Eldritch Thoughts

Story Starters

The following story starters are offered to whoever would like to use them. They came from stories that I began or considered beginning a while back and have since discarded. I may add more over time if I think up more that I eventually discard. Goddess knows they come frequently enough, and now I have a place to collect them. If these do end up being useful to somebody, I'd love to hear about it.

Earth, 2123:

Humanity had reached its final mountaintop. War had ended in the Middle East, the last bastion of conflict in the modern world. Man now lived in a perfect world. Famine and poverty had been eliminated. Crime had been nonexistant for decades. Corruption and treachery no longer plagued the human mind. Every nation was ruled by the benevolent democracy of the United Nations.

It was in May of that year when, as it invariably does, something went wrong.

Theorists disagree on the source or the cause, but everybody knows its affect on the earth. A plasma beam slammed through crust in North America, refracted in the core, and shattered landforms all across the planet. Earth began spinning in random directions, magma poured freely all over the surface, continents and oceans shifted. Only those who lived in the climate-controlled underground cities survived the cataclysm.

Months later, when the survivors managed to dig their way out of their subterranean prisons, they discovered a new planet. The axis had rotated, the orbit had shrunk, land and ocean had taken new places, days had lengthened. Man's perfect world had ended before it began. Anarchy reigned over everything. Communication was nonexistant. Each group of survivors knew only of themselves. They concerned themselves only with surviving and defending their colonies against the mutated and vicious animals now roaming the planet.

The mutating effects of the plasma beam had left humans strangely untouched. Once mild communication using archaic radio waves was established, scientists in each colony began to study the radiation left by the beam. Combining this unique energy source with state-of-the-art bio-crystalline technology, they created supercomputers that would power and control their communities for generations to come. But there was one thing they didn't know about their crystals, one thing they could never have predicted.

The crystals were sentient.

Earth, 2175:

Crystal technician Rock Thunderbird enters the crystal room in the North American Colony. This same day, scientists will make an amazing breakthrough in the effects of crystal radiation on human subjects. These two events provide the spark for the final chapter in human history.

Author's Note: That name might seem familiar, as well it should. This particular story was originally envisioned as a video game, in which the real world is seen only in shades of gray. The crystal radiation then gave Rock access to a sort of dream-world with normal color, enabling him to move back and forth through time and learn exactly how and why Earth was shattered. Working title: Iridescent Dreams.

In a world scarred by the touch of ancient gods, the people pass down a legend that tells the story of the origin of their hardships. The legend says that, long ago, the people were blessed by the gods with prosperity and happiness. But the gods grew restless and wished to control the world completely, without competition. So it came to pass that the gods of the Heavens--Soli, Goddess of Light; Leoni, God of Goodness; and Orina, Goddess of Salvation--began to wage war against the gods of the Abyss--Lobor, God of Darkness; Canina, Goddess of Evil; and Afemo, God of Destruction. The war in the celestial and infernal planes was mirrored on the earth, as monsters roamed freely, destroying any--good or evil--who opposed them. The gods, fearing their creation would be destroyed by the war, each sent a savior to the surface who would proect their people until the end of the conflict.

The final battle was fought both in Heaven and on Earth. The six saviors fought each other just as the gods fought. In the end, all the saviors were slain, and the battle of the gods shattered the continent which bore the ancient civilization of the Ikani, fathers of all life. From then forward, the gods were silent, and their monsters roamed unchecked throughout the world. The remnants of humanity now stand on their teetering final legs.

But is that truly the way it happened? Or is that just a story fabricated by a people who long to escape their current life? And what of whisperings of a seventh savior, a traitor who is to blame for the death of both saviors and gods? Can these rumors be trusted?

All legends are created by a grain of truth, snowballing down through generations until it is barely recognizable. Let us turn back the clock and return to the age when the legend was formed. Let us experience its creation with the one man who played the key role in its formation and future importance. Let us observe the adventures of the seventh savior.

Author's Note: I honestly retain no recollection of where I was going with this.

Your people, the Erda, have sent you on a quest. These were their parting words. "We are sending you on a quest. We will not return for you until your quest is complete. Now begone, and good luck." So here you are, stranded on a strange planet you know nothing about on a quest you know even less about! Well, things can't get much worse. Can they?

1 - An oracle tells you you have to save the world by finding the Earth Rock.

2 - The oracle tells you you need to find three more Rocks: Fire, Water, and Air.

3 - The oracle tells you you need to find the rock to bind them: Chaos.

4 - The oracle sends you to find the broken Tear-Drop Stone to unleash the power of the Rocks.

5 - You fight through the spaceship to your planet.

6 - You find your way to the Castle of the Realm.

7 - You are sent on a quest to destroy the one who saved the planet: yourself!

8 - The final battle. Do you die to uphold justice or live as an outlaw forever?

Author's Note: Just in case you didn't notice, I'd like to point out that this is very old, like pre-Middle-School old judging by its relative position in the notebook I found it in. It also appears that I was very in to Final Fantasy and Dragonlance at this time. What strikes me the most besides the cliches are the gaps and seeming inconsistancies in the chapter summaries. Again, I'm not sure what I had in mind for this.