Posted in a handful of places abroad. I'm liberating it from my computer.
The ZEAL Fanfiction Project is an effort to involve several authors in the community in creating an epic story about the Chrono series by writing from the perspective of characters of their choosing. Authors will choose to follow these characters, writing scene-to-scene by taking cues from the last author to complete a section while also adhering to general guidelines. Each author brings his or her own style and flavor to the table, producing a rich result that represents the wide spectrum of influence and imprints the Chrono series has had upon its fans.
The storyline of the project allows several subplots and chapters. It follows a separate dimension in which King Zeal did not die, meaning Queen Zeal never rose to power, and Janus, Schala, and the Gurus lived out normal lives. Under his wise eye, Lavos was discovered and used for energy, but properly subjugated so that he would never awaken. Immortality is thought to be a fact, though no one has truly lived long enough to tell whether the effects of living in Zeal and being immersed in its magic truly gives eternal life. For thousands of years after 12000 B.C., the old divisions have remained; the Earthbound have been entirely forgotten, as the world continues to remain in an icy freeze. Enhasian sleepers continue to rest away from reality, searching wide spans of surreal dreamscapes, while Kajar's scientists have relentlessly pressed into the issues of time and dimensions. In terms of average power, a token citizen of Zeal now is slightly less powerful than Magus was at his peak in Crono's party in the Keystone Dimension; wizards and practitioners have exceeded his level, while the royal family, genetically ahead of everyone else in terms of magic evolution, are immensely powerful. Regardless, magic is difficult to measure, as a need for combative magic has not arisen in countless years.
The year is now 1000 A.D., and Zeal has made countless breakthroughs in temporal and dimensional physics; its team of scientists are tirelessly working on these subjects, and also hold little moral restraint in testing their theories and aptitude for controlling time. Recently, Zeal has gained great knowledge of other dimensions, and has pioneered a method to allow access to them. Testing theories on the effects of time travel and history, Zeal begins to randomly choose dimensions that share history with its own, and introduce change to judge its effects with select agents -- beginning with slight changes to large ones; and at the point that no further research can be done, or the world has sufferred irreparable damage at the hands of the project, Zeal moves on to another. Unfortunately, the latest target is the Keystone Dimension -- after the events of Chrono Cross -- and the only man qualified to notice that the Keystone Dimension's history is being altered is a particular old man resting in a Pocket Dimension, where he alone is safe from these edits. Note that to avoid confusion from now on, the dimension in which King Zeal lived shall now be known as ZEAL.
The plot will follow Gaspar as he struggles to put right what ZEAL has changed for observation; the old forces of good and evil will not be revived (Lavos, Crono, etc.) but Gaspar will recruit those he sees fit to travel through time utilizing his knowledge and devices and protect the history of the Keystone Dimension. This allows a variety of subplots, such as "What if Toma had found the Rainbow Shell?", a small question, or "What if the Fall of Guardia never occurred?", a relatively large question in terms of the history of the Chrono series. Ultimately, ZEAL will notice that its experiments are being interfered with, and will attempt to conclude research through a final test -- one with repercussions so huge that Gaspar must locate a way to cross the dimensions and stop ZEAL from ever conducting destructive research on other dimensions.
We hope to begin with an introduction describing ZEAL and introducing a few characters. ZEAL will make its first edit, a very small one, at this point.
A thread will be created in which this will be outlined; only volunteers to the project will have access. Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll participate! Like the Compendium will become the best and most knowledgable internet resource on the series, this project may become the ultimate piece of fanfiction ever written.
Z
P.S. If you're wondering how we'll justify the dimensional mechanics, my primary theory is that ZEAL can read the quantum signature of an object, such as a simple pencil or glass orb. Through this data, it can also detect dimensions in which very similar or exact copies of this object exist; once a dimension is selected, precise energy is directed into the object to induce a switch across dimensions. For instance, ZEAL discovers that a plant has an exact copy in four dimensions, one of which has a history in which Guardia is never founded. Interested in observing this history, ZEAL directs precise energy into the object, which switches with the copy-plant in the dimension of choice. Now that the objects are incorrectly placed, the Missing Piece pull exists on both to return. ZEAL can now exploit this pull on the objects, and use it like a Gate.
