Difference between revisions of "Since 1997"
From Jelly Paladin Wiki
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| − | This is a much more personal page than anything else on this wiki. =) I made a discovery when I was | + | This is a much more personal page (and link section) than anything else on this wiki. =) I made a pretty awesome discovery when I was gathering information for other pages and that info's begging for me to post about it in its own special section. Depending on your definition of preproduction, it might be legitimate to say my RPG has been in development since 1997! |
==Time Capsules From the Past== | ==Time Capsules From the Past== | ||
| − | To this day I've kept several old files from when I first jotted down details of a future RPG, but two stand out as most worth talking about. | + | To this day I've kept several old files from when I first jotted down details of a future RPG, but two stand out as most worth talking about... |
===Blades of Exile Towns=== | ===Blades of Exile Towns=== | ||
| − | The oldest file I've found with any information about an RPG is titled '''Blades of Exile Towns.doc''' | + | The oldest file I've found with any information about an RPG is titled '''Blades of Exile Towns.doc''', created on December 29, 1997 at 5:08 PM and last saved on June 23, 2000, with a total editing time of five hours and 46 minutes over 49 revisions. That create date places it in the same year as Spiderweb Software's PC RPG creator ''Blades of Exile'', which lines up with the title, and I would have been three months into the age of 13. |
===RPG in works=== | ===RPG in works=== | ||
| − | The second oldest file is titled '''RPG in works.doc''' | + | The second oldest file is titled '''RPG in works.doc''', created on October 27, 1997 at 2:42 PM and last saved on March 10, 2002, with a total editing time of 45 hours and 54 minutes over 569 revisions. With that create date, I would have been just three weeks into being 13. |
===The Younger is the Elder=== | ===The Younger is the Elder=== | ||
| − | Even though "Blades of Exile Towns" has a later creation time, I have | + | Even though "Blades of Exile Towns" has a later creation time, I have lots of reasons to believe that most of what's inside was written before most of what's in the other file. I'm pretty confident! Some of these reasons include: |
* The character Saturn appears in both, but was a male in "Blades of Exile Towns" and a female in "RPG in works." The modern [[Saturn]] is feminine gender, so the latter (and likely newer) stuck with me. | * The character Saturn appears in both, but was a male in "Blades of Exile Towns" and a female in "RPG in works." The modern [[Saturn]] is feminine gender, so the latter (and likely newer) stuck with me. | ||
* I do remember that the character Boomerang in "Blades of Exile Towns" evolved into the character Backlash, who only appears in "RPG in works." | * I do remember that the character Boomerang in "Blades of Exile Towns" evolved into the character Backlash, who only appears in "RPG in works." | ||
* Many character names in "RPG in works" come from friends who I met because of ''Pokémon'', which wasn't released in North America until September 30, 1998. | * Many character names in "RPG in works" come from friends who I met because of ''Pokémon'', which wasn't released in North America until September 30, 1998. | ||
| − | * A character named Rena appears in "RPG in works" and her name likely came from ''Star Ocean: The Second Story'', released in North America on May 31, 1999 | + | * A character named Rena appears in "RPG in works" and her name likely came from ''Star Ocean: The Second Story'', released in North America on May 31, 1999. ''Star Ocean 2'' was also recommended to me by one friend in that same ''Pokémon'' group, so I wouldn't have played it until early June at earliest. |
| − | * "RPG in works" has two self-insert characters, one for each gender, | + | * "RPG in works" has two self-insert characters, one for each gender, while "Blades of Exile Towns" only has one self-insert character who matches my physical gender. I know I didn't really see myself as a specific gender at a very young age--in ''Secret of Mana'', when I was 9, I named all three characters after myself, just adding or taking away one letter. So if I saw myself as one gender by the time of "Blades of Exile Towns," it would make sense that it's my own (physical) because then I'd be 13 and certain changes happened. I also know that after I started going to online forums in 1998-1999, several people confused my gender and I realized I kinda liked and enjoyed that ('cause I just wanna be a person, ya know? :P), so it makes sense that I'd go back and make self-inserts for both genders again. |
| − | * The mysterious lists at the end of "Blades of Exile Towns" seem like | + | * The mysterious lists at the end of "Blades of Exile Towns" seem like very late additions that don't relate to anything else in that file, but most of the character names they use--Coral, Lore, Parry, Patience, Reason, and Blush--''do'' appear in "RPG in works." |
==The December 29, 1997 Document== | ==The December 29, 1997 Document== | ||
| − | Here are the most interesting pieces of information | + | Here are what I found to be the most interesting pieces of information from this early RPG designer file as I scrolled through. |
===Towns=== | ===Towns=== | ||
| − | Although the file's named "Blades of Exile ''Towns''," it only has any real details on one town, Amiriac. It does have a population of 28, though | + | Although the file's named "Blades of Exile ''Towns''," it only has any real details on one town, Amiriac. It does have a population of 28, though--larger than almost any RPG town I'd seen! Other named towns are Kerotys, Laceria, and Kello, but almost nothing is said about them. |
===Dress Code=== | ===Dress Code=== | ||
| − | The town is run by a mayor, but the country | + | The town is run by a mayor, but the country is ruled by an Empress Alexia, who's imposed dress codes for girls and boys, broken up by age groups. I've shown the key elements of the dress code below, with more commentary to follow afterward. I'm sure psychologists could have a field day with these details, especially when mixed with the implications of an Empress imposing them and my penchant for turning myself into both genders [[Since 1997]]. XD (1993 even!) |
{|class="wikitable" style="float: center; text-align: center;" | {|class="wikitable" style="float: center; text-align: center;" | ||
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| − | Interestingly enough, the dress code only applies while in town. Given the time frame, I was in junior high | + | Interestingly enough, the dress code only applies while in town. Given the time frame, I was in junior high where I met my first (and last) school dress code in, which might or might not be a coincidence. Maybe it says something about my view of "civilized society" and how it might have been modeled by school! :O |
| − | + | No, don't take that seriously. :P Maybe it was just easier to imagine character designs if I limited the range of possibilities! Considering how many sword-wielding elven heroines I imagined (see the Discarded Characters section) and that I'd thought it through just enough to come up with long tunics, I'd bet I just liked the Elf's outfit from the excellent beat-em-ups ''Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom'' and ''Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara'' and made a mental template out of her tunic, circlet, and mostly bare legs. Then it was copy-and-paste from there--change her colors, change her shoes, and sometimes give her a skirt, and voila. Insta-heroine. :O | |
(If only it was that easy. :P) | (If only it was that easy. :P) | ||
| − | Town guards and mages are exempt from the dress code and so are priests, who can dress according to their religion. Seeing the word "religion" | + | Town guards and mages are exempt from the dress code and so are priests, who can dress according to their religion. Seeing the word "religion" when I was that young surprised me; I wasn't raised in any faith and by that age I'm very sure I still pictured the "Lord" and "King" in ''Joy to the World'' as a medieval king (maybe even confusing him with Good King Wencelas!). And it wasn't until years later that I knew there was more significance or history to the sign of the cross than to, say, the state birds I learned about in school. |
| − | + | Another example of how little I knew about the world that isn't faith-related, I also still believed one of my parents was "black" because I believed we say "black" in the way we say "redhead" to refer to a girl with orange hair or the way we say "orange fur" when talking about tan-colored tabby cats. | |
===Discarded characters=== | ===Discarded characters=== | ||
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* Lady Shendara, an old lady magic user who knows both offensive and healing magic. | * Lady Shendara, an old lady magic user who knows both offensive and healing magic. | ||
* Jock, a soldier who seems to be filler. | * Jock, a soldier who seems to be filler. | ||
| − | * Wendy, an elven paladin and the world's greatest hero. Although blonde, her name | + | * Wendy, an elven paladin and the world's greatest hero. Although blonde, her name almost surely comes from the Wendy's fast food chain. |
| − | * Joxer, the greatest swordsman. He's | + | * Joxer, the greatest swordsman. He's totally an expy of the Joxer from ''Xena: Warrior Princess'', especially from the episode ''For Him The Bell Tolls''. Alternatively, I did have Dekar from ''Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals'' as a model of a superpowered medieval male plus a funny elementary school teacher who claimed to have the strength of ten men, so he might be based partly on them. |
* Korie, a young human thief who's popular but hangs with questionable company. | * Korie, a young human thief who's popular but hangs with questionable company. | ||
* Autol, a king of thieves who is unquestionably an expy of Autolycus, also from ''Xena: Warrior Princess.'' | * Autol, a king of thieves who is unquestionably an expy of Autolycus, also from ''Xena: Warrior Princess.'' | ||
* Kelurr, a wizard nepharim (a cat person in the world of ''Blades of Exile''). | * Kelurr, a wizard nepharim (a cat person in the world of ''Blades of Exile''). | ||
* Nexa, the third greatest swordfighter behind Joxer and [[Celty]]. Another expy of ''Xena: Warrior Princess'', right down to wielding a chakram, but not as strong in the context of her world as Xena is in hers. | * Nexa, the third greatest swordfighter behind Joxer and [[Celty]]. Another expy of ''Xena: Warrior Princess'', right down to wielding a chakram, but not as strong in the context of her world as Xena is in hers. | ||
| − | * Cossser, a mage slith (lizard person) who's lived long. Even today I | + | * Cossser, a mage slith (lizard person) who's lived long. Even today I love that a lizard person would have three S's in his name. My 13-year-old self was on the ball with that one. ^^ |
| − | * Letono-Ihrno, a Vahnatai ( | + | * Letono-Ihrno, a Vahnatai (alien-like species) paladin whose name is more or less ripped from canon NPCs. |
* Nectar, the elven archmage and debatably the greatest elf. I've always been oddly drawn to her name, so at least that aspect of her might be revived one day. | * Nectar, the elven archmage and debatably the greatest elf. I've always been oddly drawn to her name, so at least that aspect of her might be revived one day. | ||
| − | * Merry, an elven paladin. I probably got her name from the male hobbit Merry of ''Lord of the Rings''--not that I | + | * Merry, an elven paladin. I probably got her name from the male hobbit Merry of ''Lord of the Rings''--not that I read the book, but I somehow played ''J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Volume 1'' for the Super Nintendo long enough to meet him. |
| − | * Lucia, another elven hero who's Wendy's sister but mostly | + | * Lucia, another elven hero who's Wendy's sister but mostly filler. |
* Okolo, a "troglodyte" warrior. | * Okolo, a "troglodyte" warrior. | ||
| − | * Dragon, a dark elf ranger accompanied by Scythe, a female wolf companion who would later become [[Ari]]. He's an enigmatic character dressed in black who may be a ghost, a god, an immortal, or an illusion. (Translation: I was trying pretty hard on this one. :P) Anywhere between 2002-2008 | + | * Dragon, a dark elf ranger accompanied by Scythe, a female wolf companion who would later become [[Ari]]. He's an enigmatic character dressed in black who may be a ghost, a god, an immortal, or an illusion. (Translation: I was trying pretty hard on this one. :P) Anywhere between 2002-2008 I probably would have been embarrassed by a character named Dragon, but hey, if it's a good enough name for Eiichiro Oda, the author of ''One Piece'' I can live with it more comfortably now. |
* Flavia, a dwarf warrior who wields a golden axe. No relation to the ''Golden Axe'' franchise, which I hadn't played yet--and, of course, no relation to the Flavia from ''Fire Emblem: Awakening'', which didn't exist yet! | * Flavia, a dwarf warrior who wields a golden axe. No relation to the ''Golden Axe'' franchise, which I hadn't played yet--and, of course, no relation to the Flavia from ''Fire Emblem: Awakening'', which didn't exist yet! | ||
| − | * Shree, a | + | * Shree, a heroic phoenix. |
| − | * Princess Rainbow, [[Celty]]'s weaker older sister and an elven warrior who doesn't enjoy being a princess and wants to go on adventures. Ya know, | + | * Princess Rainbow, [[Celty]]'s weaker older sister and an elven warrior who doesn't enjoy being a princess and wants to go on adventures. Ya know, like Princess Alena (''Dragon Quest IV''), Princess Nadia/Marle (''Chrono Trigger''), Princess Jasmine (''Aladdin''), Princess Yuffie (''Final Fantasy VII''), Princess Ariel (''The Little Mermaid''), Princess Toadstool (''Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars''), and every other princess I'd seen. (Hey, even by ''now'' nothing's changed--there's Princess Estellise/Estelle (''Tales of Vesperia''), Princess Natalia (''Tales of the Abyss''), the Princess class from ''Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City'', the Princess class from ''7th Dragon'', Princess Melia (''Xenoblade Chronicles'')...) |
* Starr, an elven gymnast paladin who wears white and yellow. Credit where it's due: I'd like to believe I'm still creative, but "gymnast" and "paladin" aren't two words I'd think to put together. XD | * Starr, an elven gymnast paladin who wears white and yellow. Credit where it's due: I'd like to believe I'm still creative, but "gymnast" and "paladin" aren't two words I'd think to put together. XD | ||
* Nerry, an adventurer who's found imprisoned. Not much else is written about her. | * Nerry, an adventurer who's found imprisoned. Not much else is written about her. | ||
| − | * Princess Celina, a damsel in distress who | + | * Princess Celina, a damsel in distress who's captured in the fullest: bound, gagged, and even blindfolded. That's something I'd never put in a game now. =/ ''Even if'' it was only written out in text like in ''Blades of Exile'', that's pretty scary and extreme. Or maybe I'm just squeamish. Anyway, in her dialogue she calls herself a great warrior and says she has mage training but has also only been on an adventure twice, so I don't really know. I wouldn't write her off too fast as weak. She might have been damselized, but it does mean something that I needed the phrase "taken by alien beasts in the night" to justify how she got captured. |
* Merst, the evil leader of the alien beasts and an affiliate with the underworld. | * Merst, the evil leader of the alien beasts and an affiliate with the underworld. | ||
* Flute, an adventurer who goes on a suicide mission against an army and gets captured. Unlike Princess Celina, the instant you free her, Flute starts destroying armies alongside the party. | * Flute, an adventurer who goes on a suicide mission against an army and gets captured. Unlike Princess Celina, the instant you free her, Flute starts destroying armies alongside the party. | ||
| − | * Lallo, a twilight elf warrior who leads an army of gremlins and dryads. I' | + | * Lallo, a twilight elf warrior who leads an army of gremlins and dryads. I don't know what a twilight elf is or how it's different from a dark elf like Dragon. :P |
====Beryl==== | ====Beryl==== | ||
| − | Beryl is a left-handed, flaxen-haired mage with glowing clothes, winged slippers, and a magical shield shaped like a fireball. | + | Beryl is a left-handed, flaxen-haired mage with glowing clothes, winged slippers, and a magical shield shaped like a fireball. She's immortal but I still made her only 16 for some reason (maybe that was old to me back then, though), and she's a happy-go-lucky and playful hero. =) |
| − | She gets her own section because if anyone from the "Blades of Exile" document's ever going to be resurrected, it would be her! She's the most lighthearted and she's a beautiful case of the past mirroring the present back to me. Unlike other | + | She gets her own section because if anyone from the "Blades of Exile" document's ever going to be resurrected, it would be her! =) She's the most lighthearted and she's a beautiful case of the past mirroring the present back to me. Unlike other characters who were blatant rips from franchises I enjoyed, I probably made Beryl from my own imagination. I hadn't yet played an RPG with the archetype of a genki girl mage--Lemina from ''Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete'' wasn't until 1998 and mage characters I had met didn't fit that mold. They were too serious like Paula (''EarthBound'') or Terra (''Final Fantasy VI'') or too science-y like Lucca (''Chrono Trigger'') or too AI-controlled like Mara (''Dragon Quest IV''). |
| + | |||
| + | Fast forward to now, though, and what do I have a bigger soft spot for than a spunky, quirky mage girl? <3 Not much! :D Arche (''Tales of Phantasia''), L'Arachel (''Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones''), Maria (''Castlevania: Rondo of Blood''), Norma (''Tales of Legendia''), and Pascal (''Tales of Graces'') are some of my favorites. | ||
===Surviving characters=== | ===Surviving characters=== | ||
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====Celty==== | ====Celty==== | ||
| − | [[Celty]] is a legendary elven warrior and the world's second greatest swordfighter even at the age of 14. Her appearance in this file makes her my third-longest-surviving character, beaten only by [[Saturn]] and [[Ari]] (then named Scythe)! Though her modern incarnation doesn't care for weapons anymore, at least Celty can say she's always been in the top tier of power no matter what universe she belongs to. =) Even though her name is pronounced with an S sound, her name | + | [[Celty]] is a legendary elven warrior and the world's second greatest swordfighter even at the age of 14. Her appearance in this file makes her my third-longest-surviving character, beaten only by [[Saturn]] and [[Ari]] (then named Scythe)! Though her modern incarnation doesn't care for weapons anymore, at least Celty can say she's always been in the top tier of power no matter what universe she belongs to. =) Even though her name is pronounced with an S sound, her name most likely comes from Celtic music, a genre I really liked when I was young. |
| + | |||
| + | Given her age, in the ''Blades of Exile'' universe she's subject to the Empress' dress code and wears a sky blue tunic and skirt, a dark blue sash, and an ice blue circlet; her only non-blue pieces of clothing are her clear slippers. I'm not 100% sure what I meant by "slippers," but almost definitely not house slippers or flip-flops and absolutely definitely not glass Cinderella slippers. I might have meant ballet flats or Mary Janes, but I believe it's most likely that I was thinking of jelly sandals. It's tough to say, though. | ||
| − | + | There are no descriptions of her height, hair color, skin color, or anything else, so it might be fun to have a fanart contest one day for her "Origin Outfit" and see what others come up with. ^^ | |
====Rae==== | ====Rae==== | ||
| − | Rae is a blonde 18-year-old human paladin from a snowbound land who wields a magical sword created by Nectar and wears almost entirely white | + | Rae is a blonde 18-year-old human paladin from a snowbound land who wields a magical sword created by Nectar and wears almost entirely white in her cape, tunic, skirt, and leggings. Her only non-white clothes are clear slippers (the triumphant return of clear slippers!), which again makes me wonder what I meant. The text says her leggings end at her ankles and I was very specific earlier about wearing appropriate clothing, so who knows? |
| − | Rae eventually merged into Snowy, another paladin. The name Snowy almost got into the game, but I wasn't too | + | Rae eventually merged into Snowy, another paladin. The name Snowy almost got into the game, but I wasn't too comfy with a character from a wintery area being named Snowy, so I went back to Rae and then updated the name to [[Tarine]] because I didn't want it to be so short. |
====Limestone==== | ====Limestone==== | ||
| − | Limestone was | + | Limestone was then mostly what [[Lime]] is now: a green golem with near-impenetrable armor that even the world's greatest heroes can't break through. When I put it that way, Lime sounds kinda like The Incredible Hulk, but I wasn't familiar with Marvel superheroes at the time. ;P |
====Harp==== | ====Harp==== | ||
| − | Unlike the current [[Harp]], this Harp is a left-handed 17-year-old bard dressed in a cheerful yellow tunic, skirt, and leggings with an orange sash and red sandals. Despite being the eighteenth named character in the file, she's the first with named equipment: the Song Maiden's Blade and Phoenix Feather Shield. And, contrary to her name, she plays a flute. =) | + | Unlike the current [[Harp]], this Harp is a left-handed 17-year-old bard dressed in a cheerful yellow tunic, skirt, and leggings with an orange sash and red sandals. Despite being the eighteenth named character in the file, she's the first with named equipment: the Song Maiden's Blade and Phoenix Feather Shield. And, contrary to her name, she plays a flute. =) (And so did I!) |
====Boomerang==== | ====Boomerang==== | ||
| − | Boomerang is a ninja of unknown gender dressed all in purple with black sandals. I ''know'' that I meant the traditional full-body ninja garb worn by everyone from Ryu Hayabusa (''Ninja Gaiden'') to Ibuki (''Street Fighter'')-- | + | Boomerang is a ninja of unknown gender dressed all in purple with black sandals. I ''know'' that I meant the traditional full-body ninja garb worn by everyone from Ryu Hayabusa (''Ninja Gaiden'') to Ibuki (''Street Fighter'')--the ninja outfit everyone knows by cultural osmosis. Still, with that description, I can't help picturing Kurenai from ''Sengoku 3''. :P |
| − | Boomerang was another expy character, but less blatant about it than the ''Xena'' rips. Although s/he's named after Boomerang from ''Wild Arms'', s/he's a character | + | Boomerang was another expy character, but less blatant about it than the ''Xena'' rips. Although s/he's named after Boomerang from ''Wild Arms'', s/he's a character more like Shadow from ''Final Fantasy VI''--a hero with mysterious motives, but at least you know s/he's on your side. |
| − | By the time the | + | By the time of the other old file, Boomerang became Backlash. (With the power of thesaurus lookup! :O) Instead of one character of unknown gender, s/he became two characters: a vengeful, challenge-seeking male super warrior who plagued the party many times, very much like the ''Wild Arms'' Boomerang, and a challenge-seeking "bad girl" super warrior from another dimension who joined the party. The modern [[Lash]] is somewhere between the two versions of Backlash. |
====Saturn==== | ====Saturn==== | ||
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Blush (Female Thief) | Blush (Female Thief) | ||
| − | Up to this point, though, eight of these twelve characters haven't been mentioned--and the four who have, Wendy, Dragon, Saturn, and Lucia, all seem to be active in the world and only the first two are great heroes who would define an age. | + | Up to this point, though, eight of these twelve characters haven't been mentioned--and the four who have, Wendy, Dragon, Saturn, and Lucia, all seem to be active in the world and only the first two are great heroes who would define an age. When they were added, I don't know, but I doubt they were part of the earlier drafts. |
Revision as of 11:34, 24 September 2013
This is a much more personal page (and link section) than anything else on this wiki. =) I made a pretty awesome discovery when I was gathering information for other pages and that info's begging for me to post about it in its own special section. Depending on your definition of preproduction, it might be legitimate to say my RPG has been in development since 1997!
Time Capsules From the Past
To this day I've kept several old files from when I first jotted down details of a future RPG, but two stand out as most worth talking about...
Blades of Exile Towns
The oldest file I've found with any information about an RPG is titled Blades of Exile Towns.doc, created on December 29, 1997 at 5:08 PM and last saved on June 23, 2000, with a total editing time of five hours and 46 minutes over 49 revisions. That create date places it in the same year as Spiderweb Software's PC RPG creator Blades of Exile, which lines up with the title, and I would have been three months into the age of 13.
RPG in works
The second oldest file is titled RPG in works.doc, created on October 27, 1997 at 2:42 PM and last saved on March 10, 2002, with a total editing time of 45 hours and 54 minutes over 569 revisions. With that create date, I would have been just three weeks into being 13.
The Younger is the Elder
Even though "Blades of Exile Towns" has a later creation time, I have lots of reasons to believe that most of what's inside was written before most of what's in the other file. I'm pretty confident! Some of these reasons include:
- The character Saturn appears in both, but was a male in "Blades of Exile Towns" and a female in "RPG in works." The modern Saturn is feminine gender, so the latter (and likely newer) stuck with me.
- I do remember that the character Boomerang in "Blades of Exile Towns" evolved into the character Backlash, who only appears in "RPG in works."
- Many character names in "RPG in works" come from friends who I met because of Pokémon, which wasn't released in North America until September 30, 1998.
- A character named Rena appears in "RPG in works" and her name likely came from Star Ocean: The Second Story, released in North America on May 31, 1999. Star Ocean 2 was also recommended to me by one friend in that same Pokémon group, so I wouldn't have played it until early June at earliest.
- "RPG in works" has two self-insert characters, one for each gender, while "Blades of Exile Towns" only has one self-insert character who matches my physical gender. I know I didn't really see myself as a specific gender at a very young age--in Secret of Mana, when I was 9, I named all three characters after myself, just adding or taking away one letter. So if I saw myself as one gender by the time of "Blades of Exile Towns," it would make sense that it's my own (physical) because then I'd be 13 and certain changes happened. I also know that after I started going to online forums in 1998-1999, several people confused my gender and I realized I kinda liked and enjoyed that ('cause I just wanna be a person, ya know? :P), so it makes sense that I'd go back and make self-inserts for both genders again.
- The mysterious lists at the end of "Blades of Exile Towns" seem like very late additions that don't relate to anything else in that file, but most of the character names they use--Coral, Lore, Parry, Patience, Reason, and Blush--do appear in "RPG in works."
The December 29, 1997 Document
Here are what I found to be the most interesting pieces of information from this early RPG designer file as I scrolled through.
Towns
Although the file's named "Blades of Exile Towns," it only has any real details on one town, Amiriac. It does have a population of 28, though--larger than almost any RPG town I'd seen! Other named towns are Kerotys, Laceria, and Kello, but almost nothing is said about them.
Dress Code
The town is run by a mayor, but the country is ruled by an Empress Alexia, who's imposed dress codes for girls and boys, broken up by age groups. I've shown the key elements of the dress code below, with more commentary to follow afterward. I'm sure psychologists could have a field day with these details, especially when mixed with the implications of an Empress imposing them and my penchant for turning myself into both genders Since 1997. XD (1993 even!)
| Group | Top | Waist | Legs | Feet | Winter permissions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boys 0-5 | anything modest | ||||
| Girls 0-5 | anything modest | anything modest | |||
| Boys 6-10 | shirt or tunic | no belt | pants or shorts | boots, sandals, or sneakers | jacket |
| Girls 6-10 | shirt or tunic | tied sash required | shorts or skirt | sandals, slippers, or sneakers | jacket, leggings |
| Boys 11-15 | shirt only | belt required | long shorts only | boots, sandals, or sneakers | jacket, pants |
| Girls 11-15 | tunic only | tied sash optional | skirt only or nothing with a long tunic | sandals, slippers, or sneakers | jacket, leggings |
| Boys 16-20 | shirt only | belt required | pants only | boots or sneakers | jacket |
| Girls 16-20 | tunic only | tied sash optional | shorts, skirt, or nothing with a long tunic | sandals or slippers | jacket, leggings, sneakers |
| Older than 20 | anything modest | anything modest |
Interestingly enough, the dress code only applies while in town. Given the time frame, I was in junior high where I met my first (and last) school dress code in, which might or might not be a coincidence. Maybe it says something about my view of "civilized society" and how it might have been modeled by school! :O
No, don't take that seriously. :P Maybe it was just easier to imagine character designs if I limited the range of possibilities! Considering how many sword-wielding elven heroines I imagined (see the Discarded Characters section) and that I'd thought it through just enough to come up with long tunics, I'd bet I just liked the Elf's outfit from the excellent beat-em-ups Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom and Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara and made a mental template out of her tunic, circlet, and mostly bare legs. Then it was copy-and-paste from there--change her colors, change her shoes, and sometimes give her a skirt, and voila. Insta-heroine. :O
(If only it was that easy. :P)
Town guards and mages are exempt from the dress code and so are priests, who can dress according to their religion. Seeing the word "religion" when I was that young surprised me; I wasn't raised in any faith and by that age I'm very sure I still pictured the "Lord" and "King" in Joy to the World as a medieval king (maybe even confusing him with Good King Wencelas!). And it wasn't until years later that I knew there was more significance or history to the sign of the cross than to, say, the state birds I learned about in school.
Another example of how little I knew about the world that isn't faith-related, I also still believed one of my parents was "black" because I believed we say "black" in the way we say "redhead" to refer to a girl with orange hair or the way we say "orange fur" when talking about tan-colored tabby cats.
Discarded characters
Some characters who didn't survive past this document include:
- Aurora, a legendary elven ranger who's the second greatest hero in the world. Although she's gone now, I did reuse her name for an unrelated very tall female character in WWF No Mercy who specialized in submission maneuvers.
- Lady Shendara, an old lady magic user who knows both offensive and healing magic.
- Jock, a soldier who seems to be filler.
- Wendy, an elven paladin and the world's greatest hero. Although blonde, her name almost surely comes from the Wendy's fast food chain.
- Joxer, the greatest swordsman. He's totally an expy of the Joxer from Xena: Warrior Princess, especially from the episode For Him The Bell Tolls. Alternatively, I did have Dekar from Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals as a model of a superpowered medieval male plus a funny elementary school teacher who claimed to have the strength of ten men, so he might be based partly on them.
- Korie, a young human thief who's popular but hangs with questionable company.
- Autol, a king of thieves who is unquestionably an expy of Autolycus, also from Xena: Warrior Princess.
- Kelurr, a wizard nepharim (a cat person in the world of Blades of Exile).
- Nexa, the third greatest swordfighter behind Joxer and Celty. Another expy of Xena: Warrior Princess, right down to wielding a chakram, but not as strong in the context of her world as Xena is in hers.
- Cossser, a mage slith (lizard person) who's lived long. Even today I love that a lizard person would have three S's in his name. My 13-year-old self was on the ball with that one. ^^
- Letono-Ihrno, a Vahnatai (alien-like species) paladin whose name is more or less ripped from canon NPCs.
- Nectar, the elven archmage and debatably the greatest elf. I've always been oddly drawn to her name, so at least that aspect of her might be revived one day.
- Merry, an elven paladin. I probably got her name from the male hobbit Merry of Lord of the Rings--not that I read the book, but I somehow played J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Volume 1 for the Super Nintendo long enough to meet him.
- Lucia, another elven hero who's Wendy's sister but mostly filler.
- Okolo, a "troglodyte" warrior.
- Dragon, a dark elf ranger accompanied by Scythe, a female wolf companion who would later become Ari. He's an enigmatic character dressed in black who may be a ghost, a god, an immortal, or an illusion. (Translation: I was trying pretty hard on this one. :P) Anywhere between 2002-2008 I probably would have been embarrassed by a character named Dragon, but hey, if it's a good enough name for Eiichiro Oda, the author of One Piece I can live with it more comfortably now.
- Flavia, a dwarf warrior who wields a golden axe. No relation to the Golden Axe franchise, which I hadn't played yet--and, of course, no relation to the Flavia from Fire Emblem: Awakening, which didn't exist yet!
- Shree, a heroic phoenix.
- Princess Rainbow, Celty's weaker older sister and an elven warrior who doesn't enjoy being a princess and wants to go on adventures. Ya know, like Princess Alena (Dragon Quest IV), Princess Nadia/Marle (Chrono Trigger), Princess Jasmine (Aladdin), Princess Yuffie (Final Fantasy VII), Princess Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Princess Toadstool (Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars), and every other princess I'd seen. (Hey, even by now nothing's changed--there's Princess Estellise/Estelle (Tales of Vesperia), Princess Natalia (Tales of the Abyss), the Princess class from Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City, the Princess class from 7th Dragon, Princess Melia (Xenoblade Chronicles)...)
- Starr, an elven gymnast paladin who wears white and yellow. Credit where it's due: I'd like to believe I'm still creative, but "gymnast" and "paladin" aren't two words I'd think to put together. XD
- Nerry, an adventurer who's found imprisoned. Not much else is written about her.
- Princess Celina, a damsel in distress who's captured in the fullest: bound, gagged, and even blindfolded. That's something I'd never put in a game now. =/ Even if it was only written out in text like in Blades of Exile, that's pretty scary and extreme. Or maybe I'm just squeamish. Anyway, in her dialogue she calls herself a great warrior and says she has mage training but has also only been on an adventure twice, so I don't really know. I wouldn't write her off too fast as weak. She might have been damselized, but it does mean something that I needed the phrase "taken by alien beasts in the night" to justify how she got captured.
- Merst, the evil leader of the alien beasts and an affiliate with the underworld.
- Flute, an adventurer who goes on a suicide mission against an army and gets captured. Unlike Princess Celina, the instant you free her, Flute starts destroying armies alongside the party.
- Lallo, a twilight elf warrior who leads an army of gremlins and dryads. I don't know what a twilight elf is or how it's different from a dark elf like Dragon. :P
Beryl
Beryl is a left-handed, flaxen-haired mage with glowing clothes, winged slippers, and a magical shield shaped like a fireball. She's immortal but I still made her only 16 for some reason (maybe that was old to me back then, though), and she's a happy-go-lucky and playful hero. =)
She gets her own section because if anyone from the "Blades of Exile" document's ever going to be resurrected, it would be her! =) She's the most lighthearted and she's a beautiful case of the past mirroring the present back to me. Unlike other characters who were blatant rips from franchises I enjoyed, I probably made Beryl from my own imagination. I hadn't yet played an RPG with the archetype of a genki girl mage--Lemina from Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete wasn't until 1998 and mage characters I had met didn't fit that mold. They were too serious like Paula (EarthBound) or Terra (Final Fantasy VI) or too science-y like Lucca (Chrono Trigger) or too AI-controlled like Mara (Dragon Quest IV).
Fast forward to now, though, and what do I have a bigger soft spot for than a spunky, quirky mage girl? <3 Not much! :D Arche (Tales of Phantasia), L'Arachel (Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones), Maria (Castlevania: Rondo of Blood), Norma (Tales of Legendia), and Pascal (Tales of Graces) are some of my favorites.
Surviving characters
Celty
Celty is a legendary elven warrior and the world's second greatest swordfighter even at the age of 14. Her appearance in this file makes her my third-longest-surviving character, beaten only by Saturn and Ari (then named Scythe)! Though her modern incarnation doesn't care for weapons anymore, at least Celty can say she's always been in the top tier of power no matter what universe she belongs to. =) Even though her name is pronounced with an S sound, her name most likely comes from Celtic music, a genre I really liked when I was young.
Given her age, in the Blades of Exile universe she's subject to the Empress' dress code and wears a sky blue tunic and skirt, a dark blue sash, and an ice blue circlet; her only non-blue pieces of clothing are her clear slippers. I'm not 100% sure what I meant by "slippers," but almost definitely not house slippers or flip-flops and absolutely definitely not glass Cinderella slippers. I might have meant ballet flats or Mary Janes, but I believe it's most likely that I was thinking of jelly sandals. It's tough to say, though.
There are no descriptions of her height, hair color, skin color, or anything else, so it might be fun to have a fanart contest one day for her "Origin Outfit" and see what others come up with. ^^
Rae
Rae is a blonde 18-year-old human paladin from a snowbound land who wields a magical sword created by Nectar and wears almost entirely white in her cape, tunic, skirt, and leggings. Her only non-white clothes are clear slippers (the triumphant return of clear slippers!), which again makes me wonder what I meant. The text says her leggings end at her ankles and I was very specific earlier about wearing appropriate clothing, so who knows?
Rae eventually merged into Snowy, another paladin. The name Snowy almost got into the game, but I wasn't too comfy with a character from a wintery area being named Snowy, so I went back to Rae and then updated the name to Tarine because I didn't want it to be so short.
Limestone
Limestone was then mostly what Lime is now: a green golem with near-impenetrable armor that even the world's greatest heroes can't break through. When I put it that way, Lime sounds kinda like The Incredible Hulk, but I wasn't familiar with Marvel superheroes at the time. ;P
Harp
Unlike the current Harp, this Harp is a left-handed 17-year-old bard dressed in a cheerful yellow tunic, skirt, and leggings with an orange sash and red sandals. Despite being the eighteenth named character in the file, she's the first with named equipment: the Song Maiden's Blade and Phoenix Feather Shield. And, contrary to her name, she plays a flute. =) (And so did I!)
Boomerang
Boomerang is a ninja of unknown gender dressed all in purple with black sandals. I know that I meant the traditional full-body ninja garb worn by everyone from Ryu Hayabusa (Ninja Gaiden) to Ibuki (Street Fighter)--the ninja outfit everyone knows by cultural osmosis. Still, with that description, I can't help picturing Kurenai from Sengoku 3. :P
Boomerang was another expy character, but less blatant about it than the Xena rips. Although s/he's named after Boomerang from Wild Arms, s/he's a character more like Shadow from Final Fantasy VI--a hero with mysterious motives, but at least you know s/he's on your side.
By the time of the other old file, Boomerang became Backlash. (With the power of thesaurus lookup! :O) Instead of one character of unknown gender, s/he became two characters: a vengeful, challenge-seeking male super warrior who plagued the party many times, very much like the Wild Arms Boomerang, and a challenge-seeking "bad girl" super warrior from another dimension who joined the party. The modern Lash is somewhere between the two versions of Backlash.
Saturn
This Saturn is a male paladin claiming to be Dragon's brother. There's not much to him; he's a generic do-gooder and has little in common with the modern Saturn except his name.
Document's End
At the very end are two lists that seem like they go against almost everything before them:
The Old Age of Heroes: Wendy (Female Paladin) Dragon (Male Ranger) Saturn (Male Sword Warrior) DoF Demon (Male Fist Warrior) Scion (Male Sword/Fist Warrior) Lucia (Female Ranger)
The New Age of Heroes: Coral (Female Sword/Fist Warrior) Lore (Female Paladin) Parry (Male Sword Warrior) Patience (Female Priestess/Mage) Reason (Male Mage) Blush (Female Thief)
Up to this point, though, eight of these twelve characters haven't been mentioned--and the four who have, Wendy, Dragon, Saturn, and Lucia, all seem to be active in the world and only the first two are great heroes who would define an age. When they were added, I don't know, but I doubt they were part of the earlier drafts.
