About

About the story, The Obsidian Tale:

The story begins with a teenage girl named Lydia who is chased by the Gammel army/government. Their best known scientist crystallizes her mind and personality into an orb that accidentally shatters into seven different personality traits all over the world. Rina (Lydia's best friend), Felix, and Clyde (two villagers who accidentally clash with these girls) join together to search for each personality shard, revealing more of Lydia's character after each shard is retrieved. However, as the plot progresses, we also learn why the Gammel government had been trying to steal her energy in the first place; the conspiracy may disrupt the entire world of Rhadessia.

*NOTE: If you want to learn more about these personality shards, scroll down below to the 'Journal' section.

About the author (Matthew Tran):

I am a currently working as a full-time employee who obtained a BA in Business Economics from the University of California, Riverside. I also enjoy Computer Science, Astrology, and Creative Writing, hence why this story was created! I have been working on website designing along with story creation since 2010 (my first completion went from April 2010 - October 2013). The Obsidian Tale was first idealized on 2013, began posting in September, 2014 and will be current until December of 2015. I spend about ~15 hours weekly on vigorously updating this website, and I enjoy every last hour of it!

"Why should I read this story? How does it benefit me?":

Although the entire story may look drastically long, that's not the part you need to worry about when reading this. You see, this story was created by an amateur writer who had not taken 100 courses in Creative Writing, so he (myself) is writing in his own experience and perspective - organically from his own knowledge rather than what is learned in class.

To answer the question about why you should read this story, one reason is because this story is rather easy to understand - at least for me. Disregarding possible confusions in the plot, the dialects and jargons used are not of college or PhD level.

This story benefits you because it gives you a redeeming chance to enjoy reading. Most people dislike reading because it is boring, slow-paced, or it's just not interactive. This story is as close as you can get with interactions such as levels (for videogamers) and optional scenes (for those seeking comedy). Once you read this story, you can go about your world and tell other people, "Yeah, I like reading!" because it's written in a style of a television series, not a novel.

Precautions:

Before you read, please do note that the story may contain minor profanity (for the purpose of bringing out the personality of a character archetype) and sensitive scenes that involve tears and characters who pass away.

World Map:

Journal:
What are personality shards?

• There are seven personality shards that have separated all around the world. These shards are the key to revive Lydia's emotions, memories, and knowledge. Without it, she feels nothing. The seven shards are split into color, each representing a personality (colors may be inaccurate due to limited tools):
• Red - Love: in this story, 'love' means the capacity to show friendship towards others. Without 'love', she doesn't consider anybody important nor would she be able to fall in love, simply put.
• Orange - Courage: this creates the ability to become brave during dire situations. If Lydia has the fear shard without courage, she may cry endlessly for simple things such as stepping on ants.
• Yellow - Knowledge: in this story, 'knowledge' basically means her entire past memory. Without it, she won't remember anything or anybody, including her best friend, Rina.
• Green - Instinct: with the green shard, Lydia can control her movements. Without instinct, she would punch or kick anybody without a reason.
• Blue - Truth: the blue shard causes Lydia to be honest to others and herself. Without this shard, she will not be honest with how she feels, causing her to hide her true emotions and making the love shard useless.
• Indigo - Fear: this unlocks Lydia's ability to be afraid. Although this may sound like a bad shard, it is necessary. If Lydia only has the Courage shard, she will be too confident and will become reckless.
• Violet - Sympathy: this allows Lydia to show emotion. In the story, she has trouble asking questions because it always sounds like statements. She would not be able to show anger nor fear (as long as she does not have the fear shard).
• Lydia's personality + Order or regaining shards (THIS SECTION CONTAINS SPOILERS. The text will not be in color for this section to help prevent people from accidentally spoiling themselves):
• No shard (episode 1): Lydia becomes an emotionless puppet and she rarely talks. She doesn't remember anybody or anything.
• Blue - Truth (episode 4): Lydia receives her first shard: truth. With this, she's still emotionless but she talks slightly more - but only the truth. Sometimes, her truth may come off as blunt because she lacks instinct and sympathy.
• Indigo - Fear (episode 6): With the Fear shard, Lydia constantly cries while telling the truth such as 'stepping on ants is murderous'. She blames herself on every situation that Felix and Rina faces.
• Yellow - Knowledge (episode 13): Lydia finally remembers who Rina is - her best friend. She also remembers her history but she doesn't talk about it until a few episodes after. Although she has a memory, she still doesn't show sympathy towards others.
• Violet - Sympathy (episode 17): By this time, Lydia's personality starts to brew. She finally shows care for others, but she can't show her love for them nor does she have the ability to fight for what's right due to the lack of courage. On episode 17, she saves Floir from falling into an ocean, but she doesn't understand why she decided to save a villain.
• Green - Instinct (episode 21): With the green shard, Lydia no longer attacks people for no reason. She can control her body movements and feelings, all except her tears because she still lacks the courage shard. Without the courage and love shards, she still cannot express feelings that are deep within her heart.
• Orange - Courage (episode 26): Lydia now has six shards and she can control her full emotions especially her tears. The only thing she does not have is love and her ability to prioritize who and what is most important to her. She has little indication on which people are friends or are attractive.
• Red - Love (episode 39): Although Lydia never retrieves the red shard (because it becomes shattered into many pieces), she learned to rebuild her own interpretation of love - to love her friends as if they were family to her.

Running gags:

• In this story, almost every character has a distinct running gag with one another.
• Rina never calls Felix by his actual name. She always says 'Suspenders'.
• Lydia punches Felix for no reason (as long as she lacks the Instinct shard).
• Clyde flirts with Rina every time he sees her.
• Lionel's threats are too descriptive ("Shut up or I will slice your legs off and feed them to...", etc)
• Forrest often times mispronounces words due to his lack of education while living as an orphan on the streets for several years. Rina corrects him.
• Spencer cries too much.
• Lady Pria falls into tears (you would think she is emotional) but her reasons for crying are odd, such as, "I'm crying because you humans are all so weak."
• Leo yells and panics before he discovers something unsanitary.
• The Merchant Girl, Zedd, and Tedd all appear in every big city or town to sell useless luxury that nobody buys. Most of the time, they're just ignored.
• Ace uses outdated catchphrases ("You bite your tongue!")
• Hazel physically hurts people (by punching) but only does it when she's flattering someone. She doesn't realize her own physical strength.
• Warren is afraid of bunnies.

Reading gimmicks (writer's notes):

• Opening pictures - In the beginning of every episode, there is a 3x4 image of scenes every 13 episodes. For example, Opening 1 involves scenes that occurred in episodes 1-13, and Opening 2 includes episodes 14-26, etc.
• Music - This is for interpreted music listeners who can imagine the story with music that they heard of or love in other well-known series.
• World map - One of my stories' original gimmicks involve the world map system. For obvious reasons, you need to have some kind of map to see where the characters are traveling to next.
• Level system - This is mainly for videogamers who enjoy seeing characters get stronger and level up. The main characters level up through boss battles or minor battles. Sometimes, it may be off-screen as well.
• Optional scenes - A new implementation to my stories are the optional scenes. It's like pressing the 'Select' button in certain videogames to view optional scenes. These are completely filler, but can help you understand the character a little more, at least the fun side of them.
• Physical forms - Certain characters such as Lydia and Leo may change appearances due to shards or hair reasons. Be wary of their face or hair changes throughout the story.
• Guest forms - Characters' level status may change into 'Guest'. This means the character is still traveling with the main group, but is incapable of fighting.

History:

• 20 years prior
• There had been rumors that a poisonous leak sprouted from the Village of Saradeli, and that someone must have planted it all over the crops. Because of this, the economic condition for the village had fallen in terms of import and export goods.
• War of Vector - So far, we know that this occurred 20 years ago. Nothing else is said about it, although this war being at the same time as the Saradeli poison marks suspicion.
• Hazel also took part in an adventure on her own at this time with several friends.
• Mentioned on episode 27, Hazel reveals that she was a part of the protagonist group against Waltzer, 
• Characters involved in her group: Hazel, Warren, Luna, Orlando, ??? (in Winstel's government currently), and ??? (chose not to mention)
• Igor at the time did research at the Merridian Laboratory. He found small remnants of Waltzer, a man who was sealed away 980 years ago. He was sealed away again, successfully, but it left a scar to most of Rhadessia's natural world.
• Luna and Orlando's graves reside at the Grandine Hillage, indicating that they had to sacrifice their lives to stop Waltzer.
• 7 years prior
• The entire Obsidian race had been annihilated by the Gammel army, but this is a conspiracy to many civilians across the world of Rhadessia. Only the main group knows the truth and claims the Gammel army is truly evil.
• Forrest and his friends' families have disappeared at the same time. The fact that this occurred at the same time with the Obsidian eradication creates some suspicion and connection.
• The Terraineous beast became berserk and Hazel claims it had consumed Obsidian energy years ago - 7 years in assumption.
• Felisse and Warren developed a friendship.
• 1000 years prior [MAJOR SPOILERS FROM THE FINAL EPISODES]
• Magnus, as a child, is seen being physically tortured by Waltzer as a test subject. His limbs are seen involuntarily ripped apart. 
• As a result, Magnus uncontrollably destroys his own hometown, Zozna, out of anger and spite. 
• This reveals the reason why Magnus wants to steal Obsidian energy from Rhadessia to restore Zozna the way he wanted.

Trivia:

This is a list of facts that the creator of the story thought of or changed throughout the process of writing. It contains minor ambiguous spoilers:

• Although Felix is considered the main character, Lydia was the very first character to be thought of.
• When creating Lydia's last name, it was purposely not listed with any other race (in our world) to represent Lydia being the last of the Obsidians.
• Forrest and his friends were originally going to be in the age range of 6-11 but due to the 7-year plot reason, they had to be a little older.
• Hazel is considered Japanese.
• Hazel was originally lighter-skinned.
• Rina originally had a medieval outfit.
• Remy was not going to have a name nor relevance until he was written back in later within the series.
• The Merchant Girl, Zedd, and Tedd should have appeared in Kyrie during Felix's first visit, but these three characters were created after starting the Ouli Brye arc.
• Felix and Mrs. Wolfram's color schemes are similar due to the fact that they are too poor, so they cut large outfits and split them for each other. This is why Mrs. Wolfram's sleeves are almost the same color as Felix's shirt.
• The Town of Igor was originally one of the least relevant places until it was written in as the laboratory with magic synthesis.
• Igor was originally not relevant either, but he serves big importance especially later in the series.
• There are two areas on the world map that serve no purpose but were almost written in during the creation of the story: a gap of land directly northeast of Loomin, and a peninsula southeast of the Lake City Prima.
• It was originally written that Talbot knew about what his research looked like from eye-to-eye, but due to plot constrictions, it was changed to the fact that he does not know what happens to humans when his research takes action.
• Leo was supposed to be dark-skinned.
• The flashback in 'Tribe of the Taujikans' was one of the very first scenes planned, despite it being on the 20th episode.
• The story breaks the 4th wall several times, such as on episode 18 when Rina learns 'Earth' magic. Only we (the readers) should know what Earth is. That is our planet and our land. In this story, their world is called 'Rhadessia', so it should be 'Rhadessia magic' yet Lady Pria persists to call it Earth magic. Rina then questions what 'Earth' means but her questions are never properly answered.
• Lake City Prima resembles a lot of London.
• It is rumored that if Spencer's parents were present, they would have been a part of the royal family.
• Jess is one of the very few characters, as a young teenager, to have a high amount of education and understanding especially for an orphan.
• Although Bailey's gender is never specified, he/she does have one. The loss in gender construct is a symbol of a loss in personal identity as a whole.
• The three capes that Jess gives all have tales and fortunes. The only one that does not have a tale and is left mysterious is Jess's own red cape.
• The story progress was complete by June 2015, but in October, the website took a 17-month hiatus due to full-time employment taking over time available.
• Gunther was originally not going to be a recurring character in volume 5.
• Episode 61 plays as a filler episode to let readers relax from all the drama.
• The Alternate Universe of school was originally going to be an OVA, but with time constraints, it was implemented as the filler episode.
• The school idea replaced the original idea of a play that mocks the characters' adventure.
• Episode 65 had an alternate ending, but nothing major.