#turnipstewdios

Stormlark: Book One. Title page

Magic is dangerous. It twists and alters all it comes into contact with, forever changing it. Those who walk under the open sky unprotected come back unrecognizable, or not at all. And yet, there are those who wander. None knows why some people walk off into the open, drawn down the long, ancient roads. But some do. Wayfarers and pilgrims move through towns like ghosts, spinning tales of sights beyond the imagining. And far out on the open plains, mages roam where they please. Wild, unnatural folk who obey no law but their own.

Willow has been told all her life that no good ever comes of meddling with the unknown. That she should ignore the call of the far horizon, lest it carry her away from all she knows. And that as a respectable young woman, she should want to put down roots and continue her family's legacy.

But Willow isn't a woman, and he knows exactly what he wants. Lark wants to follow the horizon. First: You are here! Next: Chapter title

Stormlark: Crystal Bones

The erosion of a dry stream bed reveals an ancient tragedy. A crystalized corn skeleton, still half buried in dirt and moss. The animal seems to have been unable to purge excess magic from it's body, leading to the condition that researchers and doctors in modern times call Estra-pederalization. The growths of mana-crystal would have fused many of it's bones together, greatly restricting it's movement and almost certainly leading to it's death. To say nothing of the more grotesque growths on, and in, the animal's skull which may have killed the creature by themselves.

Notably, this specimen exhibits an extreme level and extent of crystal growth, with almost all of the original bone covered or outright replaced. This would seem to indicate a long, slow conversion, meaning that the animal would have survived high mana saturation for years, or even decades. However, the growths which likely killed it also show the splash-like pattern characteristic of rapid formation, as can be seen in modern mages killed by Burnout. This makes it quite likely that the event that killed the animal took only minutes, and involved a large amount of mana. Some researchers have argued that this skeleton might be an early example of a mage-beast. With this specimen being tentatively dated to the immediate aftermath of the Estrelian extinction event, it may possibly even have been one of the first.

Further examination of the skeleton shows traits consistent with both unicorn and bicorn morphology. It is possible that this unfortunate individual is an example of the last common ancestor of both groups. *** So, I'm currently working on a webcomic. This is one of the things that I've posted to Patreon as I've been drafting and doing concept art for it. I've just finished the script for a prologue chapter, and am now doing environment, costume design, character concept art, and thumbnails. I'm going to try getting the first pages out for New Years. In the mean time, I'm going to release some of my concept art to try and draw in some interest. The comic is set in a worldbuilding project I've had privately for a while, and I'm going to be keeping that going as a sort of spec bio project in the background of the story The story will focus on a cast of characters and their various misadventures, but I'll be doing a lot of speculative evolution and worldbuilding to flesh things out in the background of the setting. A lot of the stuff upon Patreon right now is that sort of thing.

All comic pages will eventually be posted publicly, but I'm going to post them faster, along with a bunch of extras, over on my Patreon page. For every one page posted publicly, I'll be posting two for all paying tiers of supporters, meaning there will always be twice as much available there. There will also be a lot of my behind the scenes development work and wips. In general, I'm just going to start trying to post stuff to tumblr more as a way to be more visible. I'm really looking forward to sharing stuff! Go here if you want to see more!

Stormlark Prolog P2

I'm going to change my upload schedule. I can't keep up with one page per week with this level of detail, and I'm frustrated with the slow posting publicly. Stuff on Patreon will now be going out on a more irregular, as-I-finish schedule, while public stuff will be posted at roughly the same rate, but in blocks of 10ish pages. Every once in a while, I'll take a hiatus for public posts to let the patreon get further ahead.

First: Book one Cover Previous: Page 1

Next: coming soon

Stormlark Prolog P5

Got my long-running emergence solved. Hopefully I'll have more juice to draw now.

Patreon

Stormlark Prolog P4.

page 4. I'm officially on a "Pages will be posted when I get them done" schedule now. I've spent like the last month without hot water, I've had emergency after emergency happen since the start of the year, and I'm struggling to keep up with commissions at all. Pages will be coming out irregularly.

Patreon

Stormlark Preview: 2026

Magic is dangerous. It twists and alters all it comes into contact with, forever changing it. Those who walk under the open sky unprotected come back unrecognizable, or not at all. And yet, there are those who wander. None knows why some people walk off into the open, drawn down the long, ancient roads. But some do. Wayfarers and pilgrims move through towns like ghosts, spinning tales of sights beyond the imagining. And far out on the open plains, mages roam where they please. Wild, unnatural folk who obey no law but their own.

Willow has been told all her life that no good ever comes of meddling with the unknown. That she should ignore the call of the far horizon, lest it carry her away from all she knows. And that as a respectable young woman, she should want to put down roots and continue her family's legacy.

But Willow isn't a woman, and he knows exactly what he wants. Lark wants to follow the horizon.

Stormlark: Prolog Chapter title.

Book one Prolog Title page. Sorry for just posting these for the moment, I'm trying to build up my buffer a bit. Page one is now up for Patreon supporters!