A wonderful, terrible, excellent idea
Sunday, 29 November 2015 01:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarasa_catI have wanted to make use of my "10,000 Swords" backstory for the Neria Surana (she lives in AHOLverse) but I since pulling10,000 Swords from the DABigBang during the summer of 2012(?), I ended up with a significant pile of ThedasFic scenes that that cannot be recycled into original fiction. (The rest was marked for fertilizing original fic, although still tbd).
Here's the real issue: I have two Suranas.
One has a solid characterization, a known backstory, in-game story, and DA2-parallel story. That's Neria of AHOLverse/10KSwords.
The other has a cobbled together randomness. That is the Surana in"This Bird Has Flown" (Alistair/Surana, Surana/Cullen, Cullen/Alistair, Cullen recruited as a DAO party member).
Trufax: during 2011-2012 and probably through a chunk of 2013, both of these were the SAME Surana until I realized I needed to create separate universes and separate Suranas. Anyhow, I dug around on tumblr today for my old surana notes vs. my other old surana notes. ;)
Given that my AHOL Surana has a characterization that is set in stone, the real issue is figuring out what I want to do with TBHF's Surana to make her unique and interesting. For what it is worth, my initial concept for my Surana (going back to my first PT of DAO in 2011) was actually someone a lot like a younger Vivienne, althoughmuch better written&motivated than Vivienne far less of the "oh, daaaahling, reahhhlay" persona that BW gave Vivienne, and a heck of a lot more like the original blurb marketing put out about her before the game was released. Back in 2012 (and 2013?) blogged a good deal on various memes about my Neria being someone who saw a lot of opportunity for power and advancement within the circle -- something she did not have prior to coming in. AHOL's Neria joins the circle pretty "late": age 12.
I still haven't decided what I want to do with my TBHF Surana to make her a fully distinct and fully different yet interesting to me. Still thinking on that...
But, as for AHOL's Surana and what to do with the pieces of 10,000 Swords that need to remain fanfic (except I just do not wish to commit to writing the entire lengthy story), earlier today I had a Wonderful, Terrible, Excellent Idea. :D
I can weave those disconnect scene-bits into AHOL by giving Cullen Surana's ultra-secret personal diary. How does he wind up with it? Somehow it was left behind when Surana was recruited into the Wardens and the gossip girls got a hold of it. One of the gossip girls gets sent to Kirkwall's circle for some period of time. She takes the diary with her *and* spreads the infamous rumors about Cullen/Surana that appear in his DA2 codex entry. The diary is confiscated. Cullen is supposed to destroy it ... except he doesn't. And that allows him to read it to the reader during early sections of AHOL.
In a sense, this is far more interesting than the original "YA (w/Diversity) Fantasy Fiction" short novel that 10,000 Swords was supposed to be. That was a story told straight. THIS idea with Cullen reading Surana's diary to AHOL's readers allows him to bookend passages with extra commentary or me (the author) to meaningfully juxtapose passages with Telling Scenes (tm). Far more can be said about politics this way. Far more. ;DDDDDD
Here's the real issue: I have two Suranas.
One has a solid characterization, a known backstory, in-game story, and DA2-parallel story. That's Neria of AHOLverse/10KSwords.
The other has a cobbled together randomness. That is the Surana in"This Bird Has Flown" (Alistair/Surana, Surana/Cullen, Cullen/Alistair, Cullen recruited as a DAO party member).
Trufax: during 2011-2012 and probably through a chunk of 2013, both of these were the SAME Surana until I realized I needed to create separate universes and separate Suranas. Anyhow, I dug around on tumblr today for my old surana notes vs. my other old surana notes. ;)
Given that my AHOL Surana has a characterization that is set in stone, the real issue is figuring out what I want to do with TBHF's Surana to make her unique and interesting. For what it is worth, my initial concept for my Surana (going back to my first PT of DAO in 2011) was actually someone a lot like a younger Vivienne, although
I still haven't decided what I want to do with my TBHF Surana to make her a fully distinct and fully different yet interesting to me. Still thinking on that...
But, as for AHOL's Surana and what to do with the pieces of 10,000 Swords that need to remain fanfic (except I just do not wish to commit to writing the entire lengthy story), earlier today I had a Wonderful, Terrible, Excellent Idea. :D
I can weave those disconnect scene-bits into AHOL by giving Cullen Surana's ultra-secret personal diary. How does he wind up with it? Somehow it was left behind when Surana was recruited into the Wardens and the gossip girls got a hold of it. One of the gossip girls gets sent to Kirkwall's circle for some period of time. She takes the diary with her *and* spreads the infamous rumors about Cullen/Surana that appear in his DA2 codex entry. The diary is confiscated. Cullen is supposed to destroy it ... except he doesn't. And that allows him to read it to the reader during early sections of AHOL.
In a sense, this is far more interesting than the original "YA (w/Diversity) Fantasy Fiction" short novel that 10,000 Swords was supposed to be. That was a story told straight. THIS idea with Cullen reading Surana's diary to AHOL's readers allows him to bookend passages with extra commentary or me (the author) to meaningfully juxtapose passages with Telling Scenes (tm). Far more can be said about politics this way. Far more. ;DDDDDD
