Overall Theme (open)

I'd like to give people some time to find this place and submit their own ideas. The influence theme has at this early stage is minor, so lets focus on other things and leave lots of wiggle room for theme as we do so. The main voice for this as far as the staff go will be the artists since they'll be the ones needing to conform to it the most. So please speak up if you have a preference. As far as I know it's only Ratchet, Blue, and Sargas at the moment.

Ditto

Here are the outlines for the two themes I've suggested along with some comments on those proposed.

Science Fiction
In the not too distant future - 50 to 200 years - global war has broken out. Cybernetics, nanomachines, and autonomous AI are cutting edge technology; rare and unstable, but real. As is always the case with war, industry, economy, and most of all science... are weaponized.
Intelligent combat armour, modular weaponry, and mechanical enhancements are part of the job for seasoned soldier. Even death is no obstacle thanks to rapid advances in cloning techniques and digital synapse imprinting since the conflict broke out. Recently however, a new advancement has been developed that will change the meaning of war and possibly the face of the planet and every last one of its inhabitants. This revolutionary technology has been dubbed 'The Infinity Collider.'

The Infinity Collider's workings are Classification BLACK; even members of the research team are only aware of their own portion of the project. Yet with so many factors working toward a single objective, there must be someone pulling the strings... but it's too late to speculate. The Infinity Collider is real. All that remains is for its numerous pieces to be assembled.
In the short time since the device's realization, command has noticed that squads assisting in the centralization of its parts have received boons, likely from this unknown entity which brought tIC into being in the first place. Some resent this and work to hide the fragments, keep them apart, but most ignore the long term repercussions of assembling what promises to be a doomsday device in favour of power, glory, or riches.

The following factions are smaller and are my ideas for individual story elements, either a single person or small group of NPCs.
Some are merely tired; they've fought all their lives and seek only to end the fighting by any means necessary.
Others are blinded by revelation; they MUST see their creation in action... any other result would be a waste of all their hard work.
Once tIC is complete, the hidden faction which has sunk so much time, money, and manpower into it will surely reveal itself, for good or ill...

High Magic
The Epoch of Magi... a time when reality was fluid, sentient and fickle. Appease it and be rewarded. Cross it and be destroyed. We will call this state of reality Magic for this tale. Humanity was at Magic's mercy and was unable to comprehend the connection between these erratic responses. In an attempt to make sense of it all they created the Pantheon, a collection of ultimate beings to represent more simply the many facets of Magic they had witnessed. As it was impossible to please them all, individuals chose those most in line with their personal beliefs and served them in the hope that their chosen portion of the Pantheon would protect them from the others.
Over time, individuals became groups. Groups became tribes. Tribes became clans and clans became nations. At first service of the Pantheon had been defensive; mere survival in the face of Magic's whim had been the only goal. Now, as numbers grew, power swelled and pride manifested, the nations fought.
Magic was pleased. All this attention was nutritious, allowing both its scope and its ego to prosper. All this bloodshed, all in Magic's name. So many names, so many lifetimes of service, all for a single being. As war ground on, humanity broke down. Nations became clans. Clans became tribes... this was the First Era of the Epoch of Magi. It ended with the Sage.

The Sage is now an unknown, their nature occluded by the passage of time and the ravages of Magic's wrath. Only their actions remain to personify them, yet the ripples of these long ago deeds can still be felt today. The Sage learned of the Pantheon's true nature. They stepped forth to address them as a single entity to make a peace offering, to tell Magic to step down from their tyrannical rule over humanity and live with its people as an equal.
The offering was not without teeth. The Sage warned Magic that should it not comply, its true nature would be revealed. Not many but one, one with no grand plan, only fickle whims. All the Sage required of Magic was to abdicate quietly... in return they would keep its secret. Together, Magic and The Sage would lead humanity into a golden age.

Magic refused.

The Sage was struck down with such violence that they ceased to exist. Magic lashed out at humanity, blaming them for the Sage's revelation, resenting human nature for discovering its true form and further showing that ugly face to its owner. Cataclysm followed cataclysm and in a matter of months the remains of humanity bound together as they had once before. As they did so, they found the words of the Sage in the deepest and most secret teachings of the Pantheon. As they learned to trust one another and share these pages, a message, then a method, clarified.
Magic could be contained. Magic could be shackled. Magic could be controlled. Magic could be BEATEN.
The Sage's teachings were spread, giving rise to magic as we know it today. All the while, Magic was lashing out at humanity, furious with the bonds which piece by piece were draining it of being. Most of all it hated the Sage, seeking to destroy every mark they had left on history.
As before, as humanity learned to survive Magic's threat, its power grew. As before, nations rose along with tension. While the first bolt has yet to be cast, war is imminent. This is the Second Era of the Epoch of Magi. It ended with the return of the Sage.

The Third Era begins now.

Individual elements:
The Sage, returned for unknown reasons by unknown means. Some doubt they're genuine while others look there for salvation.
Magic, a raw and beastly element well subdued but still resistant.
The Pantheon, technically an arm of Magic but becoming more and more individual as Magic grows weak.

fucking awesome writing man!

Sorry, I have a tendency be rather distopian when I look at the big picture. If I've learned anything from media - mainly anime - it's that you shouldn't underestimate the capacity of children to understand and learn. Some of the best fantasy stories I've ever seen were for kids (Princess Mononoke, Full Metal Alchemist, Rurouni Kenshin) or adults trying to relate to kids (Grave of the Fireflies, Summer Wars). I don't see a need to dumb it down, not the big picture at least. It can still be narrated by a goofball, and the game's events can still be quirky and silly.
These are outlines only, intentended to get the ideas flowing, pictures forming and phrases... frasing. It can certainly be tweaked to fit as we get more to put in it.

Hopefully it's not surprising I'm working on the horror theme now. Honestly, military's been done to death even more than magic, and I don't see how it would be much different from sci-fi.

I'll admit I've had a lot of trouble with this one, but after talking with JR some I think I've got something presentable that we can at least talk some more about. I don't have as much to go on with this one, so I'll be presenting it differently. Rather than exposition like the other two, this one will be more of an overall idea. Here's what I've put together for the horror theme.

Halloween was originally about monsters, not pretending to be a monster to get candy. Specifically, it was a celebration of the day monsterkind agreed upon a peace treaty. Until that day it had been tense between the different species and their relations ranged from quiet scheming to total war. With monsters acting in accordance to the treaty, hostilities decreased greatly... along with that their visibility, to the point that they became the stuff of fairy tales. Overall they didn't have a problem with that as it made going about their business peacefully easier.

But overall isn't all inclusive. In particular one monster (I'm leaving them vague for the time being on purpose) took issue to how the holiday began to be celebrated by humans. That they were involving themselves in something which had nothing to do with them was bad enough, but degrading the exchange of peace offerings to that of cheap little sweet things was unforgivable. So it was that candy, and eventually food altogether, became the target. To help the stupid creatures make the connection between the error and the punishment, the monster used pumpkins - the only symbol with any relevance to the original celebration - as the prime point of their scheme. It wasn't long before EVERYTHING was pumpkins: pumpkin pie isn't so bad, but pumpkin soup? Pumpkin cereal? Pumpkin isn't chicken, and even chicken would lose it's appeal eventually if EVERYTHING was chicken.

Clearly this wasn't natural. Realizing that lead the humans to start asking questions again, to start being -superstitious- again. And just as the monster that planted the curse had planned, this lead to monsters being discovered again. They hadn't had to deal with humans for a a while, so tensions were high. Naturally, fighting broke out. The thing about monsters is a lot of them are contagious. Be it an infection, a curse, or some other means, a great deal of monsters can pass on their affliction and fighting is a common way to do so. Soon enough there were more monsters than people and war had broken out again.

The monsters were clueless about the pumpkin curse. As far as they knew, humans had simply started looking for them again. The cursing monster - let's call him Pumpkinhead for now - made efforts to ensure that remained the case. After all, it didn't want all that conjuring to be for nothing; it was hard work whipping up a curse that potent. No, Pumpkinhead had plans, and they didn't involve being hunted by its original kin.

Despite Pumpkinhead's efforts, information did eventually bleed between the lines. Knowledge lead to seeking a solution, at least for a small group of monsters and ex-humans. They would find out who was behind the pumpkin curse and find a way to stop them and cure it. The opposition was great, but so was there desire to see the world - and in some cases themselves - back in their proper state.

Behind the scenes, Pumpkinhead's true motive is to reenact the long ago monster war so that the humans will understand how important Halloween is and celebrate it properly. By literally putting humans into a monsters shoes during wartime, it hopes to achieve this end.