Series discussion

[Ulvaak]

One thing I’ve notice when thinking about card ideas for this game is that I haven't come across a lot of narrative to really a base/theme big series of cards around.  Something alluding to some sort of civilisation or even just an organised group of sentient beings would be helpful, since where we have a gathering of intelligence, there will be ambition, tension and drama, which facilitate the need for device and muscle to assert the will to change, to rule and to resist. Hopefully it will also lead to richer more meaningful cards that synergize different elements as well.

In the time being, I have for your consideration a list of typical (you can call cliché) races that I think could help fill out the story a bit and be useful for building a series around, and to add some more thematic elements to the game.  Although these ideas may be seen as overdone, I think there could still a place for them especially if more original ideas for other civilisation and races can come along side, but even if they don't, at least here are some basic stuff to work with.

time - gnomes/Egyptian theme race
aether - fairies
air - the airborne (humanoids with wings)
earth - dwarves
fire - orcs
water - merfolk
light - order of light (the ascended)
darkness - black cult (the fallen)
death - zombie/skeleton/vampire
life - elves
gravity - giants
entropy - mutants/lycan

Without a wider scope or story, we are left with small series base on one word ideas that stretched across the elements like "shard", or "Weapon" or "Shield" or "scorpion".  Good as they are, personally I'd prefer something that fits into a larger narrative.  Something like "the sixth dimension" series or the "cosmic war" series or the "lost empires" series etc.

[Freefall357]

Story:
For some reason ELEMENTALS!
suddenly, MAGIC!
then MORTAL COMBAT!!!
followed by, beat up Elders and take their money
followed by, beat up Elders and take their money
followed by, beat up Elders and take their money
followed by, beat up Elders and take their money
followed by, beat up Elders and take their money
followed by, beat up Elders and take their money
eventually, defeat false-god
become revered as a god
defeat purpose
but, in the end  wins
The End
 

actually on topic
gnomes seem more Lifey...
Maybe Time would have no actual race attached to it, just desert dwellers that roam it (no one controls time, we are merely in it)
Darkness- Any creature of the night made humanoid would work...also sneaky things.

[NikaZaslavsky]

Nothing. There were no planets, no stars, no universe, no life. The void was everywhere. Nothing... void... no. Inside the void, inside nothing, there was something. This something, this particle of matter where no matter existed, was a blob of energy, radiating throughout the void, trying to put an end to the nothingness. It pulsed like a little heart that was the beginning of something new, then shrank... and shrank, until it was nothing more than a speck of dust to be blown away by the wind. But there wasn't any wind to blow it away, no, you mustn't forget that there was nothing. So the speck stayed on the brink of disappearing, ready to give up, but it still had some potential. All it needed was some... BOOM! The speck exploded with a bang that extended to the farthest corners of the void, and there they were. Twelve planets, building blocks of the universe, floating in the void that was no longer empty. 

And then... y'know, the races and creatures started to develop and they had wars and stuff...

[Ulvaak]

Story:
For some reason ELEMENTALS!
suddenly, MAGIC!
then MORTAL COMBAT!!!
followed by, beat up Elders and take their money
followed by, beat up Elders and take their money
followed by, beat up Elders and take their money
followed by, beat up Elders and take their money
followed by, beat up Elders and take their money
followed by, beat up Elders and take their money
eventually, defeat false-god
become revered as a god
defeat purpose
but, in the end  wins
The End
 

actually on topic
gnomes seem more Lifey...
Maybe Time would have no actual race attached to it, just desert dwellers that roam it (no one controls time, we are merely in it)
Darkness- Any creature of the night made humanoid would work...also sneaky things.

Cool story bro, thanks for that

Yeah, the gnomes were a bit of a stretch. Sand people/nomads could work.  What once were a people, now is not, but will be again etc...
I would imagine the dark cult would have all sorts of sneaky shenanigans and dark "pets" all up in their sleeves.

Actually you reminded me of something. What the heck (story wise) are the elders and false gods anyways.  Maybe that could be a starting point.  It seems to be the only thing in the game that have any resemblance to any try at a story, all be it a thinly veiled attempt at giving some flavour to AI difficulty levels.  Still, it's something...

[Ulvaak]

Nothing. There were no planets, no stars, no universe, no life. The void was everywhere. Nothing... void... no. Inside the void, inside nothing, there was something. This something, this particle of matter where no matter existed, was a blob of energy, radiating throughout the void, trying to put an end to the nothingness. It pulsed like a little heart that was the beginning of something new, then shrank... and shrank, until it was nothing more than a speck of dust to be blown away by the wind. But there wasn't any wind to blow it away, no, you mustn't forget that there was nothing. So the speck stayed on the brink of disappearing, ready to give up, but it still had some potential. All it needed was some... BOOM! The speck exploded with a bang that extended to the farthest corners of the void, and there they were. Twelve planets, building blocks of the universe, floating in the void that was no longer empty.

And then... y'know, the races and creatures started to develop and they had wars and stuff...

I'm not sure if there's any need to go that far back in the story to the creation myths and stuff like that the bits after the BOOM! y'know, the races and creatures and their wars and stuff is fine for what I'm talking about.  Twelve planets eh, is that offical from the designer? what happen to the plantes? did they collide? why are they in conflict?

Perharps different elemental plains of existence that has one common/prime plain that intersect/bridge all of them could work better? the different plains are all trying to assert dominance over this "prime" plain and through that, to dominate all the others...Maybe a study of the plains including the prime plain and their inhabitant's habits, motivations, structures, and interactions would be grounds for more story/theme driven card designs that go beyond the one word card designs like "dragon" or "nymph".  The elders and half bloods and false gods fit in there somewhere too I would expect...

*disclaimer* This plains of existance bit is pure speculation on my part of course. I'm just rolling with what someone had quoted what somebody else had said...

[NikaZaslavsky]

First... I have no idea what exactly this thread is about and what it wants to accomplish. A story of how cards and levels of AIs were formed?

That quote was just something a friend and I wrote, and I don't really know what happened next, so I think your idea would work.

[OldTrees]

If a thematic based series is too large it will overshadow the other themes of the same element/elements. Therefore the size of any thematic based series is restricted by the size of the current card pool. These series can later be expanded as more cards are added.

Look at the size of the existing thematic series as an estimate about what sized series is appropriate. I expect you will see that such series should be smaller than the forum based minimum of 6 except for the 1 per element series like Pillars, Dragons and Alchemy.

[Naesala]

Gnome Gemfinder ring any bells? Gnomes would be earth

As for races for each element that is something for way down the road or for the lore sections. MtG can do it because they have thousands and thousands of cards. Elements doesnt come close.

[Ulvaak]

First... I have no idea what exactly this thread is about and what it wants to accomplish. A story of how cards and levels of AIs were formed?

I'm just looking for something to fuel ideas and maybe some guideline (canon wise) for card designs.  From this discusson I can see now that there really is not that much of a story to the game and currently the game is probably more suited small mechanics driven series rather than larger more expansive narrative/theme driven ones.

I appreciate this kind of knowledge when I think about what ideas to contribute to the game.

[ZephyrPhantom]

Regarding storyline:
There actually is a large (and incomplete) Elements fanfiction called 12 Realms on this forum - you should be able to see it here (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,20059.0.html) unless SG has changed something. It contains tons of original information and some concepts may seems different from usual elements ones, though but it does organize some creatures into groups (for example, in one chapter the reader sees Gravity's creatures split up into military divisions under the same nation.)

There's also this small thread (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,29424.0.html) by Jenkar.

[Ulvaak]

Thank you Zblader. Appreciate the links.