Starting Small -- A Web-Based Story To Fill A Niche

[Tsar Hoikas]

We know from the Book of Ti'ana that Anna lived in the cleft with her parents. She found a small crack that led to tunnels, the great shaft and D'ni. She was the first and only outsider ever to come in contact with D'ni before the Fall. Local tribes would not know of D'ni.

I should point out that Anna and her parents lived in "The Lodge," a building about a day's walk from the cleft.

[Chacal]

Yes, that's another place where the book differs from the game.
The cleft in the game is the lodge in the book.

[Trylon]

Uh, no. Not on this part.

The cleft shows up in the Book of Atrus, and is where Atrus lives with his grandmother Ti'ana.
The Lodge shows up in the Book of Ti'ana and is the house where Ti'ana and her father lived, and that is in the books clearly different from the cleft

[Chacal]

I'll have to go look it up again. It's been a while.

[Inanna]

I am trying to follow your concerns, but am mystified over some aspects of the above posts. It is evident that Cyan has continuity issues between the early games, the books and MOUL, so it is hard to define what is "canon." I am taking my cues from MOUL. Cyan has never shown much interest in the surface story, so that is the niche I am taking. The story of La Casa has changed recently to encompass the closure of MOUL (seen as the loss of DRC funding). We know that Elias Zandi bought up a lot of land, but he did not buy the entire state of New Mexico. We know there must be civilization nearby because Jeff Zandi is sitting beside a motor home, cooking meat and drinking a cold one. Somewhere there is a grocery story and a gas station.

The relationship between the La Casa characters and any of those created by Cyan is immaterial to the current presentation. I was giving you a peek behind the scenes, but if need be, those aspects can remain unspoken. As the writer I will know of them, but no one else needs to if that makes everyone more comfortable. As for the matter of "role-playing," all of us are into RP to some extent since we have all chosen avatar names and appearances. Any writer of fiction will tell you that for a character to be believable the writer must become that character -- and in a story of this scope, perhaps several characters. Is this role-playing? Not really. This is just writing fiction. As I pointed out above, someone played Wheely Engberg. Similarly, we had Douglas Sharper and Cate and Nick and all those other DRC folks. I could be wrong, of course, but I suspect that folks from Cyan played those characters. This is no different. I am deeply puzzled why you think I am asking you to RP. I am only writing a story and giving the characters things to say and do.

There are many mundane questions that have gone untouched by Cyan and I see no reason why I should not attempt to answer them in the course of this story. For instance, how did we get to the Cleft from all over the planet? The nearest major airports are probably in Albuquerque or Gallup. From the airport we either came by car or shuttle bus (in this case, a bus run by an enterprising soul at La Casa). We went into the Cleft and lived in URU until the cavern closed. The story of La Casa picks up from the point where each of us (as The Traveler) leaves the cavern and returns to the desert above.

The story of La Casa -- as shown in my development journal -- is online now in an experimental form. This is just a rudimentary start so that folks can see how it will work. Much of the preliminary writing is being done at the FoF forum and all are welcomed to participate. Although we did form a bevin and avatars in MOUL, our real agenda was to get interested people to help us with the writing and artwork needed to present the story.

So if any of you would like to be included in La Casa, just let me know. If you want your avatar's adventures in the cavern preserved and shared, you may write a journal, or even just a "letter to mom" to leave in the La Casa library. If you would like your name to appear in
La Casa Guest Book just let me know. Anyone may have a name in the guest book -- real or avatar. The signatures are currently in several fonts including D'ni and Cherokee. Let me know if your character's signature is in cursive or printed, neat or childish -- or prefers to write in an foreign script. The guest book is stored on the FoF forum for now while we await the library artwork.

Unlike most ages being considered, La Casa is open to all and is not dependent on anyone at present. This is not to say that I am running a rogue operation. The present story is just a small step until we have the tools and the talent to create the age called Refuge. The story presented in La Casa will lead into Refuge with the clues in the first story and the puzzles in the second.

All are welcomed to join us in whatever capacity you wish.

[Chacal]

Hello Inanna,

Some thoughts:
- Many things have happened since last December. Opinions change, relevance fluctues. At the time we were gearing up for one single goal: sending our Ages to Cyan so they would be put into MOUL. Understandably we had concerns at the time about what was canon and what was Cyan's IP. This may not be still the case. I, for one, don't give a second of thought to that anymore. Cyan MAY still be relevant to Uru, or maybe not.

- Also at the time we were a fledgling organization and there was a concern about losing our members to other groups. This is hardly the case now, we might end up one of the very few surviving groups.

- ALL the above posts were personal opinions. I strongly disagree with some of them. None of it was official. No one speaks for the Guild of Writers.

- There is a common quality to all members here: we're honest. If you come for feedback, you'll get it, criticism included. That's the best way to get better I think.

My advice is to go on with your project. You are writers, and that's what the GoW is about. What you posted in your journal is pretty good.