Arabian Nights (Game Pitch)

Where were you when the stars fell? When thunder shook the sky and falling flames turned night into day, were you at home with your family, or were you standing on a high dune with a perfect view? Did the meteor shower devastate your entire village, leaving you alone—alone and mysteriously untouched? Did the gigantic rock slam into you so hard that the shock wave scoured the dunes around you completely bare of sand? Did the starstuff fall—ponderously, hesitantly—through palace roof and upper stories, perhaps even through other people—into you—leaving no sign of its passage and thus no evidence to convince anyone when you told them it happened?

             Did you tell anyone that you can make water or ice where, for hundreds of years, there has been only dry, or part the dunes like Mûsâ parting the sea for the Israelites? Was there anyone you knew left to tell, after the star shower? If they believe you—and instant quicksand and thunder-on-command are hard to disbelieve—what do they think? Were you burned as an evil djinn by people who didn’t realize burning someone who commanded flame would only backfire? Did you flee from being put to work as a slave making water for a desperate village? Are you now a sultan second only to Allah in worship, with sculptures of ice thronging the palace gardens? Do you exalt in your newfound strength, or do you fear it? Did you try to get rid of it? You must have noticed that you can’t. Have your persecutors, jailors, or worshippers whispered of others with similar powers?

           Whatever your story, whatever your power, you are part of the story now. A letter has been slipped into your palace, jail cell, or safe haven, though no one saw any messenger. It was addressed to the “Star-born” of earth, ice, thunder, flood, or flame, even if you’ve told no one which element you have, or that you have a power at all. Even if you cannot read, the letter’s text invaded your head: a place, a time. Now you sit in a caravanserai stuffy with the smell of camels and sweat and spice, and you wait. No element can make time move faster.

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