#sketching and creating fantasy monsters for a living

[sickmeds]

— into the woods , a short random piece

tw: emeto

He swallows thickly, eyes fluttering, and the water slips down the bones of his cheeks. It’s warm, tingling, a soft hum that pickles along his skin, palms resting against the cold tiles. His head bows down, soft locks falling across his face, muscles shifting stiffly, bending, shoulders hunching, lips parting.

Nothing happens, besides the soft groan that falls, drowned by the spray of the shower. It echoes in his ears, filling the space, and his throat burns.

A heavy breath of air, his muscles relax, eyebrows furrowed and creasing along his skin as he slowly pushes up, leaning back, running fingers through his hair and letting the water spill into his mouth. He spits, hair falling back, matting on to his forehead as his thumb and forefinger massage the bridge of his nose.

Leaning back into the spray, he swallows, warm water trickling down his throat.

A soft burp pushes its way up from his chest, lungs crackling, expanding and sinking, and his eyes close. Off , not right , strange – all of which had evolved into this moment, as his palms press back against the wall, unbalanced between clammy and wet, a low, shuddering breath.

Apprehension clings to the shake in his legs, the almost unnoticeable tremor except , except as his adam’s apple bobs in his throat, his ankles strain, muscles twinging, and something shifts dangerously in the tilt of his stomach.

A thick swallow, and the tang of something hot, bitter, lingering in the back of his throat as he exhales through his nose, scratchy, breathy, inhaling deep and slow. He’s not scared, not quite, in the silence and space of his empty house.

A gurgle, that turns more like a growl, and a hand drops to rest lightly on the muscles of his stomach, gingerly pressing to the frothing magnitude of the flipping, inside his body. A groan follows quickly, shifting, stretching, leaning further over, nails digging into the plaster between the tiles until a sharp pain shoots up his knuckles.

“Uhhrk,’ His face crumples, its soft tan warmed by the light of the bathroom, yet stricken pale in a sickly manner that resonates in the gloss of water lingering in his eyes. His breath catches in a low pant, a gurgle beneath his hand, and a dry retch crawls shakily up his throat.

Only half aware of the water still spilling down his back, running between the creases of his skin, trailing along the tensing of his muscles, there’s a groan from the piping and a soft click, as the water begins to grow colder, from the hot steamy warmth to a lukewarm, that sends a shiver down his spin.

He licks his lips, dry, swallowing, braced on the wall and his head presses momentarily on his arm, leaning on himself as if the urge to crumple was not there ( but it was , arms aching , straining with the effort ).

It wasn’t the physical act that brought a shallow breath and a pang of fear slipping through his heart, although even on a good day he cringed at the thought. It was the fact he didn’t know why. He couldn’t remember eating anything that had tasted funny, he had been careful to order oatmilk in his morning coffee, and the strange clinging nausea had not arrived until mid afternoon, sitting at the old oak table in the kitchen sipping on tea.

It was sudden - the glimmer of sweat accumulated on his collar, rubbing his palms against his jeans, blinking wearily at the laptop screen as it lagged for the fifth time that day, the small circle in the corner going round and round and round. And the frustrated huff of air that escaped his lips, palms pressed into the cavern of his eyes, had come with a swooping sense of dread.

Then it only grew, from a strange wooziness that he thought was simply tiredness, to the last drop of tea in the cup that he struggled to swallow, and found himself wrapping a protective arm around his stomach as it attempted to digest his lunch. A chicken sandwich that tasted good.

So confusion crawled restlessly across his skin until everything was a little too uncomfortable, and he pushed aside any thoughts of completing the last few tasks, including the dishes in the sink that had been glaring at him all morning, and wandered slowly through the cabin to his bedroom.

And now , now –

He burps, bile splashing at the back of his throat and his palm slips on the wall. He swallows automatically, a shuddering breath, jaw clenching, breathing heavily.

“Nnng..” A groan slips past his lips, a tear soaked breath , arm wrapping fully around his stomach. It’s sloshing, tumbling, a tremor through his spine.

He’s alone . It’s okay .

A twinge in his stomach that turns to a wet retch, and his shoulders lurch up to his chin, squeezing his eyes shut against the trickle of sour liquid that stings in his throat and joins the spray of the shower head.

Panting, hands gripping his thighs, nails digging into his skin. A shallow, unrestrained burp, and his stomach lurches with a dangerous flop . Shivering, his eyes flutter open for a second, as a deep growl emits from the caves of his belly, and it seems to swallow him whole.

He feels like jelly — stumbling, gasping, and it cuts off into a heave that sends him entirely over the plug , and a thick wave of digested food erupts from his mouth.

His eyes slam shut , but not before the dark dregs of his stomach were ingrained into his head. It sends a throbbing ache into his stomach, as if only now it was catching up, as if it was all in the wrong order, and burps a mouthful of puke into the shallow water.

The shower is cold , freezing , but now he can’t move , now he’s stuck , thighs cramping in time with his stomach as he crouches down , gripping the edge of the bath.

A groan emits from his stomach, mimicked by his voice, and his hand splashes into the shower water as his balance shifts, narrowly avoiding falling forwards as a harsh retch turns productive.

He’s dragging in a breath before a burst of warm vomit joins the water, and he has a moment to be grateful it’s slipping away down the drain before he’s gagging, stomach churning, spilling liquid from his belly,

“What the fuck,” he mumbles, coughing, and retches. “ .. fuck.”

It burns, aching his throat, darkening the cold water still streaming overhead ( and it’s almost nice , he knows it shouldn’t be , goosebumps on his skin ).

The nausea clings like sweat on his skin, as he gags into the empty air, pushing hair from his eyes with trembling hands. A dry heave, and another, and his stomach protests the motion. He can feel it, still simmering, sloshing away, refusing to come up.

An actual shiver now, buried in his bones and a moan follows, curling his arms protectively around his stomach. He waits, moments ticking by and nothing happens, just that same queasy feeling from before licking at his heels like flames.

Slowly, ever so slowly, his fingers clamber on the edge of the bath, dragging himself up. A shaking hand bumps at the handle, turning it off, and he’s standing, watching the last of the water drain out, cold and shivering.

Cautiously wrapping a towel around his waist, his throat feels thick and heavy, like his stomach, and he hesitates, hovering between the bed in the other room and staying there.

Awkward, unsteady, he fills a glass left on the side with water and washes the taste from his mouth - like gauze on a wound he knew would be reopened ( it was only a matter of time ) .

Finally, salty tears spill over , rubbing the soft towel against his cheeks, they trickle, falling in soft raindrops of misery like gentle strokes down his skin. His fingers bury in the towel, tugging it closer and closer, wrapping himself up like a cocoon and edging towards the door.

He was alone. Alone, but not longer sure he wanted to be.

His tongue runs along lips, as his fingers shift, a slow maneuver, tugging soft linen from the dark oak draws along his damp skin. Tartan pattern and cotton, cool and fresh and he shivers, climbing into the white sheets, dragging the towel with him.

[ribbononline]

Howdy just wanted to let you know how much I love your fantasy AI and how cute the designs are!

Assuming you meant Fantasy AU haha- Thank you! Ive admittedly been playing with their design a little in the background (And it hink I posted some sketches before? though im unsure if I tagged them) since some of them looked. a little too human ((sorry archie i LOVE selkies but untransformed it truly is just a fur coat. which. isnt great for a more tropical setting)) but the core of it has never changed lol I love modern fantasy

The designs are half inspired by Pokémon now, though not tooooo intensly.

Max is still mosty faun, but leant a little more into full furry for him I guess. Cope old man.

Archie has been changed from selkie which HORTS but alas i lacked the skills to draw him cool. He's just a general mercreature now. He has legs but he's half fish in design he can breathe underwater. You get it

Others I've had thoughts on:

May gets to be torchic in harpy form. She's a rare case, as she can naturally do some magic! She can Breathe Fire. Very fun for her parents. She can't fly, but she can kind of flutter- which is great for parkouring around! Active kid. Due to lacking arms/hands she uses her legs/talons for most things instead

I want Courtney to be Meowstic inspired, probably with some/devil/demon inspo for the monster part? But I admittedly haven't thought of a design Im happy with yet. She also has some natural magic! Again, not supposed to be very common. She can levitate stuff and throw around psychic shockwaves if she's mad. She tried studying to be a witch for a little while, but she didn't really like it.

Lisia is Mostly Just Regular Lisia except the cloud fluff on her outfit is part of her lol. She's a combination of Swablu inspired and a full on wind spirit. She looks normal most of the time but if a strong wind catches on her physical form literally temporarily blows away into clouds. She can control the condensation in the air around her- which is almost entirely useless, except she can use it to create rainbows behind her. Great idol trick

Zinnia gets some fun dragon traits, and also lives up to her Lorekeeper title. While there's plenty of common spells written down and going around, Zinnia has access to and protects a lot of more powerfull forgotten stuff. Most imporantly Delta Magic, which... Functions via Totally Not Mega Stones, and allows the user unlimited access to type magic for as long as it's active. It's pretty draining, but it's the only time that actual world changing magic can be made to happen, rather then more mundane or minor stuff

[lovablethings]

Welcome to lovablethings!

inbox: OPEN! Check what's next here: link

This is a blog created by @raygunwestern and his system to reach out to and support the kin community.

How do we intend to achieve this?

Promoting Discords, projects, and other blogs similar to this one!

Offering advice and ideas where I can. (I am NOT a medical professional and cannot and will not provide medical advice or therapy.)

Helping folks get kin calls out there.

And, what you're probably here for- fulfilling requests!

Requests? What requests do you do?

A few kinds. While Raygun is the only mod, the following will be offered:

Name + pronoun ideas

Recipe ideas (PLEASE let me know if you have allergies or specific foods to avoid!)

Shopping / selfcare kits (6 items relating to your kin)

Icons (including pride edits and matching icons)

Sketches or emotes

Read for more info beneath the cut!

What rules do you have?

While not a RULE per se, it should be noted that this blog has a specific focus. The following types of kintypes are welcome to be requested for:

Real animal species, domesticated or wild.

Fantasy animal species in general, such as dragons, unicorns, etc.

Fictional species of animal/monster from media (such as night stalkers from Fallout).

General non-human identities (such as spirits, demons, angels, etc.) including concepts and objects.

Basically, because I admittedly live under a rock and am LARGELY unfamiliar with most sources, I'll be mostly focusing on therians, otherkin, adjacent fictionkin, and the like rather than specific characters. I have nothing against fictionkin! I have many fictionkin types myself, and our system has a couple fictives. I just don't want to disappoint anybody.

If you have a fictionkintype that is an otherwise normal animal (such as Rex from Fallout), if you're willing to give some extra details about what you're looking for, I might be able to help.

On that note, you are very welcome to make requests for your nonhuman alters! Those who don't align themselves with any of these terms but still see themselves as nonhuman in some way are welcome to send in requests, as well, so long as you generally follow the above guidelines.

Furthermore, the actual rules are as follows:

Please have a specific request, at the very least what kind of post you'd like me to make for you! Details relevant to what you're asking for are great, too!

Please be patient. Raygun is the only mod right now and has a brain that beats the hell out of him sometimes.

While I can't control every interaction, it should be noted that trans people are VERY welcome, that BLM and Palestine are supported by the mod, and that I am distinctly not pr0ship.

Please no requests regarding 18+ material of any kind. While the mod is an adult, this blog is intended to be safe for all ages.

All messages regarding any kind of discourse will be promptly deleted.

Why?

lomebly :( and wanted to be helpful,,,

[valldoesdnd]

Hey folks, the July Art Pack is now available on the VS Press Patreon!

Subscribe NOW for as little as £3 a month, and grab a commercial license to use them in your own projects!

What is VS Press? VS Press is a Patreon focused on releasing commercial use monster art for TTRPGs, created by Ennie-Nominated author Vall Syrene. The art at VS Press is inspired by cosmic horror, monster hunter, dark souls, Warhammer, and all things grim and dark fantasy. Over the next year VS Press aims to bring you a wealth of monster-related content, including commercial use monster art and stat blocks, monster hunting adventures, player classes, and much more!

What can you expect as a patron of VS Press?

Subscribing to VS Press gets you the following:

1 - 2 Monster sketches a month (with commercial use license)

1 full-colour monster art per month (with commercial use license)

A unique discord role for our discord server

The Welcome Pack, which includes a bonus collection of monster sketches and color art.

Sweet freebies and extra art pieces as I get free time to make them (usually 1 or 2 a month!)

More content is aimed to be added as this patreon grows, including:

System-agnostic supplements for TTRPGS like Mork Borg and Pathfinder 2e

TTRPG monster hunting adventures, complete with maps

Monster stat blocks you can use with your favorite d20 games like DnD

MechHunters, a monster hunting, mech stomping, tank blasting, d20-compatible spiritual successor to the Adamantine best-selling Greasemonkey's Handbook mech construction guide.

[irkenarcadia]

Greetings!

Behold! Ouroboros! He belongs to my OC Csar (my old IZ OC from way back when, but was “Tallest Czar”…voming my insides out from memory cringe)…but he is also perfect as an introductory post if you understand the symbolism…

I like to dabble in doodles…my imagination is a speshul place.

Thanks for @khaliarart for directing me to the font!

TLDR: A pinned post.

Tags:

My Art

Irken Arcadia AU

More long winded babbling under the cut.

I draw crazy stuff and am currently becoming invested in my old Love of IZ and Irkens…but I also just love Aliens and Monsters and Dark Fantasy and stuff I can’t post here anymore. Sad face emoji.(Yes, I DID write that out…🙃)

My style is wild and wacky. I’ve been told it’s feral; I just like exaggerated expressions, teeth, claws…other “stuff.” Perfect to mutilate characters with.

I have a lot of characters that span from many other things I used to be into so…they are being transmuted for the Irken Empire I guess. Or whatever horrible manifestation of it I’ve created as my AU…dur dur.

That being said; I’m getting my doodle hand back up and going but probably a lot of sketches and other nonsense because reasons.

I work full time and hide a lot so I’m apologizing ahead of time that I’m not super sociable. I’m old…uh yeah…my excuse.

Been a long while since I’ve used Tumblr at all; let alone bothered to post art so for the time being…here we are.

I’ve become reclusive in my older years, haha…

I’ve recently dipped my toes back into IZ; though mostly the Irkens and their Empire which I’ve morphed into some screwed up AU of mine that crossovers a few of my past story concepts and characters from other fandoms that will blend with my other love which is Philosophy, Depth Psychology and watching the World burn through Decadence. Nietzsche would be proud…

It’s like IZ meets Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and the Roman Empire but incredibly stupid but also probably really adulterated because I’m terrible. Mirroring the stupid corruption of Humanity is fun and depressing to me.🥲

I’ll probably add more as I go along and post stuff; I know there appears to be a lot of other AU business going on with other folks but I don’t creep that hard and have no idea how the fandom is compared to how it was circa 2001. Ugh I was in highschool then…😬

Was a big fan/part of the IZ fandom when it first aired…the Irony of it returning to me now some 20 years later is hilarious since it played a big part in my art style development with extreme expressions. Big thanks to @khaliarart for popping that balloon in my tired brain but it’s nice to be inspired again. PLEASE STAY INSPIRATION!!

ANYWAY! I’ll be posting my art, my horrible OCs, and other stuff probably…

I will also state if you’ve made it this far; kudos.

Some things:

I don’t do requests. Art trades are tentative but not open right now unless I know you.

Commissions are touchy but I may open them up if I keep at it. I’ll post if so.

I don’t RP. I used to LOVE it but I work full time and live REAL LIFE so it’s something I can’t distract my Self with. RIP

I’d like to think I’m pretty friendly but I’m very aloof; I just put this down honestly just in case I get chatted at and don’t answer. Social Media is a strange beast for me now a days - if you really wanna try and get a hold of me I guess poketh.

And that’s that unless I add more later.

G’day!

[monriatitans]

Let's Read Some $#!7 by Mark Nelson, Phoebe Im, and Tessa Creative Art & Sarah E. White

Monria Titans

Welcome to another installment of Let’s Read Some $#17! In sum, the purpose of these videos is to introduce educational resources regarding the creation of video games, to promote literacy, to provide world-building tools for creatives, to provide books for the purposes of escape, and/or to get banned books into people’s view.

They go as follows: 1. Read the summary on the back of the book (if applicable). 2. Read the “Forward” and “Preface” (if applicable). 3. If there is no “Introduction,” read [part of] the first chapter.

If this is something you’re interested in, don’t forget to hit the “Subscribe” button!

Even though the purpose is education, I only read PORTIONS because of DMCA and Copyright.

Today, I read PORTIONS of 3 art related books from The Neverending Reading List:

Fantasy World-Building by Mark A. Nelson When artists and designers create a fictional setting, the milieu must be completely fleshed out, explained, and designed. In this book, comic and gaming art veteran Mark A. Nelson explores and demonstrates his methods for fashioning visually stunning, believable environments for fantasy creatures and characters. Scores of images and step-by-step examples illustrate how variation and experimentation lead to fresh, original designs for otherworldly beings, their environments, and their stories. Nelson discusses how to find ideas and borrow from history to add the strength of realism to a fantasy world. In describing the best ways to establish a habitat, he offers specifics about climate, terrain, flora, and wildlife. He shares insights into founding societies in terms of their means of survival, manner of warfare, spiritual practices, style of dress, and levels of technology. All visual creatives—illustrators, comic artists, and game designers—who work with imaginative material will take a lively interest in this source of inspiration and practical guidance.

Cute Chibi Mythical Beasts & Magical Monsters by Phoebe Im Chibi is Japanese slang for “short,” and the legendary monsters in Cute Chibi Mythical Beasts & Magical Monsters live up to this description with their roly-poly bodies that make them so loveable. Master this anime and manga drawing style with over 60 step-by-step tutorials of your favorite fantastical creatures, including dragons, mermaids, centaurs, unicorns, kraken, and more. Instagram artist Phoebe IM shares her tips and tricks for drawing chibi creatures traditionally or digitally; coloring, shading, and highlighting; and accessorizing for added cuteness. There’s also folklore sprinkled throughout the book for some extra fun. So, get out your drawing tools and start creating your mystical kingdom!

Drawing Fantasy Chibi by Tessa Creative Art & Sarah E. White Crack open your sketchbook, grab your pens and pencils, and get ready to turn your mythical illustrations into kawaii (cute) and chibi (small) creatures. With step-by-step instructions and easy-to-follow tips and tricks, this instructional handbook will help you bring a new level of anime style to your sketches. Start with a few familiar fantasy creatures, like a unicorn, mermaid, and dragon, before learning how to transform ancient, lesser-known beings like the basilisk, oni (Japanese demon), and kraken into adorable chibi versions. Whether you’re a beginner or a drawing pro, Drawing Fantasy Chibi makes this fun, anime-style drawing easy, with workbook-style pages that provide a space for readers to try their hand at practicing each illustration multiple times before they master it!

All book links above are affiliate links.

—

The Sunday, March 10th, and 552nd, Artist Shout-Out goes to Magdalena Węgiel! Check out the shout-out on Tumblr here!

—

TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Welcome Gamers! 1:38 Artist Shout-Out 3:47 Just Chatting 5:28 Read Aloud Prelude 7:06 Background Image Change 7:55 “Fantasy World-Building” 20:52 “Cute Chibi Mythical Beasts & Magical Monsters” 34:35 “Drawing Fantasy Chibi” 40:26 Artist Shout-Out 41:20 Commentary/Closing 42:26 Bookshop 43:28 Farewell

—

TO SUPPORT – Buy Me a Coffee: 15% of the proceeds go to Kids Need to Read! – MonriaTitans Summary & Links – MonriaTitans’ Bookshop – LRSS About Page – Throne Wishlist

[maacwanowrie]

Behind the Scenes: Creating Realistic Creatures and Monsters with VFX

In the world of filmmaking, Visual Effects (VFX) have revolutionized the way creatures and monsters are brought to life on the screen. From the fearsome dragons of fantasy epics to the alien creatures in science fiction thrillers, VFX artists employ a blend of artistry, technology, and imagination to create realistic and captivating beings that evoke awe, terror, and wonder.

Unlock your creative potential with VFX classes in Pune. Learn the art of visual effects, animation, and digital storytelling from experts, preparing for exciting opportunities in the entertainment industry.

The process of creating realistic creatures and monsters with VFX is a multi-faceted endeavor that involves various stages of development, from conceptualization to final execution.

Conceptualization and Design:

Creating a compelling creature or monster begins with conceptualization and design. This phase involves collaboration between VFX artists, concept designers, and filmmakers to envision the creature's appearance, behavior, and role within the story. Sketches, illustrations, and digital concept art help refine the creature's look, ensuring it aligns with the narrative and the intended emotional impact on the audience.

Modeling and Sculpting:

Once the design is finalized, VFX artists transition to the modeling and sculpting phase. In this stage, digital 3D models of the creature are meticulously crafted. The intricate details of the creature's anatomy, texture, and features are sculpted, ensuring that it looks convincing and realistic from every angle.

Texturing and Shading:

To make the creature look truly lifelike, texturing and shading are essential. VFX artists apply high-resolution textures to the 3D model, imbuing it with skin patterns, scales, fur, or any other surface characteristics. This step adds depth and dimension to the creature, making it visually engaging and believable.

Rigging and Animation:

For the creature to move and behave authentically, it needs a sophisticated skeletal structure known as a rig. This rig allows animators to manipulate the creature's movements, ensuring that it walks, runs, or emotes in a way that aligns with its design and characteristics. The animation process involves careful attention to detail, as the creature's movements must reflect its personality and role in the story.

Simulation and Effects:

Certain creatures and monsters may require complex simulations and effects to achieve realism. For example, fluid simulations might be used to create realistic water interactions for aquatic creatures, or dynamic simulations for fur or cloth might be employed to add authenticity to their appearance.

Lighting and Rendering:

Lighting is a crucial element that can make or break the realism of a creature in a scene. VFX artists use lighting to create the correct shadows, highlights, and reflections on the creature's surfaces, ensuring it seamlessly integrates into the live-action footage. Rendering, the process of generating the final images, involves complex calculations to capture the play of light and shadow accurately.

Integration with Live-Action Footage:

The final step involves seamlessly integrating the creature or monster into the live-action footage. This process requires careful attention to perspective, lighting, and camera movements to ensure that the creature appears as though it exists in the same physical space as the human actors. Skillful compositing techniques bring the elements together to create a cohesive and realistic visual.

Creating realistic creatures and monsters with VFX is a blend of technical prowess and artistic vision. VFX artists leverage cutting-edge software, powerful hardware, and creative ingenuity to make the impossible seem possible on the screen. The end result is a testament to the collaborative efforts of concept designers, modelers, animators, and other professionals who come together to bring fantastical and terrifying creatures to life, enriching the cinematic experience and captivating audiences worldwide.

[stencilfox]

More about my YouTube - my goals and schedule as of 2023 are to continue posting one view every week! About my ocs and fanart of all kinds showing what a small content creator with big ambitious and little budget can do if you enjoy what I make even a little consider subscribing and check out my card for ways to support and get behind the scenes and exclusive patreon only content! Shoutouts and little animation below your name when I read them (please note this is for tier 2 and 3 foxes only tier 1 isn’t read just name on screen)

My commissions are always open unless an emergency pops up

I can make you an illustration/oc same day as long as it’s not too complex but I usually get work done within 2 to 4 days unless specified otherwise and I will always keep communication sending progress sketch and ask about any color or other changes before the final product , usually I’ll email it to you if that’s the best option - payments are PayPal only! The moment you pay I’ll start your commission please see the chart and I will send a terms and services for you to read over on what you can do once the art is yours and the progress I go through

- but if you have unreasonable expectations such as a style I can’t do like realism or copy someone else’s style or stop communicating and ghost/DONT pay me or ask me immediately refund or false reposts for forced charge back with fees - refund, you won’t get your Art, even if I’ve finished it. you wouldn’t demand a cake with hours of hard work put into it to just ask for it free or force a charge back after eating the cake or waste their time and if you would do this and think this is okay please don’t - I will have to black list you as I take these very serious and will always try to work with you to make changes along the way.

If the art is in my style I’ll be happy to make just about anything I have a list of nsfw and other things I won’t draw just because it’s not my style or makes me uncomfortable but I’m happy to draw : humans, animals , anthro , lgbtq , fantasy , monster, some mechanical bots and any hybrids, etc, if it’s my first time drawing a character or species please have patience and reference if possible to ensure you get what your looking for - if you have a closed species oc you want me to draw are for you please know I will need to know that you are the current owner and not stealing as closed species are a complex matter and Each one has rules.

Please note If you want stickers or twitch emotes or even simple looping gif animations I have price charts for them but please ask first as prices will vary depending on complexity and number of Art you want some like sets of stickers will cost less if you buy more like a set of 5 or 10 instead of just 2

I have tons of art examples and am always open to communicate just Dm me or email my business email : thestencilfox@gmail.com

My main goals are to improve my art style and techniques while having fun creating what I want

Completing my stories such as

The Dawn Of Gales - webtoons

Twilight of Serpents - webtoons

And many of my over 100+ ocs stories / animation memes and animatics for story times

Fanart of all kinds and sometimes reviews or sharing thoughts about games movies or other wonderful artists creations!

If you’d like to have your art featured in the subscribblers gallary tag me I’d love to see and share it on my channel!

I still have a rough idea of what I’m doing but always strive to keep improving and have fun stay pawsome Subscribblers and hope to see you again soon!

Also thank you for taking time to read and I hope this reaches the right audience ^^’

[kudzucataclysm]

wip intro: Shattered Earth

On an alternate Earth full of strange and bizarre horrors, nothing is as it seems. An enemy might be a friend and that stranger with amnesia might be someone you knew all along...

taglist: @impaledlotus @thelittlestspider​

The current date is February 8th 2005; a not so distant past split off from our reality, where the effects of an anomalous comet, superpowered beings, a brief nuclear exchange, a supervolcano eruption, and an alien invasion have the world in a constant state of uncertainty that its only now starting to adjust to. The entire American midwest is a desolate nuclear wasteland. Europe was annihilated and is now completely abandoned. Corporations control every aspect of people’s lives. Global weather systems have been destroyed and the aftermath has left earth in a new ice age. Entire continents have been infected with invasive, man-eating alien wildlife. Humanity is still in the process of recovering from these events, with the help of some not-so-truly empathetic Martian peacekeepers.

Now is a time of monsters.

So what is SE truly about? SE is, ultimately, a sci-fi fantasy, dark comedy, horror action story about killing the monsters. More importantly however, SE is a story about two teenagers having to grow up way too fast in a world that stubbornly refuses to end, in order to survive everything it throws at them.

Status: Almost entirely planned (Arc 1 is at least); Outlining, scripting

POV: OmniscientTM. we have 80+ characters in this story babaaaay

Format: I’m planning for SE to be a webcomic, so I’ll mostly be posting scripts, sketches, and from time to time some practice comic pages :3

Tropes / Vibes / Themes: friendship, love, queer youth, eugenics, found family, crime lordism/gang warfare, intersolar espionage, weird space magic, loss of innocence when forced to grow up, trauma and healing from it, the human condition, devotion that corrupts, politics and the wasteland it creates, extreme dystopian levels of capitalism, feeling valid in reasons to hate and how first impressions are often times misleading, learning to be selfish...im sure theres more haha vv’

Content Warnings: Offensive/Derogatory/Explicit Language/Slurs**, Explicit Violence/Gore/Body Horror, Nudity, Mature Sexual Themes/Discussions, Drug Use/Abuse, Emotional Mental and Physical Abuse/Manipulation, In*est Mention, Suicide Related Topics, Self Harm, Mass Death/Corpses, Genocide, etc

And now onto our two protagonists :3

NAME: Desmond Oswald Arkady

DOB: November 30th, 1991; 14 years of age

HISTORY: Son of rancher Sloane Arkady and medical nurse Ed Arkady, and unknowing grandnephew of the famous superscientist Lupe Altena. Has two older siblings and one younger sister. Throughout grade school Desmond was noted for having poor social skills and having a severe temper; he was bullied and very much alone during this time. His mother was emotionally and physically absent while his father became emotionally and verbally abusive as he grew older. Eventually his parents split, Ed taking Desmond and his brother Jerome, with Sloane (under legal definition) ‘kidnapping’ their younger sister Zuri. Oldest sibling “Happy”’s whereabouts are unknown. In 2003 abnormal brain wave activity was reported, benign; his temper somewhat subsided. The remnants of the family moved to the NEC in late 2004.

Desmond’s above-average school grades have currently led to him attending the Promethean School of Science under the tutelage of one infamous Dr. Maya Fontaine. He seems to have an interest in all things biomedical and mechanical.

OCCUPATION: Officially listed as a part-time bowling alley attendant at Crimson Head Lanes. Unofficially: errand boy and lookout for the criminal body behind the bowling alley.

ORIGIN: A small black earth town in former Kentucky known only as “Carbonville” that no longer exists.

Last Known Whereabouts: Lives in NEC, DUSA.

Identifying Characteristics: African-American, mole on left cheekbone, shaved dark brown hair, late bloomer in terms of height at just 5 feet tall, noticeably overweight and stocky. Known to almost constantly fiddle with his hands due to reported hypersensitive dermis and nerve damage stemming from contact with a wildfire some years before.

PSYCH: Annoyingly positive attitude that hides a deep, festering rage. An overbearing people pleaser almost to the point of submission. Desperate for validation and a sense of belonging. Chronically low self-esteem. Extreme levels of anxiety. Is repressing serious anger issues to the point of migraines and blackouts. Possible case of undiagnosed autism. Easy to intimidate and manipulate.

NAME: Francis T. Mueller

DOB: August 1990; 15 years of age

History: One of the many thousands of Chimera children of the Martian King Azelfafage, Francis was raised by her human mother Roxanne Mueller. Her mother being a drug addict and abusive, Francis from an early age found herself doing any odd job she could to simply feed herself, which soon escalated to working for the assassins guild, Antumbra for a short time at the young age of 10, and working as a bodyguard and gunner for various drug dealers up until the age of 12.

At 9 years old she experienced a medical “accident” that resulted in a severe case of dissociative amnesia.

Police records in 2003 indicate that after her release from brief juvenile custody, Francis worked her way up from petty thug to where she is now working for Crimson Head Lanes. Conflicting reports state that Francis was “handed over” to CHL and is working for them unwillingly by use of either force or threat.

Occupation: Officially listed as a bowling alley attendant at Crimson Head Lanes. Unofficially: hitman thought to be employed by CHL owner Carmine Keller, as well as gunner, enforcer, and more recently the bodyguard of fellow coworker Desmond Arkady.

Origin: NEC, DUSA.

Last Known Whereabouts: NEC, DUSA.

Identifying Characteristics: Curly red hair and freckled dark brown skin like all Chimera. Crimson red teeth. Androgynous/masculine facial and body structure, usually mistaken for a male. Magenta eyes on yellow that in a highly unusual case shift to white on black in low-light settings, a possible case of intersexism or a mutation. Identifies as a transgender female. Over 6 feet tall and malnourished for a half-alien child.

Psych: Mentally and emotionally unstable, a possible case of borderline personality disorder and even sociopathy. Possibly suffers from a panic or anxiety disorder as well. A loner, dangerous, known for violent mood swings and outbursts. Suffers from dissociative amnesia, PTSD, and alcoholism.

—

**Unfortunately, in the world this comic’s set in (the world ‘ended’ in the 1960s), people aren’t very accepting or understanding of different sexual orientations. Actually, peeps aren’t very accepting in general. It’s a distrust of foreign cultures and ideas, mostly, mixed with good old fashioned repressed victorian standards and ideals.

The only worse thing worse for your career/life in this universe is to be labelled a stinkin’ commie.

[tyrantisterror]

The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3-D: Entry Roundup

You’ve been patiently waiting for the results of the ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3-D, and now... you have to wait a bit longer, but at least you’ve got an entry roundup with lots of sketches and a good bit of feedback for all the entrants!  My goal is to get the finalists illustrated in a week or two, and after that, the grand prize winner will be announced.  But, for now, the official entry roundup!  After the cut:

I should note that while I sketched these in the order they were submitted, my scanner saved the documents with random names, so they’re a bit jumbled.  You know, just in case you’re like me and would get confused noticing that it’s almost in chronological order but with some entries jumbled around.

@bugcthulhu’s Obsideban was designed as a counterpart to Rohobaron - the Black King to Rohobaron’s Red King, if you will.  Or, well, Black Queen in this case, as Obsideban also takes her personality from the “delinquent girl” archetype in Japanese media.  Bug’s designs always ooze personality, and I had a lot of fun translating this big, gnarly retrosaur into my own style.

@toothlessloveshiccup‘s Argonox is the first - but far from the last - monster in this breakdown that brings in a bit of fantasy influence to ATOM’s roster.  A golden-fleeced ram with a vicious streak, this sheep is both treasure and dragon at once.  And while it wasn’t written in the monster’s profile, given the Yamaneon-rich nature of its wool, Argonox might be able to replicate the healing power of the golden fleece too!  A very fun mammalian kaiju and excellent entry.

@highly-radioactive-nerd submitted Gunmetal Jeeves, a robot butler who can gigantomax temporarily create a holographic/hard light version of himself to fight kaiju.  That detail was a late revision added to the entry before the contest’s deadline, made after the creator realized that ATOM allows for some truly ludicrous bullshit, which is something everyone should exploit when making entries for this in my opinion.  Also, this is a robot butler who can size shift.  Revel in its awesome absurdity!

Ultranerd submitted Rajasaurus, a dimetrodon-like synapsid kaiju with electric powers.  His origin specifies that the electric powers are a result of the volatile nature of the Yamaneon deposits he mutated under, which is an interesting idea.  That’s another theme that cropped up a lot in this contest’s entries, actually - people really wanted to play with what Yamaneon can do.

Case in point, @polygonfighter’s Yamaneolith takes the Monolith Monsters homage at the heart of Yamaneon even more apparent.  I like the implication that there is a second mineral-based lifeform at the root of this Yamaneon cluster’s anomalous behavior - a parasite, perhaps?  It brings up some interesting possibilities.

@ariccio50 submitted Kukulkuzana, and damn is this a cool spin on the body plan of my martians.  I made a few changes here and there (splitting its tail into two is probably the biggest one), but tried to keep true to the original design, because holy hell is it gorgeous.  The idea that this is a mountain-dwelling creature is really intriguing to me, as it looks like a sea creature, but at the same time, that flexible and low-slung build WOULD work pretty well in mountains, and it’s just the right mix of plausible weirdness that makes for a fun alien design.

@akitymh submitted Aramzados, a Venusian monster that’s basically an organic hot rod car.  I like the idea of organic machinery being the gimmick for Venusian kaiju, and Aramzado’s does it subtly enough to not feel like that gimmick is the sole thing going for it.  I especially love this monster’s stange, apparently mouth-less blade-beaked face.

@virovac submitted Rurzar and Zar Rider, a Beyonder kaiju and mecha (respecitvely) that were both modified and repurposed by humans reverse engineering Beyonder technology to make, like, a motorcycle-saurus essentially.  It is a delightfully absurd concept, and a very, very detailed one (13 pages of description).  There’s a dark undercurrent beneath the sillyness, though, as this pair show that humanity might still be following the same path as the Beyonders before them.

@dinosaurana brings us Krangor, a humanoid monstrosity of living kelp!  The goal here was to create a Jack Kirby-esque monster dude, complete with the gibberish name and all.  He’s also made out of kelp, which feels very classic 1950′s monster-y despite me not being able to think of any monsters that were explicitly made of kelp.  I love him.

@kiryuthechimera submitted Genkakurah, a psychic retrosaur with some draconic features.  Though his substantial powerset is probably the biggest distinguishing feature of this kaiju (given that most ATOM kaiju pretty much have the same standard powers), what really draws me to him is that reptilian pseudo-beard.  It’s just a fun detail!

@glarnboudin submits Tiratola, and see, there’s that fantasy influence again!  Even more explicitly dragon-y than Kraydi, Tiratola still manages to toe the line between sci-fi and fantasy enough to fit ATOM as is while still cementing its ties to my own slice of fantasy fiction.  Man it’s good I’m doing a Midgaheim book next, huh?

@dragonzzilla submitted Scuttlebutt/Argonautilus, a hermit crab kaiju who lives in/with a hollowed out mecha.  That’s a twist I can’t recall ever hearing before, and the idea of a kaiju and a mecha having an equal partnership that doesn’t involve one being grafted to the other is really intriguing to me.  A very unique concept!

@evolutionsvoid submitted Fleagor, an enormous flea who has no idea what to do with itself now that there’s no creature large enough for it to parasitize.  I love that concept - it takes the core idea of the giant bug kaiju archetype (i.e. unsettling the audience by showing how terrifying small, “insignificant” creatures would be if our sizes were reversed) and really turns it on its head.  The name also plays on the Universal Monsters, who were a huge part of 1950′s pop culture thanks to their movies being re-released in that era, so all and all this one is very on brand for ATOM!

@skarmorysilver submitted Lilacorn, another entry that plays up that Midgaheim/ATOM connection.  Reinterpreting the mythological unicorn as an Cenozoic wooly rhinoceros-inspired monster gives it a very unique look, both in ATOM and in the general world of unicorns, and she has a bad-girl with a heart of gold personality to boot!

dracosaurus-rex submitted Florasaura, a two-headed plant/retrosaur hybrid monster.  I love me some plant monsters, I love me some retrosaurs, and I love me some rhyming the word “flora” with other words that contain similar vowell sounds, so this one has me written all over it!

@downtofragglerock submitted Sauroguana, a delightfully odd flying retrosaur.  There’s a great deal of charm to the original illustration that this sketch doesn’t quite capture - it’s a deceptively simple design with a lot of personality in it, and with those unique leg-wings it really doesn’t need a whole lot of frills to stand out.

Draxi submitted Brakan, an unimpressive burrowing retrosaur kaiju whose mastery of illusions allows it to convince other kaiju it’s actually a big, super-powerful badass that’s the ultimate fighter in the universe.  It’s a delightful parody of the concept of a fan self-insert god-mode character, with a really fun story built into it to boot!

@quinnred submitted O.N.I.A.C., a mysterious cocooned kaiju whose chrysalis has been turned into an organic computer of sorts by the people studying it, and seems to possess a fairly advanced intelligence for a kaiju.  It’s a really bizarre and ominous idea, with built in intrigue given how vague its nature is.  Is it just a kaijufied butterfly/moth who got stuck mid transformation?  A relative of the Mothmanuds?  Something else, perhaps equally alien?  Good story potential here.

shadyserpent submitted Vespilitor, a bat/retrosaur hybrid made by the nefarious Spooks Organization.  A mercurial prankster whose tendency to stir up trouble never crosses the line into maliciousness, he’s the kind of monster who would make a great foil to a lot of ATOM’s cast.  I’d especially like to see him in a prank off with Ahuul - it’d be like Bugs Bunny fighting Daffy Duck, but on a kaiju scale.

@multiversefan submitted the Yamaneon King, a nomadic kaiju whose refusal to settle down causes problems as he stirs up trouble at kaiju sanctuaries all over the globe by showing up unannounced and stirring up the locals.  He was basically designed to be a monster that the kaiju sanctuary initiative would struggle to deal with, which is a good idea for a post-ATOM Volume 2 story conflict.

Sir K submitted Jadeera, a kirin kaiju that can actually forcibly convert most of its body to Yamaneon to enter a dormant, statue-like state in a loose homage to King Shisa.  Though the fantasy elements are far more present than I usually prefer for ATOM kaiju, I think it should be noted they’re pushed that far for a purpose - a theme in Jadeera’s entry, which continues where its creator left off with their submission to the previous ATOM create a kaiju contest (Yokaigon), is that the world of kaiju is more complicated and challenging than many are willing to accept, which is a theme in ATOM itself.  Yokaigon’s more supernatural/occult powers are based on the ghost parascience of my setting, which ATOM has delved into a bit (Pathogen being the big example), so it’s not as out of left field as some might think.

@cerothenull​ brings us our final entry (unless some got lost thanks to tumblr’s shitty tagging system), the flying spider Naeranti.  She’s a kaiju spider who uses silk to make complicate hot-air balloons, more or less, and that’s just delightful.  ATOM could always use more spider-monsters, and with a really unique gimmick backing up a wonderfully distinct look, Naeranti is sure to stand out among her fellow giant arachnids.

Well, that’s the roundup!  In a week (or two, depending on how much my hand cramps) we’ll have the five finalists, and sometime after that, the grand prize winner!

[valkblue]

Elbaran???? and also ouchsticks.jpg ?!

Hello!! And Thank you very much for asking!! I hope you are having a nice day. 😊

Elbaran is the d10 tabletop RPG I'm creating with my friends @hathorik and @fatesrpg , and for which I write and illustrate in-universe stories to develop the lore and the regions of the map. It is one of my longest project and I think that it's an endless one… in the good sense of the word; there is always something to do and explore in it, and I love this!

The setting is a fantasy one, in which magic and technology share the spotlight in a late 17th century to early industrial kind of ambient. You can play almost anything or anyone you want, from your local baker and kick ass with just your spatula, a backstreet kid, to all the usual RPG classes. Or anything you can think of, really.

In the stories I'm writing, my characters are Ulrik, commander captain of the Garde Impériale, Leona (his 'deputy'), Ashgari who is a very special and unhinged character, Zak… who ran away from his childhood home and likes to live a little too dangerously, Juliva who kills monsters on horseback, and Altair who just wanted to write stories and got swooped into too much adventures for his own taste.

They're all very fun to play and to write for! ☺️

And ouchsticks.jpg, is meant to be a portrait, but is still a very messy sketch as of now, and here's a sneak peek!

[terrific-togekiss]

What if there was a Walt Disney Fighting Game? [Video Game Concept]

Note: I am well aware, that Disney would probably never say yes in a million years to this idea. Taking their beloved, child friendly characters and having them fight?!

OH THE HORROR?!

I am also aware there have been concepts for this in the past.

Final Fantasy Dissidia was supposed to be a Kingdom Hearts fighting game, but Nomura felt uncomfortable portraying Disney characters in such a violent atmosphere.

And there are sketches of what a Walt Disney fighting game could've been, inspired by Super Smash Bros, before it was canceled. It would've focused on more violent characters such as Gaston, Beast, Ursula, Captain Hook, Captain Silver and the Horned King. But the idea was dropped.

Here's the link.

This entire post is just building and putting together what a Disney fighting game would look like to me, if one came out in today's world. It's all merely speculation and ideas that's been in the back of my head for awhile.

(Special thanks to @mayflower-gal for helping me set this up. 😁)

Anyways, let's get started!

Part 1: The Plot

For the plot, I believe it would have to be something simple, since this an idea for a first game. It's the start of a potentially huge franchise, so I wanna keep it not only simple, but an aspect that helps kick off the potential series. And pull in many fans, old and new of Disney.

Let's take into account one thing: what's a recurring theme across various Disney movies (and overall media)?

Is it the lovable, comic relief sidekick that makes audiences laugh? Is it the songs that kids find themselves singing, long after the tale is done and the curtain has closed? Is it perhaps, the clever celebrity choices for important side characters?

No, It's the one defining aspect that draws in audiences, both new and old, bringing you to fall in love with the characters as the story is told:

Wishes.

Pinocchio wishes to be a real boy. Beast and all his servants wish to be human again. Tiana wishes to have her own restaurant. Ariel wishes to see the world beyond the sea.

Everyone wishes for something more in their life and have dreams that they wish come true.

What if all those wishes were counted? Collected?

Watched over. Much like a parent to their children. Or a teacher to their students.

Found engaging. Found entertaining. Found comforting. Found peaceful. Found introspective.

Looked at with childlike wonder and glee when accomplished.

But frowned on when those wish for selfish desires. And an even deeper disappointment at those very same inhuman desires, coming true.

Good and bad exists inside every person, it's just a matter of what one chooses to act on and stand by at the end of the day.

What someone wishes for is reflective of that.

Now imagine that same being coming to life and wrecking havoc across the Disney universe. Judging for themself, if any of these colorful, imaginative characters, truly deserve their...

Happily,

Ever

After.

Yep, the main plot of the story mode is all the various Disney characters literally fighting for wishes and dreams to come true...

against the LITERAL embodiment of wishing upon a star.

Each playable character having their own unique ending.

Some endings being repeats of your favorite Disney movies, with some minor changes to acknowledge the game's plot. While others are original due to the wide cast of characters that are available, besides your favorite Disney Heroes.

For example, you beat the story mode as say, Pinocchio, he wishes to be a real boy.

I know it sounds very redundant since a majority of these things already happen in the Disney movies, but I feel as though relieving them would be fun. In addition to some original ones that didn't happen with either the villains or less major characters.

It's only the hypothetical first game and I wanted start with something simple, that fans could easily get into. More complex plots, with more character interactions should be saved for any possible sequels.

Part 2: The Gameplay

The game would be your typical 2D fighting game. You have,

Combos exclusive to every character that requires practice.

Playstyles that make each character feel unique.

Special moves for each character to get the upper hand and the main focus in besting your opponent in 1 VS 1 matches.

Of course, there's dialogue before fights in the character intros. With so many to pick from, it had to be put in somewhere.

It resembles 2D fighting games that you've all no doubt heard of, such as Marvel VS Capcom or Street Fighter.

But what would a Disney fighting game have to offer on the table, in order to survive the overall video game market?

It would have to be something unique and a feature that not only gives it originality, but a chance to stand out with so much creativity and innovation. Practically begging fans for more.

Which is why I present to you: Disney Songs.

Or as this game prompt will call them: Musical Finales.

The highlight of many Disney movies and overall media, the music is what leaves a lasting impression on many audiences. Which is not surprising, since Disney is mostly a musical. At least in terms of most of their films.

With so many iconic songs from throughout the company's history, of course I'll be squeezing them somehow!

Each character has a music meter, that can only be filled up with how the player times and follows the beat of the character they play as. Follow the rhythm and beat of a character, and it will fill up quicker. Get cut off by the opponent and it doesn't fill up.

That beat being the music of the stage each player fights on, by attacking to the music and the same time. Think of it like the Sound Battles mechanic in Mother 3.

Every character has four different kinds of attacks: Neutral, Musical, Wonderful and Special.

Neutral Attacks are normal attacks that are mostly used to set up combos.

Musical Attacks are attacks that deal more impact, when timed with the music of the stage.

Wonderful Attacks can be seen as character oriented attacks, that embody the personality and charm of the character you play as. And can be used to entertain the audience. We'll get into that later.

Special Attacks are unique finisher moves that require a separate meter to be filled up, as with most fighting games.

Now what happens when the music meter is full? A Disney Song starts playing of course!

Say you filled up Cinderella's music meter for example, then "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" starts playing, granting some unique abilities for Cinderella.

Each song would grant different outcomes and bonuses for the various characters. They're not Special Attacks, as that's already a separate mechanic already.

For example, "Part of Your World" starts playing if you're playing as Ariel, filling up the stage with water and slowing down the opponent, giving Ariel a chance to either take advantage of that, bump items into them or create big waves of water.

But what happens if BOTH characters trigger the music meter at the same time?!

Well, that's where this gimmick becomes a fight for which song keeps on playing!

Both songs would start playing, both at the same time and volume. Except, both characters have to compete to see which is stronger.

This is done by the two characters fighting, before triggering a rhythm game between the two. Once one is the victor, the other song fades, while the other stays playing. Doubling the duration of that character's Musical Finale.

Another mechanic is the Entertainment Meter. Every level you fight on has one, that determines which fighter the audience likes more. Via Wonderful attacks, you can charm the audience into supporting you more. This activates things like getting healing items or stat boosts in power and speed. Some of your favorite Disney sidekicks even provide aid from the audience!

It's almost like watching a Disney movie live and being able to interact with the story!

Or the battle system in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.

I feel as though this is the best way of keeping the game interesting, giving it an identity of its own and still embodying that magic people will grow to love. It can also lead to some entertaining interactions in the background or foreground of a stage, as the music meter also brings in characters that would not be playable, but support playable characters nonetheless. Like Flounder and Sebastian.

Of course, either feature could be turned off if you're not a fan of that sort of thing, but that's a given.

Part 3: The Stages

With many Disney movies pick from, it's no wonder there's plenty of choices to pick from. Since this is the first game, I chose to focus more on the movies. Here's my take.

Steamboat (Mickey Mouse cartoons)

Duckberg (Ducktales)

Spoonerville (A Goofy Movie)

Dwarven Forest (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves)

Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland)

Monstro (Pinocchio)

The Prince's Ball (Cinderella)

Neverland (Peter Pan)

Forbidden Mountains (Sleeping Beauty)

The Coliseum (Hercules)

Andy's Room (Toy Story)

Elsa's Ice Castle (Frozen)

San Fransokyo Institute of Technology (Big Hero 6)

Atlantica (The Little Mermaid)

House of Mouse (House of Mouse)

The West Wing (Beauty and the Beast)

Cave of Wonders (Aladdin)

Pride Rock (The Lion King)

Ant Island (A Bug's Life)

Tamatoa's Trove (Moana)

Hawaii (Lilo and Stitch)

Headquarters (Inside Out)

Mor'du's Ruins (Brave)

Big Ben (The Great Mouse Detective)

Notre Dame (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

Merlin's Cottage (Sword in the Stone)

Emperor's Palace (Mulan)

The Great Before (Soul)

Todayland (Meet The Robinsons)

Paradise Falls (Up)

Zootopia (Zootopia)

Monsters Inc (Monsters Inc)

Nomanisan Island (The Incredibles)

The Bayou (The Princess and the Frog)

Atlantis (Atlantis: The Lost Empire)

Halloweentown (The Nightmare Before Christmas)

Oakey Oaks (Chicken Little)

Spirit Mountain (Brother Bear)

Sherwood Forest (Robin Hood)

Treasure Planet (Treasure Planet)

Horned King's Castle (The Black Cauldron)

The Secret Lab (The Emperor's New Groove)

Bald Mountain (Fantasia)

The Grid (Tron)

World's End (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Radiator Springs (Cars)

Grandmother Willow's Forest (Pocahontas)

East High School (High School Musical)

The Axiom (WALL-E)

Regent's Park (101 Dalmatians)

New Mushroom Town High School (Onward)

Happily Ever After Castle (Walt Disney Opening)

Part 4: The Roster

The bread and butter of many fighting games, the roster is no doubt one I had a bit of trouble putting together. With so many characters from over the years, it's no surprise. But since this is the outline of a possible first game, here's my interpretation.

Also, the cast is big to avoid being too barren or dull.

And because I had a lot of fun putting it all together.

Mickey Mouse (Mickey Mouse): The all around character of the game, he mostly fights by a series of cartoonish tricks, magic tricks and his paintbrush from Epic Mickey. His Special Attack would have him break the fourth wall like and rewind the fight like an old film projector in reverse. Except he heals, while the opponent receives twice the damage. His Musical Finale "Sorcerer's Apprentice" has him use Yensid's Sorcerer hat to its fullest and give his overall moveset more flashes to distract the opponent and slow them down.

Donald Duck (Donald Duck): Everyone's favorite, greedy mallard and the world's angriest duck. Donald would fight mainly with toon force, his fists, his bad luck and his anger. The more damage he takes, the angrier he gets. His Special Attack would have him don the Duck Avenger persona from his PK days and use a series of superhero gadgets to finish the opponent. His Musical Finale "The Three Caballeros" trades his anger for Jose Carioca and Panchito Pistoles showing up, making him happy. As they hurt the opponent, each time they hit Donald, to keep him happy.

Goofy (Goofy): Everyone's favorite Disney dad, Goofy joins the fight as not the brightest but with the biggest heart. He has toon force to aid him in some unconventional ways. His Special Attack would have him become Super Goof from his older days. His Musical Finale "Eye To Eye" would restore health everytime he dodges an attack, with a dancing flair to it.

Snow White (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves): The first Disney Princess, Snow White makes her debut and she's not alone. The Seven Dwarves direct most of her attacks, such as tossing rocks, mining tools as weapons and even just grabbing the opponent and tossing them. Snow White herself can sing and command woodland animals to tie up opponents or just fight to defend her. Her Special Attack would have the Dwarves try to roll a boulder, only for lightning to strike on the opponent and the boulder as extra damage. Her Musical Finale "Whistle While You Work" will call on a huge number of forest animals, as they tidy up the stage and Snow White, slowly replenishing her health and slowing down the opponent.

Pinocchio (Pinocchio): Don't lie in his presence, as that nose is not only for show. Pinocchio fights mostly by using his nose as a staff, the Blue Fairy bringing other toys to life to aid him and Jiminy Cricket distracting the opponent with music. Pinocchio's Special Attack would have him wish upon a star and turn himself into a real boy, as the opponent is turned into a puppet and loses damage as a result. Pinocchio's Musical Finale "I've Got No Strings" would cover the stage in thin lines used for puppets: if the opponent touches one, their frozen briefly. If a projectile attack hits, the same happens.

Cinderella (Cinderella): The bell of the ball and someone whom never gives up on kindness, Cinderella will use the dance moves she showed off at the ball for her moveset, having a dancing and musical feel to how she plays and flashy dances to win against the the opponent. With her Fairy Godmother using her magic to help her, such as flashes of light. Her Special Attack would have the clock strike midnight and she leaves behind her glass slipper: once the opponent touches it they get weighed down by a giant magic dress. Cinderella's Musical Finale "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" would have the Fairy Godmother cast a series of spells over the stage, as a new carriage pops up every time Cinderella pulls off a combo. The carriages run over the opponent and can even carry Cinderella to safety.

Peter Pan (Peter Pan): Leader of the Lost Boys and Captain Hook's second biggest pain in the butt, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell are here. Peter Pan has a pocket knife with him and Tinker Bell's pixie dust for aerial attacks. His Special Attack would have him toss a bunch of gold on the opponent, as the rest of the Lost Boys tackles them and beats them up for the treasures. His Musical Finale "You Can Fly" would create a trail of pixie dust behind him, that randomly causes the opponent to either jump too high or too low.

Captain Hook (Peter Pan): Keep all 'ticks' and 'tocks' away from this pirate! Captain Hook has a wide array of hooks to switch between, a flintlock pistol and his sword to win the battle. His Special Attack would have him run away from the Tick-Tock the Crocodile, as said crocodile attacks the opponent instead of Hook. His Musical Finale "A Pirate's Life/Elegant Captain Hook" would call his ship the Jolly Rodger onto the stage, as the pirates on the ship occasionally throw knives at the opponent and shoot at them, everytime Hook is caught in a combo and can't escape.

Aurora (Sleeping Beauty): Aurora, sleeping beauty herself, is doing anything but sleep and her guardians are making sure of that! Her attacks has the Good Fairies use their magic in numerous ways, such as moving objects, animating objects and even petrification. Her Special Attack has Prince Philip show up with the Sword of Truth and the Shield of Virtue, to deal heavy damage on the opponent. Her Musical Finale "Once Upon A Dream" boosts her stats everytime she's hit.

Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty): The Mistress of all Evil, Maleficent uses a wide array of magic powers from cursed, throny vines, to her iconic green fires, she's one tough fighter from a distance. Her Special Attack would have her turn into a dragon and breath fire down on the opponent. Her Musical Finale "Once Upon A Dream" would have her make the opponent more drowsy, each time they hit her, until falling asleep, unless they keep moving.

Robin Hood (Robin Hood): The sly fox of England and one talented theif, this fox focuses on disguises, archery, swordsmanship and woodsmanship to make his way. His Special Attack would have authorities show up to arrest him, as they rain down arrows on the opponent in the process. His Musical Finale "Running Through The Forest" would allow him to dodge all attacks, without needing to hit the controls or input buttons.

Basil of Baker Street (The Great Mouse Detective): World's greatest detective! At least in the mouse world that is. Basil would investigate the stage of the fight, much like a crime scene and even pick up clues that double as weapons, such as a propeller or a mouse trap. His Special Attack would have him investigate a crime scene that hurt the opponent, before pushing them aside as 'worthless' evidence. His Musical Finale "Let Me Be Good To You" would have him require no further evidence and counter each hit with a deduction on his opponent's crime and even stop them from performing combos. Doing damage in the process.

Professor Ratigan (The Great Mouse Detective): Never call him a rat. Ever. This crime boss of the miniature crime world be no stranger to fist fights and gleefully take a swing at your demise, whether it's his fists, cane or traps. If not him, then his minions are more than happy to drown some orphans! His Special Attack would have him call his pet cat, Felicia to devour the opponent. His Musical Finale "The World's Greatest Criminal Mind" would give him more durability to hits, more destruction to the stage and traps cover more range on the stage.

Ariel (The Little Mermaid): Princess of the Sea, everyone's favorite mermaid is ready to explore beyond the sea. Armed with her father's trident, some amazing swimming skills and various sea animals at her command, she's more than ready. Her Special Attack would have her conjure a giant wave, that also covers the opponent in sea creatures. Her Musical Finale "Part Of Your World" fills the stage with water and can have Ariel bump floating objects into the opponent.

Ursula (The Little Mermaid): The last sea witch you would want to cross paths with, Ursula has eels to do her biding, poisonous ink clouds and even thunderclouds. Her Special Attack would have her turn giant via King Triton's trident and use the added power to attack the opponent. Her Musical Finale "Poor Unfortunate Souls" has her disguise herself as the opponent and slowly regain health from all souls being eaten by her. As a bonus, if she's infront of a mirror that's on the stage, her reflection will be her true form.

Belle (Beauty and the Beast): My, quite an odd girl, reading books and getting on the field of battle?! Belle's entire moveset would revolve around books; not magic books, just books on the rest of the cast and fairytales overall. She would be able to switch between each of these books and use what she's learned from them. For Example, 'Romeo and Juliet' gives Belle immunity to stat changes and rose themed weapons that hurt the opponent, like throwing weapons. 'Aladdin' gives her a magic ring that can conjure up magic smoke, furniture on the foe and teleport her. 'Jack and the Beanstalk' plants vines that can raise her up or entangle the foe. There's more books at her disposal, but that's just the general idea. Her Special Attack has her father ride in on his invention, chopping up an entire forest until the opponent is covered and crushed by chopped up logs. Her Musical Finale "Tale As Old As Time" gives her the power to 'skip' a fairytale, turning each of her attacks into the endings from the books. For example, 'Aladdin' would trap the opponent in an oil lamp, leaving room for her to attack.

Beast (Beauty and the Beast): The poor and cruel prince, turned into a monster as evil as the one in his heart. Beast has his boost in strength from his beastly form and claws to defeat the opponent. The curse not only affected him: his servants are by his side. Lumiere can incinerate the opponent or plant fires on the ground, Cogsworth can distract them with timed clock sounds, Mrs. Potts can spill tea to slip up the opponent, Chip will knock over bookshelves and Wardrobe can block attacks. His Special Attack would turn the opponent into a piece of furniture, leaving them open for attacks: each opponent having a different transformation. His Musical Finale "Be Our Guest" would have every attack with one of his servants, also heal Beast in addition to hurting the opponent.

Gaston (Beauty and the Beast): Nooo oooone's slick as Gaston! Quick as Gaston! No one's neck is as incredibly thick as Gaston! He's especially good at combo breaking! Boy what a guy that Gaston! Gaston has his inconic blunderbass and his fists, along with a bow and quiver and a hunting knife to deal with an opponent, almost as if they were an animal he's hunting. His Special Attack would have an angry mob charge at the opponent and beat them up. His Musical Finale "Gaston" gives him a strength boost, everytime he pulls off a combo successfully.

Aladdin (Aladdin): Everyone's favorite street rat and theif, he's not alone on the field of battle as Abu and Genie are here to help him. Abu can cling to the opponent and hit them repeatedly, Magic Carpet can be used for aerial attacks, Aladdin has a sword that he 'borrowed' from a guard and Genie can shape-shift in a variety of ways to best the opponent. Aladdin's Special Attack would have Genie distract the opponent, as Aladdin steals something off them and uses it to beat them. Aladdin's Music Finale "Friend Like Me" would have Genie grant a wish, each time Aladdin gets a combo, such as a stat boosts and healing.

Jasmine (Aladdin): The sultan's own daughter that would rather be anything than a prize to be given away. She has learned self defense skills, her father's guards and her pet tiger Rajah in her moveset. Her Special Attack would have the guards arrest the opponent and toss them into prison, as they struggle to escape and take damage. Her Musical Finale "A Whole New World" has one the Seven Wonders of the world occasionally pop up in the background to hurt the opponent, as the fight goes on.

Jafar (Aladdin): The Sultan's Royal vizer of Agrabah and one whom believes he should rule Agrabah. Jafar has his magic staff to hypnotize and cast spells onto his foe. Occasionally tapping into the phenenomal, Cosmic power of his Genie form to do some real damage. And Iago is here as well... mostly to complain. His Special Attack would have him become an all powerful Genie and Iago wishing for ways to 'hurt' (not kill) the opponent. His Musical Finale "You're Only Second Rate" would boost all of his stats and attacks, except he can't KO the opponent until the Musical Finale is done.

Simba (The Lion King): King of the Pride Rock and son of Mufasa, the Lion King himself is more than prepared with his claws and iconic roar. His roar can even control the weather to strike lightning and cause windstorms. His Special Attack would have him call on the spirit of his father, Mufasa, as the two of them roar at the opponent. His Musical Finale "Circle Of Life" will have him remember, how we are all connected and draw on the life-force of nature, slowly healing him and giving his roars more range.

Scar (The Lion King): Mufasa's little brother and King after his timely demise, Scar has his claws and his hyenas to make short work of his foe as if their nothing more than a light snack. His Special Attack would toss the opponent of a cliff, into a Wildebeest stampede just like in the movie. As a bonus, he would say 'long live the king's son' if Simba is the opponent. His Musical Finale "Be Prepared" has him do damage without needing to attack the opponent and just walking into the opponent.

Pocahontas (Pocahontas): Daughter of Chief Powhatan, this Disney Princess has the skills necessary in order to survive and win. Her Special Attack would have her people come in to fight alongside her and best the opponent. Her Musical Finale "Colors Of The Wind" gives her attacks more launching power and each dodge she does generates winds that hurt the foe.

Governor John Ratcliffe (Pocahontas): The main villain of Pocahontas, this greedy scoundrel will do anything to claim what he believes is rightfully his. He has a sword and uses his position of power to call his men into the fray. His Special Attack would have his men charge like in the movie at the opponent. His Musical Finale "Mine, Mine, Mine" prevents the opponent from interrupting his attacks and tripping over any gold sticking out of the ground.

Quasimodo (The Hunchback Of Notre Dame): The hunchback of notre Dame himself and quite the sweetheart, he just wishes to see the outside world. His job as the ringer of the bells comes in handy to stun them, swing bells at them, his talented acrobatic skills and surprising strength. His Special Attack would have him reenact the Festival of Fools and have the opponent be caught up in all the chaos. His Musical Finale "Out There" turns all of his bell attacks, into soothing sounds, that heals him.

Esmeralda (The Hunchback Of Notre Dame): An outcasts, like many other outcasts of Notre Dame, she's picked up on a multitude of tricks to evade capture. Such as illusionary tricks to trick opponents and various circus acts from the Festival of Fools. Her Special Attack has Phoebus teleport out of a field of smoke and beat the opponent. Her Musical Finale "God Help The Outcasts" plants multiple pillars of light over the stage, that burn the opponent and heal Esmeralda.

Judge Claude Frollo (The Hunchback Of Notre Dame): Someone whom believes only he can purge the world of evil and that all he does is for the greater good. Frollo, due to his old age mostly uses his sword, his horse and his 'fears' to end the opponent. Those 'fears' being cloaked figures that defend Frollo and burn the sins of his opponent. His Special Attack burns the stage, with the opponent caught up in the flames being tied to a stake. His Musical Finale "Hellfire" burns the opponent every time they hit and touch Frollo.

Arthur (Sword in the Stone): The rightful king of England, proven by pulling the sword in the stone, Arthur is ready to be king. Merlin's apprentice is armed with the sword of legend: Excalibur and his mentor Merlin is there to provide some magic aid by turning Arthur into various animals and predict the opponents attacks with foresight. Arthur's Special Attack has Merlin turn into a germ to infect the opponent. Arthur's Musical Finale "Higitus Figitus" grants Arthur increased weight, almost as if he's the sword in the stone and making him harder to launch and knock away.

Hercules (Hercules): The son of the Greek God Zeus, Hercules goes to prove himself as a true hero and this brawl may be his greatest trial yet. With his power as a Greek God, granting him immeasurable strength, agility and endurance. And his pet Pegasus shows up for aerial attacks. His Special Attack has his father Zeus come in and hurl his thunderbolt at the opponent. His Musical Finale "Zero To Hero" increases his durability each time he pulls off a combo, making him immune to attacks at times.

Hades (Hercules): Greek God of the underworld and lord of the dead, Hades will claim victory. In addition to mastery of fire and smoke, Hades can shift between generally calm and collected, to angered and enraged, which affects the range and power of his attacks. Pain and Panic also shapeshift to provide some help. His Special Attack has the Titans show up and attack the opponent. His Musical Finale "My Town" floods the stage withdead souls that slowly deplete the health of the opponent.

Mr. Incredible (The Incredibles): One of the greatest superheroes whom ever lived, in spite of an unneeded early retirement from the government. Robert "Bob" Parr, known to the public as Mr. Incredible, has his moveset revolve around his superstrength and invulnerability, also being able to use the environment to his advantage like uprooting trees. His Special Attack calls in the rest of The Incredibles; Dash, Violet, Elastigirl and Jack-Jack to help take down the opponent as a family. His Musical Finale "The Incredibles" has his attacks all release shock waves that occasionally make debris hit the opponent, like it's the intensity of a comic book.

Syndrome (The Incredibles): You better catch him while be monologues as he does not play around! The wannabe superhero uses zero point energy to toss the opponent and send objects flying their way. His Special Attack calls in the Omnidroid to make short work of the opponent. His Musical Finale "Kronos Unveiled" forces the opponent to not stand still for too long or repeat the same attacks, or else the Omnidroid will fire lasers at them almost as if their being analyzed.

Mulan (Mulan): From lying to save her father's life, to saving all of China to joining other famous Disney heroes on the field of battle, Mulan has been through a lot. She has a sword, fireworks, a staff and a fan to best her foes. Mushu tags along, spitting fireballs at the opponent and tricking them into attacking smoke illusions that resemble Mulan. Her Special Attack has fireworks hit a snowy mountain, crushing the opponent under an avalanche. Her Musical Finale "Reflections" has Mulan disguise herself and blend in a crowd that slowly came onto the battlefield. The opponent attacking a random person will have them retaliate and hurt them.

Jack Skellington (The Nightmare Before Christmas): The pumpkin king and the patron of Halloween, his title comes with a wide array of pumpkin bombs, a flexible and detachable skeleton body. His Special Attack would have him trap the opponent in a series of giant pumpkin bombs, before his pet dog Zero lights them up. His Musical Finale "This Is Halloween" plants a series of tricks and treats all over the stage: treats for Jack that heals him and tricks that leave the opponent in a scared state. They take more damage while scared.

Oogie Boogie (The Nightmare Before Christmas): A literal burlap sack of nothing but bugs, Oogie Boogie has those very same bugs come out and harm the opponent. From spiders that tangle them up, to tarantulas that poison them to flies that hoist them up, he's as gross as sounds. His Special Attack would have him inhale the opponent and let his bugs do the work. His Musical Finale "Oogie Boogie's Song" increases his luck of landing higher damage, by also hitting a dice on the stage.

Tarzan (Tarzan): A man raised by apes, Tarzan has the strength to even keep up with apes and survive in the forest. In addition to his amazing strength, Tarzan can also swing from vines, use his impressive smell and hearing to counter attacks and a spear. His Special Attack has him command an army of apes to beat up the opponent. His Musical Finale "Son Of Man" puts fruits on the trees he swings from that he can heal himself with: since the opponent is not Tarzan the same fruits either poison them or make them dizzy.

Yzma and Kronk (The Emperor's New Groove): The former advisor of Emperor Kuzco and her most loyal henchman. Kronk does the fighting with his astounding strength and Yzma will be in the background, occasionally throwing potions on the opponent. Kronk will pull the lever, that will do a variety of things such as drop a bust of Yzma, a giant rock, a vase, etc. Their Special Attack has Yzma yell 'PULL THE LEVER KRONK!' sending the opponent and Yzma down a trap door to below the stage. Leaving it up to interpretation what happens, as Yzma casually walks back to the stage with a crocodile biting her leg. Their Musical Finale "Snuff Out The Light" replaces Yzma's potions with singing that prevents the health bar from going any lower.

Milo J. Thatch (Atlantis: The Lost Empire): An orphan that grew up to be quite the cartographer to even finding the lost city of Atlantis. Since he's not much of a fighter, the friends he made on the trip will do the fighting for him. Vinny plants explosions, Mole digs holes and attacks from the ground, Sweet heals Milo and boosts his durability, Audrey sends vehicles at the opponent and Cookie leaves food for people to trip over. He's even picked up on some Atlantean magic from Kida. His Special Attack has him pilot an Atlantean cruiser, shooting lasers at the opponent. His Musical Finale "Where The Dream Takes You" reverse the opponents controls, every time Milo lands a hit, almost as if their lost without a map.

Kida Nedakh (Atlantis: The Lost Empire): Princess of Atlantis and the current Queen, Kids is armed with a spear and a connection to the Heart of Atlantis, granting her forcefields and runes that dish out the ancient city's might. Her Special Attack summons a giant tsunami with the opponent being hit as Atlantis sinks. Her Musical Finale "Kida Returns" has the stage covered in runes, as the guardians of Atlantis will hit the opponent if they step on a rune.

Stitch (Lilo and Stitch): Experiment 626, also known as Stitch is an alien that befriended the kind-hearted Lilo Pelaki. Stitch is indestructible, has four plasma blasters, can roll up into a ball and lift up to 3000 times his own weight. His Special Attack calls in his cousins to each hit the opponent once, before Stitch himself smacks them with a car. His Musical Finale "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" doubles the strength of any attacks timed with the music.

Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean): Captain Jack Sparrow comes to the battle with his signature sword, musket and flintlock pistol. His Special Attack has the Black Pearl ram the opponent and shoot cannonballs at the opponent. His Musical Finale "He's A Pirate" makes him impossible to KO, he can still take damage though.

Sulley and Mike Wazowski (Monsters Inc): The dynamic duo and best friends, Sully and Mike fight with the former scaring the opponent and the latter being pulled from the background, used as a ball to hit opponents. The more combos they land, the more scare is generated as energy: this energy being used to power machines to attack the opponent. Their Special Attack has the stage be overloaded with scare energy, to the point of canisters bouncing all over the stage and hitting the opponent, much like in Monsters University. Their Musical Finale "If I Didn't Have You" makes the opponent laugh each time they hit Sulley, generating energy and leaving them open to attack.

Jim Hawkins (Treasure Planet): Jim Hawkins, someone with the 'makings of greatness' according to Captain Silver has a chance to prove that here. With his solar surfer to pull off some amazing tricks, a knife and a blaster, he can hold his own just fine. His Special Attack would simply be Treasure Planet blowing up, with the opponent caught in the explosion, as he flies away on a ship. His Musical Finale "I'm Still Here" gives him the markings of greatness, in the form of stat boosts everytime he pulls off a trick on his solar surfer.

Captain John Silver (Treasure Planet): The fearsome pirate cyborg and only real father figure to Jim Hawkins, Captain Silver is ready to use those pirate skills from over the years to claim his treasure. As a cyborg, he has a wide selection of tools and weapons, such as lasers, a cybernetic eye, guns, a sword, a cleaver, a battering ram, the list goes on. His Special Attack has the opponent fly into space, while he leaves on a pirate ship. His Musical Finale "I'm Still Here" fills the stage with comets that can freeze the opponent if they come into contact with them and increases the strength of Silver's lasers if they pass through.

Merida (Brave): The Scottish princess and daughter of Queen Elinor and King Fergus, enters the battle with her archery skills and swordsmanship to win the fight. Her Special Attack has her ride in on her horse Angus, delivering a series of arrows to finish off the opponent. Her Musical Finale "Touch The Sky" makes all her arrows hit the opponent, without fail.

Kenai and Koda (Brother Bear): The bear brothers, one born a bear and the other cursed to turn into a bear. Kenai and Koda fight as a team of bears from claws to wilderness skills they picked up. Even the Great Spirits watch over and protect them, by influencing nature to protect the brothers. Their Special Attack has the spirits of Sitka and Koda's mother come in to protect them and deal with the enemy. Their Musical Finale "On My Way" increases the range of their block, with the Great Spirits protecting them.

Tiana and Naveen (The Princess and the Frog): A hardworker that believes the only way you can make it in the world, is through hardwork. Even if that meant kissing a frog. Tiana has a wide assortment of cooking utensils to win. With Naveen distracting them with singing and dancing. They can switch to being frogs, where they use their tongues to tangle up the opponent and hop off lily pads. Their Special Attack has Mama Odie turn the opponent into a series of animals, before sending them away with her Voodoo magic. Their Musical Finale "Almost There" gives Tiana a golden glow that greatly increases the range of their attacks and distracts the opponent with golden glows.

Dr. Facilier (The Princess and the Frog): The Shadow Man himself and one whom turned Naveen into a frog, Dr. Facilier fights with his cane, Voodoo magic, shadows and spell casting. His Special Attack has him pull the opponent into a deal, as their dragged down by the Voodoo Spirits. His Musical Finale "Friends On The Other Side" let's him take a gaze into the opponent's future, turning all of his attacks into counters, if they hit the same time as the opponent's attacks.

Rapunzel (Tangled): The lost princess of the Kingdom of Corona, blessed with magic hair and has quite the efficient frying pan. Her hair can not only heal herself a bit, but can be swung from, tie up the opponent and makes for a surprising whip. Her Special Attack has Flynn and Maximus ride in, with Rapunzel hitching a ride, as the three take down the opponent. Her Musical Finale "I See The Light" fills up the stage with lanterns, that can blind the opponent if they touch any.

Hiro and Baymax (Big Hero 6): The child genius and the helper robot turned fighter have become quite the crime fighting duo, that honor Tadashi's wish of wanting to help people. Baymax does the fighting, with Hiro on his back, such as martial arts, rocket fist, an energy blade and sonic blaster. Their Special Attack calls in the rest of the Big Hero 6, as they teamup and take down the opponent. Their Musical Finale "Immortals" assuming they get the rights to the song has Baymax dodge every attack that comes, without needing to move the controller and slowly heal up.

Judy Hopps (Zootopia): A young bunny from Bunnyburrow that came to Zootopia to pursue her dreams of being cop and help people. Her bunny physiology grants her enhanced hearing, quick agility, high jumping and she has trained herself to take down foes much bigger than her. Her Special Attack has her do her job as a cop and arrest the opponent, with the entire police force joining in to help. Her Musical Finale "Try Everything" plants tourist attractions all over the stage, that can hurt the opponent and heal Judy.

Elsa (Frozen): The Queen of Arendelle and the Ice Queen herself, forced to conceal don't feel, don't let them know. But she'll be doing anything but that here! Elsa has ice powers to freeze the opponent, create pillars of ice, ice slides, ice skates etc. Her Special Attack calls in Marshmallow to deal with the opponent. Her Musical Finale "Let It Go" allows her ice powers to come to life and aid her in battle.

Moana (Moana): Moana of Motuni, whom has sailed the sea to return the Heart of Te Fiti with Maui. She has a harpoon and an oar, along with the ocean helping her and watching over her. Her Special Attack returns the Heart of Te Fiti to Te Fiti, whom fully heals Moana, temporarily boosting her attack. Moana's Musical Finale "How Far I'll Go" covers the stage in water that has boats to hit the opponent and granting Moana faster speed.

Maui (Moana): The Maori Demigod of the wind and sea, with quite the number of feats from over the years. With his magic fish hook, he can shapeshift into a number of animals, his most common being a hawk. His Special Attack being lassoing the sun into the opponent. His Musical Finale "You're Welcome" makes all damage to Maui, take longer to leave an impact.

And that's that. A LOT longer than I thought it would be. Now your probably thinking, what about all the other Disney media? It's an idea for the first game, so other characters (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Scrooge McDuck, Goliath, Kim Possible, etc.) would appear in a potential sequel.

Or DLC, since every game these days has it.

Thanks so much for reading all this and taking the time to do! I would love to hear some thoughts and feedback! I had a blast making all this and would like to see if you're interested in hearing more video game ideas.

[tcm]

Ray Harryhausen: The Master of Movie Magic By Raquel Stecher

June 29th marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late, great Ray Harryhausen. A master technician and visionary, Harryhausen transported audiences into worlds of fantasy and mythology through his stop-animation. What now takes a team, Harryhausen did mostly on his own. He was autonomous, preferring to have control over his work and his vision, and he became heavily involved in many aspects of filmmaking including writing, storyboarding, producing and in many cases co-directing. 

Harryhausen fully immersed himself in the process by analyzing the skeletal structure of ancient beasts, studying animals in motion, sketching models and building them by hand and then finding the most creative and dynamic ways to bring his fantastical creatures to life on screen. He poured so much of his time and energy into his models that he’d often develop emotional attachments to them. Harryhausen’s unique gifts as a visual effects artist improved on the work that came before him and would pave the way for future filmmakers to come. Among those who credit Harryhausen for inspiring their work include directors Tim Burton, James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson.

Harryhausen’s own source of inspiration came from the work of stop-animation artist Willis H. O’Brien who worked on the monster adventure classic KING KONG (’33). Watching KING KONG for the first time made an indelible mark on teenage Harryhausen. Inquisitive by nature, he set out to learn about how the film was made. Once he learned about stop-animation, he contacted O’Brien at MGM and made his acquaintance. O’Brien took Harryhausen under his wing and the mentorship would help him launch his future career. His parents were extraordinarily supportive of their teenage son. His father built a small studio in the corner of their garage and his mother would give him scraps of fabric and fur for modeling. Harryhausen’s father was particularly good at creating armament, the metal structure that helps the models move with manipulation, and would work with his adult son on many films.

What was unique about Harryhausen was his singular vision and ingenuity. It can be seen with the innovations he brought to many of his projects. Harryhausen worked with O’Brien on the film MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (’49), another monster adventure film that was born out of the continued success of KING KONG. Harryhausen worked for two years on the film, and while O’Brien was busy solving production problems, Harryhausen got to work on the animation. He studied footage of large gorillas from the Chicago Zoo and according to Harryhausen the film proved to be “most useful for studying the pace and stride of his walk as well as detailed idiosyncrasies.” The armature was based off the skeleton of a gorilla and Harryhausen used his skills to manipulate the model to give Joe Young more nuanced movement than Kong had before him.

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG led to work on other monster films like THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (’53), where Harryhausen used front-projection technique as a cost-saving measure, and IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (’55). The latter film included a giant killer octopus that Harryhausen gave six tentacles instead of eight. Time meant money in Hollywood, something Harryhausen was keenly aware of, and it made sense to spend time animating fewer legs. Especially when the audience didn’t need to see all eight to get the full effect.

With UFOs being all the rage in the 1950s, Harryhausen used his unique brand of innovation to animate flying saucers for the science fiction film EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (’56). He used an aerial brace that connected the saucer to metal wires. The brace allowed Harryhausen to tilt the saucers so they appeared to fly at an angle when necessary. The most difficult part of this project was depicting the saucers destroying buildings. In his book Film Fantasy Scrapbook Harryhausen wrote, “they had to be photographed in the process of disintegration by a death ray, frame by frame —each falling brick being suspended by invisible wires.”

Harryhausen found his calling when he transitioned to fantasy stories where mythical creatures are aplenty. Working alongside his longtime collaborator Charles Schneer, to ensure that THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (’58) was a success they came up with a new name for Harryhausen’s work: Dynamation. Had the film been promoted as a live action film with animation, adult audiences might turn away thinking that it was for children. Dynamation rebranded the stop-animation to cast the widest net possible. In THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD Harryhausen animated a skeleton in a thrilling sword battle that would be revisited in just a few years on a bigger scale.

JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (’63) was the pinnacle of Harryhausen’s career. He called the film his favorite because it was “the most complete.” The skeleton fight sequence, which has since become the most iconic scenes of Harryhausen’s work, took four months to complete. Harryhausen insisted there be seven skeletons because of the importance the number seven had in mythology. However, this created more work. He created anatomically correct skeletons with movable heads, arms and legs. Stuntmen and actors rehearsed to get the action scenes just right and Harryhausen filmed the skeletons over a rear-projection of that footage matching the skeletons’ movements with that of the actors. The longest animated sequence in the film features Talos, a giant bronze statue that comes to life to seek revenge. Harryhausen was inspired by the myth of Talos and by the Colossus of Rhodes and created a gigantic version of Talos with movements “deliberately stiff and mechanical.”

Other innovations include the giant crab in MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (’61). Harryhausen bought a live crab from Harrods in London, had it humanely killed and replaced the meat with metal armature and reanimated the dead crab on screen. In CLASH OF THE TITANS (’81), he finally got his wish to create a more dynamic interpretation of Medusa. He specifically created a reptilian Medusa to avoid having to animate a human one with clothes. Animating Medusa was incredibly difficult as each of the twelve snakes on her head had to constantly be in motion. Harryhausen joked that the process gave him a “Gorgon-sized headache.”

While Harryhausen’s style of animation has now been replaced by more advanced stop motion techniques as well as CGI, his films continue to awe and inspire audiences. It’s still a thrill to see his many mythical and ancient creatures come to life in his films.

[some-dr-writings]

Gundham’s and Kazuichi’s mangaka S/O wants to draw them

Gundham Tanaka:

·       Though you were the Super High School Level Mangaka you specialized in historical fantasy! You absolutely adored doing research and finding new mythical beasts and species to sketch and incorporate into your work. It was no surprise that Gundham became your muse the moment you two met!

·       Gundham would allow you to visit his creatures and draw them to use as bases for cryptids and monsters of all sorts in your manga. The four Dark Devas often acted as your pose models given how unusually animated they were for hamsters.

·       Having asked the Overlord of Ice to allow you near his animals so often you spent much time together and eventually started dating.

·       “My Queen, the Stringer of Fates, what curse dares to plague your soul?! You’ve not touched the pages with which you create and destroy worlds, as if it were deadly to do so! You’ve yet to search out a demon to immortalize. Not even have you greeted the four Dark Devas of Destruction as you always have.” You huffed lazily watching the rabbit Gundham was currently grooming. “Artists’ block. I can’t seem to draw or write anything. Either I just stare at a blank page for hours, or I start something which quickly dissolves into an incoherent mess!” Rubbing your temples, you grumbled at the clogged feeling fogging your mind. “I did pull a few all-nighters last week. Maybe I’m just drained. But if things keep going like this, I’ll miss my deadline! I already asked for an extension on it last week, I can’t keep doing this!”

·       Gundham watched as you picked up the sketch pad and pencil. There was this stiffness in your movements. Your hand which once flowed about gracefully like a bird in flight now paved plain straight lines. Your eyes darted about unable to focus on anything. “UGH! I can’t even draw a proper circle for the rabbit’s body!” Sinking into your seat you tossed your sketch pad and pencil aside. “Perhaps a day of respite is in order.” “No, I already took a day off yesterday. I feel I’m even worse now than I was two day ago.”

·       The Devas quickly scurried over to you, hopping into your lap, or climbing onto your shoulder to nuzzle your cheek. “… thanks.” Gently petting the two in your lap you sighed in defeat.

·       It was at that Gundham abruptly stood up. “Where is my Queen, and what have you done with her, villain?!” “… Huh?” “MY Queen would never rot away so quickly into a decrepit state such as this! She’d fight and claw till her final breath! She’d never faulter so easily!” “I Am, your Queen.” “Hmph! No, you are not. Now, tell me where she is.” You marched right up to Gundham glaring at him. “I’m right here! I am your Queen, the Stringer of Fates!”

·       It started as a chuckle which boomed into uproarious laughter! “There you are. That determination, your will to live has returned to your eyes. I am glad to have you back.” Surprisingly, you did feel like you had more energy than before. “So, shall we be off? A piece of you is still missing and we must search it out less you start to fade away once more.” “… Yeah, a date sounds nice right now.”

·       As a bright blush dusted his cheeks, the Overlord of Ice took your hand into his bandaged one, the other taking your bag of sketch supplies, he led you out of the school grounds into the great beyond!

·       The day was filled with fun and laughter as you raced from place to place, doing anything you could think of. A walk in the park, a trip to the arcade, lunch at a café, shopping at a bookstore, and anything else you could have dreamed of.

·       As the sun began to set, Gundham and you found yourselves at the clear beach, dancing around barefoot, not a care in the world. “… Gundham. Thank you, today was amazing.” His entire face instantaneously flushed hearing his true name being called. In that moment he just looked so beautiful to you. His sheepish smile, those tender eyes, just, everything about him.

·       “May I draw you?” “… Of course, my Queen.”

·       And thus you drew, having completely forgotten that morning or the past few days, you were struggling.

·       “Ah! Your depiction captured my true form! I should have known you could see through my mortal guise!” He so happily admired your drawing with sparkling eyes.

·       While he was distracted you worked on another piece, one of a dark king holding his queen close on the soft shores of the beach.

  Kazuichi Soda:

·       You never held much interest in machinery till you came to Hope’s Peak and met Kazuichi. It seemed just about every time you saw him, he was tinkering with something, from a small robot toy to a monster truck engine. Often times the parts of whatever he was working on were spread out, and then seeing how they all fit together fascinated you. Without realizing it you’d end up just watching him work for hours and sketching out the pieces and tools he was using.

·       Quickly this fascination bled into your own work, incorporating steampunk-esque elements into it. And the more elements you added, the more references you needed. At first you tried getting some on your own, but you’d just end up injuring your hands and fingers in some way or you’d break the pieces.

·       “Look, you got me into this mess and now you have to take responsibility.” “W-what!?” Before Kazuichi could panic you placed an old, rusted pocket watch before him. “How do I disassemble this!?” For a week or two after you’d bring some new item to Kazuichi to disassemble and reassemble. You eagerly sketched out the pieces you needed the references of and more.

·       Quickly you and Kazuichi became friends. You would chatter away as you did your own things. Before you knew it the two of you ended up spending time together just to be together, no drawing and no tinkering.

·       Kazuichi would go to you for advice for his unrequited crush on Princess Sonia to which you’d try your best to help, even if it did hurt a little given your crush on the mechanic. She wasn’t the only thing he spoke of though, so you had plenty of other conversations.

·       Kazuichi certainly liked chatting so when one day he was quiet you got a bit worried… Then you remembered something. “Oh Soda. You’ve never been on a school trip before, right?” “Hmm, uh, yeah. I skipped out on the only one I got a chance to go on.” “Because of financial issues, right.” “Yeah.” “Well, I happen to be going on a trip all over Europe for background references and I was thinking who better to take along than my best friend and best mechanic I know!” The news certainly perked him right up, and he excitedly chattered on about traveling! Quickly the news spread, and it ended up becoming a class trip! Honestly, though a trip alone with Soda sounded lovely, you more enjoyed seeing how ecstatic he was to be going on an actual class trip with everyone.

·       The trip was fantastic, it seemed to be nonstop fun. Often you’d forget that you were being payed to go on this trip for work and that you needed to get reference materials, thankfully Mikan took more than enough reference photos for you.

·       Though during the trip, you noticed how Kazuichi, though still friendly, was a bit more reserved than usual. When you asked him what was wrong, he said he appreciated the concern, but it was something he had to work out on his own.

·       Eventually your trip took you all to France the city of love. The place was certainly an artist’s dream, you found yourself drawing nonstop there. It was amazing!

·       At one point in your trip your class wanted to get to a restaurant at the top of a rather large hill, but the only way to get there was via a thin road by car. So, you, Kazuichi, Sonia and your driver were the last to get to the restaurant.

·       Then the car broke down. Kazuichi immediately went to check the engine while Sonia stood at the edge of the road, looking out at the sunset. It was a gorgeous sight, her profile, the sunset, the city lights, everything. You had started sketching out the scenery when a though struck you.

·       You elbowed Kazuich, gaining his attention. You then leaned in real close while still looking at Sonia, not noticing the blush spreading on his cheeks as he kept looking to you. “Hey Soda, now’s your chance. This view is absolutely romantic, and you’re in the city of love. Don’t you think this is the perfect time to ask out the girl you like?” This hurt, it really did, but seeing how happy he was to be going on a school trip without worry like he always wanted, you could hardly imagine his joy if Sonia got together with him at a time like this. It hurt, but you just wanted to see him happy.

·       “… Ask out the girl I like, huh…… Okay.”

·       Turning to you he placed his hands atop your shoulders. “Y/N I have a crush on you. Please go out on a date with me.” “… Wait? I thought… what about Nevermind?” “I, well, yeah, I do like her, but… I really like you… I… That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out lately and... so I... You get it, don’t you!?” “… Soda, please let me draw you!” “Huh?” “Well, if we start going out, we’ll be boyfriend and girlfriend, right? I’d like to have something to commemorate the moment by.” “S/O!” He pulled you into a tight hug, giddy out of his mind.

·       You ended up drawing him at the restaurant. He loved the drawing so much he took a picture to use as his phone’s lock screen. From then on you often drew him for references for poses and though all great, his favorite would forever be the first one you made of him. It was made to celebrate you getting together, it was always so special to him.

[honourablejester]

Worldbuilding with Deities

AKA some thoughts on how to make pantheons for your fantasy worlds.

Okay. So this is fairly heavily inspired by D&D specifically, because some of the published settings feel very lacklustre to me in the deity department (*cough*Eberron*cough*), but it also feels like a general problem in fantasy when your setting is not ‘medieval or heroic western fantasy’ where you can just file the serial numbers off the Greek, Norse or Christian mythologies and call it good. I also feel there’s a bit of an issue with either darker or more technological settings, where there’s a push to either have no gods, evil gods, or relatively powerless gods, to show that this is a more enlightened and/or cynical setting that doesn’t rely on silly things like faith. Which is perfectly fine if that’s what you’re actually going for! But. You can have a very wide variety of settings and still have cool and interesting deities in them.

With D&D specifically, I feel like part of the issue is that clerics, paladins and warlocks are playable classes, so there’s mechanical considerations to keep track of. So when you’re worldbuilding a setting, you feel some pressure to ‘tick all the boxes’ with things like cleric domains, and it feels less like building out your setting and more like making random stuff up to fill jobs, which sucks some of the joy out of it. If clerics and deities and mythologies are your jam, excitement will carry you through, but otherwise it might feel like a bit of a slog. Ticking boxes on your worldbuilding forms.

Of course, clerics and deities and mythologies are my jam. So I possibly don’t have much of a leg to stand on here. But. I’m also a pantser when it comes to worldbuilding, and nothing turns me off faster than lists of things to shoehorn in. So. I do have some thoughts here.

When I’m building a mythology, and not just making up a couple of gods for a quick story, I do have a bit of process. It’s mostly subconscious, granted, but there is a method there. Things I consider in a particular order to get where I need to go.

So. Thoughts for rough-and-ready mythology worldbuilding for pantsers who don’t like to overplan. A quick summary:

Mood/Genre

Important Concepts/Themes

Overarching Goals

Reverse-Engineered Cosmology

Further Details

Mood/Genre:

This is the one I think about first and foremost. For worldbuilding in general, really, not just building pantheons. Everything starts from the mood for me. The tone of what I want. What my world is going to feel like to people. Do I want something bleak and pale? Wild and whimsical? Meaty and heroic? Urbane and subtle? Is the world wild and empty and only partially discovered, or completely full to the brim? Is it starting out, fresh and wild and new, or fading away, weary and dangerous and despairing? What does it feel like?

Genre usually follows from tone. Am I looking for dark fantasy? Something post-apocalyptic? Urban low fantasy? Old-fashioned sword-and-sorcery? Celtic fantasy? A rough-and-rowdy beat-em-up?

You don’t have to be overly specific on the genre. I mean, you don’t have to plan that in advance. The tone is the overriding thing, genre will settle itself. But sometimes it’s easier to conceptualise or pitch a thing by its genre.

Once you have the tone nailed down. The mood of what you want. You move on to …

Important Concepts/Themes:

When you’ve gotten a tone, then you can start to think about the concepts that might be important in it. What concepts that would be culturally valued in a setting of this tone, and concepts that would be regarded with suspicion. The themes that divide it up. This is where your domains start to come in, and also where you start to line up what the ‘good’ gods vs the ‘evil’ gods look like.

A question that I find helps here is what do the stereotypical ‘heroes’ look like in this kind of world? Are they rogues up against the man (urban fantasy)? The faithful against the profane (heroic fantasy)? The simple warriors against the sorcerous villains (sword and sorcery)? The fragile monster hunters against the unrelenting darkness (gothic horror)? Etc. This’ll tell you where domains like knowledge, trickery, arcana, war and order will broadly line up on the morality scale.

This is how you get your darker/bleaker settings in as well. You just rearrange your value-sets somewhat. Think about what is still valued in this world. What might usually be valued in a less strained setting, but might be more questionable here. In a post-apocalyptic world, where survival is the name of the game, perhaps gods touting ‘peace’ and ‘acceptance’ are viewed as corrupters, trying to get people to resign themselves and lay down and die. Or they’re saviours, offering a peaceful afterlife away from the horrors of what the setting has become. Dealers choice.

The point here is to get a broad, overarching theme or set of themes to arrange your pantheons around. In a dark fantasy world, it might be light vs dark, faith vs corruption. In a strongly urban fantasy, a very built-up setting, it might be anarchy vs fascism, rich vs poor, honesty vs corruption. In a post-apocalyptic world, it might be hope vs despair, survival vs surrender, life vs death. In a bawdy heroic fantasy, it might be exploration vs safety, civilisation vs freedom, natural vs unnatural. You’re thinking about the driving forces in your setting, the big conflicts that shape it. What things have value, what things are frightening.

And remember, this comes back to the feel of the world. You’re not writing a moral screed here (or, well, you can, but it’s not my primary point), you’re picking the themes and conflicts that will most highlight the mood you want.

And then, once you know the conflict points your gods will be divided along, you can move on to:

Overarching Goals:

What are the deities in your setting working towards? What are their main goals, what are they trying to preserve or destroy or make or accomplish? This lets you divide them up into groups that are working with or against each other. It’s an easy mechanism to build pantheons around, and is based on your themes/values from the previous point.

So. In your urban fantasy setting, built around themes of anarchy vs fascism, honesty vs corruption, rich vs poor. You have your gods of civilisation and tradition, of honesty and respect, of building and preserving. And you have your gods of change and chaos, of trickery and freedom. You have your gods of greed and corruption. Your gods of ascetism and simplicity. You could have them all the one pantheon, forever gaming between themselves. Or divide them out, make two primary pantheons around that first divide, civilisation vs anarchy, with each of them viewing the other as evil, and then several other deities on the outskirts, trying to gain for themselves, or poke at the larger pantheons.

In your post-apocalyptic setting, dark and bleak, built around hope vs despair, survival vs surrender, life vs death. You’ll have your gods of life and protection, of bastions and defenses, of nurturing and rebuilding. Gods who want to protect what’s left and help it rebuild. Then maybe you’ll have gods of death and annihilation, gods of despair and madness, gods of acceptance and fading. Gods who want to help the world limp along to a final darkness. And possibly you’ll have gods of light and defiance, gods of hunting and exploring, gods of lost knowledge and future innovation. Gods who want to reignite the world, kick it back into high gear, and maybe destroy it in the process, but better that than a long slow slide into a hungry nothing!

In your heroic fantasy, big and bawdy and brave, built around exploration vs safety, risk vs reward, civilisation vs freedom, might vs might. You might have people-specific pantheons, in a big empty world where every race or culture is out for themselves. Gods who pick (or come from) specific peoples, and act to make space for them in this brave new world. Other gods, with bigger or smaller goals. Gods of chaos, thriving on the general anarchy of the world. Gods of civilisation, striving to unify it more. Gods of annihilation, who want to wipe the slate clean, and who are great for everyone else to rally against.

There’s a lot of archetypes to work with here. When you’ve got your mood and your theme, it’s easier to get a picture of the type of god that’s going to live there, to embody that. Then what types might stand a good counterpart or complication to it.

Divide your pantheons up broadly along your themes. Feel out which domains and concepts and ideologies belong with which camps, which might be shared between them. What the pantheons as a whole culturally value, what individual gods value, what that means for their allegiances and goals. What deities would be outliers, independent, what ones would work together, what ones hate everyone but are broadly aligned in goals with others.

From there, we’ve got two further considerations, which I tend to do in whichever order makes sense at the time. One of them:

Reverse-Engineer Your Cosmology:

By which I mean, the origins of your deities and the mechanisms by which gods and/or universes are created in your setting. Can gods be made or created later, or did they have to exist from the start of the world? If they can be created later, how can they be created? How willing are the gods to personally interact with the world and to what extent? Did the gods create the things they’re in charge of, or are they avatars of them, or did they just divvy up jobs the old fashioned way? Etc.

Now. I know a lot of people prefer to do this step first. Cosmology first and work down from there. That’s perfectly fine if that works for you! For me, though, it really doesn’t. It’s far, far easier for me to reverse-engineer it later, after I’ve sketched out what my setting feels like and what sort of gods I’d like to exist in it. It’s easier to have realisations like ‘this setting is way too bleak for ascension to be an option’ or ‘this setting values freedom and chaos too much for everything to have been set in stone from before the beginning’ or ‘this setting is too subtle and low-key for vast holy gestures to be feasible until endgame’ if I’ve already run through the rest first.

Also, it’s easier to come up with backstories if the setting is already sketched. If I decide gods can be made, I can look at things like the cataclysm that defined my post-apocalyptic world and go ‘that made or killed a whollle bunch of gods’. If it’s a gothic/dark fantasy story that relies very much on faith and hope vs monstrosity and darkness, then mortal-origin deities who were so hopeful or monstrous in life that they became avatars after death becomes an obvious option. Things like that. Cosmology is easier sketched in retrospect, I find. You’re not paralysed by fitting stuff into a pre-existing grand order of the universe. You can come up with stuff as it pleases you, and work back to justify it later. (I mentioned I’m a pantser, right?)

And the other consideration:

Further Details:

Once you have your broad-strokes themes and pantheons sketched in, you can flesh them out and start building stuff above, below, within and around them.

Above would be the reverse-engineered cosmology above.

Below would be: servants, celestials, lesser deities, demigods, mortal champions, mortal organisations, priesthoods, cults. What the gods have put into the world. Artefacts. Locations. Ideals. Religions. Powers and magics.

Around them would be other beings, devils, demons, eldritch abominations, etc, and where they fit in this setting. Anomalies to the grand order. Etc.

And within them would be: individual gods, backstories, personal histories, what gods are most powerful depending on theme, what gods are most independent, what gods have changed allegiances in their history, what gods does nobody know their allegiances. What do the gods themselves feel about their jobs and their goals and their means to enact them. Once you’re down off the broad strokes and into the details, remember that your deities are individual, thinking beings as well. Perhaps they can learn, change. Perhaps they have personal hangups from their histories that preclude their doing or joining a certain thing, despite the thematic sense it would make. Perhaps they identify more strongly with a particular aspect of their nature/domain that could put them over into an unexpected camp. There’s a lot of room to muck things around and complicate them once you’re into the nitty gritty.

If stuff crops up here that makes you reconsider any of the previous points above, follow it. Play with it. Maybe adjust some stuff because of it. It often happens to me that a small specific detail will catch my imagination so much that I’ll edit huge chunks of the world around it. Possibly this works out better for writing personal worlds than for live game worlds that have other people in them, but still. It’s a point to consider. Stuff likely will come up later. Mood or tone might shift a bit, entirely naturally. Don’t go too far down into fixed details. Leave enough things vague or sketched that you’ve wiggle room later for adjustments.

In Summary:

Voila! My bootleg process for worldbuilding in general and worldbuilding deities in specific: start with what you want out of it, the mood and tone, the feeling of the setting. The themes and conflicts you want people to explore in it. Then jury-rig the rest out of that. Move to your goals, your factions, your big forces. Then your smaller details, individual characters and personal details. Your origins and your processions, going back and going forward. Reverse-engineer what you’d need to have done to get the setting you want, set the stage for where you might want it to go later. And always remember to keep things loose enough that you’ve got room to play and adjust and be surprised later, often by your own flighty brain.

Also. Deities are just characters, when we’re talking about fantasy settings. You don’t have to make any specific real world points with them. You just have to make them fit with the mood you want within your setting. You build your universe to fit your story, because fantasy allows us to do that, unlike the real world where we’re stuck with whatever was premade earlier. Heh. So don’t get too bogged down with what you need to add in or leave out to make things ‘dark’ or ‘realistic’ or whatever. Anything can be made to be anything, if you build stuff around it the right way. So add in whatever you want, and jury-rig the rest until it fits. Get a strong enough, loose enough base, and you can add in a surprising amount without upsetting it too much. In my case, that’s the feel. Get the tone nailed down, get some good strong archetypes to build the show on, and you can play merry hell with it from there.

It’s a good general rule. At least for rough-and-ready, adjusted-as-required stuff. Start with what you want, set up a loose framework for it to fit in, then jury-rig the rest from there.

(Or make stuff up out of whole cloth in a blind panic and spend the entire rest of your time straining to keep one chapter ahead so no one figures it out, until you hit a surprise endgame that absolutely no one, least of all you, was prepared for. You know. One or the other. Heh)

So. Good luck inventing gods? Hope this works for more than just me? Eh. Hopefully there’s something worthwhile in it, and good luck!

[rpgsandbox]

     Mock-ups for the Legends of Avallen rulebook, artbook, and playing cards

"From that island at the end of the world, no soldier returned without tales of wonder – walking forests, talking fae, enigmatic shapes half man and half beast: things that you ought not to believe unless you see them yourself.” — Kaato the Sage, writing on the invasion of Avallen

Legends of Avallen is an indie tabletop RPG inspired by Celtic mythology and Roman-occupied Britain. In this fantasy world, players and gamemasters alike will play out tales and themes of humble beginnings, the clash of cultures, and the mysteries of the Otherworld.

Where other games skip the origins of your character, Legends of Avallen starts from the very beginning: you're an ordinary townsperson looking for an excuse to adventure. From those humble origins, you will quest out into Avallen, growing both in character and in power as you discover its magic. Soon you'll choose to follow a legendary path, learning the ways of the Bard, the Gladiator, the Magister, or many more. You will seek out lost relics, slay terrific beasts, riddle with the Gods, and change the fate of Avallen forever.

Avallen needs legends – how will you forge yours?

      Illustrations of a humble shepherd, a Vallic druid, and a Raxian slayer

What makes this game different? You do not begin as a great hero; instead, you have humble beginnings as a shepherd, blacksmith, scribe, or other base profession before rising up to become an adventurer with your friends.

Designed to be quick to pick up for new players and RPG veterans alike, Legends of Avallen uses regular ol’ playing cards instead of dice. Players flip cards from the top of the deck hoping that they'll match the colour of their attribute, with face cards and aces helping you get critical successes—or a critical failure if they don't match!

The system pushes gameplay away from the rules and into the players’ imagination, emphasising creativity, teamwork, and resourcefulness. Players that make the most of their surroundings, narratives, and set up team plays gain advantages (more cards to flip!) while failure leads to interesting decisions instead of the end of play.

Gamemasters can handily make adventures with scene templates, a mix-and-match monster maker, and Fate Cards that add tension, risk, and a ticking clock to scenes.

And of course, the Celtic-Roman inspired lore!

Legends of Avallen will release as a full coloured and illustrated rulebook containing a player guide, a gamemaster guide, and a lore guide. It will be approximately 150-250 pages in length, depending on what stretch goals are reached. It will be available as a PDF and hardback book through DriveThruRPG.

Legends of Avallen is set in an ancient world but is designed with a modern system

Exclusively available for this Kickstarter we are producing a full regular deck of Celtic themed playing cards featuring illustrations from the mythos of Avallen. These cards are not necessary to play Legends of Avallen but they will definitely look amazing and complement the experience!

Ace of Clubs featuring Llyr-Don the Ever Elder and Jack of Hearts featuring a Bwbach

We don’t know about you, but we love art and have a large collection of artbooks ourselves. We want to share that joy of art and the thought that goes into its creation, so we are also producing an artbook for Legends of Avallen. Exclusively available for this Kickstarter, it will show off the concepting and designs that create the world of Avallen.

Preliminary sketches and concepting for Eilir, the daughter of a minor Vallic noble who sided with the Empire. She gave up her birthright to follow visions that lead her to the path of the Druid.

The Pen-Coed clan worship the Ever Mother and revere the forests, building their hillforts around great oak trees.

Avallen, the main setting for Legends of Avallen, is a mystical island home to the Vallic, a divided Iron Age people. The Vallic clans each claim ancestry to a different kind of Fae, and historically have been in constant conflict. These clans are scattered across Avallen’s diverse biomes, worshipping gods that embody the lands—enchanted forests hosting mischievous Fae and druidic rituals; rolling meadows scattered with earthen fortresses and cattle-raiding Vallic queens; mountains shrouded in mist, hiding ancient sanctuaries and terrifying beasts, and so many more.

But let’s not forget the Otherworld, a place of legends that lies parallel to Avallen, it is the domain of their gods, the Ever Ones. It serves as the final resting place for the spirits of the dead, but also as the birthplace of creatures of myth such as the dreaded Ffieidd-Dra (Feithe-Dra) and the tricksy Fae. The Vallic people are cautious in their dealings with the Fae, and there are many stories of unwitting travellers who wander into this unearthly realm never to be seen again… or so rattled they never wish to speak of their experiences so long as they live.

Stepping into the Otherworld often leads to great fortune, as long as you can find your way back.

Magic is also bountiful on the island, running through it like a roaring river. It is powerful, flexible, and vicious; the average person would do good to avoid it most of their life. The Vallic have a natural affinity for the spiritual magic of the mystics, those that channel the natural forces of the Otherworld.

Avallen is not all nature, magic, and mysticism, though—a new kind of people have settled on their shores. This is the Raxian Empire, whose concrete buildings, urban living, taxes, and other cultural oddities made landfall on Avallen from the mainland to the south a generation ago. As the Vallic always have been, their response was divided. Some welcomed the Empire onto their land, while other clans put aside ancient rivalries to stand up against the invaders.

                Port Magnus, a Raxian town on the south coast of Avallen.

The arrival of a new culture also means a new way of looking at Avallen’s magic and gods. The Raxians consider the magic of the mystics far too unpredictable and dangerous; they much prefer the more logical spells of the mage, those that shape reality to their whim. And while the Empire exiled their own gods back on the mainland, there are a number of Raxians in Avallen willing to worship the Ever Ones. For strategic reasons, of course—worship means protection, favour, and influence over the Otherworld.

Your character will start with very little, the basic skill their Profession grants them and a pouch of coppers to their name. But as they venture across Avallen and have a hand in solving local problems, they’ll come to learn new talents. From their Profession school, a character will go on to select a base Class, and their world will be opened up to the arcane arts and styles of martial abilities.

Valens is an apprentice smithy and part of the first generation of Raxians to be born on Avallen.

With your adventure rising to more epic heights, so will your character’s abilities—as they begin to make a name for themselves across the island, your character will begin to walk one of the Legendary Paths, like the Druid or the Gladiator. These Paths offer even more powerful, more specialised skills and abilities that will change how you approach the game both in and out of conflict. Your talents certainly won’t go unnoticed by the residents of Avallen.

After his border town was ruined by war, Valens followed the path of the Slayer, vowing to hunt warmongers on both sides of the wall.

Finally, in the most legendary tiers of play, as your character finds mastery at the end of their Legendary Path, they will be forced to face their own flaws as they contend with the powers that be in both the mortal realm and in the Otherworld. Both your fate and Avallen’s will rest in the palm of your hand. How will you change Avallen forever? How will your character arc end? Will yours be a legend of redemption, or tragedy?

You can check out the Rules Summary here!

Legends of Avallen is designed to be approachable for new players and gamemasters alike, with over 20 of our playtesters having never played a TTRPG before! The game rules are introduced gradually as your characters advance, opening up new lines of strategy and deeper interactions for RPG veterans to master.

The simplicity starts right off the bat with character creation. You first determine your key personality traits, your starting Profession school—the job by which your humble townsperson makes a living—and finally, your score in four attributes—Vigour, Agility, Wit, and Spirit. That’s it! You’re ready to play.

When faced with a challenging situation your character needs to overcome, you will make a check with an attribute by turning over two cards from the top of the deck. Cards of the correct colour will add one to your attribute, while cards of the opposite colour subtract one. You'll be on the lookout for face cards and aces though as they add or subtract more, with faces worth two and aces worth three!

You’re not always confined to turning over just two cards, though. Interacting intelligently and creatively with your environment can grant you Advantages—extra cards to turn over. And when you’re at an advantage, you’ll take the two highest cards of all the ones you turn over, which means the better chance you have of achieving a critical success! Your allies can always help you in ways that give you Advantages, too. This will prove particularly useful for tough foes—it's better to work together to get one key hit in than have everyone chip away in futility.

Llysaera, Valens, and Eilir face off against a Draig. Overcome terrific foes using teamwork with a few decisive actions rather than many repeated ones.

But you can always find yourself on the flip side of a situation—at a disadvantage. In this case, you’d take the two lowest cards you turn over. While that means a greater chance of failure, there’s no need to worry—failure doesn’t mean the end of play.

When faced with failure, you have a choice: either sacrifice equipment or yourself to force a success, or choose to accept failure and take an Edge. Edges are face down cards, that can buildup through a scene, representing progress despite failure. You spend Edges when you like, adding them to your own checks or passing them around to your allies.

By the end of an adventure, your character and your companions will be exhausted, and their gear will be broken down, but they will be triumphant, and you will have many a thrilling tale to tell.

Don’t worry GMs, we've been thinking about you as well. While the players rise up to become legends, you are the hidden hero weaving the strands of fate to make it all possible. Legends of Avallen will come with GM tools that will help you focus on storycrafting, worldbuilding, and play.

Quickly create compelling content by adding your ideas to Scene, Quest, and Campaign templates that will be built to support Avallen lore and faction guides.

Find out what your players' characters care about most by raising the stakes with Fate Cards. Fate Cards represent risk and a ticking clock in tense situations such as sneaking through an Imperial camp, or exploring an opening to the Otherworld. When a player tempts Fate, the cards will decide if there are consequences.

Concept art for a Vallic town, get ready to bring it to life with your own NPCs and story hooks!

The system is designed so that so you can come up with NPCs and enemies on the fly, because let’s face it—the players always find a way to throw you a curveball! Use the personality system built into social encounters to come up with deep and interesting characters at a moment’s notice, and see how your players use those aspects to their advantage. And quickly slap together fiends, when your players unexpectedly wander into places they shouldn’t be, with the mix-and-match monster maker.

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Kickstarter campaign ends: Sun, September 20 2020 7:53 PM BST

Website: Legends of Avallen