Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Replacing the Roots of the story

As further I was trying to explain every single detail of my character back stories I found many weird things that weren't working very well with Greek mythology, so I decided to make a change. I decided to replace Ancient Greek Mythology with Baltic Pagan Mythology. This change is not breaking down everything what I had because of three reasons: first of all all pagan religions shared pretty much same gods just with different names and maybe stories, second reason is that  I found perfect matches for all three characters and their environment that makes more sense and the third reason is that I know much more about Baltic pagan culture and it is easy for me to find a reason why there can be a conflict between people and gods. This idea came to my head this evening when I remembered Phil's conversation with Bob last year since he was doing something connected with gods too and one of the examples was pagan gods. So here goes more interesting story:



Part 1: Fallen utopia, but not everything was lost.

The place of the events from the beginning is the Kurish (lt.trans. - Kuršiai) land. Kurish was the biggest tribe of Balts taking the whole area around the banks of the south-east Baltic sea. Some Baltic tribes were very aggressive and often called barbarians or pirates by the people from the other countries. The most of the conflicts were usually connected with the Celtic tribes from Sweden up until the times when crusaders came. The story is based on the era about  four thousand years B.C. In this world Gods were about to disappear or to be replaced and as they started feeling the end of their lives coming soon, they had to do something to protect their legacy or beliefs. A god of the sea back then was called Neptune (Exactly the same god as Poseidon in Greek mythology). Our hero's village was a very calm and peaceful place near the sea Praying to the goddess of fire Gab (lt.trans. - Gabija) who was bringing warmth and love to the hearts of families. Neptune was insulted by such ignorance in his lands and told his henchmen to burn those people on the credence that they were praying to and so it happened. Fortunately one child managed to survive the attack of the evil sea creatures. His family was caught in the middle of a casual day at home doing their usual works. This boy (even though he was also badly hurt) was protected by his own fathers body and after sea creatures went to find the other villagers he just ran away in panic. The pain of scars was nothing compared to the pain of shame that he felt of leaving his family like that, but he couldn't do anything back then - he had to choose to run or die. After Gab noticed what happened her heart was filled with sorrow and she decided to bring her physical form to this world and try to save this boy from absolute loneliness and bad temptations, bring him happiness and defend the honor of the innocent people who died because of her. From the ashes of the same people she took a form of phoenix and never left the boy alone although then she wasn't a goddess anymore, she sacrificed most of her powers just in order to be with him and instead of a mighty bird she took a form of a vulnerable little bird. She did that intentionally, because she predicted that influenced by too much power boy could turn into a bad side and seek only for revenge or greed instead of the path of the truth, peace and love as his parents did.



Part 2: Learning the truth.

Right after the accident boy was found by a Kurish pirate guild called "Vulture brotherhood". As usually they were looking for any kind of goods in the place of the accident. They couldn't find anything except this lonely boy with a broken soul and this weird golden bird following him to every place. Somehow they felt this strange warmth coming out of them, immediately smelled the money and took the two together. It didn't took too long to find rich people who would like to buy these rare treasures, but as soon as both of them felt first danger Gab just swooped through the lattice of the cage that she was kept in and flew straight into the mouth of the boy. The boy thought that he is going to choke to the death, but at the same time he felt this fire flowing through his body giving him incredible strength and this amazing breath of fire. Simple people just ran away, but pirates could see a great destructive power and decided to keep those two just for a bit longer. Later Pirates tried to swallow the bird by them selves, but they could feel nothing else except serious pain of burns and blisters after, so there was nothing else then trying to manipulate this boy to bring them fortune. It didn't worked well at the beginning. Apparently this fire could only burn the people with evil deeds and heal or give the strength only for those who really need it. This crew still kept him, because they knew that he might be useful. While the years were passing and the boy was traveling with the pirates, he saw many different people and learned a lot although his scars always reminded him of what have happened before. Pirates became his new family and the bird managed to make him smile again. He learned how sensitive and vulnerable Gab can be and treated her as the most important thing in his life. He just felt that a part of Gab is from his parents and all the village at the same time.Boy was never treated like a slave in the crew too. He was greatly respected because of his abilities and powers. Pirates also learned that they had much more use from helping people and getting rewards for that instead of gathering junk from graveyards. Eventually a boy who was not a boy anymore, but a young man convinced pirates to fight against Neptune, so that they would break the legacy of this devil and could be the most respected people in the seas. Without a long delay his best friends from the crew joined him and created a new guild called "Vulture brotherhood". They acted absolutely independently because they knew what kind of horrors could bring Neptune's rage to innocent people.

Part 3: To the den of evil

Before facing Neptune itself crew had to make special preparations. They were used to rob the graveyards and it was one of the things that they wouldn't have survived without. The only way to defeat Neptune was just to make him disappear completely. They heard a story about this lost "Paddle of Thunder" which could divide seas and the waters of Neptune in half. "Phoenix brotherhood" traveled through the seven seas of the world to find it until they did in the "Grave of Thunder". Many dangers were lying there, but they never stopped or looked back and they took what they wanted. To use this paddle a non-human strength was required. When our hero faced Neptune the most furious and godly battle happened. Eventually Neptune was divided into peaces by the paddle of thunder and steamed out by the fire of Gab. Unfortunately after the battle the last powers of Gab were also used up and Age of the last gods was finished. Peace and truth was taken back to the land of the seas again with a great price and our hero defended this legacy of human kind as long as he lived.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Domantas,
    Well I think this story has just about the right tone - danger, but plenty of hope. As it stands you have a very complete story, with a definite beginning, middle and end, which is great for a film pitch. I think though you may need to make a few tweaks so that it fits the ongoing series model. I think the growing up of the hero could be done through flash backs, with the action and focus kept in the present, for the main story plot. And since the paddle weapon could be a great and fun item for him, I think it should not be the mcguffin for the series arc - you would only ever see it in the very last episodes if it was. I think that it may be better to have him have this early on in the story, and that he uses it to overcome the true task of ending Neptunes reign, through various escapades or tasks. It would be a very useful weapon against Neptunes creatures.

    Regarding the sidekick Gab, i think it maybe better if (and the audience)is initially unaware of her role, so that you can play up the humour of her character. As it i, she is more of a mentor role, albeit a vulnerable one. Perhaps, when a phoenix is reborn, they forget everything about their old life and this one is a little accident prone, to increase the comic value.

    ReplyDelete
  2. rememeber I was saying you seem like you could be character designer. Maybe a comic artist?

    ReplyDelete