Unum

Territory: Americana
Rank: P4
Height: 50 Meters
Length: 120 Meters
Gender: N/A

|Classification: Technorganic Guardian Entity|

|Factions: Defenders, Technorgs|

Abilities:

-Nanomechanical Symbiosis: The nanomachines present in Unum’s body have gradually become a substitute for blood and other fluids. As of this point, he cannot live without them.

-Organic Transformation: Found in no other organism, Unum is able to alter his physical structure to better suit the situation. His typical Centaur pose, a more natural scorpion form, an aquatic form, and a more humanoid aerial form have all been recorded. Additional attachments include heated AI guided laser whips, Grapple lines inside the arms, rockets, and sonic pulsars.

-Mental Singularity: Unum requires human intelligence to better run his complex systems, so for centuries a volunteer program called Singularity has operated, where a willing volunteer has his or her mind digitized into Unum’s data core, offering a fresh consciousness to run things. Often, the newer the mind, the more Unum acts like the person alone.


Description:

Ladies and Gentlemen, a New Moniker for an Old Age is upon us. For we as man, the champions of earth for far shorter a time than we would care to remember, have been forced to bow out to the silent guardians that now stand over our heads.

-Andrew Arden

-Man has never had much need for gods, they bring about great dissent, false senses of pride and expectation, and war. War that claims millions of lives for the seemingly all-consuming force that is worship and difference. And yet despite this, gods still reign above us, most being born of our own hands. Why would man construct something destructive, something that brings not a thing but ruin and dissent.


Because we are small.


Man has forever been exchanging a god for another. Once, nature, the rivers, mountains and sun, was our deity. Then we built dams. Then we concocted dynamite. Then we developed atomic weaponry. We sought to become our own gods, to control our former masters with our hands, our own strength. Then the Starfall occurred, and everything was turned on its head. Man, once king over nature, had found itself amongst a nature that had gotten a second wind, and we were unprepared, and lazy to the new force that broke our doorsteps down to nothing. Man lost hope once again, and what did we have to show for our circumstances, a world where the monster legitimately existed? Man saw no other choice but to bring about a way to counter them, but they were simply too large, too mighty, and too immovable to remove. They were here to stay, so we, as man often has, turned to one of our greatest mythical traits, our trickery.


                                                                            ---


Mankind bore many monsters to combat others, with some successes and some failures. And of these the most famous and most successful of these was the grand accident turned opportunity that is Unum. A product of science, sorcery, and sentience, Unum was once naught but a mutated scorpion that was injured and then consumed by a swarm of Arden nanomachines loosed upon the Mohave desert. Merging the arachnid abomination with modern machinery, a beast neither living nor dead, organic or mechanical, was born over centuries of fine tuning and sacrifice. A technorganic life, the first of many to come.



Unum has had a productive, illustrious career as defender of Americana proper from threats, outward and inward, a champion of rights and the defense of them. Some have wondered, though, how can that be when Unum is not explicitly ‘alive.’ The best answer to that comes from one of the most respected quotes in the history of the known world, the first words uttered by Unum after the first use of the singularity.



“I am one, I am to protect all. I will change my mind one day...”


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This is the first entry into Dark Hours character designs I have released since officially starting this effort. This entry is the only one I will do on this blog, the rest will all be exclusive to my deviantart page and my Dark Hours Blog. (found on the sidebar)

Read up, and wait for more, for they shall come.

Even Better News

After working with my Papaw here in the mountains all of the past week, I will be headed home tonight for an interview with a Target tomorrow morning. Pray and wish luck for me, because if this works out and I get a job I will be able to focus on fun things again and not slave every moment of every day working on FINDING work.

Jared out, though I'll be back.

Best News All Year!

Well Readers, here I am to offer a bit of excellent news. Tomorrow, I make my way to my new job in the North Carolina Mountains. I  will be delivering water with my Grandpa (I call him Papaw) for the holiday season, and I am looking forward to not being so dirt poor around the holidays.

I don't know when I'll check in next, but count on good times, and don't forget that getting yourself square with God is most important.

Glimpse into The Nest

Hello Followers and Others who take their time to visit.

I just wanted all those interested that I am weekly giving status reports for my writing projects on one of my new blogs, The Writers Nest. (You can click on the link on my sidebar to get there now. It all got worked out, tested it myself. ;-)

I give progress checks, word counts, and things related to my writing research as I go. Be sure to follow along, ya'll.

Back and Better

Hello Blogging world. I just wanted to take a moment to apologize for my rather half-hearted first attempt on here, and I am here to say that I am in full preparation to make what due I can.

I have been busy concocting a new collection of blogs to both expand my horizons and to give myself a step forward in my future as a sci-fi fantasy author. I know I don't speak lightly about becoming one, the cut is lethal, but all the more reason to try and improve in what I can.

I have a new look, a new collection of blog additions, (links are found on the sidebar for those available to the public) so please take a chance and don't write me out yet. 'Till next entry, and btw, this blog has become a more personal place than before. I found the whole 'one blog fits all' thing doesn't fit me.

A Tag

I thought 'why not?' and decided to ahead and respond to a tag posting from Daughter of the King, (see also: Best Girlfriend ever, not up for debate)

I haven't really done much on here, but I am working on changing that, and I figure I can start here.

Now, the questions.

1) What is your favorite book, and why?

It certainly has been some time since I last thought about this, and the answer is certainly difficult to determine, but in the end I would have to pull a nerd card and say that, technically, it's not a favorite book, per se. Rather, it's an ongoing process. 

Yes, my favorite book series is that of Batman of DC comics fame. Now, I don't own a single Batman comic, but I don't have to to know this. Everything about Batman fascinates me, his motivations, his actions, the symbology of his appearance, and I could go on for hours. While I have my  qualms with comic books (that's a story for another day, though) Batman is good enough to see past it. His character is among the greatest created in the last several centuries, and the critics can back me up on that.

2) If you could pen the name of your own memoir what would it be titled?

-The Unbeaten Path

Its a theme I like imaging in my head, though my memoirs would be a scattered experience to say the least. Ironically, this isn't the first time in the past month I've thought about this.

3) What is your favorite song, and what is it's meaning to you?

-Now this one took me a while, but in the end I actually arrived at a result. I heard this song for the first time years ago and didn't quite realize then, but listening to it today it really is, well, my song. It was inspired from the first Narnia film and written and performed by the band Jars of Clay.

It's called 'Waiting for the World to Fall.' Funny thing is, I've never been the biggest fan of Jars of Clay, but this song, when I heard it again a few months ago, made my jaw drop and stay in that position for some time. The exact intentions of the song are different, but when the lyrics are interpreted slightly differently, it quite simply becomes something that I feel like I would write about in terms of how I look at things. I won't go into intensive, nerdy detail, but I will say it is an excellent work.

4) What is your ideal blogging/writing atmosphere?

-The quiet, preferably, though I find I can function quite well when there is noise it is just a little easier. As for place, well that doesn't really matter either.

5) What is your favorite movie genre, and why?

-Sci-Fi, and here's why. Reality has its moments and all, but Sci-Fi just shows the kind of place, world, and time that I would most like to see myself. Whether it's the old fifties monster films with rubber monsters and puppets breaking things, or the eighties when the clunky Robocop goes about taking names in a grungy, animatronic New York, or the modern day where gamma irradiated giants face blue skinned cat people who are ruled by autonomous robots or whatever have you, it all just appeals to that sense of child-like wonder I take so much pride in.

6) What is your favorite tv show, and why?

-That title goes to an old program from my youth called

Beast Wars: Transformers

It was a mid-nineties show, so I was young, but in truth it is HANDS DOWN the best Transformer series to date and arguably the best older kid show to date. It was award winning for it's pioneering CGI works, it's noteworthy characters, and it's gripping story even by the mainstream media. To this day I still enjoy what it gives you, and I hope one day people will remember it for the greatness it is.

7) If you could have the skill of playing any musical instrument which one would you want to play (if you already play an instrument what different one would you want to play?)

-My respect for music is a young one, but strong. Above all else, that goes to the piano. All forms of it, it is the instrument I find the most entertaining to hear. Playing it will never be a full time thing, but I happen to be lucky enough to be dating someone who is exceptional at it.  

8) Who is your favorite author, and why?

-Why choose?

And that wraps up the time today, folks. I will not be tagging anyone else because I do not want to, but if you read this, feel free to come up with your own wacked out questions.

Prepare.

*It has been a long time, blogging world, since I stumbled into this place last. I will not go into details now, only know that the near future is going to hold some interesting secrets.


Expect some big things after the 31st. I'll leave it at that for now.

'Tis the Season for sketches

Outside of my time getting ready for fall semester and doing research for KAS and my own kaijuverse, alongside AT's and old requests, I have recently been going a little more than nuts with sketching out kaiju ideas and size comparisons.

I have spent many a long night typing out a timeline for DH. Seeing as how my 'verse spans thousands of years and covers major events in history in a new and unique way, I find the more and more I fill in, the more I can. Just when I think 'I have all that I need' I find a new animal source and think 'snap! I didn't think of that.' Thus, the list is ongoing. I am eliminating old I ideas at the same time, though, so it pays off. Most of what I've been doing lately are side monsters that pay little more importance than an homage. That, and I've filled in a few classic archetypes I didn't have before. Suffice to say, filling in millions of years worth of events is hard.

But, I believe I am approximately halfway done with the thing, to be positive.

In the meantime, I have been sketching out many of my designs over the past couple of days. Unlike many of my sketches, these have been on computer paper. And you know what THAT means. . . 

In order to get a feel for the scope and timeframe of my 'verse, I will be uploading sketches of the many creatures and people, at times just to show a difference in designs and sizes, but also to ask for some help in some of my more troublesome designs.

To give a preview, one is a praying mantis, which I have more than eleven different mantis species saved as concepts. That's the big one, the others will mostly be for opinion gathering.

My digital art will be taking a slight dip over the next few weeks, though there is a big reason involving photoshop, which I have acquired and need to learn how to use. I'll get the ATs and requests and the rest of the DH files done on Corel like I've been using, but I feel its time to move up in the world to a program I can use with greater effect. 

Now what does that mean for you bloggers? Well, in order to actually establish a niche on Blogger, I have decided to upload these sketches on here as well as on my DA. If you haven't commented up to this point, for whatever reason, I'll be needing help and opinions, so please consider what I have to show you all.


Signing off for now. 

Building Monsters, the basics

(note: After consideration, I decided to not send out the Think-tank to anyone, and would rather simply continue with what I am doing in revealing to you all little by little. I pray you understand.)

Over the past few days I have been intensively enjoying a piece of my 'teenagerdom', the nintendo strategy game series Fire Emblem, namely the gamecube classic Path of Radiance and the subsequent Wii sequel Radiant Dawn. I see, very easily, why I enjoyed them so much, the storyline is pretty classical, nothing too new, but the strategic elements, the different styles of speech depending on region, some of the more interesting characters, and so forth, it all works well to the way I think. 

When I beat Path of Radiance recently, the epilogue mostly has the main character talking to each of the various people that he interacted with and fought alongside. It wasn't much to see overall, but I noticed something interesting, just how alike many of the characters are. Some of the guys, such as one archer and one beast man in the form of a raven, had near exact personalities. I thought 'how can they get away with that? Won't everyone notice and be all like, 'that's cheap' and such?' But I realized they had their differences, different motivations, and whatnot, and I've owned the game for 5 years and I still don't care about the fact that they're alike. 

Now you may be asking where I'm going with this, but after a sort of writer's epiphany I had, I realized something. Dark Hours, my kaiju universe (or kaijuverse to the ones on my blog unaware of the lingo) was built with, unintentionally, the same formula as the Fire Emblem games. Depending on the time period, the faces change but the roles don't, I still have:

A. A main character, going about doing his business. As Fire Emblem has shown me, this isn't always heroic world saving business.

B. New faces at every turn. One of my favorite aspects of Fire Emblem is the 'recruitment' feature, where your army grows frequently, usually from people on the enemy's side or from random interlopers that stumble upon the scene. In my verse, namely Ragido's time to shine, that is EXACTLY what I did without thinking. There's always a new monster he 'brands' under his service wherever he goes, much like most FE stages.

C. Enemies, big and small: Not much need to explain that one, most 'verses have it.

And many, many more. Best part is, I had no idea I was doing it. 

This also helped me realize I can have two monsters of similar archetypes in the same 'verse without it looking crowded, it really just all depends on role and placement.


If anyone feels they wish to build a monster universe, it doesn't take terribly much work as one might think, depending on how much originality you wish to implement. I've seen many cases and approaches, some doing a bang up job without much any drawings, and some going into such insane detail it was enough to make your head spin.


For those new to monster universes (this mostly goes to my blog readers, my DA friends are the experts on this topic.) there are a few things to expect, both from established, movie/tv monster universes and fan made ones. I researched across the board for these, so don't be surprised if you're featured, friends. 


1. A main monster

This type could have a entry completely devoted to itself. The main monster of a 'verse is really as varied as the tastes of the people making them. Even in the movies, which are the prototypical 'verses, you can have heroic saviors of mankind like Gamera, anti-heroic 'do my own thang' types like Godzilla, and so forth. In the fan 'verses, the variety is sheer insanity there are so many. 

They cover forms and personalities innumerable, from giant antimatter ravens to undead grim reaper snakes to alien mutations to random creatures of happenstance. Their roles are just as varied, from ancient god like guardians to mutations of mankind's doing to beings from space. I technically don't have a 'main monster' that is constantly at the forefront at all times, but I have some that fit many of these categories. There's Ragido, a crocodile warrior that is a fragment of a greater whole once broken, in search of himself while still trying to do his job in the first place despite lack of power and memory. There's Unum, a techno organic scorpion that fights for mankind, born of man's cleverness and lots of innovative technology. Lona, a skinwalker that tries to win a war he doesn't know how to, and Paul Gregory, a human caught up in a lot of different struggles while in need of solving his own.

I'll go into more details on building a main monster in a future entry.


2. A 'big baddie.' Everyone loves a good villain, and typically these can be found in any 'verse. They take different forms, such as King Ghidorah the three headed golden space dragon, to the Legion queen in Gamera 2, and even more obscure, Bagan, a mutated Chinese dragon found only in a Super Nintendo Godzilla game. Usually they pose a threat to the entire world. In 'verses of fan making, they differ greatly, from giant eagles from ancient civilizations to zombie giants spawned of the main monster's dna. I use the dragon motif myself, in the form of the ancient destroyer Megidda, and another even more powerful than that that I won't reveal just yet. Big baddies usually take entire swarms of monsters to bring down, the classic case being the immortalized Godzilla film Destroy all monsters, where almost all the monsters in the Toho line up gang up on King Ghidorah and beat him into the ground with little resistance. 


3. A supporting cast. There are a million ways to go with this, but since I'm short on time I'll simply go into a little detail and cover it later. As a friend of mine once said, 'main characters are great, but its the supporting cast that separates the good from the great.' As in any tale, a story with good, memorable side characters is the one we remember the most fondly, and this applies here in this genre as well. They can be tough and gruff, humorous, benevolent, good or bad, but they need to be memorable. In my case, I have pretty widespread supporting cast, meant to cover all aspects of where a brawl might be, another Fire Emblem homage I didn't realize I had.  This aspect is where the true measure of your creativity will be.

A helpful tip to leave you with is that a good, no, great monster universe has a fair share of human interaction in it. This isn't easy, the creatures are often too big to really interact with small humans, but trust me, there are ways. One friend of mine makes it where the creatures have human avatars so to speak, people they bond with and give a small measure of their power too, that communicate and do battle alongside them in a manner not far from Digimon sometimes  Another simply has humans as researchers and/or mad scientists that give reports. Typically this is needed no matter what your monsters do. I myself have it all over the board, from monster chasers to mecha pilots to entrepreneurs in the monster making business. 

I will go into more detail in future posts about the individual kaiju archetypes, but right now I have work to go do, so until next time, blog and DA readers. 

I am Back

Though that's pretty obvious, I would think.  

This past week I have spent my nerdy time in the mountains of North Carolina with both sets of my grandparents, and let me say, I had an excellent time. There was a lot of fun to be had, lots of odd experiences, and, most relevantly, a lot of new ideas.

A week ago this fine Tuesday of a today, I drove myself and my 13 year old brother up to the mountains, about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Charlotte where I live. It wasn't terribly eventful, my brother and I mostly just talked about up and coming movies, truth be told, something about Megan Fox and Transformers 3 if I recall.  

Arrival was interesting, I got to see my two young adopted cousins when we got there. (My uncle adopted two girls from China years ago, named them Kylie and Lacie. They both talk with staunch mountain accents, (which is taking your typical southern accent and slurring your 'er's' and drawling out in different places. Watch Andy Griffith, Don Knotts' voice should tell you plenty.    ) which makes for some rather odd image-sound contrast. They are more than 10 years younger than I _{(the oldest, Kylie, is 7 at my last count)} and thus, I intimidate them a bit. I have to force smiles and I have big, ringed eyes, so I can see why, but my brother is quite simply the object of their affection. Saves me the trouble of enduring their jeering and teasing, at least.  

We humored them by going out and playing mini-golf, I came in second place because my brother got a hole in one when I got a hole in. . . three. Yeeeeaaaaahhh, let's just say three and not, say, nine. . .

I always enjoyed mini-golf as a kid, so it was pretty nostalgic. The course had a jungle theme going, complete with large plastic megafauna, fish ponds, and a volcano hole, one of the many mini-golf novelties. That was day one, in a nutshell, unless you count me watching some of the extended bonus features of Peter Jackson's Kong until my brother got a little sick/bored and we switched to Pirates of the Caribean. Day 1, done.


I decided the next day to get some drawing/typing done. My grandparents, or Mamaw and Papaw as we say in the mountains   decided we would go to the rather interesting Grandfather mountain, a sort of nature preserve/national landmark. I figured I'd just take my sketchbook along and do what I could, but I figured out quickly that I wouldn't have the time. I got to see some very neat stuff, Golden Eagles, River Otters, three black bears with a knack for entertainment. In the past, up until a couple of months ago, that is, the bears would be fed by the guests as a novelty, and so the bears would all line up at the enclosure's edge and 'perform' little cute tricks for treats. The tricks, they still happened, a little, but otherwise it was nice to see bears acting more like bears and not circus bears like the other guests seemed to think they were. There were three of them, and they were very different inside and out. One was the entertainer, who still had it in his head the people would feed him if he did something. He even, at one point, grabbed a stick in his paw and put it under his bulk, giving the illusion that the stick was holding him up. The people loved that. Another was lazy, napping off to the side in a small corner, being rather surprised at how loud the people who discovered his spot. Another was, well, a lot like me. He wasn't black, per se, more of a dark brown, much like the controversy that is my curly mane. He would look at the people to humor them from time to time, but when he was done with them, he was DONE, often simply walking off away from a good vantage point. I applauded him for still having some pride. Yeah, I think I was the only non-payroll person in the park that respected the animals for what they were, and not what they seemed.

Another neat feature of the place was the gemstone and other curio's collection. These included:

-A copy of a wood carving found on the mountainside, which said, in somewhat poor english, that Daniel Boone, the famous American frontiersman, had killed a bear at that spot. Pretty cool, really.

-The largest amethyst stone in the country, maybe the continent. Impressive, to say the least.

-A tree tumor, carved out and turned into an art piece. Neat, but did I mention that 4 full grown men could stand in it? Yeah, thought not.

-Insect collections. Scorpions, walking sticks, and all the related awesomeness.

I spent some money in the gift shop, mainly souvineers for my girlfriend that missed the trip. She loved them, which is good. We then, the four of us, climbed across the swinging bridge. 5280 feet above sea level, the highest swinging bridge in North America. It was neat, had a nice view. My brother took some dental wax and threw it off the edge. A dentist just rolled over in his grave. I'm not terrible with heights, at least not solid heights, so the cliffs didn't bother me until I got to the ledge itself. We then got food at a steakhouse and headed home, another fun day closing with my brother playing, and subsequently losing, at Medal of Honor in the basement.

   Animals were the name of the game this past week, it seems, for we went to the Asheville nature center, an official zoo of small stature. I hadn't been there in several years, so it was a neat bit of nostalgia. I got to see:

-Great horned owls, always one of my favorite parts of a zoo. They  were sleeping, which gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

-A pair of sleeping bobcats less than two feet from my face, with glass in between of course. I have good luck with nocturnal species, it seems.

-A coyote with no fear sniffing at us from the fence. I have long been aware of Coyotes being gutsy things, but it was nice seeing it in person.

-Red wolves. They are almost extinct in the wild, and this zoo is one of the handful that is rebreeding them. They look like the gray's of literature fame, only lankier and with longer legs, with rust colored of fur. The pups have the BIGGEST ears, its adorable, simply adorable.

-A signed poster of the Crocodile Hunter. He had been there some time before his death, so it was neat seeing a tangible part of his legacy. RIP Steve-O, you are dearly missed by the world.

-In the gift shop, a pair of boxer shorts with the words 'nice cheeks' on them alongside a picture of a squirrel.


After that, we went to the mall. I looked about, found some good deals, mainly in a Gamestop. I found two games of note, one being a Wii exclusive RPG called Arc Rise Fantasia. It is really well done visually, colorful and not quite your typical anime style of design. One complaint, though, is that the voice syncing just sucks. . . the voices fit, the timing matches the lip movements, but it sounds way too awkward in English to keep me from laughing at times. Other than that I am very impressed.

The other game was one I had been looking for, one that I've intensively enjoyed playing, Rampage Total Destruction. Why did I not get this game before? Why???!?

After that, we went to my other set of grandparents, who live a few minutes away in a small mountain home. Its much quieter there, but after the constant sight-seeing it was pretty nice.

Napping, Wii-ing, and eating were the names of the games for a couple of days. We then went to visit my girlfriend, we watched Osmosis jones, which I picked out. I forgot how much fun that movie was.   Also, we watched Alice in Wonderland, Edward Scissorhands, School of Rock, and Hellboy II, all of which did their job of entertaining. We swam a bit, and the general fun, but we had to head back and enjoy the next couple of days in the mountains again.

The days after that were not as eventful, but still fun in their own right, and we arrived back in town this morning. My parents had just returned from a trip to Brazil, which they loved, so we all had some stories to tell.


Now, while on my own this week, I spent a lot of time drawing, and getting Dark Hours synthesized. I opened a document in Word, title: Dark Hours Thinktank, which is now over 15 pages long. I have almost every kaiju I want to do synthesized and put together, a good portion of them sized up and armed properly with role, placement, and activities. A lot of the human work is done too. Also, I am getting the timeline for the 'verse's entirety resolved, though I'm still getting the details of the era of creation resolved.

I worked on Art trades, and managed to secure a net connection long enough to answer a few comments and post my Shark week celebration pic.

Now, I have told you all of the week as well as my drowsy self can, so enjoy the read, and expect some uploads over the next couple of days.

If anyone wants to see the thinktank displayed, I can get it together and posted, or in an email if you note me the address, I don't mind.

Now, I am also posting this entire description on my DA page, which can be found here http://crimson-vagrant.deviantart.com/


(sorry, no pictures, my folks took the camera with them to Brazil. And sorry for any typos or grammar mistakes, I'm tired.)

Kaiju All Stars

In light of my most recent entry on the monster, specifically kaiju (Japanese for monster, typically used to describe city destroyers like Godzilla) genre, I thought I would go ahead and announce the newest project I have come across on DA for the genre. DA has a rather healthy, active fanbase for giant monsters with regular contributors, and one day someone came up with the idea of making an All Stars mega monster universe that we all could contribute to. It has rules, regulations, and templates to work with, but the result can be so entertaining when people come together and simply tell a good story.

Currently, it is in the founding stages, with only 3 canon monsters as the time flies. The art differs by person and their resources, but we can make do with that by sheer idea power, which many of the people in the genre have.

I will include a link to the homepage here, in which you can read the many ideas pooled together. (disclaimer: not everyone in this genre holds the same moral standards as I or I'm sure you do, so keep a grain of salt in check. We're trying to keep it PG-13 rated, but everyone thinks differently. Don't say I didn't warn you when you go on there and see the use of words you wouldn't use.)

Anywho, the page is found here. http://da-kaiju-all-stars.deviantart.com/

Enjoy, and give the group a read. :-)

A Beginners guide to the Monster Genre, part 1: What is a monster?

I recently finished my run at Community College everybody! It's been 2.5 years since I got out of High School and moved towards my adult life. It's been an odd ride, with teachers as interesting as the classes, but I prevailed. It's really advantageous for me to have done this, it means I'll be able to actively pursue my English Major full time when I enroll in University this Fall. All right, personal update, check.

For those who follow me on here, you must have deduced that I don't post on here all that often, though there is a reason. Blogger is a neat place, to be sure, but I must say it is not my main haunt of 'teh intanet.' That goes to my Deviantart page, where I am something of a contributor to a genre that has been rather dry for. . . 30, 35 years? That genre happens to be one of the oldest in the movies, the monster movie.

I love it myself, though many question why one would have fascination for obviously fake films with bad acting, poor to par special effects, and a tendency to repeat itself? I'll deal with those issues later, but let's just say that the genre isn't as dead as you think. DA (what I say in place of DeviantArt, and will use from now on) is home to many fans that are in fact quite devoted and quite contributory to the genre that no one really pays any attention to these days. I myself have made several contributions, in fact I've been writing in the genre for nearly a year now, with no shortage of ideas. As such, I thought I would give a little introduction to the genre itself.


Monsters have existed since human sentiency, and they have always held a special in the human mind, the place where fear goes, right next to the imagination. Different cultures embraced different monsters, but at the root they were the same, beings that existed outside our realm of sense that embodied what we should be afraid of. Some monsters were given form to embody dangerous elements of life. Remembering this is key when you work in the genre, for the creature needs to show itself as a visual metaphor for whatever it is you are going for. You can be direct or indirect with this, and you can be as fun as you want, but it helps to remember this.

Now, the idea of putting them in the movies is quite diverse, with numerous ideas and the like. You can have a good monster, a bad one, an anti-heroic one, and anything in between. I'll list a famous example for major types.


Villainous Monster:


Example: The Blob






The Blob doesn't look like much, but he is one of the most frightening icons in monster history. It is cold, it is unfeeling, and it will digest you regardless if you are a serial killer or a 4 year old looking for his pet dog in a hallway. This is several human fears in one body, an alien protoplasm that gets bigger the more it eats, and is deemed to be indestructible by man. A picture doesn't do much justice, so see the film, or even scarier, the 1980's remake.


Heroic Monster:

Examples: Gamera





This guy is one of the more obscure names to American audiences, but in Japan, at the height of the monster genre, this guy was the second biggest name in the genre after Godzilla. He's been a hero since movie two, and he's been saving people, namely children for some reason, for over forty years.

The company that made his movies went bankrupt in the seventies, (times were tough, and they overused him in too short a time) the name was bought by one of the biggest movie studios in Japan, and in the nineties, the Gamera Trilogy was made. Best Monster Movies EVER! The premise is that the ancient Atlantean empire created a monster known as Gyaos, a giant bat like creature that ate anything, designed to clean up waste. They just happened to be TOO good at their job, reproducing and killing the society itself. In their dying times, they created the Gamera, giant guardians meant to kill the Gyaos, but it was too late for Atlantis, and the empire sank into the sea, or something like that. You can figure out the plot from there. ;)

Gamera has never really blurred the line of hero, except in one case where he was tainted with by some evil dude, or something, I'm not sure it's been a while.


Anti-Heroic Monster:

Example(s): Godzilla and King Kong






These two are the most iconic giant monsters of all time, with entire books written on the study of the blokes.

They are considered anti-heroes simply because they ride both lines. Kong is viewed as the more heroic, but that's only because he's a mammal, a giant gorilla at that, and we see his tender side towards whatever hollywood hotty he has his eyes on. Godzilla, he destroys cities and that's almost all we see.

Godzilla was originally made as an icon of fear. That fear was the lingering effects of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the end of WWII, which left a once proud nation forever scarred. However, his character changed over time, from a villain to loving father to a villain again, to. . .no one's entirely sure anymore. He's saved the world and destroyed it in different movies, making his role very strange and thus, very unique. Kong, while heroic to the girl, is a terrifying villain to everyone else, killing without discretion. Thus, the two really can't be labeled on good or evil.

I plan on covering various other aspects of the genre in future entries, including some of my own work and the work of others. Any suggestions or questions will be addressed.

Until next I write.

But when the World needed him most. . .

This past weekend was a blast to end all blasts for me, with a lot of fun, swimming, fireworks, and general funzies.

One particularly interesting part of the whole thing was when I took my girlfriend out to see a movie I had been looking forward to for many, many months, based on a show I loved a good deal and watched at any chance I could get. It is the recent film release The Last Airbender, directed by the unfairly criticized Shyamalan.

First of all, I was worried walking into it for one thing and one thing only. I had heard the movie was less than two hours long, which really worried me when I heard that it was all about season one, which is twenty episode's long. Cramming twenty twenty-two minute episode's of pure gold (I kid you not, not a single episode disappoints) into the time for only three episode's, it means either a lot is going to get left out, or that it's going to be gloriously rushed and almost spammed. But, I walked in pleasantly surprised.

Avatar, the last airbender is a modern epic with the same class of storytelling as film classics like Star Wars. It played for 3 years, with three seasons, and it was all perfect. Many criticized it because it was a. drawn like anime even though it was all american (which is a great thing, it breaks a lot of barriers. And in Japan, everything animated, no matter where from, is anime. They even consider the show South Park an anime) and b. because like anything anime, there are a bunch of aryan 'fan-gurls' that ruin the seriousness of the show, when in reality you could spend hours just studying the character dynamics, plot lines, and symbolic real world references. The movie. . .well. . .

Truth be told, my opinion is , 'not bad, wanted a lot more.' It was obviously written by a fan, for the fans, but it suffers a bit from a bit too much of that, truth be told. It left a little too much unexplained to someone who knew nothing, but it wasn't as bad as many Shama-lama haters would say. Most critics I think are a little bitter with him because he kinda slapped them in the faces in Lady in the Water when he slammed archetype study and plot commonality by a critic getting killed by a monster. Shyamalan writes his films in a very real world way, which is a strength and a weakness in film.

I didn't hate it, compared to the film for Eragon a few years back it was pure gold. The martial arts were very legit, the acting was a tad stiff, but several of the characters were acting on film for the first time so I can forgive it, I know full well acting isn't easy the first time. The characters were well portrayed, the racial angst for the film is complete bullhonky, and the sets were near flawless. Plus, Appa and Momo. 'Nuff said.

From what I know there are two more films in the making, based on season's two and three. This should prove to be better, the first season is very 'all over the place' while the other two are much more plot driven, so the next ones should be a lot better. Plus, the best characters in the entire series, Toph and Azula, come about in season two, so please give it a chance.

Being a pretty passionate fan of the show, I would say to watch the cartoon over the movie, though. The show is much better in every way. Here's where I watch it: http://www.animeultima.tv/watch-anime.html if you're interested. Just pick the seasons and watch the episode you choose, they've got them all and I know because I watched them all recently.

That's all for now, I don't feel like giving a lengthy review and you all really just need to see it for yourselves before you can judge because not doing that makes you a hypocrite. 'Till next time.

A Creation Myth

A few notes before I get into the entry.

One: I am a hopeful author in the making, born with an imagination and a love of the archetypes that make up our lives.

Two: I am an avid fan of all things fantastical, both of 'magical and sciencical' (I make up words all the time) origin. I have done a little dabbling in most of the main genres.

Three: I am currently investing my time in the genre of the kaiju, a world where rubber suited monsters destroy miniatures of famous cities, though I am trying to do a little more than the tradition. I could go on about this one, but that's another post for another day.

Four: As much as I write these days, I have been drawing even longer, and often I combine the two abilities together. Case in point, most of what I do on my Deviantart page.



Now that the points have been made, I would like to tell you a story. It is a simple story, a story that, when you hear it, you will more likely than not think, 'I've heard something like this before.' It is a tale of creation, born of loss, mistakes, successes, and ingenuity on part of a being from a time and space not our own. It is the Creation of the World told from perspective of a unique people found in a unique place. It is the Dark Hours take on Creation, as follows. . .

In the Beginning, there was a light, and from it came The Great One. We do not know where The Great One comes from, only that he came with a purpose. He said, "I will find a world of my own, where I might create life."


He walked upon the endless expanse, finding the Earth and rejoicing in the sight. 


But Earth was not a perfect planet, for a great demon of ice ruled it before The Great One arrived. The Great One spoke to the beast, asking, ‘please let me stay here.’ The demon refused, and left The Great One alone. 


The Great One decided that if the demon would not give it to him, he would take it.

And so The Great One took a small spark of his life, and gave it a name, Djin. He sent Djin to the earth, instructing him, “My child, you must go now and thaw the heart of the great demon blanketing that world.” He gave Djin a small gift, and sent him away.
Djin began to melt the ice on earth, but the demon intervened, and the two did battle for what seemed a never-ending time. When one grew stronger, the other weaker. the two were evenly matched.

The Great One came down to the Earth, and spoke to the battling Djin and Demon. He said, “You must not fight any longer. You two must work together and bring this world to greatness.” The demon heard these words and his icy heart melted, and he decided to work together with Djin to help form the world. The ices melted, creating a great sea that we now call the oceans. After this, Djin and the Demon became one, a great light called Kayundjin.

Time passed, and The Great One decided, "We must form a mark, a place between the seas of above and below." The Great One took a piece of Kayundjin, creating small beings called the Gola, who then were commanded, "Journey to the bottom of the seas and bring me back some of the Earth there." And they did. 

The Great One took the soil and shaped into a being called Gaientes, which he commanded, 

"Go to the skies above the sea, and drop yourself into the water." And Gaientes did so, and from him the lands of the world rose up from the Seafloor, where they still stand to this day.

Time passed again, and The Great One then took a small seed and from it brought all the plants of the world. But, The Great One had forgotten their mortal nature, and the plants began to wither away. Afraid to lose all that had been made, The Great One bore a great worm called Vershwintel, who was commanded to consume all the plants of the world. After doing so, the world was dark and lifeless once again, but then the worm spewed forth from his belly a great storm of seeds, from which all the plants of the world then grew again, only this time, the plants had learned to scatter the seed on their own. The Great One was most pleased, but Kayundjin, in a fit of jealousy, planted a small seed on the tip of Vershwintel's tail while he slept. This seed grew into a small toadstool, which caused his tail to itch, but he could not reach it.

Time passed again, and The Great One found that the plants of the world were growing too great in number, and if not managed, they would choke each other unto death. In order to keep the cycle in check, The Great One bore small formless life-forms called Protozoa, in order to consume the plants. But they were too small, to few in number. The Great One then bore the Sea King, Secenscion, who was commanded to bring variety to life on earth. 


Secenscion floated about the surface of the earth, shaping the Protozoa into the other creatures of the world, from the smallest fish to the mightiest of lions. The Great One was pleased, and after a year spent, Secenscion sank to the seafloor, where he sleeps to this day. Using the last of his power, four guarians were created to awaken him should the time arise.

Time passed once again, The Great One finding joy in the Earth, until something happened that was 
not intended. A small group of primates had grown in size and intelligence, forming small dwellings, which grew into villages, which grew into towns, which grew into cities, which grew into empires. Man, a sentient being, had risen. The Great One, surprised at the emergence of rare, sentient life, birthed a guardian for them, but this guardian named Sernak was born without a form, a simple soul commanded by The Great One to choose a form for its own.


The soul went down to the earth, spending much time amongst the animals, but not a form seemed fitting. 


One day, he was amongst men, who were about to execute a group of their prisoners by drowning them in a river. Sernak was disturbed by the barbarity, but before the men could kill, a great crocodile arose from the riverbed, eating the men and sparing the prisoners. Sernak saw this, and took the form of a great crocodile, who guards mankind to this day.

Time passed, and man had grown too great in number. Contesting for space, man began to kill each other, leaving their souls to float aimlessly throughout the earth. The Great One then bore Fueranin, a valkyrie of the shadows who gathers the souls of the dead and takes them to The Great One's presence. 

All this passed, and The Great One grew tired, for work had not ended since arrival. In need of rest, The Great One took a great portion of the power wielded in Creation, and bore Sincerphile, an arbiter who would act in The Great One's place while resting. 

The Great One then entered a deep sleep, leaving The Seven Guardians to their own devices, and that, as they say. . . is that.

And that is a Creation Myth, ladies and Germs. I can explain in some detail what symbolism was used for each of them, but for now, I will leave it at that. 

I deeply enjoyed creating these creatures, and the best part is, they are only the beginning. This story goes on through all of time, in a sort of, "what would earth be like if giant monsters existed since the beginning." deal.

Enjoy, and check out my DA page for more info.

Dark Hours, it covers more than time

[A little glimpse into the eye never hurt nobody, at least I think so]

Though this picture is old and has little to do with much of the story anymore, this offers a bit of a look into a pet project of mine that I've been doing for several month now. As I mentioned in my last post, I am quite fond of working in the sci-fi genre, mainly in the kaiju field. Now I know that word is not known too well by the general public, so I'll explain.

'Kaiju' is Japanese for 'weird beast,' but it often translates to 'monster.' Films with monsters include old horror classics like Dracula and Frankenstein, but most often the connotation of them goes to. . . .

                                 THESE GUYS! 

Yes, the classic image of a giant lizard destroying Tokyo is synonymous with the word 'kaiju.' If you spend any time around Deviantart you will encounter plenty of work in the genre, some very original pieces of work. A common trait we have in the genre is usually our own story involving giant monsters, a 'kaiju-verse' as fans say it. And that brings me to my main point.

I started the project to test my limits as an artist and writer, though I find that my limits are far from being tested, rather, they are being let loose to grow. It is a tale of. . . well, words don't always do the greatest justice, so I'll just show you.

This is my main beastie in the first part of the story, a massive thunder croc that humanity dubs 'Ragido' (rage and latin for 'killer' combined) though this is far from the actual truth, (now this might get a little spacey to the uninformed so bear with me) Ragido is actually named Sernak, and he is one of a group of Seven ancient beings created to guard the earth's well being from malevolent intruders. The characters are modeled after the seven trumpet blowing angels in Revelation, only given multiple other traits to hive them character. But this is only one element in the scope of the story spanning time and space. Humans fight and work with these monsters that appear, trying to keep themselves from extinction through force. There are various forces at work, like those of aliens from other worlds, much like this one below.

 

I could go into massive amounts of detail about every little thing, but I doubt Blogger will let me do that all at once, so I'll leave you with an excerpt of the story itself. This is a prologue to the second part of the story, where a young man has found his way into some pretty nasty hands. . .

Excerpt From: Dark Days on the Dunes by Jared Fisher ~Crimson-Vagrant Paul's consciousness began to flicker back into the light as the sun began to set. It was a slow return, at times he could barely make out the sun's warmth, at times he could only sense himself, as though he was half awake. But, then, a concrete sensation ran into his fiber of being. The sensation of hearing voices. They seemed far away, and heavily distorted, but they were there. Paul could barely make anything out of it, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the voices were talking about him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Well, what do you think?" "I think nothing, I know we must." "I recommend you do try thinking, Jeremiah." "Why would I?! He is one of them, that is all I need to know." "Your just upset because one of them got you good. In the neck right? Twice?" "If you were wise, you would not have-" "Silence! Brothers, this is the only one left, the others either left long before we awoke or lie dead from our claws and teeth. We are rarely so fortunate to take a living one for ourselves. Please, let's try not to go into killing it." "A brilliant speech, Lona. Especially the amount of dishonor you bring to your grandmother's memory." "Cite not her memory to me, you black tongued-!" "If she were here, she would have at least made him one of us by now. She did not hesitate as you do. That hesitation is what put us in that war in the first place. Are you going to make the same mistake again here by letting something that cannot be allowed slide?" ". . . ." "That's what I thought. Now then, let's get to business. Oh! The man is waking!" Paul shot upright, bursting back into consciousness. His instincts were on high alert, causing him to crouch into a defensive position. Standing around him was a crowd of cowled figures obscured by the night sky. They looked human, but their eyes all shone with a dull red light. "Whe-where am I?" he stuttered. One of the figures spoke. "In the enemy's arms, filth." Suddenly, two hands gripped Paul by the shoulders, forcing him to the ground with inhuman strength. He tried to struggle, but his legs were similarly bound. "What are you demons going to do to me? Where's my battalion?" "The giants?" One of the figures inquired. "They left you behind long ago. I would imagine they are licking their wounds. Especially if they are anything like helpless little you." The figures all moved in closer. Paul feared the worst, it seemed the skinwalkers were just as brutal as the stories said. "Now Lona," the one who spoke earlier said, "What will you do?" One of them, much taller than the others, turned his head, the disappearance of his red eyed gaze making him as a stone in the darkness. "I. . ." the tall one, apparently this  "Lona", quietly muttered. "I'll do it. I'll make him one of us." Voices of affirmation and approval broke out over the silence, the rest of the group seemed plenty happy at the thought. Paul attempted to thrash himself free, but nothing could break the vice-like grip of the Skinwalkers holding him down. Lona moved in, as a predator preparing to kill, and Paul turned his head closing his eyes in fright. It seemed the end had come. Suddenly, a voice broke out over the small band. A familiar voice. "Paul, No!" It was Jo's voice, which gave Paul a rather odd blend of emotions. For one, he was glad he was alive. On another note, he was disturbed that the voice came from a new red eyed figure that had just entered the circle. The group all eyed the encroacher, "You know this one?" a voice broke out. "He's my friend." Jo muttered, "He's from the group of warriors, same as me." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yeah, I know, fun times, right? If you are interested in seeing more of my work, my deviantart page hasn't gone anywhere since last time I advertised it. Found Here  Until next we blog!