Dreams of the Quill

The Hunter Chronicles began in the year of 2000 with a small stab at writing a story. At the time, I was heavily influenced by Final Fantasy games, to the point of blatant plagiarism. However, as I moved on, I wrote a bit over the year, slowly erasing traces of pollution. Meaning, erasing traces of other people’s intellectual property.

It began as a story called the Crystals of Mana. It was about a kid called Mana who had been dumped in the middle of a misty continent with no firm memory of his true past. In this place, he begins searching for mystical objects known as ‘The Crystals’, which he (as a member of the Mana line) is destined to be a Guardian of.

I never got very far with that. I wrote about seven chapters out by hand, got too lazy to type them all up, and then stopped writing. Then came 2001. I went to a writer’s camp, a small group over summer that helps youths with their writing abilities. There I began converting what I’d written into what I saw as an epic poem. An article that mentions the matter briefly (and contains one of my eleven year old poems) can be found here.

I abandoned the writing for a while, struggling around with too many ideas at once. I got together with a friend from school once and we pooled our ideas. Some of his remain in HC forever, many have been abandoned. In 2003, I joined the Warcraft 3 forums during my parents’ divorce. Around that time, my brother David was here in Berkeley. I think it was around then that I began watching Naruto (ninja anime) with him.

He once asked me if I’d ever thought of an anime I’d like to create. I thought about it for a while, and then decided, that’s it!

In my imagination of the Crystals of Mana world, there’d been one character I liked a lot more than the others -even more than charismatic, beautiful Mana. His self-given name was Gem in honor of his great grandfather, and he was a thief, a fighter, and a mercenary. This was back when I believed ‘mercenary’ meant you had a ‘different skillset’. I tell you, games hurt me.

He’d been my favorite of my characters, because he popped up again and again, offered some service, slew some beast, you name it- and then teleported out. I liked him. He was the treasure hunter I’d loved Locke from Final Fantasy 6 for being, he was the nonchalant coolguy I loved Kakashi from Naruto for being, and, having now seen AIR, I see now why I like Yukito- he reminds me of Gem.

I decided I’d make an anime show. An anime show focusing on this mysterious Gem character.

So what did I do? I changed a lot of things. Wrote the first chapter of what would become The Hunter Chronicles in script format. It started so:

“headon mid-length shot of green-haired boy running…“

After a week or so I abandoned this, along with most my ideas- I’m really bad at doing things in general. However, I still loved Gem. So I took him, changed everything I needed to, made him mine. All mine. *snarf* Now, revamped, original, and just as badass, Gem returned to the page. I began writing a seven chapter introduction leading up to what I now called The Crystals of Mana.

The entire story of events happening in this world is The Hunter Chronicles, composed of several parts. The first, this seven part intro. Then, the second version of The Crystals of Mana (recently completed). Work on the second book (Maha’s Legacy) will commence soon.

On the War3forums, I began posting The Hunter Chronicles, where it got some critique and a lot of positive comments. It came to have its own acronym, given to it by its readers. HC.

And since, it’s evolved even further- it’s in an editing period now, as I pick through it and try to change everything for the better. And that is the long-winded, blown-out, and most likely boring history of HC.

History Edited July 9th 2006
Since the original writing of this page, many things have happened to HC.

For one, it entered a several-month stasis period where I didn’t do any writing or editing, and the Crystals of Mana pages haven’t been updated since what, March 2006? Then, some time in May, I realized that no amount of editing would transform the current HC into what I wanted it to be. There was no sum of small changes that could turn a 1999-2004 work into what I expect of myself in 2006. Thus began HCR- the Hunter Chronicles Reconstruction project. As a forerunner to a complete reworking of the story, I opened discussion on the forums in order to solidify the world in which the story is set.

Since, I’ve done a bit of fresh writing, and like the direction in which things are going.

Comments on this?
In the past, I never had comments open on this. I found it kind of unprofessional and whore-like. On a whim, I’ll leave them open. I doubt anyone will have anything to say here, but that’s all very well.