Vanishings, an old and abandoned storyboard, was written in the days before Proelium's reboot. It's non-canon, but is notable from a historical point of view for being the first attempt at a Twine Wars storyboard.
Just at the time when tensions between the different planets linked by the worldgate events were coming to a head, several mostly-unimportant individuals from several different worlds and factions met by apparent chance at a little coastal town called Rath.
Then, from the perspective of the outside world, they disappeared.
The characters themselves woke up, still apparently in Rath town, to notice that the rest of the townsfolk had vanished. What was worse, some force was preventing them from leaving: when they tried walking along any of the roads out of town, they reappeared walking back into town with no clue what had happened.
Everyone blamed those from rival factions or alien worlds and after a few major brawls and complete disintegration of communication, aided by a few characters accusing others of doing things they quite obviously hadn't done, a culprit was discovered.
The vanished individuals managed to reestablish contact with the outside world, only to find that what had been going on between them had been mirrored on a large scale between their factions. But by this stage, a few protesting voices and even the production of the culprit couldn't stop the breakdown of relations. The Worlds War had started.
Vanishings, with its dual story threads (dealing with the outside world and with the vanished), was to tell the story of the events that triggered the Great War.
After a few writers lost interest or left the group, one attempt was made to restart the board, but this too failed. It went on hiatus and, with the departure of more major players, was eventually abandoned.
Mostly belonging to ex-members, and so will not be listed here without their consent. Basaltine was present, initially in his human shape. Serpentine was present in one of the drafts. There was a selkie (mythological sea creature), several human and elf characters, and a demon named Clyde.
Vanishings was the source of Basaltine's famous guinea-chairs scene.
From my point of view, Vanishings was a smashing little idea. Despite its flaws (including my own bad writing - how much, and how little, I've improved...) it's full of pleasant memories - and injokes.
Some of the details show their age all too clearly; Basaltine in human shape, for example, and turning things into guinea-pigs, neither of which is possible now by the rules of magic I drew up for my cultures. And, indeed, if it was ever rebooted I would probably join in with Ferrl instead, Basaltine's direct connection to his master making it too easy for one faction to work out just what was going on.
All in all, though the memory is tinged with bittersweetness (old times, old friends), Vanishings was one of the first attempts I made at 'real' collaborative writing, and thus it is with much affection that I blame it for everything that came after...
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