are Northerns. (Say that fast five times!) The most identifying characteristic of Blood Warriors is their eyes. At night, the white of their eyes, along with their iris, become black to help absorb the maximum ambient light. The night vision of a Warrior is regarded as the keenest eyesight among humans.

War Masters are those from the other Kingdoms who demonstrate a natural ability with a variety of war related ares: tracking, battle strategy, swordsmanship, assassination, etc. Although these are skills which can be taught, to be a War Master the acolyte must show talent above and beyond that of regular humans.

Humanity has changed, grown beyond their restrictive natures, to embrace these new traits as simply a continuation of man's existence. This was only partially true. Genetic differences between them and us would be non-existent. The thousands of years of nuclear exposure, though filtered through the air systems in the Sanctuaries. still infused humans with new abilities. Each person is cataloged as soon as they being displaying their particular talent. this is another duty of the Druids, maintaining a roster of each talent and bloodline.