Enchanted Before It Became What It Is · 5:19pm Feb 16th, 2019
Seeing as this is highly unlikely to ever be written, I wanted to share what this story was going to be before I changed it. Fairly drastically, I might add.
Obviously, this isn't the first iteration of this story. And if you want to know which draft the live version is, it would be from set 6 out of 9. Now, even before all these versions, this story was drastically different from what you read now.
For starters, Aurick had a completely different name and personality. He might as well have been a different character, but as of late, I've been channeling the old personality into him a bit more. He used to be a man named Leofwin Cantabre. A rather stoic individual that would occasionally let out a joke or two. Though only with close friends. He could be fairly standoffish and was a bit egotistical. The largest difference, however, was that he wasn't an enchanter. He was just a normal mage.
I made this change so that I'd be able to give Aurick a logical stay at home job that he could set his own hours. Mainly because I'm lazy and didn't want to shift scenes because of his schedule.
After that, a large change was Agni. I'm sure you all know her from Aurick's memories, and more importantly as his Ex-Girlfriend from the latest chapter. What if I told you that she was originally intended to be one of the main characters. In fact, she was the love interest.
She was meant to have arrived in Equestria before Aurick/Leofwin, having disappeared during one of their adventures. At this point in the plan, they were only a two man party, so Leofwin took her loss fairly hard. He didn't accept it, however. He knew Agni, and didn't think she would just die like it was implied. He wouldn't accept the fact until he saw a body. So, determined as he was, he pulled in every favor he could and searched for his missing friend.
This would have been the prologue, with the first chapter starting three years later. Leofwin had grown colder over the years, and had pushed away a lot of his other friends in his obsession with finding a woman everyone assumed dead. He was on the verge of giving up, but he had one last idea. I hadn't gotten to plan this part too much before everything changed, but suffice to say, he investigates a rumor and falls into a portal to Equestria.
Confused and fairly annoyed by the sudden transition, he awakes in the Everfree. He quickly makes his way out, the wildlife avoiding him as he moved. Eventually he would come across Ponyville. His confusion would grow as he finds, not people, but small horses walking around and talking. Then, in the distance, he would see a head of familiar red hair round the corner. Not caring about anything else, he quickly rushes through the town to find the source, and when he did, of course, it was Agni.
Instead of happiness, Leofwin would just be angry. This woman he had been searching for for three years was lounging around town with a smile on her face. He'd confront her, they would argue and he would have stormed off somewhere.
After that, I had no real plan. The idea was them rebuilding their relationship and developing a romance, but aside from that, I couldn't think of a plot for it. Eventually I gave up on it and started to shape it to something else. A more traditional HiE, but with some caveats. I initially used Leofwin for it, but eventually found that his personality wasn't conducive to the story I wanted. Eventually, I turned him into the Elf we all know today.
Ashwyn, much like her appearance, is a cobbled together character of other characters I had for other stories. Chief among them was Agni. Who was meant to be a rough and rowdy girl that was always down for a fight. Of course, this hasn't been translated too well into Ashwyn, but that's the fault of her trauma, and the fact that it didn't feel as natural. There's still some characteristics that persisted, but Agni had become a less prominent influence as the story progressed.
Inversely, my primary female OC, Vesper, had gained more influence on Ashwyn as things went on. Vesper was meant to be a young, spunky thestral within the military. She was a woman with many worries and fears, but would cover that up with a cocky facade. In both the stories I had planned for her, she was meant to be the emotional center point. Her role as such was wonderful practice for how Ashwyn would become the same.
Vesper is a character I still plan to use, if I ever feel confidant writing the stories she would have appeared in first. If you want to get a taste of what that would be like, you can find her in Solstice of Souls. It's not very long, or very good, but it shows what I was planning for one of her stories. The other one was a Elder Scrolls inspired world that I haven't released in any form. Eventually, I will write one and get it out to the world, but not today.
Anyways, the final component was Ashwyn's design. I don't remember where, but I saw some fanart that had a similarly designed pony, and I fell in love with it. It was unique to say the least, and I wondered how I would be able to integrate such a character into a romance. Initially, this unnamed character would have cornered a pony in an alleyway and attempted to eat them, only for him to teleport away. The issue was finding a way to make the pony unafraid of her, and have her respect him enough to not just kill him. I also didn't want to just make the guy a guard. Eventually I ended up deciding it would be best to place her in an HiE. As a more violent human would be able to make her respect him, if nothing else.
Then I had the idea to merge the two concepts and I think you all know the rest.
~-~
So that's that then. I'm still, writing the next chapter, but I don't think I'll have the time to get it out today. So it'll probably be postponed until tomorrow.
That's fine looking forward to the next part
When ever I see the word "vesper" I think of when pewdie was doing the happy wheels thing, lol
I for one think it's awesome you have all these ideas flowing around. It's a great story you have now that you've seriously tested it!
And that Elder Scrolls story you mentioned? That also sounds pretty cool. Just don't burn yourself out and good luck writing.