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- Apr 17, 2005
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In the spirit of mangas and animes where fighters bond with mechas or soul swords or some other non-human partner, I have an idea for a setting where there is a race of genderless non-human shapeshifters (but who may take male or female human forms and might start thinking of themselves as male or female) sometimes bond with human fighters who have some magic abilities.
There is a cave where the shifters bear their children and hurt or old ones go to rest. A human army has surrounded it and built a military school where they train human fighters called 'swords' and also bribe the young shifters into attending classes with stories, games, and toys. The shapeshifters are easygoing and mostly pacifistic, and because they can empathically feel the emotions of some humans they tend to want to help these humans and make them happy. By the time the shifters mature and become capable of bonding with a human most of them have decided human society is more interesting than anything else going on, and if they find one human they particularly like they will bond to that human and protect them.
But, there aren't very many shifters so there are always some humans who don't get bonded with. Also the shifters are picky and some like being independent or never find a human they like enough to bond with. There are rivalries between humans over who is the best fighter and who has the right to claim a shifter, as well as the usual love and jealousy and incompatible personalities. Nearby countries which have no shifters see their military usefulness and try to kidnap them. And the characters have lots of internal conflicts about ethical use of force, commitment, how to deal with being bullied, whether to give in to peer pressure to be normal or follow their hearts and instincts, how to protect loved ones, and many other things.
So, does anyone think this is an interesting setting? Any serious writers or artists interested in collaborating to create some characters and plot?
There is a cave where the shifters bear their children and hurt or old ones go to rest. A human army has surrounded it and built a military school where they train human fighters called 'swords' and also bribe the young shifters into attending classes with stories, games, and toys. The shapeshifters are easygoing and mostly pacifistic, and because they can empathically feel the emotions of some humans they tend to want to help these humans and make them happy. By the time the shifters mature and become capable of bonding with a human most of them have decided human society is more interesting than anything else going on, and if they find one human they particularly like they will bond to that human and protect them.
But, there aren't very many shifters so there are always some humans who don't get bonded with. Also the shifters are picky and some like being independent or never find a human they like enough to bond with. There are rivalries between humans over who is the best fighter and who has the right to claim a shifter, as well as the usual love and jealousy and incompatible personalities. Nearby countries which have no shifters see their military usefulness and try to kidnap them. And the characters have lots of internal conflicts about ethical use of force, commitment, how to deal with being bullied, whether to give in to peer pressure to be normal or follow their hearts and instincts, how to protect loved ones, and many other things.
So, does anyone think this is an interesting setting? Any serious writers or artists interested in collaborating to create some characters and plot?