Discover Top Posts Tagged with #mcs evan

My guy that's an uno deck, half a Yu-Gi-Oh beginner's pack, and a regular set of cards violently shuffled together

Also this is a metaphor upon a metaphor upon yet another secret third metaphor for the future story of these characters- way more effort than a meme requires

#main character syndrome #main character syndrome art #MCS 0.1 #mcs evan #mcs jem #mcs val #mcs quinn #mcs art #fantasy #original character #artwork #art #original art #oc art #original character art #fantasy art #oc #original fantasy #card meme

Devlog 0.3 - Magic Schools Are Kind Of Messed Up If You Think About It

I was once again thinking about the cosmotology of Main Character Syndrome and came to the realization that the college at the center of Memoir of the Lost is actually like... really messed up. It's not even the only college like that.

This isn't about them being monetarily exploitative though. It's more about... how history has developed when magic is at the forefront of it. Magic is powerful and dangerous with a lot of negative consequences should something go wrong (or, if that's your intention, if something goes right) and the world of Memoir of the Lost is far more earth-based than your standard affair.

For a quick explanation of the cosmology (theology? Idk what the word is)

At the beginning, the end, and forever, is the void. Except the void isn't. By nature the void does not exist because it is there mere representation of nonexistence, the true form of Nothing. But, as the problem goes, you can't just have Nothing. The concept of Nothing only exist in contract to Something.

And so there was Something. 52 Weavers to be exact, eldritch creatures far older and more ancient than the Gods of any given universe, born before the birth of time. They too, technically, were born at the beginning, the end, and forever. It's a chicken-or-the-egg scenario. Which came first?

The 52 Weavers, the Something to give context to the Nothing? or The Void, the Nothing that needed a Something to even define it as Nothing at all?

Since both existed before Time, one of the Weavers' earliest creations, technically neither existed before the other. Without time, there is no start and end, no age.

From these Weavers, more somethings were created, strings woven into threads and crotched into the blanket that is the multiverse. Or, well, omniverse? A concept of the universe that is a step above the multiverse and each of the threads are, by themselves, a multiverse. The strings that make up those threads are the universes that form the multiverse.

Two of these strings in one of these threads are the strings that represent Jem's universe and the universe of Memoir of the Lost. The only real difference between these two places is that the universe of Memoir of the Lost has Functional Magic while Jem's universe does not. The difference between functional and non-functional magic is, fundamentally, whether or not a universe is thought to have magic at all.

Does this make any sense?

Anyway.

Despite the presence of magic, the universe of Memoir of the Lost grew almost identically to Jem's universe up until the American Revolution, when magic and war first intermingled. Before that, magic was mostly used for practical, at-home purposes. With the realization that magic could be used for war, an arms race quickly started that resulted in WWI.

Unlike in Jem's universe (which is much like our own), there would be no WWII. Nukes, as a concept, would never be created as it became clear that magic could be far more deadly and far more insidious. MAD was quickly developed and, with it, magic schools were created.

At their highest levels, the collegiate levels, magic schools are essentially training grounds for living weapons. They certainly have other degrees, much like how the military has a degree program, but their focus is honing people's magic to be used in the next generation of living weapons to participate in the MAD contract.

However, each country only has one representative, their strongest mage from their best magic school, the rest either being soldiers or following their degree paths. This has caused quick the competition amongst those with ambition, who's sole goal is to study magic and become the strongest there ever was. You know, the typical Shonen-protagonist dream.

The difference is, of course, is that these people are fundamentally fighting to be a weapon, an object to be displayed and gawked over in order to keep their country 'safe'. It's an incredibly dehumanizing position to have, one that's looks at in equal parts awe and fear. Many of the top mages are more than a little cooky in part because of this treatment. If people treat you like a thing for long enough, it starts to have consequences.

Evan and Curtano are to two competing students to be the next MAD Mage. Both were top of their previous schools, far stronger than the majority of the populace could ever hope to be, the true 1% in terms of magical ability. Evan, however, is just a bit stronger than Curtano.

Evan is also an expert in making it look easy. It's like figure skating or gymnastics. None of it is actually easy but the goal is to make it look effortless.

Curtano, who's struggled and clawed his way into this position from the very bottom, falls for Evan's mask of effortless perfection (which, to be fair, Evan also tends to believe his own bullshit) and he despises Evan for it. They're rivals, enemies, and neither have anything good to say about the other.

Having gotten so close, seemingly about to fail before the finish line, Curtano does something bad. Nothing illegal, of course, just... not very recommended.

Curtano performs a summoning ritual to look for a familiar. Why is that bad? Because you can't control what answers the ritual. If it ends up being stronger than you? It can chain you instead of the other way around. Curtano's ritual summons something very strong indeed, one of the 52 Weavers.

In response to his call for power, twisted by the Void and the natural misunderstandings between an eldritch creature and a speck of dust, the Weaver decides to take pity on this little mortal. The world is twisted, the real made unreal...

And the game begins.

Welcome to 'Memoir of the Lost', an indie Mystery/Romance game known best for it's mystery ending being buggy to the point of being impossible to complete. Why?

Because every contract has an out and the Weaver who answered would truly hate to lose.

#main character syndrome #main character syndrome writing #mcs #mcs Curt #mcs evan #cosmotology #theology #gods #fantasy gods #original fantasy #fantasy #original character #oc