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TheConductor

 The Protectors: Volume 1: The Living Shadow

• Plot
  
  
  
  • Andrew Travlo is an 18 year old young man who has just passed his final exam in the in the Magic Union as a Protector. He has been placed in charge of a squad of five; himself, a goblin named Grimner, a fairy named Vallin and human twins Moira and Kerry Anne.
  
  
  
  

 

Andrew always thought being a Protector would mean he could travel the world, getting into magnificent battles with monsters. However, as low level agents they have discovered that most of their duties consist mainly of paper work and occasionally standing watch at dull magician shows.

 

Finally, things start to pick up when two rifts open up between Tagrathal and Anstruther, one of which is massive. The teams’ supervisor; Professor Anderson (their supervisor) allows the team to take care of the smaller rift while he and three other squads go to take care of the large one.

 

When the squad reaches the rift, it tears open, becoming much wider than it was. From it, a group of Youkai from the Tyshar tribe try to break through into Tagrathal. (The Tyshar are a race of creatures that are made of a gooey substance that can take many forms). Vallin suggests that they should call for back up, but Andrew insists that they close the rift themselves. As Moira and Kerry Anne focus on closing the rift, Grimner, Vallin and Andrew kill any Tyshar that break through.

 

After the fight, Andrew believes that the rift has been properly closed, what he doesn’t know is that a very small Tyshar has slipped through a tiny crack that has been left (this is the titular Living Shadow). The shadow smuggles itself into Avalon with the squad and starts eating rats to allow it to grow.

 

As the Shadow keeps growing, it starts to kill Protectors. When Andrew finally becomes aware of it, he asks for Professor Anderson’s help and the two of them tear open a new rift and force the Shadow back into it. However, as it’s slipping in, the Professor hits it with a killing blow claiming that it’s too dangerous to be allowed to live. In its dying throes it yells out “For the QUEEN!”

 

Andrew doesn’t have time to question the Professor’s callous killing of the Shadow because he is immediately surrounded by guards; Thaddeus (One of the six Grand Masters of the Protectors and head of Andrew’s chapter) announces that Andrew is under arrest for causing the death of several wizards through recklessness, ending the story on a cliff-hanger.

 

 In an epilogue, we see a dry, barren, waste land. In the centre of it, the Shadow lies, breathing its last breaths, when from its mouth falls a large egg. It lets out one final grin before whispering “For...the queen”.

 

 

• Setting Details
  
  
  
  • In the first volume of the series (or, the first 8 issues depending on if Image wants to do it as a monthly series or a GN series.) we will be introduced to several core components of the series, including The Protectors, the Three Realms, the missing Gods and who the Protectors are and what they do.
  
  
  
  

 

• The Protectors are an organisation consisting entirely of wizards, their job is to police magic. The ensure that only people with the correct licenses practice magic and also have to take care of things when spells go wrong. The Protectors are divided into six chapters; each one is expected to train and police a specific type of magic.

 

• Blue wizards focus on spell casting. They use magic to give themselves super powers such as super strength, flight, endurance and can cast simple spells such as fireballs, lightning and raw magical energy. Most wizards start in Spellcasting as it plays to the old adage of “easy to learn, difficult to master”, most wizards find their attributes in this chapter before requesting transfers.

 

• Green wizards are known as Conjurors. They are the best at creating spells and curses, although the chapter focus more on the technical side of magic rather than practical.

 

• Red wizards are combat specialists, known as the Divinators; Red wizards only bother learning spells that make killing things easier. They also deal in divination. Many Divinators use their powers to look slightly into the future to give them an edge in combat, reacting to attacks before they’ve even been used.

 

• Yellow wizards are Summoners, a very difficult kind of magic, summoning involves pulling demons from Anstruther and controlling them. They also deal with portals, both between the realms and around them.

 

• White Wizards are primarily Medics, however they also learn other defensive magic, such as shields. Medics come in two types; field medics who focus on quick patches to help injured wizards during combat and internal medics who offer more permanent cures for damage done to combatants.

 

• Purple wizards are Alchemists they deal in the creation of potions, weapons and other technology. 

 

• In this setting the wizards are descendants of Humans and Youkai and as such, have abilities from both species (such as the ability to create things, innovate and imagine from humans, and the ability to store magic in their bodies as well as cast multiple spells at once from the youkai).

 

• The three realms:

 

• The first of the three realms is Tagrathal, this is where humans live (here, humans means everything from traditional humans, dwarves, trolls and the like). The idea for Tagrathal came to me as part of a mental exercise in which I imagine what a fantasy world like Middle Earth progressed from their medieval style setting into the modern day. I felt the setting was worthwhile and had some genuine potential for stories.

 

• The second realm is Anstruther, this is where the youkai live, the youkai come in 82 races, I’ve only come up with a few, this leaves us with room to be creative and create new species as the story calls for it.

 

• The final realm is Avalon, this is the home of the Protectors and consists of nothing bar a very large castle and its grounds, the rest of Avalon is an empty white space.

 

• Characters:

 

• Andrew Travlo: The protagonist of the story. Andrew is a young man out to make his father proud, constantly pushing himself and his teammates to be the best they can be. Andrew can be stern and judgmental and despite having his heart in the right place often seems unlikable, allowing very few people in.

 

Physically, Andrew is tall and broad shouldered with a strong jaw and chin to match. His hair is dark red.

 

• Fol’Kou’Dar Grimner: A light hearted goblin who acts as a counter balance to Andrew’s sternness, he tries to keep the group in high spirits, constantly boosting morale. Despite his jovial attitude, Grimner is the most competent wizard of the group, in combat he acrobatically jumps from foe to foe, effortlessly firing off complex spells.

 

His name comes from the Goblin system of naming system that has the family name first, followed by a given name. The family name is made up of the first syllables of his last three ancestors’ names. As such, any children Grimner has would be named Kou’Dar’Grim.

 

Grimner has vibrant green skin, large (almost rabbit like) ears (which are crooked) alongside his long nose. His nails are sharp and yellow. Goblins traditionally don’t wear shoes as it allows them to make use out of their long prehensile toes.

 

Prince Vallin Woodrow: The haughty, lazy, self centred, spoiled, short tempered fairy prince never passed any exams and is only a member of the squad because he yelled enough to have his family pull strings for him. Although he is a prince, he has no real chance of becoming king as he is only the cousin to the heir apparent. Still, he has takes great pride in his station and delights in reminding everyone around him of who he is.

 

Moira and Kerry Anne Smith: Twin sisters who act as the support for the group, the two of them specialise in healing spells and potions. Moira is the much more confident and tomboyish of the two, preferring to do field work and keeps her hair short. Kerry Anne is timid and easily startled, preferring to patch her team mates up when they return from battle.

 

It is important that Kerry’s eyes are very bright, vibrant blue (as this is a plot point related to the Missing Gods mentioned earlier (see the included time line for more details)) in a slight sliver of her overall colour.

 

Professor Anderson: The enigmatic supervisor of the group, commonly known as simply The Professor, Professor Anderson appears to be a middle aged man but is actually much older. In addition he is actually the son of Andrew and Kerry from the future. His real name being Dramicious Travlo. These facts will not be revealed until well into the series’ run.  He has the same eyes as his mother, but the blue has significantly dulled. He has hair that is grey on the top and black on the sides, along with a goatee.

 

 

The Living Shadow: The villain of the piece, The Living Shadow is a Youkai of the Tyshar tribe. Although it acts like little more than a ravenous beast, closer observation makes it clear that the Living Shadow is a cunning hunter with big plans. In its fully grown form it looks almost like a combination of a baboon and a wolf. It has rubbery, jet black skin and is around eight feet tall (when it stands fully erect). It’s long black legs end in large clawed feet, similarly it’s long black arms end in clawed hands (with very long fingers).

 

Its arms and legs are so long that they are almost always bent. Its head resembles a wolf’s, with a long snout, however the creature has very small ears.

 

Thaddeus Foreman: One of the six Grand Masters of the Protectors, he is a Gandalf/Dumbledore figure who dresses in sky blue formal robes, rather combat armour.