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Unwritten Stories: Cathoris's Legacy

My first magnum opus... At least, you know, until I grew up and found out that it was kinda poorly written, even by shonen anime standards. It was a long run project of mine, that brought me a lot of joy and inspiration that would found the creation of characters like Zachery from Nepesh and his later appearances down the road, as well as conceptual concepts that are scattered around in nearly all of my fantasy titles. Even the fast paced combat ideas, kinematics, choreography, ideas of relation between constructs, physicality, mystasism, time shenanigans, ‘too dark too edgy’ teenage romance, and over the top power scale that could only be topped by Gurren Lagann. It ran for about 8 years, I loved it that much. What did it amount to? A whole lot of single use episodes, and a plot so barely held up that it made me question my own code of morality. So... It was a stepping stone towards growing up and I still love it despite the cringe. Oh, the cringe.

I did however, actually write about 6 chapters of the story when I was 13, which I still have under a file name that I seriously have difficulties finding at the best of times. It was also written in a very high end writing program called notepad, with no spell check and while I had absolutely no experience actually writing... So, it’s kinda fubar. I’m not uploading it, stop asking.

So why not re-write that story instead? If I could turn ‘do whatever story’ into Nephesh and make it in all seriousness, why not Chathoris too? I shook the magic eight ball on this one, and it turned up Nephesh. I considered Cathoris for a moment, and went with the successor, leaving Cathoris as my idea pool of unused content. The event flow for Cathoris was severely unstructured, and most things already had bad excuses for existing, let alone trying to rework them back in. It was an early attempt at a masterpiece, started out the same as a lot of my stories that went over the top, as a simple fun project... And I need to stop doing that before I loose all my free time.

Basic run of things: Daniel (original name, do not steal), also grew up in Summerland (specifically the house mentioned in Nephesh Chapter 17 in the ally, fun fact, they tore it down in 2019 –F**kers) had his parents randomly stumble upon a plush cat one day, and gave it to him. Daniel discovers the cat can walk, talk, and do magic. They become best friends. Please don’t leave yet, I swear it gets better; not for a while, but it does... Stuffed cat, named Cathoris one day disappears, after Daniel’s parents throw it away for the kid’s mental safety. You know, talking to it like it’s real, obsessively into his teen years, unable to focus in class, seemed like the kid had to grow up one day, right? “Whoops, he went missing, sorry kid...” Well, Daniel looses it, and pretty much drops out of everything, won’t talk, won’t communicate with anyone, won’t eat, looks like he’s about to die coz... His best friend essentially died there in the kids eyes.

So, one day his parents find the stuffed cat again, and say “Oh look, we found him again...” But... It’s not Cathoris, it’s his brother –OH SNAP It’s one of THOSE teenage stories ain’t it?! I was like 13, kay? Reason #1 why I didn’t rewrite it. Well, now that cat came out of the bag, this stuffed cat is an evil stuffed cat, teaches Daniel magic, how to fight, and trains him to kill Cathoris, not knowing that they already met. Well, one day Cathoris comes back and he’s not too bloody pleased about this, and has a battle in the school grounds. I seriously have to make this sound more interesting...

Long story short, the two cats continue their blood feud, Cathoris saves Daniel from a life threatening poison, and the true history is revealed incrementally over the course of it’s eight year production. In other words, I pulled it out of my ass as it went... So, here’s the final script... Ahem* Chronologically... Final revison.

In Egypt... because all the best stories start with that... Cathoris’s Dad was a magical beast, who fell in love with an ally cat, during his pursuit of knowledge about the ancient world, and the portal to Oblivia where the original hands crafted everything they knew. One day, the ally cat (now pregnant) gets kicked in the gut, barely survives, and only two kittens survive in the womb; those who took their father’s genetics, Cathoris and Merin... Don’t worry, he changes that to something dark and edgy in a few minutes, so you won’t have to remember it for very long. Cathoris and Merin grow up almost never seeing their dad except when he returns with new material in an old potions shop somewhere in a desert city. While training his kids, Cathoris’s dad who... --fek if I ever gave a name to... Takes fondly to Cathoris’s adept skills, and Merin gets jealous. Skipping 5 chapters of backstory, they end up in a fight and the two brothers use some real taboo magic which creates a paradox that can no longer resolve itself (this is highly important to the story) and consequently kills both of them in a massive explosion that rips apart space and time for a short bout. Their souls are left to wander in the desert until Cathoris comes upon a gypsy who stitches him a new body and binds his soul to it... Hence, the plush cat. Cathoris then takes up his father’s shoes and lives for a few thousand years learning magic like a nerd. Backstory over!

Chathoris trains Daniel, who must defend himself against attacks from all directions as Merin, who changed his name to Veldor (told you it was dark and edgy) and needs to change his man-tampon. If it seems like Daniel is unjustifiably in the middle of all this, it’s because I was 13, and it was the only characteral insert logic I could come up with in under 5 minutes of screen time. As attacks become frequent, Daniel gets renowned and goes by the name of Aaron Mitchel, which then inspired the name of Nephesh’s main character. Also, oblivia/oblavayah kinda founded the prison name in Emnity’s Lost Prodigy coz I thought it was cool.

One enemy Veldor sends after Daniel ‘and party’ is a forest spirit... Kay, it’s a freaking kitsune, coz I have problems, alright? More on this later... Daniel cannot bring himself to kill her, Cathoris purifies her, and becomes Daniel’s Girlfriend. I mean, she tries to, and Daniel will never bring himself to date a half animal chick. Don’t worry, I came to terms with my afflictions soon after.

For added fun, Veldor will occasional gather enough energy to summon a big honker mentioned in some old prophecy, same prophecy says there will be an equal number of sages who will stand by the hero to confront the powers of evil... Keep in mind, literally none of the backstory I mentioned came into play until a few years after this, so this is what I was riding with. Anyway Daniel goes around finding gifted people who can use magic in the day and age where magic is nearly unheard of anymore. Cathoris finds his old girlfriend, who is under Valdor’s captivity in order to be used against Cathoris as a trump card, coz we totally didn’t see that coming. I also forgot to mention that cat GF a while back, shit... Well, it’s a thing, okay? One day, big assault on evil base, they free the cat GF, and send Valdor packing to another backup castle because... Totally didn’t see that happening either... Added note: one of the big honkers kinda gets blastoed across the lake and makes a crater in Naramata hill; which gets a mention in Nephesh as an inside joke. No, it’s not canonical, it’s just a joke but I had my fun thinking no one would hear about it, and now I think it’s funnier just to mention it. Eventually they gather seven heroes and somehow stumble onto an eighth who seeks them out and asks to join. This is where shit gets interesting, and actually does something worth reading. Not yet, but soon.

Shelia, who Sophie of Nephesh was named after in the first session, forgotten, and renamed to something I’d actually remember, haha: retrospect is 20/20 like that... Well, Shelia has a strange spirit about her, able to bend space, time and reality. Something happens mid fight with Veldor and her power gets released like a nuclear bomb. Cathoris Teleports Daniel away to safty, and anyone one else he can before getting wiped out by the explosion. Don’t worry, we’ll examine this scene with a lot more detail a few pages down. Daniel returns after the big boom to find Cathoris die in his arms. As mentioned, this is where things get interesting as creates a somewhat stable timeline, more on that later.

Daniel moves to Calgary with his older brother and continues the fight against Valdor, with everyone he ever knew and loved dead in the explosion. This was crowned the ‘dark saga’ oOoOoh. Veldor becomes more and more powerful. Daniel finds his Kitsune GF who I have to rename for multiple reasons. We’ll call her Soria (name not important), which I think I renamed before in the 6 chapter written portion, but can’t remember. Turns out Soria survived as well, and they got lost. They fall in love finally, and Daniel has something to fight for. They had befriended a magician a while back, name undisclosed, who was on tour somewhere in the US when the big boom happened... So he was still alive; and mentions something to Daniel that sends him on a journey to fix everything, as he is not strong enough to deal with Veldor alone. Because brilliant plot design, or something... I think...

I know, it’s shit... Go leave it in the comments.

Daniel travels in search of a special place called “The hole” which is a place where manna collects and fossilizes. Egypt? Nope, it’s in British Columbia. (Lets skip like 12 chapters real quick...) When Daniel reaches the hole, somewhere along Anderson Lake, somewhere where even my dad wouldn’t tell me where it was... He finds a tree that opens up the way. Inside he is given any wish, but cannot turn back time itself so Daniel jumps back into an alternate dimension, right before the explosion to prevent it and keep his friend alive... Aaaand fucks up the timeline royally. More on this later.

Well, after 5 years of living alone, training against an even more powerful Veldor, Daniel wipes through the entire thing like nothing, saves the day and everyone is kinda confused who this guy is and why the original Daniel disappeared. Shelia joins the party, and everyone prepares for the final battle. Remember that whole seven people beside the hero thing? Yeah, well either I didn’t know how to count, or Cathoris wasn’t the hero, but they fight in the sands of Egypt. After releasing seven summoned monster souls from their bodies, PLOT TWIST they were originally one massive honker, they turn into the ultimate beast again... I really wish I could go back in time myself... and slap myself for most of this. Just really work the ear wax out with the back of my hand. Cathoris is baited into Veldor’s trap, by the promise of his original body, as Veldor returns to his. Big fight, good guys win, Daniel marries his kitsune wife and spends over 60 years trying to have a kid. More on that later. Can you tell I’m cynical about this story?

Apparently, in the future, Daniel and Soria found a portal that linked to another world... Sound familiar? Yeah, well Nephesh has a much better reason for those existing... So they go there as a vacation, and by golly, it’s another world alright. Another world with a plot so terrible and so barely held together with duct tape that I’ll be omitting about 40 chapters of this utterly irrelevant arc. I have a map of it if you’re interested. A few years later, and after about 50 some odd episodes of Fairy Tail, I got a real laugh when they did something similar... And they had a plot roughly as crap as mine, which is about as much as you’ll be hearing about it. I still already did it first, unbeknownst to anyone, but I feel a little less bad about it now, coz it’s not worth proving. It’s one of the few times I actually enjoyed seeing a concept I made happen from someone else a little later on, before I could claim dibs. I usually feel pretty awkward about that stuff, like there will be accusations that I “filed off the serial numbers” or something, but... That one, that one in particular I get to laugh at.

So, back to interesting shit and why it is called Cathoris’s “Legacy”. See, when Cathoris did some taboo magic stuff, and lost his body, a few things happened... 1, he angered some people or higher powers, and 2, he created a paradox that would not resolve itself. Let’s deal with the first one: Someone, from Oblivia, got pissed and came to take Cathoris away for their crimes. Why did it take a few thousand years? Probably because it’s hard to track down someone who is always moving, and no one knows who they are. Cathoris gets taken to Oblivia, and Daniel, like Kenshin to his girlfiend, must find and save their best friend. Daniel returns to his magician friend (name still undisclosed) and they piece together a riddle that Cathoris left for them. You see, Cathoris spent a few thousand years collecting knowledge and left a few caches behind along the way. The more pieces that Daniel and [Magician] find, the more they realize it was left to save him. Cathoris knew that he upset some people and was pretty good at being illusive, but we all get caught one day. Cathoris knows this, because when he places a piece or a hint somewhere in time and space, immediately someone from the future collects it as proof. That’s smart. Could have been an enemy, but not this round, it’s Daniel and [magician].

Along their journey, they find one of Cathoris’s old apprentices, who fights his master while possessed with a spirit like what was in Shelia, and purposely dies creating immense agony for Cathoris to ever take on another apprentice. A few more clues later, they come upon an old gateway, and with some more hints, the access into Oblivia.

See, anyone could enter Oblivia, and everyone does after they die, returning to the primordial realm without their soul. The gateway, allows you to keep said soul, and thus your magic. Otherwise, when you enter there, you’re gonna be met with a lot of monolithic deadly creatures. And yes, I did watch Bleach before this. I admit this one thing. See the idea was that a billion years ago, the hands that made the world became corrupt, and in order to live their lives, the inhabitants left taking the magic with them as they created the second world, and consequently, the third world where magic would no longer rule over them, locking the door behind them each time. The way it worked was that at a single moment in space where it was created, that is where the portal would open up, and that was the wormhole. From there, the world expanded into an ever growing plane of existence. This is important for the end. When someone died, they would be cast back into the primordial realm as a husk, and their soul would return to the point of origin in order for it’s energy to be redistributed throughout the world.

Daniel and magician (name heavily redacted) reach Cathoris, who is imprisoned for magic that upset space and reality, and Cathoris accepts this. Daniel does not. Many adventures in Oblivia later, he frees Cathoris and they journey together under some phony bullcrap I made up, that I’m not getting into. Long story short, I was experimenting and it didn’t pay out, but it had to do with the origin where all magic returned after death. They return to overturn the corruption of the rule in Oblivia and release the haze that was put upon it for over a billion years. Man this story needs to bloody end... Just not yet... But it does bloody need to.

Cathoris is freed from his moral bonds and everyone goes on adventures. Cathoris is saddened that he will outlive Daniel and they journey for immortality. They get it. Couple hundred years in the future, still going at it, and Daniel starts to notice some strange things happening. It seems like the world is falling apart and he gets to work figuring out what has happened. Remember how I mentioned that timeline thing that got fucked up? Yeah, it’s a little deeper than that. So...

Daniel always knew that he left behind his original dimension to make everything turn out, and everything in this parallel dimension was just a copy of the first... And it was getting time to pay rent on that. His family, his friends, his life was all crumbling, but then again, living a few hundred years is a lot more than most people get. Daniel becomes obsessed with understanding the mechanics of time and space and realize the anomaly, a loop in it all, a synthesized reality. As the world begins to fall apart, Daniel leaves for the world’s entrance, the place where that dimension was created before it relapses. Then he escapes back into his old world, destroyed, and in shambles where Veldor still lived king over nothing. With nothing left to undo the destruction, Daniel confronts Veldor to recreate the fight with Cathoris and wins, taking the next time hop loop back to it’s core, at the moment that the paradox occurred. Oh yes, it’s back to here again.

Daniel returns through time, to the day when the big boom happened, breaking the commandment that he should not mess with time (But we all know that ain’t the first time he’s done it). Daniel returns to Cathoris and pulls him aside, telling Cathoris everything that had happened. They go some place that they will stage their assault on the anomaly only find it’s already built, and this is not first loop along infinity. A previous Daniel is already locked in stasis, a holding chamber, in a room with a blackboard and the same research he worked on before his world fell apart. They discover how the anomaly consumed everything, how it could not be contained, and how they cracked the code on how to fix time. Knowing what to do, they would take the old Daniel and put him into isolation, and feed him all the memories that they compiled from the old one, so that he would fulfill them, while each loop onto infinity would compile every answer they could find until one day there would be a cycle where they would find the definitive answer. Using the life of someone who loved Cathoris, causing him to suffer eternity of torments that occurred, for his sake.

After putting all the pieces into place, they return to Shelia and the anomaly that followed her. Instead of quelling the chaos, they open it up and journey to face their judgment together, and find a world where the anomaly was created.

There was a man who lived a thousand years ago, and trained with Cathoris. He loved his master, and did everything to protect his teacher: Including giving his life for him, that the anomaly would not take his master’s life, though it seemed like he were possessed.

There is a distant future where magic no longer exists, and Cathoris stumbles upon a young girl who is mistreated, and kindles her innate gift for magic. She is ostracized from her family, from society, and the world hunts her down to understand why she is gifted, so they can take the magic for themselves. They bind her into a chamber, experiment on her, and extract the essence but it overtakes the facility and the corruption cannot be contained any longer. Daniel appears with Cathoris, and retrieves her, dragging her and the future Cathoris from this reality back through the opening in the world before it is consumed by corruption. The girl’s memories, were the one’s that Shelia posessed, the future that never happened, trapped inside the anomaly, The living anomaly.

There was a boy, who loved his best friend, and would give all of time to save him. Daniel.

Cathoris stands before the anomoly that was created, a break in reality where two magics could not resolve and created a sentient fracture that followed it’s source to resolve itself in him. They are ready to fight it, but another Cathoris shows up, followed by another, and another, giving themselves up to the anomaly, including the Cathoris from this dimension, now an old withered soul and turns to them to say. “This is the fact we face. We did what should not have done, and were given a chance to live. I cannot be selfish, and must face the punishment for what I’ve made that has hurt all of you; for everyone that in my arrogance was forced to cheat death... One day, you will take my steps, and walk into this fate yourself but... as one last cheat to death, I’ll give you another couple thousand years before that day arrives. When it does, you will have to atone for your actions, as I am about to. For your sakes, I give myself freely. I had a truly blessed life... Thank you, Daniel.” And returns for the chaos to reap his soul so that all reality may be resolved, at long last and the timeline is resolved.

Of course, I guess that means that if Cathoris is technically unresolved for a few thousand more years, then it is off of his choice to renew this course of action, and in a possible infinite cycle as was what brought Daniel to absorb all the knowledge to save his best friend through the chance of differentiation, then it’s also very possible that between this time and when Cathoris returns to seal the deal then he could also screw this up and end up making the anomaly even stronger but... Then there is also the chance that through inseminated differentiation that Cathoris could just give himself early and resolve it ending the timeline where Future him shows up and that would resolve any anomaly in space time because there wouldn’t be anything that could interrupt that flow of time anymore... Thus resolving the infinate loop of Daniel being programmed... However, if something did happen to future Cathoris, he wouldn’t be there to take the place, in which case current Cathoris would fall to the same fate anyway, and the whole thing would still resolve... but anyone with magic able to travel back in time, alter even the slightest detail and derail the entire timeline into never even happening. Look, I’ve thought a lot about it and frankly not having time travel is one of the best gifts God ever gave us.