A shared sword & sorcery setting: City of Scum

[Rob_Royale]

I could be enticed to participate if this happens.

 

[StillStunned]

I could be enticed to participate if this happens.

It's already happening. @DraegonDaddy has started writing a story, and I'm working on another. Anyone who wants can join in.

Although I'm not sure how to let readers know they're all part of the same setting. Perhaps we should use a specific tag, and add a note at the start of the story saying to search for the tag to find more stories.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Do we have a synopsis of the world/ city/ setting?

 

[StillStunned]

Not beyond what's in this thread, and (so far) Rulk the Rat and the Demon Dagger.

Like I mentioned above, the central theme should be sword & sorcery/grimdark fantasy. Gritty, hopeless, bleak. Believable characters struggling to survive in awful circumstances where everyone's motives are selfish.

 

[DraegonDaddy]

Yeah, mine is going to take a while, I've got to get my current series finished, then I have another short story to rewrite, and then I can get back to the unnamed sword & sorcery story.

 

[DraegonDaddy]

It's already happening. @DraegonDaddy has started writing a story, and I'm working on another. Anyone who wants can join in.

Although I'm not sure how to let readers know they're all part of the same setting. Perhaps we should use a specific tag, and add a note at the start of the story saying to search for the tag to find more stories.

Name your setting and we can use that as a tag, or maybe just #LowStreet

 

[Rob_Royale]

Yeah, mine is going to take a while, I've got to get my current series finished, then I have another short story to rewrite, and then I can get back to the unnamed sword & sorcery story.

I'll see what I can come up with.

 

[StillStunned]

A provisional setting name (and tag): "City of Scum". If anyone can think of a better one, I'm open to suggestions.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

A provisional setting name (and tag): "City of Scum". If anyone can think of a better one, I'm open to suggestions.

Les Canaille

French makes everything sound better.

 

[StillStunned]

Les Canaille

French makes everything sound better.

George MacDonald Fraser (of the Flashman novels) wrote a parody of the pirate genre called "The Pyrates". One of the pirate ships is French, "La Grenouille Frenetique": the bilge water is by Chanel and the chef screams at a prisoner for refusing to eat his escargots.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

A provisional setting name (and tag): "City of Scum". If anyone can think of a better one, I'm open to suggestions.

How about Dankholme, Blighthaven, or Gloomswick?

And, yes, I'm strongly considering recasting a story idea I have from modern day to this world.

 

[StillStunned]

How about Dankholme, Blighthaven, or Gloomswick?

And, yes, I'm strongly considering recasting a story idea I have from modern day to this world.

Good names, but I'm leaning towards "the City" not even having a name as such, just the setting name for tagging purposes. Referring to it as "the City" makes it feel more ominous, like it's the characters' whole world. If you give it a name, that implies there are other places so there's a way out.

But I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

Very excited to read your story, if you decide to set it in the City!

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Good names, but I'm leaning towards "the City" not even having a name as such, just the setting name for tagging purposes. Referring to it as "the City" makes it feel more ominous, like it's the characters' whole world. If you give it a name, that implies there are other places so there's a way out.

But I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

Very excited to read your story, if you decide to set it in the City!

So, we're going to call the anthology 'Sex in the City'?

 

[StillStunned]

So, we're going to call the anthology 'Sex in the City'?

"OMG, I'm like *such* a Rulk!"

 

[NaughteeDragon]

We do need to decide on a tag for this. I may have a story brewing that could be set here and it would be fun to have a tag so we can find these related stories. We should also set up guidelines for characters that can be shared so that we can riff on each other’s work or include Easter eggs of favorites from other stories

 

[StillStunned]

For the tag, use "city of scum". But maybe come back here when it's nearly time to submit and see whether anyone has had any flashes of brilliance.

 

[StillStunned]

Marnic had returned to the City. The news was carried along on the wind to the shadiest corners of taverns, the dark alleys along the docks, the stinking slums of Fairview.

Marnic the Maniac, Marnic the Betrayer, Marnic the Seducer.

Men murmured his name and glanced over their shoulders, shuddering. Women breathed his name and shuddered too, but with a subtle difference.

Marnic had returned.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Curled on a coil of rope on the wharf, I cleaned myself and bid my time, waiting for just the right opportunity to make my move. There, a nice fat one, half as big as me in this form, scurrying along the edge of the gangplank. The guard gave a lazy kick and then ignored it as it scurried past. Stretching, I jumped down and sauntered across the boardwalk only springing into action when the fat rat had made its way onto the ship. A flash of ginger and orange, I caught the nasty beast right in front of the first mate, sinking my razor-sharp teeth into its neck and shaking it furiously, dropping its limp dead body at his feet.

It was disgusting, gross, but growing up in a brothel, especially in The City, gross and disgusting were no strangers to me. When one of the girls had contracted the pox, I'd been lucky enough to be outside, watching, as the city watch had locked her and the rest of the prostitutes inside, burning the building to the ground. I'd used what I knew to survive. When the solstice came and my true talents manifested, it didn't take long to figure out that a rat catcher was worth more than an orphan girl, no matter how talented her tongue might be. That and being a cat could get me into places sucking a cock or spreading my legs couldn't.

When the first mate leaned down and scratched me behind the ears, I knew I was golden.

 

[StillStunned]

One of my four WIPs set in the City is about the rat-catching "not even a half-demon!" Helle. It's on my other computer, but I have a few snippets in this thread on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/stillstunned.bsky.social/post/3lhwftoxa3c26

With all those rat-catchers around, I hope Rulk's old one-eyed rat is safe...

 

[StillStunned]

The shift still held in one hand, Taia turned and walked towards the window. There she stopped, naked and delicious, the dark nipples on her breasts pointing towards him as if reaching out to his lips.

Or perhaps that was his imagination. Taia stood, hand on hip, looking at him as if considering. He caught her glancing at the curtains, at the door. At the small mace that stood against the wall.

For the first time Marnic wondered whether she might not be pleased to see him again. Four years was a long time, after all.

At last she raised her hands and unlatched the window. Opening it, forcing his head back a handspan, she said, “Marnic. I thought I smelled your particular odour in the fog today.”

 

[DraegonDaddy]

Ok, I need to get back to the WIP I started in this setting.

 

[StillStunned]

For anyone who wants to write in this setting, the tag is "city of scum". I just asked for it to be added to "Rulk the Rat".

Now all I have to do is finish one of those WIPs...

 

[DraegonDaddy]

For anyone who wants to write in this setting, the tag is "city of scum". I just asked for it to be added to "Rulk the Rat".

Now all I have to do is finish one of those WIPs...

Call me out why don't you.

 

[StillStunned]

Call me out why don't you.

Hey, at least you only have one City of Scum story you haven't finished. I have four - and none of them are even among the five most recent stories I've worked on.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Hey, at least you only have one City of Scum story you haven't finished. I have four - and none of them are even among the five most recent stories I've worked on.

Only have one. Working title is 'Sex in The City - Here Kitty Kitty.'