Dystopian Future With an Oppressed Church ... looking for help

[TCSweeney]

HI everyone. I have an idea and am looking for one or two artists and / or writers who would be interested in helping out. (I would also like to hear what people think of the idea) Here goes:

Mission: Provide Young Adults with an entertaining anime adventure with Characters they can actually identify with and look up to while causing them to explore and understand the ideas of the Christian faith in a way that goes will beyond the often presented concepts of morality and right living (ie learning actual theology).

Setting: A Gritty Dystopian Future city run similar to the Roman empire (monarch, class system, slavery, brutal "justice"). High technology (think blade runner, 5th element with no aliens or mutants). Set inside a massive city with a culture where Christians are highly oppressed by the Government. Scripture has been lost but pieces can be found in small data crystals. There is almost no underground church. The story will start in a metropolis with different districts (rich, poor, industrial). People will not normally leave the City as the outskirts are and industrial waste land with Robots and outlaws running amock (fun setting for our characters to adventure in).

The idea would be to show characters struggling with the basic ideas of the christian faith with a backdrop of high drama and action from lots of external sources (ideas: running from the cops, watching their leader go on trial for being a christian, questing through abandoned evil automated robot factories to find lost bits of scripture, hacking databases to find out where stuff can be found). It would be powerful to see characters arguing about what scripture says and living out concepts like what is more important, faith in God or Good works done in God's name while dealing with oppressive governments and crazed rouge robots.

Spiritual World: The spiritual world will not be unlike that experienced by the average believer today. The characters will recognize the holy spirit at work but will not experience a lot (if any) miracles. The Devil will not be a character in the story (although his existence will not be denied and perhaps discussed.) Likewise, The Holy Spirit and God will be active in their lives helping them understand scripture and preparing them to submit and follow God but will not be a "Character." The Characters will experience the peace and power of living with the Holy Sprint as any of us who currently have a relationship with God do today (flaws, frustrations, doubts and imperfections included).

Level of Realism: I am really only interested in doing a project that shows realistic people (not shiny perfect Christians who learn a perfect moral). I would want to let the reader explore Christian ideas as the characters delve into what we as Christians really believe and why (showing a wide range of Christian beliefs and highlighting the areas of agreement between denominations not our divisions). The mission would be to entertain and educate (not really trying to pursued people to be Christians although the truth of scripture might just do that).

Bringing the Project to Market: I would want to start out with a small set of drawings that we would use to run a kick-starter campaign (i.e. we get paid in advance for our work but will be bound to actually finish in a reasonable amount of time).

About Me: I am not an artist, I am a 34 year old graduate level theology student and full time director of program management for a government IT firm. I will be able to contribute story ideas, theological knowledge, access to theology experts, business/ finance experience, some financing for initial marketing. I have experience with lots of tools (image editing, basic web design, desktop publishing, etc).

Who I am Looking For: A small team who is interested in partnering to take an equal role in coming up with characters, a story-line, and working on the art (I cant do the art). I have ideas but no firm vision and am 100% ready to collaborate to come up with a great story.

[RefractedAhav]

I am interested though I must pray about it before I offer to dedicate my services. I would probably like to offer my self more as a writer though I would not be against contributing to the initial images. I also know of a manga artist that might be interested, I would have to contact him on FB and ask. Again before I offer my self for sure I will need to petition Elohim and see if this is where He wants me to spend my time and resources. If He says yes, then I am all in. If He says I have something else for you to work on, then I will ask that He sends some one to help. Either way I will be praying for your success in this endeavor.

[RefractedAhav]

So I prayed about it and it seems that I am clear to contribute. Please let me know character descriptions if you would like for me to work on some designs for you.

[shooraijin]

Not to throw cold water on your idea, but this sounds a bit derivative. How are you planning to set it apart, so to speak?

[RefractedAhav]

what if one of the main characters was a slave that was just recently granted freedom and was on their way to earning their citizenship when they begin to realize that life as freeman is really not any better. On they way to their job (in which they are treated much the same the where as a slave) they meet a stranger that at first seems odd and insane but when they return a passerby's cruelty with kindness. At first the freedman tries to just brush off this odd encounter but it troubles them all day. Latter they meet again in the street and bumps into him saying something like "how would you like to know real freedom" as he passes the freedman a data crystal and note.

Just a thought on a possible beginning.

@shooraijin I think it has promise. We just need to see how it fleshes out. Alot of stories out there seem to share plot elements or even entire plots. Eureka 7 and the first season of Last Exile have a tremendous amount in common if you ask me and yet are two completely different shows. I love them both. I think something can be developed that gives this work a life all it's own even if he doesn't quite know what it is yet. After all this is still just the planning stage, at least that is how it seems to me.