[Nogrod]

Thanks Firefoot for the update on the characters! It is going to be really helpful!

And your concern with the momentum is a quite an important thing to pay heed to.

Originally Posted by Snowdog

Right. Lots of details here. You all get the scene and setting placed and I'll bring in my one Rohirrim character I have into the Mead Hall and will work with whatever you put out there.

That's the spirit!

And like Legate said, nothing prevents people from starting to build posts already - or posting them - if they have pressing stuff for their characters they'd love to move forwards like now and not a bit later.


I'm sorry Firefoot for using the 's' after the word 'month' - I wasn't really thinking it would take monthS to get this rolling (I was kind of joking on it), but it will most probably take a few weeks - and maybe a month - to really get everyone into the same map - and to decide what kind of map it actually is where we start / continue from...


~*~

There are a few things to do to help things get rolling.

We sould find out which of the old writers would be willing to come back. Of those who have not yet shown their presence I think the most important one would be Folwren as she has the ownership of some really major characters.

Should I sent her a PM / an Fb note - or would fex. lmp be willing to contact her? (She's taking a trip to Europe on June and we Finns are going to meet her around the Midsummers' eve-time, but that would be pretty late to start discussing this; it also means she's probably not able to post a lot in June anyway but that should not be a problem if she wishes to continue writing her characters, they could just be a little more inactive for some time)


All other "old writers" should also declare which of their characters they'd like to continue writing (some of us seem to have quite a bunch of characters) or if they'd like to write all of them, or even introduce more - or if they'd like to keep the character around but would be willing to turn it into a NPC or are just ready to kill the character? You should use Firefoot's list for that.

Also we'd need to have a rough outline of things going on during our jump so that people could start really thinking about their characters. (I'll speculate about it shortly just a few rows downwards.)


And naturally the new writers should think about their characters and maybe express their intents about them... I mean having seven "damsels in distress" coming into the Mead Hall and no other kind of new characters would be a bad idea. Or well, who knows?

And we'd need to make a short synopsis / general updated outline of the Mead Hall for the new writers to read as it is probably too much requiring them to read some 100 pages from the early first Mead Hall onwards...


~*~

A general timeline should also be decided - at least the most central things that would affect everyone one way or another.

How about a following scenario?

NB. The years given can be concentrated if the majority thinks 5 years would be too much...


1# year

The Mead Hall was more or less built within a year after we left writing the story (I think it was not yet ready when we ceased writing and there were some major things to do & to change according to Athanar's plans). Saeryn will give birth.

The things settled down a bit even if there were some occasional rifts and a few people were given minor penalties by lord Athanar's court because of misbehaviour.

The local lords were licking their wounds and having their own internal power-struggles so they were not able or willing to cause any trouble.


2# year

There could then have been a period of a lot of travelers the next year because of king Aragorn's trip, and the local lords would have been nice and relaxed as there were a lot of folk around & revenue to be made etc. A year of prosperity and relationships getting better within the Mead Hall.


3# year

The year of problems in the east. With king Eomer's muster also the Mead Hall would have been forced to give away a host of soldiers - both lord Eodwine's and lord Athanar's men (more of the latter as Athanar rode in with a larger host of active-duty soldiers).

It might even be lord Athanar would have been summoned by king Eomer to lead a force of rohirrim from those parts of Rohan (as king Eomer knew that Eodwine was getting better but not well enough to lead cavalry into a battle - but he trusted Eodwine would nevertheless be in good condition enough to run the hall). At least Athanar's sons would be summoned...

Local lords are called for as well (under the command of Athanar?) and so they are not doing any plotting or things like that this year.


4# year

The killer-winter -year (I'd prefer a harsh winter to a plague, but if most people think plague is better I'm fine with it).

Understaffed the Mead Hall suffers greatly because of the winter. Other local lords / their farmsteads suffer as well. Everyone suffers as death walks around randomly here and there.

Here we get rid of characters no one will be writing any more.



5# year

The end of the fell winter... This might also be the place we start our writing!

A nice place for the new characters to join the Mead Hall - refugees, wanderers, travelers... caught up by the harsh winter and trying to find shelter / been kicked out of former shelters, coming back from the war in the east etc.

Lord Athanar could be dead - or maybe promoted to a Field Marshal, or given a new eorlship... whatever. But we'd be rid of him from the story. Those left behind of Athanar's men could be ordered by king Eomer to stay under the command of Eodwine... and maybe one or two of his sons would join the Mead Hall after the battles...


How about something along these lines?