Hero Tales: Index and explanation

The library of MANA, containing records of expeditions, blue prints of famous magical fortresses, and various reference works and papers on magic.

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Andreas the Wise
Posts: 2189
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2010 11:40 pm

Hero Tales: Index and explanation

Post by Andreas the Wise »

Welcome to Hero Tales! I always enjoyed the expeditions and stories we told together, and for a couple years now have dreamed of taking the source material and retelling them in way that makes them accessible to others. My ultimate goal, if I could retell them well, would be to learn them and be able to tell them orally as stories – how cool would it be to tell these stories to my kids or nephews/nieces (if I end up having some)?

So without further ado, here are the stories. Currently the first five expeditions are done, and after some backhistory for the First Age it’s on the finale of the first arc – the Demon War. Unfortunately, the Toketi forums are gone, so I thought now was a good time to put up what I have, both for a) anyone who is interested, and b) to ask if anyone remembers anything from the lost stuff to help fill out the gaps in my memory. More on that (and my thinking in rewriting these) here:
In terms of lost stuff, I’m thinking for the Demon War of telling a key incident/battle from the perspective of each of the main characters – so if you can remember something cool you or anybody else did, let me know (otherwise I’ll make stuff up to fill it out). I recognise many of you only joined at the Hamuji War just before the Demon War, so you aren’t in these early expeditions, but I’m going to put those characters into the Demon War so they are introduced before the second (and much longer) Fated story arc. Gerk, Nargoth, Sirith, Scorpiox, Prodigy and Fides will all thus be first appearing in the Demon War.

Also lost on the Toketi forums are the zombie expedition and the expedition to Taonas, so if you want me to retell those, anything you guys can remember will be a great help! Many of the rest of the expeditions are saved on the Gralan forums/the wiki, both of which are down on the web because our old hosting disappeared, but I have old backups from just after we moved to Bastion, which I’ve set up again on my local computer so I can access source material. If people are super keen to have those back up generally, I can play around and see if I can get it to work with my new hosting provider …

Onto some broader notes on the retelling. First and foremost, I know these are our stories I’m retelling, not mine – so don’t worry, I have intention of trying to publish these or anything (they’re not good enough to do that anyway, I’m not that accomplished a storyteller …). When I do package up the first arc in a pdf nicely, I’ll acknowledge all of you at the start by your character name – very happy to acknowledge you in addition/instead with your real name if you like – just let me know :)

Second, I’m doing the project for my own enjoyment and purpose (i.e. making the stories accessible and ultimately being able to tell them orally to kids), so I’ve made some narrative decisions to that end in retelling. If you have comments/feedback, I’m open to it (would always love to make these stories even better!), just letting you know the broader decisions I’ve made so you understand why some of the changes are there. These broad decisions are:
- Characters who only appeared briefly/once are being dropped – otherwise there’s way too many to keep track of and I have to invent most of their dialogue anyway (as they didn’t do much in the first place). This includes both people who made one post randomly in the middle of an expedition, and people’s side/assistant characters. The main exception to this will be female characters, because we don’t have too many of those, so in the interests of gender balance I’ve prioritised their inclusion, even adding Tsunade into an expedition to replace Sorongath at one point. Also, Nicholas got retconned in earlier instead of some of the other random Novatainians who never stuck around long, and Da Huntsman has been merged as a character with Q (to honour how much he was around but didn’t expedition).
- Name changes are too complicated, so Frumpmaster just starts as Longbow, Matt just starts as Arnole, Demon of the North will start as Nargoth, Demon of the East will start as Sirith, and I’ll have to see how Scorpiox’s characters progress in later expeditions but I’ll probably collapse some down. Similar with Atticus/Gnaar Mok.
- I’ve tried to make the expeditions relatively self-contained and internally/externally consistent, so sometimes that means dropping minor openings we left ourselves when writing that we never took up, and adding new things in to close plot-holes. If I dropped your favourite bit, sorry – try, and you can probably talk me into putting it back in. I’ve tried to keep characters relatively consistent across these initial expeditions too – if that means I’ve made you too one-dimensional, also sorry – I’m open to help in improving your dialogue/character development (and I expect more character development to occur in the second arc). Being self-contained also means unnecessary references to external events have been dropped (and in other cases my memory just fails me for timing so I’ll just go with what seems good narratively. Like when did Lachlan make me king, or Lyam make Bayen king? I’ll probably just put that in at the end of the demon war. The Gralan senate thing will be dropped entirely, and we’ll just transition from separate kingdoms to Empire at some point – again, can’t remember when – hoping I can tell that from expedition timing).
- I’ve dropped everything I know is directly copyright infringing, including renaming some creatures (e.g. Balrogs have been reworked as ‘Fire Trolls’).
- Because I have kids in mind as a potential audience, I’ve decided to drop the word ‘demon’ throughout. The demons are still there (they’re the major enemy in the first arc, after all!) they’re just called infernals; and Demon of the North/East/Fides will just be Nargoth/Sirith/Fides. I’m still undecided on whether I’ll include necromancy in the second arc or not – I know those events played out IC but I’m not sure how much they made it into expeditions to be packaged up into nice self-contained stories. We’ll see when I get there. The second arc gets darker anyway, especially by the Fated War, so it wouldn’t be too out of place there.
Hero Tales - Volume I - The Infernal Cycle
Tales of discovery and adventure; of ancient races and modern friends; of lost orbs, found enemies, and, most of all, of heroes.

The first saga of hero tales, in which we are introduced to the nations of Novatainia and Toketi at the birth of an era of magical restoration. Ancient races are encountered and ancient feuds resolved, as the secret history of the first age reveals surprising ramifications for the present day.

From Mountain Heights to Swirling Depths
In which we first meet our heroes as they discover hidden dragons and the mysterious krynii.

Expedition Below the Archives
In which we meet more heroes and the infernal Lord Artuu, and find the first of the seven orbs.

Historical Aside – Tales of Nova [Coming]
In which an unlikely hero ventures forth into the very depths of the Infernal Pit in order to create the means to defeat the Brotherhood, in the process bringing together the seven races and their seven orbs.

Historical Aside – The First Age [Coming]
A brief history of the First Age, the seven magical races and their orbs, empires built and tyrants toppled, and the fall of the age to infernals and fire. This history was discovered with the second orb and the Altar designed for their use.

Second Expedition to the Whirlpool
In which a new friendship is formed and an ancient fault made right, as the third orb is rediscovered.

Expedition to the Scoiatolli Woods
In which a lost colony of the skyrin are troubled by a fell force wielding a dark artefact of the Second Age.

Expedition the Old Dwarven Settlements
In which our heroes uncover more three ancient orbs, solve an ancient mystery, and accidentally unleash an ancient evil – the Whisperer.

The Infernal War [Coming - with your help!]
In which all the pieces are on the board for the Infernal Hordes to return after their mysterious disappearance at the fall of the First Age. New heroes rise up to join those we already know and love in defending their home. The final of the seven races is re-discovered, the fate of the final orb is revealed, and all waits on the descendant of Nova to determine if their fate is salvation or destruction.
The character Andreas the Wise is on indefinite leave. But he does deserve a cool war ribbon.
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However, this account still manages:
Vincent Waldgrave - Lord General of Gralus
Manuel - CEO of VBNC. For all you'll ever need.
Q - Director of SAMIN
Duke Mel'Kat - Air Pirate, Melangian, and Duke of the Flying Duchy of Glanurchy
Cla'Udi - Count of Melangia
Vur'Alm Xei'Bôn - Speaker of Nelaga, Minister of Interior Affairs, and a Micron

Kaarrin Isselkaan
Posts: 94
Joined: Sat Sep 07, 2013 11:28 pm

Re: Hero Tales: Index and explanation

Post by Kaarrin Isselkaan »

Shit, I thought we had some weird wiki type thing somewhere with most of this kept around. Like maybe that one break-off country I made that was weird and entirely a wiki. If something like that is around, it might have some of the stuff you're missing...

I gotta get back to finishing all the End stuff, now that I think about it. Might need to consult some people on that. I can probably finish it solo if I at least know what everyone expects their characters to be doing after all is said and done.
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Andreas the Wise
Posts: 2189
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2010 11:40 pm

Re: Hero Tales: Index and explanation

Post by Andreas the Wise »

We had a wiki (I have the backup from 2011, not sure how much really changed since then), but anything of expeditions on there is stuff that I manually copied over - so it has most things, but not the Demon War (or the Dread Expedition with all the zombies, nor how we found Taonas).

I'm always in favour of finishing off the End stuff properly.
The character Andreas the Wise is on indefinite leave. But he does deserve a cool war ribbon.
Image
However, this account still manages:
Vincent Waldgrave - Lord General of Gralus
Manuel - CEO of VBNC. For all you'll ever need.
Q - Director of SAMIN
Duke Mel'Kat - Air Pirate, Melangian, and Duke of the Flying Duchy of Glanurchy
Cla'Udi - Count of Melangia
Vur'Alm Xei'Bôn - Speaker of Nelaga, Minister of Interior Affairs, and a Micron

Kaarrin Isselkaan
Posts: 94
Joined: Sat Sep 07, 2013 11:28 pm

Re: Hero Tales: Index and explanation

Post by Kaarrin Isselkaan »

I went looking for some of my old work in weird places and they probably don't exist anymore either, sorry. Unless I'm just waaaay forgetting what they were called or something. They might unfortunately be lost to time (although I'm sure there's still something you can do about that, Mr Magician).

Regarding the End, I'm mostly just out of my element concerning any of the actual magic stuff. I have no idea where any of you want to go with that nor how it would ever be resolved in a way that doesn't just bite me in the ass. The majority of Rinne's stuff is political/cultural crap that will eventually end with him as King, I have most of what will happen worked out and the details usually have a good way of filling themselves in as I write, so in that regard, I just need to get myself to write the damn stuff.
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