Yet more fanfic ideas

These two ideas are new of course, as the title says. I thought of them as I realized that about 6,000 words or so of what I’ve written for ATP were not only unnecessary but ignored what I had written in the last chapter. ARGH.

So yeah, I needed a break from working on that fic and decided to look at these ideas again.  These two ideas were thought up as a response to the… how to put this nicely… PATHETIC stories already existing in these two fandoms. And yes that was nice, I used no curse words nor went into detail here.

In the first one, Starcraft, I have only found one story worth reading, and even it doesn’t change enough early enough for my tastes. So I got to thinking, what is the earliest point where I could change things, inject some human interaction and take the entire story in a new direction? Answer, the Magistrate of the first story - the character the player ostensibly plays. Of course it’s a semi-early tactics game, so the player can’t actually make any real decisions in the original. Heh. Then I had to think, but what kind of character should the new magistrate be?

This story would be a sort-of Warhammer 40,000 K cross with Starcraft. I say sort of, because I would only be taking a few ideas from the Warhammer universe as well as the main character. IN Warhammer canon, there are two Primarchs of the original Legiones unaccounted for, so taking one of them is easy. His name, Victor Sigmar (yes, named after the Warhammer character).

And even the why he would cross dimensions is easy: He’s a blank. For those of you who don’t know what a blank is, they are a sort of super-rare anti-psyker. They put out this field of some kind that dampens all psychic abilities, not only in individuals but the very environments, making them deadly to daemons, witches, pyskers,  I figure since there was the pysker Magnus of the Thousand eyes, there should have been a blank among the Primarchs too.

Arriving in the Starcraft universe he is adopted by a noble family of the Confederation, the Terras. With his innate abilities, he quickly rises to prominence, though no one but he notices his blank powers, since Ghosts are so rare. Eventually at the astonishingly young age of 17 he is assigned to be the Magistrate of the Mar Sara colony, bringing along his younger, ADOPTED (no incest here) sister along with him. There he begins to remake Mar Sara through energy, efficiency and a degree of technical knowledge none can match.

From there the story would begin to diverge very quickly: 

Mar Sara defeating the original Zerg infestation. The main Zerg host would still be on it’s way, but wouldn’t be there yet. The Protoss, not certain how they would react to their policy of destroying planets to get rid of the Zerg not being needed here. Their response to being in the physical presence of a blank though… heh. Oh, and yes, his abilities would also impact the Zerg, making fine control impossible around him and even, eventually making any kind of leadership utterly impossible. 

And what then would Sarah Kerigan think, or her backstabbing employer? Heh. There’s a new power rising in human space, and the Sons of Korhal and the Confederation might find things not going their way…

What would be included in this fic:

Lots of tech talk, military talk, and oh, um WARRR!!!! Yeah, lots of that. Tactics, strategy, space and earthbound warfare would be the main thrust. I would love to write out a bit where Victor sends an Ultralisk flying with a bash from his warhammer…

Jim Raynor would of course be a character, though I don’t know if I would pair him with Kerrigan. Yes, they are sweet, but I just don’t think they were one of those love at first sight couples.

Mengsk will die in this fic. Horribly. 

Decent amount of character interaction, less than in most of my other fics but still enough to make you care about all the characters.

Uncertain if I would use any of the plot points introduced in Heart of the Swarm and beyond. 

Pairings are very tentative, but at the moment would be: SIgmar/Nova - established before the actual fic starts rolling, with Kerrigan possibly joining in later. Doubt I would have lemons in this fic.

The second new idea, again was thoguth up because the current offerings in it’s fandom are just awful: A Song of Ice and Fire. I mean, come on people, why the hell isn’t there more fics in this fandom where the warfare side of things is treated with the importance it should be? And what is with all the OCs, both male and female? Why in god’s name would you need to add more characters to a story that has so freaking many of them you can’t keep track of them all?

Anyway, seeing as that is the case, and that my recent fics haven’t fed my war muse enough, I came up with this idea. Please note I would not ever set this up for voting here on patreon if I ever decide to write it. Martin has views on fanfic, he is actually actively against it, though that’s probably because he knows several of us are better and certainly faster writer than he is. Still I have to respect that opinion. 

Anyway, the fic is based loosely on the idea put forth in the fic Robb Returns, though in actual practice it is far enough away that it is original despite the basic premise being the same. As the chosen of the Old Gods, Robb lost the war, but that was only the start of the fall of man in the face of the Others. Eventually Westeros and the rest of the world fell to the War of Winter, forcing the Old Gods to take a hand: they take Robb’s soul and send it back in time to his younger body, with four sentences ingrained into his mind:

1. Trust in the Wolfsblood, make the pack strong.

2. Beware the South, for betrayal comes with war.

3. Winter is coming.

Yes, that last is redundant to him, however…

These four phrases will reverberate in his skull with all the force of a hammer. Worse yet, Robb’s memories will be extremely disjointed, so much so that at first he believes they are but dreams. They will mostly be of battles and Grey Wind, and a feeling of being betrayed popping up sometimes

The memories however, and the words going through his head make him wonder if he's insane. He goes to the godswood, and there feels the memories becoming slightly stronger, along with the words.  Then he realizes the Old Gods have sent him back, but even their power wasn't infinite. His family is in danger, and the words in his head and the memories are a sign he has to prepare. 

Another sign of this is a physical change:  his hair starts to go Stark brown in streaks and his eyes change from Tully blue to Stark grey. 

Because of his disjointed memories and the words going through his mind, Robb changes significantly from canon:

1. Trust in the Wolfsblood, make the pack strong:  Robb takes this in two ways, he needs to trust in his family and keep them close, and the connection he has with Grey Wind, once he shows up as the dreams/memories tell him will occur, is something Robb can trust and use to his advantage without feeling like it's wrong. And of course that his should trust his direwolf's instincts.

So this leads to: 

1) Robb training Arya, with Jon joining in, and maybe even pushing Sansa into being trained, along with Bran taking his training far more seriously. Which means he clashes often with his mother about Arya, but he ignores her orders to stop, because ‘Arya is not a Southern woman, she is a Stark, and she will be strong.’ 

2) Further distancing himself from Theon, looking at his actions and the actions of the Iron born, not liking what he sees. Plus there's those pesky feelings of betrayal and the desire to stab Theon whenever he sees him near his younger siblings. He also takes a long look at the Ironborn, and questions his parents about them rather than listening to Theon’s ‘romantic’ notions of them. There’s some to admire there, but not a lot.

3) Pushing his father to train him in strategy/tactics and lordship, possibly distancing himself from his mother, since she has no wolfsblood, Robb starts to take his duties as a Stark and their history, far more seriously. 

① At this point he might even question his father, asking why none of them have been sent off to foster since that would allow them to tie the North to them even more - especially since Eddard and his father both married Southern women. 

② This is important, and an area that few fics realize: thanks to his politicking, Rickard - Eddard’s father, had broken with tradition of his house, tying the Starks to Southron houses rather than Northern ones. This means the Norhtern houses are not tied by blood to the current Starks, only through honor and loyalty. This wasn’t important for a time, since Eddard was able to add to this in most cases by personal loyalty and with glory taken in two successful wars, but when he died, Robb in canon couldn’t quite match it, and had scant knowledge of his lords, their abilities and inclinations.

4) When Grey Wind shows up, Robb is able to do a lot more with his warging right off the bat, training Grey Wind to a high level very quickly and even working with the other wolves, becoming something of their pack leader.

5) Betting Jon on his joining the Night's Watch in a spar. Robb wins, Jon is furious, but Robb bets him that they will fight every month until he is sixteen. If Robb wins the majority of their matches Jon has to stay, if not then Jon can go. This of course causes problems between Catelyn and Robb, but Robb shoots her down flat, causing even more tension. 

All of this I would show in short vingettes, so we don’t get bogged down in pre-canon stuff. Done well that kidn of thing can be fun, but only in moderation, and I would rather get to canon and start toying with it. Dance my puppets dance!

2. Beware the South, for betrayal comes with war.

1) As mentioned before, being very leery about Theon, very standoffish with him, always taking Jon’s side both against Theon and against his mother. Can everyone say tension, hmm, I knew you could.

2) When the King arrives, Robb sees him with open eyes, and does not see anything there to respect. He tries to convince his father to not go south or if not that then not to tie them to Joffrey, who anyone can tell is touched in the head.  This means more arguments, more breaking from Catelyn and maybe even Eddard for his not liking the king. Let’s face facts, Eddard was far too blinded by his friendship to see Robert’s faults. 

3) A bit of angst here about how Robb is trying to make the family strong, but nothing seems to be going his way except for Jon and Arya because he could not stop Bran from climbing and he still fell like in canon. He does however convince Eddard to at least leave Arya behind.

4) Robb would start to act like a lord as soon as his father is gone:

① Fostering Arya with the Mormonts, who train their women in war. 

② Creating a marriage between House Reed and Bran, and House Ryswell and Rickon, against his mother’s wishes who feel they aren’t strong enough to be worth their hands.

③ Also starts to look for a wife of his own, but finds there are no main branch girls in the North worth his hand that aren’t already spoken for. House Karstark had already arranged a marriage between their daughter and House Hornwood, and Robb would not be willing to get them to break that for him. And none of the Mormont women are suitable for various reasons, being age or not virgins.

④ Robb is much more open to the idea that Tyrion might be behind Bran's fall, but only with proof - he wants to blame the other Lannisters, and in particular the Kingslayer, who he did not get along with at all. However he sends messages to his lords, informing them to prepare for war, and calls up his own vassals, putting the logistics in place for war - more food, more clothing, organization which he learned from his father. 

⑤ When his mother leaves to go see his father he sees it as further proof she is weak and not of the pack.

⑥ Jon does not go to the Wall! But Uncle Benjen convinces Robb to send several men up to the Wall instead. He empties the keep of prisoners and sends to the Manderlys for prisoners since they have a city it makes sense they should have a lot of men to send. Orders each lord to send five of their men up to the wall to see what is going on firsthand and either report back or stay up there to help the Night’s Watch.

When war begins:

1. Robb doesn't trust or deal with the Freys - they are the Riverlands version of the Boltons with even less honor considering how they treat one another. Moreover, his mother has been shown to be incompetent and not pack by running off to their father and then capturing Tyrion, starting the war against the RIverlands, so he is not as concerned about saving Riverrun as he would otherwise be. 

2. Decides Lysa can't be trusted either, but sends someone to court the Vale lords anyway. They represent too many experienced soldiers to let sit out the war. Where that goes I don’t know.

Beyond that I only have vague ideas of where this story will go:

1.  Marches down the Kingsroad, lots of scouts ahead, then portages across at some point along the Green Fork with a portion of his army. Takes Tywin's forces by surprise after they cross at the Ruby Ford, then routing them at night. Tywin dies in the fighting by accident or instigation. 

2.  Takes Harrenhal through trickery, while Joffrey acts as in canon, and Eddard dies on the block.

3.  With Jaime alive and well, and now warned, he tries to force-march around Robb's army, running into the Brotherhood without Borders and dealing with all of them. Nearly broken near Harrenhal, but escapes at the last moment further south with his army badly understrength. He joins forces with his brother and sister to smash Stannis who has acted as in canon, only this time he doesn't get away from the battle alive. Jaime Vs. Stannis and his guards, could be fun to write up that scene. 

4..  Robb marches into the Westerlands, smashes the second mustering under Stafford, then leaves the Bolton forces along with the Cerwyn forces and two Riverlands houses to make trouble in the Westerlands while he takes House Stafford from behind and marches down the Gold Road. That this leaves beyond the force most distrusted among his vassals and the most ruthless of said to make war and break the Westerlands morale need not be said.

6. With Jaime backing him, Tyrion removes both the eunuch and Petyr, permanently if possible. Like seriously, I really, really want them both to die horribly. I let both die far too easily in Wild Wolf.

Not certain where the Ironborn would go with this. The Politics and how to treat Myrcella and Tommen would be interesting too. I think that Tyrion as a character would also need more love in this fic, since I left him out in the cold (hah) for a lot of my first fic in this fandom. 

Things to be aware of:

Robb is not Ranma - different sense of honor, different mannerisms, far colder, not a hero but a warlord, who isn’t as good at personal combat. 

I would want this story to be darker, grittier than the last one, with a far more realistic war. I know my numbers of people actually dying in battle was way off in my last fic, and Robb has no way of introducing real warfare or some of the other surprises Ranma came up with.  Changing sides, betrayals and dark things would also abound.

Robb would be married a few times: I think that he may marry a Manderly girl at first, but if I would really expand one of their characters enough to keep around or have her die in her childbirth (don’t look at me like that, it happens a lot more often in this age than you think even with maesters in attendance) and then his hand could be used later on. Margaery is a possibility later on, though I think the power of House Tyrell is really quite deceptive: they have the numbers but not the leaders or experience. I think I would rather like to go the Arianne route in this one.

Jon Snow would not be related to Lyanna in this fic!!! I went that way in WW, so I would like to do something different this time. His being related to Ashara Dayne and possibly becoming the new Star of Morning could be interesting. 

More Oberyn possibly as a good guy entirely in this fic, or as good as someone with his temper and inclinations can be.

Uncertain if I would have the Boltons revolt, but Ramsay Snow still lives and might make trouble at home. As would the Greyjoy invasion, though not as much as in canon, and Winterfell would not fall

The War of Winter. I would need to make it different than my WW version, and that might be the biggest challenge of the fic, that and making the war in the South closer to canon in some ways and then very different in others.