Tag: Sylum Q&A

Q: How do you decide who goes into what clan and has their job inside that clan?

A: This is not an easy task.  As we’ve been fixing the wiki, this has been a question that has popped up many times.   Well in forms like: Why the hell is he the Archivist? or Who the hell is going to be the Scientist!? And WTF is he doing in Australia?

Sometimes it’s easy.  Van Helsing as Lead Hunter yeah that’s simple.  Finding a Lead Hunter for Sanguen – you would think would be easy except for the fact you need one that has been around a while, since Sanguen is the 3rd oldest Clan.  Can’t have a modern guy as a Lead Hunter without explaining where the old one was.  It took a bit but yes we did find one.

For something like Clan Psychologist we try to find actually characters or historical psychologist.  Now considering this is a newer addition to the Clan structure and it’s a modern science, there can be moments of well who would ‘grow’ into the role for Clans like Medjai or Sanguen.

This works for all the Clan Positions.   We’ve had moments of character easily falls into the position, Jack McCoy – Legal Advisor and others where it’s searching for someone to fill the spot, Eowyn – Clan Doctor.

Now as for how someone just ends up in a Clan.  That depends on if the character is a historical figure, the show/book/movie a character came from, and sometimes tossing a dart at a map.  Crocodile Dundee – Oceania.   Javert – Passion Clan.  Ahkmenrah – Medjai.  These were more the obvious ones.

An interesting twist on how to figure out which Clan – while working with the Kin Clans we looked up one of the historical characters and realized he would be better in Medjai instead of where he was, because he had a long history of exploring Africa over living in Switzerland.

Actually one of the more nightmare situations was dealing with the Medjai – as many other characters had moved from Medjai to other Clans, we ended up with the oldest clan with the youngest members.   Which had to be adjusted and much research into the ancient world.  This was an example of using more historical characters instead of shows/movies as we personally don’t know Egyptian/Middle Eastern movie industry, and if you research movies based for Ancient Egypt you get Lawrence of Arabia, Ten Commandments, Cleopatra and The Prince of Egypt.

Believe me there have been times in the past year (whimpers at how long working on the wiki) where we’ve done the WTF OMG WHY?  We’ve moved people around, wiped them out, changed dates/sires/mates and even images.  And once the wiki is finished and revealed you’ll see the work done on it.  Though I personally have to admit, I know more about certain histories and cultures I never thought I would.  So it’s been a learning experience.

Q: A take on a question I asked a few years ago about deciding who joined the Sylum Universe: How did you decide clan leaders and where the clans would be based?

A: Oh that’s a good, complicated do you have a few months question!!

The first one was Nick and that was kinda winging it.   Nick was always my favorite CSI *pets him* and had always felt there was way more to the character that show ever did with him *pointedly glares at moron CSI Writers/Producters/Showrunners*.   I made him older, Roman, though Tim will tell you I picked the worst moment in Roman history! but hey we made it work!  The rest of the Clan fell in and around Nico, Tony and Speed.

When Sylum began to grow, new Clans started to develop some of them were easy others not.

Alexander the Great had to be a Clan Leader and he would be in no other place but Greece

Ardeth leader of the Medjai in Egypt was practically handed to me.

As was Arthur Pendragon of Camelot.

There were a few I had to sit and think about and o with the movies/books that I was working with at the time.  Now remember this was ten years ago so the options were limited.

Benton for Tallikut worked nicely, and putting it in Canada made perfect sense, considering the show it was based on.

I admit Mal was not my addition.   And in truth if I had to start over with it, he would not be there.  But he was sneaky enough to ingrain himself into storyline that could not be changed.  Serenity now is a much different Clan that it started off as.

Doc well he’s always been a personal favorite – movie and historically, so I gave him Border.  Pretty sure he hates me for that.

Katsumoto slipped easily into the role for Shogun, he just need a longer history and background.  Japan seemed at the time like a logical chose considering the political situation in Asia.  Building the Clan’s history, well it’s been a learning curve.

Mad Max worked for Australia, ’cause I really couldn’t see Crocodile Dundee as a Clan Leader!  But we had to build a history for the character, then had to rethink everything when Gibson ended up on our hell fucking no list!  We ended up with an original character based off a fictional one.

Knight Clan and La Croix kinda sneaked into the Universe.  It worked well, as we needed that Clan where the not so good guys but not evil could swear to.  And La Croix fit that persona perfectly.

I’m not actually sure how Vachon got his position, just that he wanted as far away from La Criox as possible and his original character was a Conquistador, so putting him in Brazil made sense.

Now the Kin Clans, well honestly, they’ve been a pain in my ass for a while.

As how we got the Kin Clans.  In the early years of Sanguen there would be need to have small clan structures through Europe to control that area, as travel was limited and took time.  With modern world and easier transportation the structure of the Kin Clans would need to adjust, and that’s what we’re working on now.

As for the Kin Clan Leaders well…

Remus/Romulus are Italy.  Beowulf for the Norwegian area made perfect sense.  The others were tossed around and added into the mix.  I’m going through Sanguen now in the epic wikiwiki adventure so adjustments will be made.  Not that we’ll change Kin Clan Leaders but look more closely at the histories to make things work smoother.  *pokes Sanguen*

Q: My 2 favorite Clans are Oceania (because I live in Hawaii), and Shogun (because I’m Japanese-American).  I have been enjoying all the new Oceania stories (Thank you Hawaii 5-0!), and am wondering if there will ever be stories for Shogun?  I also noticed that most of the members of Shogun are Chinese, and was wondering if this was because you didn’t know many Japanese characters (Not complaining! Just thought it was interesting that the leader is Japanese and the clan is based in Japan, but more than half the members are Chinese.)?

A: Since I’m actually working on Shogun at the moment and have highlighted a few of their characters in the past few days, figured this was a good question to answer.  Shogun has gone through a few changes over the history of Sylum.  And it’s only right now that we’ve been able to make a more diverse Clan that incorporates all of Asia.

Now that the Clan is become more settled, stories will start popping up.   You’ll start to see the characters showcased in other stories, and ones centering on Shogun’s characters and histories.  I know that I have a few stories in the works, including Katsumoto’s and Nathan’s meeting and Bonding.  And there are stories centering around World War 2 and what happens to the Clan Members who are Westerners.

Q:  Blue Bloods tv show follows a family of cops, the Reagans, in New York in which Donnie Wahlberg is one of the main characters, he also plays another character who already exists in the clans connected to a triad.

A: I haven’t actually seen Blue Bloods – it’s on my netflix que!  At the moment there is no reason to connect them.  Now when I do get a chance to see the show that could change.

Q: Any plans to add characters from the Raid movies or the Infernal Affairs to Shogun clan? The Departed by Martin Scorsese was a remake of the Infernal Affairs movie.

A: There are no plans for any of the characters from these movies.

There are many elements we look at when we choose characters for Sylum.   Sometimes it can be the character is just perfect, but we steal it from the show/movie and make up our own backgrounds history.  A movie/show can be intriguing enough for us to build off of it.   And sometimes it comes down to logistics.  If a show/character doesn’t work – it doesn’t work.   We also have to look at who the actor or director of the show is – there are some actors that are on our Oh Hell Fucking No list and can’t be used.

Q: Would like to know if there will be more JackB and Chase stories?

A: Speaking of Jack and Chase…  The two actually have weaseled or worked themselves into their own storyline.   As we’ve re-worked Clan War – Jack and Chase weren’t fitting as well as expected.  Instead after a round of Bauer style negotiations – mainly his way or the highway – the two ended up with their own story.  *sneaky bastards*

Because of this *glares at the two very non-repentant CTU Agents* I’ve had to adjust the Clan War Teaser Trailer  <— Click to view it.  *sits and waits*

Q: Also will Sam/Dean be in same stories?  Wasn’t sure if this would be continued of question 1 or a question all by itself.  So to be safe I put it in 2 questions.  Ok?

A: Well the new ideas brew, Sam and Dean won’t make an appearances as they wouldn’t have arrived into Sylum yet.  For future stories, I can see them working with Jack and Chase.

Q:  As you can see most of my question relate to how in my imagination more characters could exist in sylum universe.  Could the Hunger Games characters like President Snow or Coin possibly exist? They would make some awesome villains and what if they were soul mates but hated each other?  Instead of a dystopian future, sometime in the past the games could have been this weird mesh like gladiator games slash the sacrifices from minotaur’s myth, kids from different city states.

Q: Any chances of seeing characters from Game of Thrones?  Some of them from the deserts parts of the show could hail from clans in Africa or the Middle East. I always had the most fun reading through the characters pages from sylum’s wiki even those I had not known from any of the story lines and how the vampires interconnect with each others!

A: I’m answering these together for a reason.  Neither one of these will be making an appearance in Sylum.  The characters and storylines do not fit inside the universe we’re creating.  Add on the way the authors feel about fanfiction especially Martin, it is best to leave these series alone.  It’s also the reason we have nothing from Anne Rice and Laura Hamilton.

Q: In the movie Argo we see Rory Cochrane, who from sylum is he, Speed?  Kafele? Yevgeny? Or none of the above?

A: Lee Schatz is a real person, who is still alive. So we won’t be adding his character or have a ‘Rory’ character play him.  The events surrounding Argo is likely to play in the background of storylines in Sylum, due to the fact it’s a historical event.  We try hard to keep these events relevant and shown in the stories to indicate the world around the Vampire Clans.

Q: Hypothetical, if the technology from Nolan’s Inception movie were possible, would they work on vampires? We have the stargate, and the transformers so it would not be beyond the advancements in this beautiful ‘verse for the machine and drugs to exist.  Now I would think the sedation part would work on the vampire physiology if you can apply it to the unsuspecting victim, but the extraction part and being undetected in one’s mind, I don’t know and there is also the problem that most likely who did the job would have to be human, what do you think? How hilarious would it be if you try to extract someone and they don’t know the victim was a vampire to begin with?

A: As much as we would’ve loved to work with the concept, we decided that it just wasn’t something that would work.  We had some interesting ideas and concepts but over all it just didn’t fit.  We also had to take into account that Inception is Nolan’s pet project.  There are a few directors, writers, etc that can get a little testy over the use of their materials.  We figured best to leave this idea on the drawing board.

Q: What’s the connection between Dean Winchester and Horatio’s daughter?

A: Most think that there is this huge vast connection between the two. In reality it’s the fact that after the hell Dean goes through in Balthazar’s hand, Elizabeth is that first innocent soul that touches him.  In all the chaos of the rescue, and then the Manor – it’s a simple baby’s laugh that gets his attention.    It’s two souls who have seen some serious shit in their lives and past lives that connect on a most innocent level.

It’s later that their own personal connections to Ripper, that will tie them even closer together.

Q: Franklin and Bash is a comedy series about two unconventional lawyers and their shenanigans to win their cases. If they ever met Harvey Specter how do you think he would react?  The duo would probably be the kind of lawyers Tony Stark would appreciate considering they have no qualms with throwing parties in their house like frat boys, and the next day put on a stand someone that will start a striptease!

A: Harvey Specter would kill them, dump their bodies in the river and then go have lunch at his favorite steakhouse.  Actually let me rephrase that – he would hire someone to kill them, dump their bodies in the river, while he had lunch at his favorite steakhouse.  Probably try to get them to take out Gil while he was at it.

And honestly no, they wouldn’t be the type of lawyers Tony Stark would appreciate.  When it would come to lawyers who work for him or his company he’s going to have someone who would shred anyone for thinking of suing him or his company.   That by the time he got done with them, they would be a whimpering mass of goo on the floor.  Someone like Harvey Specter … matter of fact he is Tony Stark’s lawyer.

Q: Is there going to be more on The Losers / Rizzoli and Isles/ The Vatician? I.e. More back story?

A: Yes.  There is more story in the works for this particular storyline.  The first main story in it, is to see how Jane, Maura and Joey got together and how it all ties into Joey’s connection to Kiernan and the MacManus’.  After that their will be stories to explore Jane dealing with her past life, and how Cougar and Ernesto fit into their lives.

Q: Shogun Clan covers a large area, I assume a great part of the Asia continent, but the clan itself is not particularly large. With  future stories and with the revamping of sylum wiki will there be more character from that part of the world introduced?

A: With the reconstruction of the wiki, it’s let us again weed out characters that weren’t working and putting in new ones that make more sense for the area and Clan.  Shogun itself will likely never be very large, just by the dynamic of the Clan and it’s structure.  Though as we’ve revamped (No pun intended *smirks*) we’ve brought in more substantial characters that you will start to see interact more with the Sylum Universe in whole.  We’re basically starting to show how all the Clans work, with in themselves and within the larger Vampire Community.

Also as we develop the bios, storylines and ideas do emerge from them, giving us ideas to fit them into either larger works in process or their own stories.  Actually I personally have at least 3-4 stories that will predominantly by Shogun stories.

Q: Still from the vid coming soon I also noted the presence of Victor Henricksen when will we see him, now that Balthazar bit the dust, which Rogue is going to come up and torment the Winchester family?  I got to say from supernatural world my favorites female characters were Bela Talbot and on the later seasons Charlie Bradbury.

A: Yes at some point Victor Henricksen will enter into Sylum.  As there is already a 3rd Winchester story in the early stages of development, I can’t tell you exactly when he will show up.  As for a new Rogue will you’ll just have to wait and see on that one.  I will say there is a very very low chance any other ‘Supernatural’ characters will be showing up in Sylum.

Q: There is a new movie hitting the theaters Kingsman the Secret Service, is awesome, with a modern day round table spies. We have Merlin, Galahad, Arthur (Michael Caine) and Lancelot. Best of all we have amazing actions scenes with Colin Firth, would Camelot clan have a hand in its creation?

A: Kingsman storyline won’t be entering Sylum.  The concept doesn’t work, mainly because we already have the Merlin, Galahad, Arthur and Lancelot – and they are all busy running Clans and working on the Council.

As for the ‘spy network’ idea.

The Vampire Council has a Network of Spies ran by Lamont, these work throughout all the Clans.  Every Clan Leader has their own network of spies, hunters and the such that let them know what’s going on in their territory.

Extra Question:

Q: How much do you head desk and how do you and the others communicate and get things hashed out with the “Bobs”?

A: We have hired The Negotiator (aka General Kenobi) he’s been working with them to hash out storyline and intro to new characters.  At the moment there’s been indepth conversations with Raptors and rumors have it that Alien is in discussion over new characters to be introduced.

Q: When Imhotep is captured initially he asks about Dean’s necklace? was that ever explained and if so, in which story.  Sorry if this is incorrect recollection, definitely remember scene, just not sure who asked.  Haven’t read that since it first came out.

A: It hasn’t been fully explained yet.  The Amulet Dean wears is unique in many aspects and it’s history will start to unfold as the stories progress.  Let’s just say – no matter when, where, or incarnation – Dean has had that Amulet.

Q: Hansel and Gretel: witch hunters movie, would they be feasible in this universe since there is already a Gretel and a Hansel in the clans? Hansel is played by Jeremy Renner so he could just be the past or a period of life of one of the existing characters like Wilhelm Bradtenschtein.  And Gretel of the movie is played by Gemma Arterton, she exists in the clans as Tamina from Prince of Persia.

A: First off, as you stated, there is already a Hansel and Gretel in Sylum.  Hansel is the 2nd in Command of Weisheit Clan and Gretel his Mate.   As for Wilhelm and Tamina… yes we actually have background history for them to Hunt together.  And the inside joke is the fact they’ve introduced themselves as Hansel and Gretel – much to the dismay of the real pair.

Q: In the vid coming soon I saw some shots from the Star Trek reboot how soon will they be introduced to sylum ‘verse and will there be a crossover with the Star Wars? I refuse to choose a camp as I love them both, more yummy this way

A: Since Sylum Inspiration is May the Fourth Be With you – figured this was a good question to answer.  The Star Trek characters will arrive in Sylum in later storyline.  As we’ve seen Star Wars has already shown up to a degree.  As typical Sylum – we have a tendency to take characters, ideas, plotlines toss them all into a blender and hit puree.   So it’s never quite how you think it is or will be.  Just to tease … at some point Kirk will met Obi-Wan.  That’s all I’m saying about that!

Q: I have question regarding mutants, if they were to be turned in to vampires do they lose their powers or do they keep them? Or does it depend on the powers? If the changes are physically lets say like the Beast, they keep them but if is producing / creating something lets say lightning, as Storm would they lose them? When the powers are psychic we know from Sam and Speed that they keep them after the change.

A: In simplest terms, the Vampire Gene wraps itself around the already developed DNA.   So if the Mutation is developed, say like Storm, the mutation will stay, she’ll still be able to control the weather.  Now imagine for a moment a pissed off Storm,  when someone goes after her Vampire Mate *leaves that thought there for everyone to think about*

Someone like Cas, who already has his Wings, they will also stay after he’s Turned.   This comes from the fact the Vampire Gene sees his wings as normal and that it’s supposed to be part of the body.  If someone was to chop a wing off, the Vampire Gene will grow it back.  This is the same in a normal Vampire for limbs etc…

This also works in the opposite direction – if someone like Al already has an amputation, the Vampire Gene will not grow that leg back, as it reads that is normal for this body.  Now Al will have less pain and irritation due to the Vampire strength and healing, but he would still being deal with the amputation.

Now if the Mutation hasn’t developed, and they are Turned, the Vampire Gene will hold the mutation in check.  For example: Mystique was ‘cured’ then Turned so her Mutation at the moment is in check.

Q: Bones tv show characters exist in the clans, how come Booth and Bones are not mates? And Angela is not with Jack?  Will they come to be in future stories?

A: Sylum never does what is expected.  Not all ‘canon’ couples will stay the same in Sylum.  And sometimes it comes down to personal preference of the writers working with the characters.

These characters were added when we had a slew of ‘new characters’ way way back in the day.  When re-working Tallikut Clan I dumped Angela as the character was not relevant to anything going on in established or future stories.   Booth is already established in story and with other characters.   As I never liked Bones, I didn’t want her connected to Booth to deeply, he’s her Sire but that’s as far as it will go.

With the wiki being updated, ideas and bunnies have popped up dealing with variety of character and clans.  There will be more of Booth in upcoming stories, as he’s one of Tallikut’s Hunters and he does have connections to Angel.  Might not be in the next set of stories, but he’ll be around.

Q: Ernesto Olivietti (GOD I love that man) has referenced the events at the Colosseum in reference to Nico more than once.  What happened there or at least which story is it in? I haven’t found it and the few Sylum fans I know to ask can’t remember either.

A: *snickers* It’s amazing how Ernesto snuck into the series and made everyone fall in love with him!!  Colosseum Incident is a story that is coming … I would say soon but there are re-writes for Arcs still in the works.  Once the 10th Anniversary Edition is finished.  Colosseum Incident is the next big story.   It’s a big event that will change the course of many lives.  *evil tease*

Q: Will NCIS New Orleans have an impact on future storylines?  Considering that Tony and Gibbs transferred to the area and that Lucas Black is playing a character in the series.

A: NCIS New Orleans will have no impact on Sylum.

Q: Has there ever been an idea that you’ve fallen in love with but just didn’t work (either because it didn’t work in the story line or you had massive writer’s block on it)?

A: Many many ideas.  Did I mention many?  I’ll mention a few of them.

When Timothy was working on Demons and Angels and I on Roads Untraveled, one of the main things that we were trying to work out was if we should Mate Ernesto with Patrick.  *leaves that there for a few moments for everyone to absorb*  We went round and round and round, discussed what was already written, what was coming up in future storylines, and in the end it just didn’t work.  Though it’s still something we both would have loved to do.

When Sylum was started it was based on a small selection of character choices.  So some pairings, ideas developed from that concept.  Some of these I never liked or wanted.  Which is why in the re-writes your seeing changes in variety of pairings and characters.  Thomas now Mated with Brass.  The de-Mating of Greg and Gil.  The switch of the Rays for Benton.  Riddick’s Twins being re-worked and re-casted.

One idea that popped up that hasn’t left us alone is Nico Mated with Ezio.   Unless we wanted to literally toss everything out, we had to come up with how to work it into major story structure we already had – including dealing with Warrick.   We could never get it to work.   And believe me we’re good at making things work for us *cough* Its him but not him *cough* *shifty look* – so that bunny still sits in its corner, staring.   That doesn’t mean we didn’t work in some good  history and story with these two characters *smirks evilly*.

Q: Are all the Jeffrey Dean Morgan characters meant to be descendants of Wenceslaus? They all seem more similar as a family line than the Meridii. Although the almost all see harder and perhaps more inflexible than the Good King is generally considered to have been.

A: Yes the JDM characters are descendants from Wenceslaus.   They divided into two lines, one ended up in America, the other stayed in Europe.  Clay is on the European side.  Bunyan – had 12 siblings so from those siblings came brothers Edward and Isaac Blake.  From Eddie is John Winchester leading to Sam & Dean.

Your right on the fact they are not quite like Wenceslaus, especially considering he’s a Saint.  Though Wenceslaus may seem quieter more docile, you mess with his Clan or his Mate, the family traits would emerge.

Eddie Blake is a creature of his own.  No one is quite sure what exactly happened there.

Q:  There’s a new show on Netflix called Marco Polo in which Pierfrancesco Favino play’s Marco father. The timeline fallows Genghis Khan grandson, Kublai Khan reign.  Is there any plans to incorporate some of the character’s from the show to the clans?

A: I still couldn’t believe I missed the fact Pierfrancesco was in a new show!!! Though I’m not sure if I should thank or hit you for introducing the series to us.  Because of that, yes you will be seeing these characters in the future.  Matter of fact we introduced Maffeo Polo a few weeks back as a Character Introduction.

And as a personal Sylum in joke.  If your an Assassins Creed fan you would know it’s Maffeo and Niccolo that take Altair’s codex pages and scatter them around.  It’s Ezio reading their accounts, where he learns the story of Altair.

Q: I know Tony Stark, Bruce Banner & Clint Barton exist somewhere in the Sylum Universe.  Will any other Avengers be making appearances or do they not even figure into Sylum anywhere?

A: Yes and No is the simplest answer.  In typical Sylum way: how you think it will be won’t necessarily will be how it is.  Wow that was cryptic.  So yes in some form you’ll see Steve Rogers, Thor, Nick Fury, Coulson, and Natasha, but not how you expect it.   We will say this – there won’t be any ‘The Avengers’ or ‘Shield’.

Q: Are you going to do anything for the UK dramas… Lewis / Death in Paradise / Foyles War? Is it possible to bring Morse back to life?

A: Funny you should mention that considering who’s bio I just finished last night *cough* Lewis *cough*.  Camelot actually showcases many UK shows and history.  And well as for Morse, how can you not have him.

Q: Karl Urban is present in the various clans, will we be adding more of him from places as Almost Human, Judge Dredd or RED, which also has Bruce Willis another face that has popped up a few times in different clans.

A: There is no move to bring in his characters from either Almost Human or Judge Dredd.  There is story idea more like a lurking bunny for his character, William Cooper, in RED.  As we do have Frank Moses as a Council Spy – its likely at some point Cooper will show up.  When, where, how – Bob isn’t saying at the moment.

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Q: 2015 Sylum Con Dates set yet?

A: There will be no Sylum Con this year.  Due to RL and also prepping and trying to get everything done for the 10th Anniversary there was no way we could take out the time to plan a con.

But!

There will be one in 2016.  It will be held in Los Angeles.  More information will be available later this year.

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Remember if you have additional questions or just want to comment feel free to reply to this post!