Orcannas of Orcus the City of the Dead.

So this picture above, I did this a few months ago. It was my playing with this idea about doing more cartoony characters for Herenkoa and throwing away the idea of making everything overly realistic for the game, while keeping the game as close to myths, legends and realistic science as I could. 

It's a basic design around the idea of Dragon Warriors, from ancient China. 

Here is the thing, I am not even sure if Dragon Warriors really exist or if it is something I have made up from watching films over the years!

Now I wrote a piece and created a city called Orcus. I think it is on the map, the idea was this will be the dead city and everyone that was housed there had died and no one could work out why. So it was just known as the city of the dead. It's in greek mythology go look it up. Any way while I was researching this and getting my facts right I had this secondary idea. What is the city wasn't dead! What if this was just a story they created to hide from the war? 

At which point I came to this idea of them living under the city, they created this underground city and the aboveground city died away. Yet they scared off anyone trying to settle the city about producing the whole city of the dead issue and scaring everyone away.

The only issue I have with them living under the city is that it kind of links with the Centaur/Minotaur concept in a way that I did with the city of Minous and how this race came to exist with them being in a labyrinth beneath the city. Which they don't they were created there and then over ran the city itself.

Any way this leads me on to the idea of the City of Orcus and the tribe that dwells in the city Orcannans the way they hide is they fashion their armour to look like well that below and from a distance they look like fiendish monsters but under the armour they are just humans. So how is that for a concept? Having a human army that hides under their armour to make the world think they are monsters. An this all comes from the Dragon Warrior idea I was playing with a few months ago just to practise my ZBrush skills. The image below is the initial armour concept for this new tribe. 

Music, my love, my passion, my life......

Music is my first love. Always.
An though music brings us all different emotions thoughts and feelings, we have differences in what we like what we listen to what we choose to fill out heads with it all comes back to good tunes, lyrics, timing for me.

So as I lack someone to talk music with at the moment, that is on the same level as me musically I turn to here, an this isn't a review, this is a personal adventure into music and what I think what I feel and what I like and for you well or you all it will be different.

So Music shopping I have been, and there is a fair amount of stuff kicking around in my collection now that I haven't gotten to talk about to anyone.

Black Sabbath. 13. It is a Black Sabbath album, you get exactly what you expect but three times as long as normal, which is nice. Song's not conforming to that normal method of 3 minutes and try to repeat as much as possible to fill it out.

Motorhead. Aftershock. Once more its Motorhead being just that Motorhead with some bluesy bits and some slow downed tracks, and the usual splatter of thrashed up to the eyeballs power Rock 'n' Roll.

Five Finger Death Punch. The wrong side of heaven the righteous side of hell Volume One & Two.
I'm doing these two together, I borrowed Vol One and Bought Volume Two, and after getting volume two they have been on permanent rotation all day! I've seen them live three times an they just don't do it for me live I don't know why but on CD I think they are amazing, a complete mixture of great guitar work, impressive lyrics and altering song dynamics, just amazing me to be honest, really enjoying the way the songs change and the stories they tell. They are starting to really carve out their own sound and I do hope they last, if they keep pushing harder with their writing and musical ability they should go far.

Stone Sour. House of gold and bones part 1 & 2.
Now I give the stone sour guys there dues they are amazing musicians but I did go off them a bit with Audio Secrecy, just didn't impress me and I have given this double album some play through but not enough to really give a definitive have they saved themselves moment. I just I don't know some good tracks on there but not enough to make me play it in loop like come what (ever) may or Stone Sour.

Soil. Whole. Just feels like its trying to be Scars, and to be honest it should be. Its that line up once more, just I don't know feels like they are trying to hard?

Nine Inch Nails. Hesitation Marks. Another it's Nine Inch Nails and everything you could expect and more another amazingly put together album that still makes my heart break and race with both anguish and joy.

Motionless in White.
I picked up infamous, and their first album Creatures, not sure if they are more akin to Wednesday 13 or Marilyn Manson yet, with some Alice Cooper thrown in just for kicks, they are growing on me and are an interesting band would like to see them live hopefully they will be in the UK next year and I can get a bit more of a feel for them.

Avenge Seven Fold. Hail To The King....
How many rifts can you rip off? I know everyone was joking about it but I do find my self singing the wrong song, seriously! If it comes on and it isn't often as I don't have it in a rotation like everything above, I have given it a play through and I end up singing different songs to what is playing. Nightmares the only good AX7 album and I stand by it. Hail to the King, na you're alright, go buy one of the other albums in this list.

Korn The paradigm Shift. I own it. I have heard the few singles off it and while I do like them an the album is better than that last travesty I'm still a little unsure, it just don't feel like Korn which is funny as its got the most original members they have had for a while!

AFI Burials. I am really enjoying this album but 17 Crimes is such a catchy tune even if the video for it sucks so badly. It is what you come to expect from AFI, an any band that releases new stuff and stays with what they know works well for me as that is what you expect.

I have three or four more albums still to listen to properly, but its finding the time.

Candles

Fire burning in the night.
Bringing to you all the light.
Images flicker in the flame.
Memories from down the lane.
Past that seems to close and true.
Futures night and dark I miss you.
The time passed down it burns.
Fires rise and souls still yearns.
Darkness shrouds once candles burned.
Visions follow into worlds.
Memories still to come.
Things not passed and things not done.
Let the candles bring the light.
Into darkness they shall ignite.

The Fall of Taurs. A Story from Herenkoa. (WIP)

The Great City of Taurs spread across the deserts of the south, glistening in the light of the sun, built upon the back breaking labour of the Clan Minos. Its wall grew high, and once the room was taken downwards the went into the sands.
The surface was harsh, sand storms destroyed crops and livestock alike, there was a plan, build under the divert the river and then build in the dark beneath the storms.
This Labyrinth of  corridors and tunnels was erected under the land, the streams diverted and controlled to move water under ground along the passageways, bringing fresh water to the live stock and allowing the open chambers to grow crops with in. Raising a wall around the city also helped protect its inhabitants from the restless bombardment of sand crashing across the city, with walling the city and the winds and sand then down was the only option. Tunneling expanded many died in creation of these underground abodes. Yet they pushed and they pushed to build.

Grand Theft Auto Five... You're probably sick of hearing about it already...

So, I spent a week putting off buying GTA5 on the grounds of GTA4 was annoying as hell. I just wanted to play do the story blow stuff up and not go on a date, not take my cousin out bowling, not play darts.
Well rock star listened, a bit anyway, couple of missions with in GTA 5 involve doing Yoga and playing Tennis, but they help to round out the story of what is going on and why certain things happen within the lives of the characters.
I could sit here and go off about how the game looks amazing, how the controls though slightly different work so well and how everything is pretty and all nicely built, but you have seen the photos, you have watched the videos you know what it looks like.

An while the map appears to be MASSIVE it's not. Either the cars have gotten faster and so the distances seem less or the distance really isn't that great in the first place.
The mission where you leave the outer town redneck trailer park and head round the mountains and back into Los Santos took minutes. Not lots of minutes a couple of minutes! I was expecting a 45 minute hike from one end of the world to the other, and yes you can walk, steal cars and so on to get around but every character has their own personal car which is great as usually when you jump to them they will be nearby...... Well you hope they are!

This is an ADULT game, it has gore, it has drugs, it has gunfights, it has you breaking laws and terrorising citizens... Wait that last bit hasn't happened, I have had random encounters which I have ignored which seem to be the stopping such and such robbing joe bloggs on the sidewalk, but as I have generally ignored these in order to carry on the story to see where it is going as it really has sucked me in quiet a lot I don't care about them, an yes there are filler missions, so sick of using the tow truck, but then you have the great cinematic missions, which really make GTA worthwhile.

As a grown up, I am 34 after all I know this is all story telling and totally enjoyment, I haven't spent a great amount of time outside of the story, yes I took Franklin to the firing range to improve his shooting skill (he really does suck) but that has been it if I am honest.

I just want to play the story. I really am engrossed with it, Rock Star have pulled off an amazing story, and yes I am missing out on playing golf, pool, tennis, rampages and races, but at this point in time all I want to do it live the lives of these characters and see where the world is taking them.
I won't give away to much here in the way of story as it is a well laid out one, from the opening mission to the point where I presently am and I am fairly sure I'm not even half way through!

Attention to detail with GTA and Rock Star in general is there. Slightly unimpressed with picking up ladies of ill repute and  being able to see a lot more than you used to be able to, why do you ask? I'm not a 13 year old boy for one, and for two I always liked the hinted a antics, I didn't really need to see her jumping up and down on my car seat with me under her, heck now it even gives you the ability to move the camera around so you can get a better view! Was that really needed? If you are a 13 year old boy you'll be saying yes! Though if you're a 13 year old boy you shouldn't be playing an 18 rated game should you!

An there is the thing it is an 18 rated game and with all the sex, drugs and lacking rock and roll you can understand why. I am unimpressed with the radio in this game it just don't seem to be as edgy, catchy or as funny as the previous games, it also seems to lack as wide a range of music. Yes it is a 2 DVD and install game just to make it run and yes the install is a whopping 8gb! Would it have been worth adding that 3rd DVD and putting in a decent soundtrack? I think yes, it is the only thing letting the game down.

Though it makes no difference, amazing story, beautiful graphics, some awesome special abilities for each of the characters and a long way to go till I'm finished. GTA5 really don't need reviews, we were all sold on the opening cinematic we saw earlier in the year. An as the hottest selling series of all time. Yeah it is we all know it Rock Star do GTA and they do it so damn well.

"Work in Progress" Adventuring Within The Mind.

Probability, possibility, truth and meaning. Words and thoughts spreading through the brain of our hero as they sit upon the rock looking up at the glowing full moon peeking from between the ethereal mists forming across the heavens.
The breeze whipped through the long grass as thoughts turned to moments in the past, places and things that had been the actions the world everything they had known. How it had collapsed, fallen from sight, being reduced to nothing more than hope and dreams. Which ironically was where it had all started. The idea and the possibilities of what they were capable of what they could have created and where their mind should have been able to take them.
As the tiny droplets of rain splashed gently across the face of the stone, our hero raised, collected their belongings and began a slow walk across the field heading towards the cover of the near by out crop at the edge of the cliff face.
The camp fire still smouldered, tent though gently buckling in the breeze was still standing. The door opened with a tug on the line, collapsing through into the bedding our hero's mind once more turned to the wonders of the morning and what the first act should be before rolling into the bundle of linen being used to keep their head from the stony ground.
Finding sleep was hard, so much had happened, acts casting them out from the group, the thoughts raced of how to redeem themselves of the tragedies and incidents that had come to pass and their removal from village life. Yet they failed to find the memories of actually doing these events which caused things to escalate into this exile.

The dawn light broke, hazing through the rising mists breaking the line in the tent door and cascading across the hero, restless and disorientated from the dreams and visions that danced in front of eyes as the night passed through. Break the tent. Collect your things. Remove all trace of your presence and press forward.
Need to move need to get to through the forest before night fall. Have to get through. Thoughts racing through the mind, clambering quickly, packing moving clearing this space. What was that. Ears picking up sound, people moving horse? unsure must move quicker. The bag filled and weighing heavy water saturating the tent and unable to dry as time was of the essence. Strapping the sack tight across the chest feet moved forward, slushing through the mud, after the nights rain, into the woods, trying to move through gaps in the trees and bushes, not leaving a trail, cant be found have to move, urgency ran through the conciousness.
"What you doing?" a voice asked from within the mind of our hero. "I'm running!" spluttered a reply from some where else buried within the conscious.

Love, Life.

What is love?
What is life?
All this.
Trouble and strife.
It comes to expire,
When the curtain comes down,
We all can retire,
With one final bow,
Face the audience,
And there it all ends.
Nothing on nothing as if we all depend.....

I know this much,
When the end is here,
If two loved ones die,
They will be reunited,
high in the sky.
One love,
One life,
Two souls left to fly,
Our thoughts together,
Our hearts down below,
But at last together,
It will never end,
You know.....

Who cares, I care.....

What is it all about?
Why are we all about?
Who knows?
Who cares?

The meaning of life explained,
Can't be.
We all have our own meanings,
All out own rules.

Nothing is certain,
Not even the inevitable.
For the inevitable does not exist.
Reality is not even inevitable.

But is she?
Is he?
Who knows what comes,
It happens to all.

What is here today,
Is gone tomorrow.
But is still the same as yesterday.
Or even last year.

Possibility is,
Well?
Who care's?
I care...............................

Reality Bites...

What is this thing,
Reality?
Or is it all,
Fantasy?
Who is to know,
The boundaries of it all?
All that happens is,
We are born,We all die.
The bit,
In the middle,
That is the bonus.
Some are never born.
Some never die.
Immortalised in words,
And hearts for all eternity.

No name on this one. Just scribbles on a page.

Emotion is a variable.
Life is also.
Death is the only constant.

Everything is said.
Nothing is done.
Words are only probability.

The only definitive.
We are born to die.
Or is it we are born to live?

The finish "Click off Gone"

Is death the end of life?
Or is it like a full stop on a page?
The end of a sentence,
Or the beginning of life?

Who is to know what is in store.
Life or Death, comma or full stop.
In the end everything comes to a close.
How do we stop it?

We can't stop the inevitable,
Only prolong it.
Until the end.
Everything comes to an end?

So like the sun in the sky,
I come to a close.
But not my life,
A full stop.
But who is to know?

Sorting out the spare room I found....

I was tidying, generally trying to make this house more of a house and less of a living room, a kitchen an area to sleep and then just masses of storage space. I am a bit of a collector and I collect lots and am trying to get this all sorted.
I found my Collage file though, when I say collage file I mean the random poems, art work, ideas and designs I put together when I was in collage. Just to give my brain something to deal with other than the sciences I was studying. So in no order or any memorable reason I am now going to put them all here.

These were written a long long time ago. Mainly things floating around my head, they have no bearing or reaction to anything going on in my life then or now.
Though I will say I am rather profoundly odd at predicting things that are going to happen in my life years before they happen. I shall post them in their own posts. As some are very long.
(really wish I had dated these)

I think its time I gave up the secret to my past my darkness and my mental state.

An now before you start thinking this is all a moan about my relationship troubles, well lack of relationship with the woman of my dreams and the love of my life it isn't though it might get crammed in here but then it may not.

So Why Fallen?
I shall start by saying my past isn't exactly great, in my head its rather hazy, very hazy and a bit random. Not all things come out in the correct order. But this is how I got the name Fallen and why things don't always come out in the right order after all. ( I survived a hit and run so Fallen From Grace I just don't know a Grace)

I'm now 34, and most people would think that after 18 years of living how I do I would have gotten used to it.
Small Bit of information. You try surviving a hit an run from a drunk driver doing 70mph and mounting the pavement wiping out your past your memories and then see if you can get over it in 18 years.
For sure you should be able to, well yes but I still get random flashbacks of things from my life I had long forgotten, I still lose days where my mind wipes itself out due to stress or trauma and I still suffer with a lot of soft tissue damage and busted knees, which lets be honest if you see my day job and all the running around and bending I do I'm surprised I have only had my knees rebuilt twice.
Any way, after said hit and run at the end of the first half term of my first year in College! I vanished from college for a while, had to drop out of my A Levels, never got them and eventually went back to study IT. HND Level 3 to be exact. Yeah that didn't work either had to stay away from PC screens for a year due to the possibility I could develop epilepsy and as I had been known to black out they weren't going to risk it. Plus its collage I'm trying to work out who I am, was in a fair amount of pain, the morphine tablets made me sick, alcohol didn't, we can see why I flunked out of the HND can't we. I wasn't ready.
So off to the land of Doctors and Nurses, who for some god for known reason were more interested in trying to work out how I survived and how much my brain was damaged than actually trying to fix me.
So this screwed me up quiet a lot.

18. First real job, yes I went and I got a real job, I started on my 18th Birthday and where was it Games Workshop. Had a wonderful manager when I started Paul Green, he knew I was in and out of hospital a lot (7 years) and didn't mind me taking the days off I needed to get things sorted as long as i booked them in in advance, loved it this was great, unfortunately he resigned his managers position very soon after I started due to stress. I had all my hospital appointments booked in some of them could not be changed or I'd end up at the back of the waiting list. An that was anywhere from 6 months to 2 years. Not an issue new manager would see them booked and the reasons behind them and would obviously honour them..... NO.
He wouldn't so Scott, I forget his surname, I remember he was from New Zealand as he was shocked that I could tell the difference between the accent from Australian, no idea how I could I just could, have lived around farms for years so its probably something in-bedded in my past I couldn't remember.
I moved most but one I couldn't and I had to take them morning off still got into work was only an hour late and I had given so much advanced warning it was unreal.
So 4 months in and suddenly I have had a complaint against me! Where did this come from what day did it happen on why was this hanging over me? I wasn't in work on the date the complaint said. I could prove it as well. No it was a complaint against me and it was this date and I was fired! Well I could prove I wasn't in work that day and I could prove it wasn't me but hey ho I'm not going to fight this it isn't worth the reduced hours and less pay if I win. So will go find something else and move on.
Later that day I found he had pulled the same trick on the old manager and a few weeks later he was fired himself. So Karma.
ITEC and meeting my best male friend, the jobcentre didn't know what to do with me I refused to go disabled and still do to this day. Though I am guessing now a days it is going to be a lot harder for me to get a blue badge. So I went to ITEC on New Deal, yay 20 weeks learning NVQ Level 2 IT. 3 days doing level 2 IT and 19 weeks of teaching CLAIT. in reality. My IT skills were a little advanced by then already.
So out we go back into the world of work..... Wilkinson that's so spelt wrong. 6 weeks over Christmas and done. back to the Jobcentre, and straight back into the disability office as once more no one knows what to do with me.
We seeing a pattern here?
I eventually get an office job, it sucks I do another training qualification in Windows office but nothing that can actually help me get work and the company goes under.
My folks offer me work in there garden centre running the office there, off I go to do that for minimum wage. well I say minimum wage I don't think it existed then.
And this company starts going under. Another pattern? bloody hope not.
So quick change of service and Scalextric Racing is born!
Yeah that job I do for less than minimum wage for the last 9 years which is 7 days a week 52 weeks a year no weekend off bah one and am the only person on site 90% of the time that place.
Seriously screwed over by own family thank you very much.

So in 9 years this job has ruined, 3 relationships. lots of friendships and that one special someone that I could never bare to be without who know don't feel the same way, yeah this bit stops here.

There is my life in the last few years, there have been other jobs and things I have done, there have been girls and beer and all manner of things I just don't remember.

So as I now sit here and wait for my best friend to be deleted from my head........ yeah that isn't going to happen I thought it would as this has been a stressful week but she is locked in here tight. Thats how I know she is my one. Sucks don't it she never goes away. Sorry sorry.

So run over by a drunk driver hence the name Fallen as I didn't die, yes it was lucky but the pain and the head injury not so helpful.
My reasons for going blank on my project and finding it hard to focus once more head injury and stress of the one I love bailing on me.
And yeah I know you didn't ask but It was possibly time I shared and now its a big blog so I can just say read this instead of going read this cryptic poem I wrote many decades ago.

Still Fallen. the 013 that I forget, I do I can't remember why 013 at all there was a reason it's just been lost in time.

Sim City to SimCity

Any one remember placing them squares down, making sure the roads were connected, you put your power lines in and tried to keep Godzilla out?
A large percentage of them playing Sim City 2013 will do. Were old, we played Sim City way back when on the Amiga, NES, and which ever console or home computer you had at the time.
For those playing on the NES you will remember it wasn't Godzilla but King Bowser who rampaged through the city and destroyed your power station.

I have logged more hours playing Sim City than any other game I have ever played. I still play Sim City 2000, Sim City 3, Sim City 4, and Sim City Societies. The last one was awful and I didn't log any where near as many hours on it as I have the others but I still go back and push buttons on it from time to time.
Sim City 2013 has been out just over a week and I have already logged nearly 150 hours on it.

It runs when I am at work, when I am at home, when I am cleaning, cooking or working. It is one of the games I can setup and walk away from then check in and change bits as my day goes on and it is one of the reasons I love it so much, the logic behind putting your city together keeping your inhabitance happy and maintaining a working eco system or Residential, Commercial and Industrial. With out wiping out the inhabitants by putting untrained idiots into a Nuclear power plant. Balancing the accounts and making sure the roads all move forward. I have played so many city simulators over the years and not one has ever been a patch on Will Wrights work of Genius, the guy is a game developing legend.

So why does Sim City 2013 suck so much?

Really? I have just spent 3 days working on my 3 cities within Trinity Point and getting them to be well balanced and money making empires, everything working in harmony and no problems to deal with bah the occasional meteor shower, "Godzilla" (Its a giant RED lizard not Godzilla now" or Alien invasion. I have worked my way around all the glitches with traffic jams and other annoyances like sewer pipes only pumping out 10 gallons an hour though they can pass 15 gallons an hour, bus's not going where they should and trains having incredibly random delays and arrival times. I have managed to keep my crime level down, my fires to a minimum and the my hospital fairly hectic (though zombies are funny to watch running around)

I'm not even moaning about the always connected to the server DRM things everyone else is moaning about yes I'd like to not have to be connected to the web to play but as I am always connected to the web anyway it makes no difference to me.

So what am I grumbling about then?

The game just don't work. I mean it works as a game the graphics are nice the sounds annoying and the animations are entertaining but that's it as a Sim City it just seems to not work.

I have a population of 180,000 or had before having to abandon the city due to server error.
I have 60,000 jobs 6,000 unfilled jobs. No one commuting out of the city.
I have 30,000 shoppers and an excess of goods.
I have 2000 students.............
I have 0 tourists and no one commuting in to work.

So if my maths is right and I have all these jobs and massive population why are there available jobs?

Traffic, and jams, you put in buses, trams, and trains and they have 10,000+ people using them. So why do I still have traffic jams?

I have a map covered in bus stops and nearly 1000 empty desks. So why aren't my Sims going to school?
I have a fire break out and the building burns down because my Fire Engine can't get there! an why not? its sirens are flashing but no one is moving out the way and it gets stuck in traffic.

Every thing runs really well when I am at Medium population, but as soon as you push it to high and if you don't they start to moan at you about it so you have to push to high density the game breaks. It just stops working as it should.
Or the Sims start moaning about low land values when you are running everything at high, even if its broken at which point you need to push your land value up and guess what happens your Sims DROP. Why because a High Value High Density tower block holds as many Sims as a Low Value Low Density caravan.

An the servers deal with all this! Really! That's now what I am reading from people that are ripping the code to bits.

So Maxis, EA, who ever wants to take the blame for this why didn't you just go back and look at how this game was put together by the great designer and try building that. One that works and less lazy and sloppy code. I am guessing a lot of these things will be put right over the cycle of this games life and knowing EA it wont be more than 4 years before we get a new version with these problems all put back in because the design team forgot these problems where there in the first place.
Or there is a chance that the first expansion will fix these problems, but we will have to pay to find out instead of them fixing the game and releasing it as it should have been.

Any one wanting to add to this please do.

So if religion is real this is probably how it all went down.

They say the gods gave us free will and the angels hated them for it.
But as Angels have no free will they could not hate their creators and so hated what they had built.
To the point of the war beginning within the heavens and some being cast out to be part of this world and entwined and prisoned forever within it.
Some to walk with man to understand and learn why they were created and some cast into the blackness of oblivion for they were to dangerous to be locked up or allowed to walk.
The argument all began by using the humans as food, the praise is what feeds the gods and the gods grew strong. Without the praise the gods were weakened and eaten by the more powerful gods. 
This went on and over time man renounced gods and one God won over creating monotheism. The belief in one power controlling all, but then man grew tired of this and the God was dissected into many Gods once more. Giving the multitude of religions within this planet.
This in turn as we have free will and are allowed to pick our beliefs fractured the God once more as they lost followers and praise. 
Weakening the creator. Using the abilities remaining moving to a new world to start fresh and gain the praise it needed to feed in order to become strong once more.
Leaving behind those created in order to watch over the world. But being deserted they soon began to fight amongst themselves and the humans below began to wage wars against each other. 
Still waging wars to this day against each other.
But with now higher power to control these angels they slowly began to fade as the memory of them was lost by man and by God alike.
Which in turn ends up with the few Angels upon the earth moving in strange ways and taking places within the world to control its progress ever wishing to become the Gods they should have eventually been.
While those in the earth attempt to stop the darkest of souls returning to life to wage these bloody wars though new souls form old souls do die and return.
This in turn creates the issue of balance within the world and on going fight between good and evil all while waiting for the remaining creator to return to attempt to fix the mess which was left behind.
Never realising that the humans themselves will one day be Gods because they were given free will in the first place and should ascend to this hight of power as if we are created in the image then surely we can be as they are.