Zero Angel Richardson's Blog, page 22
April 20, 2013
Doctor Who Series 7 Episode 9: Hide — Spoiler-Free Review and Spoiler-Full Reflection
Doctor Who is back in style this week with "Hide".
Initial Impression: Scariest Doctor Who episode ever
I was going to say since "Blink", but it quickly overcame "Blink" levels of scariness for me. Of course, that may be due in part to living in a large old house that is ostensibly haunted (actually, I'm developing a visual novel based on my own haunted house experiences...moving on though!).
Secondary Impression: Best episode of Series 7. Possibly of Matt Smith's entire tenure. Although it's not hard to be the best episode in Series 7, I adored Series 5 and 6. Still, the episode delivers on all accounts without being too weighty. It delves into the overarching story of Clara a bit, or at least the Doctor's attempts to figure her out, but the episode was complete and self-contained enough to enjoy immensely.
If you're at all as jumpy as I am, you're going to want to watch this with a nice solid wall against your back and not too many dark open spaces to look into. After the first 15 minutes, the horror aspect toned down as the Doctor went into figuring out the mystery, but there were still moments of "oh shit" mixed in.
The acting was quite good from all members, and the character of Clara, although ostensibly not a normal human girl, sure already has enough character development to be more real and human than Amy did in 2 and 1/2 years. It's so refreshing to have a realistic seeming companion as opposed to the wacko Amy that was as nuts as the mad Doctor (although that had its own charm too).
It's possible I may be suffering from oasis syndrome (which is a term I just coined. It refers to how good food tastes when you're hungry or how delicious liquids are when you're thirsty. I think its relatively straightforward in origin, oases are few and far between, so you really appreciate them when you get to one).
Although the emotions were genuine and the entire episode was just extremely satisfying and enjoyable, there were no moments where I was staring at the screen bawling my eyes out after having my heart exposed before promptly ripping it out and stomping on it. For all that, it was just so enjoyable. Even if I am suffering from oasis syndrome, it was a top-notch episode and I am so glad.
Zero's Review: 10/10 A+
Reflection: WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD
What an interesting episode to consider in view of where we know Doctor Who is going and where we've been. It's pretty clear that love was a great theme in this episode by the end, although it was thrown in there in the very first scene between the empath, Emma, and the professor, Alec. In view of the fact that Moffat likes everything to come together and the actions of the TARDIS in this episode, it's possible that the TARDIS is going through a tsundere character arc with Clara.
The fact that Emma revealed Clara is a perfectly normal girl means that it's probably the Doctor's or the TARDIS's fault about what happens to her. A love story for the TARDIS would be something new.
The Doctor himself is getting much rougher about the edges. He's downright cold to Clara after she sees the destruction of Earth, which is even more apparent since we've seen how he comforted Rose after experiencing the same thing! It's quite clear that it is the mystery that is keeping the Doctor going and the person of Clara herself is secondary. Maybe he's still closed off from losing the Ponds, but I am glad that the audience got to see the sliver of ice in his heart almost immediately.
Still, the Doctor acting in such a way makes me worry for the return of the Dream Lord or Valeyard incarnations of the Doctor. His attitude towards Clara might also be why the TARDIS is acting the way it is. I wouldn't be surprised if the TARDIS tells Clara she doesn't like her because the Doctor doesn't like her.
They're really having some rubbery costumes for the creatures this half of the series, huh? At least with the visual effects of the creature in this episode this is not clear until the long shot near the very end of the episode.
Some nice callbacks for longtime Whovians as well this time around, including the Eye of Harmony and a blue crystal from Metebelis III. For new generation Whovians, we are treated to breaking out the orange spacesuit again as well as no dearth of standard Doctor Who conventions.
What were your thoughts?
Note: May want to stay out of the comments if you haven't seen the episode yet.
Initial Impression: Scariest Doctor Who episode ever
I was going to say since "Blink", but it quickly overcame "Blink" levels of scariness for me. Of course, that may be due in part to living in a large old house that is ostensibly haunted (actually, I'm developing a visual novel based on my own haunted house experiences...moving on though!).
Secondary Impression: Best episode of Series 7. Possibly of Matt Smith's entire tenure. Although it's not hard to be the best episode in Series 7, I adored Series 5 and 6. Still, the episode delivers on all accounts without being too weighty. It delves into the overarching story of Clara a bit, or at least the Doctor's attempts to figure her out, but the episode was complete and self-contained enough to enjoy immensely.
If you're at all as jumpy as I am, you're going to want to watch this with a nice solid wall against your back and not too many dark open spaces to look into. After the first 15 minutes, the horror aspect toned down as the Doctor went into figuring out the mystery, but there were still moments of "oh shit" mixed in.
The acting was quite good from all members, and the character of Clara, although ostensibly not a normal human girl, sure already has enough character development to be more real and human than Amy did in 2 and 1/2 years. It's so refreshing to have a realistic seeming companion as opposed to the wacko Amy that was as nuts as the mad Doctor (although that had its own charm too).
It's possible I may be suffering from oasis syndrome (which is a term I just coined. It refers to how good food tastes when you're hungry or how delicious liquids are when you're thirsty. I think its relatively straightforward in origin, oases are few and far between, so you really appreciate them when you get to one).
Although the emotions were genuine and the entire episode was just extremely satisfying and enjoyable, there were no moments where I was staring at the screen bawling my eyes out after having my heart exposed before promptly ripping it out and stomping on it. For all that, it was just so enjoyable. Even if I am suffering from oasis syndrome, it was a top-notch episode and I am so glad.
Zero's Review: 10/10 A+
Reflection: WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD
What an interesting episode to consider in view of where we know Doctor Who is going and where we've been. It's pretty clear that love was a great theme in this episode by the end, although it was thrown in there in the very first scene between the empath, Emma, and the professor, Alec. In view of the fact that Moffat likes everything to come together and the actions of the TARDIS in this episode, it's possible that the TARDIS is going through a tsundere character arc with Clara.
The fact that Emma revealed Clara is a perfectly normal girl means that it's probably the Doctor's or the TARDIS's fault about what happens to her. A love story for the TARDIS would be something new.
The Doctor himself is getting much rougher about the edges. He's downright cold to Clara after she sees the destruction of Earth, which is even more apparent since we've seen how he comforted Rose after experiencing the same thing! It's quite clear that it is the mystery that is keeping the Doctor going and the person of Clara herself is secondary. Maybe he's still closed off from losing the Ponds, but I am glad that the audience got to see the sliver of ice in his heart almost immediately.
Still, the Doctor acting in such a way makes me worry for the return of the Dream Lord or Valeyard incarnations of the Doctor. His attitude towards Clara might also be why the TARDIS is acting the way it is. I wouldn't be surprised if the TARDIS tells Clara she doesn't like her because the Doctor doesn't like her.
They're really having some rubbery costumes for the creatures this half of the series, huh? At least with the visual effects of the creature in this episode this is not clear until the long shot near the very end of the episode.
Some nice callbacks for longtime Whovians as well this time around, including the Eye of Harmony and a blue crystal from Metebelis III. For new generation Whovians, we are treated to breaking out the orange spacesuit again as well as no dearth of standard Doctor Who conventions.
What were your thoughts?
Note: May want to stay out of the comments if you haven't seen the episode yet.
Why are you writing?
It's an important question for any writer. What drives you? What makes you tick? What are your goals and aspirations? What do you hope to accomplish? What are you willing to sacrifice or compromise?
What got you started as a writer?
I always loved writing from the time I was able to. I remember I started out in the realm of fanfiction. I had an awesome Mega Man fanfic in pre-memory that expanded the cast of the Mega Man games to absurd levels and had a pretty rocking happy ending. My next big writery act was in the beginning of real memory with a 16-page single-spaced crossover between the cast of Bunnicula and I think original characters.
By then, I had already devoured Tolkien and steadily progressed through the entirety of the Dragonlance saga and any other fantasy I could get my hands on. By high school, I wanted original characters. But there was a lot more.
In all of the fantasy I was reading, in all of the shows I was watching, there were heroes! These sometimes humble beginnings underdogs, sometimes larger-than-life supermen (sometimes both!), honest-to-God HEROES.
(Aside: So the TV show "Heroes" had what characters playing as actual heroes? Ostensibly Peter and Hiro were the title characters, but in the later seasons they fell entirely too much and really now, only two out of the absurdly large cast?)
These heroes fought, debated or won over the worlds they existed in and did real good.
They weren't always the best people (see: Lancelot), but sometimes that didn't matter. What mattered was what they did for those around them. What mattered was that no matter how bad things got or how much they mucked up the situation, they KEPT trying and they helped. They really helped.
More than that. They taught me the kind of person I wanted to be.
Honesty. Integrity. Doing the right thing no matter how much it hurts. Doing the right thing for the right reasons even if you are going to be punished for it or go unacknowledged. Educating myself. Fighting against ignorance and not backing down from my morals, while keeping my pride in check and not fighting over things that don't matter. They. Kept. Going.
And I became the man I aspired to be (at least I'm happy with where I am morally/ethically, I have no illusions about my physical fitness or my economic class). I've had hiccups and mistakes along the way, but I kept trying. I keep trying. Even with pushups and jobs.
I wouldn't have aspired to this without those fictional examples of excellence. Without the supermen and spider-men of my childhood, without the Arthurs, Tarans, Mega Men or even anthropomorphized animals. I don't know who I would be without them.
I frequently annoy my mother by saying I was raised by television, but I don't truly mean this as an insult to her parenting (or my father's, to whom I would never say that). I mean that fiction, be it on the page or on the screen, showed me the kind of person I wanted to be. I'm sure without my parents, I would probably have aspired to be the Wilys, Doc Octs, and Mordreds of my youth instead, or I might not have gotten the message at best, but without fiction, I wouldn't be who I am today.
And I realized that fiction has this power to change people. To show people.
Now, I try not to soapbox in my writings (at least my fictional ones, be prepared to be harangued in my nonfiction, although that's usually about math...), but still, if everyone could be inspired the way I was inspired. Even if it was just to continue educating themselves or to realize that helping others is good and that intolerance is probably not the best attitude to have with others. If I could do that for ONE person...
Well it would be worth it.
It was a pretty big shift in my fantasizing. When I was a kid, I wanted to be the hero of the stories. The ridiculously unreal superhero that swings in to save everyone through sheer-force-of-will (oh, and superpowers), but then I "settled" for being the best I could be and trying to write the heroes that could inspire more people.
Anytime I get discouraged, I think about the heroes of my life. Yes, they are fictional, and there are some really amazing un-fictional ones out there too, but I'm just talking about being inspired and you don't need reality for that.
So I'll answer the eponymous question:
Why am I writing? To save the world.
Better question: What will be the way that you try to save the world?
Childhood References:
PS Why has the Spider-Man animated series from my childhood not been released in season form yet???
Note: I really don't want to get into an argument about semantics here. When I say, "save", I do not envision myself as a messiah or savior of some sort, it's just a different way of saying, "do my best to better the lives of people, animals and the planet while I'm here. To leave the world better off from my having been born than to worsen it through my existence." Clearly, writing is not the only thing I do in this regard, but it is what inspired me to write in the first place.
...plus, it's just super-awesome and fun to write and create.
What got you started as a writer?
I always loved writing from the time I was able to. I remember I started out in the realm of fanfiction. I had an awesome Mega Man fanfic in pre-memory that expanded the cast of the Mega Man games to absurd levels and had a pretty rocking happy ending. My next big writery act was in the beginning of real memory with a 16-page single-spaced crossover between the cast of Bunnicula and I think original characters.
By then, I had already devoured Tolkien and steadily progressed through the entirety of the Dragonlance saga and any other fantasy I could get my hands on. By high school, I wanted original characters. But there was a lot more.
In all of the fantasy I was reading, in all of the shows I was watching, there were heroes! These sometimes humble beginnings underdogs, sometimes larger-than-life supermen (sometimes both!), honest-to-God HEROES.
(Aside: So the TV show "Heroes" had what characters playing as actual heroes? Ostensibly Peter and Hiro were the title characters, but in the later seasons they fell entirely too much and really now, only two out of the absurdly large cast?)
These heroes fought, debated or won over the worlds they existed in and did real good.
They weren't always the best people (see: Lancelot), but sometimes that didn't matter. What mattered was what they did for those around them. What mattered was that no matter how bad things got or how much they mucked up the situation, they KEPT trying and they helped. They really helped.
More than that. They taught me the kind of person I wanted to be.
Honesty. Integrity. Doing the right thing no matter how much it hurts. Doing the right thing for the right reasons even if you are going to be punished for it or go unacknowledged. Educating myself. Fighting against ignorance and not backing down from my morals, while keeping my pride in check and not fighting over things that don't matter. They. Kept. Going.
And I became the man I aspired to be (at least I'm happy with where I am morally/ethically, I have no illusions about my physical fitness or my economic class). I've had hiccups and mistakes along the way, but I kept trying. I keep trying. Even with pushups and jobs.
I wouldn't have aspired to this without those fictional examples of excellence. Without the supermen and spider-men of my childhood, without the Arthurs, Tarans, Mega Men or even anthropomorphized animals. I don't know who I would be without them.
I frequently annoy my mother by saying I was raised by television, but I don't truly mean this as an insult to her parenting (or my father's, to whom I would never say that). I mean that fiction, be it on the page or on the screen, showed me the kind of person I wanted to be. I'm sure without my parents, I would probably have aspired to be the Wilys, Doc Octs, and Mordreds of my youth instead, or I might not have gotten the message at best, but without fiction, I wouldn't be who I am today.
And I realized that fiction has this power to change people. To show people.
Now, I try not to soapbox in my writings (at least my fictional ones, be prepared to be harangued in my nonfiction, although that's usually about math...), but still, if everyone could be inspired the way I was inspired. Even if it was just to continue educating themselves or to realize that helping others is good and that intolerance is probably not the best attitude to have with others. If I could do that for ONE person...
Well it would be worth it.
It was a pretty big shift in my fantasizing. When I was a kid, I wanted to be the hero of the stories. The ridiculously unreal superhero that swings in to save everyone through sheer-force-of-will (oh, and superpowers), but then I "settled" for being the best I could be and trying to write the heroes that could inspire more people.
Anytime I get discouraged, I think about the heroes of my life. Yes, they are fictional, and there are some really amazing un-fictional ones out there too, but I'm just talking about being inspired and you don't need reality for that.
So I'll answer the eponymous question:
Why am I writing? To save the world.
Better question: What will be the way that you try to save the world?
Childhood References:
PS Why has the Spider-Man animated series from my childhood not been released in season form yet???
Note: I really don't want to get into an argument about semantics here. When I say, "save", I do not envision myself as a messiah or savior of some sort, it's just a different way of saying, "do my best to better the lives of people, animals and the planet while I'm here. To leave the world better off from my having been born than to worsen it through my existence." Clearly, writing is not the only thing I do in this regard, but it is what inspired me to write in the first place.
...plus, it's just super-awesome and fun to write and create.
April 16, 2013
Defiance Series Premiere (Season 1 Episode 1) Review
I had mixed feelings going into Defiance, but for fans of sci-fi (the genre, not the channel), I can assure you that it's trying hard and not just preying on us for not having any good speculative fiction to watch on television.
That pic takes you to Amazon's "Defiance" season on demand and the following should take you to the pilot episode specifically: Pilot
Defiance opens without much fanfare as we're treated to some expository background by way of what is ostensibly the main character's daughter, an alien. The director wanted to surprise us with this for some reason as they look reasonably human until they pan up to do the "big reveal". OHMIGAWD.
Still, it's sci-fi, so I can forgive some questionable choices. The exposition reveals Earth is now post-apocalypse and home to seven alien species. The aliens do not appear to have FTL (faster-than-light), for which I was grateful. They travel the stars via stasis pods. Unfortunately, all their ships were destroyed, so they're stuck on Earth. Oh, and Earth has been terraformed quite badly, we see Irisa and her father, Nolan.
They appear to be standard post-apocalypse scavengers. Oh, and Defiance? The eponymous city is St. Louis after the apocalypse.
They've one-upped Battlestar by having a whole language of swear words that aren't censored even though they mean the same thing as what they are obviously replacing.
The humans and aliens appear to have 21st century mores in regards to gender equality, although many are racist out the wazoo between the different alien species. They all speak all the languages.
Enough exposition about the show already, let's get into the meat of the review. As I said in the intro, they are trying quite hard. Still, all the "main" races we see are pretty human on the inside if not the out. Am I the only person that's sick to death of the racist crap?
Nolan is refreshingly not a bigot, and in hindsight, much of the racism seems to be because of people actually being jerkwads and the insulter is just focusing on their race. Plus, they killed off one of the racist idiots, which made the show much better almost immediately.
They do a good job revealing quite a lot of threads that resolving would seem to take more than this 13 episode season. The main characters are quite deeply in debt to an off-screen lender, there is sabotage afoot in the city and the "true source" is unknown (for about 5 minutes to the viewer, although I'm sure the good guys will be carrying the idiot ball for a while until they figure it out), there's a Romeo & Juliet subplot, a set-up for a love triangle, and we also see the beginnings of a crush for the younger characters which will probably end disastrously or teach one or the other or both about love.
There's a bit of deus ex machina in the "return" scene near the end. I couldn't buy into the reasoning given, but it was necessary to give the city more to work with.
There did not seem to be any subtlety to anything. Everything was laid out and straightforward. Nothing behaved unexpectedly and many things seemed to fall into place or into established roles.
All that though, it was still rather enjoyable. I really liked that there were not a lot of "gray" characters presented (I'm sick to death of it to be honest). The action was tolerable and cool. There was enough build up for things to be suitably tense.
I'm up in the air between an A- and a B+ honestly. It arrested my attention, so I'll go ahead and grant the higher: A-.
There is a significant amount of potential, and I am looking forward to see what's happening to many of the characters (although some can fall off the screen and I wouldn't care). I'm not intrigued by the "overarc" however. Nolan and Irisa's stories will keep me coming back for at least another week or two, and hopefully they stop being so hit-you-in-the-face with their set-ups.
I read earlier today about amateur authors not knowing how to start or end their stories so they end up starting before the start (prologue) and ending after the end (epilogue). Although in general, I LOVE prologues and epilogues, the epilogue to this episode was unnecessary and detracted from what would have been a strong ending.
What did you think?
Update: Episode 2's review can be found here.
That pic takes you to Amazon's "Defiance" season on demand and the following should take you to the pilot episode specifically: Pilot
Defiance opens without much fanfare as we're treated to some expository background by way of what is ostensibly the main character's daughter, an alien. The director wanted to surprise us with this for some reason as they look reasonably human until they pan up to do the "big reveal". OHMIGAWD.
Still, it's sci-fi, so I can forgive some questionable choices. The exposition reveals Earth is now post-apocalypse and home to seven alien species. The aliens do not appear to have FTL (faster-than-light), for which I was grateful. They travel the stars via stasis pods. Unfortunately, all their ships were destroyed, so they're stuck on Earth. Oh, and Earth has been terraformed quite badly, we see Irisa and her father, Nolan.
They appear to be standard post-apocalypse scavengers. Oh, and Defiance? The eponymous city is St. Louis after the apocalypse.
They've one-upped Battlestar by having a whole language of swear words that aren't censored even though they mean the same thing as what they are obviously replacing.
The humans and aliens appear to have 21st century mores in regards to gender equality, although many are racist out the wazoo between the different alien species. They all speak all the languages.
Enough exposition about the show already, let's get into the meat of the review. As I said in the intro, they are trying quite hard. Still, all the "main" races we see are pretty human on the inside if not the out. Am I the only person that's sick to death of the racist crap?
Nolan is refreshingly not a bigot, and in hindsight, much of the racism seems to be because of people actually being jerkwads and the insulter is just focusing on their race. Plus, they killed off one of the racist idiots, which made the show much better almost immediately.
They do a good job revealing quite a lot of threads that resolving would seem to take more than this 13 episode season. The main characters are quite deeply in debt to an off-screen lender, there is sabotage afoot in the city and the "true source" is unknown (for about 5 minutes to the viewer, although I'm sure the good guys will be carrying the idiot ball for a while until they figure it out), there's a Romeo & Juliet subplot, a set-up for a love triangle, and we also see the beginnings of a crush for the younger characters which will probably end disastrously or teach one or the other or both about love.
There's a bit of deus ex machina in the "return" scene near the end. I couldn't buy into the reasoning given, but it was necessary to give the city more to work with.
There did not seem to be any subtlety to anything. Everything was laid out and straightforward. Nothing behaved unexpectedly and many things seemed to fall into place or into established roles.
All that though, it was still rather enjoyable. I really liked that there were not a lot of "gray" characters presented (I'm sick to death of it to be honest). The action was tolerable and cool. There was enough build up for things to be suitably tense.
I'm up in the air between an A- and a B+ honestly. It arrested my attention, so I'll go ahead and grant the higher: A-.
There is a significant amount of potential, and I am looking forward to see what's happening to many of the characters (although some can fall off the screen and I wouldn't care). I'm not intrigued by the "overarc" however. Nolan and Irisa's stories will keep me coming back for at least another week or two, and hopefully they stop being so hit-you-in-the-face with their set-ups.
I read earlier today about amateur authors not knowing how to start or end their stories so they end up starting before the start (prologue) and ending after the end (epilogue). Although in general, I LOVE prologues and epilogues, the epilogue to this episode was unnecessary and detracted from what would have been a strong ending.
What did you think?
Update: Episode 2's review can be found here.
Defiance Series Premiere (Season 1 Episode 1 & 2) Review
I had mixed feelings going into Defiance, but for fans of sci-fi (the genre, not the channel), I can assure you that it's trying hard and not just preying on us for not having any good speculative fiction to watch on television.
That pic takes you to Amazon's "Defiance" season on demand and the following should take you to the pilot episode specifically: Pilot
Defiance opens without much fanfare as we're treated to some expository background by way of what is ostensibly the main character's daughter, an alien. The director wanted to surprise us with this for some reason as they look reasonably human until they pan up to do the "big reveal". OHMIGAWD.
Still, it's sci-fi, so I can forgive some questionable choices. The exposition reveals Earth is now post-apocalypse and home to seven alien species. The aliens do not appear to have FTL (faster-than-light), for which I was grateful. They travel the stars via stasis pods. Unfortunately, all their ships were destroyed, so they're stuck on Earth. Oh, and Earth has been terraformed quite badly, we see Irisa and her father, Nolan.
They appear to be standard post-apocalypse scavengers. Oh, and Defiance? The eponymous city is St. Louis after the apocalypse.
They've one-upped Battlestar by having a whole language of swear words that aren't censored even though they mean the same thing as what they are obviously replacing.
The humans and aliens appear to have 21st century mores in regards to gender equality, although many are racist out the wazoo between the different alien species. They all speak all the languages.
Enough exposition about the show already, let's get into the meat of the review. As I said in the intro, they are trying quite hard. Still, all the "main" races we see are pretty human on the inside if not the out. Am I the only person that's sick to death of the racist crap?
Nolan is refreshingly not a bigot, and in hindsight, much of the racism seems to be because of people actually being jerkwads and the insulter is just focusing on their race. Plus, they killed off one of the racist idiots, which made the show much better almost immediately.
They do a good job revealing quite a lot of threads that resolving would seem to take more than this 13 episode season. The main characters are quite deeply in debt to an off-screen lender, there is sabotage afoot in the city and the "true source" is unknown (for about 5 minutes to the viewer, although I'm sure the good guys will be carrying the idiot ball for a while until they figure it out), there's a Romeo & Juliet subplot, a set-up for a love triangle, and we also see the beginnings of a crush for the younger characters which will probably end disastrously or teach one or the other or both about love.
There's a bit of deus ex machina in the "return" scene near the end. I couldn't buy into the reasoning given, but it was necessary to give the city more to work with.
There did not seem to be any subtlety to anything. Everything was laid out and straightforward. Nothing behaved unexpectedly and many things seemed to fall into place or into established roles.
All that though, it was still rather enjoyable. I really liked that there were not a lot of "gray" characters presented (I'm sick to death of it to be honest). The action was tolerable and cool. There was enough build up for things to be suitably tense.
I'm up in the air between an A- and a B+ honestly. It arrested my attention, so I'll go ahead and grant the higher: A-.
There is a significant amount of potential, and I am looking forward to see what's happening to many of the characters (although some can fall off the screen and I wouldn't care). I'm not intrigued by the "overarc" however. Nolan and Irisa's stories will keep me coming back for at least another week or two, and hopefully they stop being so hit-you-in-the-face with their set-ups.
I read earlier today about amateur authors not knowing how to start or end their stories so they end up starting before the start (prologue) and ending after the end (epilogue). Although in general, I LOVE prologues and epilogues, the epilogue to this episode was unnecessary and detracted from what would have been a strong ending.
What did you think?
That pic takes you to Amazon's "Defiance" season on demand and the following should take you to the pilot episode specifically: Pilot
Defiance opens without much fanfare as we're treated to some expository background by way of what is ostensibly the main character's daughter, an alien. The director wanted to surprise us with this for some reason as they look reasonably human until they pan up to do the "big reveal". OHMIGAWD.
Still, it's sci-fi, so I can forgive some questionable choices. The exposition reveals Earth is now post-apocalypse and home to seven alien species. The aliens do not appear to have FTL (faster-than-light), for which I was grateful. They travel the stars via stasis pods. Unfortunately, all their ships were destroyed, so they're stuck on Earth. Oh, and Earth has been terraformed quite badly, we see Irisa and her father, Nolan.
They appear to be standard post-apocalypse scavengers. Oh, and Defiance? The eponymous city is St. Louis after the apocalypse.
They've one-upped Battlestar by having a whole language of swear words that aren't censored even though they mean the same thing as what they are obviously replacing.
The humans and aliens appear to have 21st century mores in regards to gender equality, although many are racist out the wazoo between the different alien species. They all speak all the languages.
Enough exposition about the show already, let's get into the meat of the review. As I said in the intro, they are trying quite hard. Still, all the "main" races we see are pretty human on the inside if not the out. Am I the only person that's sick to death of the racist crap?
Nolan is refreshingly not a bigot, and in hindsight, much of the racism seems to be because of people actually being jerkwads and the insulter is just focusing on their race. Plus, they killed off one of the racist idiots, which made the show much better almost immediately.
They do a good job revealing quite a lot of threads that resolving would seem to take more than this 13 episode season. The main characters are quite deeply in debt to an off-screen lender, there is sabotage afoot in the city and the "true source" is unknown (for about 5 minutes to the viewer, although I'm sure the good guys will be carrying the idiot ball for a while until they figure it out), there's a Romeo & Juliet subplot, a set-up for a love triangle, and we also see the beginnings of a crush for the younger characters which will probably end disastrously or teach one or the other or both about love.
There's a bit of deus ex machina in the "return" scene near the end. I couldn't buy into the reasoning given, but it was necessary to give the city more to work with.
There did not seem to be any subtlety to anything. Everything was laid out and straightforward. Nothing behaved unexpectedly and many things seemed to fall into place or into established roles.
All that though, it was still rather enjoyable. I really liked that there were not a lot of "gray" characters presented (I'm sick to death of it to be honest). The action was tolerable and cool. There was enough build up for things to be suitably tense.
I'm up in the air between an A- and a B+ honestly. It arrested my attention, so I'll go ahead and grant the higher: A-.
There is a significant amount of potential, and I am looking forward to see what's happening to many of the characters (although some can fall off the screen and I wouldn't care). I'm not intrigued by the "overarc" however. Nolan and Irisa's stories will keep me coming back for at least another week or two, and hopefully they stop being so hit-you-in-the-face with their set-ups.
I read earlier today about amateur authors not knowing how to start or end their stories so they end up starting before the start (prologue) and ending after the end (epilogue). Although in general, I LOVE prologues and epilogues, the epilogue to this episode was unnecessary and detracted from what would have been a strong ending.
What did you think?
Making Undead #3: Physical Corruption of Minotaurs
Hi guys,
Have been having some success with the Making Undead blogs, so I'm making them a little more official and going to turn them into a regular thing. Today we're moving on to making undead out of corrupting minotaurs physically.
Here's an old concept of a female mazetouched (named Balolsur) from The Throne of Ao:
Anyway, a common misconception about the dead is that nail and teeth continue to grow (when in reality the skin shrinks away from it). While this is a misconception about the dead in our world, in WotA, this can easily be verified with the undead. For a mazetouched to have their horns continue to grow and be razor-sharp, they would quickly impale themselves. The impaled is born.
An impaled is an undead mazetouched minotaur whose horns curl back on themselves and through the body of the minotaur. This can interfere with mobility, but the horns continue to grow, so it really does not prevent using the horns as they were meant to be originally. Additionally, the horns can split to form multiple spirals and penetrations. Whereas normal minotaurs have no problem goring, impaled generally use body slams to share their many horn tips with their enemies. Some impaled eventually become rooted to the ground from the uncontrolled growth of their horns. These impaled bushes are dangerous obstacles that can extend the horn thorns to kill unwary creatures close by. The bodies are drawn backwards along the horns to the impaled at the center to further feed it, although the horns absorb nutrients and act as veins to bring sustenance back as well.
Impaled formed from the bodies of powerful mazewalkers are able to phase their horns in and out of their bodies without damage to the body. These walking impaled are quite dangerous as they have all of the split horns of an impaled but increased mobility, agility of both body and horns. Those that eventually become walking impaled bushes are the most dangerous variety of impaled bush.
Taking some time to draw the idea of an impaled netted me four additional undead.Let's examine all three.
The first comes from the idea that minotaurs are able to bend reality and mazetouched minotaurs in particular are experts of this, so it makes reasonable sense that an impaled that retains sentience or some of their magicks would be able to phase the horns through their bodies without fear of damaging their own body. I call this one the impaled surprise. They retain full movement of their head and body and are easily able to choose what to phase and how. The substantial horns make them even more deadly.
Next, perverting this idea, I can also envision minotaurs (both mazetouched and otherwise) that can alter the horns of their body to move like flesh. These tentacle-horns or tenta-horns use their horns like another set of limbs and grab and pierce their foes with them. These are more common from the unsanctified remains of a beheaded minotaur. The body stays dead, but the head goes wandering using the tenta-horns for locomotion.
Next up is the idea of a mino-statue. A mino-statue can be created by placing a mummified or otherwise preserved minotaur into the desired position and doing one of several things. Letting nature take its course if the remains were not sanctified will sometimes result in undead energy causing the horns and feet-hooves to grow out until they fuse with the surroundings. Once the energy awakens the creature to the point of sentience, it is frozen in place. It is much more likely these creatures will rise as a universal undead before the fusion takes place however (skeleton, mummy, zombie, etc). In order to guarantee a mino-statue is created, it is recommended that the horns are magickally encouraged to grow and fuse into nearby walls, floor or ceiling and shaped to curve back. Similarly, any limbs that the creator does not want to have mobility should be connected to the surrounding or fused in place.
Once a mino-statue awakens, there is a period of pure rage over the impotence they feel (note: if the mino-statue volunteered for this and the creators act as care-takers to sooth them, malevolence and hating-all-life can be avoided). The mino-statue eventually learns that it is able to advance and retract its horns and care should be made to avoid the mino-statue retracting its horns to the size they were in life. Although this is usually next to impossible for the mino-statue and its original unlife size horns become their smallest state, there is always the small chance it will happen (which is why it is recommended the legs are fused in place as well). The advanced horns requires will and concentration to maintain, although there are records of mino-statues that have maintained the advanced position of their horns for decades. Even mino-statues that have mindless-level intelligence will react to stimulus (say proximity or noise or even scent) to rapidly advance their horns, usually eviscerating whatever hapless creature stands in front of them. Popularly used as traps, those that utilize them will take efforts to disguise their undead nature and make them look more a natural part of the design.
Depending on the mores of a community, some groups of minotaurs regularly take volunteers to be made into mino-statues to help guard their underground labyrinths. Other groups believe the mino-statues are an abomination. When taken as volunteers, the mino-statues are well taken care of even if they elect to be mindless (which can be guaranteed with a lobotomy on the cadaver). Many mino-statues can even recognize individuals and choose not to kill them if they desire. Many mino-statue makers elect to remove the ability for the statue to speak or make noises so that enemies will not be tipped off by their presence. Others find that the wails of torment, despair and rage from the mino-statue serves to unsettle the infiltrators and contrive ways so that they echo about and make their source harder to pinpoint.
Finally, there is the raging wanderer class of undead minotaur. These come from those magickers that fail to master the magicks of the Maze which enables them to bend reality, and are condemned to wander physical mazes in their undeath. Very commonly created from minotaurs that lose their magick by pulling an Icarus and trying to go too far too fast before they have the control and skill necessary to wield such powerful magicks. These undead minotaurs become stronger and stronger and hate all life, but especially living magickers. They retain the minoan mazesense ability where they are never lost and seek out bright points of light in the Astral Realm to annihilate any strong magickers. They can be manipulated and drawn out (kited if you're a gamer) by those that are able to create fonts of magick to act as a carrot on a stick hanging in front of them. They resemble extreme minoan bodybuilders physically, but with undead energy hanging around them and often bloodied hands and faces from trying to take direct paths to magickal energy.
Although they hate magick, they are bound to their idea of a "maze" and so are very difficult to draw out of their chosen labyrinths. Most minotaurs find them very pitiable and whenever one is discovered, entire communities of minotaurs take it upon themselves to find and destroy the individual. The Maze is both the minoan religion and their magick, and so such a strong perversion of the "real" Maze strikes to the core of every minotaur.
I know that last undead was a hybrid magick/physical corruption, but well, can't fight inspiration!
I'll be updating all of the Making Undeads and Monster Creations with more concept art as I do it, and I am also working on updating the WotA Wiki finally with the different creatures once they're named. Next up in Making Undead #4, we'll corrupt the dastardly aviadins to see what undead will come up.
Comments, thoughts and requests welcome! There are dozens of species of creatures in WotA with lots of different ways to make undead (physical corruption, magickal corruption, cultural/religious corruption, and more!); if there's one you'd like to see, comment, Facebook or Twitter me.
Thanks for reading!
~Zero
Have been having some success with the Making Undead blogs, so I'm making them a little more official and going to turn them into a regular thing. Today we're moving on to making undead out of corrupting minotaurs physically.
Here's an old concept of a female mazetouched (named Balolsur) from The Throne of Ao:
Anyway, a common misconception about the dead is that nail and teeth continue to grow (when in reality the skin shrinks away from it). While this is a misconception about the dead in our world, in WotA, this can easily be verified with the undead. For a mazetouched to have their horns continue to grow and be razor-sharp, they would quickly impale themselves. The impaled is born.
An impaled is an undead mazetouched minotaur whose horns curl back on themselves and through the body of the minotaur. This can interfere with mobility, but the horns continue to grow, so it really does not prevent using the horns as they were meant to be originally. Additionally, the horns can split to form multiple spirals and penetrations. Whereas normal minotaurs have no problem goring, impaled generally use body slams to share their many horn tips with their enemies. Some impaled eventually become rooted to the ground from the uncontrolled growth of their horns. These impaled bushes are dangerous obstacles that can extend the horn thorns to kill unwary creatures close by. The bodies are drawn backwards along the horns to the impaled at the center to further feed it, although the horns absorb nutrients and act as veins to bring sustenance back as well.
Impaled formed from the bodies of powerful mazewalkers are able to phase their horns in and out of their bodies without damage to the body. These walking impaled are quite dangerous as they have all of the split horns of an impaled but increased mobility, agility of both body and horns. Those that eventually become walking impaled bushes are the most dangerous variety of impaled bush.
Taking some time to draw the idea of an impaled netted me four additional undead.Let's examine all three.
The first comes from the idea that minotaurs are able to bend reality and mazetouched minotaurs in particular are experts of this, so it makes reasonable sense that an impaled that retains sentience or some of their magicks would be able to phase the horns through their bodies without fear of damaging their own body. I call this one the impaled surprise. They retain full movement of their head and body and are easily able to choose what to phase and how. The substantial horns make them even more deadly.
Next, perverting this idea, I can also envision minotaurs (both mazetouched and otherwise) that can alter the horns of their body to move like flesh. These tentacle-horns or tenta-horns use their horns like another set of limbs and grab and pierce their foes with them. These are more common from the unsanctified remains of a beheaded minotaur. The body stays dead, but the head goes wandering using the tenta-horns for locomotion.
Next up is the idea of a mino-statue. A mino-statue can be created by placing a mummified or otherwise preserved minotaur into the desired position and doing one of several things. Letting nature take its course if the remains were not sanctified will sometimes result in undead energy causing the horns and feet-hooves to grow out until they fuse with the surroundings. Once the energy awakens the creature to the point of sentience, it is frozen in place. It is much more likely these creatures will rise as a universal undead before the fusion takes place however (skeleton, mummy, zombie, etc). In order to guarantee a mino-statue is created, it is recommended that the horns are magickally encouraged to grow and fuse into nearby walls, floor or ceiling and shaped to curve back. Similarly, any limbs that the creator does not want to have mobility should be connected to the surrounding or fused in place.
Once a mino-statue awakens, there is a period of pure rage over the impotence they feel (note: if the mino-statue volunteered for this and the creators act as care-takers to sooth them, malevolence and hating-all-life can be avoided). The mino-statue eventually learns that it is able to advance and retract its horns and care should be made to avoid the mino-statue retracting its horns to the size they were in life. Although this is usually next to impossible for the mino-statue and its original unlife size horns become their smallest state, there is always the small chance it will happen (which is why it is recommended the legs are fused in place as well). The advanced horns requires will and concentration to maintain, although there are records of mino-statues that have maintained the advanced position of their horns for decades. Even mino-statues that have mindless-level intelligence will react to stimulus (say proximity or noise or even scent) to rapidly advance their horns, usually eviscerating whatever hapless creature stands in front of them. Popularly used as traps, those that utilize them will take efforts to disguise their undead nature and make them look more a natural part of the design.
Depending on the mores of a community, some groups of minotaurs regularly take volunteers to be made into mino-statues to help guard their underground labyrinths. Other groups believe the mino-statues are an abomination. When taken as volunteers, the mino-statues are well taken care of even if they elect to be mindless (which can be guaranteed with a lobotomy on the cadaver). Many mino-statues can even recognize individuals and choose not to kill them if they desire. Many mino-statue makers elect to remove the ability for the statue to speak or make noises so that enemies will not be tipped off by their presence. Others find that the wails of torment, despair and rage from the mino-statue serves to unsettle the infiltrators and contrive ways so that they echo about and make their source harder to pinpoint.
Finally, there is the raging wanderer class of undead minotaur. These come from those magickers that fail to master the magicks of the Maze which enables them to bend reality, and are condemned to wander physical mazes in their undeath. Very commonly created from minotaurs that lose their magick by pulling an Icarus and trying to go too far too fast before they have the control and skill necessary to wield such powerful magicks. These undead minotaurs become stronger and stronger and hate all life, but especially living magickers. They retain the minoan mazesense ability where they are never lost and seek out bright points of light in the Astral Realm to annihilate any strong magickers. They can be manipulated and drawn out (kited if you're a gamer) by those that are able to create fonts of magick to act as a carrot on a stick hanging in front of them. They resemble extreme minoan bodybuilders physically, but with undead energy hanging around them and often bloodied hands and faces from trying to take direct paths to magickal energy.
Although they hate magick, they are bound to their idea of a "maze" and so are very difficult to draw out of their chosen labyrinths. Most minotaurs find them very pitiable and whenever one is discovered, entire communities of minotaurs take it upon themselves to find and destroy the individual. The Maze is both the minoan religion and their magick, and so such a strong perversion of the "real" Maze strikes to the core of every minotaur.
I know that last undead was a hybrid magick/physical corruption, but well, can't fight inspiration!
I'll be updating all of the Making Undeads and Monster Creations with more concept art as I do it, and I am also working on updating the WotA Wiki finally with the different creatures once they're named. Next up in Making Undead #4, we'll corrupt the dastardly aviadins to see what undead will come up.
Comments, thoughts and requests welcome! There are dozens of species of creatures in WotA with lots of different ways to make undead (physical corruption, magickal corruption, cultural/religious corruption, and more!); if there's one you'd like to see, comment, Facebook or Twitter me.
Thanks for reading!
~Zero
April 15, 2013
When do you throw in the towel?
No matter what you are striving for in your life (and I'm assuming you're striving for something since you're, you know, not dead, and living things are not supposed to stagnate...wait, are you undead? Are you VOLDEMORT? ...anyway), there are going to be times where the deck seems stacked against you.
I imagine even people that accomplish everything they've ever wanted to accomplish continue burning and striving and pushing for more, because that's life, but that means that eventually there's going to be something they can't reach.
I've made a lot of mistakes. In particular, not attending college early seems an ugly million dollar mistake (probably literally). I mean, what's the point of high school anyway? Another babysitting service after elementary school and middle school? Whoo.
I continue to make mistakes. Recently (2007) choosing to major in mathematics (supposedly one of the top ten majors) seems to have been a mistake as without an actuarial certification, an engineering degree or a Ph.D., the degree is next to worthless (see my previous blog on being a college instructor for a hint of why)
There will always come a time when you're down and out. Not just down and out, but have been put down and kicked out and then when you felt it couldn't get any worse spat upon and told you're worthless and the thing(s) that you thought you did well and were special about you were in fact nonexistent at best and a loathsome sore most probably.
You could give up.
Which would mean stagnation.
Which is worse than death (in my opinion).
Or, and this is the ridiculous one that we all must choose, you could keep going. Keep striving and pushing for the best that you can be.
It will mean hardship, I'm sure. But really now, what's the alternative? Death? Stagnation?
I'll be honest folks, stagnation is probably a little more pathetic in my eyes. At least death has an excuse in that well, you died. What's the excuse for stagnation? What's the excuse for giving up?
You "didn't have the energy anymore"? You were "tired of failing"? You hate yourself or feel stupid or worthless? Better to have never tried than to have tried and failed?
...sounds like bullshit.
I am very fortunate in my family, both by blood and by love. I know that there will always be a subset of people in the world that, well, maybe not have my back, but at least are rooting for me.
There are some that don't even have that.
Even for those people, whose loneliness must be such that they can hardly breathe, what's the alternative?
We cannot stagnate. We must not die. We have to move forward. The towel can be dropped as we stumble and fall, but you have to pick it up again.
We can't give up.
I can't give up.
You can't give up.
So I'll keep striving. I won't stop. I'll continue forward and sideways and take a step backwards (or be pushed 25,000 steps backwards) if it means I'm going to keep working forwards.
We can do this.
Life. Learning. Pursuit of happiness.
Let's do this, and if we can't, then I hope I'll be alongside you at the pearly gates (or your afterlife of choice) saying that we've done everything we can and died striving.
When do you throw in the towel? You never throw in the towel.
~Zero
I imagine even people that accomplish everything they've ever wanted to accomplish continue burning and striving and pushing for more, because that's life, but that means that eventually there's going to be something they can't reach.
I've made a lot of mistakes. In particular, not attending college early seems an ugly million dollar mistake (probably literally). I mean, what's the point of high school anyway? Another babysitting service after elementary school and middle school? Whoo.
I continue to make mistakes. Recently (2007) choosing to major in mathematics (supposedly one of the top ten majors) seems to have been a mistake as without an actuarial certification, an engineering degree or a Ph.D., the degree is next to worthless (see my previous blog on being a college instructor for a hint of why)
There will always come a time when you're down and out. Not just down and out, but have been put down and kicked out and then when you felt it couldn't get any worse spat upon and told you're worthless and the thing(s) that you thought you did well and were special about you were in fact nonexistent at best and a loathsome sore most probably.
You could give up.
Which would mean stagnation.
Which is worse than death (in my opinion).
Or, and this is the ridiculous one that we all must choose, you could keep going. Keep striving and pushing for the best that you can be.
It will mean hardship, I'm sure. But really now, what's the alternative? Death? Stagnation?
I'll be honest folks, stagnation is probably a little more pathetic in my eyes. At least death has an excuse in that well, you died. What's the excuse for stagnation? What's the excuse for giving up?
You "didn't have the energy anymore"? You were "tired of failing"? You hate yourself or feel stupid or worthless? Better to have never tried than to have tried and failed?
...sounds like bullshit.
I am very fortunate in my family, both by blood and by love. I know that there will always be a subset of people in the world that, well, maybe not have my back, but at least are rooting for me.
There are some that don't even have that.
Even for those people, whose loneliness must be such that they can hardly breathe, what's the alternative?
We cannot stagnate. We must not die. We have to move forward. The towel can be dropped as we stumble and fall, but you have to pick it up again.
We can't give up.
I can't give up.
You can't give up.
So I'll keep striving. I won't stop. I'll continue forward and sideways and take a step backwards (or be pushed 25,000 steps backwards) if it means I'm going to keep working forwards.
We can do this.
Life. Learning. Pursuit of happiness.
Let's do this, and if we can't, then I hope I'll be alongside you at the pearly gates (or your afterlife of choice) saying that we've done everything we can and died striving.
When do you throw in the towel? You never throw in the towel.
~Zero
April 14, 2013
Making Undead #2: Physical Corruption of Centaurs
Hello all,
Continuing where we left off last time (Physical Corruption of Dwarves), I'll examine how I can make a variety of undead creatures from physically corrupting centaurs.
Aside: Some talk of "undead resources", one book I enjoyed drawing from was Drawing and Painting the Undead by Keith Thompson. Still, this was back when I collected any book with drawings I enjoyed. Nowadays, I mostly Google for them (unless I see a deal or a new Spectrum!)
To the monster creation process!
Immediately, centaurs that continue living after the loss of a heart jump to the forefront of my imagination. These one-hearted centaurs might live quite a while before falling to the inevitable, all the while building up misery and despair and hatred towards those with two hearts.
Mono-hearts hate living centaurs and go out of their way to destroy them through pinpoint attacks to the heart. Their psionic ability has granted them a heart-lance attack that they use on crippled centaurs, usually doing the crippling themselves with hamstringing psionic attacks. They take the greatest pleasure in the living centaur knowing the inevitable is coming. After the attack, they may release the prey, but just as likely they will maintain its life for weeks, months or years using its psionics until the creature finally dies and rises as another mono-heart.
Some mono-hearts attempt to create new hearts from the hearts of others, and implement the new hearts in a variety of ways. A more ravenous, mindless mono-heart may consume them, while one possessing higher functioning may attempt surgical procedures using their psionics as scalpel and suture. Finally, some may attempt to cultivate the Culling from the hearts of tauren creatures (the Culling is a type of demonic parasite that features strongly in WotA, beginning right off the bat with Book 1 - The Throne of Ao).
These three subtypes of mono-hearts are undead creatures in their own rights, rabid-hearts, ultra-hearts, and demon-hearts.
Rabid-hearts turn rather ghoulish quickly. These individuals may have been moronic in life or possessed low psionic ability, or they may have fallen prey to hedonism (a very serious concern for centaurs). They relentlessly pursue their prey, which include any living creature with a heart, although the closer to centauren hearts the better. Their favorite prey are their former brethren, followed closely by tauren creatures (humes, minotaurs, centaurs, merfolk, harpies, icthaylians and the other creatures made by elven esolons to act as servants before the neolithic revolution and the fall of Atlantis). Rabid-hearts change physically, becoming faster and stronger than living centaurs, and developing teeth and claws characteristic of their more carnivorous lifestyle. They can be single-track and eventually degrade to no more than animal intelligence. They are known to pursue prey without noticing other, easier prey nearby unless that prey actively makes itself known to them. Also, they will pursue a single hard-to-obtain centaur heart over multiple easier hearts of non-centaur blood. They are both quick and tireless, but easy to trap.
Ultra-hearts are easily recognized by the amalgamation of cardiac tissue exposed on their chests (one or both). If mechanical augments are included, then they may have cybernetic pieces as well. Their psionics are much more powerful than the average one-heart, and regularly develop from centaurs training to be pesebalamjrs. Unfortunately, because of their powerful psionics and physical training, pesebalamjrs and pesebalamjr-ascendents are more likely to survive a "mortal" wound to the heart, and so find themselves more prone to living long enough to hate others.
Aside: pesebalamjrs is basically translated as "elder", but represents an ascended level of enlightenment amongst centaurs and is classified as a disparate subspecies.
Ultra-hearts are very powerful both physically and psionically, and they have been known to devastate entire villages. Instead of building up the cardiac mass to untenable levels (although this could be another creature, Akira-heart), most ultra-hearts tend to become more and more selective of the hearts they absorb, and are known to seek out especially fine specimens that display athletic or psionic prowess (another subtype of the ultra-heart are those that eventually start stealing and absorbing other organs, ultra-organ-thief). Ultra-hearts are also especially prone to falling prey to the temptation of blood magick and regularly become vampires, and quite powerful ones at that. Other vampires will sometimes look down on those of ultra-heart descent because they view the path they took as cheating.
Akira-hearts (named after the classic anime movie featuring an organism growing out of control) never stop adding to their cardiac tissue. While other ultra-hearts become more selective, these add wantonly and indiscriminately. They quickly become unrecognizable masses of living tissue, but retain their intelligence and psionic ability. Unfortunately, their addiction (which is looked down on by more conventional ultra-hearts) means that they pose a very visible threat and communities of disparate races will band together to destroy Akira-hearts when they become known. Their average "lifespans" after reaching giant-size and greater is not very long and decreases geometrically as they get larger and larger. Akira-hearts eventually become ultra-organ-thiefs in that they begin absorbing all the organs and matter from living creatures indiscriminately.
Ultra-organ-thiefs, like ultra-hearts, seek out the best organs available and amalgamate and/or replace pieces of their own organs with the new. Considered dirty by ultra-hearts, they usually become more powerful.
Note: ultra-hearts and their subtypes are usually undead, but these mutations can be possible with living creatures. Still, the process of absorbing organs from other creatures nearly always eventually kills the ultra-heart (which they may not even notice).
Demon-hearts are quite bad. (Not saying demons are bad as a group of creatures in WotA, but undead centaurs with psionics that feed on demons to make themselves stronger definitely fit the bill of being "bad"). The Culling tends to gravitate around hearts in tauren creatures, so it's pretty clear how they developed, but ingesting demonic cells is quite poisonous for living creatures usually, oh wait, demon-hearts are undead. That explains how they're able to use the demonic nether magicks that are on par with draconic aether magicks. They're usually quite mad and have their own mad goals and motivations in life. Interestingly, sometimes they are captured and used in the hunting of demons. Great care must be shown in not letting them feed upon more demonic cells and growing too powerful. Sometimes demon-hearts pull a "modern-vampire-story" in that they try to use the bad to fight the bad and retain their own goodness, but in a if-the-90s-are-considered-modern-modern-vampire-story, they usually are corrupted or fall.
Aside: Seriously, when did vampires succeeding at redemption and (un)living happily ever after become a thing? I'm all for sympathetic undead, or even a redemption story, but any story featuring one that is still standing at the end rings untrue to me.
I think I've exhausted the binary circulatory system for undead (at least for today) and I have no desire to plumb the depths of a binary respiratory system (at least for today!), so let's move on to what else makes centaurs tick.
They jump really high/far, they suffer from hedonism (although that's more of a cultural thing), and they are an amalgamation of pre-hume-stock and pre-horse-stock.
Locust, slob, and hume-less horseman. And then we'll call it a day for physical corruption inspirations for undead centaurs.
The locust centaur (or grasshopper if you prefer) is a standard undead centaur (as in, no special origins, just an unfortunate happenstance that results in improper burial). Their wasted away bodies are light and catch the wind. Their undead strength causes them to go quite high and far (much more than a normal centaur) when jumping, and they travel far distances before coming down. They eat whatever living creature or flesh that they come into contact with (birds and other flying creatures while in the air, and whatever is around when they touch down). Although they should touch down softly, they use limited psionics to create a meteor-like strike when they near ground and this can also be used with small hops in a battle-situation. It's hypothesized that the psionics also help them float. A final use of their psionics causes flaps of frilled skin to rise off the horse-back part of their bodies to be used like a locust's wings and guide their path through the skies. As a low-functioning undead, it's not uncommon for these creatures to eventually form groups flying through the skies.
The slob centaur usually comes from the pesebalamjr subspecies, as they are usually quite morbidly obese (and half again as tall as a centaur) and convince themselves that the kind of focus/enlightenment they've achieved allows them to engage in gluttony without falling prey to the hedonism that has plagued their species from the beginning. Still, particularly awful examples of "normal" centaurs that have fallen prey to excessive gluttony can become slobs as well. Although normally psionically powerful, the slobs are mostly unrecognizable as centaurs. They probably look more like a hutt from Star Wars with four tiny legs (tiny because they've been overwhelmed by the obesity of the creature) than a real centaur. I've seen this picture when looking up pics to figure out what a pesebalamjr looks like
Increase that past the absurd point it is already, turn it into a centaur, and make it undead and you've got the idea I have for the slob creature. (couldn't find any origination for this picture, but it's being used by several people when you Google "fat horse". If anyone knows where it came from, I'd appreciate it!).
The slob centaur has no real motivation in (un)life other than finding sources of food. They eat anything, including vegetation, and regularly use their psionics to assist them in eating more and more. In fact, the slob centaur probably does a better job at being a locust than the locust centaur! Luckily, slob centaurs are usually loners because they cannot tolerate competition for food sources. (best way to kill one? introduce it to another, let them duke it out, and then fight the weakened remains).
Slobs start out relatively intelligent, but the only thing they apply their intelligence to is finding more food. Eventually, slobs develop even more stomachs and even more eventually, alternate intake valves (mouths). Their mouths grow to proportions that fit in with their trash disposal ways, and the first extra mouth usually develops in the abdomen of the hume torso part of the centaur.
Finally, the hume-less horseman centaur is one that has had its hume-part forcibly removed from its horse-part. These creatures ride the night seeking out those that killed it and any others it views as being guilty (which is eventually, anyone that isn't suffering from their particular malady). They prefer to kill by slicing through the lower abdomen of creatures to cut them in half. Depending on the particular specimen, the hume-less horseman may cherish its separate parts, and both parts may develop powers. When encountered without the horse part, they are called horse-less humemen; these claw their way around and may retain reasoning and higher-functioning. The hume-less horseman is much more likely to fall into undead instincts. Both versions are able to manifest a spectral version to "complete" themselves, but most prefer to use other things to occupy the space missing. The horsemen may use scarecrows or other common golem-like creatures, while the humemen are not opposed to using carts and mechanical horses. Humemen are more likely to provide locomotion by creating spectral legs to move the inanimate parts along.
So what do you think of the undead centaurs? If you'd like to know more, feel free to ask!
Remember, these were all created while writing this particular blog, which is why only placeholder names are used mostly and why more concept art isn't available. Whenever a name is decided or more art is created, I'll probably come back to update.
Minotaurs up next, followed by aviadins!
Continuing where we left off last time (Physical Corruption of Dwarves), I'll examine how I can make a variety of undead creatures from physically corrupting centaurs.
Aside: Some talk of "undead resources", one book I enjoyed drawing from was Drawing and Painting the Undead by Keith Thompson. Still, this was back when I collected any book with drawings I enjoyed. Nowadays, I mostly Google for them (unless I see a deal or a new Spectrum!)
To the monster creation process!
Immediately, centaurs that continue living after the loss of a heart jump to the forefront of my imagination. These one-hearted centaurs might live quite a while before falling to the inevitable, all the while building up misery and despair and hatred towards those with two hearts.
Mono-hearts hate living centaurs and go out of their way to destroy them through pinpoint attacks to the heart. Their psionic ability has granted them a heart-lance attack that they use on crippled centaurs, usually doing the crippling themselves with hamstringing psionic attacks. They take the greatest pleasure in the living centaur knowing the inevitable is coming. After the attack, they may release the prey, but just as likely they will maintain its life for weeks, months or years using its psionics until the creature finally dies and rises as another mono-heart.
Some mono-hearts attempt to create new hearts from the hearts of others, and implement the new hearts in a variety of ways. A more ravenous, mindless mono-heart may consume them, while one possessing higher functioning may attempt surgical procedures using their psionics as scalpel and suture. Finally, some may attempt to cultivate the Culling from the hearts of tauren creatures (the Culling is a type of demonic parasite that features strongly in WotA, beginning right off the bat with Book 1 - The Throne of Ao).
These three subtypes of mono-hearts are undead creatures in their own rights, rabid-hearts, ultra-hearts, and demon-hearts.
Rabid-hearts turn rather ghoulish quickly. These individuals may have been moronic in life or possessed low psionic ability, or they may have fallen prey to hedonism (a very serious concern for centaurs). They relentlessly pursue their prey, which include any living creature with a heart, although the closer to centauren hearts the better. Their favorite prey are their former brethren, followed closely by tauren creatures (humes, minotaurs, centaurs, merfolk, harpies, icthaylians and the other creatures made by elven esolons to act as servants before the neolithic revolution and the fall of Atlantis). Rabid-hearts change physically, becoming faster and stronger than living centaurs, and developing teeth and claws characteristic of their more carnivorous lifestyle. They can be single-track and eventually degrade to no more than animal intelligence. They are known to pursue prey without noticing other, easier prey nearby unless that prey actively makes itself known to them. Also, they will pursue a single hard-to-obtain centaur heart over multiple easier hearts of non-centaur blood. They are both quick and tireless, but easy to trap.
Ultra-hearts are easily recognized by the amalgamation of cardiac tissue exposed on their chests (one or both). If mechanical augments are included, then they may have cybernetic pieces as well. Their psionics are much more powerful than the average one-heart, and regularly develop from centaurs training to be pesebalamjrs. Unfortunately, because of their powerful psionics and physical training, pesebalamjrs and pesebalamjr-ascendents are more likely to survive a "mortal" wound to the heart, and so find themselves more prone to living long enough to hate others.
Aside: pesebalamjrs is basically translated as "elder", but represents an ascended level of enlightenment amongst centaurs and is classified as a disparate subspecies.
Ultra-hearts are very powerful both physically and psionically, and they have been known to devastate entire villages. Instead of building up the cardiac mass to untenable levels (although this could be another creature, Akira-heart), most ultra-hearts tend to become more and more selective of the hearts they absorb, and are known to seek out especially fine specimens that display athletic or psionic prowess (another subtype of the ultra-heart are those that eventually start stealing and absorbing other organs, ultra-organ-thief). Ultra-hearts are also especially prone to falling prey to the temptation of blood magick and regularly become vampires, and quite powerful ones at that. Other vampires will sometimes look down on those of ultra-heart descent because they view the path they took as cheating.
Akira-hearts (named after the classic anime movie featuring an organism growing out of control) never stop adding to their cardiac tissue. While other ultra-hearts become more selective, these add wantonly and indiscriminately. They quickly become unrecognizable masses of living tissue, but retain their intelligence and psionic ability. Unfortunately, their addiction (which is looked down on by more conventional ultra-hearts) means that they pose a very visible threat and communities of disparate races will band together to destroy Akira-hearts when they become known. Their average "lifespans" after reaching giant-size and greater is not very long and decreases geometrically as they get larger and larger. Akira-hearts eventually become ultra-organ-thiefs in that they begin absorbing all the organs and matter from living creatures indiscriminately.
Ultra-organ-thiefs, like ultra-hearts, seek out the best organs available and amalgamate and/or replace pieces of their own organs with the new. Considered dirty by ultra-hearts, they usually become more powerful.
Note: ultra-hearts and their subtypes are usually undead, but these mutations can be possible with living creatures. Still, the process of absorbing organs from other creatures nearly always eventually kills the ultra-heart (which they may not even notice).
Demon-hearts are quite bad. (Not saying demons are bad as a group of creatures in WotA, but undead centaurs with psionics that feed on demons to make themselves stronger definitely fit the bill of being "bad"). The Culling tends to gravitate around hearts in tauren creatures, so it's pretty clear how they developed, but ingesting demonic cells is quite poisonous for living creatures usually, oh wait, demon-hearts are undead. That explains how they're able to use the demonic nether magicks that are on par with draconic aether magicks. They're usually quite mad and have their own mad goals and motivations in life. Interestingly, sometimes they are captured and used in the hunting of demons. Great care must be shown in not letting them feed upon more demonic cells and growing too powerful. Sometimes demon-hearts pull a "modern-vampire-story" in that they try to use the bad to fight the bad and retain their own goodness, but in a if-the-90s-are-considered-modern-modern-vampire-story, they usually are corrupted or fall.
Aside: Seriously, when did vampires succeeding at redemption and (un)living happily ever after become a thing? I'm all for sympathetic undead, or even a redemption story, but any story featuring one that is still standing at the end rings untrue to me.
I think I've exhausted the binary circulatory system for undead (at least for today) and I have no desire to plumb the depths of a binary respiratory system (at least for today!), so let's move on to what else makes centaurs tick.
They jump really high/far, they suffer from hedonism (although that's more of a cultural thing), and they are an amalgamation of pre-hume-stock and pre-horse-stock.
Locust, slob, and hume-less horseman. And then we'll call it a day for physical corruption inspirations for undead centaurs.
The locust centaur (or grasshopper if you prefer) is a standard undead centaur (as in, no special origins, just an unfortunate happenstance that results in improper burial). Their wasted away bodies are light and catch the wind. Their undead strength causes them to go quite high and far (much more than a normal centaur) when jumping, and they travel far distances before coming down. They eat whatever living creature or flesh that they come into contact with (birds and other flying creatures while in the air, and whatever is around when they touch down). Although they should touch down softly, they use limited psionics to create a meteor-like strike when they near ground and this can also be used with small hops in a battle-situation. It's hypothesized that the psionics also help them float. A final use of their psionics causes flaps of frilled skin to rise off the horse-back part of their bodies to be used like a locust's wings and guide their path through the skies. As a low-functioning undead, it's not uncommon for these creatures to eventually form groups flying through the skies.
The slob centaur usually comes from the pesebalamjr subspecies, as they are usually quite morbidly obese (and half again as tall as a centaur) and convince themselves that the kind of focus/enlightenment they've achieved allows them to engage in gluttony without falling prey to the hedonism that has plagued their species from the beginning. Still, particularly awful examples of "normal" centaurs that have fallen prey to excessive gluttony can become slobs as well. Although normally psionically powerful, the slobs are mostly unrecognizable as centaurs. They probably look more like a hutt from Star Wars with four tiny legs (tiny because they've been overwhelmed by the obesity of the creature) than a real centaur. I've seen this picture when looking up pics to figure out what a pesebalamjr looks like
Increase that past the absurd point it is already, turn it into a centaur, and make it undead and you've got the idea I have for the slob creature. (couldn't find any origination for this picture, but it's being used by several people when you Google "fat horse". If anyone knows where it came from, I'd appreciate it!).The slob centaur has no real motivation in (un)life other than finding sources of food. They eat anything, including vegetation, and regularly use their psionics to assist them in eating more and more. In fact, the slob centaur probably does a better job at being a locust than the locust centaur! Luckily, slob centaurs are usually loners because they cannot tolerate competition for food sources. (best way to kill one? introduce it to another, let them duke it out, and then fight the weakened remains).
Slobs start out relatively intelligent, but the only thing they apply their intelligence to is finding more food. Eventually, slobs develop even more stomachs and even more eventually, alternate intake valves (mouths). Their mouths grow to proportions that fit in with their trash disposal ways, and the first extra mouth usually develops in the abdomen of the hume torso part of the centaur.
Finally, the hume-less horseman centaur is one that has had its hume-part forcibly removed from its horse-part. These creatures ride the night seeking out those that killed it and any others it views as being guilty (which is eventually, anyone that isn't suffering from their particular malady). They prefer to kill by slicing through the lower abdomen of creatures to cut them in half. Depending on the particular specimen, the hume-less horseman may cherish its separate parts, and both parts may develop powers. When encountered without the horse part, they are called horse-less humemen; these claw their way around and may retain reasoning and higher-functioning. The hume-less horseman is much more likely to fall into undead instincts. Both versions are able to manifest a spectral version to "complete" themselves, but most prefer to use other things to occupy the space missing. The horsemen may use scarecrows or other common golem-like creatures, while the humemen are not opposed to using carts and mechanical horses. Humemen are more likely to provide locomotion by creating spectral legs to move the inanimate parts along.
So what do you think of the undead centaurs? If you'd like to know more, feel free to ask!
Remember, these were all created while writing this particular blog, which is why only placeholder names are used mostly and why more concept art isn't available. Whenever a name is decided or more art is created, I'll probably come back to update.
Minotaurs up next, followed by aviadins!
Making Undead: Part 1B: Physical Corruption of Centaurs
Hello all,
Continuing where we left off last time (Physical Corruption of Dwarves), I'll examine how I can make a variety of undead creatures from physically corrupting centaurs.
Aside: Some talk of "undead resources", one book I enjoyed drawing from was Drawing and Painting the Undead by Keith Thompson. Still, this was back when I collected any book with drawings I enjoyed. Nowadays, I mostly Google for them (unless I see a deal or a new Spectrum!)
To the monster creation process!
Immediately, centaurs that continue living after the loss of a heart jump to the forefront of my imagination. These one-hearted centaurs might live quite a while before falling to the inevitable, all the while building up misery and despair and hatred towards those with two hearts.
Mono-hearts hate living centaurs and go out of their way to destroy them through pinpoint attacks to the heart. Their psionic ability has granted them a heart-lance attack that they use on crippled centaurs, usually doing the crippling themselves with hamstringing psionic attacks. They take the greatest pleasure in the living centaur knowing the inevitable is coming. After the attack, they may release the prey, but just as likely they will maintain its life for weeks, months or years using its psionics until the creature finally dies and rises as another mono-heart.
Some mono-hearts attempt to create new hearts from the hearts of others, and implement the new hearts in a variety of ways. A more ravenous, mindless mono-heart may consume them, while one possessing higher functioning may attempt surgical procedures using their psionics as scalpel and suture. Finally, some may attempt to cultivate the Culling from the hearts of tauren creatures (the Culling is a type of demonic parasite that features strongly in WotA, beginning right off the bat with Book 1 - The Throne of Ao).
These three subtypes of mono-hearts are undead creatures in their own rights, rabid-hearts, ultra-hearts, and demon-hearts.
Rabid-hearts turn rather ghoulish quickly. These individuals may have been moronic in life or possessed low psionic ability, or they may have fallen prey to hedonism (a very serious concern for centaurs). They relentlessly pursue their prey, which include any living creature with a heart, although the closer to centauren hearts the better. Their favorite prey are their former brethren, followed closely by tauren creatures (humes, minotaurs, centaurs, merfolk, harpies, icthaylians and the other creatures made by elven esolons to act as servants before the neolithic revolution and the fall of Atlantis). Rabid-hearts change physically, becoming faster and stronger than living centaurs, and developing teeth and claws characteristic of their more carnivorous lifestyle. They can be single-track and eventually degrade to no more than animal intelligence. They are known to pursue prey without noticing other, easier prey nearby unless that prey actively makes itself known to them. Also, they will pursue a single hard-to-obtain centaur heart over multiple easier hearts of non-centaur blood. They are both quick and tireless, but easy to trap.
Ultra-hearts are easily recognized by the amalgamation of cardiac tissue exposed on their chests (one or both). If mechanical augments are included, then they may have cybernetic pieces as well. Their psionics are much more powerful than the average one-heart, and regularly develop from centaurs training to be pesebalamjrs. Unfortunately, because of their powerful psionics and physical training, pesebalamjrs and pesebalamjr-ascendents are more likely to survive a "mortal" wound to the heart, and so find themselves more prone to living long enough to hate others.
Aside: pesebalamjrs is basically translated as "elder", but represents an ascended level of enlightenment amongst centaurs and is classified as a disparate subspecies.
Ultra-hearts are very powerful both physically and psionically, and they have been known to devastate entire villages. Instead of building up the cardiac mass to untenable levels (although this could be another creature, Akira-heart), most ultra-hearts tend to become more and more selective of the hearts they absorb, and are known to seek out especially fine specimens that display athletic or psionic prowess (another subtype of the ultra-heart are those that eventually start stealing and absorbing other organs, ultra-organ-thief). Ultra-hearts are also especially prone to falling prey to the temptation of blood magick and regularly become vampires, and quite powerful ones at that. Other vampires will sometimes look down on those of ultra-heart descent because they view the path they took as cheating.
Akira-hearts (named after the classic anime movie featuring an organism growing out of control) never stop adding to their cardiac tissue. While other ultra-hearts become more selective, these add wantonly and indiscriminately. They quickly become unrecognizable masses of living tissue, but retain their intelligence and psionic ability. Unfortunately, their addiction (which is looked down on by more conventional ultra-hearts) means that they pose a very visible threat and communities of disparate races will band together to destroy Akira-hearts when they become known. Their average "lifespans" after reaching giant-size and greater is not very long and decreases geometrically as they get larger and larger. Akira-hearts eventually become ultra-organ-thiefs in that they begin absorbing all the organs and matter from living creatures indiscriminately.
Ultra-organ-thiefs, like ultra-hearts, seek out the best organs available and amalgamate and/or replace pieces of their own organs with the new. Considered dirty by ultra-hearts, they usually become more powerful.
Note: ultra-hearts and their subtypes are usually undead, but these mutations can be possible with living creatures. Still, the process of absorbing organs from other creatures nearly always eventually kills the ultra-heart (which they may not even notice).
Demon-hearts are quite bad. (Not saying demons are bad as a group of creatures in WotA, but undead centaurs with psionics that feed on demons to make themselves stronger definitely fit the bill of being "bad"). The Culling tends to gravitate around hearts in tauren creatures, so it's pretty clear how they developed, but ingesting demonic cells is quite poisonous for living creatures usually, oh wait, demon-hearts are undead. That explains how they're able to use the demonic nether magicks that are on par with draconic aether magicks. They're usually quite mad and have their own mad goals and motivations in life. Interestingly, sometimes they are captured and used in the hunting of demons. Great care must be shown in not letting them feed upon more demonic cells and growing too powerful. Sometimes demon-hearts pull a "modern-vampire-story" in that they try to use the bad to fight the bad and retain their own goodness, but in a if-the-90s-are-considered-modern-modern-vampire-story, they usually are corrupted or fall.
Aside: Seriously, when did vampires succeeding at redemption and (un)living happily ever after become a thing? I'm all for sympathetic undead, or even a redemption story, but any story featuring one that is still standing at the end rings untrue to me.
I think I've exhausted the binary circulatory system for undead (at least for today) and I have no desire to plumb the depths of a binary respiratory system (at least for today!), so let's move on to what else makes centaurs tick.
They jump really high/far, they suffer from hedonism (although that's more of a cultural thing), and they are an amalgamation of pre-hume-stock and pre-horse-stock.
Locust, slob, and hume-less horseman. And then we'll call it a day for physical corruption inspirations for undead centaurs.
The locust centaur (or grasshopper if you prefer) is a standard undead centaur (as in, no special origins, just an unfortunate happenstance that results in improper burial). Their wasted away bodies are light and catch the wind. Their undead strength causes them to go quite high and far (much more than a normal centaur) when jumping, and they travel far distances before coming down. They eat whatever living creature or flesh that they come into contact with (birds and other flying creatures while in the air, and whatever is around when they touch down). Although they should touch down softly, they use limited psionics to create a meteor-like strike when they near ground and this can also be used with small hops in a battle-situation. It's hypothesized that the psionics also help them float. A final use of their psionics causes flaps of frilled skin to rise off the horse-back part of their bodies to be used like a locust's wings and guide their path through the skies. As a low-functioning undead, it's not uncommon for these creatures to eventually form groups flying through the skies.
The slob centaur usually comes from the pesebalamjr subspecies, as they are usually quite morbidly obese (and half again as tall as a centaur) and convince themselves that the kind of focus/enlightenment they've achieved allows them to engage in gluttony without falling prey to the hedonism that has plagued their species from the beginning. Still, particularly awful examples of "normal" centaurs that have fallen prey to excessive gluttony can become slobs as well. Although normally psionically powerful, the slobs are mostly unrecognizable as centaurs. They probably look more like a hutt from Star Wars with four tiny legs (tiny because they've been overwhelmed by the obesity of the creature) than a real centaur. I've seen this picture when looking up pics to figure out what a pesebalamjr looks like
Increase that past the absurd point it is already, turn it into a centaur, and make it undead and you've got the idea I have for the slob creature. (couldn't find any origination for this picture, but it's being used by several people when you Google "fat horse". If anyone knows where it came from, I'd appreciate it!).
The slob centaur has no real motivation in (un)life other than finding sources of food. They eat anything, including vegetation, and regularly use their psionics to assist them in eating more and more. In fact, the slob centaur probably does a better job at being a locust than the locust centaur! Luckily, slob centaurs are usually loners because they cannot tolerate competition for food sources. (best way to kill one? introduce it to another, let them duke it out, and then fight the weakened remains).
Slobs start out relatively intelligent, but the only thing they apply their intelligence to is finding more food. Eventually, slobs develop even more stomachs and even more eventually, alternate intake valves (mouths). Their mouths grow to proportions that fit in with their trash disposal ways, and the first extra mouth usually develops in the abdomen of the hume torso part of the centaur.
Finally, the hume-less horseman centaur is one that has had its hume-part forcibly removed from its horse-part. These creatures ride the night seeking out those that killed it and any others it views as being guilty (which is eventually, anyone that isn't suffering from their particular malady). They prefer to kill by slicing through the lower abdomen of creatures to cut them in half. Depending on the particular specimen, the hume-less horseman may cherish its separate parts, and both parts may develop powers. When encountered without the horse part, they are called horse-less humemen; these claw their way around and may retain reasoning and higher-functioning. The hume-less horseman is much more likely to fall into undead instincts. Both versions are able to manifest a spectral version to "complete" themselves, but most prefer to use other things to occupy the space missing. The horsemen may use scarecrows or other common golem-like creatures, while the humemen are not opposed to using carts and mechanical horses. Humemen are more likely to provide locomotion by creating spectral legs to move the inanimate parts along.
So what do you think of the undead centaurs? If you'd like to know more, feel free to ask!
Remember, these were all created while writing this particular blog, which is why only placeholder names are used mostly and why more concept art isn't available. Whenever a name is decided or more art is created, I'll probably come back to update.
Minotaurs up next, followed by aviadins!
Continuing where we left off last time (Physical Corruption of Dwarves), I'll examine how I can make a variety of undead creatures from physically corrupting centaurs.
Aside: Some talk of "undead resources", one book I enjoyed drawing from was Drawing and Painting the Undead by Keith Thompson. Still, this was back when I collected any book with drawings I enjoyed. Nowadays, I mostly Google for them (unless I see a deal or a new Spectrum!)
To the monster creation process!
Immediately, centaurs that continue living after the loss of a heart jump to the forefront of my imagination. These one-hearted centaurs might live quite a while before falling to the inevitable, all the while building up misery and despair and hatred towards those with two hearts.
Mono-hearts hate living centaurs and go out of their way to destroy them through pinpoint attacks to the heart. Their psionic ability has granted them a heart-lance attack that they use on crippled centaurs, usually doing the crippling themselves with hamstringing psionic attacks. They take the greatest pleasure in the living centaur knowing the inevitable is coming. After the attack, they may release the prey, but just as likely they will maintain its life for weeks, months or years using its psionics until the creature finally dies and rises as another mono-heart.
Some mono-hearts attempt to create new hearts from the hearts of others, and implement the new hearts in a variety of ways. A more ravenous, mindless mono-heart may consume them, while one possessing higher functioning may attempt surgical procedures using their psionics as scalpel and suture. Finally, some may attempt to cultivate the Culling from the hearts of tauren creatures (the Culling is a type of demonic parasite that features strongly in WotA, beginning right off the bat with Book 1 - The Throne of Ao).
These three subtypes of mono-hearts are undead creatures in their own rights, rabid-hearts, ultra-hearts, and demon-hearts.
Rabid-hearts turn rather ghoulish quickly. These individuals may have been moronic in life or possessed low psionic ability, or they may have fallen prey to hedonism (a very serious concern for centaurs). They relentlessly pursue their prey, which include any living creature with a heart, although the closer to centauren hearts the better. Their favorite prey are their former brethren, followed closely by tauren creatures (humes, minotaurs, centaurs, merfolk, harpies, icthaylians and the other creatures made by elven esolons to act as servants before the neolithic revolution and the fall of Atlantis). Rabid-hearts change physically, becoming faster and stronger than living centaurs, and developing teeth and claws characteristic of their more carnivorous lifestyle. They can be single-track and eventually degrade to no more than animal intelligence. They are known to pursue prey without noticing other, easier prey nearby unless that prey actively makes itself known to them. Also, they will pursue a single hard-to-obtain centaur heart over multiple easier hearts of non-centaur blood. They are both quick and tireless, but easy to trap.
Ultra-hearts are easily recognized by the amalgamation of cardiac tissue exposed on their chests (one or both). If mechanical augments are included, then they may have cybernetic pieces as well. Their psionics are much more powerful than the average one-heart, and regularly develop from centaurs training to be pesebalamjrs. Unfortunately, because of their powerful psionics and physical training, pesebalamjrs and pesebalamjr-ascendents are more likely to survive a "mortal" wound to the heart, and so find themselves more prone to living long enough to hate others.
Aside: pesebalamjrs is basically translated as "elder", but represents an ascended level of enlightenment amongst centaurs and is classified as a disparate subspecies.
Ultra-hearts are very powerful both physically and psionically, and they have been known to devastate entire villages. Instead of building up the cardiac mass to untenable levels (although this could be another creature, Akira-heart), most ultra-hearts tend to become more and more selective of the hearts they absorb, and are known to seek out especially fine specimens that display athletic or psionic prowess (another subtype of the ultra-heart are those that eventually start stealing and absorbing other organs, ultra-organ-thief). Ultra-hearts are also especially prone to falling prey to the temptation of blood magick and regularly become vampires, and quite powerful ones at that. Other vampires will sometimes look down on those of ultra-heart descent because they view the path they took as cheating.
Akira-hearts (named after the classic anime movie featuring an organism growing out of control) never stop adding to their cardiac tissue. While other ultra-hearts become more selective, these add wantonly and indiscriminately. They quickly become unrecognizable masses of living tissue, but retain their intelligence and psionic ability. Unfortunately, their addiction (which is looked down on by more conventional ultra-hearts) means that they pose a very visible threat and communities of disparate races will band together to destroy Akira-hearts when they become known. Their average "lifespans" after reaching giant-size and greater is not very long and decreases geometrically as they get larger and larger. Akira-hearts eventually become ultra-organ-thiefs in that they begin absorbing all the organs and matter from living creatures indiscriminately.
Ultra-organ-thiefs, like ultra-hearts, seek out the best organs available and amalgamate and/or replace pieces of their own organs with the new. Considered dirty by ultra-hearts, they usually become more powerful.
Note: ultra-hearts and their subtypes are usually undead, but these mutations can be possible with living creatures. Still, the process of absorbing organs from other creatures nearly always eventually kills the ultra-heart (which they may not even notice).
Demon-hearts are quite bad. (Not saying demons are bad as a group of creatures in WotA, but undead centaurs with psionics that feed on demons to make themselves stronger definitely fit the bill of being "bad"). The Culling tends to gravitate around hearts in tauren creatures, so it's pretty clear how they developed, but ingesting demonic cells is quite poisonous for living creatures usually, oh wait, demon-hearts are undead. That explains how they're able to use the demonic nether magicks that are on par with draconic aether magicks. They're usually quite mad and have their own mad goals and motivations in life. Interestingly, sometimes they are captured and used in the hunting of demons. Great care must be shown in not letting them feed upon more demonic cells and growing too powerful. Sometimes demon-hearts pull a "modern-vampire-story" in that they try to use the bad to fight the bad and retain their own goodness, but in a if-the-90s-are-considered-modern-modern-vampire-story, they usually are corrupted or fall.
Aside: Seriously, when did vampires succeeding at redemption and (un)living happily ever after become a thing? I'm all for sympathetic undead, or even a redemption story, but any story featuring one that is still standing at the end rings untrue to me.
I think I've exhausted the binary circulatory system for undead (at least for today) and I have no desire to plumb the depths of a binary respiratory system (at least for today!), so let's move on to what else makes centaurs tick.
They jump really high/far, they suffer from hedonism (although that's more of a cultural thing), and they are an amalgamation of pre-hume-stock and pre-horse-stock.
Locust, slob, and hume-less horseman. And then we'll call it a day for physical corruption inspirations for undead centaurs.
The locust centaur (or grasshopper if you prefer) is a standard undead centaur (as in, no special origins, just an unfortunate happenstance that results in improper burial). Their wasted away bodies are light and catch the wind. Their undead strength causes them to go quite high and far (much more than a normal centaur) when jumping, and they travel far distances before coming down. They eat whatever living creature or flesh that they come into contact with (birds and other flying creatures while in the air, and whatever is around when they touch down). Although they should touch down softly, they use limited psionics to create a meteor-like strike when they near ground and this can also be used with small hops in a battle-situation. It's hypothesized that the psionics also help them float. A final use of their psionics causes flaps of frilled skin to rise off the horse-back part of their bodies to be used like a locust's wings and guide their path through the skies. As a low-functioning undead, it's not uncommon for these creatures to eventually form groups flying through the skies.
The slob centaur usually comes from the pesebalamjr subspecies, as they are usually quite morbidly obese (and half again as tall as a centaur) and convince themselves that the kind of focus/enlightenment they've achieved allows them to engage in gluttony without falling prey to the hedonism that has plagued their species from the beginning. Still, particularly awful examples of "normal" centaurs that have fallen prey to excessive gluttony can become slobs as well. Although normally psionically powerful, the slobs are mostly unrecognizable as centaurs. They probably look more like a hutt from Star Wars with four tiny legs (tiny because they've been overwhelmed by the obesity of the creature) than a real centaur. I've seen this picture when looking up pics to figure out what a pesebalamjr looks like
Increase that past the absurd point it is already, turn it into a centaur, and make it undead and you've got the idea I have for the slob creature. (couldn't find any origination for this picture, but it's being used by several people when you Google "fat horse". If anyone knows where it came from, I'd appreciate it!).The slob centaur has no real motivation in (un)life other than finding sources of food. They eat anything, including vegetation, and regularly use their psionics to assist them in eating more and more. In fact, the slob centaur probably does a better job at being a locust than the locust centaur! Luckily, slob centaurs are usually loners because they cannot tolerate competition for food sources. (best way to kill one? introduce it to another, let them duke it out, and then fight the weakened remains).
Slobs start out relatively intelligent, but the only thing they apply their intelligence to is finding more food. Eventually, slobs develop even more stomachs and even more eventually, alternate intake valves (mouths). Their mouths grow to proportions that fit in with their trash disposal ways, and the first extra mouth usually develops in the abdomen of the hume torso part of the centaur.
Finally, the hume-less horseman centaur is one that has had its hume-part forcibly removed from its horse-part. These creatures ride the night seeking out those that killed it and any others it views as being guilty (which is eventually, anyone that isn't suffering from their particular malady). They prefer to kill by slicing through the lower abdomen of creatures to cut them in half. Depending on the particular specimen, the hume-less horseman may cherish its separate parts, and both parts may develop powers. When encountered without the horse part, they are called horse-less humemen; these claw their way around and may retain reasoning and higher-functioning. The hume-less horseman is much more likely to fall into undead instincts. Both versions are able to manifest a spectral version to "complete" themselves, but most prefer to use other things to occupy the space missing. The horsemen may use scarecrows or other common golem-like creatures, while the humemen are not opposed to using carts and mechanical horses. Humemen are more likely to provide locomotion by creating spectral legs to move the inanimate parts along.
So what do you think of the undead centaurs? If you'd like to know more, feel free to ask!
Remember, these were all created while writing this particular blog, which is why only placeholder names are used mostly and why more concept art isn't available. Whenever a name is decided or more art is created, I'll probably come back to update.
Minotaurs up next, followed by aviadins!
Doctor Who Series 7 Episode 8: Cold War — Review and Reflection
Hello Everyone,
With the advent of On Demand, DVRs and instant streaming video, I figure it's somewhat relevant to post reviews of ongoing series. In fact, once they update the site, you can download-buy it here (update: it's now available):
I've been a Doctor Who fan since I discovered it, which, relatively, was pretty late. Not since the reboot was in its 3rd season (or "series" as the Brits refer to them). I quickly realized it was the absolute best show on television; even more, the best show I've ever seen.
Six AMAZING series of Doctor Who and a dozen (or so) specials and it seems that the Doctor can do no wrong — or at least, not anything to get worked up over.
Yet, the entirety of series 7 with possibly 2-3 exceptions (read these exceptions as not letdowns, but nowhere near Who-quality) has been letdown after letdown. To the point that my darling fiancee won't watch it anymore without an episode being vetted. ...yes, it's gotten that bad. The fact that she still hopes for it to return to former glory shows you how amazing it once was. So how does "Cold War" measure up?
Review
Let's review. This week's entry is called, "The Cold War" and this is a nice punny title as it is both the return of the famed ice warrior race and also the source of the primary drama with their stay on a Russian sub equipped with nuclear missiles.
I thought the ice warrior's armor was well done and looked quite imposing and cool (not as cool as bow ties, but cool)
For those of you that are unaware, the ice warriors are a reptilian race from Mars that have a cybernetic tank suit. They're a warrior race (I know, right?) with a caste system and buttloads of honor issues.
You can guess where the story is going pretty immediately, and the only "surprise" comes from what's under the suit. Hint: it's bad CG and visual effects.
I've heard stories of the big reveal of what's under the daleks' armor shells and how it was in the news (real news) that it would finally be revealed, and I can only hope they handled THAT reveal better than this. As my future wife says, just because you CAN use CG, doesn't mean you SHOULD use CG.
There was some character development and it was nice to see Clara start to become more human-like instead of just a collection of memes. It's looking more like her origins will become clear in the 50th anniversary if the hints they are dropping have any relevance besides geeking out the Whovians.
The submarine seemed spacious and well-lit, but otherwise was a nice piece of set design and was a great set for a story.
Final Grade: OK, but I probably won't be recommending it to my future wife.
Reflection (Spoilers Ahead)
I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I just need more from Doctor Who than this. It was just OK and that's not anything.
"What?" You might be saying, "What?! WHAT?!"
It's right up there with the other non-letdown of Series 7, "A Town Called Mercy". For the record, "Asylum of the Daleks" was spectacular in my opinion, Who-level. "Snowmen" was good, but not technically part of Series 7 as it was the Christmas special. "OK" or "non-letdown" is quite bad.
I usually try to write reviews without reading others, but I am astonished at the cries of, "The Doctor is back!" and citing this episode as a return to the good. It was a return to the mediocre! Which after the bad is quite nice, but it's still mediocre!
The big inconsistency of the episode that struck me was how high the ceilings on the roof of the submarine were. Maybe that's how Russian subs were in the 1980s, but it screams a design of convenience for the episode instead of for authenticity.
Somehow the reptile is able to perch on the ceiling and pick up full grown adult males with two hands. It does this ninja style to the point that people are dead before someone standing right next to them knows, disposes of the body, and apparently can disappear from sight (since the camera never pans up, it's unclear how this is happening, but we see the head shrouded in shadow at one point, so I guess the well-lit sub is just really dark above head level).
We lose track of why the ice warrior abandoned his armor (which is apparently quite dishonorable). We're told it's because he's desperate, but well, his armor is basically a tank, impervious to their bullets, and able to break the chains that hold him. So why would he dishonor himself if he didn't need to?
So Clara's birthday is the same day as the launch of the original Doctor Who and her mum died on the day the 9th Doctor met Rose. Oooookayyyyy. 50th anniversary here we come!
What's up with the super-attachment the Doctor has developed for his sonic? It's crossing the point of a useful object to almost moe level affection on his part. We had last week where he refused to give up the sonic and forced Clara to give up a ring (quite a dick move really), and this week his reaction to getting the sonic back. It's very odd. What are they building up to? A new tool?
And although this week it was subtle, after last week's hitting us over the head with the power-of-singing theme, it was quite annoying to see Clara sing again at a crucial moment. I almost wanted the ice warriors to transmit down, "Ssssseriousssssly? We were going to let your world live, but ssssssinging at a time like thisssssssssssssssssssssssssssss?"
There's just no feeling there. We start to see Clara as a human but even then, it's a far cry from what we have been used to. I read last week about people crying over the Doctor's "epic speech"
(Here you go if you forgot or missed it)
But it was just the same old-same old delivered very well by Matt Smith. The fact that it's good, powerful acting doesn't remove the fact that it's ridiculous. I think you have been blinded by your own bias towards Doctor Who. See the "What What What What" video above for my reaction to hearing you cried.
I Adore Doctor Who. I giggle and cheer and cry and cherish the show, and I can forgive cheese and the occasional low-point and even minor inconsistencies, "hand-waving", and questionable motives and plans of the baddies, but it's lost its soul.
There's no heart in Doctor Who Series 7, which before had twice as much heart as any other show. The Doctor has become too capable. Where before he would run from the enemies, now he runs to them and does a standard intimidation speech (like the one you just witnessed; minus the tears, but with the righteous fury intact).
And really now, if everyone and their mom knows about the Doctor still, wouldn't the daleks have re-figured out who he was even if they had their own systems wiped of his info? I mean, the dalek in "Dalek" of Series 1 downloaded the entire Internet in under a minute.
The entire Series 7 has been on fast-forward and each episode is existing only to provide the single piece of the puzzle that will not be revealed until the season finale or 50th anniversary.
This is possibly more forgivable now, since it will eventually be revealed. In the first half of Series 7, there wasn't even any build-up. It was just, "this is what we want to get through with Amy and Rory, let's do it!"
There's always obvious questions that pop up. If the ice warriors have an empire, why wouldn't they have been involved in the Pandorica? One easy way they could have left it open for them would be to have shadowy figures unrevealed or have other races in the spaceships that are unrevealed.
I don't know. I can't keep justifying an hour to watch a mediocre show. That's 9 hours of television in Series 7 counting the Christmas special, 1 hour at normal Whovian levels ("Asylum of the Daleks", episode 1), 1 hour at good levels ("The Snowmen", Christmas Special), and 2 hours at OK level. The most emotion I feel after watching these episodes is the frustration, bitterness and depression of having watched another hour of wasted potential.
With the advent of On Demand, DVRs and instant streaming video, I figure it's somewhat relevant to post reviews of ongoing series. In fact, once they update the site, you can download-buy it here (update: it's now available):
I've been a Doctor Who fan since I discovered it, which, relatively, was pretty late. Not since the reboot was in its 3rd season (or "series" as the Brits refer to them). I quickly realized it was the absolute best show on television; even more, the best show I've ever seen.
Six AMAZING series of Doctor Who and a dozen (or so) specials and it seems that the Doctor can do no wrong — or at least, not anything to get worked up over.
Yet, the entirety of series 7 with possibly 2-3 exceptions (read these exceptions as not letdowns, but nowhere near Who-quality) has been letdown after letdown. To the point that my darling fiancee won't watch it anymore without an episode being vetted. ...yes, it's gotten that bad. The fact that she still hopes for it to return to former glory shows you how amazing it once was. So how does "Cold War" measure up?
Review
Let's review. This week's entry is called, "The Cold War" and this is a nice punny title as it is both the return of the famed ice warrior race and also the source of the primary drama with their stay on a Russian sub equipped with nuclear missiles.
I thought the ice warrior's armor was well done and looked quite imposing and cool (not as cool as bow ties, but cool)
For those of you that are unaware, the ice warriors are a reptilian race from Mars that have a cybernetic tank suit. They're a warrior race (I know, right?) with a caste system and buttloads of honor issues.
You can guess where the story is going pretty immediately, and the only "surprise" comes from what's under the suit. Hint: it's bad CG and visual effects.
I've heard stories of the big reveal of what's under the daleks' armor shells and how it was in the news (real news) that it would finally be revealed, and I can only hope they handled THAT reveal better than this. As my future wife says, just because you CAN use CG, doesn't mean you SHOULD use CG.
There was some character development and it was nice to see Clara start to become more human-like instead of just a collection of memes. It's looking more like her origins will become clear in the 50th anniversary if the hints they are dropping have any relevance besides geeking out the Whovians.
The submarine seemed spacious and well-lit, but otherwise was a nice piece of set design and was a great set for a story.
Final Grade: OK, but I probably won't be recommending it to my future wife.
Reflection (Spoilers Ahead)
I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I just need more from Doctor Who than this. It was just OK and that's not anything.
"What?" You might be saying, "What?! WHAT?!"
It's right up there with the other non-letdown of Series 7, "A Town Called Mercy". For the record, "Asylum of the Daleks" was spectacular in my opinion, Who-level. "Snowmen" was good, but not technically part of Series 7 as it was the Christmas special. "OK" or "non-letdown" is quite bad.
I usually try to write reviews without reading others, but I am astonished at the cries of, "The Doctor is back!" and citing this episode as a return to the good. It was a return to the mediocre! Which after the bad is quite nice, but it's still mediocre!
The big inconsistency of the episode that struck me was how high the ceilings on the roof of the submarine were. Maybe that's how Russian subs were in the 1980s, but it screams a design of convenience for the episode instead of for authenticity.
Somehow the reptile is able to perch on the ceiling and pick up full grown adult males with two hands. It does this ninja style to the point that people are dead before someone standing right next to them knows, disposes of the body, and apparently can disappear from sight (since the camera never pans up, it's unclear how this is happening, but we see the head shrouded in shadow at one point, so I guess the well-lit sub is just really dark above head level).
We lose track of why the ice warrior abandoned his armor (which is apparently quite dishonorable). We're told it's because he's desperate, but well, his armor is basically a tank, impervious to their bullets, and able to break the chains that hold him. So why would he dishonor himself if he didn't need to?
So Clara's birthday is the same day as the launch of the original Doctor Who and her mum died on the day the 9th Doctor met Rose. Oooookayyyyy. 50th anniversary here we come!
What's up with the super-attachment the Doctor has developed for his sonic? It's crossing the point of a useful object to almost moe level affection on his part. We had last week where he refused to give up the sonic and forced Clara to give up a ring (quite a dick move really), and this week his reaction to getting the sonic back. It's very odd. What are they building up to? A new tool?
And although this week it was subtle, after last week's hitting us over the head with the power-of-singing theme, it was quite annoying to see Clara sing again at a crucial moment. I almost wanted the ice warriors to transmit down, "Ssssseriousssssly? We were going to let your world live, but ssssssinging at a time like thisssssssssssssssssssssssssssss?"
There's just no feeling there. We start to see Clara as a human but even then, it's a far cry from what we have been used to. I read last week about people crying over the Doctor's "epic speech"
(Here you go if you forgot or missed it)
But it was just the same old-same old delivered very well by Matt Smith. The fact that it's good, powerful acting doesn't remove the fact that it's ridiculous. I think you have been blinded by your own bias towards Doctor Who. See the "What What What What" video above for my reaction to hearing you cried.
I Adore Doctor Who. I giggle and cheer and cry and cherish the show, and I can forgive cheese and the occasional low-point and even minor inconsistencies, "hand-waving", and questionable motives and plans of the baddies, but it's lost its soul.
There's no heart in Doctor Who Series 7, which before had twice as much heart as any other show. The Doctor has become too capable. Where before he would run from the enemies, now he runs to them and does a standard intimidation speech (like the one you just witnessed; minus the tears, but with the righteous fury intact).
And really now, if everyone and their mom knows about the Doctor still, wouldn't the daleks have re-figured out who he was even if they had their own systems wiped of his info? I mean, the dalek in "Dalek" of Series 1 downloaded the entire Internet in under a minute.
The entire Series 7 has been on fast-forward and each episode is existing only to provide the single piece of the puzzle that will not be revealed until the season finale or 50th anniversary.
This is possibly more forgivable now, since it will eventually be revealed. In the first half of Series 7, there wasn't even any build-up. It was just, "this is what we want to get through with Amy and Rory, let's do it!"
There's always obvious questions that pop up. If the ice warriors have an empire, why wouldn't they have been involved in the Pandorica? One easy way they could have left it open for them would be to have shadowy figures unrevealed or have other races in the spaceships that are unrevealed.
I don't know. I can't keep justifying an hour to watch a mediocre show. That's 9 hours of television in Series 7 counting the Christmas special, 1 hour at normal Whovian levels ("Asylum of the Daleks", episode 1), 1 hour at good levels ("The Snowmen", Christmas Special), and 2 hours at OK level. The most emotion I feel after watching these episodes is the frustration, bitterness and depression of having watched another hour of wasted potential.
April 12, 2013
Making Undead #1: Physical Corruption of Dwarves
Hi everyone,
Since my monster creation blog was pretty successful, I figured I'd continue the theme to showcase how I make undead in a similar manner.
Undead creation for me is almost entirely block-building. If I'm making undead for a specific race (which is what I'll focus on at first), then I look at what makes that race tick and turn it on its head.
Looking through my bestiary, I notice that I don't have many undead for dwarves, minotaurs, aviadins, lizardfolk, centaurs, or elysia. Everything that follows is new. I'm excited to see what happens with these races! Update: This started to get pretty long right off the bat, so I'm splitting them into a few different posts.
Dwarves In WotA, dwarves are not as fleshy as they may be in other verses. Their bones and bodies quickly decompose to cold iron (distinct from natural iron as having strong antimagickal properties), and their skin and hair is similarly laced with metallic deposits.
I immediately start thinking of poisoned metal. Somewhere in my past consumption of media and science I've heard of ruining metal when it is in liquid form. Googling to see if this idea can be verified turns up little, but I immediately come across heavy metal poisoning, which starts the gears turning a different direction. I also file away the idea of rust, another way metal is ruined.
It makes sense that dwarves would be mostly immune to heavy metal poisoning the way humes think of it and that poisoning in general would be thought of as underhanded or lacking merit. Still, some corrupt individuals might seek to increase the levels of these unnatural elements if they go out in the world to hunt and kill non-dwarves. Or even to increase the poisonous materials in their own bodies to the point that contact or close proximity would injure or harm even other dwarves!
So we have a living basis for the undead to come. A dwarf that unnaturally seeks to increase the levels of toxic metals in his or her own body to be used as a weapon against others. With the idea of their antimagickal bones projecting an aura, it makes sense that they would be able to weaponize that same aura and convert the antimagickal field into an antimagickal toxic field. Similarly, this would provide a defense. Anyone that can overcome the field of the dwarf would not be poisoned, although it also is insidious in that even those that might have magickal protection to poison might fall prey to the dual antimagick/poison.
I draw a quick sketch and label it poison dwarf (undead) for future elaboration.
Now for rust.
Rust is corrosive and caused by impure iron's exposure to water, especially salt water, and oxygen. It can be prevented by galvanization and cathodic protection.
Very quickly in my head, the idea forms of dwarves having some sort of rust-like contagion that they believe marks a dwarf as either mixed descent or unclean (or having come into contact with one that is rusted). Maybe can be forced by a dwarven water torture where a dwarf is forced to sit in salty water for weeks. Although it doesn't cause organ failure, hypothermia or the problems faced by a hume, it does start to affect the metals of the dwarf's body, causing a rust infection. If that infection gets to the bone, then it can very easily kill the dwarf. Maybe dwarves have to worry about rust infections in any sort of unclean wound. Any dwarf that dies to a rust infection can rise as a variety of different undead: a rust skeleton, where only the cold iron bones are animated, but can cause infected wounds quite easily; a rust ghoul, where the undead dwarf is consumed with the desire to consume the flesh of healthy dwarves and pure metals; rust ghouls can graduate to a full-on rust pincushion where the pure metals consumed are turned to rust and protrude through the GI of the dwarf so that there are lots of nasty bits sticking out; and finally, why not combine the idea of the tainted antimagickal aura into a rusty aura, where the antimagick aura taints metal and causes it to corrode, aura of rust undead.
Unfortunately, some dwarves believe they are extra-prone to rust infections (maybe they're hemophiliacs, or maybe they actually are of mixed descent—note, being of mixed descent would not necessarily prompt being prone to extra infection, but that can be a form of dwarven racism), and so actively take steps to prevent rusting: galvanization and cathodic protection.
For galvanization, we are talking immersing the flat areas of the body in liquid metal for protection; vulnerable at the joints just like with real galvanization. Ideally, they'd try to get their hands on Galatean living metal, or work with their metallurgists to come up with the next best thing, as this would enable flexibility and more readily bond with their bodies. Immediately we have a dwarf that dies by galvanizing too much too quickly (probably by full immersion) could rise again as an undead (dwarven living statue). Mixed in with this unfortunate beast, we have the fact that in order to do this to themselves, the person probably hates themselves or their heritage quite a lot. Great fodder for undead.
As far as cathodic protection, it requires a sacrificial metal and an electric charge. The electric charge can be acquired in a variety of ways, from an alchemist, harvesting electric animals from underground streams, or even buying lightning tech from a Golgardian. Aligning their bodies to be able to channel the electricity isn't so hard when you consider they are dwarves and altering their constitution slightly can make them have different properties as needed of stones, earth and metal. Next, they need a sacrificial metal to act as an anode. Since we're talking about creatures that will become undead, it makes sense that they would use something quite dark such as the bones of other dwarves or possibly their own hand or another appendage. Electrifying themselves and "channeling the rust" into the anode will be what they are doing while they are alive, and this can easily kill them through an electric shock they can't handle, or if they are using their own appendage, a rust infection.
Once dead, I envision them as instantaneously causing other dwarves to rust by channeling their corruption into other dwarves and maintaining the electricity naturally (or unnaturally as the case may be). Tentatively calling them rust vampires.
From the drawing, I've realized that these dwarves would probably keep themselves very neat and unblemished looking. The longer they go without passing off the corruption, the more crazed and less neat they are (just like a vampire hungering for blood).
These are just two physical characteristics that dwarves possess, and they've already added to the culture of dwarves as well as spawned seven undead creatures. Next up, centaurs!
(Note: Maybe more sketches to come, but I use them just to cement ideas more than as end-grade concept art usually).
Thanks for reading!
Since my monster creation blog was pretty successful, I figured I'd continue the theme to showcase how I make undead in a similar manner.
Undead creation for me is almost entirely block-building. If I'm making undead for a specific race (which is what I'll focus on at first), then I look at what makes that race tick and turn it on its head.
Looking through my bestiary, I notice that I don't have many undead for dwarves, minotaurs, aviadins, lizardfolk, centaurs, or elysia. Everything that follows is new. I'm excited to see what happens with these races! Update: This started to get pretty long right off the bat, so I'm splitting them into a few different posts.
Dwarves In WotA, dwarves are not as fleshy as they may be in other verses. Their bones and bodies quickly decompose to cold iron (distinct from natural iron as having strong antimagickal properties), and their skin and hair is similarly laced with metallic deposits.
I immediately start thinking of poisoned metal. Somewhere in my past consumption of media and science I've heard of ruining metal when it is in liquid form. Googling to see if this idea can be verified turns up little, but I immediately come across heavy metal poisoning, which starts the gears turning a different direction. I also file away the idea of rust, another way metal is ruined.
It makes sense that dwarves would be mostly immune to heavy metal poisoning the way humes think of it and that poisoning in general would be thought of as underhanded or lacking merit. Still, some corrupt individuals might seek to increase the levels of these unnatural elements if they go out in the world to hunt and kill non-dwarves. Or even to increase the poisonous materials in their own bodies to the point that contact or close proximity would injure or harm even other dwarves!
So we have a living basis for the undead to come. A dwarf that unnaturally seeks to increase the levels of toxic metals in his or her own body to be used as a weapon against others. With the idea of their antimagickal bones projecting an aura, it makes sense that they would be able to weaponize that same aura and convert the antimagickal field into an antimagickal toxic field. Similarly, this would provide a defense. Anyone that can overcome the field of the dwarf would not be poisoned, although it also is insidious in that even those that might have magickal protection to poison might fall prey to the dual antimagick/poison.
I draw a quick sketch and label it poison dwarf (undead) for future elaboration.
Now for rust.
Rust is corrosive and caused by impure iron's exposure to water, especially salt water, and oxygen. It can be prevented by galvanization and cathodic protection.
Very quickly in my head, the idea forms of dwarves having some sort of rust-like contagion that they believe marks a dwarf as either mixed descent or unclean (or having come into contact with one that is rusted). Maybe can be forced by a dwarven water torture where a dwarf is forced to sit in salty water for weeks. Although it doesn't cause organ failure, hypothermia or the problems faced by a hume, it does start to affect the metals of the dwarf's body, causing a rust infection. If that infection gets to the bone, then it can very easily kill the dwarf. Maybe dwarves have to worry about rust infections in any sort of unclean wound. Any dwarf that dies to a rust infection can rise as a variety of different undead: a rust skeleton, where only the cold iron bones are animated, but can cause infected wounds quite easily; a rust ghoul, where the undead dwarf is consumed with the desire to consume the flesh of healthy dwarves and pure metals; rust ghouls can graduate to a full-on rust pincushion where the pure metals consumed are turned to rust and protrude through the GI of the dwarf so that there are lots of nasty bits sticking out; and finally, why not combine the idea of the tainted antimagickal aura into a rusty aura, where the antimagick aura taints metal and causes it to corrode, aura of rust undead.
Unfortunately, some dwarves believe they are extra-prone to rust infections (maybe they're hemophiliacs, or maybe they actually are of mixed descent—note, being of mixed descent would not necessarily prompt being prone to extra infection, but that can be a form of dwarven racism), and so actively take steps to prevent rusting: galvanization and cathodic protection.
For galvanization, we are talking immersing the flat areas of the body in liquid metal for protection; vulnerable at the joints just like with real galvanization. Ideally, they'd try to get their hands on Galatean living metal, or work with their metallurgists to come up with the next best thing, as this would enable flexibility and more readily bond with their bodies. Immediately we have a dwarf that dies by galvanizing too much too quickly (probably by full immersion) could rise again as an undead (dwarven living statue). Mixed in with this unfortunate beast, we have the fact that in order to do this to themselves, the person probably hates themselves or their heritage quite a lot. Great fodder for undead.
As far as cathodic protection, it requires a sacrificial metal and an electric charge. The electric charge can be acquired in a variety of ways, from an alchemist, harvesting electric animals from underground streams, or even buying lightning tech from a Golgardian. Aligning their bodies to be able to channel the electricity isn't so hard when you consider they are dwarves and altering their constitution slightly can make them have different properties as needed of stones, earth and metal. Next, they need a sacrificial metal to act as an anode. Since we're talking about creatures that will become undead, it makes sense that they would use something quite dark such as the bones of other dwarves or possibly their own hand or another appendage. Electrifying themselves and "channeling the rust" into the anode will be what they are doing while they are alive, and this can easily kill them through an electric shock they can't handle, or if they are using their own appendage, a rust infection.
Once dead, I envision them as instantaneously causing other dwarves to rust by channeling their corruption into other dwarves and maintaining the electricity naturally (or unnaturally as the case may be). Tentatively calling them rust vampires.
From the drawing, I've realized that these dwarves would probably keep themselves very neat and unblemished looking. The longer they go without passing off the corruption, the more crazed and less neat they are (just like a vampire hungering for blood).These are just two physical characteristics that dwarves possess, and they've already added to the culture of dwarves as well as spawned seven undead creatures. Next up, centaurs!
(Note: Maybe more sketches to come, but I use them just to cement ideas more than as end-grade concept art usually).
Thanks for reading!
