Help with my new setting: Metal Heroes

[Jayngfet]

So I got an idea in my head a few days ago. Make a setting that combines shout outs and expies into an original setting. You have Totally not Mazinger fighting alongside really doesn't look like a mobile suit with support from evangelionsEngels Apostles(?). They're fighting the Anti Spiral lookalike, some hive creatures, and various other villain expies, as other human mecha in a real robot style war. World history is mostly "as it happened but with mecha retconned in", until WWII, where it goes into full blown alternate history. A few highlights are Egypt being united by the red mecha and white mecha combining to be piloted by the pharaoh, Genghis Kahn finding a mecha gurren lagann style and using it to unite his people and attack, Hitler piloting a mecha(surprising no one at all (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StupidJetpackHitler)), and St. George killing a giant metal anthro dragon.

Lets start with history, which I've devided roughly into a few ages.


The first age: From the dawn of civilization until the rise of Christianity. Mecha first appear(how we'll discuss later). People exploring out of town walls worldwide discover mecha, going on to become great warlords and kings, at least until they're bested and either destroyed or subjugated by other, stronger mecha. These are all super types, and are worshiped as gods or feared as demons. They become most prominent in the greek, egyptian, and roman empires. As they were worshiped as gods they fell out of favor with the rise of christianity, for various other reasons as well. As missionaries spread mecha steadily deplete, the only ones remaining are piloted by the rulers of some countries(and only some), such as Russia and England.

The second age: From the Dark ages to the 1800's. As missionaries spread mecha steadily deplete, the only ones remaining are piloted by the rulers of some countries(and only some), such as Russia and England. Occasionally someone finds and is able to use a mech, such as Ghengis Kahn, Joan of Arc, and Charlamagne. Very little other than a handful of pilots occurs related to mecha and history is more or less "on course". That is until...

The third age: From the 1800's to the 1950's. As science marches on the remains of mecha are studied with limited sucess. Steampunk mecha, the first real robot prototypes, are created. Along with this a few surviving mecha are rediscovered, or found in remote locations seldom touched by the church. After decades of study realrobots begin to see combat, however they are costly and only towards the end of WWI do they see any widespread use. By WWII enough old mecha are rediscovered and new ones advanced and produced that once again mechanical titans advance towards each other in large numbers. At the end of WWII two experimental mecha are armed with a new type of missile, and in a few blasts cause devistation unlike anything seen in more than two thousand years. Many old Japanese mecha are blasted apart, setting the stage for...

As well, Charles Darwin notes a slight similarity of Mecha being adapted to the modern age to species adapting to new conditions and draws up plans for evangelion style mecha(more on that later).

The Fourth age: From the 1960's until the 2200's. Scientists continue studying the ancient super robots. Eventually their power source is discovered: The Super Pulse drive. This device seems to feed off human emotions, growing more powerful when the pilot experiences strong emotions(such as rage or arousal). In secret a Scientist constructs a new robot around an old SP drive, the first modern super robot. However has he finished the robot his son accidentally contacted this robot in a specific manner, and from then on it was only this young man able to wield the mecha...





More later today, my comp restarted and I had to retype everything.

[warty goblin]

The supposition that earth's history would follow anything like the course it has taken when there are 20 foot tall technologically advanced killing machines wandering the wilderness and waiting for human guidance strikes me as quite suspect.

If you want to make a really interesting and well drawn out setting, start from the ground up with the stuff you want in the story, then see what happens when you throw it all together and apply as much common sense as possible. Then take a step back, look at it, decide what sucks and what does not, then modify things here and there, or tweak the starting conditions so you get something you like better.

Then hide 99% of this from the audience.

[Jayngfet]

The supposition that earth's history would follow anything like the course it has taken when there are 20 foot tall technologically advanced killing machines wandering the wilderness and waiting for human guidance strikes me as quite suspect.

If you want to make a really interesting and well drawn out setting, start from the ground up with the stuff you want in the story, then see what happens when you throw it all together and apply as much common sense as possible. Then take a step back, look at it, decide what sucks and what does not, then modify things here and there, or tweak the starting conditions so you get something you like better.

Then hide 99% of this from the audience.

I hide nothing. This isn't freaking evangelion where even at best you need to buy several country specific books for hints at the wider universe.

And in general mecha wouldn't be pilotable by the majority of the population or known to everyone for quite a while, I still have oodles of things I haven't typed out yet.

And now for the exciting conclusion(sort of) to the fourth age.

In Japan, this boy was chosen by chance to become the first user of the new super robots. As his father wanted to keep the boy safe from the trouble being bonded to a powerful and revolutionary weapon would bring, at least from a time. In the Vein of Tetsujin 28/Gigantor the pair moved to a remote island in the pacific, south of Tokyo. While there the Scientist kept in contact with his Associate in Tokyo itself, who was developing his own mecha. The pair, while agreeing on much, disagreed frequently. While Scientist A believed in Gigantor Esque control methods(external control, due to less harm caused by the pilot himself) his partner believed in the opposite, piloted mecha. As the mecha was completed and the child studied by has ward for data on this new method of Synchronization, the other Scientist chose a pilot to bond the mecha too. Realizing the strain such a bonding would make, he chose the most noble, brave, and strong willed human he knew, old enough to accept the responsibility and not cause rampant destruction. After a full years consideration and Judgement he chose his eldest grandson, who was known for his kind nature, martial arts skills, and his never backing down from a fight that had a chance of victory. At sixteen he was led in secret to the place the mecha was held, and explained the full reasoning behind his being chosen.

I'm thinking stop there for now. I don't want it set in stone before setting up the backround. I want it to flow from the beginning well enough.



I'm thinking it would work like this in the beginning:

Since before life had developed on earth there were precursors. They had an empire spawning nearly half the galaxy, they had advanced and evolved from their humble beginnings as single celled life for nine billion years. They had mostly focused on space faring, creating new equipment to survive on other planets. However eventually they begin to phase out things like space suits in favor of things like mecha and cybernetics. They replaced much of their flesh with metal, and sealed their actual bodies in huge suits. Eventually there was the enevitable class divide. The rich got more and more robotic, patching cybernetics directly into mecha and able to "feel" through the immense metal exoskeletons. Meanwhile the poor had to make due with lightly augmenting their own form with outdated practices, healing and regrowing body parts instead of replacing them. Eventually two races arose with the creation of a final piece of technology: The super pulse drive. This device binds itself to a sentient creature, transforming it's feelings to power.

The High ones: As the highest of the high integrated this technology into themselves the most hateful and angry became the most powerful, taking over. They forced their families and friends to bow to them or die. After much fighting among them the most powerful emerged as leaders, The Caligula (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheCaligula) turned up eleven. Eventually the queens began to expand, constantly augmenting themselves wanting more power, more, constantly more. In the "now" time there are queens the size of supergiants(The size of stars) and growing...

In order to gain materials for drones to attack each other and the other races with they devour any celestial body they find. Planets, asteroids, stars.

The precursors: The low class, using only the most basic cybernetics and mecha, their technology was more biologic. They could make a child grow five times the size he would unaided, run faster than a car, see farther, hit harder, learn faster.

Eventually they became a species of their own through this process, fighting back with mecha that are themselves immense cyborg mecha. These aren't nearly as quick to produce as normal mecha but hey, you work with what you got. All this happened five billion years ago, and since then they've battled across the milky way. The precursors gained their name through a backup plan . Find planets either with life on them or capable of suiting some form of life. Sew them with life now, and hope if you don't survive they finish the job later. Now they found a young earth, before humans, before mammals, before amphibians, when multi cellular life was the hot new thing. They examined the life forms and created primordial ooze. This substance both increased cellular reproduction rates and mutations, giving rise to several species. Around ancient earth they placed machines to pump gallon after gallon, only needing to be refueled once every few thousand years. With this they attempted to jumpstart evolution. Once they verified the stuff worked they placed several conditions in the planet, subtly altering temperature here, the chemical composition of topsoil there. They were hoping to guide and speed up evolution. After a certain point the group of precursors that did this packed up and moved to the next world, checking back every fifteen thousand years or so. After they came back at one point six thousand years ago they judged humanity as being capable of moving the the next stage in their plans. They sent down several thousand mecha eqipped with the SP drive, each built specifically for humans.

Sound good so far? This is pre first age stuff.

[DMBlackhart]

I personally have a slight dislike for (most) anime and a larger dislike for (most) mecha. So I know what I am saying when I say, "This idea is pretty cool".

......Wait for it......

But in all seriousness I can't give a COMPLETE opinion until you either
a. finish it
b. Build on it more

And fet, I know you on a semi-personal level, so I gotta say this, please follow this project to fruition. :p

[warty goblin]

No, really, you want to hide stuff. Otherwise people will fall asleep hacking through all the exposition. Remember, most people, even most people who like LOTR and the Hobbit, can't hack their way through the Silmarillion. I suspect this is because most of them simply don't care that much about background. So if you want people to actually like your story, keep the exposition down.

One major problem, why does the number of mech deplete with the rise of Christianity? Presumably since the Christians are opposed to the mecha, they don't wield them in battle, and I have a hard time figuring how an iron age army could put a dent in a mechanized combat machine, even a fairly crude one. At the very least such a device would need to be tough enough merely to stand up that it would be immune to anything short of siege engines.

Bottom line, any society that didn't use mechas would get its ass stomped quite thoroughly by any that did, and banning them would be pretty much impossible. Whatcha gonna do? Take them by force? The Catholic Church in the Middle Ages couldn't manage to ban crossbows and firearms effectively. Neither of those weapons are anywhere near as destructive as a mecha.

[DMBlackhart]

Remember, most people, even most people who like LOTR and the Hobbit, can't hack their way through the Silmarillion.


I love the simarilion. Then again, im a super-nerd. :p

[Jayngfet]

The problem there is I haven't got to how mecha work:

In general mecha with the SP drive start out blank. However the first person to contact them is then aligned with them. From then on only they and their children can operate the things. For example if Uther Pendragon put a mecha in the stone the only one able to pull it out would be one of his children, meaning Arthur would have proven himself that way. This is compounded by the fact that it wasn't until after steam power non SP mecha were produced, or the method of re-blanking was accidentally discovered. Meaning all of the mecha in use have a set list of pilots who can use them, and when they die nobody can use them.

This is compounded by the fact that they aren't completely invincible. Even if it manages to cleave through hundreds of men and walk off a hail of arrows the pilot has to fall asleep or lose concentration some time, or else be caught away from the mecha. This isn't a sudden thing. At first there's lots of mecha, but wars between mecha using nations destroy some. Over time bloodlines can die out or descendants who know they CAN no longer exist.

Mecha do still crop up occasionally, dressed up in a fancy coat of paint and oversized armor or noble garb and used by kings and higher up nobles, but this is exceedingly rare.

And there is the occasional stint, as the particularly odd looking village statue decides some kid is the one and before he knows it he has enough adventures to fill a dozen comic books.

And when mecha can be mass produced the ban falls apart fairly quickly. Or is rather blasted apart by a mech with a cannon.


And on infodump: It's not going to be dumped out all at once. Relevant bits of history are tossed out in conversation, short excripts of text are here and there, nothing to break the plotlines up but enough to be mildly informative.