January 2016 – Pumpkins Cats and Doodles

Typographic Portrait: Research I

I wasn’t sure what to do at first, so I just went down the list of suggested research for the assignment.

..I have to admit, the Dada and Russian constructivist are not really my style. >< But interesting research none the less.

I quite like David Carson’s style. But the 3D typography and such appeals to me even more. Briefly considered using embroidery and paper sculptures as my medium…

Photography… and I can’t help coming back to books, fairytales and illuminated manuscripts we learnt about last semester. The elaborate lettering at the start of fairytale storybooks might be my first memory of any form of typography, and their magic are hard to forget >w<.

Illuminated manuscripts of course are beautiful and seems to be a even more elaborate and amazing versions of the “illustrative typography” (if i should call it that ^^”)

However, most of them contains a lot more illustration than words (usually one letter), so I had to put more thought into how much of it to include in my work, and bend the style to my will~

Danraxelia Chapter 1: Brave New World

It was right before sunset when the sea dipped like a waterfall.

The mist before them had taken the pale tint of purple and the fading pinkish greenish hue of the darkening sky, and before they realized, the hazy horizon line had come unusually close to the ship.

Though panicked, sailing for 15 years provide most of them with ample experience reacting to the unexpected. All capable individuals got to their allocated positions where they knew they would be most useful as a member of the crew. The Giowels working their magic on the sails, wind and water current directions, some Tierans providing back up with their potions and strength where it is required. The rest of the people concentrated their efforts on the ship’s mechanics should that be their expertise.

They stopped the Ship from tipping over the edge with herculean effort.

brave new world — Hasty speedpaint: the ship is at the edge and the top of the city peaks through the mists

As a few stood and observed the cause of their predicament, the silhouettes of architecture and light peeks through the dissipating mist, yet it is impossible to know the full depths from which this city arise. Those with binoculars, or just binocular eyesight, seem to identify shadows of people visible through the thick mist, igniting murmurs of excitement amongst the passengers.

Yet, the Chiefs (2 Human Leaders, 1 Giowel Elder and 3 Tieran Shamans) swiftly and unanimously agreed that they should leave this unusual city behind.

It is too different from the land they were accustomed to, and they it is too dangerous for all of them to attempt getting off the Ship without ascertaining what kind of city lies beneath.

It will be way too strenuous for the Ship to remain where it is for more than half an hour without being dragged by the currents off the edge of the falls, and even with the unique potions of the Tierans, the Giowels cannot sustain their magic forever. It is in their best interest to turn the mast as soon as possible… while they still can.

However, unbeknownst to the excited crowds and the worried Chiefs then, two of their kin has already gone off the Ship.

IMAG5408 — OOC: Its a magnified diagram from another diagram I have of the whole world. That inconsistent line is NOT a force field or something LOL

IMAG5409 — Rough sketch of the lay out of Danraxelia from side view. The thick black lines are lifts to go up and down the levels.

How did Beam and Dom get off the ship and into Danraxelia (the city)?

Hint: Air magic alone is not enough. Gliders and mechanics OK. Free falling…er… well………….. XD

(OOC: The Chapter ends when you both are settled into the city. I estimate 2-3 comments required each, please and thank you~ ><

Also I like how one of you is 13 and one is 31 X”D)

(OOC edit: It seems having you both settle in in chapter one is a bit ambitious, so getting off the ship is progress enough~ Will continue in the next chapter! Thanks~)

Danraxelia Lore: Transport

~~Long post warning.~~

Danraxelia is just one city in this world (The world is called Vo’a; but this probably will not be very important in the subsequent story)

Water Transport

As this world is more than 90% water, the most common form of transport in this world is by ship.

In their homeland, they have a variety of different ships by different races and different purposes, but it has all been left behind.

The Ship (Maiden Arc)

That is the ship that they has been on for 15 years, and we can look at it as an example for how different races help to operate a ship.

It is a privately owned ship, and when the war escalated in their homeland, the owner (a Tieran) offered to take in as many refugees as it can possibly support to seek a new land.

Of course, individuals or groups who can aid in the journey were prioritized, as well as important people such as the chiefs.

The main division of crew work in the ship is as below:

Mechanics maintenance: Dominated by humans, sometime the help Giowels are required for their generation of power (water and fire, mainly.)

Doctors and Alchemists: Mainly Tierans playing a large role in creating potions that could help Giowels recover their elemental essence.

Wingers: A small (~50) but special group of older (60+) Air elemental Giowels in charge of the wings of the ship. These are literal wings build into the sides of the ship.

Essentially, the wings catches the air currents the Giowels will generate beneath the ship, and levitate the entire ship out of the waters. Other personals will use their respective capabilities to help redirect the course of the ship. This is an emergency measure, for example, when they might crash, or gets pulled into waterspouts… or the waterfall approaching Danraxelia.

Although most jobs seems predominantly done by one race, the knowledge required for the jobs are not race exclusive, and at least the basics of a job could be picked up by any race.

The possibilities of transport under water has been explored only to a very limited extend, as they use to have contact with Tierans that lives underwater. Water elemental Giowels can also stay underwater for an indefinite amount of time.

Air Transport

Unlike the sea which is usually more calm, the skies are a much more dangerous place. This is due to the fact that most of the time, it rains sand here instead of water. The equivalent to snowing and hailing would be raining pieces of glass, which needless to say, proves a terrible threat to any aviation in misjudged or unpredictable weather.

This combination of gas, sand and glass in the “clouds” also makes it extremely dangerous to go too high up, as some Tieran capable of flight has found out under certain unfortunate circumstances…

Anyways, in this way, most residents of Vo’a has also developed a deep respect for the skies. Aside from Tierans born with the animal ability of flight, not even normal air elemental Giowels are capable of flight for any extended period of time, as flying are extremely essence draining, with mere levitation already draining 1 essence per minute.

Thus, it is much more efficient for Giowels and Humans to use tools such as hang gliders for short distance flight, where air Giowels have the added advantage of simply creating gust of wind to direct and speed up their flight.

On rare occasions, Tierans have tamed huge winged beasts to provide transport in the air for friends of other races, or for trade. However, it is not possible to bring any of them on the ship for 15 years.

Land Transports

Danraxelia layouts are pretty vertical, thus, lifts are actually a main form of transport. There are a few main lifts that passes through most of the levels inside Danraxelia, with a strict time table akin to buses and trains in our world.

Countless small lifts that function more akin to known lifts in our world also exist in various alternate levels. For example, only between the 9 levels of living area.

IMAG5409

Aside from that, trams and carts are also used, acting much like buses that goes wrap around the entire citadel like structure.

*Energy source: nope, Vo’a does not have any kind of magical stones that could generate power. Well, the solidified gathering of a Giowel’s essence could act as a power source, but usually such gathering of essence could only be separated from them in death. Giowels could, however, provide energy for any form of transport, while taking turns to rest and recover.

Danraxelia Lore: Shadows of the Races

(OOC: Giowels are the longest because they are the most confusing race setting I think X”D. Anything unclear about any race or setting we can explore together! ^w^)

Giowels:
Magic are cast with their essence.
Their total essence depends on their age, where

1-20 yrs: 1 essence gained per year (Age 20= 20 essence)
20-40 yrs: 2 essence gained per year (Age 40 = 60 essence)
etc.

And the elements of the essence already gained will not change.

As they are born from the essence of the elements, should their essence run out under any circumstances, they will dissipate and die. Lost essence usually recover 1 in half an hour naturally.

Giowels with multiple elements will have their essence will be distributed across the elements, meaning they have a greater variety of skills but each at a lower capability.

The distributions of the essence depends on their affinity with each element (Do they have a main element?) and their surrounding.

E.g. a Giowel with some form of water element would more likely be gaining water essence each year they are near the sea/water..

For Beam, 13 Essence in total, 4 essence in Fire, and 9 in Air. The fire is weaker right now because they are surrounded by the sea.
(OOC: Or that’s what I’m thinking, but if you’ll strongly prefer it another way, with some backstory to back it up, it can be considered~ More than enforcing the settings I want you to enjoy acting as Beam! X3)

Also, since Giowels are like “Force of nature”, their emotions are more… “artificially gained” over the years. A Giowel with no contact with other people might not have emotions at all, while the emotions of young Giowels tend to either very limited (lack of understanding to what emotions are), or very pure and strong.

Tierans:
Not all of them are filled with love towards the world. Some use their affinity with the animals and plants to sinister ends, creating unique poisons and bringing unsuspecting animals to cruel and untimely demises.

They usually also have the weakness and some negative traits of the animal whose attributes they share.

Humans:
Cunning and selfish, and they have used their resourcefulness to their biggest advantage and developed swiftly. However, most believes that the process of their development is what brought war upon the Old Continent.

Hurans:
Both Tieranes and Humans believe that Hurans’ birth are impure and unnatural, created from sinful unions that contaminates the earth and angered the Gods. Unsurprisingly, they usually live as outcasts.

Hello Meow~

Firstly, the final.

This is the typography. It’s a one eyed cat, which I usually use as a symbol for myself. Although this “symbol” has evolved in style.

For example, this was a previous design that was screen printed on the back of a shirt~

This time the one eyed cat is made up of the letters “P” (red) and “X” (the green eyes) as these are my initials.

This is the abstract. I love circles, but I also have hydrophobia so.. @@

Actually the small concentrated black dots in this picture still makes me quite uncomfortable. But the big, colorful ones are actually quite nice. Mostly because they are done in my favorite colors, and the loops within reminds me of CDs and music.

The 3 silver lines at each side that frames the circles are suppose to resemble abstract/simplified cat claw marks.

This one……….. is mostly the combination of a gunshot, and an eye within. And is up to interpretations.

And these are the processes:

I mostly worked from what I like (cats, royal looking things (emblems), books, eyes) and what mood I would like to convey. The mood particularly applied to the typography as I was unfamiliar with it and felt the need to put in more thought.

Then there were a lot of thumbnails.

More thumbnails and stylistic considerations.

Bonus this was my first attempt for typography. It did not look as aesthetically appealing as I would like, but the idea was a paw print made out of my finger prints (so it’s a cat, but its me? XD) and my name “scratched on”.

Lore: Danraxelia

Lore:
It’s been 15 long years.

The ship is huge, with 2000 people there about. But after 15 years, there are few faces one won’t recognize.

The older ones often spoke of the beautiful but war-torn land they left behind, and the young ones listened intently as though it was a mere fairy-tale.

15 years is long enough for anyone to think of the land as a distant dream. Some has even begun to think that they are sailing towards the end of the world, and their ashes will forever be spread between the pink-green skies and the turquoise seas.

This was especially so on the day the sea dipped vertically beneath them.

And at the edge of the world, they saw a city.

(Revealed) Races:
Each race will come with 2 additional stats on top of the 8 you are to allocate.

There are hidden race(s?). But. they will only appear depending on how the story progress. You might never run into them.

Even the revealed races have undisclosed weaknesses I will explain in subsequent Lore, after you create your character. (I want to play a bit on the luck and chances of birth. Humor me and good luck.)

Giowel (Pronounce Geo-well):
Arising from the essence of the elements, their small stature belies their exceptional affinity with magic.

Magic are mainly based on the elements they are born from, namely earth, water, fire or air.

Giowels can have more than 1 element. Their skills with their elements depends on age as well as their surroundings.

(They can look anything like a fairy or elf or dwarf they are just. short.)

Intelligence +2
OR
Intelligence +1
Agility +1
(please indicate in character creation)

Tieran:
Legends has it that their ancestors were animals blessed with sentience and intelligence after their pure emotions and love towards the world touched the Gods.

They are very good with animals, plants and living things in general, and can have a familiar animal.

Decide what kind of animal attributes they have.

Strength +1
Agility +1

Humans:
Their intelligence and adaptability are their greatest assets. Skilled crafters and traders, they are the bridge between the races, and they benefit immensely from the connections.

They create unique weapons with the help of both the Giowels and the Tierans, and they used their own alchemy to bind themselves to individual weapons or tools, giving them special attacks with said items.

Weapons can be semi-magical or even with technology. Decide what they are and how they are acquired.

Strength OR Agility +1 (please indicate in character creation)
Intelligence +1

Huran:
Humans and Tieran mix. Weaker animal attributes but capable of weapon binding.

+1 on any 2 stats (please indicate in character creation. No dublicate of stats (any stats +2 NO.))

Class/Skills:
None. You may choose two or three things your characters have done for a living or are particularly skilled at. But it must make sense so this falls into the backstory of the character. You can choose to reveal them now, or as the story progress.

But it must make sense. E.g. Unlikely for any character to be an assassin when they have been stuck on a ship for 15 years of their life.
They can learn more skills as the story progress~

Inventory:
No limit. But again, must make sense.

You can’t carry more than 2 or 3 items in your hands/pocket.
If you have a bag how big is the bag (will it be inconvenient?)?

At the moment, a bag with a magical amount of space is not possible.

Decide on the race,age (Cap at 40) and inventory, and perhaps backstory (skills? pass time on the ship which is like a mini..town?) or looks (Not completely necessary we can discover the key elements later or through a drawing if you want OvO). The actual story begins in the Chapter I will post after.

Let’s have fun!! *w*