Solitaire Series Extras
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[edit] In Depth Look at Solitaire - Trodenhiem
[edit] Part 1, including Foreword
Part One - Posted: Oct 17 2008, 04:01 PM
Foreword Well this was the post that kicked off the whole thing. For some time now I'd been trying to get some good internal affairs RP going that could last and run into a series of RPs that became popular among the Role Play community here as well as with any luck, the people of Liberalia in general. My first stab at Internal Affairs RP was back with the original Solitaire Project RP, but these consisted of a number of threads spread over a vast timescale each with inconsistancies to the last. At this stage I really didn't know what I wanted to do with the Solitaire Project, even if I had a clear idea of what it was. Then there was the rise of the Second Imperium and various threads around the developement of that idea and the rise of Monte Guerro, however the RP crashed when Atholon decided to pull out and I decided it was time to phase out Monte Guerro as a major character and I started the Federalisation Era RP which lead to the Reunification Wars and the rise of Monte's son Carlo.
Carlo however grew stale very quickly and with the change of maps, which changed a lot and made a great deal of his background story and RP irrelevant with the change in geography and I have only just managed to fit my history with the geography in the last month or so to get a comprehensive idea of Trodenhiem's past. Anyway, with Carlo grown stale and the whole story ground into a hole I decided to miss out how Stomalkov rose to power and dive straight in a month or so later with Stomalkov at the height of his power.
Again though Stomalkov was a hard and very controversial character to persue. I based him on Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin, and as such he created a lot of tension and a lot of problems both in and outside of RP, with people criticising me for his approach and the RP surrounding him which was more brutal and extreme than any before, involving mass industrial genocide. Eventually I became fed up and needless to say disgusted with where the RP was going and slowly phased Stomalkov out in as interesting a way as possible. This sparked a phase of single post thread of no real importance or relevance that now, looking back make an excellent mish mash of reports that reflect the internal turmoil that Trodenhiem went through at the time of Stomalkov's demise and the rise fo Vadran Kelt.
Kelt though was a monstrous failure. His story was too shallow, he was a brand new character with no prior backstory and whose personality was inconsistant. I noticed instantly that Kelt was causing problems and the quality of my RP and the story was suffering as a result. This is when I decided to bring back Jarrick. Jarrick hadn't played a major part in my RP since FAN, he'd been in the background as a sort of Godfather figure for a long time and he only really come to the fore at the beginning of the Second Imperium RP era when I shad him executed. Jarrick however presented a lot of possibilities. Even though i had largely abandoned him since my move to Liberalia, I still had a clear idea and Caldari also had a clear perception of who Jarrick was and what his return meant. Caldari's understanding of the importance of Jarrick and that his level of Godfatherliness as well as his ability to manipulate really helped and for a long time I collaborated with Cal to try and develope Jarrick for the benefit of the Liberalian audience to which he was a virtual unknown.
Jarrick's return proved to be a huge success and with him came Konstantin. Initially I had planned to keep Konstantin's story in the background and I had few plans for him, as I wanted to develope Jarrick's role as the man pulling the strings. However when Cal decided to 'retire' it meant I had not only the chance, but the need to seek out fresh RP. With Cal gone there was precious little opportunity to really strongly develope Jarrick as a character, so i decided to shelve him.
The fact Konstantin had been in the background was great. It made him an established character, but without too much of a storyline or background, this allowed me to do whatever I wanted with him rather than being stuck in one direction like with Monte or Stomalkov. So I decided to remove Jarrick without killing him by having Konstantin turn against him and exile him to Caldari. At the time i didn't elaborate too much, and initially i kicked myself for this because it looked too ambiguous and the story seemed to lack depth, however as the Solitaire story has proven this was a great help as it allowed me to mould a new and striking story with the relationship between Jarrick and Konstantin.
Originally Jarrick was a member of the Gods, a shady group of Mafia like figures who were behind the history of Trodenhiem's leaderships. However I soon realised the idea was poor and that it would be better if Jarrick were allone as the Godfather figure, this put more emphasis on him as a character and i feel made him all the more striking as I had to merge aspects of the other 'Gods' personalities and thier actions into his own. In all it made him a far more intricate character who appeared capable of far more devious and subtle plots across a wider range of goals and methods.
Before Jarrick's relationship with konstantin was little more than benefactor. A man who had found ad protected the genuine last branch of the Imperial line of Trodenhiem. However i realised as my history was stretched, cut and altered to fit the new map and timeline that this was a very thin story. I soon realised I'd need to develope a strong and somewhat epic RP to clarify the relationship and to bring the main characters that had come to be introduced, largely by mistake, into the Trodenhiem story. This RP turned into Solitaire.
Solitaire started out as 'Trodenhiem' however I realised the problem with simply calling it that. It was an ambiguous name and I found it turned many people off from the subject as they thought 'Oh another self involved and maniacal scheme from a tinpot dictatorship' but this is not what i wanted. I needed a wider audience for the RP. It wasn't until I wrote the first post of the second Volume which was initially called 'Jarrick' that i realised I needed a series name that tied the whole story together and get one backstory constant throughout. One that also made clear what the story was actually about.
This Post
I initially made this post after Latagon commented to me on MSN one night that he, myself and Caldari, allong with Forth, now she had returned to RP, were the only people who really did any great amount of internal RP. Of course I was a little suspicious of the comment as at the time we were still on poor terms as people (as much my fault as his) however i soon realised it was a genuine and well meant comment with some truth, I realised that I hadn't ever had a single really defining RP, it'd more been a poor, spread out hotch potch of different ones that barely strung together. Latagon also mentioned that he'd enjoyed 'Intrigues in Geddon' (Mistakenly name 'Intriques in Geddon') and was dissappointed it'd stopped rather randomly. I explained I'd run out of ideas and motivation and then thought 'hang on why not try again.'
'Trodenhiem' was not actually the first RP that I tried out after the comment was made. I first tried out 'Murder in Geddon' however I swiftly realised that the name sounded too much like the failed 'Intrigues' and that the subject of the RP was based entirely ont wo poorly devised organisation that had no background RP except a minor involvement in Jarrick's exile and in 'Intrigues' I also had no established characters to rely on for flavour, so I quickly rounded the RP off without exploring its full potential and posted the first post of 'Trodenhiem'.
The whole thread started out as little more than an experiment. I wanted to see how well I could write creatively about people in Trodenhiem (something I plan to revisit properly) and with the success of my first post I asked myself where i should take it. It took me some time to realise this was the chance I'd been waiting for to buiold some new characters and to forge that relationship between Jarrick and Konstantin that i really wanted. I really loved the 'ordinary people' feel I'd given Fletch and Daphne and although I toyed with dumping them, I decided to keep them on and make them more important.
This thread was made before I even knew what I wanted to do with it. But it ended out introducing two vital characters to the story that unfolded in a really strong, yet casual manner, rather than pulling new characters out of the air and building on them later (this is my big flaw) so in truth Fletch and Daphne's existance is entirely accidental and unintended as major characters, even though they were the subjects of the first post.
[edit] Part 2
Part 2 - Posted: Oct 22 2008, 12:49 PM
This post really signifies the start of the Solitaire storyline as we know it now. It had taken nearly a week to decide where I was going to take the initial post about Fletch and Daphne. When I started writing, I played around with dropping Fletch and Daphne as major characters and using them to give the audience little more than the civilian perspective of things, however as my post of Konstantin came together I realised how much more interesting it would be to have Fletch and daphne affected by the device as well.
The existance of the device at this stage is not important though I haven't yet decided whether or not to develope the storyline between Konstantin and Khaine into a fight for control of it and with it control of the remaining Solitaires. Again at this point I still hadn't decided how many Solitaires there would be and whether or not the original Solitaire team (Ace, Spades, Clubs, Hearts, Diamonds and Jacks) would be involved, so I left it open.
This post was short but regardless it was vital to the story as it marked the developement of the thread from an experimental first post into a genuine RP. It introduced Konstantin into the story and though as yet he only appeared as he had in the past, as a leader not a person, it left the foundation to develope his role further. I still had no idea how the thread would go here as i was still taking it one post at a time.
[edit] Part 3
Part 3 - Posted: Oct 22 2008, 05:04 PM
Posted the same day as Part 2, this post signified the real beginning of the actual Solitaire story and reintroduced Zhukov as a mainstream character. It also let you meet Lyzanda and find out about his naive view on the project seeing the discover as fascinating and largely ignoring the implications. It does however highlight Lyzanda's fear, and perhaps the view the civilian populace would take of the Project and its subjects.
The first part of this developes the device that harms Solitaires and highlights Konstantin's fears that there are rogue Solitaires out there. However it also shows Lyzanda's naivity in that he believes it unlikely that the device would not work or that the recievers would be removed. It also leaves open the possibility that the original Solitaire team are still alive in say that the 'older' Solitaires had the reciever in thier shoulder, indicating that older subjects were in existance.
The second part of this post reintroduces Zhukov, as he tries to remove the reciever from Konstantin. It shows Zhukov as a close and trusted friend of the Emperor who is in a position to ask about Konstantin's personal life without actual reprisal. The fact that Zhukov was able to read up on the specifications of Konstantin's 'design' also left open the possibility for speculation that Zhukov knew more than the Emperor or the audience at this point about the Project and its extent.
The third and final part of the post is merely Konstantin's thought processes or an observation of them. It is used to reiterate Sedt's position and relationship with Konstantin as his closest. It also introduces Drax and Vinzo (a character introduced during the CU War) as Solitaires, but shows clearly that he doesn't trust them as implicitly as he does Sedt.
[edit] Part 4
Part 4 - Posted: Oct 22 2008, 08:48 PM
This post is another short one, this is due in part to the fact that by the time I'd made the second post I had a clear idea of where the story was going for now, and that it was made just hours after the second post. I also liked the way the speed at which they were posted reflected the speed at which the situation was escalating and considered integrating a regularity of posting as a theme. This I disregarded however as I realised that my wyrd was upon me and that to try and control it would stifle my creativity on this topic.
The first part covers a brief part of a discussion between Konstantin and Sedt. This once more emphasises the closeness of thier relationship, possibly beyond that of advisor and Emperor, especially considering that Don Elric Voltaire and Alejandro Drax are also his close advisors. The last part of the conversation in which Sedt says "No family...of course not, that's why you chose him..." is particularly telling of Konstantin's character and the way his mind works in plans and schemes, but it also reiterates Konstantin's more moral side. He wouldn't put a family man in charge of the investigation because he knew he may have to remove them if they found out too much.
The second part is perhaps the climax of the first part of the story, certainly it is a climax in Konstantin's character developement. Until now Sedt has very much done all the violent and blood work for Konstantin, however in this post Konstantin reveals his willingness to get his hands dirty (quite literally) if he needs to. It was also the very first real display of how much more powerful a Solitaire is than an actual human as Konstantin punched clean through a mans spine and then ribcage. This killing method was inspired by various gory anime action films of which I am a huge fan, and the characters from which the concept of the Solitaire is based. It also allowed me to introduce Jarrick into the story as I had already revealled in my Factbook that Konstantin's right arm was jarricks that had been grafted on to replace a lost one. (This is a topic I hope explore and explain later in the stroy.) The fact that Sedt came allong and did most of the brutal blood work on the other lead investigators was meant to show Sedt's loyalty to Konstantin, but als his desire to keep the Emperor as morally clean as possible.
[edit] Part 5
Part 5 - Posted: Oct 23 2008, 10:02 AM
This post was made the next day once I'd had a time to reflect on the story so far. I realised how quick everything was going and with it came the realisation that I needed a post to slow the speed of the story. I took this as the perfect opportunity to look back to Fletch and Daphne, who we'd left in hospital having felt the affects of the device.
The first part started with a news report on the death of Lyzanda. I wanted to make sure that the story seemed to be happening largely behind closed doors, which is why I made the news broadcast emphasise the believe that Jarrick was responsible for the death. It was vital that Jarrick was emphasised here, and that it was made clear that the public didn't yet know what was going on. I decided to start with Fletch, him being the older of the two, I figured he'd take to his abilities, which had surfaced with the use of the machine having subconsiously being supressed, much more slowly and I wanted to explore how he reacted. Being an older man and not entirely fit nor precisely muscular I figured he'd be more interesting to start out on than Daphne. It would also allow the look at Daphne to brush over and sweep aside Fletch's early concerns allowing room for them to surface later if I wanted to explore that plot line. I also want to use Fletch and his accidents to show the audience once more how powerful the Solitaire Project made people, and while at this point I hadn't openly revealled what Daphne and Fletch were, when he broke the sink I figured it would be obvious.
The second part looked at Daphne, sweeping Fletch's concerns aside, but not solving them or confronting them. Daphne being younger I decided, should take more readily to here new found abilities more readily. I made it a short section to emphasise how quickly everything was moving for Daphne, physically, mentally and emotionally.
The third part was little more than a showcase of what the untrained Solitaires could do. TIt also showed how strong thier instincts had become as they sensed it had something to do with Lyzanda and the Project and decided to find out for themselves. I made Daphne the ringleader of this to keep the image of Fletch as still unsure of his own abilities.
[edit] Part 6
Part 6 - Posted: Oct 23 2008, 03:40 PM
Once again I made the next installment scant hours after the previous one. Once again reflecting the speed of the story but also because I knew again where the story was going and I wanted it to get there. This post was meant to bring Daphne and Fletch into the fold as it were but also it was meant to make clear how secretive the main part of the story was.
The first part was very short, because I wanted to focus more at this point on Daphne and Fletch than Konstantin and Sedt. This section of the story really was meant to be about the two new Solitaires and not Konstantin who I felt had hogged the limelight. However short as it was this part was crucial as it told the audience what was going on and set them up for one of the most important scenes in the whole RP.
The second part which I refer to as 'The Induction' introduces the Empress kathryne into the story. I introduced her in order to bring the King and the Forthamptonians into the story, thus emphasising the strong ties that had now grown between the two nations as a result of the love between Konstantin and Kathryne. This post also dealt with the issues risen in the first part of the story about Daphne's sister, and made a conclusion of sorts to that open end for the time being. It also moved the plot significantly in that Daphne and Fletch moved from civilians to actual Solitaires.
[edit] Part 7
Part 7 - Oct 23 2008, 07:42 PM
Again scant hours after the last post, this was the fanale to the first part of the Solitaire story. I realised that I'd posted so quickly that it presented those not as active as myself or those who were just casual viewers of RP with a wall of words that looked daunting and was a put off. So I decided to leave it there and ensure that as many people were reading it as possible. I wanted to give people a chance to read through it while my imagination ran away with me and took the story forward without continuing the problematic single wall of words.
The first part set up the baseplot for Solitaire 2, fully bringing Jarrick into the story by focusing on him properly for the first time. I made plain that Jarrick didn't always get his own way and that he would deal with some things personally, despite his own fears. It also served to remind people about the subplot of the arms. It also reminded people of Zhukov.
The second part concentrated on Daphne, and showed her to be the dominant member of the Daphne - Fletch pair. It concentrated on her training and showed that despite the skills displayed when she first discovered her abilities, she was still wildly inmferior to Sedt in terms of skill. I wanted to maintain that Sedt was incredibly powerful and artful at the same time as showing that Daphne had the potential to be similarly able.
The third part served merely to show Fletch and how he was doing (not so well as Daphne) it also made plain that he was the inferior of the two as he had been given Drax to train under a character never so well developed and largely ignore by comparison to Sedt who many people know already. It also served the purpose of showing that superior skill can still best even a Solitaire.
[edit] In Depth Look at Solitaire 2 - Jarrick
[edit] Part 1
Part 1 - Posted: Oct 24 2008, 12:04 PM
I decided that rather than wait for a day or maybe a wekk to plough straight on from the tied off end to Trodenhiem. When I posted this I hadn't had any plans to make anything more of the RP than I had already at that time (The threads with a character profile thread). However as interest grew and more and more people started saying to me how much they liked it (Thanks Iwaqin and Forth you seem to be my mainstay audience!) and as I began to talk more to them about my ideas things really developed and kicked off. I no longer wanted to restraint the ideas flowing through my head, with the first installment a proven success in my eyes I wanted to continue straight away while the ideas were fresh.
Solitaire 2 begins in Vinzo's office, our first look at Vinzo in the series, as he argues with Jarrick. This shows clearly where his allegiance lies with regards to the Konstantin|Jarrick power struggle. Not only this but it reveals that Jarrick is already in Trodenhiem and shows his extraordinary ability and prowess, especially considering Trodenhiem's closed nature and the fact that Jarrick is just and ordinary man and not a Solitaire.
The second part really only serves to set up the next post which was made while I was bored at the office (Hehehehe! Now you know what I do all day!). It shows the amazing stamina that Fletch seems to have, but also the commanding role Drax plays in his new life as Kathryne's security man.
[edit] Part 2
Part 2 - Posted: Oct 24 2008, 01:50 PM
I wanted to make a really big splash with Jarrick's return to Trodenhiem, a move that would signify both the seriousness of the story at this point and one that would show clearly just how powerful Jarrick is. Jarrick has been a character of mine for years now, he was my first major character in my RP back in FAN (even the original Emperor of Trodenhiem, Titherius II himself could contend) and I really wanted to give his second revival a big opening. Where before he'd appeared in secret, now in the context of the story he entered with a bang by comparison.
The first part was the most important in my eyes. It pitted Drax, who originally was as powerful as Sedt, though I changed him to be less so, against Jarrick who despite his long history is still just an ordinary man. I wanted him to appear disdainful in the face of the embodiment of one his worst fears, confronting Drax in battle. The reason for this is that I wanted to show Jarrick as a man in complete control of himself, while yes he is human and has very human emotions, he has an almost supernatural ability to control himself. Never once has Jarrick openly gotten angry or let rage dictate how he acts. I wasn't about to start now.
Drax needed to appear impertinant and childish to symbolise his weakness by comparison to Sedt or Konstantin. I also wanted him to seem naive to the point of innocence believing that Konstantin did not need to hear what Jarrick had to say. Despite his evil nature Jarrick is and has always been a well of invaluable knowledge and wisdom. Then the fight begins, even though I made a point of showing the hatred in Jarrick I also made a point of keeping his movements graceful and kept the fight short. The way inm which it was conducted showed that Jarrick already knew exactly what he was going to do having planned it beforehand in his mind. However the use of a gun to kill Drax, so unlike the close combat kills of Sedt and the like symbolises Jarrick's status as a mere mortal.
The fact that Jarrick could throw back the enhanced strength of Fletch with his prosthetic alsoe sets me up to develope Jarrick more and show exactly why he was the perfect 'father' for the Project.
The second and third parts are of only symbolic importance. Drax was a worthy character so I felt describing his death exactly was necessary. The third part reveals more of Jarrick's character and also his determination.
[edit] Part 3
Part 3 - Posted: Oct 24 2008, 07:30 PM
For the first part I wanted to return to Fletch's perspective, being the least stable of the main characters at this point and the least sure of himself it was important to look at his thoughts and reactions to the death of the man who was training him and helping him come into his abilities.
The second part was where Vinzo came into his own and sadly met his demise. With Sedt coming and granting Jarrick's wish in taking him to Konstantin, Vinzo mistakes the situation and ends up beaten but not dead and Sedt's hand. The end of this part also shows that Jarrick has some sort of revelation and this becomes a large basis for ther plot of this volume.
The third part introduces my favourite Solitaire. Khaine. No you weren't mistaken, he is entirely new, I've never RPed him before. I wanted to introduce him to the audience so as not to just have him randomly fall in on the others and lay into Konstantin. His finishing of Vinzo which is so reminiscent of Lyzanda's death gives hints of Khaine's relationship to Konstantin.
[edit] Part 4
[edit] In Depth Look at Solitaire 3 - Khaine and Solitaire 4 - Twins Coming Soon
[edit] The Series
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