Against the Storm/Bonus

Throughout its inception and writing, Against the Storm took some of its inspiration from previous unwritten and unreleased prequels to The Feral Plains and from several songs by various artists, which were featured in a more extensive "soundtrack". This "Bonus" page documents these things as coherently and as accurately as possible.

Origins
Throughout the writing of The Feral Plains, which took over a year to be completed, multiple ideas for prequel stories were developed because Cap is ambitious to a fault. These ideas go as follows:
 * In the Wake: A series of medium-length serials focusing on a small, divided Toa team composed of Maroona, a female Toa of Fire named Rabios, a Toa of Earth named Piru, a deceased Toa of Air and philosopher named Okkam, and a treacherous Toa of Water. Each serial would focus on one of the team’s members as they each went on their own adventures before meeting up in a climactic event after which only Maroona would remain alive. This version of the story more prominently featured Omakah, but only gave the Toa Powai cameos in their Matoran forms, appearing at the end and being handed Toa stones by Maroona. One antagonist of these serials, a Lovecraftian creature named Anexis, was described as a “living paradox,” a being who simultaneously existed and ceased to exist. To this day Cap plans to modify his character and use him in a later story. Rabios’s design would eventually give rise to the modern incarnation of Drakah.


 * Unnamed Prequel 1: While still being formatted like TFP, this story would have still put its focus on Maroona’s original Toa team. The team consisted of herself, a Toa of Sonics named Xeon (the precursor to Tesudin), a Toa of Plasma named Roshah, a Toa of Magnetism named Kormas, Dehka (whose origins were not disclosed at that time), and a female Toa of Plantlife. The story was also the first prequel idea to feature Tetradon and Hysterix as main antagonists and likely had a similar event as seen in ATS where the latter kills the former. It also featured “Alchemist”, as well as three other hired Dark Hunters named “Grace”, “Warlock”, and “Serpent”. “Serpent would give rise to an early version of Phi, a creature with a tail instead of legs and a repeating blaster.


 * Unnamed Prequel 2: This story more prominently featured the Toa Powai. They, along with Maroona, were portrayed as travelers who came across Powai Nui during a storm. Tesudin, a Toa native to Powai Nui, sacrificed himself to transform all of them into Toa. The story was not planned past this part.

Music
Originally, ATS featured a “soundtrack”, a list of songs by various artists which “went along with” chapters and characters in the story. This soundtrack was later scrapped, as Cap didn’t think enough of them impacted the story that much and it felt silly for him to inject them into the story’s pages. The songs were listed as follows: As the story’s theme song, "Map of the Problematique" still maintained an influence on it, as did "Bad Apple!!", "Take a Bow", and "Demon Seed", the last of which had major influences on its respective chapter. Before the soundtrack was scrapped, one was also partially planned for TFP, which shall remain undisclosed.
 * 1) Muse - "Map of the Problematique" - Main Theme, Navahko’s Theme
 * 2) Blood Red Shoes - "It’s Getting Boring By The Sea" - Maroona’s Theme
 * 3) Touhou - "Bad Apple!!" - Tesudin’s Theme, Hostility Chapter Theme
 * 4) Rob Zombie - "Dragula (Hot Rod Herman Remix)" - Tetradon’s Theme
 * 5) Muse - "Take a Bow" - Overture Chapter Theme
 * 6) The White Stripes - "Icky Thump" - First Steps Chapter Theme
 * 7) Muse - "Micro Cuts" - Folie á Deux Part 1 Chapter Theme
 * 8) Aphex Twin - "At The Heart Of It All" - Folie á Deux Part 2 Chapter Theme
 * 9) Nine Inch Nails - "Demon Seed" - Hysteria Chapter Theme