A place for art and drabbles

My brush pack is finally done!

Download it via dropbox: Link

I was sitting in this park, on a bench, looking up at the night sky and all the stars and stuff, and I blinked and suddenly the entire sky was different. I’m talking different constellations, the sky absolutely packed with billions more stars, some so close they’re massive. I’m like wtf and suddenly I realise there’s an old man sitting next to me, dressed in like 1940s clothing, also looking up at the sky.

before I can ask him if he’s you know, noticed, he speaks, without looking away from the sky.

“this is what the universe really looks like,” he tells me.

“oh,” I say. a pause. “…can you put it back?”

he smiles and nods. I look up. the sky has gone back to normal.

“what do I do with this information?” I ask, looking at him again.

k if sylvanas’s tears burned into her skin when she died then she definitely has a giant killing blow scar from frostmourne burned into her skin and about once a year she has her mages reapply the magical veil that hides it and, more importantly, re-masks the lingering scent of odd cold metal.  And then she’s gotta do one of these when they’re done

                               🐾💮🐾💮 🐾💮🐾💮 🐾💮🐾💮

here it is at last, RED, our contribution to @liliesanthology ‘s 4th volume, Spider Lily! 

for the spooky theme Miss Pi (@the-picayune) and I did a queer retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood fable, but the lines between who’s the big bad and who wears the cape are a little more blurry this time around

Gambling Tiefling will also maybe tell your fortune for a small price. This cool person belongs to @fluffydargon. Enjoy! 

BREAK THE POST

the elusive 10 million note post

Alright everyone! Part 2 as promised; although this came out much sooner than I expected. If you have any questions, comments, concerns or requests, please, don’t be afraid to let me know. I hope you all continue to enjoy the story and please, re-blog away! I guess it’s time to start preparing for Part 3 already! I can hardly wait to see where the story will go next!  ———————————————————————————————————–

           Orks. How apt a term for those creatures. It seems somehow… fitting. As if any being who heard the name would know, somehow, deep down, just what the name described. They were nightmarish creatures and to this day we still pray that they are truly gone. Were it not for the Terrans, I don’t believe we would have survived.

           War came, as it so often does in the vastness of space. With it came feats of untold and unfathomable glory coupled with loss beyond reason. The texts say that through it all, the Terrans never stopped fighting, they never stepped aside for relief, and they did unspeakable things to ensure our victory; and for those acts, they were banished. For you see, the Terrans were beings of a seemingly singular focus; in this case, it was victory at all costs. As I said before, they turned their skills from peaceful exploration to that of pure war and show us wonderfully horrible devices and techniques that could be used. At first, I don’t believe the USF fully understood the history of these Terrans, for their temperament when they joined the Federation was at complete odds with what we were expecting. According to their history, war had been a part of their society for as far back as they could trace it. Life and death was a constant cycle for them and they lived their lives with the absolute certainty that it could come to a very sudden, very brutal end at any moment. I remember reading some of the old texts about their history and the things that were mentioned, to this day, wake me from even my deepest of sleep. There was a story that spanned back eons of their history, back to a time where war on a near planetary scale was common. Back in those days, their people were divided into clans that claimed various parts of their world and would fight for resources as most fledgling species tend to do, but for them, it was more than survival; it was also a matter of so called, “pride.” Many of their stories tell of their people standing against foes that would outnumber them five to one and they would win! They would survive even the most devastating of blows and somehow steal victory from the jaws of defeat. Then there were the tales of their losses; which, oddly enough, sometimes were victories themselves. There would be stories that speak of a lone Terran standing before an army and choosing to fight, knowing that they will die and doing it anyway. For, to them, death in battle was preferable to life in servitude; and in dying for their beliefs, they would start a fire in the hearts of others to stand for the cause they died for and sometimes, they would win. The tales of the Terrans victories among each other were astonishing to hear and, were it not for the sheer body count, mass graves, memorial sites, and records, the USF would have been hard pressed to believe it. Still, even with physical proof, there were some things the Federation just wouldn’t accept as a plausible thing any civilized species would even dare to do. I saw the footage while I was on Jurhan-3; I saw the genocide, the mindless slaughter of their wars, and read the first-hand accounts of the survivors. All of that was believable and made me glad that we never had to go to war with them, but it’s one of those things they did to themselves, just to prove a point, that made me realize why the USF council went with their decision on the Terrans banishment.

           As the war against the Orks raged on, it became clear that the normal methods of war would not suffice. These creatures were too enthralled with the slaughter to be demoralized with the losses they were taking. The Terrans realized that the creatures would fight until the last one fell but they believed that if they were able to kill of an abhorrently large amount of them, maybe, just maybe, they would retreat long enough for the USF to recover. While the USF council discussed the merits of such a tactic, one of the advisors asked if there was even such a way to inflict that much damage and death at one time. To which the Terran ambassador proceeded to tell the story from ages past of when they nearly brought their world to ruin for the first time and the means by which they did it. They would not give the details to us about the conflict that lead to this tragedy, no doubt ashamed or humbled by the experience, for whenever it was spoken of, the sorrow was felt by all. All they would say is that, in order to bring an enemy and the accompanying war to a swift end so as to not cause anymore undue suffering, they detonated two bombs in their own biosphere that, had they been much stronger, could have turned the land itself into a glass-layered, radioactive wasteland. This act caused the enemy to surrender unconditionally but caused the various clans to start their own research on how to create these devastating weapons. The rumor they gave us was that by the time they were formally banned some centuries later, the clans had enough of the bombs combined to be able to turn their entire world into an ashen wasteland, devoid of all life; themselves included.

           Now, the Terrans had had these weapons banned for thousands of years due to the fact that their use was an absolute; nothing would survive, and nothing would be able to live wherever they were dropped again for hundreds of years. It was with a firm hand that the council forbid the use of the weapon and started the search for a peaceful resolution. Around this time, there was a single Ork raiding party that had managed to slip into Federal space and lay waste to an Intrali colony and slaughtered many hatchlings; nearly the whole generation was lost there. The Terrans viewed this as the utmost taboo; the killing of the young in war. When it became apparent that the USF would likely lose the sector and many more innocent lives would be lost, the Terrans did the one thing they swore to never do again; they recreated these weapons. More precisely, they built it using the modern technology of the time which caused the bomb to be much more devastating that anyone would have imagined. When they decided to use it, we realized just how ruthless they could truly be. They formed up every ship they could and pushed in to the center of the Orkish controlled systems and, having lost nearly every craft along the way, set out for the world where it was believed that the enemy WarLord was located. Upon confirming the WarLords location, they sent one of their Alpha-Class Capital ships, the Endless Void, on a mission to drop the bomb. No one was prepared for what happened. The detonation was larger than what their stories lead us to believe it would be; much, much larger. All I will say of it is this; there is a hole in reality where the world used to be; where time doesn’t seem to matter, where the cosmos no longer cooperates with the laws of nature, where reality itself just… stops.

           It is said that the system is gone; that all that remains is this blur in reality where the war was ended. It is said that if you are to fly near the space where it occurred, if you listen, you can still hear the screams. Naturally, when the USF council banished the Terrans from the Federation and labeled them, “Extremely hostile/unstable. Do NOT approach” there was very little shock. The entire Federation was in collective shock at what was done and yet, the war was over, of that there was no doubt. The attacks stopped, the dead-zone was now empty and explorable, and an unsteady peace was returned to the USF. Although, everyone knew the cost of it; and while the death of the vicious creatures was of little concern to many, the sheer amount of death caused was humbling. An entire system was, still to this day, brought to ruin and countless trillions of lives were brought to a horrifying end.

————————————

We have all heard their stories growing up; all heard the myths and legends surrounding them. It’s almost impossible to believe that they were real but there is still proof, scattered among the cosmos, almost as impossible itself. I’ve heard them called many things over the years: wanderers, outcasts, lost souls, fae, immortals, demons, destroyers, even death itself. Every name I have heard, if the stories are to be believed, is true and well earned. I haven’t seen one myself, nor has my father, nor his father; rumor is, they haven’t been seen in nearly 3,000 years… Imagine my surprise finding one now…

I realize you may not know anything about the creatures of which I speak; I guess I should say that most people have heard the stories… Well allow me to tell you about them; these, as they call themselves, Terrans.

The story goes that long ago, back in the early years following the foundation of the United Species Federation (USF) (about 8,600 years ago-standard) they sent envoys and scouts out across the stars to find life and if it showed promise, to bring it into the fold of the USF. No one quite remembers how the first contact went, however, it is believed that it went fairly well, what with the Terrans conducting their own search throughout the stars on what they called their, “Third Golden Age of Space.” Apparently they had already gone to space twice before but some form of internal conflict put the exploration to a halt. Records indicate that they melded swiftly and smoothly with the Federation but were always considered to be the more wild and fearless of the 189 species. It wasn’t until the 9th year as a part of the USF that their home world was formally classed as a category 7 deathworld, 3 tiers higher than our previous maximum (supposedly they had to completely re-do the scale to make it work.) The few holo-picts of the world (if you’re lucky enough to find one) showed a world full of beauty and wonder but as we all know, beauty can be deadly in the cosmos.

After joining the Federation, they primarily set their focus on science and exploration; the things they found were astounding and those they made were breathtaking. I remember once going to the USF capitol on Jurhan-3 and seeing a “small-scale” version of one of their Epsilon-Frigate class starships’ power cell; they called it the “Apollo Reactor” and it, still to this day, harnesses the power of a collapsing star held in perpetual stasis. I am unaware of the science behind it but the Apollo Reactor was nearly 8km long, just as wide, and 6km high and the energy the star gives off can, theoretically, power half of the planet indefinitely-to think they put a larger version of this in their starships! They created works of wonder in ways that are now lost to us, for with them went the skill, knowledge, creativity, and much needed insanity to create these wonders. They came up with ideas and solutions for things we never would have even considered and, true to their nature, set out for a solution with an alarming dedication (although the wonders that came from their accidental discoveries are just as marvelous.) Not only were they the creators of the impossible, they were the seekers of the undiscoverable. They would set out on the planets, moons, asteroids, and among the stars in search of all those things our legends said could not be found; and they would find them! They would purposely seek out our own myths and legends and while many were proved wrong, they in turn were becoming legends themselves…

Then one day there was a request for a team to explore one of the many dead-zones the USF had listed and, since they were aptly suited for hazardous work, they volunteered. As it was, they went out with their usual compliment, a Gamma-class frigate at about 13km in length was the command ship for the operation. The Icarus, is well known for what the exploration lead to; and for that, we can’t hold it against them. The Icarus set out with its two Delta-class cruisers, each about 9km long, in tow towards the dead-zone. This is one of the few aspects of their past that we still know actually happened and its easier to view the formal log…

USF Doc. 1193.34-D164Y228

Icarus Expedition Captain’s Log:

–196– We have successfully completed our jump into system X33-KL09 and are preparing for our initial scan of the system.

–197– Initial scan shows little promise of habitable locations as expected; will conduct systematic, thorough, cross-examination of each planet for possible mineral harvesting.

–198– Outer rim planets, X33-9, X33-8, and X33-7, all devoid of any significant deposits of any usable minerals; moving inward towards the system core.

–199– X33-6 and X33-5 both show heavy iron, copper, sulfur, and other usable mineral deposits. Locations marked and transmitted to the Federation Fleet Command (FFC.) Moving on to innermost planets.

–200– X33-4 shows sign of former habitation; holo-picts will follow. No sign of current life, no atmosphere to speak of, no signs of water, no signs of vegetation. Will collect samples and transmit them to the FFC. Ground Exploration Team 3 (GET3) sent to surface, base established. GET3 will remain on surface until we leave the system.

–201– X33-3 appears strange on our scanners. It’s almost as if there is something…wrong…with it. Unsure of how else to describe it. Standby for holo-pict.

–202– Contact! All ships requested to pull back to X33-4 and form defensive perimeter; lethal force NOT authorized. Standby for further orders.

–203– Sentient life has been met; sudden fleet emersion from the warp. Non-USF signals. Attempting to hail unknown contacts.

–204– All attempts at contact have failed. Will attempt other means of ***BREAK—ALL HANDS TO STATIONS—SHOTS FIRED AT CRUISER: RISING SUN—PREPARE TO ENGAGE CONTACTS***

–205– All ships, unknown contacts are hostile. Open fire on all Non-USF craft. Engage at will.

–206– Attached is the video footage remaining of the engagement.

–207– All ships, damage report. *Silence as ships report in* Confirm: Cruiser: Fallen Star destroyed? *Silence while awaiting confirmation* Understood. Enemy fleet as either been destroyed or fled the system. Remaining craft ordered to collect survivors and GET3, then prepare to warp to nearest USF outpost.

————————————

–236– Final tally of expedition fleet to system X33-KL09: One (1) Delta-class cruiser, Fallen Star, destroyed. 728 of its crew confirmed KIA, 109 of its crew un-accounted for (presumed KIA), 246 of its crew recovered and accounted for with varying injuries. One (1) Delta-class cruiser, Rising Sun, minor hull damage. 17 of its crew confirmed KIA, 0 of its crew missing, 942 of its crew accounted for. One (1) Gamma-class frigate, Icarus, severe hull damage, thrusters at 48%, and near catastrophic Apollo Reactor failure. 593 of its crew confirmed KIA, 197 of its crew un-accounted for (presumed KIA), and 806 of its crew recovered and accounted for with varying injuries. Requesting immediate support to attached coordinates. Sending Delta-class cruiser, Rising Sun, ahead of remaining vessels to prepare for our non-warp arrival.

–237– Contact re-established with unknown forces. All crew to stations. Enemy ship determined to be on collision course; prepare to repel boarders. *Screams following the sound of impact—Sounds of metal wrenching itself apart—Silence* Shields down. Thrusters now inoperable. Boarding parties attempting to take ship. Will not allow this to happen.

–238—Cruiser, Rising Sun, has exited the system. Life-support systems failing. Authorizing the Manhattan Protocol*. God be with us.

–239—Attached video contains the final moments of the Icarus before the Manhattan Protocol was engaged. All hostile contacts were terminated.

*Manhattan Protocol: If the ship is boarded by hostile forces with no hope/chance of rescue or survival and no friendly forces remain in the system, the detonation of the Apollo Reactor is authorized. Said detonation will result in the immediate atomization of the host craft and nuclear explosion centered on the craft powered by the energy of the dying star. Possible outcomes could leave the system uninhabitable or create a minor black hole (if an Alpha-Class Capitol/Command Frigate is detonated.) This protocol only to be used as an absolute last resort.

———-End Formal Log———–

As you saw, this no doubt lead the USF to mobilize a task force to secure the dead-zone and establish the identity of the unknown, openly hostile species and determine where they came from. Up until then, we had yet to see these Terrans in open conflict; there had clearly been minor skirmishes but nothing of real note. We were quite unprepared for their way of making war for these simple, bi-pedaled creatures seemed to pose little threat and were believed to have been primarily peaceful; quite at odds with their tier 7 deathworlder status. Apparently this had been the first ship lost in war in over 450years for them, a fact that they were extremely proud of, and so naturally they took it personally and set to it with there trademark dedication. Their sciences switched from focusing on exploration to tracking, from genetic mapping to mapping the weak-points of starships, from creating stronger mining tools to creating near indestructible hull armor; and it was beautiful. That’s when they were rumored to have been called the Fae, after myths from their own past. Beautiful beings capable of untold devastation. And so, the USF went to war against an enemy they knew little to nothing about, with these Terrans on point.

When contact was made again, after nearly 4 years of searching the dead-zone and the surrounding systems, hostilities were immediately established and our foe finally identified. They were called the Xulrata; fierce bi-pedaled creatures that would stand nearly 13ft tall and weigh upwards of 1200lbs. They were covered in a thick, leathery hide that seemed impervious to most of the federations weaponry but somehow the Terrans were able to find ways to pierce it. They had two massive canines that jutted from their lower jaw, deeply set eyes the size of my fist, and hands with the strength to crush a grown Sarlot as if it were nothing. We learned real fast that the only sure way to kill one, was to remove the head; even then, sometimes the body would continue on until its heart failed it, they were nightmare creatures and we lost a good many men and women to them in the following millennia. The Terrans had their own name for them, as they so often did; they called them Orks, after yet more creatures from their myths and legends-although, these myths appeared to be very, very real.

————End Part One————

Unnamed half-orc tiefling D&D character concept for fun~

rainbow mountains (peru)

red soil (canada/PEI)

rings (saturn’s if they were on earth) 

bioluminescent waves

northern lights (canada)

salt flats (bolivia, where they filmed crait but did NOTHING COOL WITH IT except red dust?? like??? come ON)

and cool fauna like the touch me not or like, you know, the venus flytrap.. and don’t get me started on BUGS like… we have bugs cooler than sw aliens

Tsingy di Bemaraha, Madagascar

Zhangye Danxia, China (similar to the Rainbow Mountains in terms of appearance)

Chocolate Hills, Philippines

Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland

Quebrada de Humahuaca, Argentina

Lake Retba, Senegal

Tepui, Venezuela

Tsingy du Bemaraha, Madagascar again (but a different part)

(those are razor-sharp, if you were wondering. very little of this area has been explored because YIKES)

Lake Natron, Tanzania

(looks cool, but is alkaline enough to Kill Your Shit)

Lake Baikal, Russia

(the deepest lake in the world, seriously)

and I’ll wrap it up with Son Doong Cave, Vietnam, the largest cave in the entire world.

it puts anything Dagobah has to offer to absolute shame:

(seriously, the largest chamber is 660 feet high. you could jam a fucking skyscraper in there and still lose it)