Hey,

I always wanted this project to bring the three parts of my hobby together, my love for sculpting, painting and writing fantasy fiction.  As such, now the sculpting is on it’s way, it’s time to really begin to write down the premise for the piece.  I decided to do this on Snowflake Pro, and you can see my thoughts on that particular piece of software here.  The snowflake method is something that is usually reserved for writing a novel, but I figure that fabricating a world for a roleplaying/tabletop skirmish game is similar enough.  So, what you see below are the fruits of my labour.  This is designed to enable the consultant I’m meeting next month who has designed the roleplaying game and the skirmish game mechanics to ‘get’ the background as efficiently as possible.  I hope you approve, I’d love to know what you think.

Malice in Wonderland in one sentence (like the tag line):

An asylum, codename Wonderland, is breached and those who find themselves trapped inside are left unsure of  their sanity and the meaning of reality.

Malice in Wonderland in one paragraph (like the blurb on the back of a book)

At the time of the fall of the USSR, an experimental military asylum codenamed ‘Wonderland’ is breached by revolutionaries.   They inadvertantly set off an experimental weapon that wiped the memories of those nearby.  The denizens are now left with no true idea of who is guard, who is prisoner, who is innocent and who is guilty, or who is sane and who is insane.   The very fabric of reality is torn.  Will you step down the rabbit hole?

Malice in Wonderland in more detail, like the intro to a book:

A group of revolutionaries, some military, some civilain, and some say a member of a foreign intelligence agency broke into the asylum posing as various visitors, inspectors and guards.

As they set up an EMP device to take down the outer perimeter fence and the security system which locks down the prisoners. As it fires, something happens. No one knows what. The incursion group panicked – they had no idea that had happened. All the prisoners wired to the central hub had their minds wiped, or did they? No one knows what happened to them, although there are rumours that one member of the incursion force survived an attack by hulking monsters, and that he still walks the complex, the only one with true knowlege of what went on.

As for the rest of the residents of Wonderland, the corridors, labs, courtyards and fences that make up their prison home mean something different to each of them. Factions have developed, as people reach out to grasp at fabricated strings of power and authority, writing their own stories as they go. Some join them, and some choose to stay neutral. In this twisted cesspool, The future is the inmates most precious commodity as reality is defined in the eye of the beholder.

A little background on each of the core release Malice characters:

Alice

She’s young, nothing but a little girl, but when she thinks things they have a habit of coming true. In wonderland, there isn’t much plesant to occupy her mind, except a picture book by Louis Caroll. Now she’s friends with the people that she likes, but not many of the things she’s seen since the incident have been healthy for a little girl. The woman in the skirt has tried to talk to her, but Alice didn’t like her, labelling her the Queen of Hearts. Maybe she made a random decision, maybe she saw into her mind to see her motivation, or maybe she was listening to the mysterious figure with the bunny ears. What ever the reason, she’s a powerful girl who has long yet to grow into an understanding of her power. Is she the leader or the puppet? either way she forms a counterpoint to the Queen of Hearts’ plans for power and domination.

The White Rabbit

Since the incident, noone has seen her face. She stands alone, without apparent friends, but since they first met, Alice has treated her like a big sister. Is she the puppet master or sheltering in her power? Only time will tell.

The Cheshire Cat

<Information Classified; Partial record follows>

Name: Cheshire (possible pseudonym)

Age: Classified

Occupation: Classified

Other known facts: Tall muscular build, extensive martial arts experience, prolific collector of knives.

The Queen of Hearts

The Queen of Hearts is the self styled Govenor of Wonderland, ever since the incident she has been set on running the joint. She seems like a good option, she has her ‘Hearts’ behind her, a personal army of unhinged individuals dedicated to doing her dirty work.

Tweedledum/Tweedledee

Tweedledum and Tweedledee are huge hulking beasts who pay testament more than most to the insane experimentation which took place in the asylum when it functioned properly. This terrifying pair of twins are inseparable. Both are insanely strong, huge frames filling corridors as they duck through them. The two twins are exactly the same in every way, except for one small difference. Tweedledum is flesh and bone (mostly), but Tweedledee is exactly the opposite, a mechanical avatar for an insane mind. Whether they were once the same person now split between two warped bodies, or if they were different people no one knows.

The Mad March Hare

At the time of the incident, the man now commonly known as the Hare was locked down more securely than most. It didn’t take long for the other inmates to become inquisitive and free him. No one knows what happened to them, but there are rumours that their bodies were never found. He’s little more than a psychic weapon, malnourished and desparately unhealthy, he switches from periods of unmoving silence and utter madness. Various people have tried to control him, and the Queen of Hearts would dearly like to harness his power for her own gain. However, when he is around Alice, he seems to work under her spell. He follows her like a pet now, when she moves from her playroom around the asylum, it’s like when she’s around he’s sane. The White Rabbit isn’t taking any chances though, whenever the three of them are seen together, she still keeps him shackled.

The Mad Hatter

The doctor is in the house. What is the one thing a mental asylum needs more than anything else? A psychiatrist to look after the patients. Or control them. Or experiment on them. Or imprison them without rhyme or reason performing vivisections and implanting bionic contraptions for fun. Who knows? Rumour has it that he hasn’t got a clue who he is or why he’s in Wonderland, but he is adamant that he’s the psychiatrist, running a precisely tuned experiment into human interaction under stress. He will tell anyone about it if they’re stupid enough to ask, the question is, how sane is the only person in Wonderland who could understand what sanity means.

And there we go.  I hope that’s given you a flavour of the world I’m trying to create.  Like i say, any thoughts you may have would be great to hear.

James