#Gryphon Insurrection

[kvalenagle]

This is one of my favorite interior art pieces from Brenda Lyons, who always knocks them out of the park. From Opinicus, Book 7.

The Silkmouth Pride (jaguarundi + cave swiftlet gryphons) facing off against a titanoboa.

While I'm as much a fan of giant snake movies as the next girl, I really liked getting to write cave swiftlet gryphons. Cave swiftlets produce silk from their mouths, which is actually where the nests for bird's nest soup comes from. To help them hold onto cave walls, their tail feathers are very long, and the feathery part stops about halfway down, leaving a vicious spike to dig into the stone.

Combine those into something gryphon-sized, and you've got quite the critter! There weren't any good photos of cave swiftlet tail spikes online, so I reached out to Oriana Pokorny, an ornithologist friend, who was able to provide some for reference. (Though if you look up chimney swifts, you can see a less vicious version. Bristlespine from later books is a chimney swift gryphon.)

You can read or listen to Opinicus on most stores, libraries, through my Patron, or on Itch. Here's the Books2Read link that has most of the stores on it: https://books2read.com/opinicus

[flamsinger]

Emin fanart

Fanart of a character from Vale's book series, gryphon insurrection. This is Emin after becoming a seraph!

Posted using PostyBirb

[merteazy]

playful

zeph play pouncing towards hatzel

[willowwillowbun]

My idea of a seraph from @kvalenagle's Gryphon Insurrection Series

Drew this a while ago, I think while I was reading Opinicus. Not entirely happy with it but I mainly just sketch anyway and never finish anything lol

If you like creature fantasy and gryphons, highly recommend GryphIns! One of my favorite series!

[weheartstims]

Cherine (Gryphon Insurrection) with eagles, chocolate, and golden glitter and slime for @nightheartfan!

🦅|🍫|🦅 🍫|🦅|🍫 🦅|🍫|🦅

[kryos2]

Rorin and Tresh with their harnesses and flippers

[kvalenagle]

Funnily enough, I was just writing a book that required me to look up the onomatopoeia for a ptarmigan....

Full Video: Riekko mukana hiihtoreissulla, Tolkuton Willow ptarmigan included in ski trip

[kvalenagle]

What am I up to these days? Oh, you know. Thinking about weird gryphons.

(Hoppy Padfoot by @nambroth.)

[merteazy]

Pat Coupons!

I am gonna add all of them in replies but for the intro I wanted the OG. The one I planned to make on a whim, and what started this pat YCH fire in my ko-fi messages.

The first one was of Zeph for @kvalenagle cuz I started reading (listening to) GryphIns books and have kinda been lowkey harassing them with random art here and there. Even before I started reading these tbh.

The background is supposed to hint towards the mountains and forests featured in the literature. uwu

[wc-confessions]

Hello, it’s xenofic recs anon again! Please check this link for the previous list; there’s a lot of books here: https://www.tumblr.com/wc-confessions/753648281346801664/heres-a-rapid-fire-list-of-non-warriors?source=share.

I made an error with The Secret of NIMH, it’s a trilogy, not a single book! I learned that Silverwing has a TV show, too. I’m also changing my method to save time. If a novel interests you, I suggest searching it up.

In exchange, I’ll clarify my goal in sending these recommendations. I do it because I want xenofiction to grow. I want people to realize there are plenty of series out there. If you end up liking a series more than Warriors, good for you! If you end up disliking a series more than Warriors, good for you! I want to invite constructive discussions surrounding xenofiction as a whole. You aren’t better for not reading Warriors just like how you aren’t better for reading only Warriors. These asks come from a love of xenofiction and wanting to spread the word. I am in no way attempting to show malice towards Warriors or uncritical favoritism towards the series I list. 

The Guardian Herd series by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez.

The Gryphon Insurrection series by K. Vale Nagle.

The Council of Cats by R. J. F.

Swordbird series by Nancy Yi Fan.

Strong Hearts are Mandatory series by Teelia Pelletier. Hey, did you know the song Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles? Throw some cats in there!

Hunter’s Moon: A Story of Foxes by Garry Kilworth.

Darkeye series by Lydia West.

Prehistoria: The Raptor’s Tail by Jack Blackburn. One book but seemingly a future series.

Raven Quest by Sharon Stewart.

The Tales from Veynekan series by Fiona Jade Thornburg.

The Dogs of the Spires series by Ethan Summers.

Skytalons series, The Wolves of Elementia series, and Griffin Quest series by Sophie Torro. Fun fact: the author used to be Warriors Unlimited, and she published her first book, Cornelius’ Curse, at 16!

The Wildings series by Nilanjana Roy.

War Bunny Chronicles series by Christopher St. John. 

Hunters Universe series, more commonly known as Hunters Unlucky, by Abigail Hilton.

This is all I have for now. To cap this off, I want to give a shout-out to @/drive-pdfs-and-stuff. They have resources for those who are unable to pay for novels. I’ll appear again when I have more to show!

‎

[kvalenagle]

Oh my gosh, I love this take on Satra so much! And Younce at maximum floof.

gryphon book birds

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

It’s new Valdemar book day! Yaaaaaay!

Anyway, Gryphon in Light. Starts off with a prologue giving a brief recap of previous events, followed by a summation of the current crisis. Said crisis is that a group of wealthy merchants decided they weren’t happy about the way things were with them not owning ALL the things, resulting in a “trade dispute”. They did not appreciate a Herald coming in to sort things out, and forced him out of the city at sword point, followed by outright armed insurrection, seizing the goods of others, annexing territory, etc.

Basically, things got all Phantom Menace in here. Like, to the extent that if I knew anything about video editing I’d make a Star Wars opening crawl out of the prologue text with an instrumental version of one of this series’ filks. What “episode” would this be anyway? Let’s see, count the upcoming 3rd founding novel, but discount all of those anthology books… 40? Episode 40.

Holy crap, this series is going to be 40 books long by the end of the year...

[funkbun]

rybalony realness

[kvalenagle]

Merry Gryphmas! As is tradition, if you'd like to listen to James Scott Spaid read you everyone's favorite beak-cute lesbian gryphon winter love story (with terror birds) for the holiday season, the short story "Blue Eyes" is free through New Year's: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/bi29xuxwwf

[merteazy]

Biski

@kvalenagle

[natsukoarts]

New grydscaen Hacker Logo Designs

New Year New grydscaen - Cyberpunk Reboot 2021

Today I started desgning new logos for the cyberpunk "grydscaen" series to kickoff the new round of hacker character designs WIP for the "grydscaen: hack the mainframe" RPG trading card game promos and kickoff of my new newsletter and the release of the new release of the special edition "grydscaen: the seal maker 2nd edition with a cool new cover featuring bio hacker Hiro Yamaguchi the Velveet Hour terrorist who bombs the subway. The first logo design featured in this post is the mascot avatar for the illusive DNA data pirate anti-government rebel hacktivist group, the Black Holes lead who claim militiant strategist and mastermind Gryphon as their leader.

The idea behind the new designs was the re-release of four grydscaen books specifically grydscaen: war book 2 when the Atlantea Federation attach the Pacific Territories in the City, grydscaen: alliance book 3 when Packrat Saicho and leader Faid Callen is wounded starting an internal Packrat civil war, and grydscaen: insurrection boook 4 where the Psi Faction team is deployment direct to the Atlantea Federation homeland of Londes on mission with the Esset battlefleet aboard the Battleship Escalon.

These re-relases are accompanied by the new WIP release currently in galley edits grydscaen: idol whihc focuses on one of the main musicians that pops up in the grydscaean story, the glam rock band, Athens with lead singer Hibiki Sato and drummer Takira Mizutani as they train to become rock stars at IHS Music Academy inn the Echelons. Plus was have the second edition re-release with a fully re-written storyline of the flagship grydscaen title, the first book published in the dystopian cyberpunk series grydsacen: retribution which Kirkus Reviews called "anime-esque and well written" and Rainbow Gold Reviews called "dark adn gritty, an unpolished gem... as dark as it gets" for a new decade renamed to grydscaen: revolution featuring the Packrat leader Faid Callen startng a hacker revolution and all new cover art featuring the same character on the original cover which was drawn while I was studying animation inn art school the clandestine psychic operative and damper Julian "Blue" Iskafiin.

The Black Holes Logo Concept

I wanted to kickoff the new logo designs with bold hard black-and-white lines with hard angle fonts, gritty graphitti-like urban warfare logo gamer graphics and a bold statement. I started with the hacker group the Black Hole because they are the most militant of the rebel anti-government hacker gangs in the grydscaen series.

The character gryphon is central to the climax of the book grydscaen: dark after Jester wipes the Triumvirate leader Zoon's memory. Though we see him in other books, this is the first time we actually get a close iinsight into his personality. That messed-up narcissistic militant view of a harsh world full of goernment corruption and lies shapes gryphons view and drives him. I wanted to have the Black Holes logo be sort of subversive and edgy so went with a sneering mask feel. The blue highlight colour I chose to resemble to blue sky before the nuclear bomb which is now shrouded in a reddist lightening toxic colour left over from the uceal explosion caused by the Dionysis Effect which forev rendered the sky red lightening covered innn radioactive fallout. The blue is a hint at Grypon's soft spot hidden deep within his militant harsh exterior.

The grydscaen Hacker Factions

There are many hacker factions in the grydscaen series. Each group has a particular purpose. They include:

- The Black Holes - DNA Data Pirates led by Gryphon

- The Packrats - Anti-government Psychic Cyberterrorists led by Faid Callen

- Velvet Hour - Climate Terrorist Bio Hackers led by Rafe

- The Terror Hack - Anti-Government Rebel Hactivists led by Mage

- Jester Hacker Guild (JHG) - Anti-Corporate Blackhat Hackers led by Jester

- Clannet - Organized Crime Drug Gang Directed by Drug Dealer Wraith

- The Soul Deep - Jet Jockey Underground led by Hacker Informant Jazz

The Packrats Clan is then further broken down into sub-groups called "inner factions" which are only recognized internally and include:

Runners led by Ang responsible for runs and psi inducer drugs. Mobile Comand Center led by Dark responsible for the Mobile Frames. Wastes led by Set later Naito Sennish, the main Packrats fighters . Acolytes run by Elite Level 9 hacker Acoyle formerly of Terror Hack. Prophets led by Aseth who act as spiritual gides for the Packrat clan. Hosts whose members are hosts and escorts. The rules for these groups are all layed out in the Packrat Code which is included in the series bible, a sort of fandom encylopedia of characters, locations, drugs, political factions, warring governments, global powers, rebel hacker groups and terminology used in the grydscaen seriesand included in the appendix of the backstory book grydscaen: beginnings.

Hacker Logo Design Plans

All logos will be black and white with a single highlight colour for each group with the Black Holes colour as neon blue. The designs will be timed to the re-release of grydscaen: revolution and hoping to have them all completed by the indie release of the tech noir series sequel to grydscaen: dark and grydscaen: scout with the new novelette called grydscaen: zero day.

My Next Logo Design

Next design will be the bio hacker terrorist group Velvet Hour and the new 18 year old host Nier Ishida the petulant and flamboyantly gay younger brother to Sakama Ishida the Psi Faction Night Team Lead and psychic operative. Sakama can use the technique "witch blood" spiritual which is a psychicinduced medium power of the Prophets first highlighted in book 10, the final book in the main grydscaen series titled grydscaen: imperium.