Once There Were Four Travelers
...And their names were
Maura
Jonah
Justin
and
Xyranthes.
Game Background
... and once there were four friends: Claire, Mark, Mark, and Peter, and they decided to cashier all dice and dungeons and skeletons to fight and to make up their own role-playing game that emphasized story and character. So like novelists collaborating, they started emailing and holding live sessions and the result, still in progress, is the story begun below. Mark One (character Jonah) became the Game Master, and I (Maura) the creative consultant of sorts. We have had a lot of fun, which was the point from the start and ever shall be...
Enter the World
Story Background:
Like Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy of C.S. Lewis' Narnia fame, these four people woke up from their lives and worlds one day and found themselves in another place. Another time. With another quest to perform.
Jonah had had a twin sister--Maura, Jonah, and Justin a friend--and she had disappeared without trace. In that world, twins were regarded as an abomination: if found, Crystal would have at most a few days before being sacrificed for the good of the world...
Meet Our Alter Egos
Maura
Maura's original home was an ocean planet I invented and placed in the Star Trek universe: part of an amphibious culture, Maura could not live long without water and, if possible, brine.
Before she came to the World of the Quest, Maura's name had been Yroli E and had been taken aboard another invention, the starship Atlantis. She visited Vulcan for a time, found it too dry, and came to Earth to enter Starfleet Academy and take her position as Science Officer aboard another starship. A space "anomaly" destroyed the ship and pulled her from that universe to the World of the Quest...
{Aside: I have always noticed that magic and technology in fiction do not often mix. To flout this convention, I made Maura's people adept in magic but less so in technology. The reason she--then Yroli E--left the ocean planet at all was that her race was all but destroyed when they attempted space travel by magic.}
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Jonah
The bright young man Jonah is unfortunately crippled and therefore has taken to riding on a fighting drake (small dragon). Jonah is simply the latest incarnation of a forever reincarnating being named, for convenience, Kickback.
Kickback has been, or will be, captain of the Atlantis (see Maura), a Jedi knight, a galactic Hitchhiker, a Transformer, a superhero, and a rock and roll star, among other things. While he was an American Resistance fighter in an alternate historical timeline (the Nazis having won World War II), he met Justin...
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Justin
Justin, as you will by now have guessed, was also an American Resistance fighter in that same historical alternative before being transported through an experimental piece of technology to the World of the Quest.
A stalwart warrior and unflappable (not to say taciturn), Justin is a good solid friend and one you want to have around. Coming from a world entirely without magic, Justin has been amazed (with a little help from Maura and Xyranthes) to actually manage some simple magic.
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Xyranthes
An elderly and quirky old human, Xyranthes was king of the elf land Aelia before being transported to the World of the Quest. Now he has carved a niche for himself as a toymaker and, to his friends, dispenser of wisdom and magic.
His magic ranges from the funny (making bumblebees large enough to ride on) to the awesome (fire and blood magic with which he once saves Maura's life...)
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More about Jonah, Justin, and Xyranthes
Since these characters are not under my jurisdiction, I will not say any more about them but will direct you to Mark Becker's homepage
Wildspace
where there are other descriptions, especially as regards Jonah and his myriad incarnations. (Especially funny is his list of last words...) Also included is an introduction similar to mine (but longer) of the way our characters reached the World of the Quest.
I also include links to
Mark Swenson's web page
and
Peter Ross's,
where you might find additional information if you are so inclined, but I cannot guarantee it...)
More about Maura
Maura, in fact, was not even a character before she was called Yroli E. Yroli E, being of a race where creatures live to 1000 earth-years and beyond, changed her name twice during her long life: once when she entered Starfleet Academy (Elena Maru) and once when she was transported to the World of the Quest (Maura.)
That part of the story was played out between Mark Becker and myself and is recorded almost word-for-word on Mark's web page.
Maura's Full Story
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