User blog:Amelia Lonelyheart/Amenia: Overview and Explanations

I tried writing this before, but I accidentally deleted my draft. To counter that, this will be a heavy Work In Progress with updates throughout my writing process. Since I'm in the process of moving, updates may be slower then what I originally want.

Anywho, this blog is meant to be my solo discussion of my Amenia series, what it means to me, how I developed it, my inspirations, as well as my plans for the world. It will also share insight to the world, give an idea of its history (both in universe ad out of universe), its cosmology. If I find the time, I will also write a separate blog detailing almost exclusively in-universe information.

Now I want to make one thing clear before I write further. Amenia is not an universe meant to be strong for the sake of being strong. The primary focus of the series is world building and character development and the themes of the series are edged towards peace and adventure, with violence only being a last resort.

That said, lets start with the inspirations of my series. =Inspirations=

The Peanuts
As weird as it may sound, one of my biggest inspirations is Charles Schulz classic strip The Peanuts. Starting way back in the yesteryear of 1950 (which by the way, the original 50s comics were hardcore), The Peanuts is an incredibly enduring and endearing franchise centered around Good Ol' Charlie Brown and his gang of friends. The strips are well known for their mean-spirited tone, strips often ended in Charlie Brown getting insulted or even assaulted by his friends and family. If they didn't, they usually dealt with the slice of life antics of his friends but often had at least a slightly pessimistic tone. One of my favorite storyarcs involves Charlie Brown realizing how his friends suck, and longs for real friends; only to be told how awful he was by Lucy and how he relied to much on his friends. No happy ending, but at the same time, not a downer ending either. I think Matt Groening of Simpsons fame put it best:

"No one needs any formal introduction to Peanuts. From our infancies we've had our chins wiped with official Snoopy bibs and been swaddled in unofficial security blankets. Over the decades we've bought, received, worn, played with and stared at an endless series of Peanuts books, greeting cards, sweatshirts, shoestrings, coin banks, figurines, adverts and TV shows. (Lest you think this is a knock, remember I'm the Simpsons guy, and we've allowed Bart asthma inhaler holders and Duff Beer fishing lures.) But clear away the insurance commercials, billboards, dolls, apparel, stickers, soap dishes and the rest, and we're left with the real thing: the Peanuts comic strip itself, Charles Schulz's brilliant, angst-ridden, truly funny, 50-year-long masterpiece of joy and heartbreak. I dug Peanuts from the time I could read, and as a kid spent way too many nights under the covers with a torch, poring through such nifty anthologies as You're Out Of Your Mind, Charlie Brown!, Who Do You Think You Are, Charlie Brown? and You Can't Win, Charlie Brown. I was excited by the casual cruelty and offhand humiliations at the heart of the strip. Peanuts seemed emotionally real (and unlike anything else). Occasional sadness comes up (such as Charlie Brown's complaints that no one likes him, and Patty's un-sympathetic explanations of why this is so), but this is offset by a friendly drawing style, great jokes and a sense of childhood exuberance that makes the discouragements of life seem a worthy price to pay. Back then, it seemed that everywhere you went you were guaranteed to find Peanuts books you'd never seen just lying around, with such compelling titles as I Need All The Friends I Can Get, Happiness Is A Sad Song and You've Had It, Charlie Brown. I'm struck by just how rich and consistent the world was that Schulz created. I like that Peanuts doesn't contrast the kids' piddly concerns with those of adults. I like that, from the beginning, grown-ups didn't exist, except as off-stage voices (usually Lucy and Linus's mother). And I like the unpredictability of the jokes: some carry on the traditions of classic American comic strips, with such impossible sight gags as Charlie Brown flying a kite with a ship's anchor chain or Snoopy retrieving an unpopped soap bubble. Other strips offer a more open-ended, emotional outburst. Throughout the second half of 1955, Schulz's funny but unnerving punchline consists of an agitated Linus shouting: "Five hundred years from now, who'll know the difference?" The kids are all quite young in the early strips. Four-year-old Lucy ("the world's number one fussbudget") still sleeps in a cot, while her tormented yet optimistic brother, Linus, can't yet walk - he crawl-wobbles through the air - but compensates by building gigantic sandcastles and inflating square balloons. Characters who later disappear, including Patty, Shermy, Violet and the loud-talking Charlotte Braun (who looks like Charlie Brown with a scribble for hair), are quite vigorously on the scene. "Pig-Pen" (I love the quote marks around his name) figures in a number of strips. And Snoopy's fantasy life is just beginning."

- Source: The Complete Peanuts, I forgot what volume in particular



The trick Schulz mastered early on was he wrote a cycle of misery and abuse for Charlie Brown to suffer in, yet, Charlie Brown retains optimism, albeit just a little. Charlie Brown also holds no real ill will for his friends and family and is a kind hearted, good natured boy who cares about his friends and family very much so, despite the daily BS they put him through.

I love this style of writing. It's one of the reasons I love The Peanuts so much.

The style is what compelled me to write the main character of "Little Miss Aveal Turiga" (even her nickname was inspired by "Good Ol' Charlie Brown"!) the way I did. Originally, the story of Amenia was what you could call a "dime'a'dozen" fantasy story. Aveal herself was originally a bit player, the older sister of the Chosen One who must rid the world from an evil wizard. In her original incarnation, Aveal lived a miserable life and was miserable because of it. She was still kind and compassionate, but very melancholy and somber.

After getting a bolt of inspiration from reading the TV Tropes page on The Peanuts I decided to completely rewrite her narrative.

Her most recent incarnation, and the one I'm most satisfied with is a person whose lived a horrible life. Her parents were killed by the constables of Tunda; a police state where she was born within and she was kidnapped from her Uncles family only a year after the death of her parents. Her kidnappers convinced her that they murdered her Uncles family and sold her to be a child soldier. For awhile, Aveal was miserable. She was depressed, but while at the Royal Rivers Orphanage, a front for child soldiers, she befriended the younger orphans. She became a motherly figure towards her new found friends.

With the help of her younger friends, Aveal regained her spark. Her parents taught her to be be optimistic even in the worst situations, as misery is a hard road to get off of. Even in her darkest days, she retained to her optimism and good nature, much like how Charlie Brown retains his kind heart and caring personality despite his horrible friends. After having to effectively raise her two housemates at the faux-orphanage, her joy and optimism only grew.

And, I'd be lying if I did't say the style of writing Schulz employed didn't resonate with me on a deeply personal level. I don't really like talking about personal issues online, and if I do I usually just say vague things. But since this is a semi-personal blog, I decided to go into it:

I lived a miserable life up until fairly recently. I got expelled from middle school for getting into daily fights with this one kid, who called me a racist and one of his friends even attempted to stab me (Thankfully, he was stopped by a police officer before anyone got hurt) and due to some complicated circumstances, I was 'homeschooled' ever since. This caused many issues for me, my grammar and spelling were severely lacking until just a few years ago and my skills of basic mathematics were essentially nil. Most of all, this caused chronic loneliness, my favorite online community dissolved and every attempt at a revival wet fubar fast; sometimes by in-fighting and other times it was caused by sheer laziness/selfishness on someones part.

Stuff just kept getting worse after that. My childhood dog and cat both passed away, and our new dog died within a year of its life due to unforeseen health complications. My families business failed and my dad sold my car. My parents kept getting angrier and my siblings kept getting more distant. I was trapped, there was nowhere I could go; the outside of my house was just as bad with a perverted neighbor and crackheads who always fight each other; sometimes with firearms.

I wont lie, for a few years, I just gave up. I almost couldn't take it anymore. I spent my days laying in bed, not doing anything, not talking to anyone, only eating when my family went to bed, and just talked to the few friends I had. It wasn't a good time for anyone in my family, and for awhile, I think my parents gave up too. It got to the point where my father who get annoyed if I tried to change the subject to a more positive one.

One day, I simply decided this wasn't healthy and thought more positively, to act nicer and to be more active. Back then, the only medium of artwork I consumed was video games, so I decided to branch out. I watched an episode of Steven Universe, and by an episode I mean the entire series and I knew exactly what I wanted to do, I wanted to write a story, and Amenia was that story.

Sorry if that rant got a little to personal. I got in the flow, so to speak.

Dragon Quest
Well, sorta. More like a Dragon Quest 3 fanwork that portrayed a party of a Cleric, A Warrior and The Hero as almost like a family. Their chemistry was perfect and rather adorable. In the most fundamental ways, this formation inluenced the 'party' of Amenia, although it is farily archetypal:
 * Aveal Turniga: Priest. Kind, bright, good-natured and very protective of her younger siblings.
 * Shina Juri: Warrior. Strong willed, tough, powerful and earnest.
 * Mona Hunik: Rogue. Clever, quick thinking, swift and never strays from a good fight.
 * Toma Jawol: Hero. Unfailingly compassionate, innocent, warm and prefers diplomacy over combat.

Steven Universe
Additionally, the teams chemistry was inspired by the Crystal Gems of Steven Universe. The comparisons were more obvious in my oldest incarnations of the characters, but it's still there in my newer incarnations.
 * Aveal Turniga and Pearl: Both are motherly, bright and wise characters. In my oldest incarnation of Aveal, she was very mentally disturbed and depressed, much like how Pearl is shown to be on occasion. To a lesser extent, early Aveal's design was based off Pearl's color scheme. Both were pale, and Aveal's hair was the same shade of Blue as Pearl's clothing.
 * Shina Juri and Garnet: Both are the most aggressive members of their teams who wear red. Both are stoic, sometimes cold but caring people underneath their stoic demeanor.
 * Mona Hunik and Amethyst: Both are laid back, abrasive, fun loving but generally good natured people who'll do the right thing, even if hesitantly.
 * Toma Jawol and Steven: Both are pacifistic, heroic, compassionate and eternally caring souls who are forced to bare the weight of the world on their shoulders and do what is right on an alarmingly large scale.

There are more inspirations, some major, some minor but if I listed them all, I'd be here all night, so let's move onto a juicer topic. =History= This will be detailing an in universe history of the planet. I will move onto an out-of-universe history section next.

Before we dive into the actual world, I should briefly go over the calendar system I set up. In Amenia, there are two standard dating methods and a long form unit. They are:
 * AE: After Eko (Allondo)
 * BEA: Before Eko Allondo
 * TEY: Total Estimated Years

AE and BEA function virtually the same with the real life units of AD and BC, but instead of dating the birth of the Lord, they date the birth of Eko Allondo (more on him in the future "Evolution" section). Anyway, onto the actual lore.