Elohim Eternal: The Babel Code News

This time I’m talking about the Catalyst story beat. This is an important beat as it’s what starts the hero off on his new journey.

The catalyst (sometimes known as the inciting incident or the call to adventure) is always something that happens to the hero. It’s not something the hero does to himself. This can take many forms. Getting bad news from a doctor. A tragic accident. A cute meet (in the case of romantic comedies or buddy love stories). A declaration of war. A tournament. Whatever. It’s the thing that catapults your hero out of the Setup world and into a new world or new way of thinking.

You could also double-up on your catalyst. That’s the case for Elohim Eternal: The Babel Code. We’re going to talk about those two here (warning, spoilers ahead!!).

The first catalyst is when Joshwa finds the gate under Mount Sinai and then a Cainite surprise attacks him, cutting off his arm. This is a huge event. Not only have we just learned that Cainites still exist (and so the war never ended), but Joshwa has just lost his right arm, his dominant arm, the arm he uses to hold his sword and fight. It’s also something that quite obviously happens to Joshwa. He didn’t cut off his own arm. It’s after the catalyst that we then get to the Debate (the next story beat we’ll talk about).



The second catalyst is after Joshwa and Beyoz return from confronting Balaam. Again, here we have another call to adventure. The gate into Mount Sinai won’t open and it’s discovered that the Idinites need a special code (called the Babel code) to open the gate and the only way to get that code is to venture into enemy territory in Ugarit. Someone must go retrieve the code, hence the call to adventure. And who takes on that call? Joshwa and Beyoz, with Ruthia. Again, something has happened to our heroes: they can’t open the gate and they need a special code. A new adventure begins! Off to a new “world”: Ugarit.



It is, of course, much cleaner to have just one catalyst and then you’re off on your adventure, but sometimes it’s necessary to have more than one.

The Debate beat comes next (sometimes also known as the gathering allies and equipment beat). Stay tuned!

Just a very quick and small fix.

It’s obvious that stories need a setup, but what does that mean, really?

The setup is the status quo of the main protagonist. It’s what he does on the regular. It also introduces supporting/side characters and the protagonist’s tangible goal (that which he thinks will make him happy, also known as the protagonist “want” or “external goal”). But that’s not all the setup is designed to do. It’s also demonstrating the problems that need to be fixed with your protagonist (his flaws) and the world itself (the setting’s flaws). Ideally, these things will be “fixed” or remain “broken” by the end of the story (depending on whether you’re telling a tragedy or a comedy).

So how do you show the setup? It can be intimidating to figure out where to start, but the way to do it is to show your protagonist in three different stages of their life: what does your protagonist do for work? What does your protagonist do at home? What does your protagonist do during play? You don’t have to show all three and certainly you can blend them, that’s totally up to you. This is just a framework to help setup the Setup, so to speak.

How did I do this for Elohim Eternal: The Babel Code? Let’s take a look (beware, spoilers ahead for the beginning of the game!)



Under Mount Sinai – The game starts here and it’s a kind of tutorial dungeon. It introduces the main mechanics of combat and lets you play around with the controls and get used to the customization of the game. Of the three, this part of the game is actually Joshwa’s “play”. You think it’d be work, since this is a mission for judges and prophets, but it’s actually not, mainly because Joshwa isn’t a judge and he shouldn’t even be there, so he’s “playing” as a judge. It’s what he wants to become, a judge.



Jericho – The next area and story sequences are at Jericho. This is the work part of the Setup beat, mainly because Jericho is the HQ of judges, soldiers, and prophets. It’s their “office”. And lastly we have…



Nurya’s Villa – This one’s easy: it’s literally Joshwa’s house, the place where he grew up. This one’s the home part of the Setup beat.

As you can see, for Elohim Eternal: The Babel Code I showcased all three of the components that can make up the Setup: home, work, and play.

But what about what needs fixing? Well, let’s see: you’ve got the Jehudans and Attikans hating each other; you’ve got Cainites dying out; you’ve got the existence of still more Cainites when it was believed they were eradicated; Joshwa is wounded severely; Ruthia is imprisoned; the Idinites aren’t in the Kingdom of Heaven even though they really think they should be; and to make matters worse, Jericho is falling apart and is in need of constant repairs.

That’s a lot of stuff that needs fixing!

The thing about Elohim Eternal: The Babel Code is that the Setup is layered, and that mainly has to do with the complex worldbuilding. In Screenplays and movies, the Setup is usually within the first 10 minutes (sometimes first 5 minutes!). For novels, the Setup is usually the first 10 percent of the book (which can range depending on how long the book is). For video games? Well, that also depends on the game and the story. It's totally fine to have a shorter Setup and totally fine to layer in the other beats (like the Opening Image and Theme Stated) with the Setup.

The last thing I want to leave you with is that the Setup should include a feeling of impending danger or death if things stay the way they are. In other words, if things don’t change for this world and your protagonist, it could spell doom. It doesn’t have to be a literal death, but it can be. I do this by showing that Joshwa’s external goal of becoming a judge (his want, the thing that will make him happy) is seemingly dashed after he’s wounded. Joshwa has to figure out something, he has to change, if he has any hope in obtaining the thing he thinks will make him happy.

And that’s the Setup beat. The next beat I’ll be talking about is the Catalyst beat.

To celebrate the Steam Summer Sale, I've released this FREE e-book that takes place in the Elohim Eternal universe! It's a prequel novella. Many of the characters you'll read about in the novella are featured in Elohim Eternal: The Babel Code.

It's completely free and you can download it for your e-reader or download the PDF.



Claim your copy now!

It seemed people liked the post on Theme, so I thought I’d break down other story beats in Elohim Eternal: The Babel Code. Today I’m talking about the opening image.

It’s obvious, right? Every story has what screenplay writers call an “opening image”. Novelists have this, too, but often call it “the hook,” and it's usually found in the first sentence, paragraph, or chapter. Video games have this, too, but it’s more like how screenplay writers see it than how novelists see it.

So, what is an “opening image”? Is it meant to grip your attention? It can. Is it meant to start in media res (in the middle of)? It can. Is it meant to be big explosions? A fight scene? Fireworks? It can.

An opening image is basically the starting point of the hero. It’s the “before” snapshot of our hero. Before he goes on his journey, and before he is transformed by the journey. It also sets up tone, mood, scope, and setting.

I applied this same storytelling technique to Elohim Eternal: The Babel Code. The opening image is the first five minutes of the game, just before the scene where we meet Lamech.

Here’s some screens of it:







What does this opening image tell us? Let’s break it down.

What is the starting point of the hero and what’s his “before” snapshot? Right at the start Joshwa goes down on bended knee and prays to his gods, the Kosmokraters. So it’s obvious from the start that this is a very religious and pious man. We also learn that he wants to be a judge, and that his father was one and is no longer with us (that sets up a bit of a sympathy for the hero…after all, it sucks losing your dad!).

What about the tone, mood, scope, and setting? We’re under a mountain (the game opens up under Mount Sinai), Joshwa is praying, and we know the mountain we are under is called Mount Sinai. It’s underground. The mood is dark and eerie, weird even. And there’s definitely a religious tone and setting here. And religion tends to have quite the epic scope, so that’s communicated as well. It’s also a rather slower opening. There’s no big explosions. It’s not a Michael Bay film. I wanted the player to ease into the game, get comfortable, and realize they are entering a whole other world with its own religion, lore, history, and important historical figures (akin to games like the Elder Scrolls). It's a complex world.

Here's the thing about the opening image: the end of a story should always have a final image and that final image should be the opposite of the opening image. Why is it the opposite? Because your hero has changed and so has his world view. Novelists do this, too, but often call it a mirror. It’s so much like a mirror that novelists (the good ones, at least) will use similar words, paragraph lengths, sentence structure, etc. for the ending as they did for the opening. It creates a sense of closure, as though the cycle of this story is complete.

And that’s the opening image. The opening image is the easiest thing to spot in any story since you can always count on it being the very first thing you see, read, or play. So try and see if you can list all the characteristics of the stories you like.