Ko’lel Theorycrafting

I’ve been following the development of Super Fantasy Brawl. If you’ve stopped by over the last couple of weeks you may have noticed.

One of the things I love about fantasy worlds and stories is the theorycrafting. The conversations that come up about the characters, storylines, and the possibilities. My brother and I will spend hours discussing the Marvel and DC Cinematic Universes.

Where I run into a stumbling block with Super Fantasy Brawl in regards to this is that none of my immediate friends are into the game and the world; I’m working on it. This gives me no one to talk to. The other hurdle is that there isn’t a lot of it available yet.

However, I’m a lunatic and wanted to take a crack at one of these bits of lore I sort of stumbled into. I’m going to start with a little history for people who aren’t up on this stuff and to set a baseline of what I know.

Image from Super Fantasy Brawl from Mythic Games

This is a very basic overview. Fabulosa is a world of magic and peace. People gathered and discussed the heroes of old. Then as people do they began to argue over who was the best. In order to put long arguments to rest champions are summoned from throughout time and sent to an arena to fight in teams of three. This is the Super Brawl.

The winners of the Super Brawl will get a wish granted. Each of the revealed champions fighting in the arena have been recruited and pulled from the different points in their lives to fight one another. They’ve all agreed to this.

As players we don’t know how they will decide who wins the tournament for story purposes. I suspect that if they hold a grand championship at some point the team used to win the event will be the team that wins season one. These heroes will get their wishes granted and get to remember what happened.

For the purposes of this theory I’m going to suggest what if Ko’lel is one of the winners.

This theory started when Stu and Az were having a match on a livestream during the Kickstarter Campaign. I made the comment in chat that Ko’lel’s back story made her essentially the gnomish John Wick. The two of them stopped playing to discuss whether or not this was true and what it meant for the character. One of the things that came up was the question, “if she was John Wick then who would kill To’paque, her chameleaptor.”

The general train of thought came down to it would either be the Fabulosa equivalent of the Russian Mob, some type of bear, or the Moontouched, werewolves her people were at war with. After they got to this point they got back on track and resumed playing the game. This sparked a question in me. It also gave me the final piece of my theory.  

During the war with the Moontouched the Yunkayan Forest was destroyed and Ko’lel’s people scattered. Her wish is to see her forest saved and her people restored. So, if she wins and gets her lands and people restored then that’s where the problem comes in at.

If they go with the John Wick comparison and kill To’paque it has to be one of her own people that does it. Most likely the son of a chieftain or other tribal leader. Then when she goes to demand reparations, trial by combat, justice, or whatever method of vindication her people use the killer’s father will try and stop her. Most likely by hiding their child and ordering Ko’lel killed.

This will start the downward spiral of death, murder, and revenge that will eventually lead to Ko’lel doing what she’s really good at. I honestly think the last thing that will happen in this is that she’ll be standing on a hill watching a major city burn. A city that had once been a cultural center. It will be on fire, people will be panicked, terrified, and broken. Worst of all it will have been her actions that caused the destruction.

In the span of a few days she’ll have done the thing the moontouched army couldn’t succeed at. She’ll have completely destroyed her people. I think in that moment with full knowledge of what she had to do to save the forest and her people; all of the fighting and work she did to succeed. In that moment she’ll close her eyes and ask to go back to the arena. She’ll ask to go back to the fight.

And they’ll take her because now she’s a different legend. Before she rode into battle on To’paque and they were a team. Now she fights alone and the question becomes is she still champion material without her friend. I think they’ll take her back and offer her a second wish. I’m just not sure if she’ll ask to save her people again, save To’paque, or be allowed to face the chieftain’s son in combat.

I accept that this story is horribly tragic and the definition of be careful what you wish for. I really hope I’m wrong and she doesn’t have this chain of events happen. However, I also hope I’m right, because a good bit of tragedy makes for the best heroes.

Luke had to lose his hand to find his father. The fellowship had to fail in getting Frodo to Mount Doom in order to all be in the right place to defeat Sauron. Thomas and Martha Wayne had to die for there to be a Batman. Does that mean that Yunkayan has to burn for Ko’lel to learn what’s really important in life? I don’t know.

I can’t wait to find out, though.