dcarsi-95

[dcarsi-95]

Ideas for FNAF-Based Story

I’ve had this idea for probably less than a year now about making a story inspired by the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, as well as by Welcome to DreamWorld, a video story arch series on YouTube also inspired by FNAF made by YouTuber Rainbott, whose videos I definitely recommend checking out, as I find their story also mighty interesting.

Now, of course, this story of mine I’ve been thinking of making goes by the name of Fantazmoland, and it broadly focuses on one of the founders of this theme park called Fantazmoland experimenting on human souls and putting them into inanimate objects to give them life, and while the rest of the plot may be strongly inspired specifically by Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach, I picture it going on an otherwise pretty original path, and I intend to elaborate on it more in a following post.

Recently, however, I’ve been having this other FNAF-based story idea that bears a plot structure pretty similar to the first three FNAF games, mostly games 1 and 3, as well as an element or two from Sister Location, as I’ll elaborate on in a little bit, and it’s probably not as original as I intend Fantazmoland to be, though I’ve thought of a few twists, and I’m not quite sure if I’m going to incorporate it into my Fantazmoland story or just make it a separate story of its own, but I’m hoping you guys can help me out with a little advice and/or some suggestions, and I mostly came up with it as a sort of coping mechanism.

You see, the idea for this latter story came to me not long after having watched this episode of the Roxanne Wolf and Gregory Show, and for those who aren’t familiar with it, it’s a VRchat video series in which Roxanne Wolf and Gregory share a YouTube channel and have many adventures, and in which Roxanne has assumed the role as Gregory’s adoptive mother as of more or less somewhere around the latter half of last year.

Now, as you may have already found by now, in that specific episode I’ve just mentioned, Roxanne briefly alludes to Gregory of a past instance in which she’d once tried to…*gulp*…eviscerate him; now, I don’t know exactly when this happened, as I haven’t seen all of the episodes so far—and I’ve struggling to work up the nerve to watch the ones prior to one in which she’d finally repaired after having been shattered—or for what reason (but if any of you are already familiar with this series, feel free to inform me), despite playing the role as Gregory’s adoptive mother, though I’d initially presumed that it’d happened somewhere during her shattered phase, where she was lacking emotions as well as any motherly feelings she held for Gregory that had been induced by a maternity chip that was then lost after she got shattered — but, of course, any episodes I’d watched taking place after she got repaired make to mention of such evisceration, and instead mention a completely different thing she’d done to Gregory during her shattered phase which I won’t waste time elaborating on, but was, in my opinion, not quite as bad as trying to gruesomely murder your surrogate child.

Regardless, I still found it pretty whack to think that Roxanne would stoop to such a low as to murder a child just because she lacked a maternity chip and didn’t perceive herself as a mother figure to Gregory, and wouldn’t have expected such a thing before. Even Glamrock Freddy in Roxanne’s apology episode expresses his surprise and disappointment towards Shattered Roxy’s actions towards Greogory (though, of course, he wasn’t referring to any attempts at murdering or disemboweling Gregory), stating that he “felt like Gregory was a safe one, and that [Roxanne] would never do anything to him, maternity chip or not.” And while this isn’t the case, as you’ve most likely have already seen by now, I’d sometimes picture Roxanne excusing herself in saying that she’d “never been a big fan of kids,” not that it’s any valid or justifiable excuse for attempting cold-blooded murder.

With that in mind, I’ve also then tried to imagine how she might’ve tried to resume a “normal” life if she actually had succeeded in murdering Gregory, trying to resume her usual routine of performing in front of other children, only to then think to herself, “Ugh, great! I now have to deal with more snot-nosed brats” and that it might then lead to something of a child-murder spree probably not at all too dissimilar to when William Afton had murdered all those children in earlier FNAF games.

So, as a sufferer of OCD, and thusly often facing frequent torment from such thoughts, I’d come up with a story that kinda goes along pretty similar lines, focussing on a serial child-murderer born from being stuck in a position where she’s forced to attend/cater to/deal with children for most of the time despite having a strong distaste for children; this murder spree, of course, being catalyzed possibly from having first murdered a child or a couple or so children under her especial care, more or less essentially holding the role as children to her, be they biologically born to her or adoptive.

Now, of course, unlike my Joe the Slasher story idea, this isn’t simply about a serial killer murdering multiple kids; there’s an additional twist to it, also. I’ve pictured the souls of the children this story’s focal killer had murdered come back to haunt her and seek revenge against her. So far, the structure of this here story seems more or less kind of a rip-off of the FNAF franchise (especially FNAF 1, 3, and Sister Location), as I’ve pictured it involving the children’s spirits possessing animatronics, mannequins, or other anthropoid figures resident to whatever establishment our main villain works at, probably killing other employees therein as they mistake said employees for their murderer, as she most likely had her face hidden with some sort of mask or something while she’d killed those kids in order to hide her identity, and said murderer ultimately facing a death not unlike that of William Afton when he became Springtrap, and likely also coming back in sequels in a very similar fashion also.

However, I’ve tried to add some tweaks and more or less original twists to my story in attempt to make it less of a FNAF-ripoff.

For starters, our main villain is female, and whereas William Afton was English/British, I’ve considered making my villain possibly French if not American; in which case I’ve even picked out a name for her: Guadalupe Moreau, often called “Lupe” for short. And while I know Guadalupe is more of a Spanish name than a French one, I figured it can be excused considering how Spain and France are pretty close neighbors anyway — plus, “Lupe” sounds pretty similar to the French word for wolf, loup (masculine-tense, anyway…), making a bit of a nod towards Roxanne Wolf as inspiration for this character. I’d also pictured Lupe taking on the disguise of a mascot character who is also a wolf, sorta like how William Afton had taken on the disguise of Spring Bonnie when he was murdering those children.

Also, even though I’ve pictured her as having an aforementioned strong distaste for children, I’ve also thought that that might not have always been the case, and that she might’ve even started out as a more enthusiastic mother (or, at least, enthusiastic on becoming a mother, if she hadn’t been one already) before attaining postpartum depression after giving birth to a couple of kids, which later drives her to murder them, and then later a kid or two of hers she may’ve adopted some time earlier.

I’ve also strongly considered giving her the distinguishing feature of having heterochromatic eyes, with one being blue and the other green, and possibly even having a twin sister who also has heterochromatic eyes but colored in a reverse order to those of Lupe’s — not exactly sure what this twin sister’s role would be in the story, though I’ve had the vague concept of Lupe impersonating her after possibly eliminating her one way or another, this kinda taking inspiration from the “Miracle Child” episode of the Harmony and Horror video series made by another YouTuber by the name of Battington.

As to what role or occupation Lupe plays in the establishment the story takes place in, I’ve been indecisive as to whether it be as an entertainer for the kids if not some music performer like Roxy (but then what might be the point in the animatronics there?) or at least some sort of attendee to the kids, or possibly being the founder of the establishment alongside her possible sister, much like how William Afton was the founder of Fazbear Entertainment.

Secondly, the setting for the story might not necessarily be at a pizzeria, but maybe instead some sort of burger joint, though I’ve lately been having the idea that it may be a daycare, having gotten that idea from a video my YouTuber cha.momilie called Barbara’s Daycare, in which case I’ve come to strongly lean towards the idea of Lupe being its founder, having at least once been an aspiring mother herself at the time of the daycare’s founding.

Thirdly, if it helps, it the story might not even have that analogue horror plot structure where its a bunch of fragments one has to piece together in the right way and the big reveal comes later, and may instead be related completely through Lupe’s perspective — or maybe the story does come with some puzzle pieces that can be put together.

I guess it doesn’t matter too much if it’s a bit similar to FNAF, because it’s not like I necessarily intend to profit off of it; it’s just harmless fun and a therapeutic way to cope with my troubling thoughts concerning Roxanne Wolf in that one YouTube video series.

So, any thoughts or suggestions for this story from you guys? Please leave a comment and let me know. I’ll be introducing more concepts to this in later posts.

[dcarsi-95]

Joe the Slasher

For quite a few years I’ve had this idea for a story about a serial child-murderer since I’d looked into Ben Linus’ childhood backstory on the show Lost; for anyone who doesn’t get what I’m getting at, I suggest you watch the show, but to sum up the idea, it’s got to do with Ben’s abusive father blaming Ben for his mother’s death due to a premature birth.

The idea for the story inspired by this was pretty rudimentary at the beginning, with a father grappling and eventually giving into temptations to murder his unwanted child who he holds responsible for the death of his wife, but after reading this creepypasta that follows a similar idea and then reminiscing on a Youtube Poop video titled Mr. Krabs’ Unquenchable Bloodlust, a more developed plot seemed to grow from it, where the father, after crossing the slippery, downward slope of premeditated murder, goes insane when an addiction born out of it more or less begins to manifest as voices in his head demanding more bloodshed, his secret is exposed, he ends up incarcerated, brings to the surface the monster he’s become by physically transforming into via peeling off his own skin (an idea I got from Batman: Death of the Family) and then stripping his left forearm to the bone and then sharpening it to a point, as well as filing his teeth to a point, thus resulting in this handsome fellow below…

…and ultimately escapes prison to pursue and fulfill his dark, ghastly desires of murdering children and infants — I picture the story would pretty much conclude there but also lead up to a series about his killing sprees and the efforts of child protagonists to put an end to his deeds whilst also fending off devotee cults dedicated to killing on his behalf.

So yeah, having heard of the case of the Slender Man Stabbing of 2014, it kinda inspired an idea for my stories of some children forming cults dedicated to murdering their fellow minors on the murderer’s (i.e. Joe) behalf in the hopes that by proving their loyalty to him, he will spare them, and I imagine them becoming a pretty major element in my Joe the Slasher stories, but that’s a topic I intended to delve more into in a future post.

For now, I’m kinda trying to figure how exactly to execute the plot for my first story; one way or another, it starts with the father Joe ending up stuck having to care for a child he didn’t even want to begin with due to the mother’s death, but how exactly the mother dies, I haven’t quite decided; would it be from childbirth, as in the case of Ben Linus’ mother in Lost (which I must reinforce is what spurned the initial inspiration for my story), or might it be from some accident when the child has grown to be a bit more developed, like in that aforementioned creepypasta I’d alluded to earlier? Whichever way, I don’t picture that Joe murders the child until it’s at least somewhere around the age of eight or so.

If the child’s mother has died from childbirth, how does the child survive up until at least the age of eight? I mean, how does Joe oblige to care for the child and not kill it up until that point? Does he agree to do so because he figured that it’s what his wife would’ve wanted but then slowly forgets this promise as the years go by and he finds living with the child more and more unbearable?

Second, there’s figuring how exactly the father goes about murdering the child. I’d considered that he sort of guides the child towards suicide as he slowly and subtly breaks down the child’s self esteem, much like in the creepypasta, but is he still likely to gain that thrill that comes from the child’s death that later leads to a craving/addiction for further child murder, or is that more likely to come about from a more direct murder? but then that leads to the question of how exactly that’s carried out; is done through a poisoning of the child’s food, or should it be via a more direct, outright murder? Whichever way, I want the father to show/harbor no remorse or sympathy for the child, if anything contempt, also much like in the creepypasta.

Thirdly, how does Joe’s newfound addiction get found out by everyone else? Does he suddenly start raving out in the open about the voices in his head? Is he caught in the act in attempting a second child murder? Or maybe there might’ve been a witness or two in the first murder?

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions they’d like to share they’d be greatly welcomed and appreciated. Thanks, guys.

[dcarsi-95]

My Mythos

Okay, this has kinda taken me a while, but here are some of the mythos I’d thought up, and for those who aren’t yet familiar with me coming up with some mythos of my own, you can refer back to this old post.

I’ll start with what I’ve come to term as the ‘Beyonders’ in substitution for ‘External Ones’ — hope that’s a tad more original.

First up is Urrthrall-Mothrama, basically a black cloud sprouting pincer-tipped tendrils, eyes, and a serrated beak, at least that’s how I first pictured him, but his form can have a plasticity, depending on who views him; sometimes his beak is more like the mouthparts of some monstrous insect, sometimes it’s more like what Helicoprion’s jaws were once thought to look like, sometimes it’s just a barbed tendril, and in other cases it may even resemble a tapir’s snout, but with sharp teeth at the end. He is also able to make himself resemble a spider when manifesting in a physical universe, or even as a cluster of eyeballs or beaked blobs, as shown below.

Otherwise intended to be the kraken of the metaphysical macrocosm beyond space and time that he inhabits, I imagine him to be a rather malevolent deity with a personality similar to that of Nyarlathotep.

Next, we have what is universally known as ‘The Green Phosphorescence’, though I’ve been thinking of also giving it an actual name like ‘Sklatumia’ or ‘Sklatumio-Rsh’. The idea for this deity sorta came to me while listening to the song ‘Colour Me Green’ by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, but I think it also draws some inspiration from Tulzscha the Green Flame, which I believe I first learned about from this Lovecraft Mythos Bestiary I found a long time ago.

Haven’t really thought out much on this one’s personality, but I pictured that it’s the parent of the Primal Titan Zug-Ya, a crocodilian demi-god who was, for lack of a better word, “parasitized” by some of Sklatumia’s essence in prehistoric times; might also have a brother/sibling called ‘The Purple Sound’.

Then there’s Ulloth-Shaggath. Not much to her design, I guess, besides mostly just being an ever-stretching, gelatinous, green tube lined with circular rows of skulls, but this is mostly what just popped into my head a while ago while trying to brainstorm for eldritch abominations. In terms of her character, though, I’ve kinda pictured her being time itself, or at least the temporal continuum of our universe, with each skull along her length embodying all of space itself at a certain instant in time. I’ve also pictured that the skulls on closer inspection are actually turtle-like entities that support all of space on their backs, sorta drawing inspiration from the turtle god Maturin of Stephen King’s work and from the mythological World Turtle that probably also inspired Maturin’s creation.

Alternatively, I’ve considered simply making Ulloth-Shaggath a psychopomp of sorts who collects the souls of the deceased and adds them to her own being. Personally, I’m more fond of the former option where she is the embodiment of time, but what do you guys think? What’s your opinion?

This here is probably just another one of Urrthrall-Mothrama’s physical manifestations, or it might be one of Ulloth-Shaggath’s; not quite sure. What do you guys think?

Moving on to the Primal Titans, we have below Kalath-Koth, or Kaia-Kamang; I haven’t really decided between the two yet.

Don’t know too much about their character yet, but you’ve probably noticed that their design draws some inspiration off some depictions of Nyarlathotep, what with the hood-obscured features and everything. Also figured that they can take the form of a mysterious hooded person when interacting with humans, or other beings of the physical world.

Then there’s this guy, for whom I haven’t thought of a name yet, nor have figured out much on its character, but it was inspired by something I once saw in a dream, and I decided that it might make a neat character for my mythos.

Borrowing a little inspiration from the 2019 movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters, this guy here was basically supposed to be a Lovecraftian take on King Ghidorah, but also owes some heavy inspiration design-wise from an art piece done by John Kenn; real fascinating, as well as creepy, work. I imagined it to be a colonial super-organism composed of specialized polyp zooids born from a queen polyp creature who spawns different zooids that each have their unique function and can combine in any combination of parts to produce a variety of super-organisms. As to its history, I still need to figure that out. I’ve also considered making the ‘heads’ more polyp-like, but what do you guys think?

Next we have this sphinx-like creature, for whose design (in the case of the central one, at least) I’d borrowed some inspiration from some creations or interpretations made by Michael Bukowski, such as this “Hideous Prehistoric Beast” and his interpretation of a Saturnian cat. Flanking it are either a couple of alternative designs for it or lower castes of lesser sphinxes subordinate to it, with the one on the lefthand side inspired off of this “Dweller” and the righthand side one inspired by the bust of an unused Demigorgon concept art, but given a different body, as that was the body I had originally pictured for the aforementioned bust when I first saw it before seeing the rest of the body. Also, the yellowish disk on the central figure’s chest is supposed to be some sort of compound eye with four lenses, each one for taking in light at different wavelengths; the magenta one takes in red and blue light, the yellow one takes in red and green light, the cyan one takes green and blue light, and the black one in the center takes in all three wavelengths.

Still haven’t really planned out much yet what the sphinx-creature’s history is or where it came from, but kinda got the idea for it from H. P. Lovecraft’s short story Under the Pyramids, or Imprisoned/Entombed with the Pharaohs, as it is alternatively known as (don’t really know which version of the title is most familiar with most H. P. Lovecraft fans), and figured it’ll likely be some Cthulhu-esque deity to some group/cult/society in some short story I might write.

Now this one here I’d gotten the idea for after having listened to the audio in this section of a video I found on YouTube; those slobbish sounds had given me an idea for a story about a flabby, bloated, frog-like monster in the dank, flooded cellar of some abandoned gothic castle, and I thus came up with this guy here. I also have a few alternative versions below.

I think this one looks a bit more slobbish.

This one might be a completely separate character of its own, or maybe not.

Here I switched the positioning of the eyes and mouth(s) — the mouths even have smaller mouths inside.

This one, of course, borrows some pretty heavy inspiration from Stephen King’s IT in that it’s basically a giant spider-like creature from outer space with malevolent intents upon humanity after having recently awoken from an eons-long dormancy, but I’ve given this one a more Cthulhu-esque take on it in that that it had come to Earth many millions of years ago in effort to colonize and people it with its legion spawn, only to fall dormant for many eons after a most cataclysmic event (which I imagine involves the continent they settled on being subducted under the Pacific coast of the North American tectonic plate), but intends to displace humanity as the dominant species on the planet and either outright completely eradicate humanity or utilize it as a food source.

Also, aside from a mostly spider-like design, I also wanted it to resemble a beached octopus, a tarantula, and—in some instances—a centipede at the same time, though I haven’t really added the centipede part ^^;, as well as throw in a bit of moth and bat into the mix; I wanted it to throw an uncanny reminiscence of ‘cute and cuddly’ while at the same time still also looking creepy and threatening — probably succeeded more on the ‘creepy and threatening’ vibe, though.

A couple of other Primal Titans whom I haven’t drawn yet are aforementioned Zug-Ya, whom I’d already mentioned earlier, being the “semi-divine” product of Sklatumio-Rsh The Green Phosphorescence and proclaimed protectorate and “Mother” of all crocodilians. She kinda draws some heavy inspiration from Yig, Father of Serpents, but the idea of her first came to me one day when imagining a story in which two treasure-hunters raid the temple of some crocodilian deity and subsequently receive a curse from it in which one of them turns into a crocodile. Haven’t made an illustration for Zug-Ya yet because I’m still trying to figure out her design, though I figured it’s obviously going to be a lovecraftified version of a crocodile — might try to take some inspiration from the Aztec deity Cipactli, which is depicted to have mouths where the joints of its limbs should be, which sounds pretty lovecraftian to me; I’ll later try to work on some design options…

Then there’s Ouroboros, a gargantuan sea dragon who rests at the bottom of the sea and encircles the entire Earth, and is probably what inspired mythological giant serpents like the World Serpent Jörmungandr of Norse mythology and Anata Shesha of Hinduism; I should also note that SCP-3000, who also goes by the name of Anatashesha, is what leant some heavy inspiration for this Primal Titan.

Ouroboros is a sea dragon “knighted” by the higher gods and thus serves as their high priest to all dragon-kind, or at least the sea dragons, but is probably still highly revered by other dragon varieties

Moving on to the ‘Many-Angled Ones’ or ‘In-Betweeners’ if the latter is less of a copyright infringement off Marvel’s Many-Angled Ones, I’ve only got a couple of ideas for now, starting with one whom I’ve had the idea for quite a while ago: Ulth-Nibagua

Now, I haven’t really made a picture for Ulth-Nibagua, but in essence, she manifests in our three-dimensional universe as a network of fleshy corridors and chambers, usually manifesting beneath cemeteries and burial grounds, and it is in these chambers that the undead make their homes upon burrowing down from their coffins, drawing nourishment from the flesh lining their living quarters. If one takes the right sort of turns through these corridors, they can also find themselves in an alternate Earth on another brane, as Ulth-Nibagua connects different branes together; please see my earlier post on branes and parallel worlds for reference.

So, basically, Ulth-Nibagua’s an inter-dimensional sarlacc who houses the undead and whom one can use as a portal to alternate Earths. I’d drawn a lot of inspiration for it off of the Mystery Flesh Pit and the “flesh interfaces” featured in the works of Mother Horse Eyes, both of which I learned about from a Youtube user by the name of azfk who posts these wacky, freaky videos on various topics which has given me some inspiration for some Creepypasta-esque stories, and I would recommend checking out these videos and subscribing to him if anyone here’s into that stuff.

Speaking of the works of Mother Horse Eyes, here a few alien designs I also came up with.

Here’s an alternative version that I hope looks less like…well…a certain female part…

Haven’t really figured out yet what’s the full scope of these aliens, but I’ve kinda had the idea that they may play a role similar the Elder Things from Lovecraft’s From the Mountains of Madness in that they came to ancient Earth in its early infancy and may or may not have had some sort of Promethean hand in the origin of life on it, or they may simply just be agent’s spawn of Ulloth-Shaggath; still haven’t really decided, but it’ll probably be the latter options, but I’m open to any differing suggestions any of you guys might have.

Returning to the topic of the “In-Betweeners,” here’s another one.

Based loosely from the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland, this one was intended for a story series in which a girl somehow blunders her way into an alternate Earth in some alternate dimension which is populated by creatures loosely based off of those in the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, especially the poem Jabberwocky, and this story I will later elaborate on in a future post.

Now, this character here, being listed as an In-Betweener is hyperdimensional lifeform who often tends to manifest in three-dimensional space as a mouth, a pair of eyes, hands, feet, and sometimes even ears, and this mouth—as already stated in the diagram—can coil into any shape he chooses, and can sometimes even make a flying carpet out of his mouth. Sometimes, he even manifests as seemingly disembodied facial features, such as a grinning mouth, which can widen and curve back on itself to the point that the upper jaw can pop off from the lower one like the lid of a jar (an idea I got from this comic here by scythemantis; couldn’t locate it on his deviantart page, though), suspended at the end of a stalk, similar to the head of the Harlequin Demon from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The inside of his mouth can also serve as an inter-/transdimensional portal through which one could jump through to enter another dimension, but it’s highly suggested to close your eyes when jumping into the portal, as viewing the interdimensional nexus within could drive lower-dimensional beings mad.

I might also introduce him in other story ideas I have, but that’s all something I’ll expand more on in future posts.

So, that’s an introduction of some of my mythos, and if I come up with some more, I’ll post them in future posts. Feel free to comment your thoughts on the ones I have so far and share any ideas or suggestions you might have to expand on my mythology.

[dcarsi-95]

Mythogea

I absolutely loved My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, though I don’t think it was until at the conclusion of season 3 that I actually got into it, and I of course owe it to Discord for me getting into the fandom; I found him such a fascinating character with his wacky chimerical design and his status as a chaos deity, and I think I also have him to thank for inspiring the creation of Mythogea.

It all started when I at least held the broad concept for a story initially called Equinostalgia, which of course was originally a cheap rip-off of MLP:FIM but with a Harry Potter twist added to it. In it, a unicorn wizard in training summoned a mischievous chimera demon of chaos, but I think he was intended to be significantly less silly and wacky than Discord.

In any case, however, Equinostalgia later came to evolve into something more than a cheap knock-off of MLP, coming to focus on more than just magical/mythical horses, and adding a cast of a wide diversity of mythical creatures from dragons, to griffins, to minotaurs, to centaurs and the like, and even though MLP also introduced a lot of such mythical creatures, but I’m trying to create a world where equine characters don’t make up the predominant populace.

And so Equinostalgia from there metamorphosed into what I later came to name Mythostalgia or simply Mythogea — I’d also considered naming it Fantasia, but I figured that name seems to have been already taken. Twice.

Anyhow, while it still retains a main character who is a unicorn by the name of Andromeda, the main cast now features a more diverse set of species. I haven’t gotten to drawing them all yet, but here’s a few I have finished.

First up is Sven, Andromeda’s apprentice. Of course, he derives a good deal of inspiration from Spike, but aside from design, he still differs from Spike in that—as previously stated—he is Andromeda’s apprentice, whereas Spike is Twilight’s assistant and apparent pet. He also differs from Spike in that he may not be a dragon; granted, he originally was going to be a dragon, but I’d come to change that after another inspiration for his design: a scene in the episode Dragon Quest where Rainbowdash mocked Spike for not being like most dragons.

That’s where I came to make the trait for Sven in which he believes himself to be a dragon on account of his six limbs, fire resistance, and pyrokinetic powers, but otherwise he mostly resembles an ordinary lizard with an extra pair of arms.

I had the idea that he’s not exactly a dragon, but something more ancient and ancestral to dragons: a salamander. And no, I don’t mean like the amphibian; I’m sure some of you who’ve done your research on mythical creatures are familiar with the mythical fire lizard known as the Salamander, and may have noticed how it is sometimes depicted with six legs rather than the four that real salamanders possess.

In the world of Mythogea, salamanders are the forebears of dragons, possessing aforementioned fire resistance and pyrokinesis, or the ability to manipulate fire, sorta like fire bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender. I also had the idea that salamanders in the present age of Mythogea are presumed extinct, save for Sven, ‘cause I sorta wanted to go for a “Last of His Kind” trope, but I also have the idea that there may be a surviving population of other salamanders hiding somewhere in Mythogea.

There are, of course, other young dragon apprentices such as Hans and Kristoff below respectively.

And, of course, I have yet another dragon character who is more in his adult years, Olaf the Mole Dragon.

He works at a boutique alongside a spider, a gargoyle, and a silkworm for a unicorn for whom I’ve yet to find a name for but is pretty loosely based off of Rarity. He’s a bit more similar to Spike in that, aside from being a confirmably true dragon, he is basically an indentured servant, mainly in that he’d made to dig up precious jewels for his boss to decorate the dresses she makes, and personality-wise he’s pretty cranky and, overall, jaded from all his thankless labors. I also pictured that he’s a chocoholic and also grows into a large monster when he’s on his chocolate sprees, but I think that’s a topic I’ll elaborate on in a future post.

Here we have another friend of Andromeda’s, Manfred Rowan; or at least that’s his placeholder name right now. Might give him a more posh, English-sounding name like Pilkington, but I still think Manfred Rowan rolls off the tongue nicely. He largely based off the Manticore from the very beginning episodes of MLP, whom a lot of fans have dubbed Manny Roar, and Manfred was originally meant to be as initially vicious and unpleasant as the ‘Manny Roar’ but I later came to settle for a more posh, refined, civilized, and even charming demeanor for Manfred to make for a “did we just have tea with Cthulhu?” moment where Andromeda and some of her other friends are thrown into a cave as a sacrifice to what was expected to be a fearsome monster, only to find that the so-called “monster” simply wants them over for a tea party and a chat, and maybe even a riddling match.

I also made him a sphinx instead of a manticore and even comes with a snake’s head for a tail which has a personality of its own, along with a Scottish accent. He also sports a pair of birdlike wings underneath his coat and shirt, but doesn’t usually use them. I’ve also considered giving Manfred a gorilla-like face, as mythological sphinxes are often depicted with a humanlike face, but since humans don’t exist in the world of Mythogea, any human parts that would other be found on partially human mythical creatures like centaurs, minotaurs, or the aforementioned sphinx are replaced with those of non-human apes like chimps, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, gibbons, and such, though I’m personally attached to Manfred’s original lion face; what’s your opinion?

He can, however, transform into a manticore when his anger is pushed too far and he enters his “hulk mode”, in which case his gorilla face becomes more mandrill-like, his wings are more bat-like, and his snake tail comes to resemble a scorpion’s stinger. This, of course, is a topic I intend to elaborate more on in a later post.

A few other friends of Andromeda's whom I’ve yet to draw include Agape, a peryton loosely based off of Princess Cadence and Queen Chrysalis’ mirror universe counterpart “Reversalis” who is basically a love goddess who promotes love and tolerance throughout Mythogea and may have also once served as a nanny for Andromeda and/or Sven when they were little; a male griffin who probably serves as a royal guard and is based off of Gilda’s mirror universe counterpart; a purple tapir or baku behaviorally based off of Fluffle Puff and, probably to a greater extent, Pinkie Pie (as I will come to expand on in a later post); and probably this guy below:

He’s supposed to be some sort of forest nymph (or ‘sprite’ if that’s the more correct choice of term) whose design I based off one of the walking, dancing flowers from A Troll in Central Park, but I’m not exactly sure what his role is and I might instead use him in a completely different story — time will tell.

Moving on, I’ve also got a couple of recurring villains, starting with Grandeura

a wicked, arrogant unicorn princess who plots to overthrow, and possibly even assassinate, Mythogea’s top monarch and usurp the throne of all Mythogea, and was probably already next in line before someone else came to take her birthright (this is where I got that idea). She also has a posse of henchmen to aid her on her goal whom I will also elaborate on in future posts. She draws a lot of heavy inspiration from Chrysalis’ Cadence disguise in A Canterlot Wedding and Cadence’s evil mirror universe counterpart, and the color palette I chose for her is meant to reflect her personality and character; her dark purple coat symbolizes her high-horse self-entitlement, her green eyes denote her envy and covet for the throne of all Mythogea or for a position she feels she’s been cheated out of, and she has a red magical aura which denote her malicious intents.

That she has an especial enmity with Andromeda who thwarts her nefarious plans is fairly certain, but whether this beef she has with her is solely just for that or also because Andromeda has somehow won favor with the top monarch and has replaced Grandeura as heir to the throne, (not sure how exactly she gets tangled up with the royal family, what with mostly just being a student at a Hogwarts-esque magic academy) I still haven’t decided; any thoughts?

And lastly we have this guy, Yang-Shu.

Or at least that’s his placeholder name because, having originally pictured him as being a reanimated corpse, I based him off the Chinese hopping ghost or “Jiangshi” as it is locally known. Not sure exactly what species he’s supposed to be, but I’ve been thinking he’s probably some sort of goblin/gremlin-type creature.

He was originally intended to be Agape’s arch nemesis, plotting to impede her goals of promoting love and “warming the hearts of others” and encourage hatred and bigotry to run prevalent across the world so that evil winter spirits which feed on hatred and create blizzards and cold weather (sorta like the Windigos in MLP) can also run prevalent and turn the world into a frozen wasteland so that he and other reanimated corpse can remain preserved and avoid decomposition — guess it kinda sounds ridiculous now that I say it, I mean, he could just live in an icebox or something, I dunno…

Anyhow, not sure I’ll still be using all that stuff for him, and he’s probably not going to be a living corpse bent on freezing the world and whatnot, but I still picture him being a recurring villain of sorts, though what his new agenda might be, I haven’t really decided, though I’m open to suggestions.

I’m not even sure if he’s even going to still be his own villain or just a henchman to some other main villain, but I guess time will tell.

Welp, that’s all the characters I’ve currently got drawn for Mythogea, but I’ll later work on some more. Please tell me what you think of them and the Mythogea project in general, and I’ll soon be expanding more upon it in future posts.

[dcarsi-95]

Making Mythos

Being a fan and heavy reader in the works of H. P. Lovecraft and his contributors, and drawing some inspiration from Stephen King (though I’ve yet to read his works, but I’m planning to soon), and being the aspiring writer I am, I’ve been thinking of making a mythology cycle of my own with its own unique set of extra-/hyper-dimensional deity-like beings — I even have some already drawn and will be posting them soon. But first, I’d like to discuss the classification of these deities of mine.

One set comprises of beings who inhabit higher dimensions of space than we three-dimensional lifeforms do. I plan for some of the stories in which I write about these beings to blend of Edwin Abbott’s Flatland with Lovecraftian themes of cosmic horror, so in some of these stories the protagonists in them will often run into these hyper-dimensional beings either through some experimentations that meddle with higher spatial dimensions, thus attracting the attention of these hyper-dimensional beings, or these h.d.s (as I’m now abbreviating them as) take upon themselves to make the first move and introduce themselves, and the main characters will either go insane from the h.d.s’ incomprehensible geometry, or the h.d.s inadvertently kill one or more of the nearby characters in an attempt to interact with them.

Some of these h.d.s, however, are revered and/or worship by several cultures across the 3D cosmos as divine beings or godlike figures. I’ve been trying to find a name under which to group them; I thought ‘the many-angled ones’ had a nice ring to it, but I’m wondering if I should reconsider from it considering that Marvel comics has eldritch Lovecraftian beings going by that same title — any suggestions on alternative titles?

Taking things a step further, showing us that even our space-time continuum as we know it is but an insignificant island in the midst of an unfathomable sea that is the greater macrocosm beyond space and even time itself, are what I’ve dubbed ‘the external ones,’ inspired by Lovecraft’s ‘outer gods,’ for just like them, the external ones exist beyond space, time, and even perimeter of physical constant, and some may even embody them. To get a good idea of that, I’d suggest checking out these videos on Rob Bryanton’s Imagining the Tenth Dimension, especially the videos where he discusses the 5th, 6th, and 8th dimension.

And lastly, probably the lowest tier of my mythos, based pretty loosely off Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones, are the ‘primal titans,’ colossal beings who once held dominion over a certain planet, if not Earth, at some point in its distant past and have been anointed by the Many-Angled Ones or the External Ones as heralds or priests for them either through heritage or from having been modified or mutated by them in some way or another.

Now that I’ve pretty much got ‘em all categorized, I’ll soon be posting them once I’ve finished drawing them. In the meantime, do any of you have some suggestions for alternative names for some of these mythos classes, or do you think they’re fine as they are? Please let me know.

[dcarsi-95]

Branes and Parallel Worlds

Here’s a speculative science concept that I plan on using as a plot device for my sci-fi stories — first, a crash course in string- and, essentially, M-theory. For those who aren’t familiar with these theories, it is believed by most particle physicists that the smallest particles known to science such as quarks, electrons, neutrinos, photons, and the like are composed on tiny vibrating strings of energy whose manner of vibrating determines the properties of each particle, thus String Theory.

For String Theory to remain mathematically consistent it requires at least 11 dimensions, 7 more than the four we know of in our space-time as we see and experience it — that’s where M-theory comes into play! Using the Braneworld scenario, M-theory proposes that the reason we don’t see these extra dimensions is because our universe as we know it is bound to a three-dimensional membrane (or ‘brane’, for short) floating in a four-dimensional hyperspace or ‘bulk’, with the otherwise one-dimensional strings attached by their ends to the brane, which is why they would be perceived as zero-dimensional points, as is demonstrated in the diagram below.

To make it easier to visualize and understand, our three-dimensional brane is represented by a 2D sheet, because it would be awfully difficult to attempt to illustrate a 3D space in a 4D hyperspace.

Since M-theorists also believe that there exist other branes lying in parallel, I had a bit of a hypothesis of my own; not sure if it holds a lot of actual scientific backing (though if there’s anyone out there who’s well learnt in particle physics, astrophysics, and or M-theory, please feel free to lend me your thoughts and feedback), but I think it makes an interesting plot device for speculative sci-fi stories involving parallel worlds in other dimensions.

To get to the chase, the idea here is that the strings composing objects with enough mass to be gravitationally influential (e.g. a planet or a star or other such astronomical body) can get distended so that their other ends reach out and connect to an adjacent brane thus creating what I like to give the term as a ‘shadow/mirror counterpart’, and thus such massive objects could exist in two separate branes simultaneously, as can be seen in these other two diagrams.

They also show, as I’m sure you’ve already noticed, that a planet can actually have three or even four versions in three different branes (or potentially as many more branes as you like) at once, or at least that four different versions of the same planet can be represented on two different sides of each of two branes. This is because I fancy to theorize that while an n-dimensional brane may possess a certain number of spatial dimensions macroscopically expressed within an n+1-dimensional hyperspace, the former may also possess a set of extra dimensions that are compacted to sub-atomic scales (an alternative theory some physicists use to explain why we cannot see the extra dimensions), thus giving the n-dimensional brane a microscopic ‘hyper-thickness’ and two sides, as well as additionally reconciling dimensional compactification with braneworld scenario, allowing extra dimensions to exist both macroscopically and microscopically.

I picture that a massive object on one side of a brane creates a gravity well that can attract an equivalent amount of matter on the opposite side and thus creating a counterpart there, the other end of whose strings can also connect with an adjacent brane to form a mirror counterpart which could possess yet another counterpart on the opposite side, leading to a potentially endless chain of doppelgängers which may each support unique inhabitants of their own.

For the mythology in my stories, stealing some inspiration from old Norse cosmology, Earth as we know it possesses doppelgängers of its own (as do the other planets with whom it shares the solar system with) as is situated in a chain of its multiple versions dubbed the ‘Tree of Yggdrasil.’

At the lower center of this (for lack of a better word) ‘vertical’ column of Earth’s different counterparts in Yggdrasil’s ‘trunk’ is our Earth, also known as Midgard by the inter-dimensional Yggdrasilian confederacy/community (though whether or not they’re truly a united confederacy of sorts I still haven’t decided), and while not in the exact very center of this stack of Earths, being one Earth short of that, it is situated between four other Earths residing on branes that exist at right angles to that of Midgard’s and Swarlfheim’s, such as Niflheim, Muspelheim, Vanaheim, and Jotunheim (something I may later touch upon in a future post), which makes the name Midgard, meaning ‘Middle Earth’ (no reference to Lord of the Rings intended), still suitable to our Earth.

‘Above’ Midgard in ascending order, we have Alfheim, where some of the many para-human races humanity unknowingly shares Midgard with migrated to in the ancient past with the aid of hyper-dimensional beings who reside in 4D hyperspace when the growing human population drove them out of their original homes;  Asgard, which I imagine is inhabited by ‘divine’ and possibly godlike beings; and Vedfolnirheim, at the very ‘canopy’ of Yggdrasil — haven’t really figured out what that one’s about, but I figured it’s where an entity by the name of Vedfoldnir resides, just as a hawk by that same name sits at the very top of the Yggdrasil tree with an unnamed eagle in Norse mythology.

On the opposite face of the brane on which Midgard sits is Swarlfheim, which is a central hub to an interstellar confederacy spanning far across the galaxy, and is thus a melting pot to a menagerie of races from all four corners of it, many of whom humans may find grotesque or even horrifying — yeah, sorta takes some inspiration from Monsters Inc. And lastly, further ‘down’, we have Helheim, which I picture is home to some entity named Hel, who may have been banished/imprisoned thereto for reasons I’ve yet to figure out.

So guys, what do you think of this concept? Any ideas you’d like to add? Anyone of scientific background have any feedback to these theories of mine? Please let me know.

[dcarsi-95]

Homo Erectus Civilizations

I’d originally been intending to include this in yesterday’s post on world building for Kalea the Spear, but it probably would’ve digressed a bit from the main topic there and might’ve made the post a tad longer than it needed to be, so I’ll just be making a separate post just it.

In my Kalea the Spear story cycle, I’ve been thinking that some of my stories may make occasional allusions to some ancient bygone era preceding Kalea’s time of the Kushan, Shamalian, Muvian, and Kimpshuran empires, when Homo erectus—predating Homo sapiens by quite some time, and having dispersed quite far across Afro-Euraisa before aforementioned Homo sapiens showed up—were the dominant race of Afro-Euraisa and held a vast civilization spanning far across it.

Sure, Homo erectus is typically viewed as a more primitive species of human and isn’t known for much other than learning how to utilize and possible even make fire and, subsequently, how to cook, but hey, they’ve been around for almost two million years, whereas we Homo sapiens have only been on this Earth for three-hundred thousand years, a pretty thin sliver of time compared to Homo erectus’ run; maybe they could’ve gotten a bit brighter near the later half of their run and could’ve done things to surprise us and built relatively advanced civilizations, at least as advanced as, say, the Aztecs or Romans.

Basically, I just thought about for a stories a lost, forgotten, earlier age of human dominance over the Earth (or at least part of it) predating Homo sapiens’ conquest over it, where ancient human species took over much of the Earth, displacing a lot of para-human races just beginning to evolve within the lands the Homo erectus empire was beginning to invade.

For a while I’ve had these ideas of writing stories of many other sapient species of other phylogenies, or biological genre, families, orders, classes, and phyla, having occupied much of the globe until humans showed up and sent many of them into hiding. I’m coming to picture in at least three waves. The most recent wave coming when Homo sapiens began developing advanced civilizations that began spreading out from their points of origin; the wave before it being caused not by humans, but by the Kimpshuras (i.e. the large, furry, sasquatch-like humanoids), the Kushan dragon-men, the Shamilian monotreme-men, and the Muvians, whatever species they are, for I still haven’t decided yet; and the first wave most likely being caused by the Homo erectus empires — but I digress, for that may be a topic for a later post.

So the idea is that before the events in the Kalea the Spear stories, there was a relatively advanced and possibly imperialized civilization of an earlier human species predating Homo sapiens’ arrival that may have flourished for some time but then collapsed for one reason or another, whether it was some natural catastrophe, a war with another prehistoric and possibly para-human civilization, or the wrath of the “gods” (another topic for a later post), sending Homo erectus back to hunter-gatherer days before being displaced into extinction by the emergence of later human species, and the characters present in Kalea’s stories find hints or allusions to this previous civilization’s existence. I even had the idea of one character, a Homo erectus shaman said to be the last of his kind, even speaking of this lost era — sort of taking inspiration off of Old Mother, a character from the movie 10,000 BC who is also said to be the last of her kind and said by the producers to be a Neanderthal.

So, what are your thoughts on all this? Anyways I could expand on this idea?

[dcarsi-95]

Worldbuilding for Kalea the Spear

It’s taken a while, but here’s a map of the world in which Kalea the Spear takes place. With it taking place in a prehistoric antediluvian timeframe, I used a bathymetric map as a stencil and thus included some of the continental shelves, as I figured that during this era when the Earth was colder and thus the sea levels were lower, there’d be a bit more dry land than than there currently is in our epoch. Originally, I imagined Kalea the Spear to take place near the end of the last glacial period, about 12-11,700 years ago, but now I’m thinking it’s more at the last glacial maximum around 26-19,000 years ago, when the sea levels were at there lowest — Anyhow, here it is.

As you can see, it mostly just consists of Earth’s eastern hemisphere, or the “Old World”. Some of the empires shown here do extend into the Americas, as I’m sure is also apparent on the margins, but for now I think my stories involving Kalea the Spear will focus mostly on the Old World, though Kalea’s pangolin-kangaroo-dog might originate from the Americas if you’ve already read a little bit into one of his possible backstories.

Taking some inspiration from Helena Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine, I’ve applied the esoteric names she’s used for some of the lost continents, or at least some slight modifications of these names. And of course, with these stories taking place in a timeframe where stone-age humanity is still rather new to the world and hasn’t spread out quite as far across as we have now, I’ve taken some creative liberty and populated these empires and lost lands with non-human sophont beings who’ve been on Earth a bit longer than humanity has and thus has had a bit of a technological head-start.

Kush, sketched after the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, is of course de-facto Atlantis, and being on top of a source of volcanic activity I pictured it being peopled by a race of dragon-men.

The Shamalian Hegemony is a republic of islands and microcontinents within the Indian Ocean, with homeland Shamali (which is intended to be de-facto Lemuria) forming its capital, though I’ve been wondering whether I should instead make the Kerguelen Plateau (which I named Kerlegea) instead of the Mascarene Plateau. Most of the islands within the Shamalian Hegemony are peopled by races of lemur-men, but having read about how Lemuria was believed to have been home to egg-laying mammals with a third eye, I also thought of including monotreme-men as well. I’ve also imagined that there resides on Kumari Kandam an elephantine humanoid extraterrestrial similar to the Hindu god Ganesha who sanctified the monotreme-men for their pineal third eye, but I’ve been debating with myself whether to have an entire population of elephantine humanoid e.t. colonists be the dominant race of the Hegemony or simply have there be only one present and have the monotremes be the dominant race, with the aforementioned elephantine humanoid be a unique character amongst them.

Mu I have fashioned from Zealandia, and I wasn’t sure whether it should be peopled by koala-like marsupial-men, another monotreme race, salamandrine humanoids, or—to get really creative—anurognathid-like winged reptiles, as I’d long ago fancied picturing a lost continent in the Pacific peopled by beings similar to the alien on the cover of the novel Frame of Reference. Lately, however, looking at this, and the prehistoric giant salamander fossil historically known as homo diluvii, which has inspired visions of an antediluvian race of large sapient salamanders, I’ve been leaning towards making the Muvians giant salamanders, but I’d also like to hear your opinions on the matter.

And taking inspiration from SCP-1000, and considering how widespread across the globe sightings of large, furry, sasquatch-like humanoids are, I thought I’d add a fourth empire peopled by a race of bipedal Gigantopitheci who address themselves as the Kimpshura, and have spread out from Southeast Asia all across most of Eurasia (also known as Gondoloria) and even into the Americas, along with the Kushans and Muvians; I’ve also fancied them being the giant men spoken about in myth inhabiting fabled Hyperborea (or Planksha, as I’ve named it). The capital of the Kimpshuran empire, fabled Thule, I’ve located in what would come to be known many thousands of years later as Greenland.

And lastly, we have the Setian Kingdom, situated on the southern half of the Nile river (which I figured might not have stretched as far down during the last glacial period than it does today) and around the Red Sea, which in the time of Kalea the Spear has become a landlocked lake. It is so-called the Setian Kingdom because it is inhabited by a race of tapir-snouted beings similar in appearance to the Egyptian god Set, and of course because their king also happens to go by the name of Set and most likely becomes immortalized in later ancient Egyptian mythology in later ages as one of its gods.

I may still have some lands in this map that still need naming, and I’ll probably update this later, but I wanted to get this posted once I’d gotten the important lands named.

So what’re your thoughts, guys? Any suggestions for the unnamed lands? Should I switch the names of some of the lands I’ve named? Do you suggest any alternative names? With what para-human races should I people these lands? Have I made good choices with what I’ve already picked? Please feel free to lend me your thoughts.

[dcarsi-95]

Options for Kalea’s Traveling Animal

Welp, after almost another eternity of inactivity, here’s a couple of concept ideas for Kalea the Spear.

As stated in my first post regarding Kalea the Spear, I intended to make a some hybrid creatures for the prehistoric setting, much like in the tv series Avatar and a little bit in the 2014 movie Noah. I’ll be posting some more in future posts, which hopefully shouldn’t take as long as what I’ve currently got to dish out for now, but I wanted to start off with choosing which of these two creatures of my creation should be Kalea’s traveling companion animal.

Our first option here is this dog-cum-pangolin-cum-kangaroo creature which takes some inspiration from the scaled dog in the movie Noah, only here, I added a third animal to the mix, as I’m sure you can all see.

Man, this one took the longest to draw — doing all the scales on him was some awfully meticulous work. Haven’t thought of a name for him yet; open to suggestions.

I’ve really been leaning towards this dog/kangaroo/pangolin creature, but I also created this gal down below as another option for something probably instantly recognizable as prehistoric, Kalisha.

Again, I’m really leaning towards the dog creature, but I’d like to hear everyone else’s opinion on this. Then there’s also the issue on how Kalea meets and ultimately forms a companionship with her would-be travel companion animal, whichever of the two it is. One option, borrowing some inspiration from episode 2 of the show Primal, River of Snakes, Kalea and the animal start out as hunting rivals, having to compete with each other for prey and the like, but later learn to work together or are probably forced by circumstance to form an alliance against a common enemy — still need to figure out how exactly that plays out, but, again, I’m open for ideas. The other option, which I think would only go for the dog creature, is that Kalea, after having somehow been captured and put into a colosseum of sorts, is made to fight the dog creature, but she sees how mistreated he and the other animals kept there are, and, after somehow getting out of fighting him, helps him and the other animals escape. The dog creature, unable to find other of his kind to go with after the escape (since I imagine in this scenario that he may have been imported from some distant land), decides to travel with Kalea from there onward and becomes her traveling companion.

So guys, what are thoughts on all this? Please comment and let me know.

More coming soon. Hopefully, it shouldn’t take as long as these two guys.

[dcarsi-95]

New Logo!

Renamed my tumblr here and gave it a new logo!

I think Orange Platypus is a tad catchier.

More updates coming soon!

[dcarsi-95]

Kalea the Spear

For a bit of a while, lately, I’ve picked up an interest in writing speculative fictions about lost prehistoric civilizations, some of which may have been inhabited by intelligent species other than humans, such as Atlantean dragon-men and monotreme merfolk of Lemuria and the like, but for I while I’ve struggled trying to figure out how to bring them to light in a modern-day settings, that is to say, how the protagonists uncover them and learn their history.

Then I came across this series on Adult Swim by Genndy called Primal, and for those unfamiliar with it, I recommend checking out on YouTube; it’s a really awesome show, but a forewarning, it gets pretty graphic.

I loved the stories it had to tell there, especially with the episode Slave of the Scorpion which to me seems to imply the existence of somewhat more advanced civilizations that may have existed in what we would otherwise consider primitive times; not to give away any spoilers but it leaves me anxious to see what sort of civilizations and strange, new and exotic creatures Spear and Fang might encounter upon leaving their homeland, and that’s where I got an idea as to how to introduce prehistoric civilizations into my stories; I did also have ideas about writing a series of stories about the adventures of a cavewoman named Kalea the Spear (so named because it’s her weapon of choice), and later decided that she could encounter these prehistoric para-human civilizations in her adventures, as well as liberate fellow cave people who are enslaved by said civilizations, and even duel evil sorcerers and even the occasional extra-dimensional lovecraftian eldritch abomination from beyond the veil, all whilst fighting against the forces of the growing Atlantean empire that threatens humanity’s dominance over the planet in between — so, it’s also a bit like Conan the Barbarian, with a bit of 10,000 BC thrown into it.

These stories, needless to say, will also be set in prehistoric times, specifically about 12,000 years ago near the start of the Neolithic era, so no dinosaurs, since they all went extinct long before humans showed up, but I also intend to populate its world with—besides the prehistoric mammalian megafauna already recognized by science—some beasts of my own invention, some of which, like in the show Avatar, sort of resemble chimeras of different species, such as the pangolin dog from the 2014 movie Noah which is basically a dog with the scales of a pangolin, but I’ve intended to add the hindquarters of a kangaroo. I’ve also had a couple of other ideas for some other mix-match creatures, such as cats that glide like flying squirrels, large birdlike rabbits that strut about on their hind legs like birds and have elongated beaklike incisors, goats with long curved hooves for hanging from tree branches like sloths, and even large bipedal anteaters that resemble therizinosaurs — the idea here, like what I think was also being conveyed in the movie Noah, is that antediluvian Earth may have been populated with other strange prehistoric creatures that we haven’t dug up yet. If anyone has some ideas for some other creatures, I’d be interested to hear them.

Returning to the main topic concerning my story, I have some ideas for a few stories about Kalea which I will elaborate a bit more upon in future posts, but the one I’m struggling on the most for the time being is the pilot story concerning Kalea’s beginnings, how she came to be as she is and how she met her travel companion animal, as well as what type of creature said travel companion animal is, which I will also expand more upon in a later post.

I do have some idea as to the pivotal point in Kalea’s origin story, with her having been orphaned as a young child as her tribe is either captured or killed by Atlantean dragon-men colonists, whereafter, now forced to fend for herself, she slowly acquires survival and hunting skills and ultimately matures into the hardened warrior huntress the series will know her as from thereon — how exactly to sketch out that part of the story, however, I still haven’t figured out, but I’m welcoming to any ideas or suggestions.

Then there’s also how she meets her travel companion animal. I do have a couple of ideas; one which I’m really clinging to is that the relationship between the two starts out as a rivalry as they compete for prey, much like in this here clip of Primal, but later on either gradually learn how to work together or are suddenly forced to do so by circumstance as they are faced with a common dilemma or enemy (most likely the aforementioned dragon-men in the case of the latter, at least).

An alternative idea was that Kalea meets the animal in a coliseum wherein she is placed by the dragon-men after a failed attempt at ambushing a group of them, and wherein she is made to fight said animal — how exactly she manages to get out of killing him or fighting him altogether, I still haven’t figured out, but I’ve pictured that she soon sees how the animals kept in the coliseum are mistreated and forms a plan to free them, with the animal she was made to fight with, having formed a bond with her along the way, opting to tag along with her in the end, thus becoming her travel companion from thereon.

Again, if anyone has any ideas to add to any of this, I’d be glad to hear them!

[dcarsi-95]

New Year’s Update

Hey guys! Sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while; I’ve been real busy with moving and unpacking, but above all, while I’ve definitely got tons of ideas to share with you all, I’ve been trying to work on some illustrations to help demonstrate them — I’ve even been receiving weekly online sessions with a drawing instructor to help better my drawing skills. Definitely hope to get to posting some new ideas soon.

But with the year 2020 coming to a close, I’ve wanted to break this dry spell of posts to wish everyone out there a happy new year and new beginnings!

Intend to be posting again real soon!

[dcarsi-95]

Karate Krane

After quite a while of procrastination, how about I start with a project I’ve been meaning to get out there for a while? This one I named Karate Krane originally started out as a written novel, but as I began making illustrated pictures on what some of the characters look like, I later decided that they’d look a lot better in a comic of some sort — it was also supposed to be a single story, but I’ve lately been leaning towards making it a series instead.

The story owes it origin to a Kung Fu Panda fanfic I found some years ago called Within Her Grasp (the first second chapter should give ya’ll the gist of my story’s inspiration). With Tigress in said fanfic believing that “winged balls of feathers on stilts [aren’t] the stuff Kung Fu Masters [are] made of”, I couldn’t help but imagine Tigress and Crane in a similar situation as this moment here between Master Shifu and Po in the first movie, with Tigress shaming Crane on how scrawny he is where Shifu shames Po on how overweight he is; it was there that I thought it would make an amusing story to have a crane placed under the guidance of tiger martial arts master (much to the tiger’s chagrin) by said tiger’s master.

In a way, it started out pretty similar to the first Kung Fu Panda movie (I even had the idea that there might’ve been an antagonist similar in some ways to Tai Lung), except instead of Kung Fu, the crane was learning karate, and instead of taking place in ancient China it was to take place in a more modern time like the 1970s, though I’ve lately been considering making the timeframe even more modern for reasons I will delve into later.

The crane in my story is Chris Junichiro Kato, who is mostly whooping crane but has a heritage originating in Japan.

He’s, in reality, not as confident as he’s depicted in this here pic, at least, not at first. He’s actually quite timid and not the most assertive and even has a bit of a geeky side. In the story, he ends up applying or getting applied to some hardcore, heavy-duty martial arts academy, where most everyone is pretty muscular, which is why few of them see Chris as cut-out for it since he is so skinny, but he’s later able to make up for his lack of thew with his amazing reflexes. Not sure exactly how he ends up in this academy; probably either encouraged by friends and/or family who take notice of his remarkable reflexes or is assigned to a teacher there by another teacher who perceptive enough to see Chris’ potential, or is taken into the guidance of his assigned teacher under the request of said teacher’s daughter, who also sees Chris’ potential — I thought it would be a bit too much like Kung Fu Panda if it was because he was some prophesied “chosen one” destined to combat some former student who’s aiming to take revenge for some wrong done unto them like in the case of Tai Lung.

His teacher, of course, is a white tigress whom I’d originally named Master Hung Ga (because some sketchy research I did years ago on Chinese martial arts made some association with the tiger in a certain martial art by that name), although if she is teaches karate, I might want to make her of a more Japanese background, since karate is Japanese and the name Hung Ga is more Chinese in origin — I dunno, really… *shrugs* Although I’ve lately come to imagine her being Russian; I can easily picture her with a thick slavic accent.

Then there’s her daughter Michelle, a classmate of Chris’ on whom he has a crush on.

(Yeah, I know; she’s an orange tiger, whilst her mom is a white tiger, but y’know, her dad might’ve been orange as well) Originally, I pictured her being initially like how Astrid was to Hiccup in the first How to Train Your Dragon movie towards Chris, though not as cold and unattached and—at times—downright mean, more like pompously dismissing him in a typical high school popular girl kind of way. Lately, however, I’ve come to envision her more being a lot nicer to Chris, always willing to stand up for him when he’s unable to do so himself, and even encouraging him to do things most others would doubt he has the competence for (much like how Mei-Ling encouraged Crane to volunteer for the Lee Da Kung Fu Academy), and supporting him all the way. Personality-wise, she can be a tough cookie who isn’t afraid to speak her mind, and while she does show some interest in girly things from time to time, she also has a tomboyish side, and even takes interest in things that would conversely gross Chris out; they sort of fall into the “Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy” trope that way — I’ve even imagined her trying to teach Chris how to spit, much like in that scene from Titanic! XD

She’s also got a number a friends including a snow leopardess, a kangaroo and a doberman pinscher, but those—along with Chris’ friends—are more minor characters that I’ll cover in future posts, though I do imagine the snow leopardess (I believe I named her Amy) also has a pretty nice personality and is also willing to lend support.

A couple of other characters I’ve recently thrown into this mix include an earthly manifestation of God in the form of a tricolored tetrahedron who goes by the name of Joe (for Jehovah, which, if I’m not mistaken, is an alternative to Yahweh) and a conical, bluish-purple/purplish-blue manifestation of the closest thing to the Devil (although I’m not sure he truly is the Devil) who probably goes by the name of either Stan (for Satan) or Lucie (for Lucifer). Again, I’m not sure he’s really the Devil or if him and Joe are just two manifestations of the two side of God’s nature (in the universe this story takes place in, I guess God has two natures: one’s more firmly adherent to what is absolutely moral, and the other isn’t afraid to bend the rules a little), two sides of the same coin.

Originally, it was going to be just Joe, who hangs around Chris, as well as other characters, as sort of a conscience and life coach, but I later decided to add Stan/Lucie (can’t quite decide which name) so that the two of them would be like Chris’ shoulder angel/devil duo, where Joe—though not all preachy and all that—advises Chris to “do the right thing” and gives advice with chiefly altruistic implications, whilst Stan/Lucie tries to tempt Chris to pursue somewhat more self-centered gratifications that may or may not slightly deviate from what is completely moral, and whilst the two of them do often butt heads with each other when it comes to guiding Chris’ actions they do sometimes call truces and work together — ultimately, while they usually don’t agree on how to do it, they both have Chris’ best interests at heart.

I designed Joe as a tricolored tetrahedron or three-sided pyramid as sort of a reference to the Holy Trinity, with his white fourth face symbolizing a unity between all three aspects of said Trinity, but also because his more angular shape symbolizes his strict adherence to the moral code, to do things “fair and square”, in contrast to Stan/Lucie, who of course is of a conical shape, and thus more circular in cross section, and tends to be more deviant. Of course, not wanting to be religion-specific, I do aim to make symbolic references to other religions to make Joe seem more unitarian, like I might have him and Stan/Lucie come together (if they really are but two sides of the same coin) and form a star of David, and sometimes even a yin-yang taijitu in reference to Taoism.

Although my story originally lends a lot of inspiration from KFP and was set in the 70s, lately, as I’d been also pondering on the depiction of his daily life of regular teenage pursuits, and as I listened to songs like Hey Mickey, Mony Mony, Another One Bites the Dust, Addicted to Love, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and all other sorts of songs from the album Rhino Instant Party Disc: Regular Strength (for those who don’t own the album, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is not included) as well as a number of more recent pop songs, I’d come to consider maybe pushing the story’s timeframe to a more recent date like the 80s or 90s, maybe even the 21st century, and that maybe instead of being about Chris’ struggles and trials in karate training, maybe it should instead focus more on his daily life in high school. There might still be a side plot in which Chris tries out some sort of activity in which physical strength is a standard, but instead of martial arts it might be something like rugby football (even though Chris is really not much of a sports kind of guy) because Michelle is involved in such a team herself, or maybe the school has a gym that includes a kick-boxing program, or maybe it also includes a karate program — whichever way, I think this story is going to focus a bit more on Chris’ teen life and a tad less on whatever physical he gets involved in, but I still think the latter’s still going to have some significant role in it. I dunno, I’ve run it all by my mom and she seemed to agree that this was a good change in direction, and we both agreed that the original storyline was a bit of a ripoff of KFP, but what do you guys think?

Do you like the changes I’ve made so far? Are you more in favor with the original storyline and think I’ve given it a sufficiently original twist? Do you like the characters I’ve shown so far? Have any ideas of your own that you’d like to add? What are your thoughts on it all? Please share your opinions with me, as I’d love to hear them. Thank you.

[dcarsi-95]

Greetings!

Hello, visitors! I can't wait to start sharing my ideas with you and hear your thoughts on them! I'll be posting some content really soon.