Wa-a-a-a-a-ay back when, I originally had the idea for fifteen novels, only five of which actually involved "the main characters." At that time, the main characters were...
Vincent, Lyri, Dash and Dean ("The Core Four")
Malim and Lorelei (the political characters)
Dorilys, Janimba, Linden and Myranel (the spiritual/magical characters)
The first story was to be Unda Vosari with no subtitle. Taking a cue from most novels that are put into a series, I kept the Unda Vosari title and added subtitles to each novel.
Unda Vosari: Legends - The story that sets in motion the events that take place in the other novels.
Unda Vosari: Steampunk - The Isles of Steam are explored and the Baron is hunted down. This eventually evolved from Dash and his origins, which tie in and end up with the meeting of Vincent and Dash, and the defeat of the Baron, to Unda Vosari: Travels, which deals less with the past and more with the present.
Unda Vosari: Holy War - Vincent did some shit in the first book involving this guy named Veln. This story revolved around Veln and a war that had very little to do with the crew of the Dark Vigil, and NOTHING to do with the Kingdoms (as of the end of the novel). It was ripped to shreds and became Unda Vosari: Confrontations, which has a lot more to do with some of the crew of the Dark Vigil, and indirectly involves the Kingdoms.
Unda Vosari: Military - Vincent did some shit in the first book involving this guy named Dagriz. This story revolved around Dagriz and a war that had a WHOLE LOT to do with the Kingdoms, but nothing to do with the original crew of the Dark Vigil, and was a "stand-alone" plot that really didn't need to be told. It was scrapped and evolved into Unda Vosari: Commanders, which now involves Lorelei, Malim, Nova, Dorilys and some of the other crew members dealing with Dagriz and the repercussions of some of the events of the first novel.
Unda Vosari: World At War - This was the culmination, climax and resolution of the three previous stories. Veln, Dagriz, the Baron, the Dark Vigil, the Kingdoms and everyone in the previous stories resolved their conflicts, but it still left a lot of loose threads, like... the entire reason Vincent (who comes back to the Kingdoms now) was going after the Baron. This evolved into Unda Vosari: Cataclysms.
After UV:WaW, I had Generations, which involved a race from the Isles of Steam, the trolls, invading the Kingdoms (who were now mostly at peace). Of course, this was long after the heroes from the other novels retired - this was their children. That was followed by Unda Vosari: Infiltration, which was about the troll spies (who can somehow NOT BE GREEN-SKINNED TROLLS WITH TUSKS) infiltrating and empowering Octavia (for no reason at all besides the fact I said so). Unda Vosari: Formation came next, which is when Octavia sort of takes over the world with the help of the trolls. Naturally, Unda Vosari: Rebellion came next, which had nothing to do with the Rebellion in the Isles of Steam that already existed, but was Cederlord rebelling against the Empire of Octavia. The whole shebang was wrapped up with Unda Vosari: Confrontation, which was when all hell broke loose (again) and the world made itself right (again).
But wait! I wasn't done trying too hard! I had Unda Vosari: Bloodlines, which was the GRANDCHILDREN of the original heroes... The Empire was destroyed and the Republic of Unda Vosari was attacked by the Isles of Steam, who were using things from the Savage Lands, which was the one quarter of the world that wasn't explored (the northwest had the kingdoms, the northeast had the holy lands, the southwest had the isles, and the southeast had remained a mystery). Then Unda Vosari: Civil War, which was the "reveal" that showed the Infernals from WAY BACK WHEN were to blame for everything, including the war with the Isles of Steam... Unda Vosari: Invasion was when the Infernals, now without refuge, found new refuge in audacity. That was followed by Unda Vosari: Domination, which was the Republic (now including the Isles of Steam) getting severely beaten by the Infernals... Ultimately, only one group of people could save the world... Vincent and his crew were summoned THROUGH TIME using YE' OLDE MAGICAL ARTIFACTS FROM THE SAVAGE LANDS, as were the children of Vincent and his crew... This all took place in Unda Vosari: Bloodties.
You can see how I randomly got ideas and ran with them.
Ultimately, the last ten stories were scrapped. Without having to resort to "the next generation" and "future generations" of the heroes, I could easily tell the story I wanted to without having to go that route. The last ten stories, as much as I don't want to admit it, were me trying to run a game, not tell a story. It'd have been a great Dungeons and Dragons story, but it wasn't meant to be.
Fifteen stories. That's a whole lot of writing. As it is, there's still Legends, Travels, Commanders, Confrontations and Cataclysms, which are the first five stories. I've also been going through and writing bits and pieces of the next series of stories under the Unda Vosari banner, the Origins stories.
Unda Vosari Origins is going to tell the stories of the origins of the heroes. Dashade is probably coming first, followed by one for Vincent, Dean, Lyri and Alasse. I've also got the "Unda Vosari: Tales of ..." stories which will feature historical events that created the world that Unda Vosari: Legends. First on that list is "Tales of Cederlord," which describes the fall of Cederlord. Tales of Rosnet explains why they secluded themselves away from the rest of the world by the time UV:Travels happens, and what the winged elves have to do with it. Finally, Tales of Octavia explains the history of Dagriz and Dorilys, and how their fates were intertwined long before they knew the other even existed.
I'm biting off more than I can chew, right? Not at all. Commanders, Confrontations and Cataclysms will be sold as ONE book - Unda Vosari: Compilations. Cheaper on you, easier for me to write, and I have a reason to publish a giant paperback, instead of having to worry about the cost and page counts and all that.
So, two more books, plus the "Dark Corners" book, which is just some short stories that tie things together (and it's already being written), and the Origins book, which is the five stories... Then the three prequel stories, which is another book...
I've also got a lot of stories I want to tell that happen in between and alongside the main stories. Don't forget, while Vincent is raising hell in the Isles of Steam, Dagriz is raising hell in the Kingdoms and Veln is raising hell in the Holy Lands, there's still that unexplored and untapped quarter of the world (roughly). That's touched upon in Dark Corners, and the story of Lorimarko and his crew of airship pirates is followed in all three of the stories in Unda Vosari: Compilations, even though he's only introduced in Dark Corners. There's also six wars going on (only four of which are the fault of Vincent) that have a story to be told, and a lot of stories can happen in a war... let alone six.
The point of all this is, I found all my old notes and the bits and pieces I'd written for the previously mentioned fifteen novels. I'm going to salvage what I can from it and rewrite it as needed, because some of it, in my opinion, is very well written, so the writing process is going to be sped up a bit.
If anyone's interested, the Quotes page of Unda Vosari (on Facebook, found here) is going to have a few more quotes as well, simply because there's some great lines I came up with.
Take care!
-B-
No comments:
Post a Comment