#rampaging doomers

[anistarrae]

my part for the magolor collab!

[alangdorf]

Ok so I know I’ve taken a few liberties here with gijinka-fying the Rampaging Doomers, of all characters, but hear me out: self-recognition through the other (derogatory). Not just a reminder of the part of himself he doesn’t like to acknowledge but also a near-perfect replication of him at his worst (Magolor EX, specifically). They know enough about Doomer and Ancient societies and his situation with the Crown to get right to the heart of his insecurities, which makes them really effective at bullying him. Also like. Extended family judging you for your life choices lol

Anyway, included the lines this time cause I’m really proud of the composition but a bit disappointed with how the coloring turned out. It did however help me pinpoint what I’d like to improve on, which is my coloring/shading. I think I get into details too quickly to the detriment of the piece as a whole and I also think the way I shade doesn’t have enough contrast and doesn’t take light sources into account very well. I just need to do some painting studies sometime and that will fix me, I swear

[ferahntics]

I’m back with more headcanons nobody asked for, and this time its the Doomers’ turn. Thank you to @startistdoodles for listening to a lot of these and for indulging me in this chaos, I’m having fun xD 💕

Now, there ARE spoilers for Deluxe below the cut - specifically, it spoils some of the bosses in Magolor’s Epilogue.

Doomers, specifically the elemental and EX ones, are usually rather solitary or they’re in smaller flocks when they’re grown, usually only with those they’re close with. As small chicks, they’re smothered together in a cozy nest which is normally made out of anything shiny, snatched by the Grand Doomer.

Speaking of which, like with lions that have one adult male that leads them, there is always one Grand / Crowned Doomer present in a certain radius of nearby Doomers, that’s looked at as ‘the big boss’. It takes charge in raising smaller Doomers until they reach a certain size or maturity before they leave to fend for themselves.

The way they are born is relatively unknown - I imagine it’s a series of a Grand / Crowned Doomer manifesting a portion of its strength to create a new one. When they are born, none of them have any kind of object or spheres in their mouths. That’s something that could be considered a ‘rite of passage’ for them. Once they’re able to obtain something either of great value, either price, rarity or purely sentimental on some occasion, it’s seen as a Doomer reaching some form of ‘adolescence’ which they carry like a badge of honor - a trophy. How they get these depends from Doomer to Doomer, usually from theft.

They’re not overly aggressive or territorial, unless the aforementioned object is in some kind of danger, being targeted by thieves or by their original owners trying to get it back. This is where they drop any kind of truce and become violent - attempting to take the object is like an insult to them, and an attack on something they essentially see as a part of them, a part of their identity. And that being threatened causes them to go berserk.

Rampaging Doomers are mostly the same, with a few differences. For one, they tend to be in slightly bigger groups - that being said, they are that much more aggressive and territorial, so fighting amongst one another is nothing unusual. They are much more mischievous as well, and have a habit of attacking or picking on the runt of the group.

As chicks, they play with one another a lot, but their games are very rough. So them getting banged up or even damaging each other, once again, is not rare.

They don’t target any special objects either, for them they’re seen as fully grown after a certain number of victories as they brawl with the others. However, some do go after an object but it’s more so for their own personal reasons, usually if the object is a form of memento or means something special to them. Yet this might be seen as a weakness by other Rampaging Doomers, so there is a chance they’ll be bigger targets, if only just so they provoke them by trying to snatch the item.

Both Sphere and Rampaging Doomers do have some form of ‘meeting’ with their entire local species and their respective Grand / Crowned Doomer, where they all gather together for a few days as a form of bonding with one another. During this period, the Sphere Doomers tend to play or groom each other - if they are especially fond of one another maybe even exchange something shiny - but usually bring some trinkets for their Grand Doomer.

Rampaging Doomers on the other hand, take it as a trial and a display of their strength, and participate in fights. These are never lethal and really just serve as a show of sorts, and whoever is the winner may receive a small blessing from the Crowned Doomer, perhaps a small portion of its power or the ‘unique’ object they have as a trophy.

And speaking of, Grand / Crowned Doomers are an ‘adult’ form of the Doomers. To reach this peak of strength revolves a large amount of power, which can be gained from fighting experience or, with Sphere Doomers, gathering rare objects and absorbing their energy (hence why so many target Magolor’s Energy Spheres.). Rampaging Doomers on the other hand primarily get it from fighting each other, or by fighting other creatures in their dimension.

[perenlop]

aita for taking what’s rightfully mine?

okay so i (M20s) was really fascinated with my ancestors and their artifacts growing up. they all left the place they created most of our heirlooms a very long time before i was born, so i never got to see it for myself and mostly just read about it in books. i ended up really loving this ship they left behind that was meant to take them to all these wonderful places, as well as this crown that was meant to be grant power and good luck to those who wore it! if i had that, then id become as powerful and successful as my ancestors would’ve wanted

so i did what anyone in my shoes would do and i went to my ancestors home, found their ship and became a really good pilot for it, and almost found their crown! but it was being guarded by these horrifying creatures who wore the crown and fused into one being! they attacked me and destroyed my ship! I was devastated! I barely escaped with my life and ended up stranded on land i didn’t know at all! i couldn’t believe it! those creatures obviously just wanted my crown for themselves and liked the power trip. 

anyways, i was really upset about that, but luckily i was found by four friends who saw my ship crash. (M10???, M11???, M40s, M50s) we actually became quick friends and they decided to help me repair my ship so i could go back. they actually worked really quickly and we had a ton of fun repairing my ship and playing in some of the areas i hadn’t explored yet. it was really nice! 

but- here’s the kicker- they were STRONG. they defeated all these powerful people without much effort at all! and i was still really really sore over being attacked, so i did what anyone would’ve done- i asked them to come back to my ancestor’s home with me, we got attacked by the creature, and told them that it was on a rampage that they had to settle, all so i could take the crown for myself in the end and take the power i knew was destined for me this whole time so that I could take control over my friends’s world! (i mean they helped me and it seemed like they needed some help managing it) 

well, to be honest, and i’m fully to admit i messed up, the coronation didn’t go so well. turns out the crown was actually cursed and was slowly eating my soul the longer i had it on. okay, how was i supposed to know that? yeah, no monarch ever survived with the crown on, and yeah, the book did warn me not to use it, but no one ever mentioned soul eating! basically, i ended up destroying my own ship again, i almost blacked out and killed all my friends, and destroyed another planet while i was on my rampage to stop my friends from keeping me from taking over the world. yeah, i should’ve handled that better. 

after that, i got sent to this really messed up world full of monsters, and i lost all the powers i did have even when i was normal, and the crown broke apart and scattered all around. i’m kinda scared to put it together after what happened, but like, i got this far, so i’m doing that now. i dunno what’ll happen there but i’m holding out.

anyways, what i wanted to know about was if i was the asshole for taking the crown at all and using my friends to do so? i mean, yeah it ended badly, but they were helping me anyways! what was one more task! and they wouldn’t have agreed if they knew i was taking over the world. i agree what happened afterward was bad, but i don’t think i was in the wrong for the means. still, they were really upset and angry with me when i took the crown, and we did have a lot of fun together before that. was it worth making them angry? aita for taking what was rightfully mine and using my friends to do so?

[eevee-emblem-arts]

Munch

[cricket124]

Rampaging Doomers

[tv-staticnoise]

did a run of magolor epilogue without upgrades and i defeated hydriath and the rampaging doomers without dying + defeated the master crown with noooo damage. yuuump.

[opal-owl-flight]

Please please what are your thoughts on the final boss of the epilogue, I got spoiled on day one and have been waiting for you to see it in game before I asked because it's just so cool and your stuff is all so cool and I want to know your thoughts and potential lore

SO this is quite a lot! My method for handling new info is to take what works and leave what doesnt. Canon is a suggestion, not a rule.

About the Crown:

Mistellin was originally made to seal away Termina (the dark heart pf which was rampaging around the galaxy) and use its power to fight against it, but only a shard of It was captured. Seeing that the shard still held incredible power, the Ancients decided to use It's power for good instead of destruction.

Monarchs have worn the Crown, but several of the weak willed fell to Its influence and used it for their nefarious ends ("It strengthens the darkness in the wearer's heart..." so its Power at a price. The reason why the Crown's claws constrict corrupted souls like Magolor Soul is for damage control). Why the Halcandrans continued to use this Crown I can only assume to be survivorship bias/majority chosen did not fall...until the last king of Yore, who was possessed by Termina midfight in the war to seal It away. (The magitech civil war happened a little after this, as the loss of the monarch due to misunderstood Dark Matter magic research/practice raised tensions between magic practitioners and the tech faction.)

How the lore changes affect my telling:

Why the past monarch chose Mags as successor then (a story beat in my interp of things) -- well he didnt have much of a choice at first. The shards of the damn relic rooted itself on Mags' head. Literally. (Thanks Termina.) The dark entity did nothing but send waves of searing energy through the Crown shards to cripple him, to prevent him from stealing the Rejuvenating Crystal Fruit that It plans to use for Itself. (Dunno what this fruit is in canon, but judging from what the fragments of it do to Mags -- I assume its an Ancient artifact that holds an insane amount of energy. Gem apples exploding is a convertion of his high energy supposedly used to heal, to fuel a more destructive outcome. What can heal/restore can also destroy.)

*What Mags does in Epilogue is what I can simply say as "gathering painkillers". The magic energy he stores up allows him to block out/create a dam against Termina's crippling energy waves, and also allows him to do more powerful, complicated spells in the process. (No wonder one of his emotes is him crying.)

After Magolor Disrespects the Lorax by slicing a tree in two, the voice goes MUCH quieter. The tree (and the Doomer) held majority of the Crown shards -- by destroying them, Termina's way of communicating with him grows weaker. But not fully gone. (He cries in the end bc its sweet, sweet, relative silence...)

Did Mags learn his lesson? Not yet. If anything, his ego is the size of a galaxy now, bc he killed an eldritch god on his own. Without Kirby's help.

Im going to set Clash aside bc jfc that looks complicated as hell. The only thing Im taking here is the fact that he set up a Shoppe in Dreamland (no alternate realities here either -- itll complicate things)...but its not exactly a fresh new start just yet. Hes doing this to gather Nova parts easily. What better way to get parts and artifacts without raising too much suspicion than by trade? (His full redemption happens after Robobot, in the Nova Incident. Which is another thing I wrote)

Back to the previous monarch choosing him as a successor. Termina kept It's clutches on Mags. The Crown has rooted itself deep into his soul enough that hes still at risk for easy possession. SA rolls around, and Termina is supposedly at It's strongest.

Mags doesnt get possessed. Out of sheer spite and will alone he keeps the gate on the Crown's power and influence shut. Hes not going to fall, not again, not when he finally has something, and (several) someone(s), to care about. At the end, its him who deals the final blow on Termina in his mindscape, as he is yhe one who holds the last fragments of It's consciousness.

Free at last.

This is what makes the King of Yore choose him as an heir. He couldve decided to trap the dark entity in the Crown, like intended, and kept it fed so the Crown's power will never run out. But he chose not to...not wanting to suffer any longer nor make anyone else potentially suffer what he had.

He freed both himself and the Crown. Now the power that sleeps within is clean, with no Dark Matter almost guaranteeing a corruption.

* If anyone falls with this version of the Crown, it is not bc of any Dark Matter. Thats on the bearer's character/lack of control. Mags still losing it in Overlord form time and again shows that....

[cyonofgaia]

PARALLEL PALADIN - Another Domination Unleashed

Parallel Paladin, Another Dimension's parallel version of Cyon, has been summoned by Ironmouse Unleashed in this interdimensional battle. Now it's time for Cyon to face himself... in a whole new way!

The Parallel Paladin was originally Cyon from an alternate timeline, where he was sent deep into Another Dimension instead of Dimension Gaia by Fecto Advenus. There, he was raised by flocks of Sphere Doomers, and over time he has learned to harness the anomalous powers of Another Dimension, therefore transforming into a very formidable interdimensional knight. He also has a pet Rampaging Doomer, the Squire Doomer, which you have already seen in the music video for "VS. Unleashed Doomers".

While Phase 1 initially resembles Cyon at first, his true colors appear in Phase 2 - a dark purple coloration that somewhat resembles the Rampaging Doomers (or if you want to stretch it, maybe a character from A Hat in Time). Get ready for the next battle!

[doomedandstoned]

FLESH OF THE STARS Reveal Fifth LP, ‘The Glass Garden’

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

I've had my eye on FLESH OF THE STARS since 2016's most excellent Hossana and we invited the group to be a part of our compilation Doomed & Stoned in Chicago a year later. Now the Chicago progressive doomers return with their fifth full-length, 'The Glass Garden' (2023). Described by the band as "a southwestern ghost story to match the eerie, elemental tone of the music," the record dares us to imagine a ruined world inhabited by mournful spirits. "Atrocities of the past echo in paranoid visions of creatures in dark corners and hidden signals in the static."

First track "Terraforms" comes rampaging out of the gates with an offbeat rhythm accented by signals which subtly flutter and spurt on the synthesizer. Guitars are emphatic and glowing with irradiated fuzz. You might be expecting black metal shrieks or deathly growls to emerge at this point, but the band contrasts the driving beat with earnest vocals that hover and swirl above the strewn landscape like ghosts. It is precisely this contrast that makes Flesh of the Stars so compelling.

Lyrics present a fluid stream of consciousness, giving up vivid descriptions of the scene before us:

Floods buzzing like a hive over fortified ground. The only voice in the vastness as I idle on thru, uncertain & unbound, onto bear witness to the plague, leaching into tender soil. What will ever stop this meaningless machine? All will be consumed when the floodlights beam.

While you don't need the words to genuinely experience this music, the lyrics really deepened my own appreciation for each track and what it was trying to accomplish. I'm once again drawn to the stark post-apocalyptic short stories of Philip K. Dick for comparison.

With its bittersweet strumming, "Overworld" has the feel of some lost Renaissance air just now unearthed. The soft cooing of the keys and pedal steel guitar in the backdrop adds a layer of uncanny atmosphere to the disquieting narrative. Crashing chords follow, reminding us that we are, after all, still in Doom's domain.

Sand, fragments, and dirt, whirling & rising, pelting my skin, blurring my eyes red & raw. They say, don't turn away until I feel the pull. Gather my strength, cover my eyes, and wait.

If you've appreciated the vocal harmonies up to now, "Into The Maze," pairs them so effectively with the warmth of the bass and some positively Elderesque guitar leads. It's hard to know when "After the Dream" begins, as the previous song melts so seamlessly and naturally into it. There's a dreamy wistfulness about the song, as the lyrics and melodic vocals depict a "surge growing stronger, washing away cars up on bricks. Foundations split, plague comes, mud sticks." Immediately following the emphatic thud-thud-thud-thud of guitar, bass, and drums at the nine-minute mark, synth and lap steel take the reins for a section worthy of a John Carpenter soundtrack.

"Unseen" concludes the album with earthquaking low-end (captured pristinely on this recording), joined by wave-crashing symbols, warm, sustaining bass tone, and clean, consoling vocals. Things end on the single note of feedback that the record began with.

Throughout The Glass Garden, songwriter Matt Ciani (guitar, keys, vox) builds atmosphere like a mighty cloud formation that builds slowly, but eventfully, into massive cumulus monoliths. Matt's ethereal, melancholic singing is especially effective, grounded to reality by stalwart percussionists Nico Ciani and Sam Corman Penzel, with Will Phalen on the pedal steel. In sum, a slow burn that is a genuinely moving album.

Look for The Glass Garden by Flesh of the Stars this Friday, October 27th (get it here). Stick it on a playlist with Elder, Deafheaven, Chrome Ghost, Messa, and Moon Coven.

Give ear...

The Glass Garden by Flesh of the Stars

SOME BUZZ

After ten years of progressive doom metal & synthesizer worship from Chicago’s Flesh of the Stars, the band is closing out their current chapter with the sprawling new full-length The Glass Garden, to be released on October 27, 2023. It is their sixth release, following 2021’s Mirror / Vessels EP and four LPs, including the acclaimed Anhilla (2017) and Mercy (2019).

Recorded in July 2022 with Doug Malone at Jamdekand at FotS home base by frontman Matt Ciani, this new LP embraces sonic clarity & simplicity. The drums hit harder, the guitars blossom in tremendous widescreen, and the keys maintain a sense of unease to match vocalist Matt Ciani’s intimate performance. 'The Glass Garden' is a meticulous blend of synthesizers, electric pianos, pedal steel, and, of course, massive towers of fuzz guitar.

"Compared to our previous work," the band says, "the riffs on GG are more serpentine, the drums more muscular, the BPMs a bit higher, and the arrangements more live-sounding, presenting the band in our core elements with minimal overdubs."

Album opener “Terraforms” starts with a blast, doom but almost not, quickly making clear that Flesh of the Stars are again expanding their sonic capabilities. The story begins with a drive south through the desert as the sun sets in deep red. Dozens of abandoned cars line the highway as we barrel through slinky guitar leads and disorienting whirlwinds of drums.

“Overworld” introduces haunting pedal steel guitar, played by Chicago multi-instrumentalist Will Phalen. His performance ranges from barely-there uneasy swells to hollow ghost town howls to full-on shrieking as the song abruptly shifts in tone and volume.

“Into the Maze” is a marathon - a feast of riffs, melodies, and time signatures, each morphing into each other and then recalling motifs from six sections back. Corman Penzel’s drumming takes us fully through the wormhole, mirroring Ciani’s storytelling, which takes us into an otherworldly aperture, a tunnel “too tight to crawl”, but we’re “too far to turn back.”

Side B begins with a moment to breathe. A lone somber clean guitar patiently coaxes the band back to life after the tumult of “Into the Maze”. It is eventually joined by Fender Rhodes, pedal steel (this time pushing even further into ambient country territory), and Ciani’s quiet & mournful vocal. Over 12 minutes, “After the Dream” builds from near-silence to absolute doom bombast before descending into a subterranean synth finale in the oscillating, modulating void.

“Unseen” seamlessly picks up where “After the Dream” ends, swapping bass synth for a veiled nylon string guitar to begin a 5-minute synth-folk ballad, at times reprising album opener “Terraforms”, taking the listener back to “the all-seeing red” of the nuclear sunset in the desert. What follows is nine minutes of twisting, hurtling, downtuned prog intensity, as The Glass Garden reaches for its highest highs before its startling and abrupt end.

Taken as a whole, The Glass Garden stands as Flesh of the Stars’ most ambitious and fully realized LP, a final word from a band that has never stopped honing their style and skills in their ten-year run.

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[dark-mega]

This is great! Not only the art itself is very good but is also very well organize and is very informative with some good headcanons there and there (since we don’t know if soul bosses actually rot with time)

But can I add something?

You see lately in been noticing how the games have focused on four kinds of elemental attacks

First with dark nebula

Then the three mage sisters and Hyness

Then Void termina

The boss fight of Magolor soul which mixes hammer and ice for no reason

And Finally with The bosses of Magolor’s epilogue

This are “Thunder,Fire and Ice” with the purple aura which I would call “dark magic”

This concept was originally introduced by the first disappointing final boss in the franchise (Dark nebula) but is not till later games when this takes relevance

Star Allie’s being the primal example

Is possible this are the basic states of magic and variations like wind,rock,water etc etc etc are basically more evolved forms of this kinds of magic. This is backed up by the mage sisters using Wind,rock and Water on their attacks even if that is to a lower degree, but pf course there’s also the looming darkness which seems to be the weakest but also strongest kind of magic since Hyness and dark nebula weakest attacks are the ones that don’t in love the elements, but then there’s voice and the rampaging doomers showcasing this power is possible the strongest of them all but is just that the doomers are focused solely on that attack and Void termina is kinda like… you know god

Grand/Crowned doomer also uses this elements in both of he’s boss fights (well grand has ice attacks meanwhile crowned has water attacks but this could mean nothing or something we haven’t seen) except for Dark magic which is only used during the Crowned doomer boss fight, showcasing how the master crown is allowing this black winged tyrant to use the elements at the maximum potential

I still think plants are mostly their entire different world from the basic kinds of magic but I think there’s more to uncover about magic than meets the eye

some hc lore of mine i tried to break down into pause screen-like info excerpts. i started on the second slide but got more ambitious as i went along

[alangdorf]

So uhhhhh I tripped and started working on that animatic. PMV? I think it’s technically a little closer to a PMV (the first four frames, which I haven’t drawn yet, are entirely different scenes from one another, and ideally I’d like to do full color, probably flat rather than shaded to save time & I’m having problems with my shading process rn anyway) but it’s kinda straddling the fence. Under the cut since it’s a looping gif with sort of flashing images and I don’t wanna just put that on ppl’s dashes

I probably won’t keep the current coloring (these are the planned background colors for each frame at 50% opacity), but I really like it, and this is a good stopping point for now, so I wanted to share! Also here’s a write-up of my plans for this:

This does indeed go along with the lead up to the first chorus of Oh No! by Marina and the Diamonds. There are five repeats of the lyrics “I just wanna change”; the first four frames (not pictured) each hit on the word “change” of the first four repeats, and then these last seven frames sync up with the last repeat. Frames 1-4 frames each show Magolor from behind and go backwards chronologically while zooming out. 5-11 zoom in, and cover his boss fight phases followed by a transformation from upset baby doomer to normal RtDL Mags. Subject matter of each frame is as follows:

1. (Unhooded) Hyness fight (I already know what gijinka-ish Hyness looks like but drawing him is gonna be hard lol)

2. Shoppekeeper Magolor (w gem apple tree in bg)

3. Post Rampaging Doomers fight

4. Post Landia fight about to put on the crown

5. Traitor Magolor

6. 2nd phase (base game)

7. RtDLdx True Arena Magolor Soul (extra phase)

8. Baby doomer

9-11. Extremely Normal RtDL Magolor

[jayextee]

Quake II - The Reckoning (2023)

I told myself I wasn't going to play this until I'd beaten the DOOMer Boards Project WAD that I'd started. Just beat it. The Quake II mission pack, not the WAD. Whoops.

I didn't always love Quake II. Back when I played the thing, my first impressions were of disappointment; but, as my previous review may have implied, it grew on me. And how.

I think a part of this was because of the high quality of the mission packs, as I remember them -- The Reckoning being sorta more-of-the-same with a few clever little touches thrown in, Ground Zero being absolutely murderous and evil, but still good. I've yet to check whether my memory of the latter is correct. But the former? Sure.

Clever little touches such as getting into a crate and stowing away onto a moon-bound frigate, having to destroy the lid to make a low-G assisted leap out of it. There aren't a whole bunch of them, but they add a little intrigue onto what The Reckoning is.

And what it is, as mentioned, is more Quake II. This isn't really a bad thing, and it's not strictly identical to the base experience, as there are some new weapons and enemies; a couple of which being just variants of the base Q2 mooks; and a wholly different flavour of level design as provided by Xatrix Entertainment -- known back then for, sigh, Redneck Rampage.

Early levels really feel Xatrix, with a sewer section feeling like it's about to descend into Redneck's mazelike bullshit; but thankfully it never does. In fact, the early sewer out of the way, things take a turn upward pretty dramatically. And, kudos where it's due, many of the same tendencies in enemy placement translate a lot better to a game with better monster and weapon design. It just works.

Also of note, the ammo balance is in my opinion great. I've seen some criticism at the lack of shotgun shells; and indeed, those plus bullets become in stark short supply toward the end of the campaign; but this functions to incentivise the player to stray from the workhorse weapons, perhaps trying the main two newcomers - the Phalanx (with its own ammo pool) and Ion Ripper (which uses cells). Both are very powerful and definitely worth using.

There's also a trap weapon I barely ever used. It was effective for sure, sucking in lower-tier soldiers and reducing them to a fine red mist, but it wasn't quite as fun as getting into the thick of it and firing til your weapon barrel glows red. Figuratively speaking.

Final boss is The Makron again. Spoilers. But hey, there's a nice dash to vacate the exploding moon via spaceship before the ending.

A great time. 4/5

[illustrious-rocket]

Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe: Boss #24: Rampaging Doomers

[smashingveteransandnewcomers]

"Be ready for anything..." Magolor said before they leapt in, and were almost instantly attacked by four Rampaging Doomers!

"GAH! SPHERE DOOMERS!" Magolor shouts as he ducked under the attacks!

Kirby and Friends' Return to Dream Land

@smashingveteransandnewcomers

It was a quiet and peaceful day in Dream Land on Planet Popstar. Though these kind of days tend to not last long. We join Kirby and his friends in Dream Land, Kirby running away from King Dedede and Bandana Dee with a strawberry cake in his hands, Meta Knight relaxing with a book, and the young artist Adeleine and her best friend Neptune Astral doing what they love to do the most together: Paint