"No more trouble than one would expect for such a lively city..." His flat, disinterested tone shifts as a lopsided, sharp smirk creeps onto his face.

"You'll never be starved for a story so long as there are streets in Llyndun. The shadows here are remarkably fertile."

TUMBLR PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP!

Hello and good evening to those who stumbled upon this post and others who chose to follow this blog for reasons unknown. Today on this particular post, I wanted to dive alittle deeper into a more personal view of the Zodiac Universe's historical timeline and it's power over the visuals of Earth. You may ask, what nonsense am I on about? I'll explain as we go.

Starting with the beginning of proper sentient life being roughly around the Stone Age. Do be warned, there are not humans in this universe but instead anthropomorphic animals that came to be due to a strange phenomenon that caused the these animals to evolved significantly different. Being able to function with bipedal in mind yet very much act, move and survive exactly as their real world counterparts. What that means is the artstyle for this era has a very detailed yet artistic design closer to a science textbook or work akin to Peter Zallinger and Rod Ruth's illustrations. As seen below:

This art direction, however, does not stay like this as many centuries down to the middle ages, the artstyle changes to resemble illustrations and artwork from the era. Bright colors and whimsically odd shapes and designs as seen below here:

The next change in artstyle happens during the 1700s where the artstyle now resembles that of illustrations from storybooks and articles during the 18th and 19th century. As seen below here:

Now the fascinating part about these artstyle changes is that the character designs are meant to show that as the eras transition, the character designs slowly look less realistic and look more akin to a cartoon or animated show that we're accustomed to. This is visible during the 20th century as anthropomorphic characters gradually start having more fantasy bipedalism. A good example being digitigrade legs slowly fade away as generations go to have legs similar to humans. Of course, their actual feet still being accurate to the animal they are in the real world.

This shows that as history goes by, these anthropomorphic characters are evolving significantly past their more real world and lifelike attributes and becoming more softer to the eyes and fictional the closer to modern day. Now you may or may not wonder if this means the artstyles clash. Weeeellll, depending on the scenarios and locations, the artstyles can clash and interact to show differences between the characters' designs, time periods, cultures and philosophy. An example of this being a red deer from good ole' 1864 Lambeth coming face to face with red fox spirit allegedly from the 13th century. The deer drawn in a primitive yet professional sketch style such as from a newspaper. Old fashioned with little to no color and basic black lines. As for the spirit, drawn with slight exaggerated shapes, curves and body features to indicate the far more whimsical outdated exaggeration of medieval art. Of course, being a spirit adds more enchantment and weirdness such as a nightlight style of glow and a faint reflective shine.

Good afternoon travelers and welcome to my strange domain of random thoughts I concocted. I also want to welcome back to those who willingly returned! For today is a special treat to make up for my long pause of silence. A lesson. A history lesson about the myth of the Empire With No Name.

Our lesson begins back in the 14th century during the year 1412, where the century of great transition from the middle ages had barely took it's baby steps. Constantinople still reigning, the spread of information very much slow and unreliable and a particular voyage has yet to happen. What still remained is the art of war. Conflicts. Battles between nations, skirmishes amongst order and chaos, blood and gold still dictating actions. There was a legend that slowly sparked up about a group of mercenaries who worked under a flag nobody could figure out where they hail from.

The alleged sightings of these strange mercenaries started in scattered parts of France, Navarre, territories of the Holy Roman Empire and Great Britain. Despite what was described about how these people looked, it was never consistent. Some survived drawings depicted some warriors who appeared to resemble those from the Turkish empire, Muscovy and Arabia. Yet others also saw warriors who very much came from Britain, Spain and even a few Roman Empire aligned soldiers. It fascinated historians where they strongly believed these drawings were fake or perhaps done by someone much later past this era who wanted to draw a telltale of anachronistic warriors in places they should be.

One would ask if there is some truth to this myth. My answer? I believe this myth is simply a story meant to add fear of those that do not look the same. Fear mongering fueled by racism and discrimination at a time of war and thirst of control and power.

Now from what some people way after the 14th century has theorized is these mercenaries were truly led by someone who had deep connections with various kingdoms, rulers and tribes of the region. Someone who had remarkable negotiating skills, knew how to be charming and had immense knowledge to be bargained with. A kingpin who thrives in stirring conflict. It would imply this person grows a fortune to make an empire hidden away from annals of history that simply hides in sight to fight battles in the dark. Proxy wars. Such a modern term, isn't it? Hard to believe this was during a time where the most powerful weapons were people in armor wielding blades capable of mutilating you with a hefty swing.

As for why there has been talk of this empire using various warriors from different nations and countries? It makes no sense for loyal and admirable warriors from their nations to work under an empire who even they barely know. Some say it was perhaps money, the faceless ruler smoothtalking their way to collecting troops or even the simplest idea of these warriors deciding to join in their own terms. All it meant is this empire had slowly grown in mumbers throughout the middle ages and well past the renaissance to have fighters of various culture and combat knowledge only benefitted their efficiency.

It's whispered to this day that this Empire With No Name is still alive to this day, still trying to dictate history as we know it. All behind the scenes without the world realizing it. Perhaps...the governments do know. What if this empire IS our governments? Watching over us, listening to every conversation we have, infiltrating every part of our lives!

Wow, this lesson didn't go as well as I thought. My apologies for this...bizarre attempt at teaching you something. But I do hope it at least makes you think about the world around you. Inspire you to pick up a book and theorize about what you learn. Now, it's time I say goodbye for now. As my time here has very much overstayed it's welcome. Farewell travelers who arrived unexpectedly and those who came back willingly.

Oh! Before you go, I forgot about one last fascinating thing about this topic. Despite the story of the Empire With No Name being greatly false, there is supposedly a flag that once belonged to this group that some believed was used during their initial beginnings in the early 1400s. I personally say it's fake as it looks...quite horrible and outlandishly weird for it to exist in the time where flags had clear coat of arms or beautifully designed patterns. But anyways, have a look and enjoy. See you in the next rant in my domain of weird ideas and thoughts.