Le Morte d'Guinevere concept (Version 2)

Le Morte d'Guinevere concept (Version 2)

 

Concept Summary

 

After over 500,000 years, humanity evolved into several subspecies. Three of English/Scottish subspecies are at war: knights, royalty, and "keepers." Basically, the knights believe that the "keepers" are keeping the royalty trapped and go out to "save" them, even though they've developed a sort of symbiotic relationship. The keepers take care of the royalty, who run the tribes they form. However, both knights and keepers live in walled areas with castles and villages inside, meaning that neither one of them knows much about the other.

 

[[The keepers are huge, strong, nasty looking guys that keep their "royalty" at  any cost because they can't survive on their own, effectively making them a different type of knight. Although they're as smart and intellectual as the royals, they usually grunt, using words only when necessary. They also ride dogs.

 

The "royalty" are squat, troll-like creatures that, although they have excellent  social and management skills, are very fragile. They know more about human history than the knights do, but not much.

 

Both subspecies have Scottish accents and French names. Their culture is very reserved, formal, and rational. Both keepers and royals are encouraged to find their own roles in the tribe early on, although they all have a  "basic education" (leading for royals, battle for keepers, technical and practical  skills for both). Although they're more technologically and artistically advanced, they have a more "jaded" outlook on life and hold little festivities. Sports are unheard of. They tend to rely on reason.]

 

[The knights are Hercules incarnate, incredibly beautiful and athletic, but  shallow thinkers. Use Cockney? accents and English/Germanic names. All they know about human history comes from Arthurian tales. Their culture is very  close and emotional to the point that the entire village eats together. Only "moral codes" and a variety of technical skills are taught, as everyone is encouraged to follow the same path: rescue royalty, farm and work and train in the meantime. Very few question this. They struggle to maintain "Tintagel" (a museum that  has been restored so much none of it's the original thing) as well as "The Holy  Grail," a collection of Arthurian tales. They're very emotional and rely on intuition.]]

 

In the northernmost part of England, one of the knights, Lancelot, managed to snatch a princess, Guinevere, and take her to his "fief," or village. He presents her to his "table," or high court, who are completely shocked. Very few knights  manage to "rescue" royalty, and those that do either lose them or die. The table  thought that princesses were beautiful beings like themselves, and orders Lancelot to kill her. Lancelot, instead of killing her, stands his ground and says that although she isn't as attractive as they thought, maybe she can do what they  think she can do, which is run the fief. The rest of the story follows Lancelot's questioning of both humanity's history and what his subspecies is actually doing as well as Guinevere's attempts to escape and adapt to the knights' culture.

 

Eventually Guinevere comes to understand and improve the knights' culture using its own traits i.e. their reliance on intuition and metaphors. However, the knights' rather uncouth rituals take their toil and make Guinevere sick. Shortly after, her father (Charlemagne?) and mom arrive at the castle door with an army. Lancelot hands her over immediately and  apologizes on his kingdom's behalf for the trouble they've caused. However, the  paranoid Charlemagne becomes furious, thinking that they intentionally made her sick. He's too weak to attack, and his keeper right-hand man holds him back. The two kingdoms negotiate and eventually, Guinevere returns home, where she dies.

 

*I haven't really developed the characters yet. However, I do have the basics for Gwen and Lancelot. Gwen is outspoken, assertive, and has an interest in archeology, whereas Lancelot is more outwardly obedient, patient, and polite, but is more of an independent thinker than his fellow knights.