Other Charaters from Nourna's World

 The other day I shared about the character Nourna and some of her allies. Today we will look at that same fantasy world setting. I have a few ideas for possible world names and I will assign one soon enough. Here are a few other heroes and minor characters wandering that world.

Tanja is a heroic beautiful archer adventurer. She travels helping those in need and fighting evil. I don't really have her character developed much beyond that. I decided she could exist on the same world as Nourna. This collage includes some heromachine models, a viking warrior dress up game. It also has two drawings, one done for me by demoonial and other by wolfram18, both are on deviantArt.

Lathan is Tanja's husband who travels with her adventuring. He is a very handsome warrior man. I made a version of him with a warrior maker dress up game. Then I got a few AI generated images from his description that look okay.

Reyna is a girl from a faraway land who has magical powers. The original drawing for this character was done for me by deyenyen on deviantArt. It was meant to be a different character but I recolored it and came up with the idea for Reyna. I had an idea for playing with the 'exotic foreigner' trope where Reyna comes from an analog of Europe and to the people of Tanja's land, Reyna is very unusual.

Haoshi is a recurring character the heroes would meet from time to time. Haoshi is a messenger with ninja skills. She uses the skills to move quickly and quietly so that she can make her deliveries safely. The centerpiece of this collage is a drawing done for me by musspell on deviantArt. I also used heromachine and got some decent versions of her from an AI image generator.

Surati is a dancer at a inn/lodge/club of some kind in the world. I have some ideas for her backstory but I want to work on them more before I get into it.

And finally Yuki is another dancer that works with Surati at the same place.

I thought I would have more to say about some of these characters but now it seems I need to develop this world and its stories more before I share anything else about it.

NOURNA'S PATROL

 Today I want to look at another God Factor spin off idea. Yes another one from the story arc idea where Dominick goes to different worlds recruiting new heroes to the forces of light. In one world he met a young soldier named Nourna.

Nourna is the last soldier of an army that no longer exists for a nation that was destroyed. Nourna was the second in command of her patrol. The enemy they fought overwhelmed them and Nourna was the only survivor. She returned home to find her nation had fallen. Now Nourna roams the land upholding the ideals of her destroyed homeland and helping those in need.

I made this collage with a few AI generated images of Nourna's description as well as heroforge.com and heromachine.com plus two actual arts from deviantArt. The one of the left was done for me by waterskies. I know I have the name of the artist who did the centerpiece image written down but I can't seem to find it right now so I will update that later if I find it.

Not long after Nourna began her travels, she met Arma who became her traveling companion and best friend. Arma is a demi-god, the daughter of Bellatorius, the god of war. No mortal weapon can harm Arma. No matter what weapon is being used, it will shatter the moment it impacts her skin. The only exception are divinely blessed weapons that are very rare, so she does not worry about them most of the time. Nourna is still dealing with a lot of trauma from losing everything and Arma provides some upbeat energy that helps lift her spirits.

The centerpiece of this collage was done for me by demoonial on deviantArt. It also includes a heromachine.com version I made and a base I used for the early concept of Arma's outfit. The rest are the AI genereated results from Arma's description.

Pyrim is a traveling adventuring archer. He met Nourna and Arma on an adventure and teamed up with them for a time. He immediately took a liking to Nourna but she was not ready for a relationship so soon after everything she lost. Pyrim continues his own travels and helps Nourna whenever he can hoping for the day when she will be ready to get close to someone again.

There is only one AI image in this one, the rest are heroforge.com and a warrior dress up game.

Athela and Berthela are beatiful twins who become allies to Nourna and Arma. The twins are in fact the demi-god daughters of the goddess of love. Athela became a spell casting priestess serving their mother's religion. Berthela on the other hand rejects their mother's power and chooses to be a warrior. They travel together doing good works and team up with Nourna when the opportunity arises.

The twins are characters than came about when I decided to recolor some line art pieces that some artists did for me. The one for Athela was done for me by demoonial. Unfortunately I can't seem to find the name of the artist that did the Berthela one. I know I had a file with all this information but I seem to have lost stuff after transferring over to this new computer. Anyway I also made versions of them in heromachine and got a few results from their description in an AI image generator.

And that will be all for today. There are a few other characters in the same world as Nourna but I will post them later. Also I need to decide on a name for the world this story takes place on.

Natalia and Friends

 I have made many more character collages over the last few weeks and I shall continue to make more.

Today I will show you Natalia and her friends. This is another God Factor spin off from the time Dominick goes around recruiting new heroes across the multiverse. At one point in the story arc Dominick finds himself in Los Angeles and he meets a girl named Natalia and some stuff happens and other characters are introduced and I will get into that more as I present the collages.

Natalia is a California beach boardwalk fitness skater girl. When Dominick meets her, he can sense that she has latent psychokinetic powers that become fully awakened by the end of the story. After that she begins her adventures as a beach boardwalk fitness skater girl with psychokinetic powers who fights the forces of evil.

This collage contains a few dress up game images that helped me figure out Natalia's fashion. It also contains two drawings done for me by actual artists on devaintArt. The one on the left was done for me by Akiko Ai Kureshi. The one on the right is an unfinished sketch that I managed to color myself done for me by Butteredeggs. And a lot of the rest are indeed AI generated collage fodder.

The next character is Natalia's best friend Julie. Julie is another California pretty girl but she is not into skating like Natalia is but they have been friends since they were kids. Julie is an ordinary human with no preternatural abilities of any kind. She is just the main heroines best friend and always there to support her. Sometimes an ordinary human point of view is just what the hero of the story needs.

This collage is made with a mix of dress up games and AI images like the others.

The next character is Jareth. Jareth is a genetically engineered shape shifter who was created in a mysterious secret corporate laboratory. Jareth escaped from the secret lab and ended up becoming friends with Natalia and Julie. The girls teach him the ways of the outside world that is ignorant of due to being born and raised in a secret lab. Jareth can't alter his mass or density but he can change his appearance and even rearrange his internal organs if needed. Jareth's base form is male but he can become a she with ease, or even an animal as long as it has equal mass.

This collage contains a dress up game image and some heroforge.com screenshots as well as the base I used for the original Jareth outfit concept.

The next member of the friend group is an alien lizard man named Etheel. He comes from the planet Lasidor. Etheel is actually the Eighth member of the Council of Light. Like all councilors he was once an ordinary mortal who was touched by the Divine Element and gained great power. But his mind could barely handle the multiversal vision of a councilor so he had to go into isolation to meditate and learn to control it. Eventually Etheel found that isolation was not helping him control his abilities. He decided it would be better to spend time on the mortal plane of existence to gain mastery over his powers. And by chance this happened at the same time Dominick was aiding Natalia. The beaches of southern California reminded Etheel of his home planet so he decided to stay and hang out with Natalia and her friends. Now Etheel does not disguise himself as a human, but he can give off a telepathic suggestive signal that just makes people kind of not notice that he is a lizard man from another planet.

This collage was made with heroforge.com screenshots, the heromachine character maker and one drawing done for me by cavyspirit of deviantArt.

Now lets talk about the villain of this story.

Rodazz Denrek Akez Lemad comes from the planet Jurhk. He was once a tyrannical monarch who was touched by the Divine Element and became a Councilor of Light. But then he murdered one of the other councilors in an attempt to usurp the council and become the one and only lord of light. He was no match for the combined power of the other five remaining councilors and they banished him to a netherrealm where he could not hurt anyone. They decided to keep him alive just in case they ever needed his abilities. But Rodazz was not one to just take his punishment and began pushing against the fabric of his prison. His voice reached many worlds and one cult after another sprang up to worship him and plot to set him free. One of those cults was in Southern California were Natalia lives. In fact her ex-boyfriend became the avatar for Rodazz to inhabit so he could break out of his prison. This was the event that caused Natalia to awaken to her full psychokinetic potential. Rodazz was defeated but his cult survived and still works to set him free.

This collage was made with some heroforge.com screenshots, a few AI generated images that did not look like total crap, and one drawing done for me by AzurexTwilight on deviantArt.

There you have the main characters and the main villain from the story of Natalia and her friends.

The Ballad of the Dreadwalker

 Today I will post some collages from the Twisted Western series of short stories I am working on. Twisted Westerns is an anthology series my local writing group, The Writing Journey, has been developing. If any of them read this article they might recognize the names of these characters.

My original concept for Ballad of the Dreadwalker was a bit convoluted taking place in a far flung post apocalyptic future. But when they explained the alternate history North America of the Twisted Westerns fantasy setting, I decided to transplant the Dreadwalker and his cast there because it sounded like a perfect fit. I had to edit out and change some of the details tied to the timeline of the post apocalyptic setting but it still works.

Twisted Westerns takes place in a version of the Old West of North America where history went in a very different direction. The United States of a America as we know it does not exist, instead a very different version of the nation and states exist. The Aztec Empire still exists. Texas is divided into North and South kingdoms. The plains are divided into a series of free city states. And many other things are different.

Lets take a look at The Ballad of the Dreadwalker

 Fifteen years ago, the noble House of Draeden was destroyed. Their manor was burned and the family and servants killed. The only survivor was a boy named Seamus. Now Seamus of the House of Draeden is a bounty hunter known as the Dreadwalker. He travels across the Twisted West making a living and searching for any clue that will lead him to Damien Rex, the man who lead the attack on his home that night. Seamus will make allies and enemies on his journey and learn the perils of revenge.

SEAMUS OF THE HOUSE OF DRAEDEN

THE DREADWALKER

 Seamus was just a kid when his home and family were destroyed. He generally tries to keep his identity as the last surviving member of the House of Draeden a secret. He has grown up to work as a bounty hunter known as the Dreadwalker for his uncanny ability to sneak up his targets. He still seeks any clue that might lead him to Damien Rex but so far the outlaw has eluded him. He tried to live a solitary existence but he managed to make some friends anyway.

 

 MORDECAI HATTS

Mordecai Hatts is a young gunsmith, engineer, and inventor. Seamus came across his remote workshop by accident and that chance meeting turned into a friendship. Mordecai always has some new gadget for Seamus to test out in the field and half they time they even work the way they are supposed to. He supports Seamus however he can but also encourages him to stop to enjoy the little things in life when he can.

As I have starting writing these stories I find there are still some details of Mordecai's background that I need to work out. I need to do some research to determine what tribe he would be from. And I need to decide how he ended up making his workshop in the middle of nowhere.

 

DESDEMONA JEWEL

   When Seamus met Desdemona, she was chained to a bed in a pleasure house and dressed up in a belly dancer harem girl costume. She had attempted to rob the pleasure house and it had not worked out. Seamus rescued her from her predicament and she had been a part of his life ever since whether he wants her or not. Desdemona switched careers to bounty hunting and takes every chance to team up with Seamus. She and Mordecai became fast friends and together they work to get Seamus to be a little more upbeat.

Desdemon is a woman with many secrets. I have an idea of what those secrets are but I will fill in the details as I writer the story.

 

SHADOW CORTES

 The night the House of Draeden was destroyed, Shadow Cortes was there and rescued Seamus. She took care of him after that, teaching him to survive and the way of the gun. When he was old enough she sent Seamus on his quest with her blessing.

Shadow was a blind gunslinger who carried the title of The Augustus, an ancient charge to watch the border between the regular and supernatural worlds. Each Augustus can pass down some of their knowledge to their successor which gave Shadow the skills she needed to make her blindness of little consequence to her gun fighting skills.

TEMPERANCE JAMESON

The last time Seamus saw Shadow, shortly before she died, she told him the name of the woman she had chosen to be the next Augustus.

 Temperance Jameson is a Texas Kingdom Marshal. This gives her a decent amount of authority across the West, if only because no one wants the hassle of getting in a Marshal's way. Temperance knows who Seamus is but does not have any sentimentality towards him like Shadow did. She distrusts bounty hunters but chooses not to interfere with Seamus in his pursuit of Damien Rex.

 

DAMIEN REX

 Long before the night he destroyed the House of Draeden, Damien Rex was a notorious outlaw. But his previous crimes consisted of roguish theft and vandalism. Never before or since had he committed such murderous violence. To this day no one knows why he attacked a noble house. There has been a massive bounty on his head ever since but no one has been able to capture him. He can be recognized by his signature tall black hat, long black coat, all black clothes, and black staff. But he is never recognized for his face. Many people have seen Damien Rex in person, but not one of them can remember what his face looks like. This has caused many theories to pop up about how he may be something more or perhaps less than human.

And those are the major characters from The Ballad of the Dreadwalker. As with the previous collages the images came from a mix of dress up games, heroforge.com, and some AI generated images.

The Four Elemental Warriors

 Like many people, I have been having a rough time this month. I have been taking comfort in my art, both in my writing, and in the recent series of character collages I have been making for various stories.

There have been many stories about four heroes who wield the powers of the elements. I came up with my own back when I was a kid in school, somewhere around junior high. It was originally going to be a spin off of The God Factor where there is a story arc where main character Dominick goes on a sort of recruiting spree across the multiverse looking for new heroes. He encounters a parallel world where the United States never expanded much beyond the original 13 states and most of North America is still controlled by native tribes who formed a federation. Also magic still persists in the world. When a great need arises the tribes will come together to appoint champions of the four elements to defend the world. In this case Earth is invaded by giant alien worms that adapt to the environment and then begin terraforming a planet to their needs. The worms don't care how many humans die in the process so the four elemental warriors are called to fight them.

In my original concept the warrior were going to be four brothers. Then looking at the concept again many years later as an adult I decided to change that and have equal number of men and women, and for them to not be related at all. Now lets take a look at these champions.

AMOS ROUGHSTONE

 Amos Roughstone is the elemental warrior of earth. He is able to move rock and soil with his will alone. He is also very muscular and draws on the power of earth to give himself superhuman strength and durability. At some point I decided that he is a very upbeat and energetic guy.

 

TABITHA COLDRIVER

Tabitha Coldriver is the elemental warrior of water. She can manipulate water to her will. She can also walk on the surface of water if she wants or she can swim at super speed. I decided that Tabitha is the most mission focused member of the group, determined to defeat the worms. Perhaps she suffered some personal tragedy from them or maybe she just takes issue with the idea that giant worms showed up one day and declared themselves the new residents of earth at the expense of everyone who already lives there.

 

MONICA SWIFTCLOUD

Monica Swiftcloud is the elemental warrior of wind. She can control all the air around her. She can even use it to make herself fly and levitate objects. Monica is a very optimistic young woman but gives of a much more laid back energy than someone like Amos. She hopes the four elemental warriors can all be friends and not just co-workers.

 

JUDE FALLINGSTAR

 Jude Fallingstar is the elemental warrior of fire. He can summon fire with a thought and control where and when it burns and how high or low. From the first day I came up with this concept, Jude Fallingstar was the one I had the most clear image of, and the only one whose name has remained unchanged from my original notes. Jude tries to set himself apart from the others, not out of pride, but because he knows he is capable of destruction on a scale far beyond the rest. The other elements are also suited for sowing life. Jude feels like his power is only good for fighting and destroying. Amos and Monica are always trying be friendly and get him to open up. Tabitha respects professionalism but even she finds Jude's brooding a bit much at times.

And there you have The Four Elemental Warriors, champions of an alternate history North America that is being invaded by giant alien worms. I don't have any concept images for the worms. I know what they should look like but there are not giant worm dress up games or character makers with giant worm options. Any attempt to put a description of the worms into an AI image generator all came out looking like crap.

If I ever did go forward with developing this story idea further I would have to do a lot more research on Native American tribes to figure out where exactly each warrior is from and how the whole federation of tribes works.

The Planet of Oz

 It is time for this blog to rise again from the ashes. Yes Blogger still exists and I still have some blogs on there that I have not update for several years. I recently posted some character collages on a facebook album but their algorithms don't get much traffic so I am going to post them here too.

I will be posting character collages from many different story ideas I have had that I hope to finish one day. We will begin with my science fiction retelling of The Wizard of Oz.

THE PLANET OF OZ

Somewhere in the future, when humanity has spread to the stars and set up farming colony on distant moon. On this moon lives a young woman named Dorothy and her dog Toto. One day a 'wizard' technician comes to upgrade the colony environmental system. Soon after a climate control malfunction threatened to cause the colony ecosystem to collapse. The entire colony had to be evacuated through wormholes to a place on Earth called Kansas. Dorothy entered her escape pod like everyone else but the wormhole she entered suddenly became unstable and she was sent to unknown coordinates.

Dorothy and Toto found themselves on a strange alien planet called Oz. Dorothy finds herself caught in the middle of a 'War of Witches' that threatens to engulf the planet. Dorothy must make her way to the Emerald City, the one place that might be able to help her get home. On the way she befriends 3 unusual beings each looking for something to make them whole.

 Lets look at the characters.

 

DOROTHY

 

Dorothy is just another worker on the farm colony. Toto is a genetically enhanced herding dog and her closest companion. When the emergency escape wormhole became unstable they ended up in space above the Planet of Oz. The pod was able to make a landing but it accidentally collided with a transport ship along the way and Dorothy ends up with a strange alien symbiote attached to her legs. She must make her way to the Emerald City to get it removed and meets some friends along the way.

The first few images used in this collage came from dress up games you can find on the internet at places like dolldivine.com or azaleasdolls.com. The image I used for Toto is just a stock image of a herding dog. And yes there are a few AI generated images in there. No, AI generated images are not real art, but if there is anything redeemable about them it is as fodder in a collage like this.

I don't want Dorothy to wear the same outfit the whole story. She starts off in her hot farm girl outfit. Then once she is on the Planet of Oz she gets a new traveling outfit for her journey. And once she arrives in the Emerald City she would try out some of their fashion.

 

 

SCARECROW

 On the Planet of Oz, the Scarecrow is a biological robot made from living plant matter. He was assigned to watch over a farm field and keep it pest free. During the war, the field was abandoned and Scarecrow was left behind. He has been left without maintenance long enough that his nervous system has begun to degrade. He joins Dorothy on her journey hoping to be rejuvenated in the Emerald City.

 

 

TINMAN

 On the planet of Oz, the Tinman is a cyborg lumberman. He has had more than a few work accidents that have left a great deal of his body replaced with cybernetics and he opted to get the full body armor treatment. He still has most of his own bones, nervous system, and internal organs, but his synthetic heart needs to be replaced before it breaks down.He joins Dorothy on her journey hoping he can get a new heart in the Emerald City.

 

THE LION

 On the Planet of Oz, the Lion is a disgraced military commander. In an early battle during the War of Witches, he chose to retreat from battle to save the lives of his soldiers rather than risk them by pushing forward. He was branded a coward for this and stripped of his rank. Since then he spent most days drinking and brooding. He agrees to join Dorothy on the slim chance he might reclaim some of his former glory.

 

THE GOOD WITCH

 The Good Witch leads the forces of Oz defending the planet from the Wicked Witch's invasion. She homed in one Dorothy's escape pod distress signal and sent her on the journey to Emerald City.

 

THE WICKED WITCH

 The Wicked Witch was exiled from Oz many years ago for carrying out inhumane and abominable experiments on intelligent life. She built a stronghold on a distant moon and returned to invade and conquer, so began the War of Witches. The transport ship that Dorothy's escape pod knocked off course was carrying a valuable symbiotic weapon that could win the war for whoever possesses it. Now that the symbiote is stuck on Dorothy, the Wicked Witch hunts her to get it back.

 

 THE WIZARD

 The Wizard was an inventor trying to sell his latest invention to the farming colony. However it malfunctioned and he was quick to make his escape. He also ended up in an unstable wormhole and landed on the Planet of Oz long before Dorothy and managed to set himself up nicely in the Emerald City. Dorothy's appearance will force him to confront his past mistakes and help save The Planet of Oz.

 

There they are, all the major character from The Planet of Oz. I made each collage with a combination of dress up games from Doll Divine and Azaleas Dolls, as well as Heroforge.com, and a few AI generated images. I don't know if this is the only redeemable way to make use of AI images, but I liked putting these together and I will be posting more soon for other story ideas.

This Blog Still Exists

 It has been 9 years since the last time I posted on this or any of the other blogs I started.

I think I might start posting things again.