FULLY written concept- Fire Emblem: The Kin

[Glen vs Valter]

Hey guys. Brief introduction first. I don't post very much but I've always been incredibly interested in making a Fire Emblem hack. I've written innumerable ideas and worked on quite a few that haven't gotten very far and have gotten pretty much zero coverage on this site (including me simply never bothering to post them). However, considering how amazing this community is, especially when it collaborates, I thought I would just put it out there that I have a fully written FE7 hacking concept, tentatively called The Kin.

Due to recent developments in my life, I can't put much time into fire emblem hacking anymore. So I thought I would share my fully written concept with the community. By fully written, I mean I have all the chapters, characters, dialogue, stats, enemies, map ideas, most things you could think of, in written form. Also there are some sprite ideas, mostly just from random splices I've made in the past.

Basically I'm saying that I've developed a lot of (what I consider) relatively interesting ideas for a Fire Emblem hack that have never been implemented in any project of considerable progress. And I'm saying that these ideas are up for the taking. I want them to be used in a hack, as I will probably never get around to actually making one.

This might be too much to ask, but I think I'm pretty good at writing and developing ideas. It's mostly a grab-idea-and-take-it-just-PM-me-first kinda situation. And there are two ways to grab stuff--the actual, fully written idea, and the burst and jumble of various miniplots and character archetypes that I've come up with.

I'll give some basic intro and some examples of the sorts of ideas I've developed. Ask me if you want more information!

Thanks for reading. Without further ado...

Almost 1000 years ago, the holy blood lines of man and dragon were fused. This unnatural, horrific sin shook the world by merging the greatest qualities of both human and dragon: a dragon's might, and human's industriousness and vitality. The dragonkin, a race far superior to either of its predecessors, swiftly aspired towards greater civilization. With ease, they wiped out the small number of ancient dragons. The large number of humans took longer to erase, but just in time, the heroes Lorco and Alera were blessed by the gods and defeated the dragonkin's ruler. Lorco and Alera were then wed and established the kingdom of Severí. Over the next one hundred years, relatives of the legendary couple established the nations of northern Fornenia and western Paragonia. Humankind blossomed.

A thousand years later, tensions were rising between the nations of Forne and Severí, as Forne's troops pushed through abandoned territory increasingly close to Severí. The original nation hasn't fought a war in its history due to its prestige, and politicians around the world fear the balance of power is threatened.
Suddenly, the worst fear of the continent occurs: Forne invades Severí. Forne's Empress, Sabra, is unparalleled in ambition and leads the greatest army in five centuries. Monalar and Essol, remnants of the great Paragonia, offer little assistance to Severí while the great nation of Selvia overseas determinedly stays out of the conflict. Raoul, the fearless prince of Severí, mobilizes the small unit of knights to confront Sabra's might head-on.

The Heroes:
Raoul: the heir to the throne of Severí. Daring, patriotic, and stubborn as stone, Raoul is foolish in his boldness at war and unyielding in his diplomacy. He is the perfect general, and a terrible heir to the throne.
Isadora: The calm and composed middle royal of Severí. Graceful and able to grasp any situation quickly, she feels a powerful kinship towards all the people of Severí.

Pietro: The youngest child of Severí's throne, Pietro is anxious but intelligent and quick-witted. He is immature at times but a great judge of other people. He has a frustrating knack for creating socially awkward situations.

Game Layout:

PART ONE: The Children
Featuring the three royal children of Severí. Follows their escape, rebellion, and ultimate failure.
PART TWO: The Awakening
Featuring the spies of a strange and distant city-state and two young uproarious patriots as they learn of Forne's deepest secrets and move to rescue the world's only hope of survival.
PART THREE: The Kin
Follows the awakening of the unimaginably powerful Dragonkin.

Want more? Just ask.

Here are some samples of archetypal ideas I've used/developed for hacking concepts that are up for the grabbing. I have a lot more if you're interested. (not all of them are fully original)

Classes: (stats, skills, and appearance available upon asking)
Agent -> Spy
Dark Roamer/Light Flier -> Black Rider/White Rider
Explorer -> Trailblazer
Blaze Kin

Dragonkin
...+ several others...

Character personality types:
-A powerful trio of near-endgame characters that are idealistic mercenaries whose hirers and long-dead and have been engaged in a monumental struggle on their own for years. The first (Hero) is a violent and cruel individual, humanity long lost, but loyal to a single cause, and motivator of the small group through their impossibly difficult struggle. The second (Assassin) is the most deadly but also the most caring. Doesn't speak much but can demonstrate great kindness and cruelty. The third (Black Rider) does not speak and has a past of thick, veiled darkness; whose motivations are unknown, and lives by blood alone. Are green units in a difficult chapter, and will die in a number of preprogrammed turn, one by one--however, one is needed to speak to the next. The first must speak to the second and third, but the third dies first, then the second, and if the last two die, the first one surrenders...
-A young king who has recently ascended to the throne. Has experienced difficult times in the past couple years but leads with unparalleled enthusiasm. A great leader, tactician, and speaker, this king does his best for his country. However, surrounded by a dense smog of corrupt advisers and religious hierarchy, his country slowly waddles in shit (read: bandits and poverty) without his realizing it. He only means the best for his people, but without a brilliant mind and with only a pure heart, his people have turned against him. When he realizes the extent of his failure, he loses all motivation.
...+ several others...

Chapter concepts:
Since I like big bad boss battles, a lot of my chapters have two bosses, both according to your memory to be big big bad guys. One concept is the defense of a castle from two sides--pegasus knights to the North, guarded by a small platoon of green pegasus knights that will die within five turns. Meanwhile a heavy assault of armored units comes in immediately, and then in the later game a wave of shamans. You need to get rid of the knights quickly, while staying out of stronger unit's ranges, or else you'll get caught on both sides.
I also like using strategically moving bosses, so in a lot of my two boss chapters, one will mobilize after a certain period of time, pursuing a certain character or location.
Several of my chapters also include incentives that create new layers of challenge: recruitable units that will die by a certain period of time, villages that will be destroyed in a certain period of time, not killing certain enemies for certain rewards, etc.
...+ a lot more...

Plot twists:

-Moral uncertainty. The decision of a bad guy to do a good thing always provides a nice surprise. (more details available...)

-Bloodlines. In my concept, the descendants of Lorco and Alera protect the seal of the dragonkin, so it's always important to know who's related to who... unless there are lies by the hundred involved. (more details available...)
-Third-party interests. The ones with the money are always interested in more of it... so they will get involved with war, for the profit--and they could end up causing the most disastrous of consequences. (more details available..)

...+ a lot more...

You guys get the idea. Perhaps this post is in the wrong forum altogether, but basically, I've got a giant resource of ideas, and I want to help you guys make your hacks. I have my fully-written concept up for the taking, and also a plethora of individual, implementable ideas. If you're interested in working with me or using any of my ideas, message me or reply to this. I can provide info about all of the above categories, as well as weapons, character looks, mapmaking and country design (a personal favorite of mine), and a lot more. Not sure if there's a concise enough goal in all this mess to be useful to anyone, but... I want my ideas to be used in something!

in a few days i might add a new post to this, if there is interest, providing more of my ideas that people could use.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Glen vs Valter

[Dandragon]

.......why would you ever list the Plot twists......even if it is in development

[Arch]

It'd help if you defined "fully written." As in you have scripts already written out for a 20+ chapter game?

[Klokinator]

-Bloodlines.

I'm calling copyright theft. http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=45771&page=1

[Artix]

It'd help if you defined "fully written." As in you have scripts already written out for a 20+ chapter game?

Frankly, even if he did have 20 chapters of scripts, conversations, and supports written I still wouldn't want to touch it. Just speaking from personal experience, we've totally rewritten the first and second Act of AE's plot, structure, and pacing twice now, because after coding it all up and seeing how it looked, we didn't like how it flowed. Or because the writers had a great idea but it's not actually possible to pull it off in the game itself. Or just in general wanted to tweak a few things here and there. How much of those 20+ chapters would have to be totally rewritten if I didn't like the way you handled Plot Twist X? Or I like the overall story, but the tone is too heavy or light-hearted? What if I don't like one of your characters? What if (god forbid) it's the main character or the main villain? A totally finished script is great until you realize that it only takes one minor change or complaint to bring the entire thing crashing down, and if I'm rewriting extensive amounts of your script, is it really even your script anymore?

Hell, that's not even getting into that your plot should (at least in some small way) exist symbiotically with the gameplay. Even if I love every word of your plot, what happens if the gameplay that would be called for to achieve that flow and feel isn't actually fun? If there's an arc where you're constantly on the run and being hounded by a stronger enemy, how do you pull that off without going full Thracia? If the plot says that you should be part of a group that is broken and beaten, how do you achieve that in a gameplay structure that more or less requires that you constantly fight and keep winning?

And this is all totally ignoring that this is literally I'm what you call an Ideas Guy™.txt

Edited January 2, 2015 by Artix

[sirmola]

If there's an arc where you're constantly on the run and being hounded by a stronger enemy, how do you pull that off without going full Thracia?

What's wrong with thracia? The way its gameplay and story mesh is one of my favorite bits of that game. That being said the, fe7 engine is built extremely specificaly for fe7, so lots of things don't work simply because the engine can't be made to "stretch" far enough withuot hacking that noone knows how to do (the str-mag split is the classic example). Any plot that requires any such things is therefore hamstrung form the getgo.

[Klokinator]

far enough withuot hacking that noone knows how to do (the str-mag split is the classic example).

/glances at FEIV's thread

/glances at dick

[CT075]

and maybe when pi's done with feiv he'll release the str/mag split and we can stop using it as an example of "something that everyone wants but nobody can do"

Edited January 3, 2015 by CT075

[Brendor]

Why doesn't someone just fix Nintenlord's split

Seems like that's 90% done and Alex has a lot macros and libraries for FE7 hacking in C++ geared towards that sort of thing

[Lenh]

Sounds like you're withholding a story in hopes of keeping it a Magnus Opus of your making, but in the same you're not showing the willpower to develop it into the final product you want it to be.

Go ahead and post the whole thing. How people treat the human-dragon hybrid concept in FE is usually interesting to me.

[Glen vs Valter]

Thanks for the replies everyone! First off I didn't mean to come of as pretentious so apologies if it did.

Now on to replies...

@Dandragon Since the twists weren't very spoilerific I thought it would be ok, but from now on I'll use spoiler tag.

@Arch Yep main script fully written. Supports and villages not complete, however.

@Klokinator Haha never saw that before--fortunately bloodlines is a pretty small part of it so we should be ok...

@Artix Thanks for the thorough response. A lot to say here. If it's an actual script for their hack people are looking for, I would absolutely be willing to customize and change it to fit their gameplay and tastes. Absolutely. I just can't afford to put in boatloads of time, hence the sort of "here's stuff I've generated in the past" approach. I know it's not usually helpful to just say "I have ideas" but there's definitely a degree of concreteness to what I have. Also the majority of the story definitely isn't the Thracia 776 approach, but I do like having a bit of that in here and there.

@Lenh Fair point, I'd be happy to share the full story. I'm just gonna do Part/Act I right now because I'm really tired, and I don't have a prewritten explanation-thing for the meat of the storyline.

Storyline for the first part... in total 12 chapters worth of content.

After the initial historical openings, a more detailed account of the tensions between Forne and Severí is offered. Forne's forces swiftly overwhelms Severí's sad lack of an army. The prince Raoul has taken refuge at Arabela, holding out a second hope for the survival of the country, and the Empress Sabra sends her most vicious general, Hirum, after him. The Prologue opens up with the Queen, Estella, sending the loyal retainer Ada to safely escort Isadora and Pietro away from the castle. However, they're almost too late and need to battle to escape through the back castle exit. The trio decides to flee to the apparent safety of Monalar, but has to fight through brigands coming from as far as the Abandoned Waste and thieves and killers sent by Forne to scavenge the country for the royals--who apparently are being searched for at absolutely any cost. After encountering some retaining Severí knights, they reach the border of Monalar. However, the pragmatic republic has closed its gates at any cost... Isadora has a Minister in mind, Arnen, who she feels will protect them, but the scheming ministers Carolyn and Lewis has taken advantage of the unstable political situation and scared the rest of the Ministers off from moving to protect Severí. Upon infiltrating Monalar, they move to the city where Arnen resided, to find that it is completely overrun by a mixture of Forne and Monalar troops. Monalar has splintered down the middle, with the Ministers that support Forne completely betraying their comrades with blood in a swift act of greed. With some Monalar soldiers, Isadora and Pietro free Arnen, who grants them support to search for Raoul... of whom no news has been heard of in months.

They take a northerly route across Severí's highlands in hopes of staying out of the reach of Forne's army. They follow a brigade of Forne's troops towards Arabela but eventually need to combat the group. They discover that their brother is losing position and the last hope for Severí at the strategic point Arabela Hill, and run south. They also try to discover the reason behind the invasion, and only can learn of a few sparse references to the royalty of Severí as "the key" or "the link" or "the kin". For the most part, Forne soldiers and commanders seem simply excited at the opportunity to dislodge Severí from its long-held position of superiority despite its economic and military indifference. For a chapter the characters switch to Raoul and his tiny brigade as they defend Arabela Hill from a massive assault led by notable Forne commanders. A scene among Forne's generals reveals that the mighty nation of Selvia from across the sea is demonstrating "interest in the stakes of the war", while the ministers Carolyn and Lewis are working to eliminate the last vassals of resistance in Monalar. When the general leaves, an old man approaches Sabra and treats her kindly, urging her to act more aggressively, or their dreams will never be realized. Sabra says that his dreams are unattainable, and that her simple wish is to rule the world. The old man sighs at her lack of ambition.

Meanwhile--Isadora, Pietro, and their group charges up Arabela Hill and saves Raoul from the latest wave of Forne's troops. Once reunited with their brother, they fill with such boldness as to charge south and retake Severí Castle itself. Raoul inspires the troops with a fiery speech, and they charge towards the capital, Leverre, emboldened.

Meanwhile, Arnen's interventions and protections of the Severí lordlings have infuriated the Monalar senators that support Forne. They assassinate Arnen, essentially eliminating the last vassal of resistance in Monalar, and send assassins towards Leverre. They encounter the siblings in fog of war near the capital.

Next comes the capital city of Leverre. With the defense caught completely off guard, the siblings manage to seize the castle gates before mightier generals can get involved, but the throne room will prove a greater task, and they need to act quickly. Raoul is relying on the sole, remote hope that the legendary Essol knights, long allies with Severí, will arrive and cause sufficient distraction to allow him to establish a strong hold on the capital. But for for now, he takes to the castle and seizes the throne itself. However, their mother the Queen is nowhere to be found...

But Forne moved too quickly, and Raoul's boldness backfires. The druid Leonitus and the vicious general Hirum storm the castle, and with unyielding strength, completely obliterate Raoul's meager army and capture the three siblings, who are forced to lay down their arms for the lives of their few remaining comrades. The group is separated and brought to various prisons far away... some to seized towers in Severí, others to Forne, and Isadora, Pietro, and Raoul, into the personal care of the Empress Sabra.

Edited January 3, 2015 by Glen vs Valter