Story Elements - desert mirage

First news first: the workshop group was extremely helpful with the Jemma story. I got some very useful feedback and I think overall a pretty positive reception. Two very interesting ideas I think I will use as I re-write and expand the story are: setting it the entire story during one (very long) day and interspersing it with news and ads all along, so the news story at the end is more fitting.

Tonight I was struggling to think of a topic and so requested outside assistance. What I received - from the blog's single blogspot subscribed follower - was "desert mirages" in the UFPE-world. I'm not entirely sure where to go with that, but the Elves of the Golden Downs certainly need more development, considering how important they are to the plot. In fact, something I never quite figured out is the fate of the Elves of the Golden Downs and how MC's mother met MC's father and (temporarily) escaped the doom of her people.

So I'm afraid I'll stray from the subject, but this is a key plot point I've never quite figured out. What I know is: the Elves of the Golden Down were decimated (perhaps in the older sense of th term) and a very few survivors are sequestered in a cave, sleeping an enchanted sort of sleep. They've become something of a legend among the other Elves, and MMC has made it his professed goal to wreak vengeance on those who did this to them. He's convinced his followers that humans are responsible, and so he wants to Destroy All Humans. He has something of a point; humans did push the Golden Elves out of their territory up into the mountains. But nothing to warrant genocide.

I also know that MC's mother escaped this enchantment or whatever it was to meet up with MC's father and have a romance. They also died, just after MC's birth. I'm thinking of drastically changing MMC2's character; he was written in the heat of NaNo, and even for an Ultimate Fantasy Parody, he's a bit much. I'm thinking of him because he relates to MC the fate of her parents, but that's probably unnecessary.

Anyway, Elves of the Golden Downs. Since beginning this blog and talking with certain people, I've made up the Secret Society, and they have to play a role in this enchantment. MMC probably isn't able to have a role in it, but I'm sure he knows more than he's letting on. I don't want to write it so that Secret Society created the enchantment for the sole reason of causing MC's birth. The mages also may have a role to play here; I haven't decide whose side they're on, if they're unilaterally on anyone's side. And what's the relationship between the mages and the Secret Society anyway?

Oh! The humans are pushing the Golden Elves out of their usual territory (that requires a post of its own, I fear), and the Elves are fleeing into the mountains, as noted. In a recent post, I realized that the Secret Society headquarters are in the mountains; maybe the Elves were getting too close to SS's mountain fastness. Maybe someone even found it - maybe MC's mother did! Oh wow, maybe she even nabbed something. Did MC inherit something from her mother? But how would she have gotten it? This is why MMC2's dubious power may actually come in handy, hmm.

This is very helpful. MC's mother was royalty among her people, but it's a well-worn fantasy trope to have princesses tramping around the wilderness. MC's mother would totally be that kind of princess, too. Anyway, she was tramping around and just happened to run into SS HQ (because security is shoddy) and ran off with an artifact. Why she did this... hmm. She was a trouble-making little princess, which I like; her memory gets hyped up among the Elves, but she was actually a little bit of a black sheep. Very nice.

So she causes trouble and then scoots back home. The SS storms in to the Elven refugee palace and demands to know what happens. Perhaps MC's mother's family suspects her, but of course they defend her. As things get very tense very quickly with SS, MC's mother... we'll say she's on her way to return it, hoping she can smoothe things over, when she spies a secret party of SS on a very bad mission. She runs away, and when she's missing, the Elves go nuts and suspect it was SS; there's a battle, and the poor refugee Elves are killed or sealed in a cave while the SS freaks out a little.

Hmm. This definitely will need some elaborating, but this was an incredibly useful post for me.