Knucklehead

[Jeronimus]

RELEVANT INFORMATION
An ancient prophecy says that someone, born on the eve of the first full moon of the new year, will cause the kingdom's demise. To prevent this, the king's troupes all march out on that night, to kill all the newborns. This process has been going on for several years, "for the greater good", so to speak.

PLOT, so far
When one night, the soldiers of the kingdom set out on their duty again, we meet with Arthur and Maryan, a poor couple in a small mountain town. She's just given birth to a son - a potential threat if the prophecy is to believed.
In fear of her child being murdered, she sends Arthur into the mountains. Barely in time, as the soldiers are already knocking at her door. A wild chase through the mountains ensues, but in the end he manages to shake them off.
Seeking shelter for the night, he enters a cave, only to be confronted with a curiously gleaming crystal. Before he is capable of examining it closer, however, he is knocked off his feet. He drops his child, the little one tumbling down the hillside in a series of unlikely lucky events. The little one survives with nothing more than a bump on the head.
It is then that a young soldier finds the child and takes him along to the army camp where he is stationed. He raises the child as a son, and names him... Aluxes.

Aluxes the knuckle-headed grows up in the army camp, under the custody of, now colonel, Maxwell Shaw. This man has a son of his own, the clever Basil. He cannot lie to Aluxes for his entire life, though, and is forced to tell him the truth.
That very same day, Aluxes and Basil have the task of guarding the army camp and a semi-important McGuffin that is kept there. But while the troups are on patrol, Aluxes neglects his orders and journeys into the mountains, to find out what really happened all those years ago. His friend Basil, of course, follows.

They end up in the same cave where ages ago his father passed too, and find the very same crystal. It seems like a person is trapped inside. Aluxes is mesmerized by it, and with the idea in mind that it might contain his father, he shatters the crystal. His idea was of course completely ridiculous - a bizarre creature resides in the crystal and after muttering a few words, it vanishes.

The two youngins are suddenly reminded of their guard duty. They return, but lo and behold, what does their eye spy? In the distance, the fires of the army camp are lit. They rush back. As they arrive, they realise that the semi-important McGuffin has been nicked from the camp. They draw their conclusions: this attack was courtesy of the Righteous Resistance.
To make up for their foolishness, they promise to recover the plot item and set out in search of the rebels' base.

PROGRESSION OF THE STORY
(This is where my ideas get sort of muddy and the plot progression is not as clear as what I've put above.)

Eventually the duo arrives at the rebel base, where they are faced with two hot-tempered scoundrels named Felix and Dorothy. These rebels have managed to also abduct an elite warrior of the kingdom, Cyrus. They'd like to torture him for information, but it has no use.
Cyrus escapes. We see his brute force, but he does not free Aluxes and Basil. Dorothy questions the two remaining heroes about who they are. They both say that they are Colonel Shaw's son, but she does not believe the two are brothers. She forces the truth out of Aluxes, and continues to reveal that she too once lived in his hometown.
When she tell him about the kingdom's so-called "Prophecy Policy", she manages to convince him of her right. They make an agreement, that they will travel to the castle, in the idea that they can somehow arrange an audience with the king.

Later, they will meet Gloria, a cleric of the church of Scyon Maghenta, the High Cleric of the Kingdom. She too, wishes to join them on their journey to the Capital. A young witch, Hilda, gets wrapped up in their adventures. She too wishes to go to the Capital, as it allegedly has one of the largest libraries in the world, and her quest for more knowledge is all to her.
Eventually, everyone is thrown into jail for treason and dirty secrets about the kingdom are revealed. Are the rebels right? Is the Prophecy Policy a load of hogwash? Is King Baltimore a vicious tyrant? And is Scyon Maghenta as pure and pious as he would have all his followers believe?

MORE STORY AND SUCH
In no particular order, a couple of elements I'd like to weave into the plot, but that are too spoilery and I'm not sure of where I'd reveal these secrets.

Spoiler: THE VILLAIN

- The Prophecy, so it was discovered, also applied to the Crown Prince. As the King feared above all the demise of his Kingdom, he charged the Council with finding a solution. He wished not to kill his son, and so he was locked in a crystal, deep in a cave, on top of a high mountain. (A crystal like so could be created in places where ley lines crossed/magical energy is released)
However, this is not an entirely safe process - exposure to magic in such an unstable spot affects the person who's locked up. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem as it's a safe prison, but when the monster is released, this means grave danger. And, Aluxes has released the Prince, who means business and intends revenge.
He seeks to release all other victims of similar imprisonment. Cue a bunch of mini-bosses who are all vicious criminals and a squad of mutated evil-doers.

An added twist would be the involvement of high cleric Maghenta into this plot - that he knew what locking people up in a crystal would do to them, and that it was a depraved experiment that he wished to try out.
It's obvious that the prophecy is self-fulfilling. As usual.

There's plenty more "ideas" roaming around in my head, but these are the most relevant and the ones that are, the most fleshed out. Obviously there are still numerous holes in the logical progression, the characters don't join at the right moments, but these are the things I'd like to get figured out.
There's a couple of puzzles and mini-games in my head for several moments and a serious of hilarious scenes (e.g. a sneaking game in the shape of a waltz scene at a ball in the palace)

THE GAME'S CONCEPTION, EVOLUTION, AND SO ON
I first thought of this game a couple of years ago. Back then, I was eyeing the XP RTP, and trying to figure out what kind of interesting story could be told with these characters. I didn't shy away from cliché's in the initial version, and intended to use none other than the RTP graphics. I soon realised that, to make my story interesting and have it play out the way I want it to, I'd need a lot more than the rubbish the RTP could offer me. Still, the intent is to place Aluxes and his friends in an interesting story, as I feel like they deserve one. Then again, if I'm too far away from my original idea (both a slightly silly parody as an attempt at putting the RTP to good use), I may find myself necessary to alter my characters anyway. That and the fact that the RTP is butt ugly of course, but that's an unfortunate side effect. I'll see how the story develops from this point and how I treat it.

My purpose for the moment is to get the story figured out before anything else. It currently seems the most important to me, so if there are comments, suggestions, ideas or anything of the like that come to mind, they are most welcome.

 

[Jeronimus]

Okay. Here are some thoughts on characters and their potential motivations within the story. I may still change this entirely, it is just me trying to find a story to fit these characters into - comments, as negative as they may be, are welcome.

Spoiler: The PARTY

ALUXES starts out the game with a relatively clear goal in mind: he wants to find out more about his past, he wants to find out what caused his parents to abandon him. Along the way, he finds out more and more, but he really wants to know the truth. He is joined by a band of characters who see him as their leader. His major character flaw is that he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, to be honest, he's an idiot. He usually gets by purely on good luck - he just happens to make the lucky guess. Basically, he just doesn't think straight and acts on impulse.
This is something that he will try to overcome. People put their trust in him, because they believe in the good in him. When he finally learns to take responsibility for his actions, his true leadership abilities become apparent.
(see tropes: Idiot Hero, (kind of) Messiah Creep, etc.)

BASIL really doesn't have a choice. His adopted brother wants to do dangerous things - what else is there for him to do but to follow him? He supports him through thin and through thick, but is ever so slightly jealous of the attention Aluxes gets, even though he won't speak out. The big dillemma he is faced with is choosing his father's side, or choosing his "brother"/best friend's side after finding out the truth.
(For a brief moment, it seems as if he has betrayed the party, while in reality he is trying to explain things to his father who is still unaware of the situation.)

HILDA has one great goal and that is to attain more knowledge! Actually, this little witch knows a lot more than what she's capable of, but she tags along with the group because she wants to travel to the Capital to visit the Great Library. She's obviously "the smart guy".
She is more than she seems; she even used to be the apprentice to Umbria, the Wickedest of all Wicked Witches (which is only a name, really, she's a lovely person if you look past the warts)

GLORIA is the "chick". Her initial goal and reason to join the group is because she wants to go to the Capital as well. If the team will receive an audience with the king, she would like one with Scyon Maghenta. Her faith will be tested as she learns the truth about Maghenta's ulterior motives. She has to decide if she will shut up, for the greater good; if people are happy, why reveal the lies just to shake things up? But can she support the religion if she knows it is phony?

CYRUS is the "big guy", in that he's a large man who's very strong. He is actually very calm, but he doesn't like to be messed with. He is initially on the side of the Kingdom, and escapes from the rebel base. His goal is to defend the kingdom, but when he hears the truth, he goes through somewhat of a crisis, like most characters. He has always been on the side that he thought was right, but he just doesn't know anymore. It is Dorothy who manages to convince him to come along with them - she makes clear that, even if you've been wrong, it's never too late to make a right turn.

DOROTHY is, in a way, a "big girl" as well, but she's quite cunning and not at all stupid. She's lucky to have her looks on her side, and uses them to her advantage - even though she'd like to be seen as more than just the woman. She's quite able at sneaking, and setting up traps, and she doesn't mind ripping people off.
She knows how to tell a story and how to convince people, she is what one would call a "strong personality".
Her goal is to unmask the kingdom and reveal their lies. She trusts Aluxes and Basil and accepts the shaky alliance, the agreement to travel to the Capital with them and arrange an audience (which is a silly idea, of course)

FELIX believes he's right and everyone else is wrong. He's usually wrong. He doesn't know when to shut up. He is a loud-mouthed violent gun-slinging thug who is a lot less brave than he pretends to be.

ESTELLE is the character I know least what to do with. I'm trying to picture her as some sort of bad-ass amazon, but she might just be the silent one who stays awake during the night, who has the amazing eyes and who does all the typical elf work.

Spoiler: the SIDE CHARACTERS

COLONEL MAXWELL SHAW is another one of the Kingdom's dedicated armymen who gets a big shock when he discovered that both of his "boys" (Aluxes and Basil) have "joined forces" with the enemy. However he does not want to let his emotions get the better of him, when he is face to face with his leaders, he does not want to seem like a weakling in front of his "employers" so to speak.

SCYON MAGHENTA is the High Cleric of the Kingdom. He is considered "the one who saved us from the darkness by showing us the light". He literally defeated a fearsome enemy in the past, showing great power.
Because everyone sees him as the Savior, he is quite arrogant and he thinks of himself as the most powerful person in the entire Kingdom. He cannot do any wrong, and his reputation allows him to do whatever he pleases, however his actions aren't always as benevolent as his followers would believe he is.

Ultimately, the overall theme seems to be the struggle to accept that no one was ever on the right side, the journey to finding out the truth, towards enlightenment and to learn from past mistakes, to decide whether ignorance is bliss and, well, ultimately, saving the world of course.
Clearly these characters aren't fleshed out enough, but they're ideas of where I might like to take them within the story.