#dogs of the deadlands

[art-of-tek]

Cross-face from Dogs of the Deadlands!

[ID: A front-facing drawing of a bust of a snarling gray wolf with a white muzzle and a distinct dark marking in the shape of a cross across her face. She has glowing amber eyes. End ID.]

[one-with-the-tree]

#60 Misha

Book name: Dogs of the Deadlands Author: Anthony McGowan

He looks a lot like his mother, just more gray-toned and with a pink nose.

I really wanna design Bratan as well since he's one of my favorite characters, however then I'd have to figure out how to edit the lineart for his misshapen hind legs.

Lineart by Tuketi (DeviantArt)

[reviews-sky-1]

New book review!

Dogs of the Deadlands by Anthony McGowan

[a-casual-egg]

I've been thinking about which oxventurers would be which Scooby-Doo character and I've got this.

Fred: Prudence, Kasimir, and Silas

Daphne: Corazón, Barnaby, and Edie

Velma: Merilwen, Edvard, and Garnet

Shaggy: Dob, Lilith, and Delacy

Scooby-Doo: Egbert, Zillah, and Nate

[always-coffee]

Welcome New Followers!

Since there are quite a few new folks popping in, I figured I’d say hi! I’m a poet, editor, word-nerd, and unapologetic coffee addict. I read tarot cards, and I never met a dog I didn’t want to hug. Or cat. Look, if it’s got four legs and a tail, I’m gonna wanna hug it.

If you’re interested in reading more of my poetry, there is a lot of it up for free online. I’ll link to the free ones below! If you like the poems, and you’re able to, support the mags that pubbed them. But either way, I hope you enjoy the work.

“Six of Swords Becomes The Emperor” in Uncanny.

“Five of Cups Considers Forgiveness” in The Deadlands.

“Knight of Wands, Six of Swords” in Uncanny.

“The Empress Chides the Hermit” in Small Wonders.

“Temperance and The Devil, Reversed” in Uncanny.

“When the Wraith Smiles” in Nightmare.

“The Heart Sings a Siren” in Mermaids Monthly.

“After The Tower Falls, Death Gives Advice” in Uncanny.

“A Meeting Place” and “Secret Keeping” in Mermaids Monthly.

“Of Monsters I Loved” in Uncanny.

“The Devil You Know” in Strange Horizons.

“Athena Holds Up a Mirror to Strength” in Uncanny.

“Three of Swords, King of Cups” in Fireside.

“The Magician Speaks to The Fool” in Uncanny.

“The Year We Got Rid of Our Ghosts” in Uncanny.

“Lorelei” in Uncanny.

“A Lovesong From Frankenstein’s Monster” in Uncanny.

“The Persecution of Witches” in Uncanny.

“From the High Priestess to the Hanged Man” in Uncanny.

Bonus: A Q&A I did with Asimov’s, after the published one of my poems.

[cathedralcomic]

this is more like a personal question, but has mod ever read non-wc books? like ga'hoole and the bloody rabbit book i forgot the name

yes - also including tailchaser’s song, varjak paw, mrs. frisby and the rats of nimh, the plague dogs, wolves of the beyond, dogs of the deadlands, etc. all of which were inspirations for cathedral’s current iteration

[wtfgaylittlezooid]

Been seeing a lot of ship charts for AvA and decided to do a relationship chart instead for the Bug Fables AU! I thought it would be fun since I think about the AU all the time and I don't tend to do a lot of ship content for this fandom. That, and it can act as a quick glance to all the characters and their designs.

A few notes: Some of these designs are placeholders or WIPs, I'll update this as I finish up designs. Sprout is the Piglin Child, Entity is the Lucky Block Entity, Maroon is the Corn Dog Guy.

Herobrine, Sprout, Ochre, Maroon, and Ginger are designed by @tatos-stick-pile

And since mostly everyone is shown here, all the species will be under the cut! :D

Alan: Deadlander Omega Second: Tree Bumblebee Chosen: Bald-Faced Hornet Dark: Black and Red Mason Wasp Victim: Cordyceps fungus in a Locust host

Blue: Blue Ghost Firefly Yellow: Caddisfly Red: Convergent Ladybug Green: Grasshopper

Agent: Dragonfly Ballista: Bombardier Beetle Hazard: Oriental Cockroach Primal: Budwing Mantis

Purple: Mothfly / False Citizen King: Violin Mantis Gold: Mantis Nymph Navy: Hierodulas Mantis Orchid: Orchid Mantis Maroon: Ruby Tiger Moth Ochre: Scalloped Oak Moth Ginger: Ruby Tiger Caterpillar

Herobrine: Golden Orb Weaver Spider Spider: Tarantula Skeleton: Deathstalker Scorpion Endie: Water Strider

Sprout / Piglin Kid: Leafbug Entity / Lucky Block: Haunted Cloak / Watcher Titan Ravagers: Amazonian Giant Centipede Reuben: Chomper

[slightlyhopefulromantic]

i was gonna wait until i finished the bitd and deadlands line-ups before posting these, but i'm not gonna get those done before the final season starts, so might as well bite the bullet now XD woohoo, oxventure d&d designs! i'll go into further detail below the cut for all of my thoughts on these designs and reasoning for smaller details, but for now, just know that i will never draw a cape. i simply cannot do it. hoods and weird draped fabric or nothing XD

okay i put like. waaay too many thoughts into a lot of these small details so im gonna allow myself to geek out here X3 firstly - though they're way too small to read properly, i did the little symbol eye shines i used in my first art for them! dob gets music notes, prudence gets fire, corazón gets hearts, and merilwen gets flowers. i usually draw egbert's pupils pretty thin to resemble a reptile, so he just gets normal eye shines, but i probably could have given him some here... he would get suns if i thought of that

dob - muscular in a wiry and dehydrated way, lol, hence having a more defined stomach/hips despite not being as strong as prudence or egbert. he has sad/down-turned puppy dog eyes at all times because i think the big-eyed endearing look is fitting for him, though i do make them darker blue than his canonical baby blues because i just... like how dark blue eyes look, lol. i'm pretty sure he canonically has the stomach scar, and obviously his facial scar has always been there, but i gave him a couple other ones just to show that hes pretty reckless. and he gets freckles because even though they arent mentioned in the dragon dogma's video, i noticed luke added some and. i like freckles a lot

prudence - i've said this before, but i love the thought of pru getting muscular after the werebear bite <3 i just think she should be a little bit hench. as a treat. once again, the heavy stomach scarring comes from the dragon dogma's video, because i found their design choices in that really fun. i change prudence's outfit the most out of any of the characters, just because her canonical outfit confuses me. i'm really bad at understanding/drawing fantasy wear as is, but her fit... i'm lost entirely XD so i free-balled a bit. her inner sleeves that hook around her fingers are based on jane's various prudence looks, and then the looser outer sleeve is just because i love prudence with a dramatic sleeve. originally the colors were closer to her canon outfit, but it just looked messy without all the details of the original, and then i tried red like jane's prudence looks but it didn't contrast enough with her skin. so i restricted them to just deep purples and black with pops of gold and dark magenta!

corazón - what can i say besides. transgender. LMAO honestly though, besides adding the top surgery scars, i just really like his canon look. i simplified the details, obviously, but i really love his big coat and his tall boots and the earrings and the black-on-black-on-black of it all. i didn't particularly feel like drawing hats when i was doing this, lol, so i stuck with a red bandana instead. the beads that are strung from it are black, red, purple, green, and yellow to match their guild's canonical color associations/the colored name plates they get in later seasons :] because corazón is the sentimental sort, even when he won't say it. also he gets a little cateye for his eyeliner, i dunno if i've ever said why i do that before haha

egbert - egbert my dearly beloved. literally just his canon look except he has la vache mauve on his tunic instead of fire! and the nose spikes i give him, i guess, but i forget those aren't canon. i actually usually draw him in mike's egbert get up, with the black robes and the golden dragon sigil, but i kinda wanted to move away from that to lean more into the end of legacy of dragons, where egbert fully commits to never going back to the dragon d'or. also i just love drawing little cow heads <3 also! i like the idea that rather than typical scar tissue, dragonborns grow thicker scales over places where they've been injured. so the thicker patches of small scales on egbert's body are meant to be scars! including his kidney scar, lol. the larger scales and the ones on his face were always there though, that's just dragonborn biology baby

merilwen - if i said i based merilwen's body on cartoon bears, would you forgive me... i just think it's cute LOL tummy <3 for the final dragon dogma's video reference, that's where her freckles and tattoos come from. ellen was right, merilwen with floral tattoos fucking rules. who am i to deny it. as a hairy woman myself, i also like making merilwen a hairy woman. she's a hippie, she would NOT shave. i also really love the red earrings she wears in her canon art, so i tried to carry that through to some other small parts of my drawing for her, and landed on the bands she has on her pants as well as the odd feather for her arrows. fun archery fact, for those who may not know - in modern archery at least, you usually will have a differently colored feather (or for my arrows, rubber fins lol) that indicate how youre meant to string the arrow! so i took advantage of that to give merilwen some more red, hehe

[spacetimesally]

In search of answers, Sally's journey brings her to a vessel junkyard deep in The Deadlands, but what she's looking for is kept hidden here for a reason- namely, Rathbone Blygh, the old cyborgian mercenarial mincer of flesh acting as the dumping ground's junkyard dog in, "Another Man's Treasure"

Welcome to The Deadlands...

major tom's sleepin it off

[darydark]

I got possessed by spirit of drawing and did more of my RGG x TES crossover. I should make a tag for it. Again, some lore under the cut, now about Majima (Goro), Taiga and Makoto

This one is more lore heavy than the Kazuma and his siblings. I'm afraid all of this would seem like the actual RGG characters' backstories but with TES skin on it, but hey, I like their actual story and yeah maybe I lack originality so what, it's my crossover, I can keep any part of RGG cannon I want. Also I'm keeping the Taiga stuff more vague as I'm still playing Y4, where Taiga makes his first appearance and I'm not on his part of game yet, so I can still change stuff

Goro is an Ashlander from a small tribe that was wiped out by mainland dunmer. He was spared because the killers wanted to take him as a slave (Goro was a child when that happened). But then he was rescued (accidentally) by a strong and powerful orc. Goro wanted to follow that orc, but the orc just shoo'd him away, for now. Then Goro met Khajiit siblings, Taiga and Yasuko (who themselves were escaping being trafficked), and ever since travelled with them.

The boys were offering themselves as mercenaries in their teen years and did a lot of dirty jobs, until they met that same orc, who then accepted the boys into his outlaw group called The Dogs of Shimano. The orc is Shimano himself, of course.

While things were going alright for three of them, the boys wanted more and did stuff behind Shimano's back for additional cash. They had a plan to have enough money to live a normal life without crime. But, when they were ordered to do a hit on a group of people, it turned out it was a wrong move to make. Both of them were punished, Goro had his eye gouged out but Taiga was sent to Deadlands. The mage that sent him away mocked that only he knew where Taiga is at all time

Goro made a plea and was spared but basically became a slave to one of Shimano's friends (yes, Sagawa). If he ever wanted to save Taiga, unfortunately he had to endure everything and ask nicely later. So, Goro's master turned out to be a vampire. Goro had to put on a show, entertain other vampires and sometimes be fed on by his master. One day he was given a mission...

Makoto is half bosmer half dunmer (her mother is bosmer). Her parents were vampires and after having two children, the mother wanted to cure the whole family and live a normal life. The father disagreed. Anyway, the mother took the kids with her. Eventually she managed to cure herself and Makoto but the eldest child ran away, still a vampire. Even though Makoto is mortal, her blood is still powerful and would be beneficial for any vampire to drink. Makoto moved to Morrowind when she grew up. One day she was kidnapped. He took her to place with other people, where all of them were going to be sold. She was forced to drink something and then, after all the stress and the poison, she became blind.

She was rescued and lived relatively normally, until suddenly she became a target for vampires.

Goro was tasked to bring her to his master, so he would feast on her blood, but Goro just couldn't do it. They ran away with a whole big story to tell in which both Goro and Makoto ended up relatively fine. Goro was no longer a slave but returned working for Shimano (also Shimano confirmed that Taiga is still alive somewhere in Deadlands). Makoto was no longer chased by horde of vampires and regained her sight back, also got in touch with her brother again. Unfortunately, Goro and Makoto had to be apart and never meet each other (it relates to the plot I have in mind, which deviates a little bit from canon reason why these two can't see each other)

[kmlaney]

WIP questionnaire

tagged by @coffeewritesfiction and I am so sorry to take this long on a reply. Thanks for the tag!

Tagging @fallenscintilla (if you want! No pressure!) and @waywardwizzard and anyone who wants to!

1. What is the first part of your WIP that you created?

The very first line was: “D’ya think I care how it tastes?” I posted an edited version here. There's a snip of the original here.

For the record, it started as a character background for a TTRPG. In fact, it wasn’t even going to be the character I was going to play. Harrowed (undead/revenant) gunfighter? *eyeroll* Too cliché. I even made a homebrew archetype to play: a “spiritualist” in the late 1800’s sense. But that first line kept bugging me so I figured, okay. Fine. I’ll write this one scene and then work on my spiritualist. 

Yeah. No. I never played the spiritualist.

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

I did all the fan stuff for Phil and Skyfallen, like playlists, faceclaims, all of that. I never did that before. I selected music for the theoretical TV show: main theme, a rotating list of outro/credits roll music, pieces for certain kinds of scenes. So if Skyfallen were a TV series, this would be the theme:

3. What are your favorite characters that you made? Why?

That’s like asking which of my pets was my favorite. I love them all. I guess I loved Phil enough to make them the viewpoint character. They’re a more-mature version of the kind of character I wrote when I was a kid, now with serious problems I can explore as an adult. I like Phil’s father, whom I was determined to fridge in the beginning because fridging is usually a female character. Ha Ha! Then I went and gave him a character arc that could only end in his death so he’s not fridged after all. 

I like Travelling Sam for being a conniving, money-grubbing jerk, but he’s fun to write. I like Eva as Carnival Mom; Maury for being a flamboyant, fun-to-be-around person hiding a serious drinking problem that everyone knows about. I like Doc Butcher for his name, for actually being trained as a vet but caring about everyone, and trying to do his best when he’s in over his head because he can’t do nothing. 

I like Maker Lewis for his change of heart, though he was already on the fence and just needed a shove. And I like Miss Warren for being a nosy reporter whom Phil doesn’t want to like but ends up liking anyway. She also lets me play at muckraking reporter. Choosing words to specifically slant a piece is a load of fun.

4. What other pieces of media do you think your fan base would share?

Skyfallen has its roots in Westerns, so people who like cinematic westerns are a potential fanbase. I include horror, steampunk, and gothic elements, so if your venn diagram of interests includes those things then it might be for you. 

Things I like that influenced or feel like this story: Silverado, The Magnificent Seven, RIPD 2 Rise of the Damned (movies. I hate to admit that last one but it was fun). Deadlands (TTRPG game. I created Phil for this setting). The Dark Tower novels--primarily Wizard and Glass but any of the parts dealing with Roland’s world. 

There is zero romance. Phil’s ace, there is no main love interest, and anyone who gets together does so very off-screen. 

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP?

When writing the draft, the individual scenes flew out of my brain. I could hardly write them fast enough. In deep editing, though, it’s the big-picture stuff I find challenging. Which themes do I want to emphasize and which are less important? Do I really need all this buildup or should I start later? I need to show certain things so the later ones make sense, but that makes it even longer. It’s already very long; shouldn’t I be cutting things down? Argh. It's frustrating.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

There are animals. Most are utilitarian: Horses, dogs, cats, chickens, cows. There are monsters also (for certain values of “monster”) all along the continuum from “non-sapient animal” through to “self-aware human intelligence.” 

The way they figure into the story is more interesting. In life, Phil liked animals in general and had a special fondness for horses and mules. After dying and coming back reanimated, animals can’t stand to be around them. Phil doesn’t figure it out right away, and it hurts when they do.

7. How do your characters get around? (Ex. Trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

For the area the characters are in for the bulk of the story, most people walk, ride horses, or ride in wagons, carts, or coaches pulled by horses or teams of horses. There are a couple of trains but they are rare. In other areas, trains are common, as are ferries and lake boats. Airships exist; they are novelties and considered simultaneously luxurious and dangerous. In larger cities, along with the horse-drawn vehicles, people have bicycles, rickshaws, pedal-powered rickshaws, and palanquins. Automatons in a variety of configurations may be subbed in for horses or people in any of those conveyances. 

8. What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

I’ve identified some specific foreshadowing that needs to happen. So I need to add that in. There are a few names that aren’t consistent; they’re flagged so I can fix them. I need to put in a few encounters so later ones make sense. It’s not exactly foreshadowing so much as worldbuilding. So editing stuff.

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe) of your WIP do you think will draw people in?

I have a hard time identifying tropes in my work, probably because I’m in the trees, so to speak, and can’t see the forest. Or groves, to push the metaphor. Having said that, here’s an attempt:

Portal/isekai

Found family

Unlikely group of heroes

Humans can be evil; monsters can be sympathetic

Religion, Magic, and cults 

Monsters dwelling among humans

Enemies to not-friends (don’t push your luck)

Things get worse

Everyone has secrets

Lost memories, memory tampering

Weird West

Steampunk and Gothic Horror

Gunslinger/trick shot

Noble Demon/antihero

Good is not nice

I did come up with one of those taglines that you might see on the bottom of the cover of a book: 

“Every Skyfallen has something they want to forget. And everyone in the Mistlands is Skyfallen.”

10. What are your hopes for your WIP?

Originally I was hoping for traditional publishing. I might still try to go that way. I’m also looking into self-pub, and websites that host serial stories. I think this story fits better into a serial format than a traditional book format. I need to make it more coherent (hence editing phase)

[one-with-the-tree]

#59 Zoya

Book name: Dogs of the Deadlands Author: Anthony McGowan

She came out a bit too purple but I'm not gonna go back and change it now. 

It's a bit hard to see but she has heterochromia.

Lineart by Tuketi (DeviantArt)

[a-casual-egg]

I know the most popular ships for oxventure deadlands are Edie ships (b*untybelle, b*sonbelle, q*een of d*amonds <- censored so they don't appear in the tags of those ships) but I'd like to point out other oxventure deadlands ships that I think are good, silly, or (at least) interesting.

Silas x Garnet: I view them as a qpr. I think they'd playfight a lot and make fun of people/things together. They don't strike me as people who would enjoy or do pda. They keep their soft moments to themselves. They cuddle when they're alone and press their foreheads together instead of kissing. After a long day of work, they just flop next to the other and tell them about their day. Silas gives Garnet his duster if she's cold, and she pulls it close to her bc 1) it does keep her warm, and 2) it smells like Silas, and that's comforting to her.

Silas x Billie: The literally only m/m ship that's possible (unless you hc one of the girls as a trans dude). They'd have a cat and dog energy. Silas is very skeptical of Billie, and Billie just has heart eyes. Giant loud extrovert and his grumpy introvert.

Garnet x Billie: It's similar to b*sonbelle to me in the way that it's girlboss x malewife. Garnet is so cool, calm, and collected, while Billie is just so silly and passionate. They both have a background in entertainment with being a croupier and a performer. I think Billie would do something so stupid to impress Garnet, and she would just smile fondly. They'd probably relax by watching a movie that one of them likes, and one of them will infodump about it while the other listens lovingly.

[alias-milamber]

The dog gets rewarded when he gets onto his grooming table.

The table for TTRPGs goes where the grooming table goes.

Today the dog is confused and briefly disappointed. (Briefly because he got a reward for jumping down when instructed, and his dissatisfaction rarely lasts beyond the next biscuit).

Deadlands is going quite well.

[always-coffee]

Show Me Your Fucking Heart

Note: This is my newsletter for this week, which I decided to share here, too. If you'd like to subscribed, it's free! (https://buttondown.com/alwayscoffee)

The other day, I wrote this:

Life’s short.

We are all often aching in one way or another.

Send the text. Share the photo. Make a gesture.

Love without hesitation or reservation or regret. Care without holding back.

Pet a dog. Walk barefoot through grass. Make a date. Take a chance. Kiss someone who thinks you hung the moon.

I believe this, 100%.

Showing care is, in my estimation, easy. Give someone a (sincere) compliment. (“I love that color shirt on you!” “You look pretty/handsome!” “I love your brain.”) I have never given an insincere compliment in my life, and I give them all the time. I am unfailingly, sometimes ridiculously, sincere.

Let someone know you’re thinking of them. How? Take two seconds and text them. “Thinking of you — hope your day is good.” Share a silly selfie or a pet photo or a meme! These little things can turn any day around, truly.

Call them. I’m weirdly less good at initiating phone calls, but if you call me and I care, I will pick up the phone. (Have I told you to call me at any point? Congrats, I care.) On tiring drives, I will sit on the phone with a friend, either listening or nattering away. If you need me, I’m there.

Send snail mail! Send a surprise prezzie!

Whenever I get a text from someone I care about, I smile. I know this makes me a dork, but I’m okay with that. I love being thought of. It’s easy to forget, sometimes, that we matter. Or how much. Or to who. These little things are bright constellations, small joys, life rafts.

For me, too, making solid plans is the antidote to a particular heartbreak. When someone is the opposite of reliable, it can make you feel small. There were things in the past that I tolerated and no longer do. But those things left a mark, too. We all have sensitive spots, things that ache when the world shifts a little sideways, like a bad knee in the rain. For me, it’s a solid yes or nothing. I’m exuberant and never go after anything or anyone I don’t fully want. Life’s too short for tepid, and I’ve got better ways to spend my time.

The reverse is also true. Give me a sincere yes and plans. This is the roadmap to my heart. It’s not a difficult path to follow, if you’re paying attention. And chances are, I’ll try to show you, even if I’m shy about it. I appreciate sincerity and certainty. No halfway, no half-measures. Forget the pretty and the polite. Show me your guts, the messy bits, the honest things. And if you say something, mean it—with more than just your mouth.

Little gestures matter. Show up for the people who show up for you. Don’t worry if it’s too much or silly or anything like that. Follow your damn heart, and the rest will sort itself out.

Did you miss my new poem at The Deadlands? You’re in luck. You can read it here: https://thedeadlands.com/issue-35/the-high-priestess/.

[workingonit-currently]

Waters, waters, waters

Well Courage needs to get a medical check up but refuses to take her armour off. -Yeah it's going to need to be by her friends, she might be internally waterboarded

Convincing a weird god Si made a deal with to portal them to Courage

Silas is being kind and nice

Aleris arguing against the portal being near water

Dragging Aleris away and through the boat to the portal to get Courage.

Kitty Aleris gripping onto Silas' head

Can they row a boat?

Dristen's just failing to exist. I love Silas' bf.

Bringing Shop and Courage back

Courage meeting Catrain.

Our mission: To go to the Deadlands and investigate someone settled there, suspected cult member.

Alsus is the figurehead of the snake cult -purpose is to turn Alsus into a god. Silas was meant to be a sacrifice to make this happen.

Asha is his second/possible-lover: Non-magic to the point of creating a dead-zone of magic.

Esia is a funding-source of the cult, not sure where she gets it from. -Not sure if she's even magic -not sure where she is

??? -Third member of those close to Alsus, likely a very strong wizard -Person residing in The Siintae Deadlands.

Siintae Deadlands are full of wild magic and such.

Walking through the Etherial Plane

Being immune to demigod that was meant to frighten us

Blink-dogs and Link learning to Blink.

Seeing giant shiny moths.

Arrive in Araxi in the evening

Heading to the tavern to find a place to sleep

Silas just wants to perform and drink in the tavern

Aleris wants to sing

Renting a big room for all of us

Weird bar rule:

"Don't ask about the squid head."

"Please clean rooms after use, we don't want to deal with your bodily fluids."

Silas and Aleris performing.

Aleris got a 18 with a minus 1

Silas got a 8 with a plus 6.

In the corner there's 2 people discussing the origins of a folk song that becomes a fist fight

Retiring to our rooms.

So funnnnnn. This will be fun.