Offering Storylines.

[Stormerdave]

Hey I don't really go on internet or post stuff often but i'll have a shot.

I have been trying to make my own campaigns and units for awhile now but i have come to accept that i am just no good at it (Lack of software and skill). So instead of trying to make my own campaigns myself, i have decided to post my storylines for people to make (just tell me before making them ok?). I am going to post some of my ideas now and some at a later date. they are for anyone to make into a campaign and im flexable enough to change them to suit. all i ask is to be included into the making of them, storywise, writing. So please have a look at my ideas and if you like them then just say.



History of the Empire

Long before the people of the Green Isle came to Wesnoth, a few thousand or so years before, there was already a great empire there. This Empire grew prosperous and wealthy. It continued to expand until it came to the realms of the Elves to the south, and the Dwarves to the north. It made an agreement to both peoples that peace would continue. They brought wood from the Elves and precious stones from the Dwarves. Then a few decades later, the Empire stopped expanding and started to fall apart from raids by bandits and other creatures. It had gotten too big and took more resources then the people could get. The Empire tried to get more supples from the Dwarves and Elves but they refused. Desperate and enraged, the Emperor called war against the two races and attack ruthlessly. The Elves and the Ancient Woses, along with the Dwarves from the north, bet back the attacks easily and attacked the empire and did not stop till they come to its very centre, the Capital. They gave the Emperor one chance to surrender himself. But by this time the Emperor had gone quite mad and descended into the dark arts. Fuelled by his outrage for the destruction of his Empire, he became powerful and came to hate all living things. He suddenly sent out waves of the undead on the attackers and overwhelmed by this sudden force, the attackers withdrew. The Emperor grew stronger and sent out hordes of the undead to destroy all living things. Not even the Dwarves, known back then as well as now for there strength over the undead, couldn’t stand up to them. The people of the Empire who would not join his army, fled with the Dwarves and Elves. The Elves, Dwarves and Humans came to a great council and decided to make a prison for the Emperor. And with the help of the Woses strange magic, they made 4 key seals, one for each point on the compass. These seals were alive but not alive. And at the point where all the seal met was the capital and fortress of the Emperor. When the seals where completed and laid at each point, a ceremony was done at each one, with each ceremony different. Then there was a blinding light in a mass of colours that no one could describe shot up from the capital and it simply disappeared. The undead outside the capital fled to the Swamps and snow plains of the east where they still are today. The remains of the People of the empire made a small kingdom, which later was attacked by the people of the southern deserts. The kingdoms people won with the help of the elves, but the kingdom was destroyed. The people of the kingdom saw nothing left to live for in the kingdom, especially with a great evil trapped somewhere in the land so they took up there arms and chased the invaders into the desert. They where never heard of again for hundreds of years.


The people of the southern deserts
There are 2 tribes of peoples in the southern deserts. One of the tribes is the ______ (need a name), the original inhabitants of this dry land. The other call themselves the Northerners, though no one knows why, except the nobles and priests of the tribe (it’s because they were the people of the small kingdom that chased the tribe that attacked them into the desert after the kingdom was destroyed. That’s why they call themselves the northerners.). The northerners adapted to the desert and are continuing to wage there eternal war with the ______ for the northern greenlands.

Invasion by the Natives.
Elves and Dwarves weren’t always alone on the western continent. There were 2 different races of humans there too. One lived in the north, in the greenlands of where wesnoth stands today. The other lived in the southern deserts, in small tribes much like the orcs do. The northern humans made an empire, which was destroyed (see History of the Empire). These humans then made a small kingdom near the eastern coastline of the land. This kingdom was attacked by the Tribes of the desert come under one banner, lead by a powerful warlord. The Kingdom humans fought the tribes of the desert with the help of the elves under a pact formed at the great council in which the living seals were formed (see The 4 Living Seals). The dwarves were not part of this pact, saying the nations of humans together cannot be trusted. They helped defeat the emperor but then retreated back to the mountains and hills. The Dwarves would only help out if they themselves think they will be threatened. So a great war and many a battle occurred. Finally the tribes were defeated and retreated back into the deserts. The Kingdom people emerged victourious, but in the process the kingdom was destroyed so the kingdom people followed the desert tribes into the desert. Many many years later the northerners won a crucail battle and began their campaign to invade the new nation of humans who set up lives there (wesnoth). The Northerners invaded by sending many people into the land disgused as refuges from war. Then when there were enough of these "refuges" in the land they attacked and took over wesnoth in a matter of days. The only places they did not invade were the islands, for they have a fear of any water they can not step across born from living in the desert. The islands are the places the rebels hide from the invaders. This story begins with a slave, sent from wesnoth to the deserts. he discovers some very important information that could end the invaders grip and send them back to the desert. but first he has to get out of the deserts and to the islands of the rebels, before it is too late.

The 4 Living Seals

The 4 Living Seals is set in the time Wesnoth was at the peak of its prosperity. The Land was at peace. The undead were beaten back to the east and the orcs to the north. Bandits were all but gone and the people began searching outside the borders for other lands and peoples. All was well at that time. But then came the breaking of the 4 Living Seals and releasing of the Emperor. The Emperor was beaten and destroyed but this would set off a chain of events that would lead to Wesnoth’s destruction.



These are the background storys, the history, for the main ones. I would very much like heaps of feedback and ideas. if i get enough interest i will post more. But for now thats it and please comment. thanks.

[thespaceinvader]

One major problem. Canonically, IIRC, the first *ever* humans that the dwarves and elves of the Great Continent had seen were the Wesnothians.

[Stormerdave]

Well that could have been lost to history (because this was a long time before wesnoth.). Or that the elves and dwarves agreed never to speak of it again. I dunno. can you think of a good solution?

[StandYourGround]

One possible way, in rapid summary:

Common ancestor race; one giant continent; magic discovered; conflicts begin; war breaks out; magi go crazy with spells and accidentally knock the sun out of the sky; continent torn to pieces in explosion; world freezes from lack of sun; millions wiped out aside from isolated pockets (dwarf ancestors hid deep in mountains to avoid the cold, largest group of human survivors found shelter on a volcanic island that became the island of the Wesfolk, while others began exploring immediately after the ice age ended and settled the Green Isle and the islands of Haldric's ancestors, etc); brief ice age ensues; pocket of surviving mages manage to put a new sun into the sky then bury their secrets vowing never to keep such magic a secret forever, end up having magic become part of their culture as a consequence of trying so hard to hide it, become ancestors of elves; Green Isle explorers visit pre-Wesnoth; cue your story.

One heaping serving of random plotline filler, want some fries with that?

[Stormerdave]

ha jeez that was quick lol. hmm seems good though. not sure about the sun being destroyed though lol.

[thespaceinvader]

Isn't that the storyine of UtBS, anyway?

[Stormerdave]

I think i could cut out everything about humans living there before wesnoth and just have it 2 tribes of humans living in the southern deserts, in an eternal war for the greenlands (wesnoth) and one of them succeeds, and invades wesnoth how i said before. Everything after that is as it was. and i could set the emperor after wesnoth somewhere. or the empire could have been wesnoth. i dunno im mainly focusing on the invasion from a desert tribe, or band of tribes

[Skrim]

The only canonical knowledge we have of the time prior to 200 BW (the Rise of Wesnoth backstory) is this:

* Birth of the world. (And then, Dave said "Let there be light." And there was light.)
* Elves and Dwarves inhabit the Great Continent.
* Humans inhabit the distant West.
* Haldric's people colonise the Green Isle from a continent further to the west.

from the History page,

and

An-Usrukhar: I am the will of An-Usrukhar, greatest of mages, he who bestrode Irdya in the morning of time, who sleeps now in a death beyond death until the unmaking of the world.

Delfador: I am only a man, a living man seeking a way home from the house of the dead.

An-Usrukhar: Living? ...I see that it is so. Your breath stirs dust that has lain untouched since the Primal Aeon. And it was foretold that one like you would come.

Delfador: Foretold?

An-Usrukhar: Foretold in the Primal Aeon, years past beyond your counting. An-Usrukhar the Great, he of whom I am but the tiniest shade and fragment, foresaw in the Mirror of Evanescent Time that a living man would come here to be tested.

So... apart from a few fragments of info, the Prehistory of Irdya is pretty much a big undecided blank space, and is open for anyone who wants to make a mainline-level campaign about it. After all, Wesnoth's 'mainline' material is basically a strict quality-controlled form of Running the Asylum.

[StandYourGround]

Why not have the sun destroyed in eary pre Wesnoth history? That's a perfect way to break apart a single land mass and reduce it's inhabitants to small pocket groups that become the races we know now, with the secret of putting a new sun back in the sky being a forgotten ancient spell that is rediscovered far later, giving us UtBS and so on.

[melinath]

I think one sun falling out of the sky is more than enough in one history.

Also, the sun that currently falls is actually more like a small asteroid that magically illuminates. The sun you propose would be a gigantic mass of plasma that would burn the planet up.

[Stormerdave]

Maybe instead of it begin humans or magic that could have torn the world apart how about a natural catasphohe that most races blame a divine power for. It could be that the races think that their god was angry with how the world was after the empire (it would be far more advanced then current wesnoth) and decided to blow it all up and leave pocketfuls of surviors to repopulate the new, overly seperated world. The humans could think that they were cut off from the elves, dwarves and other races because they think it was there fault. Every race would blame themselves. But then this catastrophic event (could have been a meteor) would be forgotten by all. This might even be able to be tied in with the campaign/s of IftU.

Sorry if this is a little rough and unread but I'm doing it from my iPod lol

[Stormerdave]

Ok I’ve rewritten the story now so hopefully it fits in better.

When the world was made it was all one giant continent, called the great big slab of dirt (lol I can’t think of a proper name). All the races we know today lived there (and maybe a few new ones...?). They were in harmony with each other and prospered. The technology back then was far greater than it is in current wesnoth now (possible links with the ancient races in Invasion from the Unknown?). The Great big slab was divided up among the races evenly (dwarves have mountains and hilly areas, elves forests and ect, like today). The humans built a great empire that stretched to each of its borders with the lands of the neighbouring races. This empire was very wealth and prosperous. They traded with the dwarves for gold and other precious stones and had them build their cities. They brought wood from the elves and enlightenment. Even the orcs and trolls and other races today considered “bad” were harmonious with all other races and traded also. The world was made perfect, or so it would seem. For whoever created all these races had given them free will, the ability to choose from right and wrong, and how they would perceive right and wrong. All races made mistakes with right and wrong sometime in the future, but the humans were the first. Soon they began to see themselves are the superior race, and began to see other races are inferior to them. They had, after all, the greatest amount of land and the most people. They believed they had the greatest technology and were the smartest. This continued for many years but with no conflict, for that was unheard of at the time. But then the human cities began to become overcrowded with too many people, and as a result the people began to starve and the empire started to collapse. Desperate, the emperor of the time asked the other races for help, and each refused, feeling that if they helped it would still do nothing for the humans and hurt them. Enraged, the emperor then demanded for the other races to give up their lands. They refused and so the emperor began thinking dark thoughts. He talked to his people, made them listen and take in his twisted plans. They began making weapons, crude at first but they became more sophisticated. Then when the time was right he released his armies upon the other races. Startled and dismayed, all the races fell back to this show of force. They had never seen anything like it before. And so in time each race had to come to a difficult decision. To survive they must put their lives above others. They must take another’s life. Some races didn’t believe one’s life was worth more then anothers, so they ran and hid, but never fought. The rest of the races began to place their lives above all others, each in a different way. The dwarves and trolls fought for their homeland and kin. The elves fought only when they believed the world required it from them, or when attacked themselves. The orcs began to revel in fighting, for they felt it made them feel alive, but they also fight for survival. The humans that broke away from the empire had to face fighting their own people, own race. They fought for survival, and so they could live again peacefully. So with each race making its own resolution on taking anothers life, they marched across the plains to fight the empire and put what they believed to be a stop to all violence. But violence was born in them and passed down in the blood and teachings in the different ways that each race had chosen to live by, and could never be silenced. The combined forces of all the races beat back the empire, and when they reached its very capital. They gave the Emperor one chance to surrender himself. But by this time the Emperor had gone quite mad and descended into the dark arts. Fuelled by his outrage for the destruction of his Empire, he became powerful and came to hate all living things. He suddenly sent out waves of the undead on the attackers and overwhelmed by this sudden force, the attackers withdrew. The Emperor grew stronger and sent out hordes of the undead to destroy all living things. Not even the Dwarves, or the trolls, both known back then as well as now for their strength over the undead, couldn’t stand up to them. The remaining people of the Empire who would not join his undead army, fled with the Dwarves and Elves. The Elves, Dwarves and Humans came to a great council and decided to make a prison for the Emperor. And with the help of the Woses strange magic, and technology of the dwarves and humans, they made 4 key seals, one for each point on the compass. These seals were alive but not alive. And at the point where all the seal met was the capital and fortress of the Emperor. When the seals where completed and laid at each point, a ceremony was done at each one, with each ceremony different. Then there was a blinding light in a mass of colours that no one could describe shot up from the capital and it simply disappeared. The undead outside the capital fled to any place the attackers could not live. The first of the remains of the People of the empire made a small kingdom were the empire was, and gave most of the land to the other races. The people who had once fought for the empire were banished to roam only the deserts of the land, until a millennia had past. Then came a great catastrophe with teared apart the great continent into smaller masses of land, cut off from each other by the ocean. It forged new mountains and valley, streams and lakes. Each race roamed the new lands they had bordered by the sea till they found a new home. The Elves and dwarves found themselves on the same continent while the humans were scattered all over the new world. The only place that remained almost unchanged were the deserts, were the human outcasts still await the need of the millennia, and their return to the green lands. Then history continues as normal. Founding of wesnoth and such. Now as the end of the millennia approaches the desert human outcasts begin to plan for their return, and the rebirth of the empire and emperor, so they can have their revenge on all the races that sent them to the deserts.


NOTE: The history has been almost all forgotten by all of the races except the desert humans, who had preserved the past so they know when to return to the what they call the greenlands. The other races only have a few fragments of the past, and also know that something will happen at the end of the millienia. Each race has different fragemnets, so the only way a full history can be achieved is if all races come together again with the fragments of history to be put whole once more. The history is the key to beating the desert humans. To learn from the mistakes of the past will help create a brighter future.

NOTE: The desert humans have not only preserved history, but may have some of the ancient advanced weaponry as well.


Well that’s it. See any mistakes? I’m not hoping for any of it to become mainline but if there is a chance I’ll go for it.

[doofus-01]

I'm intimidated by the size of that paragraph. Maybe you could break that up a bit?

[StDrake]

I must agree with the above and say I'm impressed - you managed to actually make a wall of text that filled my screen in entirety 1600x1200 of pure concrete
another worry - if you wanted to make a campaign story you might rather want to organise it into some scenario script, break into scenes etc

edit: ok i've come across some overall communication errors in that wall as well, will point them out when i manage to get to the end
edit2:

They brought wood from the elves and enlightenment.

Suggests that enlightenment was a source of wood.

Even the orcs and trolls and other races today considered “bad” were harmonious with all other races and traded also.

try "evil" instead of "bad".. overall stylistic ouch! Try <<Even orcs, trolls and other beings considered "evil" nowadays traded and lived in harmony with other races.>>

ability to choose between right or wrong, and what they would perceive as right and wrong. All races made mistakes with right and wrong sometime in the future, but the humans were thefirst.

could also do with "humans were the first", but the sentence doen't make the sense it's supposed to. Talking in past tense about future is a general 0.o, would make more sense if it meant the mistakes had good or bad consequences, but that's very hard to see in a sentence made like that.

This continued for many years ,but with no conflict, for that was unheard of at the time. But then thehuman cities began to become overcrowded with too many people, and, as a result, thepeople began to starve and the empire started to collapse.

and to think i had an E grade at the language part of my maturity test

Desperate, the emperor of the time

very ugly way to put it, I'd recommend rather just leaving no note of him being emperor within that time - just leave "emperor" or something more complex like "that ruled humanity in that time"

asked the other races for help, and each refused, feeling that if they helped it would still do nothing for the humans and hurt them.

sentence too long, could easily put a dot instead of the " , and ". The meaning of this part is also unclear - what were the other races afraid of? that they would not be able to help, but would just hurt humans more instead? or that they'd take costs that would give nothing?

Enraged, the emperor then demanded that the other races togive up their lands. They refused and so the emperor began thinking dark thoughts. He talked to his people, made them listen and take in his twisted plans. They began making weapons, crude at first but they became more sophisticated. Then when the time was right he released his armies upon the other races. Startled and dismayed, all the races fell back from this display of force. They had never seen anything like it before. And so in time each race had to come to a difficult decision. To survive they must put their lives above others. They must take another’s life.

General rewrite necessary, I wasn't even able to express the horrors lurking in form alone of this text.

The rest of the races began to place their lives above all others, each in a different way. The dwarves and trolls fought for their homeland and kin. The elves fought only when they believed the world required it from them, or when attacked themselves. The orcs began to revel in fighting, for they felt it made them feel alive, but they also fought for survival. The humans that broke away from the empire had to face fighting their own people, own race.

ouch! ouch!! ouch!!!
I'm sorry this is too much for me Too many 'the', too much stylistic chaos..please..read some decent literature - observe how to do things right. Mistakes can happen, but you should learn how not to do them in every second sentence.
have mercy
:overall artistic nervous breakdown:

[melinath]

Sorry, but I hope this doesn't go mainline, and I think it probably won't. I would say definitely, except that I don't actually have deciding power. It's fairly standard utopian past fantasy trope. Unfortunately, tvtropes is broken, so I can't post a humorous link. Still, it would make an all right storyline for a UMC or novel or something. In other words: It's intriguing, just not Wesnoth.