Arc 10 Notes (Patreon)

Alright babes! Since I'm taking a few days off between now and arc 10 to get some planning done and work some ideas (as, in spite of my best efforts, I'm not actually that far ahead of where my top patreon tier currently sits!), I didn't want to leave y'all hanging on waiting for a monday post. So! I'm doing something new! That's right, it's bonus content! I'm sharing my preliminary notes for the upcoming arc, what I intend to focus on, what I want to do, and maybe even how I want to do it. Nothing in here is a totally guaranteed plot point, mind- this is all pretty theoretical, and just sort of part of the process of figuring out what I want and how it might come about. If you have any questions, I welcome them in the comments below, and otherwise, enjoy this sneak-peek at what I'm working on and how!

Man, it's been a while since I did bonus content. I should circle back to that. Do some more, even!

BEWARE! BELOW THIS LINE, there are TERRIFYING POTENTIAL SPOILERS! OOOOOOOH AVERT YOUR EYES IF YOU WISH! LOOK UPON THEM IF YOU DARE!

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Overview notes

The focus of this arc will be less myopic than the last, and will focus on a blend of two major factions- The Pack and Morae. 

Effectively, from arc 10 onwards, we’re moving back in to the center from how we’ve expanded out, rehashing some of what came before and building on it as we re-approach the Empire

Objectives:

Return to our roots, changed and growing, playing with stuff we had at first and looping back in to play with the new stuff. 

Have a real return to form with Morae, playing with more classic / traditional xianxia tropes that have taken a serious backseat recently. 

Expand on what we’ve seen of the setting. We’ve only explored to the east so far- I want some POVs and hints at what’s in the north and south, finally pulling through on the seeds planted there, and maybe wrap around to the west by the end of the arc, planting seeds for arc 11

Have Shin Ren, Taurus, and their respective teams interacting with the Overgrowth and Pack, mixing POVs from inside the Empire and outside it. Effectively, blend the disparate sides of the conflict closer, rather than just having “The Empire people” and “Raika” on far sides of the narrative

Have the disparate, broken pieces of Raika interact with each other at long last

Circle back around to the machinery of her powers, how they blend, etc. Just as we got the Plasma tree from lightning and fire Daos, I want to start working on other Ur-Trees, which does, of course, imply (and say, cause I wanna say it) the return of her inner world and her Heart.

POVs / Anchors / ideas for each

Pillar!Raika

upgraded with the remains of War!Raika, so they have some personality now, but it’s more a DID situation than not. Fun!

Wants to recombine, doesn’t have any empathy or morality, trying to rebuild herself to find purpose / follow programming. Heading to Morae to find the most “useful” parts of herself.

Reinforcing traumas about the Fengs and all- the assassin is still out there, after all, and one of the few real threats to Raika’s existence

Shin Ren 

Strong enough to be seen as a genuine threat and tool, working with the fourth and fifth Blades on the eastern front.

He and his coterie, advanced from their journeys, will interact with more of the great sects of the second ring, while also pushing forward into the Overgrowth, working to undermine the Empire’s path (mmmmmaybe)

Taurus:

Reaching critical mass, Soul-wise. Running into a lot of walls with the mess of how everything’s going. Forced to do even worse than before to try and keep up.

He and Kaena will start taking on the Garden, which will have consequences. Additionally, he’s taking / influencing a little fragment of our gal, who was launched through the Wall oh-so-long ago.

I want him to be more of an antagonist, but not entirely sure how to integrate the pieces here. Frankly, he’s the closest thing we have to a personal, consistent antagonist for Raika, and a foil to her rebellion- the Fengs, while the source of her journey, aren’t exactly intimate or personalized foes. Pillar!Raika presents unique opportunities there, what with her / its lack of emotions.

Also, I think antagonists are just my weak-spot. Glorianna didn’t even get hyperviolenced at the end of the last arc, which I really want to work on in the re-write. Hell, all of her shit could use a touch-up.

This way, we can bridge the deep-wilds, early-wilds, and Empire together. One for each section. Maybe. Might make it a bit too spread out? Ideas.

Secondary anchors:

Kaena

Wei Zin (her barely-taught-anything student from the Tribes)

Yun Ka

Ko

Aria

Inclusions: 

Things I want! May happen, may not have space, we’ll see

The Heart

Qu Haolan

The Blades

getting some more love and maybe some glimpses of the others

Daemons

We’ve been hinting for soooo loooooong

More Fengs! 

I want a bunch of them motherfuckers moving in on Morae and acting as generals and shit! Vein of Feng running through the whole arc, all narsty-style

The Fifth Ring

The edge of reality, baybee. Also been hinted at for a million years. On a similar note:

The Division of Exploration

See above

Apexes! More of em!

We’ve seen the Corpse Martyr and Many-Mouths, but rarely any spirit beasts! While we’re returning to some traditional notes for this sort of thing, let’s loop them back in.

More bio-engineering

It’s been too long, and I love Corpse!Raika and War!Raika, but guns and necromancy only scratch my itch so well. Gotta get some claws and tendrils and weird organs

Dungeons! 

Let’s play with the dungeon and dungeon core mechanics some more, maybe have some start appearing in Morae due to Raika’s influence?

Emperor’s Scions

What they been doin?

Exclusions:

Can’t have everything. Thinking of what we can’t have yet.

Necro!Raika

She just had an arc, and the cliff-hanger we left on speaks to a lot for her. She’s with the Corpse-Martyr, and we can have references to her, Li Shu, Jin, etc, but I don’t want to loop back around to her just yet. At least not till much later in the arc, but I do want to integrate her more before arc 11

Cold Sun shenanigans

See above- we just did that! There’s other goodies we need to do

The EMPEROR

Homies had a lot of screentime as is. Maybe we loop them back in on arc 11 or something. 

Specific notes!:

RAIKAS

Witch Raika

Off with the Corpse Martyr tearing shit up and learning on overdrive. 

A body of Gu-flesh, which she’s adding more to, and the only one to currently possess the Truth: My Death Above, My Soul Below.

Martial Raika

Transformed into artifacts and objects. Focus on the abacuses, the instruments, the painting supplies, more than the weapons.

Infinite painting landscape

Abacus, mathematical construct

Potions and enhancements

Spears, swords, arrows

Armor

War!Raika

A field of blooming munitions. Corpses reanimate and mutate, the dead sands endlessly spiral and consume, and it’s become something like an insect hive digging down into the desert.

Constant artillery barrages

Acts as a stopgap for the war, a half-beachhead- it fires into the Wall more than into the wilds.

Slowly shifting the battlefield, enough that specialized Daemons and Shin Ren are sent to deal with it

Spreading northward

Officially re-absorbed into Pillar!Raika before she died to become a Forever War

Flame!Raika

Broke into dozens of sub-flames, all of them spreading semi-mindlessly

Wild infernos that are semi-stable, taking up energy from the Overgrowth and one of the other Apex to deal with it

Spreads down to the south, interacting with the desert tribes and travelers there. 

Sub!Raika

Launched into the Empire from War!Raika, survived by being partially insulated from the rest of her through the strength of the Wall. Extremely weakened, she’s barely above a mortal, and is trying to go through the world to get to Hao Nera and her allies.

Incredibly weak, obviously, but has Intent abilities still, her only real ability rn.

Council of Raikas

Frozen, left in limbo. Preserved by Pillar and the Heart, kept in stasis, ready to be unlocked. When they are eventually reabsorbed, they’ll massively boost comprehension of alchemy, architecture, and engineering. Until then, they’re allied with Pillar, acting in concert with it.

Pillar

Currently managing the rampant new biomes formed from Raika’s death-explosion. Working with Singheart, the Overgrowth, and Many-Grasping to keep things moving, and now connected to an actual Raika!personality, trying to do more than just manage things

The Heart

Using the Emperor’s gold headband as an anchor, agonizing though it is. It limits their growth to what it was before, but since they can’t really absorb in more stuff now, it acts as a lifeboat against their own death and dissolution. Reaching out to rebuild themselves and reconnect to each other, as the Heart is more trapped in Morae. 

Location Ideas:

Northern Territories

North has isolated areas, similar to a wasteland desert, with ice-crystal winds that tear bone to ash and cold so intense it kills on contact. A few ravines and isolated areas can sometimes hold life, and people build settlements there.

Slaves, water, and food are the primary currencies, with wood acting as an additional high-end premium product. 

Most of this place is dead and empty, with many intense natural resources. The few beasts and experts that survive outside the rare settlements are all at Warrior Realm or above, with many in the Emperor realm. 

At the northmost part of the world, there is a pool of endlessly deep water, which is what the ice of the north turns into when the sun rises from it.

Southern Territories

Surprisingly vibrant if you know where to look, the sands are just as vibrant and alive as the Overgrowth in their own ways. Desert cactuses, strange flowers, hidden oases.

Heat is ever-present here, but it manifests as something that works as fuel, with solar operated technologies and environmental factors.

The people here are survivors, living primarily in the oases of the world, with resplendent cities that are extremely isolationist. 

Practice a blend of Craft and Cultivation, focusing on binding creatures to their will, and then empowering said creatures to be more useful / esoteric. Something of Gu in some of their techniques. 

Worship of the sun, as well as dream-visions from the Heavens, are most common, creating a Church of the Seven, full of sub-deities.

East / Overgrowth

More natural formations of genuine weirdness. The trees were nice and all, but let’s get some upside-down waterfalls, some areas where colors can be used to paint things into existence, some cave systems, some prairies, some variety.

More Pack members, as well as circling back to the lairs of at least one Apex, hopefully more (Besides Many-Mouths I mean)

And that's that! The full breakdown of my current, broad, vague, generalized notes. TLDR? I'm trying to go back to where we started, in terms of the weird eldritch biopunkery and the xianxia tropes and deconstructions, but trying to do it through a new lens that lets us play with more of the setting. This should hopefully expand the cast, the number of locations in the world that matter, and the ways in which we can see the world changing due to the story we're putting out. Circling back to seeds planted, rather than charging forward to add more- this way, we let the world expand organically, while not leaving behind the pieces we're trying to build something with. I do still want to explore some novel things here and there, but that's not really the focus right this second- except maybe the novel effort of a villain that stays relevant and scary! Wish me luck!

If you have suggestions, requests, comments, questions- write them down below! I'd love to read them!