The Birth of New Art

In brainstorming ideas for threads to get me back into Althanas, I came up with an interesting idea; I'm going to write a thread that chronicles Josh creating a new martial art/fighting style.

The thread will be written in three parts - before the end of the world, during the disaster, and in the aftermath. Since Josh spent the duration of the disaster in Phantaria (the realm of the Thaynes), he won't be in the middle section. I'll write as NPCs for that portion.

The premise is that after Josh brought hundreds of Fallieni warriors to Corone (this is from an older thread on 3.1) he needed to find ways to use them covertly. The Fallieni warriors are incredibly adept fighters but they're used to wide open spaces and fighting from horseback as often as not. In the streets of places like Radasanth or Serenti, they can't carry large weapons or use horses when trying to be discreet. Because of that Josh teaches them a new form of fighting that utilizes their existing hand-to-hand combat skills in combination with long, narrow-bladed knives.

That's pretty much the first act. The second act will be all kinds of shit hitting the fan, and how the Fallieni survive and make their own way without Josh. It'll be heavily focused on the development and implementation of the new martial art, which they take to calling Cu'Tak (a coarse pairing of "cut" and "attack").

In the third act Josh will return to the realm of mortals and, one way or another will end up tracking down the Fallieni. They'll likely not be happy to see him, and demand that he perform a nigh-impossible task to win back their allegiance. Exactly what that is and how things end is up in the air.

Where does your character fit in?

That's what I want to know. Post here or tag me in discord if you're interested! Probably only looking for one or two partners for this, but it really depends on the ideas people bring to the table.

This sounds like a great project and something really exciting! Definitely worth a try. And I'd like to help if you want. Quest for the lyre part two?!

Would love to have you on board Phi! Flamebird has expressed an interest (check main channel discord for our discussion) and we're hoping Shin will be interested as well, so we might have a full cast for this :)

You know me well enough to know I want in.

We've chatted about it in Discord, y'all! Go read up!

Or I could take snapshots...

Basically, Felicity would be feeling too overprotective of Shinsou and paranoid after Unto the Cruel. She'd be desperate to get stronger to prevent anything like that from happening to her loved ones again. She'd somehow gain the trust of the Fallieni in Part 3 (can't be in parts 1 and 2 cause she's in Phantaria with Gwenael during that time period) and learn traditional Fallien martial arts plus Joshua's new one.

And Felicity will finally meet Joshua so yaaayyyyyy! :D

There's a lot that seems to be going on. I feel a little overwhelmed... If I can fit in somewhere that would be cool

Flamebird and I were just hashing things out, that was a lot more detail than necessary. It's basically this:

Act 1 - Josh teaches the Fallien fighters Coronian covert tactics and Cu'Tak.
Act 2 - Josh disappears, world ends and begins again, the Fallieni stick together and survive as a group, adapting the fighting system
Act 3 - Post disaster. Josh re-emerges in the ordinary realm of Althanas and seeks out his soldiers, only to find they no longer look up to him. He tries to regain their favor with a Herculean task, fails, and it's left up to Felicity/the team to convince them to treat him as a god so he can fully ascend.

Well, act 3 got a bit complicated, but hopefully that clears it up. However you think you can fit in best will probably work.

Sounds fair dinkum to me.

I, too, would like to learn Cu'Tak.

Shin and Phi, please get in touch with me on discord so I can link you to my storyline doc :) Flamebird has already written her part into it so we're almost ready to get started. On that note, I may post the opener soon.

If Mordelain can help navigate Fallien's perils for part 3 and you'd have me, I'd be interested.