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.....