[Twi]Chronicles of the Impaler: Crisis of Infinite Draculas OOC

[Colesign]

Speaking of Urban Fantasy Books... I just read the latest Anita Blake book to see what it was all about.

...*Sigh*. It could have be so much better than it wound up being. It's not the absurd amount of sex that's the problem, no matter what some people might say...it's the way in which Blake keepings being indecisive over whether polyamorous sex/having dark supernatural powers is okay, plus her constant slap-fights with one-dimensional obstructive misogynists, dialogue that's a bit clunky, the hamhanded, constantly rehashed "Lyncanthropy as a metaphor for AIDS/Racism/ Homosexuality"...

...all of that pretty much took up the majority of the book, to the extent where the climactic battle with the soul of the First Vampire wound up being a cheesy psychic duel that was over in three pages.

...Wow. Now I know what being Cracklord is like It's a scary feeling...and yet it feel So Powerful!

No! Snap out of it!

But on a more positive note, it would be an interesting thought experiment to see how the...current state of the Anita Blake series could be improved. More musings on this later.

[Cracklord]

...Wow. Now I know what being Cracklord is like It's a scary feeling...and yet it feel So Powerful!

That's the fist steps in a long, dark path, Colesign.

But on a more positive note, it would be an interesting thought experiment to see how the...current state of the Anita Blake series could be improved. More musings on this later.

Kill of roughly sixty percent of the cast, then introduce a charismatic evil character who is a.)proactive, and b.) far more then a match for Anita. Use this character to break the formula, then roughly halfway through subvert expectations and change the progression and the focus. You'd then have an adequate bland story.

[Colesign]

That runs fairly close to what I was thinking: shake things up and all!

One of the problems I've heard several people remark about many urban fantasy series is that a lot of writers don't move beyond the well-trod triad of Western Folklore based "Vamps, Weres, and Extra." (Extra usually being Fae or Psychics. Or Cthulhu. Or in this case, Necromancer and Fae). Hitting ol' Anita and the Harem Squad with a nice Outside Context Problem would put the cats among the pigeons right enough.

I'm thinking that a good villain to face off against Anita Blake and really tear her life to shreds and force to to make choices would be one of two things: a really, really powerful sorcerer (or ess.), something along the lines of 'Black Company' type power levels (difficult to kill being included), who...

Oh, I had a good idea: this sorcerer teaches people Dark, easy to learn, and extremely corrupting Black Magic...under the pretext of giving the common man the power to defend against Supernatural creatures they'd otherwise be helpless against. This would be a crisis situation that Anita couldn't simply solve by shooting or sexing, and it would subvert the Series's current dynamic of "Monsters Do It Better".

Or alternately, we would have a charismatic, mortal villain along the lines of the Major. Can't go too wrong with that.

[Cracklord]

Power is not what I'd go for, necessarily at least. A twenty foot tall soccer hooligan is not a particularly compelling enemy. Intelligence, on the other hand, is important. I was thinking more Andre Linoge style. Something you can't simply defeat, but can't allow to win either.
"Give me what I want, and I'll go away." Indeed. Though honestly, you can't spit-polish a turd, no matter how you rub it. Anita Blake is better written off.

Anyway, I wonder, do the muppets maintain correspondence?

[Colesign]

Good Points. But let's not forget that Anita Blake used to be good: my roommate loved the early series, and felt that what happened to it was a 'tragedy'.

And I'm fairly certain the Muppets keep in touch with letters.

Sentient Letters.

[Cracklord]

I only read the first and last book. The first book was not all that great. Arguably mediocre, bland if I'm feeling generous (only happens when the stars are right). Sure, I can see people liking it, but many smart, capable, socially well adjusted and tasteful people like things that I cannot hope to stomach.
Believe me, there is no accounting for taste.

Yes, I think you're right there about the muppets.

[Colesign]

*Neutral Grunt*

But anyways, I did have an idea about your current Shatterworld cosmology of White vs. Black vs. Red.

Perhaps in the fight between White and Black, there are multiple layers of their epic, Yin Yang duel. We've mainly focused on the Heartless and Supervillains as the manifestation of the Black, which are respectively being that seek to dominate both the soul and the material world, respectively.

But perhaps, in a third way, there's also a manifestation of the Black that seeks to dominate people's minds, manifesting particularly within Totalitarian Despotisms, Evil, Supernaturally Compelling Religions, and nasty mofos like Yawgmoth, Cybermen, the Borg, Anti-Life Equation, and all those sorts. This would be the element of the Black that seeks to dominate every Mind and subordinate them to the greater whole in the worst possible meaning of the word.

Thus the fight between White and Dark is a Battle of Mind, Body and Soul. As for the Red...they're too messed up to have such distinctions.

[Cracklord]

Here is how I wrote the cosmology: It's not the forces at work, so much as the things that create them. Their actual manifestations are symptoms, rather then causes.
The 'devil made me do it defense' does not please the court. Yes, naturally such things strengthen and increase the influence of the factions, but people take the steps themselves. The fact that they go that way on their own is simply a reflection of how nasty life can be.

The four factions are The black, white, red and grey. The Grey are the Heartless, the Auditors of reality and the Anti-Spirals. Ultimately, their purpose is to create a universe of law and order. One of the first things in order to do this is get rid of individuality, if not life itself. And if they did kill everyone, they'd get rid of the afterlife's as well, just to be sure, then spend eternity watching cold, spinning rocks. Given that life is what creates the process of entropy, and it's proliferation is speeding up the end of the universe, this is something that needs to exist, as much as it sucks should they target you. Unfortunately, it also sees itself as completely above morality, and is often suckered in to doing the work of the black, since it benefits them.
The red is the opposite, as strange as that might seem. The villains who are part of the red are just examples of too much of a good thing. Because they are the lords of chaos. If they get their hands on a world, they distort reality to such a point that the whole thing does not last long. Again, not evil. But given that just by existing they do terrible things to anyone who comes into contact, and their natural state is nightmarish, it's hard to credit. Without it, however, there'd be no such thing as free will. However, the existence of complete freedom and chaos is naturally closer to the Black then the White, and many of them are actively malevolent, simply because it pleases them to be.
The black is evil. The adversary. It exists to consume and destroy.
The white is good. The positive. It exists to preserve and protect.
The struggle between the four creates life.
And The Supreme Being watches, along with the eldritch abominations who don't really fit in.

[doliest]

What about the forces that actively strive for balance? Still in fitting with the Black's 'we are above such things' but don't try to eliminate life so much as prolong as long as possible without resorting to that method, such as the pre-Time War Time Lords and

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Kyubey's people from Puella Magi

?

[Cracklord]

That's the thing. Most people borrow elements from the faction, but only a infinitesimal fraction actually take it all the way. That's the various examples at their purest. Most beings are far less extreme, even if they do serve them (wittingly or unwittingly. Kings and pawns). Regardless, you can serve any cause you want, chances are it will benefit one of the four.

[Colesign]

Ah. Sounds quite interesting. I didn't mean to imply that evil, good, chaos, and order weren't the results of people's choices: in any case, I like the cosmology.

[Cracklord]

Glad to hear it. The main villains are a bunch of independent contractors, mostly black but with other elements and sympathies thrown in, and not enough to be incapable of working together.

[Colesign]

And they have a nasty tendency to create catspaws: first time around they used the Crimson King/Father, and next Crisis they'll utilize Liches Anonymous.

The reason I brought up the the 'Mind-Body-Soul' Metaphor is that I read two different book series (Emberverse and Time Quartet, respectively) and saw some similarities between their two major villains.

Both are sort of manifestations of the Dark Aspects of the Universal Mind that worm their way into people's souls through individuality-denying religions or governments: 'A Wrinkle in Time' had that scary as heck brain in a tank dictator called 'IT', and the 'Emberverse' series has a scary, distorted, post-apocalyptic version of the Church Universal and Triumphant. Might be interesting for either to show up in another game.

[Cracklord]

Good to know. Well, they might just appear next epic.

[Colesign]

Not sure if you'd like the 'Emberverse' series as a whole, but I know you'd like the 'Cutters' as villains. Their High Seekers are quite the scary fellas.

[Cracklord]

I am somewhat hard to please, aren't I? I'll take a look at it when I get around to it.

[Draxx]

Anybody have a clue where everyone went? Darkblade hasn't updated in a while, and Doliest seems to have been swallowed up by the desert as well.

[Colesign]

I assumed it was tests and such: But anime kid and Industrious have posted relatively recently, so there's that.

And on a side note, I finished watching Gurren Lagann. Now all the Super Robot Antic of the last Crisis game make more sense.

[industrious]

And thanks to John de Lancie, I've now watched all of that freaking dog and Pony show.

[Draxx]

Yeah. Who knew, right?

[doliest]

And thanks to John de Lancie, I've now watched all of that freaking dog and Pony show.

Heh. It's his power, it truly is.

And I keep getting swallowed up by Biology and the College Application process.

And the film work. And the play work.

Still, I'm once again on the grid again, and this time I'm working a schedule out beforehand, so I shouldn't lose track of everything. It's plan 4 for 'Not failing Biology'

[Cracklord]

I got exams in a bit myself, though you lot probably won't even notice.

[darkblade]

Sorry I've been consumed by the burdens of moving across the province. I'll try to have an update for the space game later tonight.

[Cracklord]

Good to see you again.

[Colesign]

Speaking of which, Darkblade: do you want to bring in a new Dracula Character?

Blacula maybe? Or perhaps...

MIME DRACULA!!!!!!!!!!

...He has an invisible coffin.

[Cracklord]

So I was wondering. If, in Industrious' up and coming game, Santa Claus is dead, who the hell (pun intended entirely) banishes Satan every year?

[Colesign]

Huh. Tricky Question.

John Constantine finally bit it, so that's not who does it...The Winchester Brothers did it once, but let's not add to the frothing mug of emotional suffering they quaff regularly...

Tim Allen?

...Let's not go there.

Perhaps Drapo, the Laziest Man on Mars?

[Cracklord]

Even I think that's much too cynical, putting all of reality in the hands of sheer dumb luck like that (Santa is the same everywhere, afterall, meaning that on every world, Santa banishes Satan at Christmas. So it sort of has to be something that can get anywhere, and can hold back the king of evil).

Then again, I'm not the one who killed Santa (off-screen), so clearly I'm out of my league in the 'this universe really sucks' department.

[Colesign]

Someone who can go anywhere in a swift amount of time, and who can slap around and banish the most powerful of demons like nobody's business?

There's really no other 'man' for the job, then:

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[Cracklord]

Son Wukong, handsome monkey king? Yeah alright, since he's essentially part of the Asian equivalent of the fey anyway. I suppose that makes sense.