Sharpen you pencils, refill your inkwells and get your keyboards ready! The last contest that was held together with WOG and JoWooD was aimed at your artistic talent. For this contest we are looking to get all those involved who see their strengths more on the literary and story-telling side: This time we are looking for the best short story. You will have to use your imagination as we are looking for stories that are linked to the reports of events in Myrtana, Nordmar and Varant. You will find out what is going on over on the mainland in the current “News from the Cleaved Maiden” story „The Knife“. (Link)
How Does It Work?
As you can read in the story „The Knife“, war has broken out in Myrtana, Nordmar and Varant. The topic for our story contest is “On the Run” and you have to outline the fate of an individual (Merchant, Warrior, Mage or whatever comes to mind) who has to flee and in the end sets out to reach the Southern Islands. It is forbidden to use any of the famous characters and grand political events and schemes in your story (No, Xardas does not meddle in battlefield affairs or political intrigue.). You should concentrate on the story of your refugee and his/her exciting story of how he/she gets to the point where he/she decides to make the journey to the southern islands.
The people and events should fit the Gothic world, of course, as it would definitely increase your chances of winning. You can of course choose to introduce a stormtrooper with a plasma-rifle but such a character would not really fit a Gothic story. We think you know what we are getting at and we are looking forward to your ideas and stories.
Rules
You have to adhere to the restriction of not using famous characters and your story cannot consist of more than 7.500 Characters (including spaces). Every contestant can submit only one story and any story that exceeds the character limit cannot be included in the final evaluation. The deadline is Thursday, 6th November 2008 at 23:59. Take your time! You have four weeks to fine tune your text – make sure you do! – because we think that there will be a lot of competition and that they will keep their eyes open for stuff that has already been submitted. You can post your texts in this thread . For discussions and questions please use this thread.
Winner
A panel of judges consisting of WOG, JoWooD and Spellbound officials will determine which story is the best and will announce the winner. The criteria are: Originality, Gothic knowledge and literary quality. We might not make spelling the main criteria, but everyone should run their texts through a spellchecker to avoid the worst mistakes. It would be a shame if a story were to come out as unintelligible.
At the same time there will be a community vote for the best story and the winners of both selections will receive the same reward: Theirs stories will be published in the game Arcania – A Gothic Tale and can be read in the game as a book or scroll. Through that the winners will of course be mentioned in the credits and their name will be immortalized there. Employees of WOG, JoWooD and Spellbound cannot participate in this contest.
Comments
Texts can be submitted in English, German and Russian. We know that many fans from the Czech Republic, Poland and the rest of the world will be at a disadvantage, but we promise that future contests will once again offer equal chances for all participants. Of course anyone can try their luck with a German, English or Russian text as we measure not only the linguistic quality.
