Caroline Diaz: Prophecy

“The Princess receives a prophecy from a mystic that a storm is coming. It has the power to destroy their world. In the vision, the mystic reveals the journey to come: a moving image of six people on a flying ship, venturing towards a mysterious land to perform an ancient ritual, believed by many to be nothing but a myth. Driven by her duty to protect her land and her people, the Princess rapidly tracks down the seemingly unrelated, rag tag group seen in the vision, and they embark on the adventure of a lifetime.” I have always been drawn to storytelling as an art form. For my collection, “Prophecy,” I developed an idea for a fantasy adventure movie, then designed and constructed the costumes for the cast of characters around which the story revolves. When designing this collection, I was driven by the goal of communicating character, story, and world. In my research, I studied the archetypes found in literature, and more specifically in the fantasy genre. I hope you let your imagination piece together the story you desire as you fantasize about these characters, the world they live in, and the adventure that awaits. The Characters: – The Princess embodies the ruler archetype. She carries herself like someone born to lead. She has a gift for reading people and situations, which helps in maneuvering those around her to her advantage. Still, she has always wanted a greater purpose, dreamed of adventure, for a way to prove herself to her people, to be courageous. As the self-appointed leader of the rag-tag group, she seeks out everyone seen in the vision, shown to her by the mystic. She is the type of character who is able to rally everyone together when they lose their way. – The Scholar is an academic, a researcher, and a detective all wrapped into one. She is truly brilliant and notices details like no one around her. When we meet her, she is a specialist scholar at the highest institute of learning in the land. Most of the characters find her a bit stand-offish, but she is simply in her head. Her approach to life is very scientific, practical, and analytical, which proves to be useful in their adventure as they run into problems. – The Captain of the Flying Ship is a man who appears lavish and maybe a bit extravagant; materialistic and unashamed of it. Captaining a flying ship is quite a lucrative business, since it is so niche and expensive. Flying ship is a mode of travel that is only for the most luxurious of people; affluent voyagers or excursionists. So while he may still be a part of the working class, he is more wealthy because he is servicing those with means. But it didn’t start that way. Before captaining a flying ship, he worked every job he could to get near the elites and closer to royalty, to learn how they acted so he could emulate their behavior and achieve higher status himself. He is full of pretense, a man full of subtle bluster. Though manipulative and slightly two-faced, he is respected by his crew for his leadership and cleverness. – The Villager represents the outsider character archetype. She has the lowest status in society, but has the richest culture. One that is very intertwined with the natural world. Her ancestors have passed down their ancient religion, worshiping the Goddess of the storm. The Villager is a descendent of people who have been persecuted against and mocked for their beliefs; to a large extent for their belief in the ancient ritual that now must be performed. Because of this, she is distrusting of most people, especially the elite and the royalty. Despite her wariness and her immense dislike for the Princess, she steps on board the flying ship. – The Outlaw is in prison when we first meet him. He’s a thief that has gotten away with simple crimes like pickpocketing and full out schemes of smuggling and grand larceny. Obviously, the last gig didn’t go so well. He is very much the individualist and believes that rules are meant to be broken. The Princess has a distaste for his cockiness and nonchalance about crime and only begrudgingly recruits him because of her faith in the mystic’s prophecy, and in thinking that his scrappiness with weapons will come in handy along the journey. He wears a façade that he only cares about himself, so he certainly doesn’t intend to begin caring about the rest of the characters. Still, he eventually becomes very protective of them and grows from the outlaw archetype into the warrior archetype. – The Mystic is a sorceress. In this realm, Mystics are conduits of magic and have a variety of mystical powers. They are born as anomalies, seemingly unpredictable, and can be a danger when they are children and do not yet have a handle of their powers. For this reason, they are separated from society and their birth families at a young age and taken to a colony where they teach each other. Mystics are feared by some and revered by others. The royal family supports them financially, though from a distance, in case they ever need their assistance. By her age of twenty, our mystic should have more control over her powers, some of which include clairvoyance, telepathy, and telekinesis. What separates her from the rest is her gift of divination, to see into the future. Due to her lack of control and her rare power, the mystic elders have kept her hidden from the world. But when the visions of the storm start coming, she sidesteps her elders and makes contact with the Princess herself. She is the catalyst of the story.