Underfoot short story contest

[Drasha]

The Underfoot is a little know region of Newerth spanning a massive distance from the roots of Caldavar to caverns of the Iron Mountains. The chiprel able to breed and flourish alone underground now fight enemies from every side and have used their unmatched reproductive ability to evolve and gain intelligence in a draw droppingly short amount of time. Forced from their hunting grounds by the scar's quakes the many legged worms of the Under Dune feed on chiprel. To the south a ancient vault of man was split open allowing clockwork horrors access the great tunnel which they are attempting to modify with cogs and gears. After the chiprel sent aid to the beast horde to assist against the hellbourne the scar began to hum with the scuttling of thousands of insects who quickly took control of cast swaths of the Underfoot. Now the battle lines are drawn armies are born and die atop the bridges crossing the whispering water and a secret war is fought under the feet of the legion.

Rules

*multiple entries are acceptable
*No longer then 1200 words
*No fewer then 0 Words
*Must fit into HoN lore
*Must take place in the Underfoot Region (any where on the map)
*Must include [Under1] in thread title
*Must be a separate thread in the lore section
*Please post a link to the entry in this thread
*Entry must be submitted before November 22nd
If you have any questions about the contest or Underfoot please use this thread to discus them.


Under Knoll: this area of underground tunnels is filled with plant life and is still held fiercely by the chiprel. It expands north until the forest of caldavar meets the tundra and its tunnel networks allow the chiprel to be seen in almost any area of newerth. Though chiprels are pathetically weak alone and have often thought to have been made extinct on the surface the underground home allowed them to quickly repopulate and return to the surface world.

Great Tunnel: A massive smooth stone tunnel system that span across newerth. These tunnels are the fastest way to move long distances and provide the only safe way to cross the whispering water underground. The many metal bars that run along the floor of the tunnel system have baffled chiprel scientists though they are believed to be the droppings of some massive long dead wurm that carved the tunnel.

Whispering Water: an underground lake with many rivers running from it. Creatures stay away from it and even the hellbourne will not cross over or under the water unless they are in the great tunnel.

Terror Web: An undergound den of insects the most notable being tremble though many of are of a lesser size. Their numbers rival the chiprels how ever they have not yet been able to push past the crossing points of the great tunnel to invade the chiprels land and are held at bay.

Under Dune: the massive sand fields of the planes extend far underground where great worms like geomancer dwell. They often venture into the Under Knoll to feed on chiprel though with their adoption into the hellbourne's ranks they more often venture out only to decimate chiprel dwellings.

Clicking Halls: Clicking, beeping, and flashing tiny clock work robots mimicking an assortment of shapes from behemoths to strange four legged creatures with long tails and pointed ears. They are not aggressive unless attacked but they constantly march north in the great tunnel ripping up chiprel villages and putting strange devices of their own design in their place. They are little threat to the chiprels but with their resources stretched they have to slowly give ground in the great tunnel to these tiny monsters. On occasion a massive mechanical worm comes from the depths of the clicking halls roaring down the hall it rips up any thing in its path until finally halted by a swarm of chiprel.

[[Yosh]CKMo]

submit before june 1st? impossibru! unless you mean next year...

reserving this spot in case i feel up to it

[[FUR]kerespup]

whew, still got time yay

[Drasha]

I am actually going to push it back until November so people have plenty of time.

[[FUR]kerespup]

Thanks @_@ Got Prefinals and Finals the following weeks

[Dazius]

I've been noticing these "regional" story contests lately, any chance they're some kind of preparative background story for new "future" maps?

[Drasha]

Not even a tiny chance. Though it would be a lot of fun to make some maps based of the locations.

[Dazius]

awww man, well are you gonna make a compilation of backstory's and place it somewhere to read? I figure It'd be fun to read about HoN's lore when its all neat and archived.

Also It would be great if you could throw in a "world" map divided into these regional sub-maps, by the way I've been wondering whats is the whole continent called? xD

[Drasha]

I am not planning on doing hero back stories as I am more interested in places at the moment. Strider has a beautiful map in this thread and I post a rough version of my map later on in the thread. I haven't really though of a name for the super content I suppose I would just refer to the whole thing as newerth.

[Dazius]

WOW, that map really is beautiful, cool, but anyway I meant the region backstories, is there somewhere where you archive them all?

[Drasha]

All of the ones I have done so far are stickyed in this section.

[Arathorn]

Can I name the characters of the story I am going to write? I mean not just their names from the games but actual names.

[Drasha]

Go for it.

[Drasha]

If any one is interested I am placing pearls alt avatars shields origin as near / related to the whispering waters of under foot.

"Deep within the Iron Mountains the dwarves toil day and night extracting the riches from the earth. Occasionally when seeking the metals and gems buried in the mountains the dwarves stumble upon on other, hidden things. Such is the case with the Aegis. The ancient shield of the first King of Hell was found in one of the deep tunnels and the first dwarves who touched it were asphyxiated by its evil. A great alchemist warded a charm through the use of her own blood to protect another from its evil. Her own son must take the unholy burden to the deepest point in the ocean and drop it in in order for it to be destroyed. While waiting for a ship to sail, the adventurous dwarf has decided to bring its power to bear against the demons that forged it as Brann, The Shieldbearer."

Only adjustments I am making to the as it lore is hes a builder because dwarves don't exist and while they believe it is from hell it is actually a shard of the sleeper (cthuluth like being)

[[GM]Locke16k]

Hey man great thread. I read only the new posts but today I stumbled upon this. I love reading and just started writing as a side project. I have a two part lest say not so short story about 2 of the ingame heroes ( not gonna say who ). The story is called Revenge of the Fallen divided in Part 1 - The cursed sun and Part 2 - Defile me in death. Now the first part has about 3000 words and the socond part I think it will have even more (I already got like 2000 words written and the ideeas keep coming). I read that you don't do heroes backgroud just yet and are more interested in locations. Anyway if you need some of my work just tell me.

[[GM]Ekantar]

Since I adore writing and I have time to spare, I'll see if I can make some things work for this. Will post a link once a finish at least a story or two. On a side note, Brann makes more sense in the Iron Mountains region to me, but Shadian (Aside from the village aspect, I don't know if they would be there) would make a lot of sense, given a lake that even the Hellbourne avoid while his powers are bubble and thus by extension water based. With permission, I would write Shadian in there rather than Brann.

[Drasha]

Ekantar this is an underground map the clicking halls are essentially under the start of the iron mountain range. Brann as a builder would of course be from the iron mountains and its likely he traveled underground and possibly obtained the shield is some deep recess near the lake. I wouldn't consider Shadian connected with the whispering water as i associate it more with the old gods. Of course if you can make it fit you are free to write what ever you would like I take quite a few liberties to make some of the lore fit with my idea of the lore so my opinion is hardly strictly cannon.

[[GM]Ekantar]

That would explain some, yet the clicking halls, to me, is an area of machines and the like.

On occasion a massive mechanical worm comes from the depths of the clicking halls roaring down the hall it rips up any thing in its path until finally halted by a swarm of chiprel.

This part in particular makes me think Brann wouldn't simply march his way through. It would be possible, but I doubt he would take the main body of the clicking halls as there is far too much "terror" there. As I read the description, the machines are no threat to the Chiprel, simply because they don't often head that way. But the Dwarves have a similar purpose, digging. As such, there might be a war between the two even. That was the main reason for putting Shadian there, his power doesn't seem that holy or pure, it seems murky, dark and indeed a pact with older ones. Of course, we both have our own views on this and neither is more right or wrong until there is a canon bit of lore for it.

...This has given me a much needed impulse of inspiration, time to get writing once again.