February 2016 – totallyculture

I thought I’d talk about how I came up with the story…

Quite a few years ago, I would say late-2012, I came up with an idea that circulated with some people I knew that developed into what is now The Rising of The Elements. This initial idea was called ‘Occulta’ and was set in a school called The Occulta School for Driven Children.

I wasn’t too fond of the whole ‘school’ thing, feeling it had been done before (Harry Potter). I had character names and plot lines that I was really fond of so I carried them over to TROTE. The school even had a motto:

“Oblivisci oblitus peccata, memento contritum promissa.” (School motto) – Forget forgotten sins, remember broken promises.

Later on, after I completed my GCSE’s and prior to the start of my A-Levels, I developed the Occulta story into what is now TROTE. The theme was still the same – an element was designated to each student/TROTE has elements chosen/given to the characters because of a genetic mutation. Characters were carried over also, here’s a list of the Occulta characters (complete with pronunciation):

Clause Victus Bellator (kl-or-s vik-tus bell-a-ta) *

Ange Eliza Valora Perdu (ange ell-i-zah vall-or-a pur-doo)

Owen Osborn (oh-wen oz-born)

Dea Forma Allstrong (dee-ah form-ah al-strong) *

June Yvette Allstrong (june í-vétte al-strong)

Rory Rubra Testevita (roar-ee rue-bra test-é-víta)

Vana Luctus (var-ná luck-tuss) *

Ros Aura Casus (rozz or-ah cass-uss) *

Dexter Isaac (deck-stir eye-zak)

For those aware of the characters in my upcoming book, quite a few of these are carried over, some with complete name changes but still remaining the same characteristics I had defined their previous namesake with. To be specific (no spoilers) –

Clause Victus Bellator (Occulta) became Claude Bellator (TROTE)

Ange Eliza Valora Perdu (Occulta) became Ange Bellator (TROTE)

Dea Forma Allstrong (Occulta) became Deatra Allstrong (TROTE)

Owen Osborn (Occulta) became Oscar Perry-Evans (TROTE)

Dexter Isaac (Occulta) became Isaac Williams (TROTE)

The story of Occulta is pretty much the same as TROTE, however, as mentioned before, I found the school setting quite repetitive because there wasn’t much of an opportunity to ‘explore’. In the Occulta story, I had some teachers who also went on to become part of the TROTE’s Uprising gang:

Phoebe Fortila became Phoebe Taylor

Jose Clark Testevita became Clark Liu

Marek Casus became Marek Reeves.

That’s all I can really say.

Thanks for reading!

Late night antics lead to bizarre ‘Hunger Games simulators’…

So, after spending a bit too much time on Pottermore on a cold winter night (30th January, to be precise), I stumbled upon a Hunger Games simulator by BrantSteele, the confusion continued as I went through a ‘simulation’ with the original Hunger Games characters (Jason (who?) ‘won’, by the way). As morbid as it seemed, I decided it would be a ~~stupid~~ good idea to add some of my favourite celebrities in and see how they’d do in The Hunger Games. Spoilers – I got even more confused about what was happening as the ‘games’ continued. I had no idea what was going on and what I was doing but I think I might have the final gist, a few days after playing.

Warning, it’s a bit bizarre, and… this didn’t actually happen. I swear, Margot Robbie has not participated in The Hunger Games.

I added in my favourite people in the ‘reaping’.