Alta Chronicles

I've posted this topic almost verbatim from RPG RPG Revolution, spreading it around to hopefully get some input.

Unfortunately, I'm no artist, so those wishing to see large amounts of concept art can turn away here     I also haven't decided which characters will join the hero on his journey, yet. So many of the people I might list as NPCs may become PCs, and visa versa. But hey, this is concept development. ^^
I have added some images, Prince Callan + Eliott's charsets under the respective sections, and the title screen.

Spoiler for Scripts and Systems used:

Rye.jp CBS with Remodeled Damage Display and Enemy HP Bars,
Silentsteps CMS by Silentwalker,
Blizzard's Soul Rage/Soul Limit/Chaos Drive Merged Script,
Near Fantastica's Particle Engine,
Ccoa's UMS,
Yeyinde's "RSC Require", The SDK (by Various Scripters) and Trickster's MACL,
Sandgolem's Simple Dis/Appearing Events,
Wachunga's Auto-Install Fonts and Simple Map Scrolling,
SephirothSpawn's Weapon Unleashes and Skill Use Weapon Element,
and the Battle Report script from David Schooley/Illustrationism, edited by Raziel.

Spoiler for Full Title Screen:

Spoiler for Map of the World:

Spoiler for BASIC Map of Alta:

I've only added the main settlements here, and Alena due to it's importance in the story.

Spoiler for A Brief Summary of Recent Events in Alta:

Alta Province, 1293, Long has this region been known for it's kind, benevolent leaders. King Leion's reign had been a very beneficial one for the whole of the continent, providing trade routes to the numerous port-cities under his rule, and asylum to those fleeing more troubled lands such as the Kingdom of Sarvis to the immediate South.

The death of King Leion, and the subsequent crowning of his son, Eliott, has led to much unrest amongst the populace. Outraged at the King's wish for his youngest son to succeed him - rather than his oldest - feeling that such a young ruler will lead, in the end, to ruin, many of the civilians of Alta have taken matters into their own hands, attacking nobles and even the military unless the King steps down, handing the crown to his older sibling. The village of Alena, officially demilitarised seven years ago, seems to be the heart of the uprising. Eliott has, within only a few weeks, brought in a new General to lead the Altan army, Ivan Kane, to replace the late King Leion's friend, Mason Reid. Under the advice of General Kane, Eliott has decided that the insurgents must be made an example of, and has ordered the massacre of any and all members of the self-named 'Venis Vrion', or 'Defenders of Justice' in the tongue of the Ancient Linnites.

Important Characters

Spoiler for Prince Callan:

The older of the two Princes. As a child, he had always been expected to rise above and beyond his brother, as the probable future King, he was expected to show good judgement through even his childhood years. Full of bitterness that his younger brother has surpassed him, and become the new King. He disagrees wholeheartedly with almost everything Eliott has done as King so far. He feels that the influence General Kane exerts over the younger of the brothers could be dangerous, given Kane's tendency towards warmongering.

Spoiler for King Leion (Deceased):

The previous King of the Alta Province. Throughout his life, he had been praised as the greatest ruler that Alta has ever known, forging treaties and alliances with other regions, ending age-old conflicts, and improving the conditions for the people, in both work and leisure. Leion was unusually young when he came to power, at the age of 23, but his lifelong friend and trusted advisor, the previous General of the Altan military, Mason Reid, had steered him right throughout the years. A memorial was erected in his name at the centre of Charra, the Altan Capitol, after he solved a long dispute with the Kingdom of Erran, stemming from hundreds of years of military action between the two neighbouring regions. His death a month ago came not unexpectedly, the King's health had been deteriorating for many months, and a man of 72 cannot expect to live forever.

Spoiler for Prince Eliott (King Eliott):

The newly crowned heir of Alta, and the younger of the two brothers, though his looks cloak his age somewhat, he appears much older than his brother. It is not known why King Leion chose the younger son to succeed him over the older, since he seemed to be biased towards Callan, and the older of the brothers hadn't shown any particular failings in his leadership skills. As a child, he seemed to almost fade into the background in comparison to Callan, though not living a hard life by any means, he simply never had the attention of his father. Instead, he befriended Ivan Kane, the newly appointed General of the Altan military. Whilst Callan was being taught the arts of diplomacy and tact, Eliott preferred to learn from Ivan, the craft of swordsmanship and strategy. As King, his actions have so far been almost universally detested, increases in tax and decreases in the average worker's pay have contributed to excessive poverty, in just a short time.

Spoiler for Mason Reid, Former General of the Altan army:

A man of wisdom and good judgement. As a former advisor to the throne, he has served well until his sudden and unexpected dismissal from his post, and subsequently, the entire military. He was born on the same day as King Leion, though one year apart, and the pair had grown up together, through their education, and into Leion's reign over Alta. Some, including Leion, say that it was not he behind the greatness of Alta in recent years, but Mason Reid. Currently, Mason works as a weaponsmith in the village of Alena, secretly providing weapons for the Venis Vrion, whilst also selling to the Altan army so as not to arouse suspicion.

Spoiler for General Ivan Kane:

The newly-appointed General. He has served practically his entire life in the service of Alta and it's rulers. His reasons for feeling such a fierce need to defend his country are clear, his wife of 20 years, whom he married at the age of only 17, and his daughter, 19 year old Sera who both presently live in Alena. Though in a time of such peace, it is unknown why he doesn't simply retire, perhaps he feels an obligation as friend to the current King, much as Mason Reid before him. Until recently, he served as Mason's right-hand man, carrying out orders with almost surgical execution, he is a master strategist, arguably more tactically minded than his predecessor. Perhaps this is why Eliott chose him as successor to Mason Reid, or maybe just simply due to the pair's relationship, emulating that more of father-son, than friends. He is currently preparing to lead the assault on Alena, and the Venis Vrion, unknowingly condemning his daughter's life.

Spoiler for Sera Kane, Hand of the Venis Vrion:

Unknown to her father, Sera has played a major role in organising the resistane against King Eliott. She hates bloodshed, and uses most of her time trying to convince the rest of the Venis Vrion that they can succeed through non-aggressive means. However, so far she has been unsuccessful. She seeks desperately to not disappoint her father with acts of treason, and tries to avoid any of the military or nobles being harmed if at all possible. She is hopelessly in love with Thorne, though she downplays her interest and only appears to be a little interested in him, so as to not anger her father.

Spoiler for Oliver Blackthorne ("Thorne"):

Oliver is a new resident of Alena. Having only moved into the area a year or so ago from the island of Kaan, he has become good friends with Alrin. He and Sera also have a slight romance between them, though nothing has really come of it due to a large amount of disapproval from Sera's father. Thorne is a known member of the Venis Vrion, and as such, Ivan takes badly to his daughter being associated with rebels and outlaws (Unknowing that his daughter is one of the more senior members herself). This also stems from a long tradition of the Kane family being married to nobles and Lords & Ladies.

Main Character

Spoiler for Alrin (most likely renameable):

23 year-old Alrin has always been loyal to Alta. He even served the minimum time in the military, three years, from age 20. Being released from service two days after the death of Leion. He is a fairly new member of the Venis Vrion, having only been in the organisation for a week. He has begun working as an agent for the underground movement, after seeing what Eliott's reign is doing to his community.
The skills he learned in the military have come into frequent use as a member of the Venis Vrion, not only his limited mastery of various weaponry, of which he prefers a simple longsword, but also his training in diplomacy, and reconnaissance. He also has a limited grasp of the concepts of Alchemy, the art of manipulating Mana, the life force, or energy that permeates all things, though he has no formal training in this aspect of his skill set, having not been recruited into that particular branch of the military, and not having been to any specialised schools on the matter.
He is fairly well known amongst the small community of Alena, and has many friends, and few enemies. Sera is a long-time friend of his, having lived next to each other for many years, they have a close bond, though not a romantic one. At times, they have been described as brother and sister, but are not actually related.
Alrin's father died in one of the few skirmishes that did occur under King Leion, fighting off marauding ships which regularly attacked and looted the port town of Salin, to the east of Charra and Alena.

Spoiler for Small plot outline for the beginning of the game:

The idea is to have the Venis Vrion HQ stormed, and many of the villagers killed despite not having any involvement. General Kane will have, of course, pulled his family out of the village without saying why, and Sera has complied, not knowing what her father intends to do.
Alrin and Thorne escape with two of the VV, but not before they see villagers being killed for no real reason other than to flush out the rebels. Watching from atop a nearby cliff, Alrin+Co. try to return as soon as the soldiers leave, but are shunned by the survivors since the only reason anyone died was that the VV were based there. Meanwhile, Sera realises what happened and confronts her father about the massacre, outraged at the loss of villagers' lives. Her father tells her that she has never, and likely will never, understand war, and that he hopes she'll never have to understand, but to trust that he's doing all he can to protect his nation. Sera heads back home to Alena with her mother, and seeing Alrin's and Thorne's homes burned down, assumes the worst.
Callan confronts his brother about the attack, and Eliott justifies his actions by overplaying how dangerous the VV were. Callan reluctantly accepts that Eliott had no choice, and leaves, whilst General Kane commends the King on the choice to follow his advice.
After recieving the letter, Sera leaves Alena to meet Thorne and Alrin, and while relieved to see the both of them alive, cries with happiness at seeing Thorne, revealing to the player how she feels. The resistance, broken, decide to try and contact Prince Callan, attempting to get him to talk some sense into his brother, they arrange a meeting in the castle a week after the initial attack, under the guise of being traders from the northern village of Kalin, only to find that an unsuccessful attempt has been made on Eliott's life, and Callan has been arrested as the main suspect, awaiting a trial.

Spoiler for The Art of Alchemy:

(To allay any confusion, Alchemy is the name for the practice of Magic. Mana is the name for the 'substance' of Magic.)

Alchemy is more like a science, than an art. Anyone can learn it, with the proper training. Though some do have a natural inclination toward it. Many children manifest incredibly weak abilities at extraordinarily young ages. Alrin, for example, has exhibited evidence of Alchemical ability since the age of 6. Many times, those who learn choose to 'specialise' in a specific element, Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Light and Gravity. (Darkness isn't listed, because I'm taking the stance that Darkness = absence of light, though alchemy, even this absence can be 'focused' to produce Dark effects, therefore Light also includes Darkness.) Some are even forcibly limited to certain elements through some unknown natural method of 'blocking' certain Mana flows throughout a person's body. It is possible to manipulate, for example, Air Mana, if your body blocks such flows, by not channeling it through your physical body, but due to 'external channeling' being more difficult, the desired effects are, of course, weaker.
That said, those who are 'blocked' to one(or more) kinds of Mana tend to have an affinity for another kind resulting in easier channeling, though these affinities and weaknesses to do necessarily oppose each other, for instance there are known Alchemists who channel Water with far more proficiency than the other elements, but are blocked to Gravity, or Light. (The opposing elements are Fire/Water, Air/Earth, Light/Gravity.)

Spoiler for Religion in Alta:

The chief religion in Alta doesn't have a specific deity as the central focus. The focus is around Mana, which is, in essence, the life energy of everything living. When something dies, be it a tree, an animal, a person, the energy in their body is released back into the earth. (Sort of reincarnation, only not quite. Your energy goes on to be reborn, and your soul follows it.) There are a pantheon of deities within the religion, but they're more a supporting cast to this central philosophy. There's gods, and goddesses, for each of the elements, and the Goddess of Mana. Many different sects of the church exist, some believe that the representations of the elements are simply different aspects of the same being, wheras others believe them to be seperate entities entirely, and some even believe that the Gods are locked in eternal battles with their opposing deity, whilst the Mana Goddess ignores the chaos surrounding her and is content to guide the flow of Mana.

It looks like a pretty detailed story, and it sounds pretty good so far. Good luck with this project.

If you can take some screenshots of the mapping, then I could move this out of New Projects.

Anyway, good luck.

Well that's the thing, no mapping done yet. I'm mostly just working on the beginnings of the story for now.

I've pretty much finished it up though, so I'll be starting the actual maps, characters, weapons and skills soon.

Concept art?

/love

please.

Spoiler for:

Oh, er, may i try?

I wish I was good enough at drawing to create decent concept art. I'm really only any good at digital manipulation, and obviously a mouse limits my (already bad) drawing on an imaging program. I'm a fairly creative person, I just can't get any of these grand cities or rugged characters on paper when I try 

Feel free to post anything you like, though. If you want more details on how I imagine something to look, then ask away, otherwise, feel free to exercise a lot of artistic license, because a lot of the characters and settings don't even have a particularly well-formed design in my mind.