#what I am not proud of is my first version of arcburn

[the-arson-author-gamer]

What's the main character of Arcburn: City of Sins like now? Is her backstory, personality, and design (if you have one lol) any different? Also I could've sworn her name was Diana but apparently it's Cassandra so maybe my mind is being stupid 😭

OH BOY, HERE WE GO! Time to cringe at my past writing myself!

I guess by breaking this down means I'm also going to be revealing spoilers but I don't give a shit I just really enjoy talking about my ideas!

Arcburn has had multiple different changes over the past few years I've been working on it. Currently, it's taking the backseat for Voided Hearts & Wicked Sunflowers to shine, but it's still great to talk about!

The biggest change was actually a giant rework of the entire plot and characters, and of course that consisted of my main character. So in fact, you are right by thinking Cassandra's name was originally Diana because it was originally Diana!

To make this clear, I'm going to differentiate my first version of Arcburn (which is on AO3, but I need to orphan that thing because why the hell would I ever publish that monstrosity) by calling it A1. And my current version of Arcburn by calling it A2.

So in A1, we have Diana Peregrine as my MC.

Whenever I'm creating a character, I typically always have a concept before a name, so I had the concept of Diana in my head and went with a name that both sounded good and made sense. Diana has relations to being considered goddess-like or divine. Looking back, that was not the name I should have picked for symbolism for a more rugged and asshole-ish main-character. The stupid thing that I never thought by giving her a very Greek name was not making her Greek? Which was pretty dumb of me, and something I decide to rectify later on in A2.

A1 had a completely different power system which at this point I have reworked twice over so she had completely different powers to what there is now.

The original power system was very magic based, which is a little weird for a superhero story, but I rework that obviously much later on. But right now this is 2022, and I haven't considered religious symbolism as a concept yet. Nor had I considered how governments actually work, which is prevalent in my writing back then. (goodness why did I ever think half the shit I pulled could have worked?)

So Diana has pyromancy, which as you already know is essentially fire powers, (the Azula allegations never stop) and she was born with this magic like everybody else. But with this power system you could train to use a different magic type, which is what Diana uses to cover up her identity and connections to her parents. Said different power type is telekinesis which she actually is pretty good at, but she trained that power extensively.

Her backstory was so fucking basic: Orphan? Check! Want's revenge? Check! Has Money? Check!

So the orphan thing is because when she was 7, her super villain parents who were trying to expose the evil government got exposed and killed by heroes and she witnessed it. Thereafter she was tossed around the foster system while she tried to mitigate her connections to her parents while stewing about how the government killed her parents. She then gets a bit of an excuse to go apeshit because in an inheritance she is given the start-ups of the plan to expose the heroes and rather than being intelligent about it, she gets a bit trigger-happy and drags her friends into it.

My writing was... something for her. I do enjoy pulling out the sarcastic asshole card for my MC's. Which is pretty generic considering my actual type of favourite characters are much more complex in comparison to asshole with a heart of gold.

Which are, of course, women on a mission of revenge, and it doesn't matter if it destroys her in the process + confidence and sheer skill that are hiding an inferiority complex or sheer fear of losing or death. (Something which I am actually writing about now in Voided Hearts & Wicked Sunflowers, thanks C!Clownpierce for being a little freak)

Her personality in A2 actually hasn't changed toooo much, maybe a bit less of an asshole and more stubborn? It's more obvious to the reader now that she's an ass because of strategy and plans, not because she's "secretly sad". I think she's much more angry and lacks 10x less the morals that Diana has. Which is funny, because A1 Diana is already fucked morally. So the women out for revenge at the destruction of herself type begins to play in more later.

Her actual design at the time looked like this:

(Sorry for the piss poor quality lol, picrew by potatolord)

I did in fact later keep certain design choices like the glasses and short brown hair, but those are pretty basic features in comparison to the final or current product of what my MC is now. Which is one of the more drastic changes since it also ties into the power system (which is still pretty "magical" all things considered, but it feels very different than just slapping a magic label on it).

Also, another thing that I never considered at the time was weaponry, which is a big thing in A2 in comparison to A1. Which is weird for me because I always drag weapons into the equation whenever I am reworking stuff like my TOA AUs from years ago or writing stuff now (pspsps weapon symbolism with scythes). Like Diana had no weaponry? Other than like a dagger, which is fair for like the first chapters, but beyond that it felt like nothing was there.

Really, the entirety of A1 feels so mish-mashed and unplanned in comparison to A2. Like look at this:

These are side-by-sides of my planning for Arcburn Version 1 (left) and Arcburn Version 2 (right). Note that in A2 that isn't even all of my plans on my whiteboard app or in-ellipsus document planning either.

Which gives into starting with my current version, A2, with my MC as Cassandra Peregrine! (I'm considering on changing the name again to Kairos, holy shit).

The noticeable thing I did not change was her last name, which is because:

I liked the name, I thought it sounded cool

Has the obvious bird symbolism for freedom, which multiple other characters have bird-related last names

Peregrine falcons represent freedom, victory, overcoming, and rulership, all of which have something to do with Cassandra so it remained fitting to her character

Cassandra means to excel or shine, which is certainly something that Cassandra does. But also has association with the Greek myth of Cassandra attempting to tell people of her prophecies, but nobody listening or believing her. Which ties into the corrupt government thing.

The other name that is currently in considering replacing Cassandra is Kairos. Kairos has a figurative meaning of "the right or opportune moment", which also ties into the plot of A2.

This, of course, is another Greek name, so I decided to make her Greek by result. But I figured to create more tension between her connections with her (alive!) parents, I decided to make her father Italian and represent an air of Roman mythology. So her mother is Greek and her father is Italian.

One of the biggest changes I made, as already stated above, is that Cassandra's parents are both alive. With 10x the drama and trauma! This is specifically due to her mother, who attacked her as a young child when she seemed to be blessing-less (I'll get to that in a moment) and not a perfect heir to her #1 hero empire (reminds you of a certain someone from MHA, huh? That was actually unintentional). Her father was attacked by her mother before Cassandra's birth due to her brother actually being blessing-less (oh yes, there is a brother now too).

After the attack, Cassandra was sent away from her mother and adopted by a rich family, where she grows up for most of her life. But she hates the parents because they are afraid of her (get into that later too) and emancipates at 13 (which shouldn't be allowed, but the government is fucked and attempting to get their grabby hands on her as a weapon).

To break out the very revised power system. I went from a magic at birth, to essentially a ripped off MHA quirk style power system, to a concept I call blessings. Blessings are like superpowers given at birth from either angels or demons. Which reside in completely different realms and enjoy meddling in human affairs, giving blessings is the main way to do it. Cassandra and both sides of her family have extensive connections to the demons, meaning that both her and her brother should have gotten blessings, but her brother didn't (Cassandra did get a blessing, but I'll break that down later).

The extensive connections to the demons come from Cassandra's grandfather, who is a demon, and is in fact a high ranking individual in the demon society (which isn't fully established, but there are ideas). He has the ability to actually come to Earth and meddle around in a more personal way, and does by meeting up with Cassandra's monster-fucker grandmother. Who then has Cassandra's mother, making Cassandra part demon.

Cassandra's grandfather is the kind of person who just fucks around, (so Cassandra probably has a lot of second-cousins) but also he just does what he wants meaning when Cassandra hits 8 (if I remember correctly it's been a while since I've thought about Arcburn to be honest) she gets kidnapped with her brother that she ISN'T biologically related to and realizes she has had a blessing this entire time: analysis.

Which probably from the name kind of breaks down her surrounding area, tells her extra details, points out connections, and gives her result predictions for her ideas. Let's say she wants to fight somebody, analysis will break down the best way to beat someone in a matter of seconds. It also comes with heightened intelligence.

Her grandfather sees her annihilate her kidnappers and goes, "hey you got potential to do me favours later in life how about I give you a SECOND blessing"

Second blessings are supposed to be super rare, like only the best of the best get them so it's a pretty big deal for over the course of one night for Cassandra to think that she is without any abilities to suddenly having two. The second ability which doesn't have a name (one form of the ability has a name: eldritch) but it boosts what Cassandra doesn't have which is physical capabilities. But what she is given is essentially her mother's abilities, which is both cruel (because Cassandra hates her mother) and powerful.

Anyway, here's her general design:

Of course the biggest change is the demon horns, tail, and red eyes. Since she is quarter demon, I wanted to show those traits, if I wanted to be more realistic I probably should have dialed it back a bit but I don't give a shit. Also I can just say demon genes are more prevalent than human genes which is why even though she is quarter she is displaying a lot of those demon traits.

The jacket stays, I like cool jackets. But her outfit is supposed to make sense for the climate, Arcburn is in northern Manitoba, polar bears reside not too far away (I want to utilize this at some point I just haven't decided where exactly)

Weapons wise, I definetly did more thinking. Beside her blessing Cassandra has got weapons up the wazoo. Her best weapon, one that isn't depicted here is an axe. Not like a huge war-axe but like a small wood-chopping one. This is because it's both easier to handle and easier to conceal. It's not necessarily the handle can't be big but rather the blade. Handles can be extendable, but the axe blade would be harder to deal with.

At one point in my life I was a huge scythe fan (and still kinda am because my two fav mcyters have canon scythes as weapons at some point) as a weapon, despite their lack of practicality. But my attention of impracticle weapons has switched to axes on chains (thank you Gyomei from Demon Slayer). So Cassandra has an axe on a chain as her main weapon.

I think one of the biggest changes was the colour scheming. I went from teal-ish blue to a deep red for colour theming. Both of which convey completely different messages.

Teal is supposed to be calming and practical, but a darker red like this holds symbolism for passion, aggression, and adds a sense of foreboding patience unlike a brighter more fiery red.

I think Cassandra from A2 is much scarier than Diana from A1. Really because I wanted her to be scary in a sense. She's the omen of her mother's downfall and by proxy the government.

I think I should mention that her morals do improve as time passes, she's less likely to chop off heads Jason Todd style and show some mercy (occasionally).

Overall though, Arcburn has improved dramatically from what it once was. Really it started off as imaginary little scenarios in my head of my favourite characters and evolved over the past three or so years till now where it is a fleshed out story (still in my head but there's a plot now rather than disconnected scenes).

What I would say I'm on right now is a hiatus from Arcburn, I figure I will return to it at some point and probably revise the entire damn thing again but it's slowly getting closer to what I want it to be. This is more of a hobby project than anything. And of course I have other projects like Voided Hearts & Wicked Sunflowers (Shamelessly plugging below because I'm a little shit) and I have other sick ideas that I'll eventually act upon (dystopian/apocolyptic killing spree?).

Thanks for reading my ramble about Arcburn @thekingofthenameless, I'm always happy to talk about it!