Let me begin with saying that I absolutely love this game. I love its engine and customization. But there is one thing I love most - the Galactic Civilizations universe.
I recently completed my project on combining all Gal Civ lore I could find. I found some very obscure lore (such as Galactic Encyclopedia from Galactic Civilizations I). It is all a very fascinating read. and playing the gamer itself is even better.
But, because nearly everything is from the games, it put certain restrictions on it. It is all told from perspectives of bigger units, of civilizations or their parts. While this all is just fine, it does not fulfill this universe's potential. Especially potentials of individual characters. While campaigns and missions do that a bit (and leaders / citizens certainly helps), such potential is simply not possible to be fully utilized in a video game. To put it other way, this universe has too much potential to be contained in one medium - computer game medium.
Yes, there were some short stories (Elemental Inspirations and Elemental Inspirations II, mission briefings for last missions of Dread Lords and Twilight of the Arnor). Many fans also wrote stories in this universe during Galactic Civilizations II (for some reason it stopped). And they are great. But this only proves one thing: they are not enough of them!
Yes, I am aware that Galactic Civilizations universe come from a series of manuscripts. I am aware that they are not full books. But, I am sure they are great, even in incomplete form. But this is irrelevant, as we do not have access to them, anyway.
Correct me if I am wrong, but it appears that most of the manuscripts was already used in game - the last of them is titled "Corruption of the Shard", which is also name of the last mission of last campaign of Galactic Civilizations III. And, the feel of Gal Civ IV, lore - wide, is much different than previous game, that it is easy to conclude that lore from the manuscripts is running out. And, to be honest, everything from previous games leads toward the "Corruption of the Shard" mission - rightfully, too, as original outcome of this would end the universe.
I see two areas in which stories could be written in Galactic Civilizations.
One is Campaign novelizations. no matter how impressive they are, the fact that they are played leads tot the fact that there is no definitive version of the events - which do led problems with establishing overall stories. And this leads to problems for lore fans such as myself. Novelizing them would solve this problem by establishing one canon version of events. And, of course, there are some contradictions between campaigns, mostly from story - game differences (and differences between different games). Writing novelizations would solve it.
Another is exploring some particular events that were mentioned (especially in Gal Civ II: ToA tech tree) or even just implied. These would be from perspective of individual characters. One such thing already exist - Altarian (I believe) tech tree mentions an Iconian legend about an Arnor entertaining himself by watching glaciers move - and then "Destiny's Ember" revealed via a dream that it was Tandis who did (the same Arnor who is "Hero of Altaria" and who helped Jenna Casey defeat the Dread Lord. And who is my favorite Galactic Civilizations character). There are a lot more of such events - or other mysteries that really don't warrant a mission or campaign, but would be nicely solved with a short story. One such story is the Drengin princess / Torian slave story mentioned in general tech tree technology "Cultural Assimilation" in Twighlight of the Arnor. Or exact account of Yor revolution from Iconians. Or exact account of final Arnor / Dread Lord battle. Or (from very old source) "Drengin Heroes" Drengin propaganda series. If any of this would appear in future content, I understand, but I do not know about it.
I know creators of Galactic Civilizations universe can write very well, and I would love to see some of it, if not all, written. But, if you cannot or don;t want to do it, I can write it, at least some of it. Of course, I don't have access to manuscripts or any other such material, so I cannot have it be compatible with it. But I can do my best. All I need to know is where should I write it, so other fans of this universe can see it and read it.
In writing this, I had no intentions of offending or attacking anyone. However, if I did such a thing, I honestly apologize. All I want is to expand this fascinating universe.
BohandiAnsoid
