Tinker tinker tinkering

Finally had an idea for how to implement lore and mythology into the lorebook!

Very excite!

Also, the real life equivalent of the Foundation Festival from the Verennian lore is about to come up, date wise. I hope I can get some Festival starters off the ground as Janitor Alts and updates to the others.

The Northern Duke is here!

He is finally done! Boreas is finished and uploaded everywhere!

He comes with a big ole lorebook update to add him into the background for stuff like the Sandbox, Gebein has gotten lots of definition, the entries for Gebein, Rhyddel and Verenne have been put in a new format that should hopefully really improve performance by cutting down on token count!

Boreas came out great, performing much like I wanted him to! I'm really satisfied and while this took a long time, I think taking that time to do him justice was well worth it.

Next up is Theophrastus, and with him more definition for Anbar. But now that I'm almost done with the main roster, I'll also work more on NPCs and future secondary targets to flesh out the world. I've introduced a lot of small NPCs in the introductions - kitchen head Demeter, maid Melissae, head maid Nika, knight captain Leucos - and I think I'll try to give each of them an extremely short lorebook entry of their own.

But I might be quiet in July first. Art Fight is coming up, so I wanna draw more!

I'm also enjoying some Chloe doodling:

Maybe I can get some sprites for her going. She and Hephaestus get the most action so far, so they really deserve that.

Boreas and Gebein on the final stretch

Jesus, that took me forever and then some. BUT! Boreas' definition is done and so is the modularized lorebook entry for Gebein, introducing Helleborus, the capital of the Duchy.

I still need to finish some more entries: The Ivory Garde, Fifi, Auror, the Fortress Staff... and of course I still need to write the starte post for Boreas. But now that I have the setting and the focal character done, those things shouldn't take quite as long. So phew!

I may go into a hiatus on purpose for July. Art Fight is coming up and I wanna participate. Raven will also be busy, so Theophrastus will have to wait a bit for his art. But hopefully I'll be back to lorebook stuff in August and maybe I can release Theophrastus in September.

Comment Section

Forever ago I created a Comment Section character card on impulse. Basically what it does is, you put it into group chats and it chimes in periodically, simulating the kinds of comment sections you find under webcomics on Tapas, Webtoon and Bato.

Anyways, Wyvern has recently introduced group chats. So I've decided to give the card a little makeover and upload it there too. It works great with Alyon, especially if you use the Sandbox. All versions of the Comment Section are available on this website, and here's a little taste of what they act like in play:

Random Lore #1

There's a rift in the far North. A rift in the world, in space, time and reality. That is where the demonic beasts hail from.

Some say the rift leads to humanity's nightmares, and that's where the creatures form. Others claim that nightmares were brought along by the monsters when they first spilled into the world, inspired by their terrifying forms.

Auror laughs at both.

Whenever Boreas is willing to listen – which isn't often – Auror whispers of the Era of Gods. Of the time Theia walked this earth, all her power still within only her own hands, warring with her siblings Typhon and Echidna, as their creations were at odds with each other.

Theia's humans, elves and dwarves, Typhon's demons, Echidna's monsters… they all lived within the same realm in Alyon. But both demons and monsters preyed on the humans, elves and dwarves.

“Because Theia, in her foolishness, made them weak and soft!” Auror snarled disdainfully.

“Her creations were born as weak wretches incapable of even walking or speaking, and never grew claws or sharp teeth. Prey!” He scoffed.

“But she did not accept the law of power that Typhon and Echidna acted on. Even less so once she laid with humans.”

That's when she gave birth to her sons: Taos and Lykos.

As demigods, her sons chose to defend the creations of Theia. Taos, with his radiance and brilliant magic, united the humans, elves and dwarves against Typhon and his demons. The war waged for a long time, but finally, Typhon was defeated. He loved his creation despite it all, so in his last moments, the dying God swallowed all his demons and turned himself into a realm of their own: Typhon, the Demon Realm.

Meanwhile Lykos gathered only the strongest of Theia's creatures and hunted Echidna. He drank the blood of his slain enemies and feasted on their flesh, and when his armies pushed the demonic beasts far enough North that no plant life could sustain them, he fed the blood and flesh to his followers as well.

Echidna, fearing for her creations, did as Theia did – and gave birth to Auror.

Auror was the North, the Wind, the Cold. His Howl commanded all beasts. He led them in battle, a white wolf grand as a castle, as the King of Monsters. Once the monsters fought as a pack, just like Lykos’ people did, the hunt turned into a war.

“And then Lykos managed to seal me into his blood and now your bloodline is cursed to carry me forever, the end,” Auror finished gruffly. Boreas blinked, then frowned up at the ceiling he had been staring at while listening. He shoved his blanket and furs down a little.

“What?” He finally asked when Auror remained silent. The spirit-curse in his mind growled.

“That's where it ends. Read your history books for the rest,” he replied.

“No, I mean – how did Lykos seal you? How'd he defeat you in the first place?!” Boreas sat up in bed, upset.

“You made me listen to all of that rambling just to leave out the one part most vital and interesting to me?!”

“Does that make you angry?” Auror replied, the predatory grin audible in his rumbly voice. Boreas’ heart skipped a beat as he glanced down at his hands, his nails looking longer. Sharper.

“No,” he said, breathing as his father had taught him to. Calming his heartbeat. His fingers went back to normal.

“Pity,” Auror replied with a little huff.

“But I still want to know how Lykos won.” Boreas’ mind went silent. For just a moment, he felt like he was seeing a vague memory in his mind. A woman, wide eyes trained on him with fascination instead of fear. A soft voice reaching through the howl of a snowstorm. A hand, reaching, a tender touch. Boreas’ heart skipped a beat.

Then Auror cut the moment off with a growl, flooding Boreas’ mind instead with the usual torrent of horrendous imagery. Corpses, blood, gore, battle – Boreas withdrew from their connection, shut the false memories out as fast as he could, just like he learned to do.

“Go to bed, whelp.” There was a strange undertone to the voice in Boreas’ head. But for once, Auror retreated fully after that, curling up in the recesses of Boreas’ mind and leaving him with a merciful moment of respite. So the young Duke did not question it. He just closed his eyes and seized the opportunity for rest while he still could.

For once, he slept without nightmares.

Still Alive

Work is going slowly, but it's going.

I've managed to modularize the entries for Verenne and Rhyddel in the main lorebook file and am going to deploy that on Chub soon.

Wyvern needs to get it next, but I'm currently dealing with an upload issue there. So idk.

Rux has new art now!

Raven knocked it out of the park as usual! I might have to skip this month in commissioning him though, got some vet bills coming up. New picture is implemented everywhere.

If you miss his old art, it's in the gallery section on Chub. C:

Definitions of everyone are up to date, I changed some wording to encourage a better distinction between the narrative voice and the characters. Basically, I'm inching closer to making the LLMs understand that the characters know less than the user and the LLM. Also really helps in reinforcing behavior, like adherence to kinks.

Rux finally has a profile on this website and I've been adding to other characters too, and finally figured out a rough template for what I want in each profile.

I've also been playing with art more, trying my hands in drawing Chloe sprites. Might go through more style changes but hey, it's experimenting!

Recently some people sent me DMs and left me reviews that were so deeply kind. It really, really helped me. To everyone who does that - thank you. It really helps me drag myself out of slumps and move forward. Thank you.