Going through middle school meant I had way less time to do things for Gochin. In the past I would always make these little books and stories of large battles that happen. But I began to realize that the scope of the world could not hold it. There was too much of it around. I also didn’t know what to write, especially in a personal way. After all, I had only written something of a history book and profiles for nation. Doesn’t seem like a storybook at all.
For a while I had no idea what to do. Suddenly, something else came in. In one of our assignments, we had to do a CSI movie. I wanted the bad guy to be a cool secretive guy as if he was a superhero. Of course it was too hard to do, so that was rejected. That person was stuck to my mind though, so I gave him a nickname, “Jason Infinity”. I began building on to this character, something I really hadn’t done a lot of. In the original story for the CSI, Infinity had killed people who had wronged him before (apparently through really violent bullying). He killed everyone except one, Joanne Meriweather. Infinity was able to escape, along with his accomplice, Kaine Eternity.
There are a lot of things that were to happen in the expanded universe. In this one, Jason Infinity (a.k.a Leigh Lionel Wilkins) is English, helped by an accomplice Kaine Eternity (a.k.a Thomas Drinkirk). He is also supported by a clever college dropout named Jared Hawk (Arthur Evergreen). They all try to make this idealistic dream that the world can be a place of moral justice free of crime and corruption if they had just enforced stricter laws that will make the entire world safer and better (now that I think of it, it makes a good story for a manga). He was able to break Joanne Meriweather from Pelarie Jail and converted her to an idealist like him. As Infinity was once a soldier, he had since quit and joined the police and is partnered with Nicholas Greene, a fellow officer who would become his rival in the future. Overtime, Infinity gained support and all over the world protests and riots turned into gunfights and battles on the street. Infinity began to make himself public, ruling parts of the world that follows his ideals and becomes an overlord. His army is known as the Militia, serving him in every way. To deal with the threat, the Gladiators were born as an international army formed to fight the Militia. After a long war, the Gladiators suppressed them, but the Militia hid underground. After a while, the Militia reemerged and began restarting the war, but Kaine Eternity decided to break from Infinity and created the Raiders, who fight both Infinity and Gladiators alike. The raiders become increasingly successful from their attacks and began terrorizing more cities. The Militia and the Gladiators decided on a truce to fight off the raiders. As a result, The Infinity And Greene Allied Coalition, or Tiagac was born, based off Overlord Infinity and Nicholas Greene’s agreement. They effectively fought off the Raiders, but began committing atrocities as well. Soon, the Militia and Gladiator alliance fell apart, and the Tiagac became its own faction. All sides are now at war, and its not going to be pretty.
This seemed like a good story for a video game and I actually thought it was a bit realistic. I began indulging myself in that world, drawing soldier models and characters based off those people. For a while, that world has dominated my mind for a long time and Gochin began to fade away. It was also the first time I get to work on the world with someone. Pine offered to help me design the world and eventually the Command and Conquer influences came in. I legitimately thought this world would be better than Gochin because Gochin had no substance of character. There wasn’t real story you could follow, no characters that stand out. There was only a bunch of nations then. From then on, I went with the Infinity Wars, while Gochin faded away.
I worked on the thing for about two years. Its hard to understand how I have gone for two years without Gochin. But I already had another world I can work with, using the real world as a basis. It was my first time exploring characters and focusing on them. I remember trying to create a biopic of individual soldiers like Robert Light, a Bringer of Light soldier, or Paul Eagle, a Raider rifleman. I began to design weapons with names, and vehicles like the Floatatus tank, ones that levitate in the air, or the Arachnid, a large spider like Raider vehicle that sprays toxins on people. I thought this world would be the definite one to work on, and Gochin was just a bit of history that faded away from my childhood.
Sometimes I do want to go back, but there was nothing to write about. I couldn’t draw the Gochinians or Centagonese anymore because I got disinterested. It was much more fun to draw a detailed soldier like a Militant or a Gladiator rifleman. There are also extraordinary characters that I can follow as well, ones that can become icons by themselves. I made a lot of cool people, and I thought that’s why I would like them.
As I kept writing about the story, I began to realize that there is a bit of a problem to it. I began questioning how they managed to create underground bases within less three years, with tunnels connecting all of them around the world. It will be difficult to put a sense of realism to this thing, but then again, it could have worked for a video game. But I’m not making a video game, I’m making a world that feels real to me. At that moment, I begin to feel that this world is going to be too difficult to create as a legitimate world and story. Sure I liked it, but I just felt a bit tired writing it. It was clear that eventually, I need to slow down.
Eventually, I looked back at Gochin again. I remembered how I was able to changed anything I want. When I used the real world, there were some rules I had to follow, like the countries and the names of the people and all that kind of stuff. I never had to do it in Gochin, because Gochin was a world that I made, and it was the one thing I was able to change and no one can complain about. I had fun doing the Infinity Wars, being able to write all of these characters who can have interesting but dark stories. I but I know I will have much more fun doing Gochin, being able to write expansively about this world and even bringing the darker tone into the story. I had to experiment with Infinity a bit, but I didn’t fail. Finally, was able to get more things that I never wrote for Gochin before, like focused character stories that would actually span the entire story. My first thought for Gochin was to focus on an island and show all of the characters, who will live, grow old, die, while other character continue to live, grow old, die. However, I get to focus on individual soldiers instead of significant people in the era, allowing for a more sentimental story. Suddenly, all of the massive wars I wrote before have toned down, not just because it was too unrealistic but because there was too many people dying to talk about. My old concept of destroying everything and conquering everything was still there, but exploring these individual characters will gradually change that mindset.
Gochin is back, fresh and new.
Jun's Thoughts on Everything 