Moving some of my old ideas over to this site and expanding on them. It might take awhile, since there are a lot of them and I'll be slowly working out the kinks in them. My bigger ideas will need some work, so I'll start with the, uh, smaller ones. And this was an idea that I've considered multiple times.
Let's start with this one--it's actually a fic already, but it's only just beginning and I keep getting ideas and thinking over what they mean, whether they can be included or not, etc. Regardless, I think it makes a good starting point for this discussion.
The idea of making Digimon into a more fantasy type of setting has come up and been used a number of times (including by me, in one of my earlier fics, though that was a lot more scifi then high fantasy). So let's look at that and think about it a bit. Here's what I, personally, came up with, but I'd be interested in hearing how you guys think it could be done to make both an interesting setting and staying true to the core themes.
Disclaimer: I took heavy inspiration from Lord Dunsany, the Tales from the Flat Earth, Mythology, and Exalted.
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It is a world of magic. It is a world of wonders and horrors and wondrous horror and horrific wonders; a world of Gods and monsters, where often enough the gods are monsters. It's a big world, and amazing world, larger than life in every sense, and often enough mortals die in the tread of the things around them. There are knights and dragons, spirits and priests, spells and technology. The world is divided in four directions, and in each life is hard and painful for the vast majority of mankind. The Gods above are active and involved, but also fickle and ofttimes cruel, many of them lording their power of man and demanding tribute and worship lest their wrath fall on those who don't. For many, there is no choice but to accept this and go about their lives. For many...but not all. Some people can't accept that or go through something that changes their opinions. They rebel against the nature of the world. Most of them are crushed anyway, beneath the boots of the Gods and the monsters who serve them.
These are the stories of those that weren't.
In this idea, each of the Tamer's start of separated, as in canon, and eventually cross paths--and not always as friends. I'll start with Takato's story:
His story begins shortly before a Trojan War-like event, started by a number of asshole gods. Soon, the Southern Kingdoms will go to war with the North--but not quite yet. For now, there is still a bit of time for preparation--and there is a sword. A sword that some magical being, whether demon or god, put in the mightiest tree in all the land long, long ago. For a thousand years, no one has been able to pull it from the tree's trunk and it has been largely forgotten--it is just of the many interesting things in the kingdom, accepted as something that just is.
At least, it is until the Oracle prophosizes that they will only be able to win the war if a knight draws the blade from it's resting place; without it, only death and death awaits their armies. There is a mad scramble to find the one who can draw the blade, but one by one, every knight fails to pull out the blade. The king then declares that every man, woman, and child in the kingdom attempt to draw the blade, and sure enough, one does; someone no one expected. It is the young son of a baker who draws the sword from it's resting place and forced into the position it brings with it.
The War starts shortly after, with Takato barely having time for basic training. The truth of the Prophecy quickly becomes apparent, as but days into the war, a Dragon (on the orders of aforementioned asshole gods) attacks their armies while they're trying the cross the plains into enemy territory. They have no cover or way to defend, meaning the Dragon could turn the entire field into a hellhole and end the war before it even begins if they don't take him down--and their swords and arrows weapons just bounce off it's hide. Without time to set up siege weaponry, nothing they have can injure it.
Except, of course, for Gram. In Takato's hands, the blade can cut easily through even a dragon's scales and he wounds the unwary beast, which thought it could not be harmed and didn't bother to defend. Fatally wounded, it tries to run, but ,spurned forward by Takato's victory, the army follows it as it runs back to it's lair, where Takato slays it. In the lair, there are a number of hatched eggs, but all of the Dragons but one have already left the nest. Feeling pity for it, Takato takes the remaining one, convincing the others that it doesn't need to be killed.
The War goes on for several year, with Gods being dicks on both sides in classic Trojan fashion, with Takato winning recognition and fame for his actions. Dragonslayer, they call him, and Dragonrider and Dragonmaster, for it is he who always faces the great beasts that are sent against them by the people of the North and their gods and strikes them down, and most times he does so on the back of the Dragon he raises himself, casting the so-called 'Beings closest to the Gods' down from the Heavens.
It is in no small part thanks to him that the war is won and without him the South would have died in a horrible blaze of smoke and dragon fire. Instead, he lead their armies through the North, to the crystal cities of the North Kingdom and slayed the Dragon King of the North, Fafnir, bathed in his blood, and took his treasures in the name of the South and his ring for his own. When he left home, he was barely a knight only by the king's decree, but he returned a victorious, conquering general, celebrated and decorated.
And yet, he was not content, for in the end, he was there to hear the words that spilled from Fafnir's mouth between his dying gasps, of the truth behind the war. He couldn't help but wonder at night, why the Gods would start such a horrible thing as a game. His men--his friends--had died horribly, skin blackening as they screamed and died in the pyres dragons made of their flesh, or bleed and died at the blades and arrows of the North, all to amuse the Gods for just a little while. They toyed with men and women, meddling with their minds and blades to squeeze a bit more amusement from their toys, and then made them fight and die and pray in their ditches.
The entire war, their entire lives, were nothing but a game to them, and they were toys to be used and cast aside, powerless to do anything about it. And worse still, there was not a thing he could do about it. For weeks, he had no choice but to bit his tongue, lest he say something to bring Heaven's wrath on his people, and bow in obeisance to the ones that had slaughtered his people for sport.
And then, something whispered a suggestion in his ear. Perhaps it was demonic Balmung, awakened at last by the blood it had supped on. Perhaps it was fowl Andvaranaut, trying to lead it's new master to both glory and ruin. Perhaps it was just some dark thing, drawn to Takato by his power and hatred.
Perhaps it even matters. Takato knew he was being spoken too that day--he just didn't care by who. The idea they proposed was dangerous, blasphemous, and maybe, just maybe, the perfect thing too do.
A few months later, the inhabitants of the Heavenly City awoke to an uproar, chaos taking a hold of the gods. What had happened was unprecedented--thought to be impossible. The Entelechy was gone.
In the dark of the night, someone had stolen fire from the Gods.
-
There's more parts to this idea, but I'm getting all the pieces in order, atm. I'll post the rest later. Any thought? Any ideas about different ways to do it? Any things you think could be improved or should be changed?
Let's start with this one--it's actually a fic already, but it's only just beginning and I keep getting ideas and thinking over what they mean, whether they can be included or not, etc. Regardless, I think it makes a good starting point for this discussion.
The idea of making Digimon into a more fantasy type of setting has come up and been used a number of times (including by me, in one of my earlier fics, though that was a lot more scifi then high fantasy). So let's look at that and think about it a bit. Here's what I, personally, came up with, but I'd be interested in hearing how you guys think it could be done to make both an interesting setting and staying true to the core themes.
Disclaimer: I took heavy inspiration from Lord Dunsany, the Tales from the Flat Earth, Mythology, and Exalted.
-
It is a world of magic. It is a world of wonders and horrors and wondrous horror and horrific wonders; a world of Gods and monsters, where often enough the gods are monsters. It's a big world, and amazing world, larger than life in every sense, and often enough mortals die in the tread of the things around them. There are knights and dragons, spirits and priests, spells and technology. The world is divided in four directions, and in each life is hard and painful for the vast majority of mankind. The Gods above are active and involved, but also fickle and ofttimes cruel, many of them lording their power of man and demanding tribute and worship lest their wrath fall on those who don't. For many, there is no choice but to accept this and go about their lives. For many...but not all. Some people can't accept that or go through something that changes their opinions. They rebel against the nature of the world. Most of them are crushed anyway, beneath the boots of the Gods and the monsters who serve them.
These are the stories of those that weren't.
In this idea, each of the Tamer's start of separated, as in canon, and eventually cross paths--and not always as friends. I'll start with Takato's story:
His story begins shortly before a Trojan War-like event, started by a number of asshole gods. Soon, the Southern Kingdoms will go to war with the North--but not quite yet. For now, there is still a bit of time for preparation--and there is a sword. A sword that some magical being, whether demon or god, put in the mightiest tree in all the land long, long ago. For a thousand years, no one has been able to pull it from the tree's trunk and it has been largely forgotten--it is just of the many interesting things in the kingdom, accepted as something that just is.
At least, it is until the Oracle prophosizes that they will only be able to win the war if a knight draws the blade from it's resting place; without it, only death and death awaits their armies. There is a mad scramble to find the one who can draw the blade, but one by one, every knight fails to pull out the blade. The king then declares that every man, woman, and child in the kingdom attempt to draw the blade, and sure enough, one does; someone no one expected. It is the young son of a baker who draws the sword from it's resting place and forced into the position it brings with it.
The War starts shortly after, with Takato barely having time for basic training. The truth of the Prophecy quickly becomes apparent, as but days into the war, a Dragon (on the orders of aforementioned asshole gods) attacks their armies while they're trying the cross the plains into enemy territory. They have no cover or way to defend, meaning the Dragon could turn the entire field into a hellhole and end the war before it even begins if they don't take him down--and their swords and arrows weapons just bounce off it's hide. Without time to set up siege weaponry, nothing they have can injure it.
Except, of course, for Gram. In Takato's hands, the blade can cut easily through even a dragon's scales and he wounds the unwary beast, which thought it could not be harmed and didn't bother to defend. Fatally wounded, it tries to run, but ,spurned forward by Takato's victory, the army follows it as it runs back to it's lair, where Takato slays it. In the lair, there are a number of hatched eggs, but all of the Dragons but one have already left the nest. Feeling pity for it, Takato takes the remaining one, convincing the others that it doesn't need to be killed.
The War goes on for several year, with Gods being dicks on both sides in classic Trojan fashion, with Takato winning recognition and fame for his actions. Dragonslayer, they call him, and Dragonrider and Dragonmaster, for it is he who always faces the great beasts that are sent against them by the people of the North and their gods and strikes them down, and most times he does so on the back of the Dragon he raises himself, casting the so-called 'Beings closest to the Gods' down from the Heavens.
It is in no small part thanks to him that the war is won and without him the South would have died in a horrible blaze of smoke and dragon fire. Instead, he lead their armies through the North, to the crystal cities of the North Kingdom and slayed the Dragon King of the North, Fafnir, bathed in his blood, and took his treasures in the name of the South and his ring for his own. When he left home, he was barely a knight only by the king's decree, but he returned a victorious, conquering general, celebrated and decorated.
And yet, he was not content, for in the end, he was there to hear the words that spilled from Fafnir's mouth between his dying gasps, of the truth behind the war. He couldn't help but wonder at night, why the Gods would start such a horrible thing as a game. His men--his friends--had died horribly, skin blackening as they screamed and died in the pyres dragons made of their flesh, or bleed and died at the blades and arrows of the North, all to amuse the Gods for just a little while. They toyed with men and women, meddling with their minds and blades to squeeze a bit more amusement from their toys, and then made them fight and die and pray in their ditches.
The entire war, their entire lives, were nothing but a game to them, and they were toys to be used and cast aside, powerless to do anything about it. And worse still, there was not a thing he could do about it. For weeks, he had no choice but to bit his tongue, lest he say something to bring Heaven's wrath on his people, and bow in obeisance to the ones that had slaughtered his people for sport.
And then, something whispered a suggestion in his ear. Perhaps it was demonic Balmung, awakened at last by the blood it had supped on. Perhaps it was fowl Andvaranaut, trying to lead it's new master to both glory and ruin. Perhaps it was just some dark thing, drawn to Takato by his power and hatred.
Perhaps it even matters. Takato knew he was being spoken too that day--he just didn't care by who. The idea they proposed was dangerous, blasphemous, and maybe, just maybe, the perfect thing too do.
A few months later, the inhabitants of the Heavenly City awoke to an uproar, chaos taking a hold of the gods. What had happened was unprecedented--thought to be impossible. The Entelechy was gone.
In the dark of the night, someone had stolen fire from the Gods.
-
There's more parts to this idea, but I'm getting all the pieces in order, atm. I'll post the rest later. Any thought? Any ideas about different ways to do it? Any things you think could be improved or should be changed?