A Wandering Soul - Informational 2 (Patreon)

Aaaand out of world 2!

Not exactly the way I wanted when I first came up with the idea, but I had forgotten how dragged out the Inheritance Saga could be and how much was just disconnected ‘Eragon and Saphira left to go to another place’ followed by a bunch of POV's going on around the same time.

It makes sense when you think about it. The other characters need time to actually move to the places their next scenes take place in and actually do things but when the POV doesn’t change like it does in the books it leaves a lot of blank space I didn’t know how to fill.

Too many POV changes would change how the story flowed and I’m personally annoyed when stories primarily about certain characters spend a dozen chapters on someone else I don’t really care about.

Couldn’t do too many timeskips either because then it’s either all flashbacks, info dumps, or just a never ending fight scene.

So in the end I decided once the main conflict was resolved to give Alex a reason to GTFO and leave the rest of the war for Eragon to finish. Beating Galbatorix is kinda his responsibility or his name isn’t Hiro Gary-Stu Protagonist the XXIII…

…right.

So fairly obviously the next world is Remnant from the webshow RWBY. Started off strong with three really solid seasons before gradually falling apart IMO thanks to the unfortunate passing of the main creator (RIP Monty Oum)

Things that people that have never watched the show need to know that may/may not get explained in story.

Aura – basically a personal force field generated by someone’s soul that can be used to mitigate incoming damage and some other defensive tricks until it is temporarily depleted or broken. Not everyone on Remnant has an active Aura, something I am going to chalk up to people with active Auras more easily attracting creatures of Grimm (shadow monsters that are attracted to negative emotions). Really useful if you plan on fighting them or going into dangerous situations, less so if you plan on being an accountant or shopkeeper or just living in a more secure town.

Semblances – unique magic abilities usable by people with an active Aura. Yes, the show says that Semblances aren’t magic…I don’t care. They totally are. Once discovered a person can train and improve their Semblance but they can’t change it. It’s often highly based on a person’s personality rather than anything else.

Magic – Other magic does exist in the show, mainly caught up in a few people and a handful of artifacts. While Semblances are magic, they are powered by a person’s soul while the other methods (like the 4 maidens) are remnants of the system powered by the two gods that abandoned the planet. It could be taught and strengthened with effort as long as a person had a connection to that magic system, but if you don’t have it, you can never use it.

Dust – a lot of other authors like to say Dust is crystallized elemental mana caused by Remnant slowly dying. Basically if mana is the ‘lifeblood’ of a planet then it’s slowly clotting as the world dies. I’m going the opposite route.

Dust is formed due to the overabundance of mana on the planet caused by the mess the gods caused as the left. Basically they tried cutting people off from magic as a punishment, but magic isn’t something even gods can really control. That's why you still get Semblances even after they left. The issue is that all the mana that was supposed to be absorbed and used by the people living on the planet is now dammed up thanks to the gods and is finding other ways to leak out.

And since Dust is crystallized mana it can easily be used to enhance or alter the effects of a person’s Semblance – though the base will remain the same – or even power various forms of magitech.

I think that covers the high points for RWBY without getting too technical. If there is a certain topic that needs an explanation I’ll either add it here later if it won’t be addressed in the story.