This was a project that I started out with a few friends back home. Again, this story has some heavy influence with my gaming background. Many new platforms have formed this way and my friends and I wanted to capitalize a bit on it. What started out prior to my entering the Air Force has been on the back burner ever since...we've all married, had kids, etc. But we still hold out for a day where we can all collaberate this as a priority. What's even better is that our ideas and ideals for this have not been duplicated anywhere for the past 18 years. That gives me a good measure of optimism with regards to offering a unique tale in a market that's awash with hack & slash varients with varying quality.

One day in my friend Shaun's house, his brother, Allen, and Allen's best friend, Tim, and I were playing a D&D boardgame. During a break, Allen and Tim were showing us some of their artwork. Allen is very good at detailed drawings whereas Tim is very good at doing shadow work. His art style focuses on the shadows in such a way that you can see faces. I'm not certain of the name of that particular style, but it's very cool shit! We all got to talking how it would be cool for us to do some sort of comic work. Back in the early 90s, Marvel Comics was running a series of 2099 timeline stories for their heros...Spiderman comes to mind first. As we continued our conversation, Allen and Tim got to thinking about what they could draw. Shaun, who's a pagan (not sure if he still practices) had brought out some books regarding the five elements. My best friend, Jay, was brought into the mix as our fifth member. We decided that our binding component would be those five elements, with each one of us being an ambassador of sorts for an elemement. Given our personalities, it lended perfectly to the elements.

As the days passed, Shaun laid it out best...

Shaun - Metal

Allen - Water

Shane - Wood

Tim - Fire

Jay - Earth

A week after our first foray into this project, Allen and Tim came back with some sketches. In the flavor of the 2099 comics, we started going sci-fi, but then opted for a fantasy setting. Here's the basic outline for our efforts...

Present day Earth. Five men from different parts of the globe are visited in their dreams by a being from a parallel universe (unknown to us at the time...it's a dream after all). Our dreams are different in appearance, but similar in context...we are to journey to a meeting place. The dreams are rather compelling and come frequently. Each dream is tailored as though this being was able to read our thoughts and use them to tailor the outcomes of what we visualized.

When we all arrive to our locations, we are transported to various times in our history. The focus is on receiving training from masters in martial applications...from weapons, hand-to-hand, strategy. We're being groomed for battle on many aspects, from foot soldier to commander. This will likely be a separate book similar to an origin-style novel. The details detract from the main story, but is significant enough to warrant its own manuscript. What does matter is once complete, we are put through a gambit of tests as a rite of passage.

During the test, we find out that others similar in quality and capabilities are pitted against one another. However, in the end, it's us five that make the cut.

We are given time to tie up loose ends. We're all bachelors and have little to no family and no one to really miss our absence.

Our first taste of the new world puts us in similar surroundings that suit us. To this point, we have still not met. On Dividia (given name, so far), we are instructed to integrate with the populace. Learn everything that we can about the lay of the land and its people. Become friends, build networks...it will take time. I can only offer up my portion of this story. Anyway, I end up in a place known as Snowkeep...forever locked in winter's grasp. It's amazing beautiful. Gigantic conifers blanket the landscape, creased with mountain ranges and covered in snow. I make my home and come to befriend a big cat similar to a snow leopard. I become familiar with a large portion of the area, doing trading, learning routes and some of the key players. I'm given the name Tamarak, derived from the tree tamarack.

After our settling in period, we are instructed by the being (who introduces himself as the high father...similar to Zeus?) to attend a gathering. This ends up giving us a sense of direction, as no specific place of meeting is given. Now, when we arrive in Dividia, there's still a bit of disagreement as to how we appear. The process of going through our Earthly timeline did age us so that we're in our midlife ages. I asserted that we should show up at our present ages, and then use a "growing younger" approach as part of the storyline as roadsign that we're getting closer to each other. That is, the closer we get to each other, the closer we get to our original ages.

When we finally meet, the high father tells us why we're here. The balance of good and evil has always been like a pendulum. There are ages of good and evil, but never balance. We are here to set that balance. And the main reason we were brought is that the pendulum has somehow stuck and the age of evil has long since held control. Whatever is causing it to stick, our job is to undo it.

There's more, but I think this is more than enough for the day...