Gauging interest for a shared universe.

Sketch is more finished than it was before, and is probably as done as it's getting. http://daebrayk.deviantart.com/#/d321gfu Quality got all messed up in the uploading process and it wasn't very high res to begin with, so forgive the pixelization, everything else you can blame squarely on me ^.^

As for more character detail...I mean, I have more, I know more about her, and i don't mean to sound like I'm holding something back, but don't you think reading the ins and outs of a character in a flat, infodump of a character description takes a lot of the fun out of writing and reading them?

Very interested but I cannot invest in the project til early next month.

To answer people's questions in order;

@Dealan: It was well before midnight when I posted that here. I posted it a bit after dinner at seven. I can't compensate for different timezones when everyone here lives in different countries.

I'll make you a different deal instead this time, 'kay? This time, I'll leave the offer open for a full 24 hours, but only for the next 3 posters who ask questions. And I'll answer your next post of questions without counting it towards that total. I just don't wanna spill the whole Bible on here.

Alchemy...

Alchemy works by gathering certain Reagents. You have-

The Solute: The liquid you are boiling the ingredients in. Usually water, but can be various types of blood, liquid moonlight, or even tears fromm various animals.

The Base- the only igredient that is't magically charges; this is the ingredient that stops the Charge and the Reactor from reacting just yet. Usally algae or coral, but not always.

The Volatile Reagent- the reagent that, when combined with the other four, burns upon contact with air, taing the Base with it.

The Charge- the Reagent that must specificaly be taken from a magical creature. Examples include sliced Youkai tail and crushd salamander bones.

The Reactor- the final ingredient, the one that sets the toe of the potion. Could be anythig, really- crshed silver flecks, ground belladonna powders...

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The iingredients are boiled together, then the liquid is strained out and placed into special bottles. These bottles re of specific hardness; not so fragi that you migh break them in everday life, but fragile enough that it is relatively easy to break them in combat.

The potions are flung via the use of a sling or a lacrosse-stick type weapon.

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Some basic things about the state of the world... Alright:

Magic and such was revealed to the word at large in the 1600's. This resulted in several interesting changes to the way the world works.

1. Australi was never inhabited by British prisoners. Instead, in the early 1900's, it became the unofficial home of Monster Hunter's. They now have an entire economy there. With literally nearly a million Alchemists, Monster Hunters, Mad Scientists, Ki Warriors, Youkai, Mages and Myths livig down there, hundreds of thousnds of people just upped and left to come over to Australia. They started jobs, finding Reagents for Alchemists, importing various electronics for Scientists, sharpening swords and making body armour for Hunters. Australia is now the uofficial Home of Badassery.

2. Word War I still happened. Large amounts of Youkai and Unseelie Sidhe also joined Hitler's army, bolstering his ranks. He invaded Poland and Ukraine, conquesing them within the month. Seizing the initiative, he conquered Russia and China over the course of about two years, losing more than half his troops. He set his sights on Australia then, noting its' excellent defensive position, as he was strting to get worried about the other world powers. Of course, he didn't think about the fact that Australia had Monster Hunters Galore down there, used to dealing with Youkai and Sidhe. They allowed him in, drawing him away from the coast and his method of retreat, then attacked him, wiping out most of his Yokai and Sidhe. After that, the Australians just casually harried him, keeping him sittig in the same spot, whie they waited for America and the other world powrs to deal with the guys with guns.

As such, nuclear weapons were never developed.

3. There were a lot more things to be worried about than the colour of someone's skin, or who they liked to do it with. Racism, homophobia and it's ilk is a lot less pronounced in this world than in ours. Sexism remains stronger in the Nephilim 'verse than it does in ours, however.

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As to the Mad Scientist point. I meant literally groundbreaking. There's no gint drills, no super explosives, no really devestating weaponry.

Also, Mad Scientists are limited in what they build. The more insane their weapons get, the bigger they try to make them, the more the laws of physics fight back until, eventually, the devces stop working... permanently.

The best power generating systemm has generated about 4,000 kilowatthours in a month. Not even near enough to power a city block for a month. Enough to suit a single house for a long time, however. Attempts to build power generators for a larger area have not succeeded yet.

@Star Kindler: I've never read Tales of MU, so I have no idea of the type of magic and technology they have.

The Nephilim 'verse has... odd levels of technology. Where scientists got bored, they stopped developig. Things like combstion engines and penicillin were still invented, but nobody ever bothered to create nuclear power. We have DVD's in this 'verse, but no cellphones; instead, we have somethig that is almost like an iPhone Touch, but has a video conference option, that sends its' messages to a series of about six million radio towers built over the world. We have electrical heters and fans, but no vacuum cleaners. Our trains still run on steam power, because of an odd worldwide nostalgia for steam power... That's actually a plot point so I won't exound on that any further.

@Dae Brayk: Very well. It's an... interesting style of drawing. I'll have to see both a short strip, maybe four panels, to judge if it'll work well enough for me to acknowedge you. Or you could write the 1500-word scene. Or both, and I'll judge you on both. Might even accept both.

As to the character profile... I don't believe that reading the character description takes away from the enjoyment of reading and writing their stories. The character description is purely there for...

Well, at the moment it's there because I'm trying to weed out any Mary Sue's that come my way. Not to name any names, but one Troper here already sent me a PM with a character description I had to turn down, because the character was just too powerful for the 'verse, and they were sucking a large part of the 'verse into the story.

And I'm trying to stop characters that just plain suck. People with a Deus Angst Machina background, people who are just plain boring... I'm trying to keep the 'verse interesting, and this is part of that.

@americanbadass: No worries, I've already compensated for Na No Wri Mo and such. I'm not planning to close applications for a long while.

So, remember; the next 3 posters who ask questions about the 'verse get them answered. Dealann, you get a free pass to ask on set of questions, too. Offer ends in 24 hours from the time I post this.

How easy is it to manipulate magic to get more energy than you started with? Are there lots of little cheats, or do they all only take energy from somewhere else (the Youkai dimension, for example)? Nuclear power isn't around, but do some people know how it works?

What is the state of computer technology in the verse? Obviously it exists on some level, since there are DV Ds, but are P Cs like the ones we have around or do most computers only do a couple of things and that's it?

I also am kinda wondering what the regions beyond the atmosphere look like. Is space basically space as we know it? Anyone ever been there? Back to nuclear power, what do people know about the sun?

Wha-

Why-

Grblegarble...

Less than fiften minutes after I post? Excellent...

By 'energy', what do you mean? Magical energy, or electrical energy?

Some Mad Scientists have an idea as to how nuclear power works. And they're scared of it. They immediately thought of it's weaponizing potential, and were scared. Terrified. Since then, there has been a small number of Mad Scietists- forty or fifty- who subtly discourage anyone who look like they're putting thought into nuclear processes. Generally by giving them other, more fun projects to work on.

Computer technology exists, but it's not quite the same as in our world. The Internet developed primarily as an information sharing tool, and a way to warn people about monster upsurges. Porn and gaming were secondary concerns to that.

Yep, I went there. The porn industry ain't that huge in this world. Although there are an abnormally number of furries in this 'verse. Wonder if it has something to do wth all the kitsune and such running around.

Computers are being built faster and with more processing power, to handle as much information as possible. Theyre a lot more widespread, too- you'll be hard-pressed to find a household in the world that don't have them. Even Indians have them, and they're even worse off in this 'verse than ours.

Of course, they can handle even more than our computers can. They're just not really used for much beyond information sharing, porn, and gaming. Forums and such never developed. Facebook was laughed off the internet, as were Twitter and My Space. Deviant Art remains, but it's not as poular.

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Space... Oooh, big question you asked there, Star Kindler.

In 2006, America, Russia, France and China got together to build the best rocket they could. Mad Scientists worked on it, making them faster and more efficient than ever. Mages worked it over, casting the strongest defensive barriers they could against it; it was better protected than the Pentagon. Even Youkai got together and scratched runes into it, making it more stable and faster.

Exactly twenty-eight days later, to the second, four pieces of the rocket crashed in front of the coutrie's respective government housing. There were odd markings scratched into the side of the pieces. China, being the innovative thinkers they totally are here, had the brilliant idea of calling in a translator mage. He cast a spell, and the scratching moved themselves, spelling out Chinese letters.

The message was clear:

You are not ready.

Space travel beyond the moon is a no-no. We have no idea what it's like... And we're not sure we want to know.

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What do people know about the sun? Not very much. It's bright, and very hot. Of course, things might be different in this 'verse; Gods are real here. For all you know, Ra might have created the Sun or something. I hadn't thought about this one.

Energy here meaning the total energy of a system. In our physics, you can't create or destroy energy. It comes from somewhere, and it goes somewhere. Is it the same in their world?

Space being off-limits adds more questions... What can they see when they train their telescopes on the Moon or the other planets?

Ah, I see.

There is a theory in this 'verse, caled the Ambient Magic theory. This theory states that there is an underlying carpet of energy in the universe that Mages are tapping into to fuel their spells. In this way, you can't actually create or destroy energy- you are merely converting Ambient Magical energy into more regular energies. The total sum of the energy stays constant- the energy is merely converted to another form.

Of course, I could be pulling a tricky plot twist- I'm known for them. I'm refusing to confirm whether the Ambient Magic theory is correct or not.

If you wanna know, you're going to have to get accepted into the Authors.

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As for your space question... The Moon is not off limits to Space Travel. In fact, there is currently plans in development between America, France, Italy, China, Japan and Germany to build a habitat on the moon, in case the situation on Earth gets too precarious.

However, anything beyond the Moon is off-limits. Telescopes trained beyond the moon generally see nothing beyond what we would see.

Occasionally, though, there are... oddities. Almost as if a few pixels on the screen of the universe screw up. Any pictures taken during this time come out blurry and unfocused, if not straight out of the Ucanny Valley.

Hmmm... I think I'll tell everyone a fun little fact.

Youkai isn't really Hell. It's another dimension, just like the Seraphim's Atrium, or the Sidhe's Ancestrl Court. However, unlike those two, the Youkai's Planetscape is inhospitabe towards humanity, and as such has been labeled 'Hellish' by humans.

The Youkai Planetscape is... Hell Lite.

There is, however, a Hell Deluxe. This one contains the whole shebang- eternal fires, demons, a magical effect that saps you of your strength... Luckily for us, it only bleeds into very few, select areas, that are being heavily guarded by a combination of Monster Hunters, Mages and good ol' soldiers with heavy artillery.

Hmmm... According to the forum, 24 hours have already passed since your offer. But I swear I'm posting this earlier than yesterday, and you posted after I did, so...

Anyway, you answered the questions I made, so I suppose I haven't any other important ones at the moment.

Some minor ones:

1. How is Mad Science called in this world?
2. Are there any other academies? (I guess the answer is "obviously yes".)
3. How about time travel? (This maybe is one of the secret ones though. Ignore if it is.)
4. How are religions coping with magic?

Finally, you spelled my name with two n You mean World War II, obviously. Just mentioning the typo.

edited 3rd Nov '10 12:54:12 PM by Dealan

Actually, there's still 6 hours to go in my offer. The offer was twenty-four hours from the time I pressed the send button on that message- or roughly when I get home from school today.

To answer your questions (in order):

1. The colloquial term is just 'Mad Science'. However, smart, stuffy people call it 'Advanced Design Harnessing Super-Advanced Theorems', whatever the hell that means.

2. There are other academies, yes. However, the Nephilim Institute is far and away the best. Well, it'd have to at that- it has a race of frickin' fallen angels teaching there. There's another respectable school in Australia, but it doesn't have the sheer resources Nephilim does. China and France also have academies, but they just plaain suck.

3. Time travel's a no-no. There are spells and methods that would allow you to travel through time. However, no-one has actually survived the process. They aways come back spaghettified.

4. Religions are coping... sorta. All depends what religion you mean. Christianity have their proof in the form of the Seraphim, although the Seraphim steadfastly refute the existence of Jesus. Buddhism isn't doing as well. Scientology got laughed out of the building.

5. Sorry 'bout that Yeah, my keyboard's acting up.

I'm not too late, am I? I really want to join in this. I can write... I think...

Nah, you're not too late, Sal. Although this is generating a fair bit more interest than I thought it would.

At the moment, the people who have expressed interest include-

Ettina

Dae Brayk

Star Kindler

Dealan

americanbadass (But not until December, which is fine by me- some time will likely be sent hammering out obvious kinks over the next few weeks, then americanbadass can join in with the working out of the finer detais of the 'verse.)

And now Sal Fish Fin.

So, let me make this clear; the offer is NOT closed. I don't think I'll be closing applications for a while; I can handle near a dozen authors singe-handedly, athough if it comes close to that I may have to put on my God Hat.

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Sal, if you want to join in, write up a character application and jump in. Can't promise I'll accept it, but I'll give it due consideration.

I forgot to ask an important question, actually. You said the (human) student’s ages can be anywhere between 13 and 18 for their first year. How does that work? Doesn’t the academy require them to have finished high school or something? Are there any normal lessons being taught?

(And you'll probably get that written scene some time during the weekend.)

edited 4th Nov '10 5:38:51 AM by Dealan

Glad somebody finally asked, even if it was eleven hours after my offer ended

Nephilim (I need to come up with a short nickname for the school besides Nephilim...) has a ridicuous amount of classes up for offer. These cover the crazy classes- Mad Science 101, Survival in Harsh Conditions, Magical Dodgeball- to the weird but practical- Short Ranged Combat for Fliers, Terrain Manipulation for Sidhe Mages- to the boring yet practical- Combat 201, Power Armours Lab- to the norm- English classes, Freshman Science.

A maifestation event can happen at any time. Due to the inherent risks of going to a school like Nephilim- the school has an insanely high mortality rate of 9.7%- they refuse to accept any children under the age of 13, unless there are specific reasons that they need the relative protection of the school.

At the same time, though, the manifestation event can happen in your late teens. They tend not to accept anyone over the age of 18, because they have a reasonable chance of being able to survive without the help of Nephilim's teachings.

Running a school like this is expensive, you know. The costs run over a billion each year.

There are no minimum schooling requirements to be allowed into Nephilim- because, well, what help is Sophoore-level English going to be in the middle of Advanced Magical Dodgeball class?

(Yes, that's a real class at Nephilim. It's a bitch to pass, too.)

((And thanks. I'll let you know my decision after I've read it.))

edited 4th Nov '10 5:56:09 AM by CyganAngel

I promise not to do freaky arty lettering in the future -.-

http://daebrayk.deviantart.com/art/Close-Ranged-Combat-101-185048031

But if you don't like the style, just tell me I can do others.

I probably won't be able to get you a writing sample till next week, cause I'll be gone all week-end.

Hmmm... Could you maybe throw up an example of your other drawing styles?

Not literally, though. That'd be gross.

The one you're using now, though... It might get a bit difficult to differentiate between students in scenes with a lot of background characters, 'know? Which is especially bad in a story like ephilim, where there are literally thousands of background characters, each one fairly unique.

I mean, if it's a bother, don't worry about it; I'm leaning towards accepting you, if only because I'm sure there's a plot you couldl think up that woud work with your art style. But as is, I think I'd like to see some other art examples...

Doop doop de doop doop...

So, I created an e-mail specifically to deal with Nephilim matters. This is where I would like people to send their story examples, if they're not willing to post them to the thread itself. Turns out, sending it via PM destroys paragraphing. Go figure.

The e-mail is Nephilim101@gmail.com

Don't bother sending spam my way. It's purely there for Nephilim matters. Anything resembling spam will be deleted instantly, and I'll be hitting ny 'unsubscribe' buttons as I can, and changing passwords on anything sent my way.

I would like to add that Star Kindler has been accepted into the Authors. Congratulations! *throws confetti*

And despite the fact that I lost nearly all the bible this morning, the new Bible is already growing huge

Since my kitty comes from the Yokai homeland, could you tell me more about it?

I could, but... I haven't even added that into the Bible yet...

Eh. What the hell, I'll just copy-paste from here to there.

The largest part of the Youkai Planetscape is the Ocean. Essentially, the Ocean is the middle bit of the moon, the bit that isn't the lit-up crescent. Here live the big water-serpent types.

The crescent itself is made up of three parts; the Jungle, the Mountain, and the Desert. The Desert is located at the bottom of the crescent, and is home to... well, nothing except weird scorpion fellars, and huge bloody worms that'll eat you in seconds.

The Mountains are home to the Tengu and the Oni. This area is VERY mountainous, with peaks of mountains often within tens of metres of each other- and sheer drops of miles between them if you miss.

The Jungle is home to most of the Youkai here. It's, well, a jungle. Occasionally, you find large clearings- stay away from them. They'll probably eat you.

Help? If you need to know anything more specific, PM me, so that I'm not spilling the guts of half the Bible over the entire thread.

Just popping my head back in here to ask who's still interested in writing for this 'verse. Ettina still seems to be expressing interest, but what about everyone else?

I'd just like to know, eh?

Just making a post here to express my intent to PM people who have expressed interest in writing a scene, regarding some important information about the way collaboration is currently being run. If anyone else wants to quickly jump on and ask about it, go ahead, and I'll PM you, too; but I'd rather not spill my guts over the thread, where just anyone can read it.

Style sample sketches.

http://daebrayk.deviantart.com/art/Styless-185433669

I left a comment over at Deviant Art, on the picture itsef, so if you see this message first... There's one there.

On the subject of Nephilim: I'm voting for you to be accepted. However, I'm not the only Author this time around, so...

...

What was his name again? *Checks thread*

Oh, Star Kindler. He uses too many nicknames.

Anyway, I'll discuss it with Kindler. If he votes yes, you're in. If he votes no, we might wanna see some further drawings- pehaps a full page of comic, or something.

Dae Brayk- Kindler and I have discussed it over IRC, and he brought up a very good point: (Seriously, I can't believe I forgot this):

We both like your drawing style, and agree that if it was on that basis alone, you would have been accepted already.

However, drawing is not the only concern here; we also have to judge your story-writing capabilities.

[Headdesk] I can't believe I forgot about that. I fail as a storyteller.

So, before Kindler passes judgement, we would like to see a scene from you, longer than your four-panel scene that you drew earlier.

I suggested to Kindler that you could draw something twenty, twenty-two panels long, and he agreed. (Actually, is he a he? I've been assuming so, ut I don't wanna look like an ass...)

This would allow us to see how your dialogue flows, how you set up a scene, how you have characters interact with other characters, how you handle working within the setting, how you deal with the liitations of the 'verse, and a million other things that you might not pick up on, and a bilion other things I won't even consciously recognize.

But yeah. If you don't mind, could you draw up just a quick scene? It's a lot of bother, I know... But hey, you could even draw up the beginning of your story. That way, you already have the start of it all drawn up for if you get accepted!

(Seriously, sorry for the bother. But technical writing skill, or a pleasing art style, does not a good story make. And I want the Nephilim 'verse to be full of imaginative writers. Good quality writers, preferable; in that 10%, definitely. But imgination an storytelling qualities are a must.)