The Wyld Hunt

The Wyld Hunt was one of many post-Old Multiverse series concepts that sort of uniquely evolved through the background of several other setting and series concepts. Many of these characters were either background characters in the supernatural side of various hero settings, or were intended to be the "magic-themed" members of various teams. At some point, they just sort of developed their own continuity independent of whatever other hero stuff was going on, and I realized that didn't really fit in a standard superhero universe.

Ergo, this sort of became my first dedicated urban fantasy/modern fantasy type world, with no connection to a superhero universe proper. Although, rechecking these notes, I see that I still had them be tangentially related to an version of Tabitha Cain universe, which sort of still fits, given that at the time , given there were a couple figures in the Wyld Hunt lore that were part of the Tabitha Cain stories at the time. Eventually, however, I realized I didn't actually want to write a bunch of tedious "monster of the week" short stories, so, like most of my series concepts, this never really got off the ground.

I did, however, use several of these characters in co-writes and forum RPGs, so I can at least say some of these guys got some actual mileage in the written word, unlike a lot of characters I made concepts for, but ended up never using.


BACKSTORY

In the two thousand years since Tabitha Cain forced the Elder Gods to remove much of their influence, as well as most of their creations, from Earth, humanity has moved on. Technology brought power to the masses and the horrible creatures of the night were driven back by increasingly deadlier weapons.  Magic was left behind due its difficult and often impractical learning curve. By the time the later 1800s rolled around, the only authentic practitioners of magic were those who were innately born with magical talent or empowered by accident, and monsters had become virtually extinct. Humanity was on the fast track to a bright future ahead of them, with science as their new beacon. Soon enough, by the mid 1900s, people practically dismissed the supernatural as little more than an archaic notion.

This, however, suited the monsters and mages of the world just fine. Humanity was letting its guard down. Their technology was making them soft and lazy, easy pickings. And though they spread like wildfire across the world, there were always nooks and crannies in which the predatory forces of the supernatural could hide. Some simply tucked themselves away in dark allies and sewers or in the increasingly shrinking wilds. Others insinuated themselves into human society, hiding in plain site.

Thankfully, those with ill intent were not the only ones who retained their supernatural power. Over the decades, empowered champions and defenders rise to protect humanity from the shadows they have forgotten to fear.

Elemental Keys, Series Overview

The Elemental Keys was one of the first major post-Old Multiverse series I did, the concept starting back when I first got into college. Along with series ideas like the Intrepid, the Dream Wars, and Galea, this was one of many attempts to “start fresh”, and build up series set in self-contained worlds, independent of what had come before. Ironically, this was also one of the earlier examples of the cascade effect of characters and concepts from previous stories being brought in and retooled. Initially, I had the idea for the E-Keys as just the artifacts, but lacking series to use them in, I combined some characters and concepts from earlier works to flesh the concept out as a series unto itself.

Elemental Keys Redux #04 opening scenes

Episode Four: “Metallic Vibe”

1.

Gene Ferris yawned as the day dawned once more.  He looked over to the other side of his bed and blanched.  That blasted witch was walking through his house again.  The hag waved pleasantly as she picked her teeth with a long thumbnail.  “Mornin’ boya,” she said, rummaging through his underwear drawer.

“Would you go away?!” said Gene, pointing at the door and giving the witch a stern look.  “For the last time, I do not possess ‘items of empowerment’ in my frieakin’ boxers!”  The witch blinked, looked at the door, then at Gene, then gave a grunt of a laugh.  Gene sighed and got dressed, snatching his clothes off the floor.  Ever since the witch hag had moved into the apartment next door, there was no getting rid of her.  She could just walk through any door she chose and for whatever reason seemed intent on finding something of important value in Gene’s dresser drawers.

“Just make sure you lock the front door this time,” shouted Gene as he grabbed a banana before heading off the work.

“Yeah, yeah,” said the witch.  Gene shook his head and strode out of the apartment complex.  No one believed him when he said a witch lived next door.  For some reason, no one else seemed to see her as she was.  Everyone else just thought she was a slightly eccentric old lady.  That she had glowing blue eyes, a silver claw on each thumb and hair that waved around like albino snakes didn’t seem to register.  She had perhaps cast a spell to hide herself from everyone else.  Gene wondered why he was the only one who could see past it.

Elemental Keys Redux #03

Episode Three: “Electric Slide”

1.

“So I found out something pretty interesting,” said Sarah.  She and Mandi were at Mandi’s place again.  Two weeks of dating and they were already crashing at one another’s places regularly.

“What’s that?” asked Mandi.

“Some of my friends on the CCPD have been talking about one of their own suddenly becoming some kind of super-cop,” said Sarah.  She sipped from her coffee and gave Mandi an inquisitive look.

“Super-cop, huh?” said Mandi.  “Like how?”

“They say he can practically dodge bullets, run faster than a car… they say he can fire lightning bolts,” Sarha said.  “Sounds like we’ve got another Key-Bearer popping up.”

“Think we should check up on him?” said Mandi.  “Do you know who it is?”

“Well, no one’s named names, everyone’s actually supposed to keep it a secret,” said Sarah.  “But the friends of mine like to gossip a bit.”

“I see,” said Mandi.  She thought for a moment.  “Should we look into this?  At least get to know this guy… see if he’s the real deal.”

“What else could he be?” said Sarah.

Mandi shrugged.  “Its possible he’s a demon in disguise.  You have nearly the same powers as that fire beast we fought when we met, you know.”

Elemental Keys Redux #02

Episode Two: “Fire Salsa”

1.

Mandi wondered how long she could keep this up.  She also wondered if it mattered; if the blaze surrounding her has already destroyed too much of the building she was in, it wouldn’t matter how quickly she beat down her enemy.  Her incredible strength would not protect her from open flame, even if she could smash her fist straight through a person’s chest… or a demons.

Such a demon, the souce of this fire in fact, was circling her warily.  The creature was tall and lithe, with blacked skin.  Glowing orange viens crawled across its apparently nude form, giving it the impression of living black rock, etched with lines of lava.  The creature’s blazing orange eyes narrowed and Mandi and she circled in return.  Her aura and dust and sand whirled around her, but it wasn’t as strong as when she had started the fight.

Fifteen minutes ago, Mandi had just happened to see the creature break its way into the back door of this old apartment building.  What it was after was a mystery; it seemed to be searching for something, but after a few moments, it began to wildly claw at the surrounding walls, setting fire to whatever it touched.  As soon as people began to poor out into the hall to escape the blaze, it began to chase them, burning them with its fingers.  The people it chased didn’t seem to see it, or if they did, all they saw was a swell of flame.  Only Mandi seemed to notice that the true form of the demon; she still couldn’t get over the fact that she was only one of a handful that could actually see them as they were.  She was, in fact, the only person she knew who could.  And while this made it easier to keep people from panicking about monsters living in their midst, it made it harder to protect them from dangers they couldn’t recognize.

Elemental Keys Redux #01

Episode One: “Earth Blues”

1.

Spring was a time of summer bloom and the start of romance.  New sports seasons, outdoors activities, the shedding of coats and the melting of snow.  It was a rejuvinating season for many, especially if one was young.  Mandi wasn’t much in the mood for excitement these days, though.

As the tall, fair skinned woman walked home, her long blond hair waving in the breeze, she sighed wistfully.  Time was, not even five years ago, she’d be like those kids in the park she was passing; hanging out with friends, throwing frisbees, waklign a dog, doing something to enjoy the weather.  It didn’t matter these days, though.  She was a working girl now, having graduated last Spring with an Geology major.  What did she have to show for it?  She was a librarian.  Whoopity-hoo.  Despite applying for multiple lab assistant positions and even some museum posts, she had nothing.  There just weren’t enough jobs that had anything to do with her field, and the positions that had been open had been filled up by more qualified people.  Or at least people that seemed more qaulified.

Mandi shook her head, dispensing any negative thoughts.  She was sure the people who got the jobs deserved it.  It was just aggrivating that she had gotten beat out so quickly.  At that point, the only options in her area of specialty were to move out of town and try and get into a university, or become a teacher at the local college.  She didn’t particularly relish either idea.  Still, the librarian gig wasn’t doing anything to fullfill her either.  She’d probably end up being a teacher soon anyway.  Its not that the idea seemed all that bad, its just that she had already been through five years of college to get her degree.  She wasn’t eager to return to the school life.

She stopped her walk to watch some children playing catch with a few of their dogs.  She envied their carefree nature a bit.  She was glad she was an adult; unlike most of her friends in college, she made the transition from childhood angst to adult responsibilty pretty quickly; she had hated being a kid, with all its restrictions.  She had been very eager to grow up, and to that end, had matured quickly, taking on responsibility with astonishing success, and being determined to be an independant woman by the time she was out of college.

Looking back on it now though… she sometimes wondered how much of her youth she might have wasted being a little too uptight.  Now, she was out of college, she had a job that paid well enough, and living on her own.  But now that she had achieved that, there wasn’t much else in her life now.  All her friends had jobs of their own; several already had families.  No one seemed to have time to go out and have fun.  Half of them had to work overtime just to provide for their new families, or were too caught up in the promise of quick promotion and threw themselves into their work.

Dream Wars #01

Just don’t look in its eyes.  You’ll go mad if you look into its eyes.

Jason swallowed hard as he looked upon the shadowy figure below.  It was hard to make out, actually, despite the fact that it’s shadowy form contrasted sharply with the pale concrete below.  Its edges were blurry and the whole thing seemed to ripple as it moved, making it hard to look at.  It had limbs, that much he could see.  But whether it was bipedal or walked on all… however many legs it had, he couldn’t really tell.  From the darkness, two pale yellow dots glowed in a bulge he presumed to be its head.  These orbs whipped to and fro, quickly searching for something.  Jason knew that looking into its eyes wouldn’t actually cause him to go insane… but to lock eyes with a creature like this gave him a sense of horror, a feeling that made his gut drop through the ground and his skin break out in sweat.  He tried not focus on its eyes.  This, of course, was nearly impossible, as its eyes were the only distinct feature on its body; when you looked at it, you couldn’t help but focus on its eyes.

So, rather than look at the creature, Jason took a quick look at his surroundings.  A moment ago, he had been looking over the edge of a rocky cliff, watching the creature wade through a sea of tall green prairie grass.  But the scenery had shifted suddenly.  The drastic, but always spotaneous change of setting was still a bit unsettling to Jason, now that he was aware of it.  It was true, what his new teammates said.  Being an Enlightened Dreamer didn’t make dreams easier to understand; it only mde you more aware of how surreal they were.

Now the area looked like an old rural town, with houses covered in wooden shingles, and roofs made of thatched straw.  The streets were a smooth, pale concrete, though.   The sky was a pale blue; there was no sun, and yet the area was lit up like day.  The alleys were still shaded, but this was mainly indicated by the fact that everything in an alley seemed to be colored darker than everything that was in the open.  It gave the illusion of shading, despite the fact that the light shown equally on everything.

In the streets, in an open area that looked like the town square, people flitted to and fro.  Many were fuzzy and indistinct.  Many hardly had any features at all, but, unlike the creature he was pursuing, Jason could tell they were supposed to be human.  In some cases, the people had distinct faces or clothing if nothing else.  Jason didn’t recognize anyone, but that hardly surprised him.  This wasn’t his dream after all.