Hello, Readers! Clevenger here!

The Stories of Sainan, as we have discussed in our posts, came from a collaboration of multiple ideas that Graham and I brought to the table. And in the previous post, Graham gave you his “core” ideas that started this. So, I wanted to do the same and show you where I came in.

In 2004, I had an inkling of an idea. A young man, Sima (pronounced Sheema) who had grown up with his father in a war-torn country, that had recently built itself back up, and set him on a Hero’s journey when they realized that the war that had torn their country apart wasn’t fully over yet. I had twists and plots, reveals and secrets, all that were planned. And in my head, I had the introduction of his character. A scene of him standing at the forge, reflecting on being a blacksmith, and the world fell down around his ears as the war returned.

In 2005, I tried to run this as a campaign with a friend, giving him the above backstory “starter” to see what he could do. It was under his idea that the possibility of Sima being a “cat-folk” started. The game never got off the ground, but I explained to him some of the “plot” points that I would have shown him in the game, and he thought they would have been fun to discover, so I knew that there was the seed of something here.

In this concept, the two invading forces were unstoppable forces led on one side by a Master Assassin, and the other a Necromancer General who inspired fear in his foes. (You can see immediately where Graham and I went… “ooh, this might align pretty nicely). I knew why the war went into “remission” and why it had “restarted” but never what had caused the original war. The country in the middle was unambitious and flat. And I knew how the main character’s history (both known and unknown) tied him to the story and how this history of conflict had set up some of his mysteries. And things were forming.

Over the years, Sima became Symon. Symon became human, then cat-folk, then back to human, then undefined, then back to cat-folk. A few more variations of lives, and he’ll live up to that “cat” lineage! And Symon was just the core that I couldn’t walk away from. I just needed things to line up. A coming of age story about a boy discovering who he was as he learned about his parents.

Sitting with Graham, we saw how our stories lined up. He loved the idea of the county in the middle. We replaced my forces with his forces (undead being a center point on both). And then we both remembered the Khorric Federation, which was built for our Role-Playing game. Now, we had a rich, developed world that could serve as the backdrop of our tale. I got to open up my magic system without fear of unbalancing a game, but allowing it to serve the story properly. Graham got to dig into the Politics, Aristocracy, and Criminal underbelly of the city, giving us obstacles to throw at our characters. But the foundation had begun.

Then we had to dig deeper into how to merge our characters and put them on the path together. The stage was set; the origins defined. We had the beginning and the end. Now, we needed to build the narrative we wanted to tell. And along that journey, even we discovered some secrets that made it into the final manuscript. The joy of having your writing partner being a fan of your story means that each of us go… “this is amazing! What if?!” and inspire each other to new and exciting heights!

While our story has grown, our characters have evolved, and our approach has adapted to our mindsets today, rather than years ago, we both had a tale to tell. Our individual tale to tell. And when we are passionate about our stories, there are always some things that we cannot compromise. So next, Graham will tell you his ABSOLUTE story needs.

Until then… Be Kind.

-Clevenger