(no subject)
...and I'm fighting off the somewhat nagging need to start "organizing" my writing and background for NaNo. I get the occasional flashes of "ZOMG!!! You haven't researched angels or demons or zombies or infection vectors or or or or..." So far, I'm winning in slapping the little voice and saying "my world. I'll do what I want."
Ideas, however, are perking around, and I'm letting them go at it. I don't view *those* as the bad things. Little test "plays" and conversation to see where something might lead...possible plot bunnies...
Ramblings from the brain:
Initial characters: 2-3 men, 1 woman
Affiliation: some type of police keeping force or hunting party for the wasteland area. Looks for survivors, runs simple research, etc. Small groups as the actual functioning 'patrols', each city-state has to send members to [insert name of group later] training.
City-states: somewhat hostile to each other, forced to work in unison for their protection by creating and utilizing [name later] to patrol, research, etc.
Rogue city-states: outside of the structure itself, manage to survive on the fringes. Possible source of the "rebellion" against some type of malignant government that the main city-states run. Most refugees are taken to the rogue city-states.
Refugees: people/groups who have either opted to leave the major city-states due to oppressive govermental policies or those who have committed some 'crime' and are kicked out of the cities as their punishment. Some refugees are those who were not part of any land area that became the city-states. (Rural, isolated people/groups) Some survive on their own due to isolation, some are continually moving, looking for a place to go.
Some random thoughts:
How do the city-states maintain borders and prevent invasions from [monsters]?
1. At intial time of apocalyptic event, hidden people with psi/magical abilities were able to "bubble" areas as protection from what was going on.
2. With time, technology that remained combined with that psi/magical system and "took over" the operation of it.
3. Some factions were unable to cope with [system of magic/psi] and once the initial need was resolved, pushed for making them outcasts/outlaws. Some cities welcomed them with open arms. Creates three factions: "religious" based god-fearing government, "liberal" governments that are more open to variations, "rogue" states where the population is more "other" and less "human". All three have to work together, to a degree, as the larger danger to them all are the wastelands and what inhabits them.
This arrangement is affected by:
4. Scarcity of women for [some reason]
5. 4 leads to several types of caste systems in one or two cities: some elevate the woman to matriarchal rulership status where they are kept protected, some make women a slave class who are forced into marriages or to bear children, some are "normal" society. One or two that require all citizens to donate reproductive material and children are created from that, removing chance, etc.
5. Can lead to city raids to capture women. (Rogue state activity?)
6. Incursions of [variety of "bad guy" style humans and monsters]
7. Food production varies from city to city, as does availability of water.
8. Some technology maintained, but some has been outlawed. (Combustion engines cease to function as oil/gas runs out, necessitating new energy sources.) Combustion also would polute the cities themselves and so have been removed. May still run in the wastelands as gas/oil is avail.
What is the apocalyptic event?
9. Must account for mutations of humans into "other" creatures: ghouls, geists, zombies, etc.
10. Could some wasteland creatures have spawned from increased obvious interaction between human and non-human elements? (changelings, sidhe, etc)
11. External to any intervention? (meteor, volcanic explosion, etc)
12. Internal to human activity? (nuclear war, biological warfare, research gone bad, etc)
Character Level:
13. Existing group of three men, lost the rest of their group in their last skirmish getting a group of refugees to a rogue city. Lost researcher, [psi/magic person], and two fighters.
14. Woman sent from her unit to theirs as they had too many people and needed to reorganize. Does the research/psi role in one person, leaves room for more fighters down the road if want to expand the main character group for future writing/novels/whatever.
15. Race/type/history/etc of each person?
16. Already existing relationships/interactions? How does the group function and interact before introduction of woman?
17. What holes in that structure did losing four others of a close knit group create?
Ideas, however, are perking around, and I'm letting them go at it. I don't view *those* as the bad things. Little test "plays" and conversation to see where something might lead...possible plot bunnies...
Ramblings from the brain:
Initial characters: 2-3 men, 1 woman
Affiliation: some type of police keeping force or hunting party for the wasteland area. Looks for survivors, runs simple research, etc. Small groups as the actual functioning 'patrols', each city-state has to send members to [insert name of group later] training.
City-states: somewhat hostile to each other, forced to work in unison for their protection by creating and utilizing [name later] to patrol, research, etc.
Rogue city-states: outside of the structure itself, manage to survive on the fringes. Possible source of the "rebellion" against some type of malignant government that the main city-states run. Most refugees are taken to the rogue city-states.
Refugees: people/groups who have either opted to leave the major city-states due to oppressive govermental policies or those who have committed some 'crime' and are kicked out of the cities as their punishment. Some refugees are those who were not part of any land area that became the city-states. (Rural, isolated people/groups) Some survive on their own due to isolation, some are continually moving, looking for a place to go.
Some random thoughts:
How do the city-states maintain borders and prevent invasions from [monsters]?
1. At intial time of apocalyptic event, hidden people with psi/magical abilities were able to "bubble" areas as protection from what was going on.
2. With time, technology that remained combined with that psi/magical system and "took over" the operation of it.
3. Some factions were unable to cope with [system of magic/psi] and once the initial need was resolved, pushed for making them outcasts/outlaws. Some cities welcomed them with open arms. Creates three factions: "religious" based god-fearing government, "liberal" governments that are more open to variations, "rogue" states where the population is more "other" and less "human". All three have to work together, to a degree, as the larger danger to them all are the wastelands and what inhabits them.
This arrangement is affected by:
4. Scarcity of women for [some reason]
5. 4 leads to several types of caste systems in one or two cities: some elevate the woman to matriarchal rulership status where they are kept protected, some make women a slave class who are forced into marriages or to bear children, some are "normal" society. One or two that require all citizens to donate reproductive material and children are created from that, removing chance, etc.
5. Can lead to city raids to capture women. (Rogue state activity?)
6. Incursions of [variety of "bad guy" style humans and monsters]
7. Food production varies from city to city, as does availability of water.
8. Some technology maintained, but some has been outlawed. (Combustion engines cease to function as oil/gas runs out, necessitating new energy sources.) Combustion also would polute the cities themselves and so have been removed. May still run in the wastelands as gas/oil is avail.
What is the apocalyptic event?
9. Must account for mutations of humans into "other" creatures: ghouls, geists, zombies, etc.
10. Could some wasteland creatures have spawned from increased obvious interaction between human and non-human elements? (changelings, sidhe, etc)
11. External to any intervention? (meteor, volcanic explosion, etc)
12. Internal to human activity? (nuclear war, biological warfare, research gone bad, etc)
Character Level:
13. Existing group of three men, lost the rest of their group in their last skirmish getting a group of refugees to a rogue city. Lost researcher, [psi/magic person], and two fighters.
14. Woman sent from her unit to theirs as they had too many people and needed to reorganize. Does the research/psi role in one person, leaves room for more fighters down the road if want to expand the main character group for future writing/novels/whatever.
15. Race/type/history/etc of each person?
16. Already existing relationships/interactions? How does the group function and interact before introduction of woman?
17. What holes in that structure did losing four others of a close knit group create?