010 : Wheel

Welcome new and old!

Since the 3rd, we've...

• Finished completely overhauling the epic's first Act.

• Developed the basic outline for all three of the Acts.

• Started identifying its themes and purposes (so marketing is easier).

What have we learned?

How will we move forward?

Let's see!

The Beginning

I guess it's about time I actually start telling you about it, huh?

I have over a dozen iterations of the same story. One would say that most of them will never see the light of day, but this is untrue. A pattern I've noticed is that when I make a bunch of things all of them end up fused together. A sum of all the best parts. This is the case for the epic.

These are a few diagrams I made a few weeks ago. "Current" was the previous version of Act 1.

Each piece of the diamond was the introduction of a new kingdom, and every line was a new age. In the first age, one arrived. In the second, two more came and the previous one left. In the third came three more, leaving the previous two behind, and so on. This made for a clean development of history, but when I decided to make the epic there was one problem:

It was very boring. Long story short, the story was too short. There was no sense of scale. So, what did I do?

I just kept everybody in there to give them the chance to love or hate each other. Relationships are formed by proximity and time. Good and ill alike.

In the first age, the first kingdom was born.

In the next, four more came along, all distinct.

Then seven more came in.

You can see how things quickly get out of hand.

In the end, there are 27 different cultures all crammed together at the end of history. By that time, the stuff in the melting pot has started to burn a hole through the bottom of the whole thing.

A whole new form of hell is unleashed when they all finally seep through.

And that's when Act 2 begins!

That's all I have for you today.

Next update on the 15th, barring emergencies.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Until then,

👋