Author: pin

potato

(REVLIS) Lore: Authority

No one really governs in the town of Revlis. The “governors” of Revlis are better known as the coordinators. According to the stories and legends passed down from previous generations…

xxx years ago

Revlis wasn’t always known by this name. Before the world fell into eternal night, Revlis was known as Aeroth, and it was a huge place, possibly a thousand times bigger than now.

Aeroth was under the control of a mayor named Silver, who treated all like slaves and servants. In the days leading up to the event, the world was utter chaos (no one is really sure of what occurred), but within the chaos, Silver vanished. The world seemed to run as normal, but now freezing cold and without day. Everyone was still alive though, and when the confusion settled, the town was renamed Revlis, to celebrate the peace we thought would follow.

Just the opposite happened.

“There’s not enough food, please, help!”
“My house! It’s destroyed!”
“There aren’t enough storage space for the excess cloths!”
“I’m so tired…is there any place I can sleep?”

There wasn’t anyone to govern and rule over the town. It was gradually becoming more disorderly and disruptive among the people. The elderly couldn’t take the cold, the children starved. People started dying. Everyone was frightened and distressed, but no one wanted to take the lead.

Finally, two people stepped up. Now known in our time as the legendary duo, Lyra and Leoric made a speech at the plaza to request for the people’s cooperation. They were the ones to finally bring the town together, and live in harmony.

“We do not wish to rule over everyone, but looking at the state of the town now, we need to work together. There is an excess of manpower at some places, and a lack of at others. As we work as coordinators, we can decide which part of the town needs more help and assign more people to work there.”

“We will not force you to take part if you do not wish to, but our town as you can see, needs all the help it can get. If you care for the town…”

This is a more popular version of the story. It isn’t the only version. Whether it is true or not, the fact remains that we don’t have a mayor but we have a group of coordinators that oversees the essential work that needs to be done for survival.

Currently, there are 5 coordinators that people go to for help when needed. Feredar, for food. Onda, for healthcare. Una, for everyday’s essentials. Rick, for overgrowth of forest. Dazzle, for housing issues and maintenance. Any other complaints not under the categories can be made to any of them.

(REVLIS) Chapter: 1 – Rumours

Olumide

Donning on the long black robe I always wear, I glance at the mirror. The soft glow from the white orbs made me look kind of unfriendly. I let my jet black long hair fall and it covers my face. I leave the room to have a run.

My backstory? I was born without parents (I wonder what happened to them?…), and grew up kind of lonely. It has made me independent though, I don’t really need the help of others. I just have to be as good as I can in every aspect of myself. I start to run along the edge of the town, this is what I usually do everyday when there’s nothing better to do, I’m pretty fast on my feet now, I guess.

Ahh, I slow down and face the jungle. I wonder what it’s like beyond? The darkness seems to grow larger. An image of a strange black dull orb flashes in my mind for a split second. I run for a while longer and head back to my bed to sleep.

2 STR, 3 AGI, 3 INT

Aria

I don’t really like showing my face to people. Covering my face with a red hooded poncho seems preferable, I won’t even mind my side flip auburn hair being messy inside since no one can see it. I lie down at the top of my favourite hill under the only tree growing there. The grass is getting prickly again, it’s out of control and needs trimming.

Lying here alone is so peaceful. I always wonder why my parents abandoned me. I have never met them, did they meet me? Did they know me that’s why they abandoned me? There are always so many questions running through my head. Who are they? I know who everyone in town is. I can’t imagine my parents being any of them though… Sometimes, no matter how independent I am, I half-wish I still had grandma to look after me. She was just a random sweet old lady who wasn’t even related to me. But she’s gone.

“Aria!” I hear a call from afar. “You were supposed to be at the potato farm today!” The voice approaches. It’s one of the old lady’s friend who still tries to look out for me sometimes. Sigh, I don’t wanna help out, I just want to sit by myself and wonder what all this is about. I roll on to my side and curl up. There’s a red orb blocking my vision. I instinctively reach out to hold it in my hands.

I get up. I want a way out. I want to know what’s out there. I run to the edge of the forest and try to bash it, without a care of what there was. A hand tries to grab me and stop me. “Aria, you’re too impulsive. Do you not fear what can be out there?” I don’t, I don’t. Nevertheless, I relent and let her bring me back towards town. I water a patch of potatoes for five minutes before making my escape. I return to my bunk and fall asleep.

1 STR, 4 AGI, 3 INT

Chapter 1

In your dream, you hear a strange thudding sound, and a faint cry of help. There is a soft scampering of feet and some shouts. You roll to the other end of the bed and the dream ends.

You wake a few hours later. Something feels amiss. There is a weird atmosphere in the air. There seems to be a lot more chattering than usual. You should be helping to trim the forest today, but you’re wondering what the occasion is.

What will you do?

[OOC] The above scenario refers to both characters. The houses you stay in are adjacent.

For more information and what you can do, check the original Lore and the Lore on housing. You can ask questions under the OOC tag.

For fastest response to questions, my line id is pinology, apologies if you don’t use line.

(REVLIS) Lore: Housing/Town Layout

Revlis has a radial design. The trees surround the town in a circle.

Housing

Houses are placed near to the edge. There isn’t enough space to build everyone a house, so everyone lives together, usually 10 to a house.

The houses are made of mostly mud bricks, rocks, stones, as the community sometimes burns off the overgrowth with fire and they don’t want the houses to burn up in an accident.

There are wooden beds inside though, and their accompanying thin mattresses were filled with straw and the feathers of chickens. There are also other furniture, a cupboard for clothes, a table and some chairs.

The walls are bare of decorative and personal items. It’s mostly covered with just white orbs providing light plus a few other essentials like mirrors and shelves. There are red orbs on the floor aligned with the walls too.

For toilets, there is a small corner of the room that is blocked off by hanging cloth, and a pot. Everyone is required to pour out the contents into a hole at the very edge of town.

Town Layout

The town’s population is approximately a thousand. Besides houses, there is also:

  • a library
  • a common canteen
  • a center plaza to chat around a bonfire (where you can cook and eat potatoes too)
  • some buildings for work (such as making cloths, slaughterhouse for chickens, etc)
  • farms (potatoes! (and more, of course))

Project 2: Rhymes

FINAL PRINTS
ALL THE KINGS HORSES AND ALL THE KINGS MEN
THE CLOCK STRUCK ONE 3
DISH RAN AWAY WITH SPOON
CAT AND FIDDLE

RESEARCH/EXPLORATION/SKETCHBOOK
Jpeg

I started with just rushing into the project without any research, and it proved to be a poor idea, as everything generally looked boring, flat and uninteresting.
Jpeg

Tried out clipart instead of real photographic images, but clipart looks flat and difficult to utilize. A little research led to the start of a more surreal approach.
Jpeg
Jpeg

Trying out different blend modes and the threshold function. It was an interesting exploration, but I decided that a normal halftone would be easier and more efficient to execute.
Jpeg
Jpeg

Project 2: Impossibilities of Being

About the Project
Concept: Small me exploring the world of plants.

The entire project represents the idea of exploring diversity in nature (non-flowering parts of plants). The first part being all greenery, second part, coloured (other than green) or multi-coloured leaves, and the third, dying leaves (brown) + bark + terrain, similarly coloured and textured aspects of nature. It finally ends as I reach the flowers (possibly faint from some scent) and before I could explore that aspect.

I composed the images by going outside on the streets and just have fun taking all the different photos of different plants. I tried to take them at angles that was as if I was small and curious. After which I picked a wide variety of photos/plants to show diversity and picked out possible photos I could fit myself in, then took photos of myself in those angles and photoshopped myself in. I also had to change the lighting/colours of the different photos so that they would match.

 

Artist Reference
The Listening Room – Rene Magritte

I’ve taken inspiration for this project from surrealist artists and their paintings, one such example being The Listening Room by Rene Magritte. The sheer size difference between the apple and room for example, and the strangeness and impossibilities of surreal paintings led me to my idea.

I’ve always been intrigued by the effect of the shallow depth of field, hence I’ve also tried to utilize the technique in my work.

Aphid's delight.
Link
Using this technique, it is possible to show the minute details. The blurry background also gives a sort of mysterious atmosphere that adds to the surrealistic feel.

 

Reflection
I feel that I could have done better on this project, maybe by exploring further rather than just colours, or perhaps by photoshopping more of myself into the photos to make it more coherent and united as a whole. On the positive side, I feel that I’ve discovered more about the techniques for the depth of field effect, and also improved my photoshop skills. Overall, I’ve enjoyed taking photos of nature and it was also fun looking at the outcome after putting myself in the photo.

Assignment 1B: Fire and Ice

There are many insights into this poem online, but none which I find particularly resounded with me. I thought about it for a fairly long time before I finally came up with an interpretation that I was satisfied with.

As I interpret Frost’s Fire and Ice, with fire as passion and ice as rational, I imagined someone with two lives – where one life was where he followed his passion, while the other was a life where he chose a more rational path that would allow for a comfortable life. Although the paths are different, they are also strikingly similar. Yet, fire is still preferable to ice. Ultimately though, we all die anyway, which is why no matter whether fire or ice is chosen, the outcome is the same.

With time constraints and some desperate attempts at searching for places and again at searching for internet pictures, I did not manage to acquire any suitable pictures and decided to change to using more abstract images instead, which I found could express what I feel about the poem best.

fi4_re

fi3_re

fi2_re

fi1_re

 

As shown in my series of photos, everyone has the same beginning or ending, only the paths we take are different. A path we are passionate about is preferable (I hold with Frost that fire is more desirable, although there are people who would think that ice is better! (you know, as stated in the poem)) to a life that we would think of as more stable and comfortable (but probably boring). Of course, everyone also has different opinions on what their passions are (those written in the series are just mine although I tried to make it a little more general). I’ve also tried to give a blurry effect on the paths as the futures are just simply unclear, there is no way of really knowing what will be next.

 

Fire and Ice – by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.