Hidden Haven

So in a new burst of energy, I have finally picked up the metaphorical pen and paper (in this case, sticking my USB back into my laptop) to write again. It's quite terrible how little I've written this holidays. My only consolation comes from the fact that I spent a lot of spare time throwing ideas about for the story, and as a result I have fleshed out more of the Isshaten arc.

The Talgrith arc had been planned out some time last year, so now I just need to set things up and write it. I had also pretty much planned out the Averron arc, which was always meant to be a fairly short reprieve arc, but has now gotten even shorter because I've decided to delegate certain events to a time skip. Also because they're not important, not relevant and I really can't be bothered planning it.

I think if I had my life to myself I'd probably just write the plot first and come back to revise it, but I'd rather not do that again as revising Next Assignment has caused me to do about three complete re-writes and it is not, in any way, fun. Nor does it do anything to put the characters in my good opinion - which is pretty bad if you have to stick with them for the story.

I'm still having trouble with Talgrith's geography. At the start I wanted its climate to be cool and temperate in the north, but tropical in the south, but then because of various latitudinal problems.... So either Isshaten is more south than I originally intended it to be (probably the case), or the countries are bigger than they're supposed to be, or Talgrith is farther away from Averron... anyway. It's not entirely important, but I'd like to know what Talgrith's weather is like =0=; Ah weather. It's surprising how vital it is to society.

So as a preview of things coming up (a looooong time later...by which time I might change my mind, which is exactly why I'm putting it here):
Coming up soon (i.e. in Talgrith)...
- Vivant nearly gets killed
- Someone gets killed
- Someone gets killed
- Someone gets killed
- Vivant nearly kills someone
- Vivant kills someone
- Someone gets killed
- Vivant nearly kills someone
- Someone gets killed
- Giras makes the stupid mistake of taking pity on Vivant
...That's about the general order of things, although the "someone gets killed" might shuffle a bit XDDDD

Coming up later (in Averron)...
- Vivant nearly gets married?!?!
- Vivant meets the next king of Talgrith
- Vivant disappears for a while

Coming up eventually (in Isshaten)...
- Vivant breaks a promise
- Giras' younger brother
- Arianna's son (Xantes)
- Vivant is a genius at pissing people off...or so he says
- Various people die, often through their own de/vices
- Shuddup, there are still living beings by the end of the story, although it was tempting to end with a nuclear holocaust

At the moment (well it's been decided before the story began) it seems that instead of building to a big final roaring showdown, the story dwindles to a personal confrontation. I don't think Vivant ever goes into the battle expecting to "win" and overpower Arianna's army. It's fortunate for Vivant that this war could be solved by removing a few people, although the repercussions are probably worse than the war itself (not that...ahem...some people stay to witness it). It's not like the war was based on ideology, or race, or belief, or something that people feel compelled to hold on to.

And just in case anyone's worried (or more for my record), here's a list of people who will almost certainly make an appearance in Isshaten - omissions doesn't (necessarily) mean death!! It could mean I simply forgot their existence. LOL. On the other hand, don't ask me "what about [insert name]?" if you don't want to be spoiled.

Vivant, Arianna, Xantes, Giras, Ruelli, Cheltis, Kamaeh, Delshya, Shela, Giras' brother, Kasaris, Hinkan, Yunyi

...Come to think of it...that's not that many people O_o