25 Jan 2018

Demona - Thoughts

When I began working on Demona, I wasn't expecting the character to go anywhere except a game.  Instead, she's become part of a potential story.  Not quite where I was going with the idea.

The problem with Demona as a character in a story is that she doesn't work well alone.  She needs others to play off.  Thus, Nadia and Ian are now part of the story.  Nadia's a mage of some sort, the exact sort to be determined at some point.  Ian is the damage sponge, the person who gets to stand between Nadia and danger while she casts a spell.  For added fun, Nadia doesn't like Demona.  The mage has issues with demons.

The next step is to create a separate setting for the story.  While the Demon Hunters setting is fleshed out, thanks to the Brotherhood Orientation Video, that's not my work.  Easiest change is to just create a new, smaller, less organized group, one that has a hierarchy so that Nadia is ordered to work with Demona.  There is precendent for such organizations - besides the Brotherhood of the Eternal Torch, there is also the Watchers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the White Council from The Dresden Files.  Having such an organization means I'll have a way to get the cast into the plot.

Once I get that figured out, I need decide on whether there is a masquerade where the general population isn't aware of the supernatural.  It's a cliché, but it has its purpose.  From the view of the supernatural types, if the general population was aware of their existence, they'd be a general hunt.  Vampires can't hunt if vampire hunters lay in wait in crowds.  For the would-be defenders of humanity, the general populace would consider them odd if not insane.  Who goes around with several kilograms of garlic buds, two dozen sharpened wood stakes, and silvered weapons?  Yet, the masquerade can slip.  Odd deaths, rumours of hauntings, even stupid mistakes will raise eyebrows.  People will figure things out; Waldo Butters of The Dresden Files is a good example here.  Butters worked the morgue in Chicago, so he got to see the bodies brought in with impossible injuries.  He figured things out on his own before Dresden brought him in on the secrets.

With The Soul Blade, there wasn't really a masquerade.  Brenna and her family had unusual abilities.  Her friends were aware of what she could do and helped when they could.  Brenna didn't come out, as it were, because she's terminally shy and didn't want the added attention.  When she did announce her abilities, it was to people who she knew well, like Missy, or who also had similar powers, like Carly.  So, with Demona et al, do I worry right away?  Or just have people be skeptical in general?

Form will have to be worked out.  Right now, the idea may work best as a series of some sort, either a serial or a series of novels or novellas.  And since I can't help but add to the difficulty, the current idea is to have the story take on the form of reality TV, with asides to the camera.  If the asides become a problem, they can be dropped, but I will have to brush up on a genre of shows that I don't care much for.  Fortunately, not all reality TV is alike and there are a number of parodies of the genre that can fill in, such as The Muppets.  If this becomes a major project, I'll either learn to draw the main characters or get the artwork commissioned, just to have head shots for the asides.

Demona developed while I was working on her character sheet.  Little things, quirks really, came out.  Her father is Catholic and raised Demona, trying to instill some faith in her.  Her half-demon side made it difficult to her to go through some of the rites, like baptism, first communion, and confession.  Demona also picked up a few traits from her mother, a few that don't appear on the character sheet.  Thanks to being half-succubus and half-Catholic, when Demona has sex, her partner feels really guilty afterwards.  Demona, not so much.

The other key aspect that I will have to keep in mind is that Demona is smart.  She's a librarian and she reads to keep up on what's in the collection.  On her character sheet, I gave her a d10 for Intelligence; after all, smart is sexy.  Demona might not have the range of experience that, say, Nadia has, but she can learn.

I have no idea when I'll start the story.  There's still too many details that I need to work out.  I have scenes in mind, but beyond that, no plot, no reason for the story to exist.  For now, I'll let the idea simmer and see what bubbles out of the stew that this metafore became.  The characters are coming together, and if I give them time in my head to work out, I'll have a place to start.

Friday, the serial hiatus continues with Tails of Equestria.
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, Dragnet.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, Thunderbirds.

No comments:

Post a Comment