#mota alexios

[noxsylvania]

Named for the Stars

[chronicas]

NOTE!! I mention transgender characters PLURAL in reference to MotA. Alexios is also transgender.

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Alexios is a son of Kepus, Goddess of Life and he is known far and wide as the Savior of the Rim. After over a thousand years of battles, Alexios is just about sick of prophecies and fighting and has become a pacifist. Unfortunately, he still must face off against the Mother of the Apocalypse and the Beast of the Crypt if he wants to save the world. However that just got a little more complicated now that he has to balance his divine duties with raising his newly adopted son.

Akira Akamatsu is the main protagonist, but somehow not the main character, of Array of Cicadas. Akira is a young elemental mage from Genesis who is trying very hard to pass off as a simple fire mage because she REALLY wasn't into the idea of having to move in with a family of dragons. After the death of her older sister Takara, Akira gave up a life of magic to study psychology on Terra. Unfortunately for her, two years later her past would catch up with her. Now she finds herself lost in the realm of Hveske with nothing but her family's heirloom and a young Hveskian boy to guide her

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"Is Asterius a vampire, a demon, or a werewolf?" He's in denial, but the answer to the question is yes.

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An Intro to Mother of the Apocalypse

A graphic novel for the future [it's just scripts and concept art] set in the [still in early playtest] TTRPG Tragoedia: Tales of Tragedy, a game based off the Greek Tragedies.

About our Band of Heroes:

Our story focuses on a prophesied Apocalypse and the people determined to stop it. Our titular Mother of the Apocalypse, has been prophesied to bring upon the Apocalypse when she turns 100 years old and our heroes have very little time before this day is to come.

Asterius, alongside his adoptive father Alexios, begin their journey to find a way to stop the Apocalypse without having to kill Armageddon, an innocent woman who's only crime was being born. Along the way we meet Damrina, the daughter of a healer who befriends Asterius, and Khaos, an agent of Mechanus, the deity of Time.

They clash with the monsters, men, and gods on their quest to save the world, who knowssss if they'll be able to stop it in time?

The rest is mostly spoilers for the actual story so I won't get into it too much.

Gods also play a strong role in this story of destiny and defying it. It's easier to just explain the pantheon. So anyways.

The Ataraxian Gods:

The Ataraxian Gods are all split into to categories with nine gods each. Every god is the parallel to a god in the other pantheon. We've got the Komoidic Gods, the gods of Peace and Revelry. And the Tragonic Gods, the gods of Hardship and Grief. This isn't really a "good gods vs bad gods" the Tragonic Gods are just as much a part of everyday life as the Komoidic Gods are.

AND HERE'S THE NIGHTMARE ASTERIUS FAMILY TREE THAT TOOK FOREVER TO MAKE AND STILL LOOKS BAD:

The World of Tragoedia and the Ataraxian Isles:

Tragoedia is a world where stories give things power. Jinan Al Amin, a Folklorist, came up with a description for how it all works… that will be explained when I release my game. The planet itself, has nine moons and planetary rings. As seen in this comic.

The Ataraxian Isles are based off the Aegean Isles, with the southernmost islands based more off Crete. The time period in the graphic novel is based off of around 5th century BCE, with the game being much more modern, based off of the late 1800s and early 1900s of these regions.

However in both the GN and the TTRPG there are steampunk and cyberpunk elements in the forms of magitech.

The Ataraxian Isles are a Theocracy, led by the Priestesses and Priests of Mechanus, advised by the Oracles of Phantasia.

Humans are not the only humanoid peoples inhabiting the island. As I get further into playtest of Tragoedia y’all will see more of that in my art!!

Anyways that’s all on that for now, again it’s all in very very early stages, it’ll be years before I finish MotA and Tragoedia, but I like sharing everything but my scripts and confidential stuff so y’all will see a lot of it!!

If you wanna follow more about TToT and MotAs sister story: The Blackened Skies, check out my TTRPG sideblog @lichpire :]

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I’ve been in a MotA mood all day so fun narrative fact that won’t actually make it into the comic proper unless I do like, a flashback from Alexios’ perspective. But when Alexios FIRST met Aetius, he has absolutely no context for what’s going on. He just sees a little kid scared and hurt.

The only thing Aetius ever sees from his perspective is a very kind stranger who’s showing him more kindness then he’s ever been shown in his life on the worst day he’s ever had.

Alexios puts on a very good front of a calm collected man, he’s been doing this for hundreds of years, he knows how to be cautious with frightened children. But as soon as he realizes this child is afraid of their family? The fury of the Goddess of Death burns within him and she is not forgiving.

[chronicas]

TALK ABOUT NUCLEAR APOCALYPSE TWINS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE I LOVE THEM

So obviously them being in each-others stories changes a LOT of the overarching story and their interactions with other characters. Additionally, Sam and Asterius are VERY different characters. Asterius is a tried and true tragic hero and Sam is very much a morally ambiguous protagonist (but it’s fine because she can do whatever she wants because she’s 16).

Arrenike (MotA!Sam) has one defining characteristic that causes her to have conflict with Asterius (other characters also but most importantly Asterius) and that is she’s a momma’s girl. Regardless of story Sam is always apathetic towards the world to start out with, Arrenike is no different just because she was raised by Crypt Guardians. Her sister’s cruelty towards her would be something she’s much less willing to forgive than Asterius is. She is much more eager to try and connect with and understand Septentria because she GETS being angry. She would be mad too if humanity was to blame for keeping her trapped in the Crypt, and arguably they are! But also I of course think the twins deeply care about each other and would want to have each other’s back. So when Asterius decides they need to escape, she’s on board. Besides, she always wanted to get out of that shithole.

North (UP!Asterius) similarly conflicts with Sam. Sam’s absolutely down with the other experiments’ idea to break out any means necessary. But North HATES violence, they were raised in violence and he’s sick of it, but he loves and trusts his sister when Sam says this will be the last time. But after they escape violence keeps following them, it’s never the last time, if they don’t want to go back they have to keep fighting.

I think on both sides of the coin the twins would eventually split up because of these conflicts. Arrenike getting fed up with having to hide who she is from Alexios, after being lied to about it her WHOLE LIFE. And North getting tired of all the violence that follows them no matter how many times Logan assures them it’s not their fault. Arrenike wouldn’t be there when Asterius met Damrina (oh and Asterius having a NEW green sister? The jealousy she would feel for this girl.. but dw they become friends eventually). And North mirroring Asterius’ way of thinking in if he leaves Logan and Sam they’d be better off without him. They’ll always find each other again though.

[chronicas]

CHOOSE BETWEEN: endless fanart and fan discussion of devan and akira from fans but no one talks about armageddon and alexios, or endless fanart and fan discussion of armageddon and alexios but no one talks about devan and akira

Dev and Akira EASILY. As much as I love Alexigeddon and MotA, AoC is much more important to me in it’s success.

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Not done thinking about MotA.

Aetius loves blue skies so much. He loves sunsets. He likes the night yeah, but he has a certain loathing towards the darkness after growing up in the abyss of the Crypt. He’s amazed by the sun but it hurts him. He can never really enjoy the daylight because he has to be as careful as he can to avoid it.

His life of the surface is full of Alexios shielding him from it, keeping him inside as much as he can during the day and most of their travel happening at night. Aetius loves living on the surface with his dad, but sometimes it feels too much like when he lived with his father.

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Family

[chronicas]

These old people are in love

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A family can be the a harbinger of the apocalypse, a half-demon teenage boy, and an ancient hero of legend.

Reblogs are Greatly Appreciated!

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i know I KNOW i’m not supposed to use the hand or whatever but listen...... i FINALLY had a mental image of this man so i made this superrrrrrrrr quick sketch AND my hand doesn't even hurt that bad

[chronicas]

siblings siblings siblings siblings

[chronicas]

I wanna hear info about mota, if you don't mind. Whatever you're willing to share. About characters, relationships, plot, worldbuilding, etc. Talk to me broski

ohh you should've been specific because now i am going to infodump about EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE THINGS:

characters: i wanna get into antagonists because they don't get as much love (or in some cases: HATE) as they deserve. the main antagonist for the majority of the story is aetius' eldest sister, alphaios, who's primary goal is murdering her brother for *checks notes* being born. i jest, her actual motive is fucking hating aetius for the part he's meant to play in the apocalypse. ALL of aetius' sister's are actually slightly antagonistic towards him initially, a big narrative theme is actually aetius healing from the trauma his family caused him and this different ways he goes about that. and i will state up front alphaios does NOT get redeemed, like sorry girlie you DID try to kill a child ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

other antagonists include: taphion and ignarus for OBVIOUS reasons (being the gods who STARTED this whole apocalypse bullshit) and actually chaos, who serves as more of a foil for aetius than like... an actual antagonist. aetius just VIEWS chaos as antagonistic so from his perspective they are a villain.

relationships are a goody: talked a little bit about aetius and his sisters but i'll get into the most important one which is the relationship with aetius and aikaterine. all of aetius' sisters disliked him to some degree (EXCEPT aurelia but that's bc she thought the apocalypse was a GREAT idea and was super stoked for him to help cause it) but like.. aikaterine was the best at hiding her fear/adversity of him and was overall the nicest to him. so here's the thing.... 1. i NEVER give a character a scar for no reason and 2. i love betrayal. what i'm getting at is aetius' scar on his left cheek is from aikaterine. tECHNICALLY it wasn't her intention to hurt him but doesn't change the fact that she did physically scar her 13yo younger sibling on probably the worst day of his life, but i'll get into that later.

like RIGHT NOW! when i discuss the plot: the story of mota kicks off on aetius' 13th birthday. now little bit of aetius backstory; he's a daemon or lesser god who is the son of taphion, god of the crypt and septentria, goddess of polaris. he was born to fulfill an apocalypse prophecy created for taphion, ignarus, and kephus (this is the titular apocalypse)... thing is.. he did NOT know that. his sisters came up with the plan to raise him believing he was a demi-god like all of them and he would grow up to be a crypt guardian, like them. on the day he turns 13 taphion decides he's indulged his daughters long enough and it's time he starts preparing this kid for the apocalypse, this includes introducing aetius to his (giant monster goddess) mother. this understandably seriously messes with the poor boy's perception of reality so he elects to just.. run away from all of it and escapes the crypt to the surface while pursued by aikaterine leading to her accidentally scaring him, worsening his already quickly developing distrust for his sisters. he is found injured and scared by legendary hero alexios who promptly makes it his responsibility to protect this child. aetius LIES and convinces alexios that he is a very cursed mortal human child which just makes alexios want to adopt him MORE. other things happen ofc but that's how the story begins :)

and WORLDBUILDING: so mota takes place on an earth-like planet in a kinda alternate universe. the planet itself has rings and nine satellites/moons. the core of the planet is a giant ancient machine called the apparatus (or mechanus depending on who you're asking) protruding from the apparatus to the planet's surface are nine spires, big mechanical towers that lead alllllll the way down to the core, large cities are built around the spires. deep below the surface is a hades-esq realm known as the crypt where damned souls, monsters, demons, and forsaken gods are imprisoned, there exist nine entrances to the crypt from the surface, large cities are built around them. the realm of the dead is basically just.. superimposed over the normal world but nobody living (except the seraphim of death) can see it or interact with it. in this realm there are gates that appear at the sea during sunsets that lead to the afterlife. because of where the gates appear, burial at sea is most common.

the general VIBE of the world is meant to be very futuristic while still capturing a fantastical world full of magic and monsters. not everywhere in the world is an industrial hellscape like you get in a lot of cyberpunk media. i always really liked the vibe of ffvii and kinda wanted to make a world similar to that. like it's got cities that are just crazy in the way they're built but it's all infused with this sorta mysticism.

crypt cities are industrial and smoggy places, full of dark alleyways and bright neon lights, but also polished temples. in the heart of the cities there are large industrial walls, mounted with turrets all aimed at the massive cave that leads into the crypt. they're considered dangerous cities, but many people still manage to thrive there.

spire cities are the antithesis of crypt cities. they're wealthy, polished, and golden. they're full of man many temples and the nine high priestesses reside in these cities. they are overflowing with life, with lots of vegetation and LOTS of people. most people live happy and privileged lives in spire cities. the spire is an enormous mechanical building that reaches high into the sky and serves as a home for their high priestess.

other cities and towns are more simplistic, usually very colorful and vibrant. i wanted this world to be colorful so in my mind it is :)

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don’t always like to say what inspired my characters because i don’t like people drawing comparisons between my work and others. but i WILL admit that chaos is inspired by the concept art of link for botw. and that i came up with the entire story of mota while playing botw and transistor. armageddon is an oc from middle school or early high school i repurposed (who if i remember right i subconsciously based her design off of red from transistor YEARS before i even actually played it) alexios was inspired by lord saladin and osiris from destiny 2. and aetius was originally a destiny 2 oc.