Unsubscribing.

@Aaron, sorry for disappointing you. Also, here was what I was going to post once someone else posted:

[quote]Andres Malvar, 16 years old, was one of the rarest people in this world, a 'casual' wargamer. And, by casual, that meant that he wargamed for fun, not to practice war, well, most of the time he played for fun. However, with all the turmoil going on in the world, an army or navy's worth of minatures was hard to come by, and so he instead made his own out of scra metal and a mold, en masse.

Where did his knowledge of wargaming come from? Well, he was a military brat, one whose father came from the Philippine Constabulary originally, then became a rebel, then sided with the Chinese during the invasion. Now he was an officer who doted upon his son, his only child since the deaths of his first two daugthers. Either way, he passed on his knowledge of wargaming to Andres, who found ready playmates in the children of other officers.

However, Andres was getting bored with just wargaming, at least with modern armies. It's not that said modern armies were bad, per se, it's just that they were the ones most often used, due to there being more spare minatures for them than for say, medieval armies. Which, ironically, was what led Andres to make up his own miniatures in the first place; he wanted to play a Medieval Army!

"You know," spoke a voice from behind him; the boy was in his room, "you can make a great sculptor someday, if you don't want to be a strategist." It was his father, Tarcillio Malvar. "Or perhaps an author, you have the imagination. Of course," he said, "[i]Walang pera dyan[/i] (No Money There), [i]ngunit walang pera kahit saan[/i] (But no Money anywhere)," one of his subtle jibes at the Socialist Government.

"[i]Alam ko[/i] (I know)," replied Andres. "Anyway, want to hear my idea?" he said in English once more. Andres' idea was for a game involving [i]individual[/i] minatures, where one can play a lone hero or group of heroes facing off against monsters drawn from Filipino Legend. He thought of calling it [i]Sword and Sorcery[/i], because those were the two main themes of his planned game. Once he was done explaining, Tarcillio said:

"That's a great idea! Worthy of a novelist, even," the officer was proud of his son. "That's just like Science Fiction, except with Magic. Do you have a story planned?" Andreas smiled, and, after getting up from his bed and getting some notes from the drawer, spoke about his setting, which was an original world that, again, drew from Filipino Legend with Christianized elements:

"A long time ago, there was The One, Bathala, who created the Anito, the Spirits. The Anito, under Bathala's guidance, created the world, while Bathala himself created two people, [i]Malakas[/i] (Strength), and [i]Maganda[/i] (Beauty), who then interbred with the [i]Diwata[/i] (Minor Gods who, under Spanish times, were relegated to the position of fairy-like figures), creating the present race of Humanity."

"But not all was well, but one of the Anito, [i]Masilaw[/i] (Glaring, in the sense of too much light), grew jealous of both Bathala and his peers, and rebelled against them, using as his cause the ascending status of Humanity, who were growing to equal the Anitos. His lie was that Bathala wanted to replace the Anitos with Humanity and the Diwata, and many Anito believed him, and so the War of Supremacy began."

"Masilaw first struck at Humanity, creating the Law of Mortality, which caused all humans, everywhere, to suffer death, if not now, then eventually. Then he sent out [i]Dilim[/i] (Darkness), [i]Tanikalang Ginto[/i] (Golden Chain), at [i]Karnal[/i] (Carnal), to tempt Humanity and bind it to its base desires, preventing them from ascending to a higher state. Then, he shaped various [i]Halimaw[/i], or Monsters, to plague humanity and further distract them from ascending."

"Eventually, Bathala and his forces struck Masilaw down, trapping him in the Abyss. But, it was too late to save Humanity, for King [I]Buhawi[/i] (Windstorm), used the 'Sparks of Creation' that went into the making of Malakas and Maganda, fragments of Bathala himself, and created The Shroud, a barrier that divided Humanity from The One and the Anito. The Shroud meant that all messages from Bathala to Humanity can only be transmitted to, or via Humans, humans who can freely misinterpret or edit the messages. Why did King Buhawi do this? Well, I'll elaborate on it tomorrow..."[/quote]