Escape to Escape! by Risu

[Kasimir]

In this thread, I will post various ideas I have as I get them, about the details of my eventual Webcomic. Alot of them will likely be unintelligible tho', but they're already seperated into categories. Each category is gonna be updated with more stuff periodicly, so if you care enough to follow my progress....

[Kasimir]

Table of Contents

1). Teaser & Background
2). Characters
3). Places
4). Misc.
5). Magic

[Kasimir]

1). Teaser & Background

It's the future, again. It isn't as bad as one would think, it's actually quite rather utopian otherwise, but it sure is crowded. They tried everything; drifting island-cities, flying sky-cities, underground colonies, even moon bases; but the demand keeps on rising.

In the year 2095 Common Era, one of the lunar colonies excavated a mythical artifact called the Yggdrasil Seed. It was hardwired to a satellite and sent across the Sun from Earth, and then grown into a planet, which they named "Escape".

But by the time the first humans arrived on Escape, they were shocked and disappointed to discover that someone else had beat them to it - A race of trans-dimensional creatures; the Anthromorphs (or "furries" as they were affectionately dubbed.) Fortunately everyone was able to coexist, as more and more human refugees migrated to Escape. Within a few years, cities already began to spring up, altho' the ecosystem hadn't entirely been implemented yet.

And yet, with the arrival of the Furries, envoked another one of those "ancient powers".... but this time perhaps, the earliest and most potent of them all!

[Kasimir]

2). Characters

Anthromorph Archetypes

* Standard:- Typical proportions, altho' slightly shorter than the average adult human.
* Chibi:- (Think of it as how I used to draw Pocky and co.)
* Feral:- About the same size as chibies. They primarily walk on all-fours and, despite their apposible thumbs, have limited dexterity.


Main Protagonists

* Parrow (artic fox, standard):- A spazzy, energetic, strong-willed individual. He unknowingly posesses a unique ability to befriend almost anyone he meets, by elimonating the darkness in their minds. He loves to hoverskate and often has a massive appetite. He specialises in the magical science of evasion; which involves decoys, teleportation, invisibility, antigravity, and the ability to pass thru solid matter.
* Raydar (praerie dog, standard):- The world's very last praerie dog. He wears goggles, a scarf, and orange parachute pants from an original gemini spacesuit. He also has a biomechanical left arm, which serves as a "swiss-army knife"; holding an arsenal for an array of diffrent tools & weapons. In general, his magic is very limited.
* Jasper (folf, standard):- Jasper was deserted by her parents when she was very young. As a result, she tries to prevent others from suffering the same fate. Altho' she will still distrust strangers, until she gets to know you. But she will guard her friends to no end. Additionally, she secretly studies to learn temporal manipulation, so she can go back in time in order to


Recurring Minor Antagonists

* Vash (porcupine, chibi) & Dex (meerkat, chibi):- A duo of dumbasses who try (and frequently fail) to acheive acclaim by any means. Their limited ability to get along results in missing important details, which inevitably foils their schemes.
* Cassie (Ermine, chibi):- Parrow's fangirl and stalker. Jasper can't tolerate her at all, and often drags her away to beat her up out of the scene. She seems to have some sorta resilience power, or can endure alot of pain.
* Napalm (Wolf, feral/chibi):- A crazed wolf who hatches dangerous plans to either take over or destroy Orion City. He carries a Hammerspace Cube filled with powerful magical & hi-tech weapons. Despite this, he is easily defeated and poses very little threat otherwise.

[Kasimir]

3). Places

Orion City:- The main setting where alot of the major action happens.

* Parrow's penthouse:- A luxurious midrise condo complex. Parrow & Raydar are fortunate enough to live in the very top suite.
* Everymeal:- The fastfood chain that serves all 5 cuisine (Greek, Italian, Chinese, Fake-xican, and Americanese) at anytime of the day.
* The Academia:- Think of it as the basterdized mutant lovechild between Hogwarts, the Starfleet Academy, and a regular community college.
* Postal Park:- A wide-open community park green. Otherworldly strangers can sometimes appear, found laying unconscious on a bench.
* RES-Q:- The base of operations for the Island's equivalent of a police force, disaster response team, and a paramedical unit; all consolidated as one.
* The Foundary:- A vast plain of ultra-efficent solar powercells and a winding network of pneumatic pipes cover much of this area. Also the site of Defacto's labratory.
* Orion Group HQ:- A range of domed arcologies, isolated across the River from the rest of the Island, at the foot of the Peregrine Moutains.
* The Scum-Dwellings:- The slummy lower layer of the multi-tiered cityscape. 95% percent of everyone else reside here.
* The Undercity:- Far beneath the Scum-Dwellings are the ruins of a long-forgotten civilisation, haunted by ghosts of those who once lived there.
* Championship Level B0WL:- The stadium where the Tournament () is staged to happen later on in the series.


Elsewhere

Lazarus City:- A neighbouring Island connected by a bridge-tunnel 300 miles long. It's populated primarily by the humans.

Fostoria:- A towering canopy of supergiant redwoods flourish in this sunlit region.
* Vitae:- A massive fortified city nestled among the treetops. The "tree-towns" are connected to eachother by a network of ATEX Tubes. Perhaps the fastest advancing technology and magic exists in Vitae.

Zuthora:- A foreboding swamp illuminated by an eerie yellow ambient glow.
* Outcrops:- Mysterious abandoned watchtowers standing neglected and deteriorating above the mucky water. They've been there for atleast a hundred years. No one knows what they might've been used for.

Tundaria:- A mountain range spanning for hundreds and hundreds of miles.
* Krymonelia:- It used to be the toughest maximum security prison on Escape, until one day all the inmates rebelled and overtook it. Now it acts as a retreat and a refuge for outlaws, public enemies, and those on the lam. The city that's now sprawled around the old main cell bloc, is so well-protected that even RES-Q can't get too near it.

[Kasimir]

4). Misc.

Items, Tools, & Weapons

* Multiblade^[1]:- The hilt of a sword that can conjure one of four diffrent kinds of blades, one for each Affinity.
* Hammerspace Cube:- A 4D manifold encased inside a box the size of a Rubiks Cube.
* Wristpad^[1]:- Simular to a contemporary smartphone, except for these are worn on the wrist. They are foldout / popout / collapsible, as not to takeup space.
* Anchor:- A rope made of plasmic energy. It can't be undone until its caster wants it to. Basicly it's just like a weld in GmodD.
* EARWIG:- Ascronym for "Electric Audio Robotic Winged Information Gatherer". It's a miniature spy drone in the form and size of a housefly.

^[1](Raydar has one of these built into his bionic arm.)


Vehicles

* Hovercraft:- These include hoverboards, hoverbikes, and hovercars. They are used for passenger trnasportation. Bikes & cars typicaly run on autopilot, but the rider can manually override if necessary. Boards however, are controlled by the rider's foot/leg movements, but mostly mental willpower.
* ATEX tubes:- The mass transit system within cities. Spacious pods travel quickly thru pressurised, low-friction passageways.
* Spaceplane:- A generic term referring to any mobile, operable ship that atleast 3 or more people can occupy.
* F5:- One among the fleet of spaceplanes that transport masses of migrants from Earth seeking refuge on Escape. Obviously, its name is an homage to the refresh key on a typical keyboard.


Misc.

* Propagand-O-Tron:- Floating holographic billboards that drift around the city. They alert the citizens of breaking news, but usually they just show reruns of Defacto promoting the ideals of the Orion Empire.
* Uryocon:- The glowing blue-green liquid metal that can be shaped into anything. It's easier for one to manipulate it if they have alot of darkness in their minds.
* The Elder Gods:- They appeared in the world from the universe which the Anthromorphs came. They are the creators of the most ancient of all the "ancient powers". Every now and then thruout the course of history, they intervene by incarnating themselves into certain key individuals which then proceed to become iconic figureheads.

[Virmir]

Looking cool so far.  Can't wait to see some comic pages.

[Kasimir]

5). Magic

Magic System

In the world of Escape, magic is somewhat based on the East Asian four-element system. Each element is linked to an "affinity" which reflects the individual user's personality. As shown by the chart graph below, each respective affinity neither allies nor opposes another. Instead, one simply cycles into the next.

* WiND - Logic
* WATER - Knowledge
* FiRE - Power
* EARTH - Willpower

Additionally, the amount of darkness in one's own mind (or absence thereof) also directly affects the nature of spells they cast.

DARK  <- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ->  LiGHT

However, this magic didn't initially exist on Earth. It was brought into this universe by the Anthromorphs when they settled on Escape.


The Codex

Short for "The Complete Codex of Magical Science". It is an encyclopedic database of all the styles of magic that exists within this system, and every associated spell that goes along with it.


Common Archetypes of Spells

* Fire & Lightning
* Countermagic
* Time manipulation
* Mind control
* Geomancy (rocks)
* Trickery (illusions, decoys)
* Evasion (teleportation, hideing)
* Healing & Prevention
* More to list yet....

[Kasimir]

Yeah, I think I'd better scrap this one too. Someone would eventually comment on it saying, "Hey, this is exactly like So-&-So, but with furries!" So I oughtta save myself the shock later by tossing the idea now. I feel resentful anyhow, but had I continued it'd be alot less bearable.

[Generic Meatbag #14]

You've got an interesting Idea here, but as I see it it's lacking on the human side of things. As far as I see there is neither a human protagonist or antagonist. Since you have such a backstory regarding both "races", especially with the greater depth being given to the human side of things, the humans need at least one storyline representative.

[Kasimir]

GAH, You're absolutely right! So far, Defacto is a human antagonist, but I failed to involve any others. I'm gonna go and fix this patch up right away.

[Bigro]

Well, Risu, old wise-tale from a couple Authors. "Good writers make their own plot and setting, great writers steal another and change it"

Meaning, take what you have, work it till it doesn't resemble what it is now. I personally would tweak it for the almost unique side by taking magic in a realistic context (or just in general this entire plot in an ultra realistic context) meaning what you have is essentially a new race of people on a new planet; aliens really, that use magic.
Now what good businessman wouldn't want this to make a profit? I mean, WE want magic but WE can't have magic so what do we do? take it out on them of course! Boom, plot right there. Now, here's the fun part. WHO do you suppose be the token 'bad' side? Us or them? You could have them as a very invasive and adaptive race that is taking over all the settlements with magic and trying to amass an attack on earth or some such. OR you have us as being the bad guys that just want moneh. I would go with the latter as it lets you play with some touchy subjects, like slavery; and who doesn't like a controversial comic eh? Or a good swap around with the first one with genocide. Because, think about it, if they are just like us barring fur and magic, then what use do they have for us? none at all, they would just gently brush us of their sleeve if you know what I mean. Or you could go for a more...stagnant solution that leads into more 'peacemaking' than anything with both sides being as bad as eachother. Think USSR and USA scenario. They could both wipe eachother out at any time but instead they were just d-bags to eachother :P no one wins. Stalemate. Have the overall plot be that of a peacekeeping mission from god/political figure/revolutionary rebel/hobo/mum.

AND THEN there is still places to go! See what I mean by 'take and alter'?

[Kasimir]

...I see.

Well craps. I'd never been one to concern myself with controversial topics. In fact, the very thought of some of those issues brings me mental agony. But that's more of a personal problem, and it's something to do with my own feebleness and ill-will. So I'll not go into depth about how outta touch I am with reality.

Altho' if I don't delve into reseraching some of these subjects, I'll have nothing to use as backing to make a comic. 'Sides, by the time I woulda hardened myself with jaded opinions and cynical viewpoints, producing a stupid comic about magical outerspace furries will be my lowest priority. Even if I did, all it would accomplish is to promote my own ideals and to attack those who disagree. And all that does is cause more suffering, within and without!

If I had a meaningful purpose, it would be, in my own words, "to make something that brings many people joy." As it turns out tho', that'll never be the case. Even less so now that you brought this up to my attention. Thank you.

[Generic Meatbag #14]

It's your story. While an interracial analysis would be pretty interesting, if you don't want to mess around with it, you don't have to. We're only offering advice, in the end you're the one making the comic. If you want to be serious, be serious. If you want to make funny, make funny. If you want to make funny while being serious, have at it. It's all down to your choice, and the people who like it will like it and the people who don't can find something else. I say the idea has a bunch of promise, it's your decision how you want to develop that promise.

[Kasimir]

But if it's not marketable like Bigro said, it'll bomb for sure!

Eh, fine then. Meanwhile, I'm gonna go back and revise the characters base.