THE STORY

Once upon a time…

There was a land where all the magical stories children were told happened. It lived upon their belief in the place, and in turn, kept their dreams and afterlives safe. Unicorns danced in the meadows. Dragons either battled with knights or were softened by human contact. Maidens were married off happily to the loves of their lives.

The four leaders who ran this world wanted to protect and help children to grow up slowly, and to learn from them. To believe the little lies their parents told them about the monster under the bed and Santa, in order to believe the big lies, such as justice and mercy, they wove stories and projected them unto parents in the alternate realities their world absorbed. Their world was at the center of everything, inhabiting everyone’s mind and keeping the world running in the proper order when the entities failed.

And then, something dreadful happened. A creature came, from deep within the bowels of the oldest stories themselves, and rose up against the leaders. The entire land rose up to stop him, but they were confronted with a force unlike any other, and were hopeless to stop it. Single-handedly, he swept life from the entire land and engulfed everything in flame. The leaders were able to disconnect the world before he could use it for evil, but then they went underground, waiting for someone to break them from their own protective locks.

In the fragmented mind that belonged to this creature, he devised a plan to eliminate all forms of life he deemed not worthy to exist any longer. A simple plan that only involved the use of the world’s special ability to drag anything or anyone in or out of itself. He called back creatures that had once made children afraid of the dark, and brought forth the old black magic that found one’s deepest fears and used them. And then, they called; called to the first people on the list to exterminate.

And they answered.

TO ENTER (EDIIIIIIIIIIT!! Thanks to King-of-Diamonds.)

Yes, this is a Fan Character AND Original Character tournament. Read the rules thoroughly before asking to submit an entry.

To enter, you must have created a good, detailed page about your character (can be written, half-written-half-drawn, or drawn completely), and then note us and give us the link to that and to as many sources of your character you think an opponent is going to need.

You also need an audition. It can be one page, a paragraph, or it can be 100+ pages. We don't really care. You just need to show that your character has wound up in the Labyrinth, and that they know it's a fighting tournament. Yay.

THE PROCESS

Your character will receive a letter, phone call, text, whatever form of communication they have (hell, it could form in the food their eating or in their head if they don’t have anything else.) An unpleasant voice, much like the voice of Mr. Shadow from The Fifth Element uses, will come across, telling them they’ve been chosen for a tournament. The next time your character goes to sleep, they’ll find themselves in the Labyrinth. They’ll find the Guidelines in their hand or pocket.

THE WORLD

The Labyrinth is a highly deadly, extremely magical place. It is alive in every sense except it cannot do much in the way of running itself. It has a conscience, though not much of one, and appears otherwise blind to everything it does. Think of it like a porcupine: You think “It looks all cute!” until “HOLY COW IT JUST FRIGGIN' STUCK MY HAND/FACE FULL OF SHARP, POISENOUS LITTLE PINS!!!” The Labyrinth defends itself, changes the walls, shifts position in general (ie, all the walls will get up and move several tiles to the east/west/north/south.), but it stays in one place in the universe- Everywhere.

Dead ends lead to other worlds. So if Character Bob walks into a dead end, he could find himself in Tellitubby land. Or in the Land of Ferociously Large T-Rex’s. It’s rather random, but once said character falls asleep, they find themselves back in the Labyrinth, at another dead end that could be anywhere in the Labyrinth.

At the center of the Labyrinth is a giant castle, and in the middle of that is a five-story tower that can be seen from any part of the Labyrinth. Think something along the lines of Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth.”

THE RULES

1. Respect each other and each other’s characters, please! No dA drama. You may plead a case with us if you were caught participating, but if you're causing it or fueling it, you will be in serious trouble.

2. Provide links to the pages of your comics. It will make the judging go faster and much smoother. If you have a last-minute submission, we will only excuse it for that time if you have a good excuse. After that, if you don’t provide them, they you will be DQ’d.

3. Be consistent throughout the series. This means not doing two pages of a comic, and then writing the rest. Or coloring some of the pages, and then having the last couple in sketches. Time yourself! I will give everyone plenty of time to do this, so DON’T PROCRASTINATE!

4. If your character is outlandishly Mary-Sueish, they will they not be accepted. Go look at Wikipedia for a sufficient definition of “Mary Sue.”

5. Your Fan Character may NOT be in any sort of intimate relationship with a canon character from the series they are from. Intimate, for those of you who don't know, is defined as "being on familiar, esp. affectionate, personal terms; warmly personal; a familiar friend." In essential, they could KNOW the canon characters, but that would be the line. We are only looking for characters that draw from the canon world, but do not interfere with the canon characters.

6. Extensions will probably be far and few between. Unless an emergency comes up (ie, you have a family emergency, you’re going on vacation, your computer crashes), we won’t be giving them out. First, you must alert your opponent. Then, you note us. And we have to hear it from you. YOU must note us if you need one. Not your friend. If you aren’t available for some reason (ie, you leave the moment you find out about the emergency) and cannot note us, then too bad.

7. Two deviants may tag-team, or do collabs for this contest (ie, one can ink the pages and the other may color). Or a deviant may submit up to two characters. We'd prefer not to go over that limit as it can get confusing.

JUDGING PERIOD

Will be several weeks (AKA, still being decided). We can give a contestant our review and general consensus, but they’ll have to ask for it. Only during the final four will we be writing why we chose one contestant over the other.

THE SCORING SYSTEM

Respect: 20/20 This means you HAVE to respect each other’s character, not mercilessly slaughter them. If you’re all confident that your character is in a win/win situation, then put them in a lose/lose. I know it’s easy to get carried away with your character’s mightiness, but you have to realize that you’re just being an egotistical bully if your character just kills the other in less than five hits. Even if your character has 100% total advantage, put a story into it, humiliate your character, the works. Go around that factor of dominance until the end, and have fun dangling your character’s life in another’s.

Creativity: 35/35 This is split into two categories: Action- the way the characters move, how much they fight, and how consistent the fight is. You’re judged on how well you’ve strung everything together, and the creativity overall. Mood and Interaction is the second part- Does the background and setting help us know what’s about to go down? Does the dialogue fit the way the characters interact? We don’t want to see serious faces and simple dialogue all the time, please.

Effort: 20/20 You have to prove to us that you put time and a whole lot of thinking into this. I mean, if it comes to you spur-of-the-moment, then great, but don’t show it. Give us an enticing plot, a wonderful battle, and a decent interaction, and you’re good to go.

Plot: 15/15 Yes, you’re being judged on this, too. Time everything out. Plot some dialogue. And most of all, keep us turning or scrolling. Every page of a comic should have its own form of saying: Hey! Lookit me! I’m better than the last page! Don’t just have the characters meet and start fighting- there are plenty of other ways they could start the fight.

Consistency: 10/10 Easiest points ever, people. They’re practically gimmie points, but they could be the decider in a battle. This means what I said earlier- make all of your pages colored, all of them black and white, or write the entire thing. Keep the series the same. If something comes up and you suddenly can’t color all of your comic pages, then TELL us right away.

PRIZES

Are being decided.

~~~

This tournament will not be up and running until one of the judges is done with a project of his own. Thank you, and please be patient. However! The earlier you express an interest, the more likely you are to get in.

Affiliates (aka, the most awesome people in the world)