Hi everyone!
I am a trainee solicitor who enjoys writing (I have been writing since I was 18), and recently had an idea that I believe will be better presented as a comic/webtoon.
As I said I love writing, but I haven’t got an ounce of creativity ! I wondered if anyone would interested in collaborating with me at all? It’ll be unpaid I’m afraid, but anything that does come from it will be split between us.
I am very much still new to this, so I hope I’m going about this the right way! For those of you who are interested you can read some of my writing on wattpad, my username is kittyinbookworld. Please note that by no means am I a professional writer, it’s just something that I enjoy.
I have set out the basic outline for my project below, it is ridiculously long, and maybe confusing, so do let me know if anything needs to be clarified. I have yet to finalise a title for it, and I have character profiles, but haven’t decided on all the characters’ names as of yet. I would really like for this to be a joint venture so I’m open for any potential artists to pitch in their ideas too.
Now, without much further ado, my synopsis (not script, I think it can be read as stage directions) for the first few chapters:
A, B and C have been friends since primary school. They have lived on the same run down estate for the last 12 years. One summer evening when the boys are riding their bikes along the estate, A notices that the shadows around them seemed to be moving. He brushes it off at first, thinking that he is imagining things, but when the shadows of some trees try and reach out to grab C’s shadow, he yells at the boys to cycle as fast as they can. The trio keep cycling through the estate, and the shadows form into a large cloud of black smoke that chases them relentlessly. They agree to split up, and regroup at the end of one of the streets. They are confident as they know the estate like the back of their hand. They take separate paths but ensure that they always have some sort of sight of each other. A and B notice that the cloud continues to chase C, despite their efforts to divert its attention.
C manages to avoid the cloud and the boys regroup. C is injured, and A grabs his handkerchief to wipe away the blood from his cut. Unfortunately the cloud finds them again, and C, knowing that the cloud is after him, grabs his bike and cycles off, hoping to protect his friends. A and B jump onto their bikes as well and chase after them. C falls off his bike as he is cycling too fast, and just as the smoke is about to engulf him, a black jeep bursts on to the scene from nowhere. A man grabs C and hauls him into the jeep, as 2 others draw guns and shoot at the smoke. As the silver bullets make contact with the smoke, it hisses and evaporates, and the smoke is driven back. Whilst the men were shooting A and B had caught up, but upon seeing the guns, A stops B from jumping in and attempting to grab C. A tells B to get into the booth of the jeep with him and not to make a sound - as soon as they stopped, he would call the police with their exact location. B agrees that the plan would not get them killed and would probably be the most effective way of getting C and knowing a little more about why he was taken.
The boys hear C repeatedly ask the men in black suits who they were and where they were taking him, and when he receives no response he attempts to call the police, only for one of the men to grab his phone and throw it out the window. C protests, but is not successful. The jeep finally parks, and the boys in the back wait as the men take C away. They then come out and to his dismay, A realises they have no signal. They seem to be in a large parking lot, and B is excited as there are many expensive cars parked in it. A notices stairs leading to a door and drags B up the stairs. As they go through the door they find themselves on what seems to be the third floor of a mini palace. There are many people around them, and they are all dressed in black. They try and fit in and try to find C, but most of the doors seem to be locked. Just then, one of the men who had kidnapped C catches sight of them, and starts making his way over.
The boys, desperate not to get caught, rush and attempt to find an unlocked room to hide in. Finally they find one and jump inside, shutting the door behind them. A is stressed and tries to find a place to hide. The room is a sort of study/library with a desk for one and a mirror. Whilst A attempts to find a place to hide and keeps stealing glances at the door, expecting them to be captured at any second, B however is entranced by the mirror. B calls out to A to show him something in the mirror, and after initially resisting, A looks into it. Surprisingly the mirror does not reflect their images, instead it appears to lead into a room. B sticks out his hand to touch the mirror’s surface, but his hand disappears through it. A yells at him to take his hand back, but B has a very curious nature and walks through to the other side, leaving A with very little choice but to follow him to make sure he doesn’t get into trouble.
As A goes in his handkerchief with C’s blood falls to the floor of the room they enter, with a single drop of blood starting to course through the runes on the floor.
The boys enter what seems to be a tall circular tower room. Each floor has large chest, some made of stone, some of wood or some other materials. A states that he wants to leave as he has a bad feeling about the place, but B has already started climbing the levels and over the chests. A yells at him to come down, and B annoys him as he continues his journey to the top. He stops however at one chest; it is made of glass, but is very old and he can see something he doesn’t quite believe through it. He rubs the glass so that he can see a bit better, and calls out to A that there was a girl in the chest. He tries to open it, but it would not budge, and tries to wake her up by knocking on the glass.
In the background you see the drop of blood still coursing through the runes, and finally has completed its course.
A yells at B to stop making a racket and to come down just as he hears voices from the other side. B yells at him to climb up and hide amongst the chests. A is about to when he recognises C’s voice and calls out to him. C comes through the portal and is hotly followed by D who tells him that it is forbidden to be in the tower room. D is a boy who attend the same school as the boys, but is well known to be an impossible rich snob. A yells at D demanding an explanation, whilst D yells at him for trespassing, and every so often looks around the tower and mumbling that they shouldn’t be there. B (on top of the glass chest where the girl still is) calls out asking what the room is whilst wiping the dirt from the glass so that he may see the girl clearer. He did not realise the lid moved slightly. D states that the room is his family’s mausoleum. As he states this, the girl’s eyes flick open, and B screams as she kicks open her glass coffin, jumps out and asks C and D how she could be of service. D faints after whispering that his mother was going to kill him, so the girl asks C how she may be of service. C (terrified that a dead person is alive) whispers that it is a mistake and asks that she goes to sleep once more.
Meanwhile we see that 4 pieces from the girl’s coffin had hit 4 other coffins when she had broken out.
The girl is furious that she had been woken up for no reason, and turns to face B who she blames for the accident. By this time A has managed to awaken D, who tries to stop her along with C and A. Both an old woman (from a coffin that has yet to be placed on the ground floor that none of the boys noticed) and a younger woman in 1920s garb (from higher up) wake up. The old woman is surprised and asks why she is needed so soon, and D gasps and calls her grandmother. The 1920s girl jumps down and smiles at the terrified boys, asking them how they were. A terrified A asks her to stop the glass girl, and 1920s girl cheerfully asks her to do so, as the generals won’t be too pleased. Glass girl explains that so many of them should not even be awake at this point, and the whole problem started thanks to B who was ‘defiling’ her coffin. As she is about to strike black iron smoke chains pin her down, and she swears softly. Immediately all three women stop what they are doing (grandmother arguing with D for being useless and allowing them to be awake, 1920s flirtatiously teasing A and C, both of whom are trying to stop glass girl from killing B).
The group look to the open sky at the top of the tower and see a dark shadow of smoke cover it as a half dead woman with completely black eyes descends upon them. D and 1920s girl fall to one knee and grandmother (who is in a wheelchair) bows her head. D grabs on to C and forces him onto a knee as well. As the woman touches the ground, the chains disappear and so does her half dead appearance, revealing a severe looking woman of about 30. Glass girl goes down on one knee. The iron woman calls on the youngest of her line to explain what has happened. D stands up and brings her up to speed. She turns and looks at A and B and tells them she hopes they will work hard to
make right what they have done. A explains that he and both of his friends have no idea of what is going on and explains to her the events that brought them there. She nods and asks D to explain.
D explains that many millennia ago the 5 original cradles of civilization each had a book believed to hold the secrets of the worlds. There were humans, magic wielders and magic yielders. Each book was guarded by a family who practiced worshipping their ancestors to lend them their power. Each page of a book held its own magical power, with some pages being more powerful than others. Naturally this attracted much unwanted attention from individuals and groups who wanted to gain the power of the books for themselves. Unfortunately within the 5 families problems arose within them. A new faction wanted to use the powers of the books to direct a totalitarian empire, and the heads of the families were against it. Leading the revolt were 50 from D’s line who were considered to be the most powerful wielders and yielders of their age, even perhaps of all time. Their influence amassed them followers not just from their family, but from the other four as well. In the end the head of D’s family and her two sisters sacrificed the souls of their ancestors (with their consent) to win the war. In the midst of the war the 5 books were destroyed and their pages scattered across the Earth.
The three sisters were very young at the time, and had not reached their full potential, so the only way the ancestors could protect the world was to sacrifice themselves. This included their names being erased from history. The sisters grew up to be strong, and tried as hard as they could to remember their ancestors’ names, but try as they may, they could only remember their sacrifice, and nothing else. To prevent such a tragedy from happening again they asked their weaver master to wave a powerful equilibrium spell, to create plane for 1000 of their strongest female descendants, 1000 of their strongest male descendants and 50 of their most powerful descendants to be put to sleep, so that in the future when their descendants call upon their ancestors they may do so safely, and without fear of losing their souls in the face a powerful opponent. When one dies in the family they will be put to judgement by the Council compromising of nine ancestors and the current living head of the family. If the soul is deemed to be worthy to join the ranks then it will join the maidens or soldiers depending on the soul’s gender. This will make way for one of the souls already in the maidens/soldiers to be released. The released soul will then have to face the Council of the Dead (only 5 from the Creed of Legends) will assess if the soul is worthy of the Creed. If the soul is not deemed worthy, the body of the soul will be cremated and the final rites will be performed for it to pass on to the afterlife. If it is deemed worthy, then the soul will join the Creed, and instead an existing member of the Creed will have their final rites carried out and pass on. The soul chosen for passing on from the maidens/soldiers is chosen at random from a list of 150 who have either volunteered or have been chosen by the Council of the Dead and the 10 generals as they feel they have served enough. For the Creed, it is usually a voluntary act by an existing member, but the decision ultimately falls on the Commander.
The new spell also allowed a complete take over, allowing descendants to be almost semi possessed by their contracted ancestor, providing them with their powers and strength, allowing the dead to be called upon to the plane of the living and take physical form whilst on said plane to battle, and to channel the spirits of the dead into their weapons (yielders only). The spell was set with the three of them sacrificing their eternal souls to never move on to afterlife, instead they were to serve their family until the end of time.
The purpose of the new spell was to enable the family to find the lost pages, prevent the pages from falling into the hands of evil, and to guard the pages that they had found, with their ultimate goal being to restore the book. Like them, the four other guardian families followed in replicating the spell, and working towards to restoration of the books.
The room they had entered led to a section of the plane created for the maidens. It is the regiment headed by the Third General, often seen as one of the most formidable generals of the 10, as she has not accepted any calls or contracts since the day she died. There were 6 other similar portals in the house that led to the resting place of 6 other regiments belonging to both the soldiers and maidens. Each resting place acted as a safe house should the house come under attack. The runes on the floor will activate the spell that allows the coffins to be unsealed and an ancestor to awaken and protect the family (as the ancestor is already dead and therefore cannot fall in battle), but since their creation, the runes have never been activated until today. The spell must be activated by a single drop of blood belonging to a member of the family.
The Iron Lady cuts across D and picks up A’s handkerchief that is stained with C’s blood. She states that the handkerchief activated the spell. She goes on to ask D how they came to know of C. D states that 3 weeks ago his grandmother had attended sports day at his school. The Master (in charge of all magical teachings) had been present as well. This was the second time his grandmother had ever attended an event. Grandmother interjected stating the first was when he was 11 for a school play which is where she first saw C. She brought the Master along to confirm her suspicions that C had a binding spell on him to hide his mana. She further asked the Master to perform a spell that would determine if he was a member of the 5 guardian families. He tested positive, and he was to be brought to the house so that Guardian Council can determine which family he belonged to. It is now clear that he belongs to her family as his blood activated the runes. Grandma looks like she is about to say something further, but thinks better of it.
Iron Lady instructs them all to follow D to the Master. B asks who put her in charge, and D (horrified) tells him to shut up. Glass girl yells at his insolence, as Iron Lady is in fact the third general.
They follow D out, and go through the house with A, B and C marvelling at its beauty. They stop in front of the training room. D is reluctant to enter, but his grandmother pushes him in with her wheelchair. Inside 3 people are training whilst a man in his 50s watches. The smaller girl bears no weapon, but the other two who bare resemblance to one another are fighting a stimulation that looks like a fire demon. They are powerful, and finally manage to pin it down, when the little girl makes quick movements with her hands and sends a water arrow through the heart of the beast. The stimulation ends and the old man nods as he walks forward, B claps loudly and the 3 trainers look at the group. The little girl asks D if he has come to train as he really needs it and he tells her to shut up, and they’re about to argue when glass girl pulls D back and the older training girl pulls the little girl back as the Master is walking towards the third general with tears in his eyes.
He falls on one knee before the third general lifts him and he hugs her. He then notices the other three ancestors and yells as he jumps back in disbelief. D explains the situation (the three trainers are revealed to be siblings and D’s cousins), and the Master smiles nervously at the third general. She looks at him and asks him what the matter was. He said that it is paramount to put them back to the deathly slumber as it was disrupting the spell’s equilibrium, and the longer they stay awake, the more they will reach death stroke (i.e. zombie mode) and become little less than undead monsters, all whilst endangering the souls currently held in the other crypts. The third general then tells him to hurry and put them away, and he smiles regretfully before admitting that he had yet to finalise the spell to put them back, as he was so sure they would never awaken in the first place. The third general yells at him that he had 10,000 years to finalise the spell, and we learn that the Master was the original Master who have woven the equilibrium spell.
And so it is decided that the ancestors would work amongst their descendants to collect pages from the book of life and readjust to the year 2019, all whilst not losing control so that they do not have a death stroke, as the Master tries to finalise the spell to return things back to as they once were.
I hope you guys liked the plot, and I'd love to hear your thoughts and advice, even if you’re not interested in collaborating
Thanks for reading this insanely long message!
Roro
xxx