After the occupation, the princess was confined to the palace.

Once a month she'd be taken on a walk around the city, heavily guarded of course, to show the people that she still lived. It also served, of course, as a reminder of what they stood to lose if they made trouble. The princess did her best go wave and smile and give the people what encouragement she could.

The rest of the time, her life was spent in musty rooms and dusty towers. She filled most of her time scouring the castle for materials which she would sew into more and more elaborate outfits, which she would show off on the days when she was allowed outside.

Indeed, the public loved their princess and her dresses so much they'd often sketch or paint them along the route and pass the images on so that all could see the princess at least was well.

This pleased the occupiers for two reasons. First: it kept the princess out of trouble. Second: it gave them a reason to sneer and they did love a good sneer.

"What a vain creature she is!" They would remark.

"Doesn't even care we murdered her brothers so long as she gets enough satin to make her little dresses!" They squawked.

This was unfair, of course, for to call her creations "little dresses" was to call Queen Murderfun the Needlessly Genocidal "a tad piquey". Her dresses were gravity-defying wonders lace and pearl. They were thunderstorms captured in velvet and waterfalls summoned in silk. She was a wizard with silk.

Still, she bore their mockery with a tight smile and careful deference.

"Please, good sirs, my home, my people and my city now belong to you. Let me keep, at least, this one last joy."

And they sneered and they crowed most unpleasantly, but they let her keep her sewing room.

Of course, they would have known their mockery to be doubly unfair had they realised the true purpose of the princess's elaborate designs. For hidden in the intricate embroiderings across her gowns, jackets and fans, the princess had encoded secret (and very detailed) messages. When she would go on her monthly walk, the city's loyalists would line the route, sketching down the patterns to decode later.

Thus did the princess transmit all the occupiers' secrets (unearthed while supposedly 'searching the castle for old fabrics') to the city and thus did she build her resistance.

On the day the revolution finally came, she girded herself in armour of thick spider silk and whale bone. She cut a fine figure with a lacy handkerchief in her top pocket and a razor sharp knitting needle keeping her hair up.

As she waltzed through the castle to open the door for her army, the Usurper King tried to stop her and she simply unfolded her handkerchief and showed it to him.

Upon seeing the impossible arcane pattern emblazoned across it, he fell to the floor with blood streaming from his eyes.

She always had been a wizard with silk.

Clan Vrykolak

Clan Vrykolak are a bloodline that is possessed by a terrible hunger far and beyond that of lesser vampires. The Vrykolak hunger for respect, for authority, for glory, and for blood. It is this terrible hunger that drives the clan to both heady heights and tragic downfalls. The Vrykolak consider themselves to be one of the most noble and glorious of clans and accordingly expect much of themselves and of one another. Appropriately for their station, they strive to perfect a number of arts to become exemplary warriors, scholars, poets and courtiers. But this is not simply refinement for its own sake, but a warlord's drive to conquer all that stands before them. The discipline of Cruoris is the ultimate expression of that hunger. It is the art of controlling blood itself. At low levels, a wielder can sense the presence and location of any blood around them and call masterless blood into their body. But at higher levels, blood itself becomes both weapon and shield as the user causes blood to rapidly spray from any wounds they cause, call on the blood of their enemies to simply explode violently out of their bodies, or form blood into layers of powerful armour.

You can find the full write-up of Clan Vrykolak and the discipline of Cruoris in my book, Shrouded Legacies, a supplement for Vampire the Masquerade, 20th Anniversary Edition available on Storytellers Vault! It presents six new clans of vampires, each with their own unique signature discipline. These are to be used however the Storyteller wishes, whether new and interesting character options for your players, or as inscrutable antagonists to thwart their ambitions...

My world seem to mostly shimmer between blues and greens. I cant say why I'm so drawn to these colours.

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One of my core aspirations with my current project was to create a truly fanciful world of magic and wonder. Something that is entirely divorced from our reality. I feel a lot of fantasy these days overly concerns itself with being "realistic", which honestly isn't helped by the nitpicky nature of nerd culture.

I, myself, have often been guilty of seeking too much logic and realism in my worldbuilding. Even when I was creating an TTRPG game set in a city that was borne aloft by endless storms, I kept worrying about the little details making sense. So a lot of this endeavor is in the hopes of breaking my thinking out of that need for logic.

With this goal in mind, I set myself some rules. First of all, no humans. It's tricky not having a baseline creature to measure things against, but it makes me think about every character I introduce as I can't make any assumptions about even what they are.

Second, it's not earth. This isn't our universe. It isn't even a planet! This is it's own place with it's own rules and systems that make everything run. This has been a funny one, as I need to ask myself all sorts of questions like "How does a culture without consistent days measure time?" and "What does the sky look like and why?" While I don't want to give away too many details yet, I like think I came up with a pretty solid setting that lets me indulge even my wildest ideas.

Third, this will be a truly magical setting. Magic flows through every person, every plant, every animal, everything! The biggest challenge for this one is figuring out what that actually meant. I also needed to sit down and figure out the limits of magic. Who can do what? And with which tools? Without well-established limits of magic, you run into a whole mess of weird problems like making wizards too powerful and undercutting the story, or having to constantly come up with contrived reasons why the protagonists can't just magic themselves out of a problem.

At the end of the day, what's most important is that even if the world is the most fanciful, whimsical place imaginable, so long as it's internally consistent, it's all good in my opinion!

We'll see how I get on in the long term, but I'm feeling pretty good about how it's coming along so far!

Clan Stryge

As one of the foremost noble bloodlines, Clan Stryge claim a distinguished lineage. The oldest and most civilised clan, they have long stood as the great pillar from which all of Kindred society hangs. At least, this is what the Stryge maintain. The greatest strength of the Stryge is their unity. No Stryge ever stands alone when they stand with the clan. From the moment of their Embrace, a neonate is instructed on their place within the Stryge and the role they will serve for the clan. Every one of them is a specialist and can count on their clanmates to come to their aid if they lack needed skills. This culture of unity makes the clan very powerful when acting in unison. But the rigid organisation can become brittle when there are breaks in the chain. Stryge who are exceptional when acting in their areas of expertise can find themselves lost and adrift in the midst of a crisis that has removed the clanmates they depend upon. To the layman, the Discipline of Gravitas is simply about travel. But to a master, Gravitas is much, much more. It is the art of ultimate poise. It is about strategy, efficiency of movement, and self-control. It is the power to be at the right place at the right time and precisely when you wish to be there. At low levels, the wielder can bound rapidly from place to place and never lose their balance. But with mastery, they are able to ignore the bonds of gravity altogether, soar into the air, or even outright teleport vast distances!

You can find the full write-up of Clan Stryge and the discipline of Gravitas in my book, Shrouded Legacies, a supplement for Vampire the Masquerade, 20th Anniversary Edition available on Storytellers Vault! It presents six new clans of vampires, each with their own unique signature discipline. These are to be used however the Storyteller wishes, whether new and interesting character options for your players, or as inscrutable antagonists to thwart their ambitions...

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

April Fools', by me.

“The Irish government is offering a €325 weekly basic income trial for artists which will last for three years. As part of the trial 2,000 artists will be randomly selected from all of the applicants. The government definition of artists is broad and covers any creative or interpretative expression, including: visual arts, theatre, literature, music, dance, opera, film, circus and architecture.

The trial hopes to minimise the loss of skill and experience from the arts sector whilst also recognising the value that artists contributes to society. In addition, the trial is aiming to prove that a basic income enables artists to focus on projects without their projects being impacted from the stress of needing to look for work in other sectors to sustain them. Artists who receive the payment are also free to obtain additional work if they please without affecting the payment, however the payment is taxed so additional work may change their tax rate…

The policy was announced by Ireland’s Minster for the Arts Catherine Martin who is a member of Ireland’s Green Party. The Green party are one of three parties in a coalition government in Ireland. When launching the policy Martin said,

“I believe that this scheme is the start of a fundamental change in the way Ireland supports and recognises her artists and arts community.”

Martin went on to say,

“This pilot scheme represents a groundbreaking opportunity for us to explore how the role of the artist in Irish society can be protected and nurtured so we can continue to be inspired by great art for generations to come.”” -via The Good News Hub, 4/30/22

Clan Storverkr

Monsters in the most literal sense, Clan Storverkr are seen by many Kindred as mere brutes and marauders. They are feared for their aberrant habits and freakish appearance, yet envied by those very same Kindred for their stubborn independence. Perhaps more than any other clan, the hard-living Storverkr exist in the moment. Driven by their increasingly alien bodies and minds, they revel in blood where they can get it, satisfy their bizarre compulsions whenever they wish and occasionally act the monsters they appear to be. The discipline of Mutare is both the birthright and the curse of the clan. It allows each of them to take on a monstrously powerful form that is unique to the Storverkr in question. But as they grow in power, they develop monstrous and outlandish features that belong nowhere in nature and are difficult to conceal. They also become driven to satisfy bizarre compulsions that mortals would consider disturbing at best and frighteningly dangerous at worst.

You can find the full write-up of Clan Storverkr and the discipline of Mutare in my book, Shrouded Legacies, a supplement for Vampire the Masquerade, 20th Anniversary Edition available on Storytellers Vault! It presents six new clans of vampires, each with their own unique signature discipline. These are to be used however the Storyteller wishes, whether new and interesting character options for your players, or as inscrutable antagonists to thwart their ambitions...

Inspiration is a funny thing. Since finishing up Shrouded Legacies, I've been working on my next project. I had some loose ideas, the kind of themes and vibes I wanted to go with. But solid story ideas were proving elusive.

So I mostly worked on worldbuilding, looking for inspiration, and consuming media that was along the lines of the feel I wanted to capture. I made some good progress, figured out how I want magic to world and how the setting fit together in a geographic sense.

But it was getting pretty frustrating that those lightning bolts weren't hitting. This is how it generally works for me. I'll spend ages trying to come up with story ideas and then it'll suddenly come to me fully formed over the course of a shower or something. It's really annoying when I'm trying to plan ahead.

Eventually, I decided to change tack. I wanted to flesh out the setting in more detail and needed more practice in building a narrative anyway, so the plan is to write a series of short stories in the setting and explore things a bit.

Then, of course, the lightning bolt struck. A full short story popped into my head immediately. I appreciate it, but it is really annoying. So that's the plan! I've been working on that one this past week and if it turns out okay, I'll look into publishing them somewhere.

I guess the moral of this story is that if muses seem to be holding back on you, maybe adjust your perspective or adjust your goals. See if that shakes anything loose.

Clan Kimeris

Knowledge and power. Wisdom and magic. Clan Kimeris know that these things are all intertwined and to become a master of one, is to be a master of all. But the Kimeris also hold firm to the belief that knowledge gained only for its own sake is an exercise in pointless vanity. As such, they are not satisfied by cloistering themselves, but instead actively go out into the night to seek the secrets they desire and to use the knowledge they have gained to further their power and ambitions. The discipline of Veneficium is what gives the Kimeris their edge. Not simply prosaic blood sorcery, Veneficium touches directly upon the mystical forces of the world. They can draw strength from sites of arcane power, channel it into magical forms, and eventually even steal the powers of other supernatural creatures directly from their blood!

You can find the full write-up of Clan Kimeris and the discipline of Veneficium in my book, Shrouded Legacies, a supplement for Vampire the Masquerade, 20th Anniversary Edition available on Storytellers Vault! It presents six new clans of vampires, each with their own unique signature discipline. These are to be used however the Storyteller wishes, whether new and interesting character options for your players, or as inscrutable antagonists to thwart their ambitions...

Too sexy and satanic for Labour? Man, that's Author Goals right there...

The Labour Party has somehow slipped all the way through puritanism to creating their own Satanic Panic for one of their own councillors #Scotland #scottish #fife #BookTok #books #author #authorsoftiktok #writing #horror

Anti-trans campaigners who threatened to bankrupt Dundee Women’s Festival with lawfare tactics were drowned out at their own event yesterday afternoon by a much larger crowd of queer people and allies, who danced, sang and chanted slogans in the City Square until the rather sad-looking gathering dissipated...

This is a really good reportback of the counter-demonstration against transphobic hate group "Women Won't Wheesht" that took place in Dundee yesterday

Hello! I come with some good news! In the EU, a law has been passed restricting generative AIs (particularly ones that pose a high risk). I hope other areas in the world follow suit, but this is huge! It'll take a while to be applied as well, though this is still a major win for everyone.