4.4 KiB
Spellblade Plot
https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/
One Sentence
A woman realizes the gap between two opposites and their place in the middle.
Kick in the Pants
something I feel is missing from this set-up is, what is Alicia's overarching motive? What is she doing this for? Why the army recruiting process, and how would an underground school help her further her goals
what is it that moves her?
This whole thing is meant to be an allegory for coming out as nonbinary. Her goal is to not be so afraid of herself.
Cover Idea
Use the palette of the nonbinary pride flag, yellow sky, white clouds, Alicia in purple holding her locus to the sky, black ground w/ yellow highlights.
One Paragraph
Alicia is a student at the Zhalram School of Bladecraft, one of two schools owned by a shadowy organization that oversees the Zhalrami army recruiting process. Alicia is troubled in her schooling and attempts (and fails) to hide her natural talent for magic; she tries to use her magic skills to assist her team in the battle drills but gets caught. Alicia gets monitored more closely and comes out to Tistus about her magical powers, Tistus is concerned for Alicia but accepts her and they work together to make the suspicion go away.
- Cover the setting
- Introduce the bladecraft school
- Introduce spellcraft and frame it as an "other"
- Introduce Alicia undergoing a magical awakening
- Get caught by Tistus
- Accidentally uses powers on the field
- Gets caught
- Teachers deliberate and propose a magical vivisection, something that would
purge someone of their magical powers
- Alicia argues she didn't ask for this, this just happened to her one day and she would be okay to be rid of it
- One teacher proposes Alicia be evaluated for a magical vivisection,
- Flashbacks to her father noticing signs of this happening and teaching her
how to suppress her gift
- The magical side would effectively kidnap her from a young age and her father wanted to be with Alicia as a kid, the Zhalrami army desperately needs spellcrafters for battle with Usill
- Father died in the aftermath of an avalanche
- Alicia enrolled in the bladecraft school to get away from home because it reminded her of her dad
Alicia gets expelled and then roams around the marketplace she talks with a spiritualist named Kala and ends up getting roped into their underground school of mixed arts.
Slightly Longer
Alicia is a student at the Zhalram school of Bladecraft, she is on the Red Team and works with her teammates to get through various battle drills. Unbeknownst to most people, Alicia has a talent for spellcraft as well (a large taboo for someone in the school of bladecraft) and is desperately trying to hide it from others, but slips up and is discovered. The school elders have discussions about this and then decide to put Alicia under academic probation. Alicia roams around the merchant district of Zhalram and happens across a spiritualist that offers Alicia a magical locus that is shaped like a sword and hints at the bladecraft and spellcraft schools being operated by the same person. Alicia experiments with it and then hides it in her room.
Old Chapter Checklist
- Introduction to the school of bladecraft. Alicia is shown to suppress her magic and tensions between spellcraft and bladecraft are hinted at. Zekas starts to get suspicious of Alicia.
- Alicia has a chance encounter with a spiritualist that points out Alicia's twin aura and pulls her into an alley to talk about magic. Alicia refuses an offer of a spellblade locus for her magical talent. Another battle, another narrow victory, another scolding. Zekas talks with a teacher about Alicia.
- Alicia meets with the spiritualist again and accepts the locus, getting shown how to wear it as a bit of jewelery. Alicia wears it into her next battle and her team wins, but Alicia is called out for cheating with magic.
- Interrogation by the school's headmaster, threats of expulsion for daring to mix bladecraft and spellcraft. Alicia attempts to come out as a spellblade to the headmaster and is laughed back to her barracks. Various drama ensues. Tistus offers support to Alicia and they cuddle to sleep.
- Another battle day, Alicia uses her locus to empower herself and takes point to defend the flag point.