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I still don't have my computer back, (And have been informed that I'll have to wait 'till January.) but at least my art-block is gone.

I was in a macabre mood, thinking about my future. ^v^

Now THATS pretty cool looking!

Thanks, I've been art-blocked for a while so it's nice to know when I'm stumbling in a good direction.

WARNING: (The Trinarium is heavily based on Abrahamic religions and the political influence they held and still hold. DEAL WITH IT.)

There's no true "Life" in the magic planes connected to Soia, but there is a lot of impressive- though soulless- imitations. Above is not one but two of these "creatures", having spontaneously erupted out of nothing and formed a symbiotic relationship.

The most obvious is the Photep, a shellfish-like creature native to the "blood-rivers" that wrap around the other regions and connect with the massive 56 chambered "hearts" at the center of each continent. Photeps are nothing but chitinous armor-plating, a brain/stomach, and a large "eye" they use to collect light to metabolize.

Then there's the Arteric Leech Coral or "Ghoul's Beard" as it's known colloquially, a parasite nicknamed for it's devastating role in the "Red Plague" that caused a fifth of those killed in the "Black Plague" to rise as ghouls. Ghoul's Beard is a sanguivore mass of protein tubing consistent with blood-vessels. Attached to a Photep host the veins are harmless, though contact with another circulatory system will cause a specimen to begin assimilating the victim into little more than a skeleton covered with the Beard. Undead resulting from a Leech Coral infection typically wander around for 1-3 months, until the colony compromises it's hosts' skeleton and loses mobility.

No one knows for sure where or when Ghoul's Beard first spawned, but the laws that govern the body plane appear to favor the parasites and continue to spawn more and more within the rivers. A popular theory was than they were created by Pan in a bet between himself and Yaonh of the Trinarium, in a contest to see who could create the closest mimic of Soian life from scratch- no living catalysts or models. Legend holds that the wager ended on a tie; with Pan having created a body without a proper soul, and Yaonh having made souls without proper bodies. (Thus supposedly leading to his high-priests endowing clay statues with consciousness.)

The capital of Atlantis and grave site of Empress Diothoth I, Diothopolis is one of the three cornerstones of the entire Atlantean empire. The city is mainly populated by a variety of magically inclined octopi, dolphins and squid; though there is the occasional human with enough magical aptitude to survive so far beneath the surface. Atlantis has occasionally conducted trade with land-dwelling civilizations throughout Soia's history (primarily with the Egyptians, Romans and Malinese) and does so by bending the sea into a gentle sloped "cone of air" that terrestrial sailors could safely traverse.

Atlantis is known for their long tradition of nearly unbroken monarchy. (There was a successful coup de etat by the dolphin-based military in 790 CE, but the monarchy was reinstated a few centuries later.) With every ruler linked by either blood or marriage to the original shrewd politician that bargained and dueled her way to the top of the original Atlantean hierarchy.

I'm not really sure what's going on, but it makes a neat desktop.

So I used Scythes's "Mutant Generator" thing and came out with this! How weird is it that the first time I make a woman's figure look somewhat realistic, it's with a mutant?

As for her list of mutations:

5 - 4: Elongated, bony torso
2 - 2: Protrusive lightbulb shaped eyes
4 - 10: Giant exterior brain


(Terrible Joke Time!)

"Why yes, the carpet DOES match the drapes!"

Another random mutant, that thing is fun.


9-2: Large, gnarled, generally misshapen extremities
3-10: Mouth is anywhere but on head (He has a large nose to make up for this, because dribbling noses are hilarious.)
6-7: Loose, drooping folds like one of those weirdo baggy dogs
1-6: Strange coloration and pupils, amphibian-like eyes
6-5: “Melted” appearance with dangling “drips” of skin
3-6: Humongous overbite or underbite
10-5: Fetus-like parasite twin, may have own personality or be mutant’s true self
9-5: Thin and knobbly like bird talons

Soia is an alternate universe of magic, (Or as I'm arbitrarily calling it from now on, "Majick") where every living thing from humans to lizards to ants to plants to bacteria to freaking viruses is capable of using chemical energy to generate Majick rifts. (Holy run-on sentencing, Batman!) These rifts allow Majickal energy from other planes to influence the physical world in a way that serves the organism casting the spell. Anyway, long story short, the natural world is kind of terrifying since any tree in a forest might shoot lightning at you or something.

Golgowold was a human Maje (Hehe, that's fun!) with a simple wish; a self-proclaimed student of Theophraestus, he wanted to determine the boundary that separated plants from animals. Hundreds of experiments later, he was a hulking giant of moss, algae and mold surrounded by abominations of his own making. And they all lived happily ever after, though he never did find that boundary... Oh well!
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Now on to The picture! This is what Myycosian locals call a "Stool Toad", because the spores it releases occaisionally smell strongly of feces. (Though it's technically part frog, not toad.) I've drawn a basic diagram of the Stool Toad and starting with number 1 we have:

1) A spore, Stool Toads begin their life cycle more closely resembling fungi then they they do animals. The reproductive form sprays out billions of these every new moon. Once in the air, a male spore and a female spore must make physical contact in a warm, moist location in order to properly fertilize. Only 1 in 30,000 make it that far.

2) It's an egg! The embryo inside will divide over and over again, until it's too complex to safely do so. This is to maximize the chances of that particular gene combination surviving to adulthood.

3) By the time the eggs can no longer clone themselves, they have attained a mass hundreds of times larger than the individual eggs. The eggs in the center of the clutch will begin siphoning nutrients away from the outer clones, while the outer eggs will slowly metamorphose into a feeding body for the center. In order to actually develop into the next stage, the embryos need to replenish what was spent on cloning.

4) A tadpole, this morph is predatory- though that means little in an ecosystem made almost entirely from animals fused with plants and fungi, you could just as easily say that they're herbivores. Anyway, the tad pole begins to hunt the Freshwater Pipeweed and Clawnuts that are found pretty much anywhere in Myycosia. After a while, it grows legs and loses it's tail in a typical frog fashion, before venturing onto land.

5) Isn't it cute?! The adult Stool Toad is technically a hermaphrodite, spraying both male and female spores into the air when commanded so by their biological clock. The adult morphs feed and breed for as long as they live, happily gobbling up Vineflies and young Webwoods for up to 5 years until they die of old age or predation. Adult Stool Toads are well known and prized among Maje for their alchemical properties; their mucus is capable of reacting with mammalian saliva to open micro-rifts of Mind majick that calm the mind and cause minor bouts of hallucinations.

The Undersea Empire of Atlantis recognizes over a thousand different gods and goddesses in its mythology. However, the state refuses to sanction the outright worship of any but three in particular. Diothoth of the Tides and Politics, Kithrinchi of Law and Rain, and Ghoffrea of Sand and Protection.

Desiccators, or Priests of Kithrinchi, teach that any organism capable of magic is a person, and that any organism that cannot is but a tool for people. As a result, there are but four castes within the Atlantean hierarchy regardless of species: Nobility, Priests, Military, and Merchant-- everything else is considered a slave. Their ways may seem cruel, and they are, but Kithrinchi teaches that sometimes the law must be cruel to be fair. And the current status quo allows beings of vast diversity and history to come together without fear from colleagues that would otherwise attempt predation or parasitism. (This is a nation where tuna, squid and sharks are all considered equal provided they can make a pretty lightshow.)

Kithrinchi is also known as "The Hellish Desiccator" for any Atlantean that breaks a vow to the crown to obey all of the nation's laws, is punished by Kithrinchi himself. Kithrinchi is said to use his power to tear traitors away from the afterlife they would normally have, and pin them to the sky so that the water will drain from their bodies until only dust remains.

And that children, is where rain comes from.

I'm just glad you kept this up for 6 pages.

One day I will arrange them into a children's book without context and write my own words all over them.

I'm not sure what to say to that.

...(compromise)

Thank you for saying my skills are at a commercially sufficient level. I will have my vengeance.

I don't always like writing narratives, but when I do...
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Aftermath

There was a coppery smell to the arena, the smell of broken dreams and bleeding bodies. Arnal had been an arena-dog-- sorry, a "Gladiator" in the ring for about three years. "Three years, two months and nine days- but who's counting?" He would say, as he had been saying for seven months now. He wouldn't be saying it anymore, Maug had slain Arnal with a low-slash across his gut. All Arnal was capable of quipping now was terrified gibbering as he tried to hold himself together. The crowds in the stands were going wild over the upset, Arnal had been a crowd favorite and the odds favored him three-to-one.

Maul let out a roar in triumph, whilst cruelly grinding Arnal's broken fingers into the dirt. "This is for cutting in the lunch-line, you big meanie!" Revenge was sweet.

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...people die for stupid reasons.

EDIT: Finished the picture that went with this.