Vellichor: The Rose Queen - Pitch Bible

K Mozingo & Lib Haan

A Queer Fantasy adventure following two baristas who are so hilariously unqualified to be the heroes of this tale that they must undergo perilous trials to write themselves into this tattered, old, faded leather bound book and return home, or risk getting lost in the pages.

Overview:

Alec Whittle closed the book behind him and bound it shut with an old belt, trapping the Corrupted Queen of Dreams in the doorway between Earth and Vellichor. Unfortunately, Alec passed away unexpectedly, leaving his daughter– who was supposed to take his place as its champion– none the wiser. The book sits forgotten until his great-niece, Tori, finds it and takes it home, completely unaware of what she’s released. The four reigning Queens of Vellichor have been anxiously awaiting the return of their champion, and instead get Mel (Tori’s older brother) and Carter: two awkward baristas who have significantly less than no idea what they’re doing. 

After accidentally stranding themselves in Vellichor, Carter and Mel follow a corrupted Tori’s trail through this strange world. In the process, the two wind up duct-taped together as Vellichor’s Emergency-Stand-In-Heroes and are tasked with not only saving Tori from the Corrupted Queen, but all of Vellichor. In order to have even a shred of a chance against the Queen and her Ink Creatures, Mel and Carter must travel the world, befriending its Queens and recruiting their Knights. To top it all off: they have to work through perilous, obnoxiously convoluted trials so Carter’s spellbook stops self-destructing, and Mel’s sword finally remembers how to sword. 

Structure:

This story is primarily Fantasy Adventure and Comedy. The overarching theme is learning to accept the things that we can and can’t control. It’s about processing grief and negative emotions and finding peace in finality.

This story is kind of like Alice in Wonderland meets Avatar the last Air bender. Mel and Carter fall into this strange and fantastical world and, at least at first, seem jarringly out of place. Over the course of the story, they gain experience and skills, as well as friends from each territory that aid them in the final conflict. They’re on a time limit, and there is not enough time to fully prepare and train. They have to try their hardest and make the best of the allies and skills they’ve acquired.

Vellichor itself acts like a book, both in symbolism and function. The characters that exist inside of it recognize it as acting like a book and to an extent see themselves as real people/characters within it. Mel and Carter were not characters in Vellichor’s story, and have to find a place where they can fit within it that allows them to survive, save Mel’s sister, and finally return home. 

Characters:

The two main characters are Mel and Carter, though the narrative tends to favor Mel, as the antagonist is his younger sister. The two of them are childhood friends who drifted apart because of life circumstances. They met in middle school while Carter was in 8th Grade and Mel was in 6th. Carter was having a panic attack behind the building at lunch, and Mel found him while walking past. Mel sat with him and comforted him through it, and the pair were nearly inseparable after that. Carter graduated high school two years before Mel did, and decided to move out of state to attend college near his mothers new job around the same time that Mel came out as transgender. They met again as adults, but now Carter is Mel’s boss, both have mild crushes on the other, and things are just a little bit awkward. 

Mel

Mel is a 26 year old gay trans man. He is estranged from his biological father who left when he was young because he wanted a son. Mel was raised for a time by his single mother, who eventually remarried and had his younger sister, Tori. Mel has always been incredibly protective of Tori, she might say to an excessive degree. The two are very close, and when Mel started to transition in his senior year of high school, Tori was his biggest cheerleader and supporter. While Mel was in college, his biological father reached out, wanting to be a part of his life again. Given the reason he left in the first place, and that Mel is now his son, Mel was understandably not too thrilled about that, and the rift between them only deepened further. 

He is emotionally intelligent, empathetic, headstrong, and protective. He is very into fitness, and boxes on weekends. As a result, when he goes into fight or flight mode, he fights, and he tends to lose sight of the bigger picture. He likes to figure things out as he goes, learning on his feet and rolling with the punches. His solution is generally trial and error, which ends up working really well with the task he’s given once in Vellichor, figuring out how to use Alec’s broken magic sword. The sword has stumped everyone who’s tried to use it since it broke, and Mel’s “throw stuff at the wall until something sticks” approach proves surprisingly effective. 

Over the course of the story, Mel learns to think before he acts, open up more to his friends, and that it's okay to ask for help when he needs it. He also tends to be blinded by his urgency to save Tori, and as time passes he learns that not only is she holding her own, but the fact that she’s been fighting against Dialde this whole time is a big part of the reason they’ve even made it as far as they have. Mel finally starts to see just how much she’s grown up.

Carter

Carter is a 28 year old man. His mother is a half-Korean, first generation college student who met his father when he was visiting the U.S. from Norway. Carter’s father died when he was 10, and his mother raised him as a single parent after that. Growing up, Carter’s family took trips to Korea and Norway to visit extended family, and there was a time when Carter was confidently conversational in English, Korean, and Norwegian. After his father passed, he and his mother visited Norway less and less, and instead started hosting visiting family members. As a result, his skill speaking Norwegian faded, but now as an adult he is bi-lingual and fluent in Korean, but he still has a bit of skill with Norwegian. Carter went to college majoring in art and minoring in business with the intention of opening his own tattoo shop one day. However, due to pressures from his mother and intense impostor syndrome, he lost faith in himself and switched his major to business management. 

He is generally organized, calm, and calculated, but has diagnosed anxiety and tends to freeze under pressure and doubt himself. He needs time to figure out a plan and can get overwhelmed easily in high-pressure situations. Throughout the story he learns to have confidence in himself and his abilities and think on his feet. He gains the confidence to ask for and work towards what he wants in life and to stand up for himself.

Once in Vellichor, Carter is tasked with deciphering Alec’s spellbook and translating the unfinished spell at the end he had been preparing to defeat Dialde. Carter’s history with languages and ability to analyze art and visuals will play key roles in his success with this task. In the meantime, the spellbook gives him access to multiple spells, both defensive and offensive, which help the group in various situations, but which take him a long time to learn and master, and don’t always work exactly the way he wants them to.

Tori/Dialde

Dialde is the corrupted Queen of Dreams, now referred to as the Queen of Thorns, who serves as the antagonist for the entire story. She learned that she was dying and desperately tried to rewrite her ending by tearing into the very fabric of Vellichor, destroying her territory and citizens, and beginning to corrupt the whole of Vellichor in the process. The story revolves around her coming to terms with her ending and letting go before she tears the rest of the world down with her. 

This parallels Tori’s arc, which revolves around her processing the death of a loved one for the first time when her Great-Uncle Alec, who she was very close to, passes away. Tori is Mel’s younger half-sister who is currently in her Junior year of high school. Tori loves reading, an affinity she picked up from Alec, and dreams of running her own used book store and publishing her own books one day. This love of books is what leads her to accidentally opening Vellichor’s doorway book, freeing Dialde. 

While possessed by Dialde, Tori lives through her memories of Alec as Dialde tries to learn what his plan had been. The two unintentionally help each other process their grief and loss and learn to find love and joy in the life that was lived. Dialde has the ability to trap people in their dreams, allowing her control of their body, which is how she possesses Tori to keep herself from fading away. She also has the ability to corrupt the people and creatures whose life she drains into almost-real, scribbled out ink creatures that work and fight for her. At great cost to her health, she can also create these creatures from scratch using the Ink Fountains in her palace. 

Vivaldi

Vivaldi is the first of the Knights they collect. She is the Knight of the Rose Queen and has a prickly personality and design, reminiscent of rose thorns. She has been waiting her entire life for the hero of her childhood to return. She has been training tirelessly, trying to be someone worthy of working with him, and instead she gets these two bozo’s who didn’t even know Vellichor existed until they were tripping over themselves falling into it.

She finds herself unexpectedly put into a leadership role as, instead of working alongside someone who had a grand plan, she has to now guide two beginners through a quest that could destroy her world if they fail. Her shorter arc is about learning not to hold onto the reins too tightly and to be a leader that listens to her teammates. She learns how to balance everyone's strengths and weaknesses, her own included, and to accept the situation for what it actually is rather than what she expected it to be.

Key Locations:

The Dark Forest

Once Mel and Carter arrive in Vellichor, one of the first major locations they encounter is the Dark Forest.The side they enter looks spooky and dangerous, and Mel is injured by the time they’re led into it by two strange entities who seem at least to be friendly, and resemble the Ink Creatures that will appear later in the story. Dead branches twist together and at the denser sections large walls of thorns and vines block much of the way. The end of the forest they exit from is lush and vibrant, filled with roses and small woodland creatures. They exit in a rush, fleeing from an Ink Creature that the friendly entities were holding back. 

The Glass Palace

After they exit the Dark Forest, they arrive at the Glass Palace. The palace is large, somewhat resembling a greenhouse. It has heart motifs and several gardens, most notably rose gardens, surrounding, covering, and filling the palace. The Glass Palace is home to the Rose Queen, the first of Vellichor’s Queens that the duo meet. She is the one who fills them in on what is happening and what they must do in order to move forward. The Glass Palace is a safe, but bizarre place that catches everyone up to speed on what the plan is moving forward.

The Foundry

The climax of the first season takes place in the Foundry. It is an old, underground temple of sorts that has been abandoned since before Dialde’s corruption. Mel, Carter, and Vivaldi have to travel inside to imbue Vivaldi’s sword with what little magic the Foundry has left so that they can grow stronger and continue on their quest. The environment is unstable. Several areas have collapsed completely and others are overgrown with the roots of the forest above. At the heart of the Foundry is a large domed room, and in the center of the room is a deep well of ink. The room is mostly empty, and the final big combat of the season takes place in this room as Mel and Carter must fend off Dialde’s Ink Creatures until Vivaldi has her sword back.

Episode Synopsis:

Pilot - Everley

The four Queens of Vellichor anxiously await the return of a hero that isn’t coming, Mel and Carter tip-toe around their stilted friendship, and Tori realizes she might not have much time left with her great-uncle Alec.

The episode opens on Taliyah, Alec’s daughter, caring for him at home. It establishes that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and then transitions to the four Queens in Vellichor talking with each other and worrying that they are running out of time waiting for Alec to come back. The majority of the episode then shifts to focus on Mel and Carter during a shift at Tall Tales Cafe and setting up their current relationship, and Tori, briefly touching on her school friendships and immediate family, then focusing on her close relationship with her great-uncle Alec.

Episode 4 - The Portal

Ever since opening that strange book she found after Alec passed away, Tori has been seeing images of a mysterious woman with violet eyes following her around. Strange tattoo-like thorny vines are slowly appearing around her body, and now she swears the woman has started speaking to her. 

Tori grows progressively more paranoid and agitated over the course of the episode as Dialde’s hold on her grows until finally Dialde has complete control. She uses Tori to open the portal to Vellichor. A few minutes later, Mel’s mother calls him at work in a panic, saying that Tori has gone missing and her room has been completely destroyed. Hitching a ride from Carter, the two rush to his parents house to see how they can help. While looking around Tori’s room, they find a strange book. They open it and find themselves suddenly free falling into Vellichor. Armed only with what they’d bright to work with them that day, they step out and find their first view of Vellichor, seeing a beautiful glass castle peeking out from behind a dense and dark forest. 

Episode 5 - The Watchtower

Mel and Carter begin exploring this strange world and find an old watchtower to take shelter in. In the midst of a storm, strange visitors offer guidance. 

The episode opens briefly on Dialde in her palace, sensing that someone has followed her into Vellichor. It then picks up with Mel and Carter starting to walk in search of help. The pair are bickering and dealing with the terrain and small rain storm that has rolled in when finally they see a building come into view. As they get closer they realize the building seems to be an abandoned watchtower of sorts. While looking for supplies on the second floor, Mel falls through a rotted section of the wood and injures his leg. Carter tries his best to manage the injury with what is available to them in the tower. At the end of the episode, they are startled by the appearance of two large, but docile figures who resemble the Ink Creatures that will appear later in the season. The figures gesture for the pair to follow and shelter them from the rain as they begin heading towards the dark forest. 

Episode 8 - The Trial of Roses

The Trial of Roses is finally ready. Mel and Carter must work together and find their new normal if they want to have any chance of moving forward.

The Trial of Roses is the first trial Mel and Carter need to complete in order to get their magic armor and weapons to work for them. The first third of the episode starts with the pair in mild conflict as a result of the stress they’ve been under while Vivaldi has been training them. Once in the trial, the two of them are shrunk down and placed in a garden maze where they must work together and communicate while rekindling their old friendship. This is the easiest of the trials the pair will have to face. It ends with them making it through to the exit and finally being able to activate the sword and spellbook, at least to a minor degree. Mel, Carter, and Vivaldi must now head to the Foundry to prepare Vivaldi’s sword.

Finale - Episode 10 - The Foundry

After traveling to the heart of the Dark Forest, Mel, Carter, and Vivaldi must descend into the ruins of the Foundry. What could be down there?

The episode starts shortly before the group arrives at the Foundry, and they discuss what little they know about it. The ruins are almost a labyrinth. Some halls are collapsed or blocked beyond their ability to clear, and others they can just barely maneuver through. An eerie, unnatural quiet and sense of foreboding follow the group as they descend. When they finally reach the center, where the fountain of Ink is, they place Vivaldi’s sword inside and are suddenly ambushed by Dialde’s Ink Creatures who had been lying in wait to stop the group, taking advantage of the fact that the most experienced person is now at half strength. Mel and Carter have to work together to hold them off until Vivaldi gets her sword back and helps finally drive them off. Afterwards, the group returns to the Glass Palace to celebrate. The episode ends with the three of them looking off in the distance towards Dialde’s palace. The palace is not visible, but small, distant storm clouds can be seen in the sky in that direction.

Creator Credit

Mental health and LGBT issues are some of the most important focal points in all of my stories, and I’ve put a lot of my personal experiences with both into this story. Every character has a different facet of myself in them and the themes from each arc are all lessons that I wish I’d learned sooner. I think this is an important show for the present day, because LGBT issues are once again coming into question and I think it's very important that we normalize gender identity and sexuality as these huge dramatic things, but simply normal things a person can be. In the same way that some people have red hair, some people have dark skin, some people are born with disabilities, some people are queer or trans. It's just a part of them, and it doesn’t have to be a huge deal.