WIP: Book of Pythia (Battlestar Galactica)

[Serenity]

The Book of Pythia has been a post-grail diary project that I've been slowly working on for a while. Everything is still in digital form, so it's not quite at the stage where I have anything fully completed to show yet. However, I wanted to get some input before I move forward any further.

There were a few different versions of the book; most contained filler pages with a few select important/unique pages for close-ups, and I know one was an Israeli bible with a few unique pages added. I've been toying with the idea of doing something similar to the hero grail diary, for which I'd create some invented "scripture" pages to add along with the known pages and have them repeat throughout the book, instead of just having endless filler. I'm also going to include all of the spoken/quoted scripture from the series in one place or the other.

I'm currently doing the drawings, including the City of Gods sketch, so I don't have anything to show for them, but here's a low-res example of the text I've been working on (I'm still tweaking it):

Original:


My question: Which version would be more interesting: one closer to the actual props, or one with some invented text too?

FYI: This is just a thread to document my own personal work.

Edit: All photos removed due to Photobucket being garbage now.

 

[ThorsSmith]

Id go with some invented text, make it more deep for someone actually picking it up and reading it.

 

[Serenity]

That's what I was thinking, try to flesh out some of it and possibly add some references to events that happened in the series.

I mean, "All of this has happened before..." you know? So maybe include an invented passage about a battle that took place long ago where the invaders arrived in waves every 33 minutes or something. Or would that be too corny?

 

[propalooza]

Man I love book and map props this would be cool to have in the collection

 

[ThorsSmith]

Actually I think it would be cool to take something small out of each episode or two and write a small piece of the larger prophecy pertaining to that event. I would make it vague though as prophecy is always ambiguous.

 

[CB2001]

Awesome!

 

[kevinericon]

Book of Pythia really is BSG's grail diary. If anyone can make it happen it's you. Looking forward to this project.

 

[Serenity]

Thanks for the input and kind words, everyone! I'm looking forward to getting this off the screen and onto some paper soon. I'm going to continue working on it and welcome any other suggestions regarding the content of the "scripture". (Or anything you'd like to see referenced in it.)

Here's something I fought with while making the grail diary: Should I keep the typographical/spelling errors found in the original pages or fix them?

 

[DBCooper]

This sounds great.

I would fix the errors and add invented text. It should be as if some one could pick it up and read it through. It may be alot of work but in the end it would hold up. The stories could be from mythology about Apollo and Athena and the Gods. Maybe more geared towards the show, old and new. You could fill it with whatever you want.

I do think it would be corny to add a story of invaders who attack every 33 minutes. Be more vague and general, it is easier. Mysterious, like the Bible, Talmud, or Koran. Absolutely add all quotes from the show; new and old. In the old show Adama read about the black void and other places.

Good luck,
DBCooper

 

[Serenity]

Thanks for the great input, DB. I think you're right about it being slightly mysterious/vague. Kind of a "catch all" type of thing at times, where it's open to interpretation... Will definitely keep this in mind when writing. :thumbsup

 

[bqk333]

I NEEEDZZZ A BOOK OF PYTHIA!!!

I have some of the pages with the pictures from the book... and a couple of pages of text... Most of the text I had is in some other language besides English, so I took the text and copied and pasted and made about 20 pages out of it... but that's all I ever got around to doing... Maybe someone who actually won one of the Pythia BSG auctions will see this and want to help...

-Bqk333

 

[tooslickforyou]

Hey is this idea still alive? I just got back from a BSG exhibit with the same idea. They had a prop version of the book I took a photo of and I think it could be done fairly easy. I have some text ideas as well.

 

[Seanpnichols]

Wow. That's one of those background props I'dlove to have.