Yet another spotty idea for a video game from Axioanarchist that is currently in the works alongside my other random ideas but - unless I experience a very sudden change in fortunes - probably will never get anything done with it.
Terra Course (name subject to change, if I manage to think of something better) starts off as being about Sofia Adams and Ezra Esther, two young ladies living in a low-techology but otherwise fairly modern world. Both girls are in their early twenties, when the Kingdom requires everyone to spend at least a few years involved in basic military training: learning to use a sword and crossbow, armor, basic drills and tactics, and such like. So when Sofia's father Cain Roland Adams (How's THAT for Meaningful Name?!?), who spends most of his time tinkering with technologies no one in their mostly-rural society understands, gets himself pulled into Another Dimension when his latest invention creates a dimensional rift, the two girls take it upon themselves and their entry-level military training to hitch up and try to save him.
On the other side of the rift, however, is a series of worlds very different from their own. One is sort of similar in society, but with much more advanced technology. Another is an enclave-based society focused on Arcane Magic, with the "Sparkless" who cannot use magic becoming lower-class citizens, many of whom eventually turn to banditry. A third is a world populated mostly by Lizard Folk and separated into clans, each of which are devoted to a particular patron pantheon of deities. With the help of allies found in these new worlds, Sofia and Ezra continue their search for Doctor Adams and along the way learn something about the mysteries of the universes, some surprising truths about their own world, and a mysterious threat that looms unseen in the skies above all of them.
Characters:
- Sofia Adams: A young woman in her early twenties, the daughter of Dr. Adams and a low-level recruit in her home kingdom's required stint in military training. This training comes in useful when her father suddenly vanishes due to a malfunction in one of his odd "machines", prompting her to pursue him into worlds unknown.
- Ezra Esther: Sofia's best friend since childhood, partner-in-crime, and fellow recruit whose impulsive nature makes up for what redheaded Sofia looks like she should have. She eagerly volunteers to accompany Sofia when Dr. Adams disappears.
- Ezekiel "Zeke" Noah: A technician from Terra, the Machine World. When Sofia and Ezra drop in on his lab, he agrees to try and reproduce the portal generator if they'll help him with a local problem. He ends up becoming their first traveling companion as a result.
- Vera: A Blind Seer - though thanks to her magic, she actually can see despite losing her eyes - and healer from Castle Halphax, home of the Theurgelords in the world of Gaia, the Arcane World.
- Lokai Ashyrthun: A member of the Ashyr Clan of the Gandurn of Mydjal, the Divine World. Unlike most of the Ashyr, Lokai - as his name might suggest - has an affinity for Fire Magic, a trait of the Jayatan Clan.
- Doctor Cain R. Adams: Sofia's father, a strange and eccentric man who dabbles in technology well out of the normal understanding for his world. A mishap with one machine creates a portal, whisking him away to another world, prompting Sofia and Ezra to pursue him and begin their adventures.
- Sage Dufraine: An enigmatic figure who assists the party indirectly, claiming that by aiding them she accomplishes some mysterious higher goal. Though she appears as an angelic figure, she claims this is merely A Form You Are Comfortable With as her true existence is some sort of Energy Being who exists partially or mostly outside of Space-Time.
- Eligor the Dragonrider: Leader of the Sparkless rebels on Gaia, a warrior knight who seems too noble for the bandits he appears to have allied with.
- Highlord Orthos: Eligor's opposite number, a master Archmage and the Highlord of the Theurgelords who rule Gaia.
- Woldain: The title for the chieftain of the Ashyr tribe on Mydjal, named after their chief god.
- Lamech: An unknown man who seems to be present in all worlds in some form or another, with an unknown agenda.
Will theoretically eventually provide examples of:
- Action Girl: Sofia and Ezra.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Why Sage Dufraine appears as an Angel.
- Alternate Universe: Four of them, to be precise, counting the one Sofia and Ezra are from. There's a fifth, too... but it's actually Sofia's world's distant future.
- An Ice Person: Vera.
- Badass Bookworm: Zeke.
- Badass Longcoat: Cain and Vulcari Sofia.
- Badass Longrobe: Highlord Orthos.
- Blind Seer: Vera. She lost her eyes to a bandit attack, but later learned to use her magic to see. She has some prophetic magic as well, but mostly sticks to healing, or Ice-based combat magic when necessary.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Whereas the others have magic in some form or another and Zeke has his machinery, Ezra is just insanely strong (thanks to Sage Dufraine's blessing) and gets really good with a sword.
- Death Is Cheap: The Vulcari and the Injaghar, see Winged Humanoid below. Note though that it only works once.
- Disappeared Dad: Dr. Adams's disappearance doesn't happen until the story starts, and ends up being the catalyst for the adventure.
- Eldritch Abomination: Entropys. Gets bonus points for being the only entity EVER to fully exist in multiple Alternate Universes at the same time, making him all the bigger a threat. And Pandora to an extent.
- Energy Being: Sages.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Cain.
- Holy Hand Grenade: Some of Sofia's later magic.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Lots of this from Cain.
- Lizard Folk: The Gandurn.
- Meaningful Name: Filled with it. Sofia, Cain, and Lokai are simply the earliest examples.
- Missing Mom: Sofia only vaguely remembers her mother, Eva, from spotty recollections as a very young child. Then she finds out that she vanished because of a similar mishap as what happened to Cain, getting pulled into a portal created by a malfunctioning machine. THEN she finds out that she's Vera.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: Astalador. Yes, the name sounds like that intentionally.
- Portal Network
- Playing with Fire: Lokai.
- Public Domain Character: Pandora. Also most of the deities.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Pandora.
- Shock and Awe: Sofia.
- Shout-Out: Entropys and Pandora are - possibly quite obviously - inspired by Atropus and Pandorym from the Elder Evils book.
- Significant Anagram: Eva Reuben-Adams > Vera.
- Soul Jar: Pandora's Box. Not only does it contain her essence, but grabs every soul from someone who dies within its range of influence and integrates them into her. This makes Pandora immensely powerful but less mentally stable, turning the Box - actually a complex crystal - into Sealed Evil in a Can.
- The Watcher: Sage Dufraine refuses - or isn't allowed, she's not clear - to directly interfere with the events of the various worlds, but offers advice, empowers characters by awakening the Spark of Magic (or just buffing up the ones who don't have the Spark), and offers them a measured test of their combat capability as they advance. She claims to have an interest in what's going on, though, and encourages the party throughout the story.
- Winged Humanoid: The Vulcari: female Gandurn who fall in battle are revived to serve again and granted wings in the process. Their male counterparts, the Injaghar, don't grow wings but come back tougher and stronger. Lokai collects blood from everyone in the party in case someone falls and their body cannot be recovered, so as to perform the ritual; when Sofia is killed she is in turn resurrected as a Vulcari and becomes a human with reptilian wings.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Caused by Entropys - the necromantic energies required to keep a God undead animate anything dead it gets too close to. Entropys approaching a world = everything on that world being close to him, including every graveyard ever = LOTS OF UNDEAD.
