Hero x Hero: Reinterpreted:
The Astaroth Chronicles
Based on the work of William Bashford (Smash_Bash)
Over the course of the last year and a half, during several meet-ups with my friends, I became privy to a project that was being worked on. A Science-Fantasy tale of swords, sorcery and deadly machines, covering over three-thousand years of history within a land floating on clouds in the sky. Naturally I was hooked on the idea immediately and wanted to suggest my own concepts as I heard more and more about this work.
An incomplete story is a malleable canvas for ideas and concepts. These discussions quickly evolved beyond simply listening and reading ideas and presenting my own back to full on stories, both based off of and directly tied to his work. Eventually however; I had so many ideas that I knew that in order to keep them all contained I would have to totally, from the ground up, reimagine his entire narrative.
This reinterpretation, called 'The Astaroth Chronicles' after one of the notable characters from Part One of the Original Concept, aims to both streamline and expand the original concept within my own writing sensibilities, heavily inspired by some of my favourite works that were not inspirations for the original concept. This Nine Part story aims to cover a feature complete narrative with no need for further expansion or sequel stories, not to say that couldn't happen in the future.
Regardless, I am still ironing out ideas and developing new concepts alongside the original author, so what you see here is subject to change. However, I am confident that whatever form this story ends up ultimately, will be rather different from it's original conception.
Interested in the original story or world? You can read about it here: https://www.smashbash.dev/hero-x-hero-overview
The Nine Part Story:
- One-thousand-years before the events of the main narrative, the nations of Tera and Alta are at war. The evil Emperor Sidian, with his powerful ARMOR weapons, threatens the tentative peace. A peacekeeping force, led by Magician Prodigy Helias Rael are all that stands between Sidian and all they care for, if not the entire world...
- One-thousand-years since the calamity, known as the 'ARMOR War' sent the nation of Tera in the sky, the remnants of that conflict are stirring. An ancient evil is the subject of a clandestine conflict that threatens to plunge the world into darkness. One boy stands firm against the rising tide, but what use is but one boy...
- Several months after the liberation of Tera, the worried King Daimon rallies his knights to find his lost daughter, Princess Serena. To find her they must travel to the long-lost land of Alta. An archipelago of scattered islands where the sins of the past are laid bare, still raw and weeping from one-thousand-years ago...
- Meanwhile, in the land of Tera, shadowy forces are brewing, and without their knights, Tera is more vulnerable than ever. It'll take an tentative alliance between former villains and the remaining heroes to shine a light upon the clandestine machinations that lurk just beneath the surface of this newfound peace...
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- Death has descended upon the land of Altera, the villainous Necron having achieved ultimate power, now threatens each and every life on both Tera and Alta. Only by pulling out all the stops, do our heroes stand a chance of surviving the upcoming slaughter. When the light of hope no longer shines, will they be able to see the future once again....
- Flung two-thousand-years in the future, Ruby Kabashima is on the verge of death. Miraculously, he is saved by the advanced technology of this new world but is unable to return home to the past. Left without purpose or meaning, in a world that works nothing like he remembered, he can only believe in himself. If he can...
- One year after the defeat of Necron, an intrepid team of explorers made up of the heroes who saved Altera, investigate newly discovered ruins spanning both Tera and Alta. At it's heart, they discover the entrance to an entirely new world, Meka, a world entirely populated by machines and hostile to all life...
- Everything has changed, and no one quite knows why. Was the world always like this, Ruby Kabashima can't seem to tell. When he encounters a mysterious girl, Alyssa Raine, harbouring the same memory issues he does. They set off to find the truth about the world regardless of whether the answer they find will bring pain or joy...
- With the world finally saved, everything should go back to normal. Yet, after everything that's happened, what even is normalcy anymore. With the land of Altera once more returned to the world below, the isolation they previously cherished has dissolved. What awaits our heroes within this new world...
Credits:
- Original Story, World and Characters: William Bashford (Smash_Bash)
- Additional Story Details and Artwork: Myself