Sodality (series)

''The following is about a TV series premise in the Cataclysmic Gerosha universe. For the similarly-named message board community, see the disambiguation page. Cataclysmic Horizons is an alternate history science fiction superhero serial of planned books, intended to become a TV series. It is similar in nature to Stationery Voyagers, except for being set in a variation of the Gerosha Universe. It depicts a world in which the United States ceases to exist as a country in the year 2018, combined with a story about a group of superheroes who must come together and rebuild their civilian lives, in the wake of a political tragedy they were unable to prevent. Its central protagonists are reinterpretations of major names in Gerosha mythos: Ciem, Emeraldon, Botan the Plant-Man, Jackrabbit, Earwig, and their civilian allies.

Season one
Main article: Cataclysmic Horizons: Season One

After the Obama administration forces the United States completely off the fiscal cliff into total financial ruin, the nation gets split in four. The Hebbleskin Gang takes over the northwest, calling its new nation "Netheel." They set to work creating Meethexes and Meethexos, and plotting to expand their political influence. They also plot to eradicate all Phexos, and exact revenge on the Phaelites that frustrated their efforts during the Battle for Gerosha. Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri come together to form the nation of Toklisana, a remnant of what the US used to be. California and a few other states become a colony of China, dubbed "Chimerica." The eastern US and most of the midwest, however, is taken over by the Muslim Brotherhood. After a year of empty promises that they'd allow registered Toklisanans to leave on a schedule, the regime in "Ameristan" reneges on its promise. Several Toklisanans are trapped behind enemy lines, and death camps for them begin popping up all over the war-torn countryside.

After escaping one of those death camps, a young Centhuen Prototype woman named Candi Flippo shares the story of how she got her centipede powers with a fellow escapee: a young housewife named Dolly Malestrom. Dolly informs Candi that the regime formed a temporary truce with the Hebbleskin Gang to help eliminate anyone that could be a threat to both - namely Phexos like Candi. Her husband, Jeraime, was captured by the Hebbleskin Gang because of his knowledge on how to fight Phexos and Meethexos. The girls also believe that he may have connections to a hacker that can breach "The Wall," a force shield along the border between Netheel, Toklisana, and Ameristan. Duke Arfaas and the Ameristani dictator agreed to erect it so as to keep Toklisanans from ever making it back to their homeland.

Candi recruits Dolly to the resistance force that she's already a part of, where her godfather Imaki Izuki and boyfriend Donte McArthur plot to organize an exodus effort to flee Ameristan - along with several ideologically-likeminded other registered Toklisanans. They lost the best hacker they had who could breach the wall a short time earlier: Candi's sister Miriam Flippo. This is because Miriam and her boyfriend Phil Couric tried to create a similar breach and organize an escape. However, Miriam was among the few that successfully made with through alive.

It is revealed that Miriam has moved to Hong Kong, where she ends up gang-pressed by agents of the Chinese Ministry of State Security in an effort to counteract growing Hebbleskin Gang influence in China. With the help of her new boyfriend, scientist Steve McLaine, they try to bring down Hebbleskin technology that arrives in Hong Kong. Her Chinese friends go by codenames: Black Rat, Teal Hog, Stung Hornet, and Tin Dragon.

Meanwhile, a displaced Apache named Jack Mercreek becomes a vigilante known as "Jackrabbit." He works with his friends, who have their own private radio network, to track down Hebbleskin Gang activity in Toklisana. He uncovers a plot to capture several Phexos and Phaelite supporters, and execute them publicly, when Duke Arfaas hovers his doomsday ship over Houston. If the plan succeeds, Houston will be compromised. The rest of Toklisana could fall. However, the storage location for Arfaas' operations in Toklisana remains unknown. His girlfriend, Miranda, is abducted by Gunner and Skellig Soorfelt. He believes that due to her family's support for the Phaelites, Miranda is a target for extermination. She reformed him from his past life as a notorious womanizer, and feels he owes it to her to save her life. Alas, Jack's efforts lead to him getting involved in a constant game of cat-and-mouse with Don the Psycho. It turns out, Don the Psycho and Candi Flippo also share an unpleasant history with one another.

Amidst this backdrop, Imaki trains Candi to use her centipede abilities to become a freedom fighter named Ciem. Candi plots to marry Donte after they've made it across the border. Donte, who was defending Evansville as Emeraldon up until the political collapse of America, looks forward to marrying Candi just as eagerly. Along the way, the resistance forces and regime alike must overcome an birdmancer named Jawknee, before she kills them all.

Season two
Donte is captured for Arfaas' program as Candi's group embarks on its exodus. Worse, Imaki is killed in the overpass. This leaves Candi and Dolly with only each other as friends in the world. They settle in Houston, and enroll at the University of Houston. Their first challenge comes in the form of defeating a serial rapist named Wayne the Vampire. The two of them end up joining forces with Team Jackrabbit to defeat Don the Psycho. When an assassin named Milp bests Darius Philippine, Dolly acquires an Earwig suit to help Candi fight back. Candi adopts the Ciem identity, and Jack starts wearing his own makeshift suit to hide his identity. They manage to defeat Milp, but then have to deal with Rockpapsci and the megalomaniac Cupric.

The girls plot with Jack to save Miranda and Donte, but run into trouble when it's discovered that an AI backvisor by the Hebbleskins has been placed on Jeraime. Not in his right mind, Jeraime becomes the killer Musaran. More brutal than the other villains, the team must gain help from a disturbed Jeral Cormier to tip the balance. Jeral agrees to use his "Botan" identity and powers to help the team out; but asks that they help him in his war on the Phaletori. Meanwhile, he discovers the Phaletori mean to kill his wife Emily. However, the team's battle with the Phaletori ends up taking a backseat when Duke Arfaas puts his plans into action. With Botan occupied batting Arfaas' machines, the other split up to save their loved ones. Ciem chases down Musaran, battling him to free Jeraime from his control. Dolly agrees to go after Donte, resulting in Emeraldon rejoining the team. Jack saves Miranda, and Arfaas' grand scheme fails catastrophically.

As the now-stronger team continues to put the pressure on the Hebbleskins' offensive, Chimerica invades Netheel and takes it over. The Hebbleskins lose their country, and go back to being outlaws. Arfaas swears revenge. However, the Phaletori arise as serious threat when they reveal they've been creating True Centhuens.

Season three
Lex Philippine lends help to the team, resulting in an eventual crushing of the Phaletori. However, his contributions have short-lasting satisfaction. A madman named Captain Aardwulf escapes from Arfaas' control, taking with him a stolen radioactive device called the Ming-Yo. Miriam and her friends join forces with Candi's team to stop Capp Aard. Around the same time, the Sapphire King resurfaces as someone worth consideration. A short while later, Ciem and Emeraldon branch out on their own. They get married, and Candi ends up pregnant not long afterward. Laurie Pegol abandons the team.

Season four
Duke Arfaas dies. Meanwhile, a corrupt Judge Terry Beliah has been rounding up Phexos and Marlquaanites and imprisoning them. It is revealed that he is doing this so he can instigate the liberal policies in Toklisana that destroyed America before it. He wants to prevent any heroes with a different worldview that might stop him. He also doesn't want it to get out that he sold his own daughter into sexual slavery in Asia, after molesting her himself. The heroes find themselves facing threats of capture, and begin an arms race to rescue the most powerful of their number before Beliah traps all of them in Marlquaanite prisons of suspended animation. As they soon discover through their new friends, the most powerful of all of them is Extirpon. However, rescuing him will also prove to be the most dangerous undertaking of all. On top of that, Extirpon's history of brutality has caused many nations on Earth to grow nervous at the prospect of his return. Other heroes appearing in this season include Navyrope, Pilltar, Strawberry, Hea Pang, and the Gray Champion.

Cast
Note: This is not an exhaustive list, only an overview of the big names from Gerosha mythos that appear in the series.

Villains

 * Duke Arfaas
 * Gunner Soorfelt
 * Skellig Soorfelt
 * Don the Psycho
 * Sapphire King
 * Musaran
 * Capp Aard

Guest characters

 * Extirpon
 * Hea Pang
 * Gray Champion
 * Pilltar
 * Strawberry
 * Mukade
 * Navyrope
 * Cupric
 * Rockpapsci
 * Jawknee
 * Wayne the Vampire
 * Milp
 * Jeff the Invisible

Premise
The basic premise of this shelved series was developed over the course of five days, as the Dozerfleet founder sought to create an apocalyptic alternate history that took the best of previous attempts at The Gerosha Chronicles, and put it together in broad strokes in a single continuity. Inspired by shows like Doomsday Preppers and various dramas on the CW, Cataclysmic Horizons re-envisions the Gerosha universe as a worst-case scenario of the United States becoming divided into four nations by the fallout of a second Obama term.

The Dozerfleet Blog theorized before the 2012 elections that if Obama won a second term, that US would end up divided into an eastern half under Jihadist control and the west would fall under Chinese control. The two sides would battle for dominance. A website called The Tenth Harbinger alluded to a similar scenario of what could happen by 2018 - if the country steered too far off the "fiscal cliff."

For purposes of this series, the Hebbleskin Gang was given a nation to the north and the Tea Party one to the south. It is revealed that in spite not entirely viewing the world through the same eyes, China considers Toklisana a lot more responsible with money and trade than the America it's descended from. Therefore, there is a shaky peace between the two. Feeling a sense of entitlement, China in this series is not above partially press-ganging talented Americans to work for its agencies. Therefore, Miriam and Steve end up working in Hong Kong for the Chinese government for a time. Meanwhile, both Toklisana and China, which controls "Chimerica," readily see that the Jihadist-controlled "Ameristan" as a serious threat. Radical Islam has often made itself known as a threat; and in this series, they're able to take their threat level to new heights. Critics of "islamophobia" are challenged directly, as it's revealed that Islamist regimes oppress their own civilians just as much as everyone else. Why is it oppression when anyone else does it, but somehow "not" when they do it? By allowing Arfaas and the Hebbleskin Gang their own country, even if only for a time, it is shown that they too can be dangerous. Public fear of them and what they can do seems more justified, as Arfaas appears considerably more competent in this continuity than in prior ones.

Continuity
Cataclysmic Horizons creates a broad-strokes alternate history timeline for the US, illustrating the worst-case scenario of what could happen in real-world politics. After the Dozerfleet founder's sense of despair following the 2012 elections, much of Candi's lifestyle as previously described in every version of The Gerosha Chronicles prior to this one seemed highly doubtful. Ideas for exploring what could happen if critics of the Obama administration turn out to be right about nearly everything began to ooze out, and not even Stationery Voyagers was adequate for it. Therefore, nearly all post-2016 events in Comprehensive Gerosha were ruled null for the continuity of this series.

The Flippo sisters
While most items from previous continuities made it into this one, what's surprising are the items that were excluded. Denny Levens, for example, is never seen on screen. The inventor of Remotach pill technology, he dies before ever meeting Candi. Therefore, Candi decides to make up a story to rationalize changing her last name to Levens. As such, Denny effectively may as well not exist. And by extension, Angie was never conceived. The series' finale is to leave open-ended whether or not Charlie, John, and Dana will ever be born. Marina, true to tone, disappears before the story begins after marrying Matt. However, she is not seen actively involved with her sisters' lives after fleeing. Her fate appears to be unknown. As such, Andy's becoming the Pitohui is open for interpretation.

Since Candi has so many new problems to face, given that this spans a TV series plot rather than a film trilogy plot, her old struggles with nymphomania are significantly toned down. Her inner shame over having had sex with Donte before their marriage is reduced to an "almost went too far," up until their reunion at the end of season 2. They deal with the consequences of two slip-ups, instead of constant sex. They marry a short time after the second slip-up, realizing that they have no good reason to delay marriage further. She uses the fact that, while in Indiana, Donte stopped himself from consummating their relationship then to become supportive of Miriam, who is brokenhearted over Phil's death and ashamed of having not saved herself. When Candi does finally mess up, she uses the opportunity to become supportive of Miriam in a different way, having gained an understanding of how difficult Miriam's struggles really are. Erin's fear of sex is more exaggerated, as she's revealed to be genuinely mentally ill due to a chemical imbalance in the brain. She immediately is suspicious of everything Candi and Miriam do with their boyfriends, and pressures the girls to move out based on the possibility of something happening. Miriam bemoans that like Marina, she deserves to be kicked out. She wonders how Candi can be so accepting of things, in spite the fact that Candi hasn't made the same mistake.

Candi assures Miriam that God's in control, even when it seems like the Devil has nearly everything he wants. This makes Candi as religiously/spiritually-aware as she was in Classic Gerosha, whereas she was primarily sexually aware in Comprehensive Gerosha. The result is that Candi is able to carry herself with slightly more confidence, which she needs in order to function in this show's universe. Miriam's self-loathing from Comprehensive Gerosha carries over, but is not as extreme. Partially blaming herself for Phil's death, she flees to Hong Kong to start her life over. She finds that the Hebbleskin's influence reaches even that far, and vows to help Chinese officials put a stop to it. The new mission she develops in life leads to her meeting another exile: Steve McLaine. Their combined efforts to kick the Hebbleskins out of China gives their lives new focus. While they ultimately do end up conceiving Marie and Trina; they are given purposeful lives, that give them more to do than lie around a cabin and have sex all the time, as they did in Ciem 2.

Sam Wrikon is still one of the Flippo sisters' ancestors, but his role is minimized. Meshaluta and her cult effectively don't exist, so the Meshalutian Trilogy does not directly affect anything in this series; nor is anything from that trilogy ever discussed.

Emeraldon
Donte's struggle to overcome his desire to consummate his relationship with Candi prematurely helps build him up as a character. Even though he ultimately fails, his greater initial success helps set him apart from his Comprehensive Gerosha counterpart. His desire to make Candi into family stems from his suffering the loss of his own family. However, his father Hector left behind a lot of secrets. The quest to know what those secrets were becomes another dimension to his character. Since he is active for longer in this continuity than in any other since Gerosha Prime, and never gets cancer like in the other versions; he is able to develop into a more-rounded character. He was predictably boring before that, an underdeveloped and somewhat shallow love interest for Candi. This show's design was intended to repair Emeraldon's reputation over those concerns.

Abolition, a story which would have been necessary to tell for Comprehensive Gerosha, becomes part of the plot for season four of this series. Therefore, it cancels that project out. All prequels pertaining to the Meshalutian Trilogy are also negated by extension. Therefore, Vile Magenta Cloak and A Miner Named Sam are canceled projects. While Donte's origins do play a role in the series, there are still plans to make his origin tale Of Emeralds and Sapphires. However, Cataclysmic Gerosha calls for a re-design of the Emeraldon and Sapphire King outfits from the variations that they'd had ever since Classic Gerosha. The Ciem outfit, by contrast, remains mostly unchanged from its Comprehensive Gerosha design.

Other
Most other characters' designs will remain similar, with only mild modification to fit the world of Cataclysmic Horizons. Don the Psycho receives a considerable overhaul both in appearance and in competency. He is mutated, making him more of a threat. His result is something between a Meethlite and a vampire, giving him red eyes and a silvery complexion underneath his blue trenchcoat. This is a far departure from his skull T-shirt-wearing, still flesh-toned Hispanic counterpart in Comprehensive Gerosha. The suit harkens back to the one he wore in the Ciem webcomic. It was decided that he had the potential to be an even more interesting nemesis for Ciem and her friends than Musaran or any of the other major villains from previous Ciem incarnations. While he is Ciem's enemy first and foremost, he also shares a rivalry with Jackrabbit. While on the same team, Don and Wayne are contrasts. Wayne's attempts to rape and terrorize Candi prove that he is an amateur, one reason he dies very quickly. Don laughs at this, using it as an opportunity to flaunt his superior tactics.

Jack's appearance undergoes minimal change; but he's given more to do. While he still boasts of being a ladies man, he does more with his time than seduce women. He develops feelings for Candi, but the two decide not to take it too far. They want their original loves back, and don't wish to complicate matters with an actual affair. This contrasts with the way he seduces Candi following Denny's death, taking advantage of her need to have arms she can hold. Instead, he wants to become a track coach for the Olympics after leaving college. However, he fears he might not ever make it to college. His plans to enroll are halted when Don the Psycho invades Toklisana from Netheel. To stop Don, and find out what happened to his girlfriend, Jack embarks on a game of cat-and-mouse with the elusive villain.

Making the characters an ensemble also proves beneficial. The plot is centered around the common goals of every protagonist, and on what happens as they seek to make good on those goals. The story centers most around Ciem, but is not exclusively about her. This was seen as a means of correcting a problem with every other Gerosha continuity: an over-focus on Ciem at the expense of not giving enough other characters enough interesting things to do.

Name issues
The series was originally going to be titled Ciem: Cataclysmic Horizons. However, the title was shortened to make Candi part of an ensemble cast. It soon became apparent that it wasn't just a story about Ciem; but a story about her friends equally so. It was also about a situation that engulfs and reshapes the destinies of all of them. Therefore, it was no longer deemed fair to have the title emphasize her exclusively. Taking a new direction with titling this version of Ciem mythos allowed for other characters to gain some more time for character development also, utilizing the vast array of characters in Candi's world in ways that had not been attempted in any past incarnation.

The series itself, coincidentally, shares a name with [http://z13.invisionfree.com/Cataclysmic_Horizons/index.php? a message board] that has no relation to it. After the trouble had been undertaken to re-define Gerosha mythology around Cataclysmic Gerosha, it was deemed too late to change the name of this series again.

Schedule
Writing is scheduled to begin after whenever "Essentials of Nativity" is completed as an episode of Stationery Voyagers. From there, the first episode of Catclysmic Horizons is to be written concurrently with "What Must Happen". Episodes from this show and episodes of Voyagers are set to be written in cycles, until the first seasons of both are completed.

Visuals
Cataclysmic Horizons establishes many firsts in the history of Dozerfleet Comics. It is the first series to use concept art stills that, on a regular basis, utilize parallax anaglyphs. While much of the concept art utilizes The Sims 3 like Comprehensive Gerosha, this new narrative is the basis for Cataclysmic Gerosha. The alternate universe allows room for other models, not just Sims. Some art for the Ciem novel trilogy was going to use models generated with MakeHuman 3D Alpha Build 6.0. This series is able to take advantage of MakeHuman 3D Alpha Build 7, which introduced models with clothes and hairstyles available for experimentation.

Another first with this series is that it is the first to take full advantage of DeviantArt as a storehouse for concept art. The benefits of networking on DeviantArt have yielded several artists willing to contribute artwork of theirs to provide conceptual visuals for the series; asking only for promotion of their profiles and portfolios in exchange for the use of their work. The greatest benefit of that has been finding images of models that somewhat resemble cast and characters, providing actual photographic references for casting. The first character to receive this treatment was Stung Hornet, portrayed by an ethnically-Asian model. Photographer Maleica eventually supplied other images that, once altered slightly in Photoshop, provided other characters with photo references. Candi received a photographic model immediately following Stung Hornet. This led to the same model in his stock being used in other photos for Miriam and Marina. However, Candi's Ciem suit remains a construction in The Sims 3 and MakeHuman 3D. Several cosplay artists have been offered the chance to build their own Ciem suits, in exchange for promotion of their work.

Cataclysmic Horizons is also the first series to not have a single still of its initial series of concept art stills rendered in The Sims 2, which had been the de-facto standard for concept art still designs ever since 2005.