Yanìs Chronicles:
Savage Crowns

In a quirky far away universe, there is a bucolic planet called Yanìs in which magic exists side by side with odd deities and mythological creatures. In a classical setting of sword and sorcery fantasy one would expect elves, orcs and dwarves, but that's not so on Yanìs.

 

This compelling planet is instead inhabited and dominated by a hundred anthropomorphic civilized animal races that coexist, not only with all other feral animals, but also with magic, deities and monsters of all kinds. And it’s right among all that, that the story unravels: a story of bloody wars and prophecies, a story of sacrifices, loves and faith, a story that begins at the origin of the world itself.

 

Yanìs' Chronicles is a large and complex project, well detailed, with an expandable transmedia structure that places its incipit in Savage Crowns, an animated series in 6 seasons of 10 episodes each. The series was written with a wholly horizontal continuity whose story unfolds through four different narrative arcs, intertwined with each other and with dark and sometimes mature tones.

Thanks to a prologue clearly inspired by classical mythology, mixed up with modern concept of high-magic fantasy, Yanìs Chronicles: Savage Crowns begins, and then extends, through four narrative arcs that intertwine with each other. Style envisaged for Savage Crowns serie would be a mix between 2D and 3D techniques and, since Yanìs Chronicles is a project designed for an expandible transmedia structure, these narrative arcs could also be divided into different series that converge to merge in the same story.

 

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The series plot stage, through its four narrative arcs, a mind-blowing story in which the whole planet needs to be saved from an unsettling primordial chaos.

The first narrative arc, which wants to be a key feature of the project, is that of the antagonists, the so-called Villains. It's the story of a young shaman whose fate leads to recover a fragment of the life before the Deities arrival. This will corrupt him more and more deeply, leading him to associate with evil companions in the attempt to bring the universe back to primordial chaos.

Second arc narrates about our hero, a young and inexperienced prophetess who's in charge to reveal what evil is acting in the world and stop it before come worst. She's escorted by a not-well assorted group of adventurers and travels across many continents to achieve her task, obviously bringing forces of Good to win even, unfortunately, with a grim end.

Third and fourth narrative arches are instead complementary to the other two.

They have the purpose of telling what else happens around the world and, over all, what consequences will be led by the chaotic evil that is spreading after the prophecy. One tells about a cruel war started and led by a sort of a “mad scientist” who wants to see the world burn down; while the other is staged in a tormented region of the world threatened by many wars and warlords, some directly connected to main arches, some not.

 

 

Such a large and complex project was born with the intention of riding the wave of modern multimedia formats. Aware of the fact that both Fantasy genre and Anthropomorphic settings are currently particularly appreciated by audiences, Yanìs Chronicles not only wants to offer a valid animated television series to an audience that could flow from niche to mass consumption, but also lends itself to presenting an expandable narrative universe capable of showing to audiences new future scenarios and stories, even through different media.

 

Furthermore, it's no coincidence that it was chosen to present the project starting from an animated series. The animation format, in addition to being increasingly popular in current years - also by more adult audiences - allows productions and authors to expose and deal with mature and sometimes dark themes, as in this case, aided by the use of soft and fanciful images and imageries. Such a project is without a doubt a valid offer for such an increased audience that nowadays demands more and more from entertainment products.