Damn I Am Pretty Art Laboratories

  I don't think I'll do too many more of these, this setting feels like it stands on its own based on only a few pieces.  Nyx continues on here.  My #Solarpunk splashing into #SpaceWestern goes on here.  SolarWestern?  IDK. There isn't a humanity anymore.  Not according to the purists.  The human genome isn't a singular thing anymore.  It's been over two centuries since the term Humanity fell into misuse.  The Corporates still cling to the old term.  Even if they have no qualms with altering the genome to suit their needs. The term human doesn't apply if one refers to the species of the same name in a genetic sense.  The pure, unaltered version.  There is a collection of slang and terms for the new versions.  Posthumanity, Neohumanity, transhumanity.  Most people don't dwell on the fact. It seems, within the Cooperative , that the old tribalism of who is and isn't human has faded.  Psychological heuristic...

I have no idea why I'm writing these, but these round up the last of my thoughts on things started in NYX: Cooperative and NYX: Firespace.     I don't think I'll do too many more of these, this setting feels like it stands on its own based on only a few piece. The Corporates. The diaspora of Corporates out of the System began when the Old Nations couldn't stop the adoption of autogov.  Convinced that the machines had conquered the System, the Corporates took drastic action.  Two hundred years they moved out of the System into interstellar space. The Cooperative doesn't know if they survived. A few corporates stayed behind in the remote corners of the Kuiper Belt.  But they are terrified.  And they are convinced they are freedom fighters. Did those Corporates that entered deep space survive?  Have they discovered firespace?  Or did they discover their own wonders in the cold black? Unlike the Cooperative, Corporates cling to the ancient r...

Every day I try to do an inked sketch.  Then with my Iphone, I scan it and alter it so the pencils aren't visible.  I've neglected posting them here on deathisntanending.  So, I'm going to remedy that.  Weekly, I'm going to post my week's inksketches.   I don't know if I'm going to use this as a way to "cheat" out one of my three posts a week.  Maybe.  Maybe not. On instagram and twitter , I also post these as I do them.  Inksketches I like will sometimes get shaded and colored, ending up on my deviantart page.  I might include links to that with these, maybe not. If you are impressed by this sort of art, I always am open to commission work . Friday sketch was a falcon.  The use of a flaming greek symbol for the sun is a reference to my own personal mythos where the falcon serves as sigil for a particular lineage of fire mages.  Thursday sketch was an image of Cleaver , an obese Android in Crux.  He unnerves...

The myths and vids from the old American Commonwealth all foretold the advent of FTL travel.  Their stories created a story device called hyperspace.  Intriguing as the name could be, hyperspace had simplicity.  The idea remained the same, one that turned out to have some basis in fact. Huma's discovery of Firespace involved applications of wave-particle fluctuation.  These first use of such technology came with the invention of artificial gravity.  Whereas mythical hyperspace is omnipresent, firespace isn't.  Firespace is a separate universe all on its own.  Only its reachable parts are where our universes cross over. Black holes and massive stars, for instance, have no access to firespace at all.  A large chunk of the Milky Way galaxy seems to have no firespace access.  While the Large Magellanic Cloud does.  FTL travel is available via Firespace.  But that is only because Firespace lacks the same our universe's gravitation...

Been meaning to establish a Patreon for the blog for awhile now.  The idea is create a way for readers to support the blog in a direct fashion.   Click here to visit the Patreon page, if you want to support this blog.   Also, I made a video for the patreon too.   Weird, I know. The most important goal is just me getting the patreon setup.  I don't see it ever providing a huge amount of money, but it seems the best way to get me resources to expand the blog.  There are other projects I'd like to try out, but atm lack the time/resources to really dig into. Webcomic: One of my "secret" side projects is a webcomic I've been working on the side for months now.  I haven't yet been able to get enough of it done that I'm happy with posting it.   I still take too long to get a page done to want to start a webcomic.  One of the first things success on the Patreon can do is help me be able to get more time to work on the webcomic and launch it. ...

When a man fell from the sky in Idaho County that night in 1935, it changed things.  Not just any man, but one who was on fire.  Idaho County is older than even Idaho state.  They named the state after the county.  Even way back in 1935, some things were always the same way.   Nothing could challenge that.  I couldn't.  Or I thought I couldn't. That man fell.  While ablaze.  Burning hot flames.  Like a falling star. As he fell, I stood on our front porch.  My father had gotten drunk that night.  I should've repressed these memories.  But they still stick inside me. "You think you can just come in here like this?"  He stood over them. The brown-skinned men and women looked up at him in fear.  I didn't know how, but my father had managed to chain the lot of them together.  His shotgun waved back and forth.  We hated them. They spoke Spanish in fright at my father.  My father didn't liste...

Previously, Maralda had an interview with the gigantic Spice Khan, getting herself thrown out on the issue of slavery in Maliph.  Forgetting her notebook, Maralda now has to get it back.   This continues the  #Crux  story about the Spice Khan and the attitude of the Maliphi overall. "Every day is followed by every night." The first bit was easy enough.  The little mnemonic phrase unlocked Maralda's spell.  She felt the words whirl around her.  They altered the air.  They bent light around Maralda's body. The tingling of the Invisibility spell always tingled her mind a bit.  Maybe it was the change in light around her.  Either way. Maralda now could move hidden from view. Not by sound or scent.  Sound she could handle. "Hopefully my perfume won't set off those Gnolls."  She muttered.  Then Maralda cursed herself for saying her thought out loud. She moved quick.  Her best friend, Lahm, had a few horrib...

Previously, Maralda started her interview with the sand giant and magnate, the Spice Khan.  This continues the #Crux story about the Spice Khan and the attitude of the Maliphi overall.  Enjoy! Maralda scribbled down notes.  The hour or so of conversation with the Spice Khan had given her oodles on the nature of Maliph.  The Spice Khan's native province seemed not just exotic anymore to her.  Maralda could envision the tiny khanate in her mind, like a Maliphi twin to Crux. "Nephkha intrigues me,"  Maralda said, looking up at the Spice Khan. The sand giant woman had been snacking on something.  Maralda paled as her maw swallowed a cooked mass.  The huge chunk of cooked meat had been the same size as Maralda's head.  The Spice Khan ate it without chewing. "I've only visited my father's home infrequently.  But the stunning white of the pyramids always enchants the heart, I think."  The Spice Khan said. "Nephkha is the on...

#Crux, City of Curses   is a dark fantasy setting I've been working on for two years now- inspired by the Jacksonian Era America, Legend of Korra, Pathfinder the Roleplaying Game, Hellboy and more- full of dark intrigues, horror, magic and weirdness.  Here's part 1 of an interview between Maralda and a prominent representative of a foreign nation in Crux.  The Spice Khan is a wealthy giant of a young woman, whom Maralda interviews in the hopes of writing some sort of essay on the nation known as the Immortal Khanates of Maliph. Maralda didn't want to be there.  She didn't have much choice in the matter.  Maralda Inculti needed the money from her writing.  Well, if she didn't want to rely on her vampyre father and his estate, she needed to do things like this. The Ariast Times had asked her to delve into recent matters with Maliph.  As Maliph had become more and more prominent in Ithic politics, the magazine wanted her words on it.  How did...

Sunlight.  It warms the flesh.  It had rained the night before.  The scent of rain filled the air.  Sunlight had crested the nearby mountainside. Morning. The mountains are still there.  No roads.  No cities.  Things never paved over by the growth of civilization.  Wildness. The dark rainy night passes.  Here, one isn't defined by the words of others.  The things that divide us fall away.  In the wilderness, a person is a person, with no false pretenses against them.  The rainy night passes, the storm is forgotten. It's easy to be frightened in the storm.  To miss the beauty of nature to fear.  To kneel to it.  To give up. But the wilderness doesn't care about the storm.  It comes and it goes.  Nature doesn't care for civilization.  It doesn't care about the night.  It doesn't even care about the sublime warmth of the morning.  The Wilderness has no memory. One can be part o...

"Feathered like the Coatls of Central America, but horny scales cover it as well.  It bears semblance to the Horned Lizard.  Although it is unknown if it can spit blood like it's lizard counterpart.  The feathers are brown, gray and yellow.  Formidable with earth and air magicks.   This brood of dragons evaded the dragon slaying that dominated pre-Columbian North America.  They are now near-extinct, thought to have been extinct until recent reports.  Unlike European or Asian broods, dragons in North America were almost wiped out entire by Native American Slayers.  The typical adult female is forty to fifty feet long, with a sixty-foot wingspan. Fewer in number, these dragons are far more vicious than even their European cousins.  Evidence suggests that this brood destroyed major Rocky Mountain Civilizations (the Obelisk People).   This would have been around 400 CE.  Native American Slayers drove them to near extinction.  B...

#Crux, the City of Curses is a dark fantasy setting I've been working on for two years now- inspired by the Jacksonian Era America, Legend of Korra, Pathfinder the Roleplaying Game, Hellboy and more- full of dark intrigues, horror, magic and weirdness. On the Nature of Androids. 2. Tinkertown, if exists, would be a bonanza for escaped Android collectors.  I've tried to make some way about where it could be.  But I've never seen a bit of it.   Androids, if they have such a secret community, aren't willing to share it.  Maybe the stories about them lacking the confidence has merit. -Maralda Inculti, 1785 Tinkertown, Poorfellows. Maralda slid down the ladder.  She'd learned the last time not to trust the rungs.  Androids never used the ladder.  They jumped down the thirty feet from the sewer grate to the town square of the clandestine village. She ended the harrowing climb.  Tinkertown. A familiar, mechanical voice greeted he...

One Missed Call is one of those things I didn't expect to find.  Sure, I haven't played it.  I read it.  It's easy to do.  It's really short.  It just shocked me with how interesting it sounds. It's a game for two players.  The page describes it thusly: "One Missed Call is a story game for two players about loved ones separated by space, drifting apart or growing closer. It takes about thirty to ninety minutes to learn and play. It’s free, so please download the PDF and give it a try!" Yeah, free is part of it.  OMC intrigues me because of one mechanic I like.  A list of phrases each player can use.  The game ends based on whether these words have been used. The idea is to work those phrases into the conversation going on.  Its recreates the conversation, while giving players the tools to structure it somehow.  Without a script.  But with a script. That interests me, although I still need to actually play the game ...

A #Crux post today.  Perdition Hill, the ancient series of labyrinthine prisons that overlooks the city of curses.  A look at this neighborhood and what to expect from it.  Kinda the closest to a pure "megadungeon" in the setting overall, but my opinion can be weird and a bit off, I guess.  Crux is a dark fantasy setting in the City of Curses, a city of dark intrigues and early industrial technology founded upon the site of the massive skull of some long forgotten god. Perdition Hill. Aspect: Thousands of Doors Without an Exit In Sight Connected To: Havershill (to the South), Northcrown (to the West), Blood Quarter (to the South, underground) Most Significant Icon: The Prince Well-Known For? Prisons, Jails, Labyrinthine Complex, The Prince's Prisoners I'd been putting this off for awhile.   The dark spires of the Hill loom over the City of Curses.  It has always been a foggy place.  The dark grey and black bricks look like some sort of ...

Our community throughout the Solar System and its colonies is called the Cooperative . Not Alliance.  Not Federation.  Not Union. All of those suggest some sort of unified, central authority.  That is not what makes the Cooperative as strong as it is.  The Cooperative ousted the Old Nations, the Powers That Were.  How?  And more importantly, why did it do so? The Cooperative is the name for the relationship between the automated democratic artificial genius loci of each colony in the system.  That complicated phrase of gobbledegok is nicknamed Autogov.  It isn't a direct democracy.  It is a direct republic and has been since the first colony adopted it. Autogov AI aren't a singular entity, but reflect the living social and legal strata of its residents.  This has its roots in the socialization of social media centuries before earth's unification.  Social media, AR and telepathy all form the basis of Autogov.  Withi...