Citadel Litheria

#24

This is the last of the older concept art. This guy has evolved and stayed with the story. He will exist throughout all 3 books.

The Immortal Black-gaurd. He is single-handedly responsible for hunting down the golden dragons one by one and exterminating them. His sword is a serrated bone sword made of the bones of a golden dragon with the souls of all the dragons he has killed trapped within to prevent resurrection. The souls are manipulated in such a way as to make them give away the presence of other golden dragons nearby so he is able to hunt and track them wherever they go and if they transform. He is a magical creation of sorts of the Illithid, knowing they could never tempt the golden dragons or taint their hearts they opt for genocide in fear of the dragons coming together and wielding the gamma beam against them in numbers.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=43&t=1296197(Read up on GOLIATH for more explanation of the Gamma Beam, at the end I go into detail.)

In the beginning of book 3 your introduced to the last golden dragon, a hercules type character the son of a human female and the god of golden dragons. Without going too far into the weeds there’s a great deal of rules as to what the gods are and are not allowed to do and he is skirting the rules to make a large impact on the outcome of the story. Technically since it wont be him taking the actions but his son he can get away with it.

This guy gets wind of the existence of another golden dragon and goes hunting and eventually meets up with a very young version of our Dragon in human form. (transformation abilities come much much later) To cut this part short and not give away too much detail but still summarize, The Blackgaurd cuts down those trying to protect the boy namely his family. Seeing his family slaughtered and fearing for his life his dragon blood awakens and the first stage of a three stage transformation process activates.

Stage 1: Flow

Would be the name of chapter one for book 3. Somewhat similar to the way the magic amplifiers absorb magic and create a flow of it TLGD (haven’t named him yet) breaches the boundary between reality and magic and magical energy pours from him like a faucet. this manifests itself as a nuclear scale energy emanation with him at the center, unlike a normal atomic reaction which is limited by its fuel this one is constant. So we end chapter 1 with a several mile wide crater.

#25

I gotcha. Like the Sardaukar or Freman from Dune. Their brutal environments made for the fiercest warriors.

I’ve been noodling an idea for a novel for quite a few years now but without any formal training other than high school English I had no clue where to start. The internet is all over the place with tutorials and its hard to separate quality sources. We lost power after a storm for a week earlier this year so we spent it at the library. I asked the librarian to recommend a writing book and she handed me that one. I went from no clue to, BAM, first chapter done in a month. I highly recommend it. It is from the 90s. I chuckle at the mentions of typewriters and word processors (not the software).

I hear you. I can’t stop my mind from running ahead of itself. I’ve scoped out about half of the first novel but I can’t stop thinking 2 or 3 books down the line. :banghead: Focus brain!

Sounds like we are in the same position. I know exactly how the book will proceed and the main plot but the actual details, the spoken conversations, the actions. That’s the meat and potatoes. If this method works for you, rock on.

#26

//youtu.be/awvqIi427_A

Im busy rendering out previews of newly imported assets to the scene to flesh it out a bit more in places, while i wait for that I want to talk about this video a little. While going through youtube videos to provide links to my soundtrack I came across this and i had never seen it before last night.

WOW! It fits so closely to my story and its a band I use heavily anyway.

Let me summarize a bit so you can see the parallels between Xzibit and Goliath;

Xzhibit remains locked in a chair, bound to it by numerous ties. So too is Goliath restrained in his actions. He cannot make any large impact in any of the timelines until the exact moment The Dark Psion nukes the teleporter or he risks nullifying the loop and destroying both himself and TDP and assuring the Illithids victory. The hummingbird represents “The will of David” before he turns evil. The death of the hummingbird symbolizes Davids turn to the dark side.

Goliath is ENRAGED! He has spent aeons watching helplessly as the worlds of men fall and millions are slaughtered. Like a sick mix of groundhogs day and edge of tomorrow. He is just as sick and tired of losing as David is, when he touches down to face the Dark Psion from that moment on he is a wrecking machine destroying nearly everything in his path. If you weren’t familiar with the story and you walked in on any given scene with Goliath in it you would think he was the villain based on the destruction and carnage in his wake.


I always remember this classic scene where Unicrons hand comes slamming down on Cybertron. This is how I imagine Goliath interacts with all but magically hardened materials. Since he is super-massive stone is like chalk to him, inch thick steel plating is like tin-foil.

Landing on the ground after the leap of faith and the long run to the wall represents Goliath choosing which loop he will make his stand in, which requires him to manufacture his body and the ORCS and all the equipment he plans to use in his quest within the several hundred year timeframe. Breaking through the wall represents finally confronting David, but for Goliath stepping through the wall is just the beginning of the war.

“I am GOLIATH, I rise for the fallen! Look upon me, ye mighty, and despair.”

EDIT: Just ran across this one… soo good. I think I’ve set up Goliath enough at this point you can see the parallels.

//youtu.be/49tpIMDy9BE

#27

Waiting on these 6k shots to render is torture… I’ve been compiling a list of the major influences on my story. Ive been a gamer since I was old enough to enunciate I wanted an NES and since then I have accumulated a MASSIVE amount of inspiration mostly from RPGs but also somewhat from Anime and other various games and medias.

I had a pretty long list of tabs started but I don’t want to start a catalog so I’ll knock it down to a list of the top few and omit examples that are obvious or been discussed before. (Star Wars, Death-note, Akira)

Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant
They made a superb anime movie for W1, watch it.

This game changed my life to be honest. It was SO HARD for me as a young teenager it really pushed the boundaries of my gaming abilities. Its very unforgiving, you can drop key items and lose them and be unable to finish the game. You can save in bad places like on trap tiles you didn’t expect to trip again when you reload and be to young to know what staggered saving is and be forced to start over losing months of progress. The grinding difficulty of the world and the setting comes from how hard this game can be if your not playing it correctly. It had many new and groundbreaking aspects of game-play for its day like free=roaming NPCs that you could befriend or fight. Several races and classes and prestige classes, and unlike most games where you were so and so from somewhere and that was set in stone, you got to custom build your entire 6 man group which was light-years ahead of anything I had seen before. If you haven’t played it do so.

Its obvious by the title TDP is inspired somewhat by The Dark Savant, as well as the reason why the party is made up of 6 instead of some other number. Also the general theme of fantasy and sci-fi together and viewing that combination from the bottom up fantasy first comes from W7.

Chrono Trigger

The best game ever made in my opinion. I take quite a lot from CT; The teleporter incident is very similar to the beginning of the game followed by the party learning soon after the future is doomed, Goliath is partially inspired by Robo, the general theme of time travel comes from CT in terms of only being able to travel between certain points and not being able to pop around frame by frame like Back to the Future or Dr Who. David is Magus-like, later story events near the end of book 2 resemble the black omen and the fall of the kingdom of zeal and the giant tsunami which follows, the Illithids origin and ultimate goals loosely resemble Lavos’ goals. I plan to incorporate co-op magic and physical attacks into Home-World similar to the dual and triple techs. (Imagine an archer fires an arrow in a long arch for maximum distance and then a telekeneticist manipulates the arrow near impact so it always hits.)

Dungeons and Dragons

I’m using a lot of ideas from D&D to flesh out the world and as the backdrop, I’m trying to use as little as possible for the core story in case I cant get licensing but in my ideal vision Home-World is associated with D&D.

Wizards of the Coasts in association with Animation Studio A present
|Dungeons and Dragons|
Home-World:
Flux

I really love the franchise, I’m appalled by the lack of good D&D movies when there’s just so much story and content to work with.

A Link to the Past

The Light world and Dark world are direct parallels to the two sister planets. I plan to adapt Link and Zelda into characters for my story. They will be orphaned half-elves who the tinker adopts who go on to do great things after his death. I think I’ll have the Zelda parallel be an epic light mage (The Queen of Radiance) who becomes the leader of The Keepers of the Cerulean sign who of course forges a powerful magical sword of light for her adoptive brother. The SEEDS power is somewhat similar to the Tri-force in terms of the wielder choosing how its used. Don’t kick the chickens in home-world. Lastly, though its from the previous game, I’m also taking inspiration from Link fighting his own shadow in Zelda 2, there’s a lot of that going on.

Final Fantasy 7

Not a lot of story elements I can think of I’m taking from FF7. The party starts roughly at level 5, I always thought it was odd that you didn’t start at level one in FF7 and i grew to like it. I’m considering having David and one of the other members of his party fall in love so that his betrayal makes an Aeris like moment. The visuals of the city firing on the Weapon and the other epic aspects of the cinematics have inspires some of Home-World though. I considered modelling the Citadel with some aspects of Midgar but its just too dark. Litheria is the beacon of hope on a dark world not a dystopia itself. I originally wanted to model the spell storing gems more like Materia with more interplay between different gem combinations but I’m considering making the gauntlet a single socket item.

#28

Ok new shots complete. None of the new stuff here is modeled by me. Im pulling some placeholders over for atmosphere. Lets talk about this terrible terrible dragon first.


I pretty much hate everything about that design of a dragon. The teeth look nice and sharp thats about it. I brought 2 over to show the typical scale of dragons. The larger one being the upper limits of the size dragons I’m imagining and the smaller one being around the size they become really dangerous. For the design of the dragons I’m thinking of making the back and shoulder structure more like a gorilla, so on occasion the dragon can stand on its back legs and smash things with its arms. The arms and legs would be longer and far far more muscular. The tail would be more muscular, the neck probably not quite as long and the body would be much less fat and bulbous looking. The wings aren’t so bad, they need more detail and to be scarier but they aren’t as bad as the rest.

The view from the gun towers. The cannons don’t seem nearly as intimidating now.

Each railway will be guarded by a castle at its entrance, with a temple beside it. Ill make each temple unique as it will be dedicated to a different diety. Ill also make each tavern unique. I’m not going to go into full detail on the outer districts for this project. Ill put things like the castles and temples and maybe some simple box placeholders for the rest of the buildings but I’ve decided to focus on the inside of the walls.

Im thinking about making the stairs up the back of the T-rex to the balconies. I’m considering having a new word for dinosaurs in my story that translates roughly to “little dragons”. This taverns theme will be setting sun open book. or something. Ideally there would be more of the traditional long benches for the tavern with the private booths surrounding them. Each tavern will also have one central table that’s for the giants and orcs, so there will be one table that makes adult men look like children. The ceiling in all the taverns will be vaulted so the taller creatures can relax somewhere that’s not cramped.

#29

I decided I wanted to write another chapter today so this is literally hot off the presses, Ch2 of book 2 is still mostly about Goliath which means I have the bulk of it worked out and I’m confident that this rough draft is pretty close to what my final vision will be. Plus its still mostly setup so I don’t feel like I’m giving away book 2s goodies. A few characters near the end I’m partially introducing but I really don’t have much conceptual work done for them hence no names and little dialog, they will get fleshed out more in this chapter eventually.

Keep in mind this is the first version of the rough draft, please let me know what you think though.

Confused, afraid, and fatigued with his trump card spent and still cooling down, The Dark Psion opts to flee from his attacker. His goals here on the false world completed, his next target lies deep within the ancient temples scattered across the Home-World. Though he is vastly powerful he does not yet wield the immeasurable power it will take to overthrow the Illithid and reach the SEED first. Screeching out of sight The Dark Psion quickly fades into the Horizon. GOLIATH, now earthbound, is far too slow and heavy to give chase. Turning his attention to the Citadel, GOLIATH sets out toward the nearest rail line where his mechanical feet can propel him quickly toward his goal. Approaching the city GOLIATH encounters guardsmen, already on edge due to the attack on the courtyard. Preparing to face the construct the guardsmen receive mental missives from the council. "Let the construct pass". Standing aside as the odd looking golem passes those who see Goliath all wonder what he could be. Approaching the courtyard of Citadel Litheria GOLIATH prepares himself to face the council, hoping his advanced knowledge of the enemy and the situation might turn the tide of the war.

   At the entrance to the Citadel GOLIATH is met by one of the Councils personal guard. A Dwarven defender named Hol D'Jhor, and a dozen of his men. "You will follow me to the Temple of Inquisition, make no deviation from my course." Following behind the soldiers GOLIATH rolls forward approaching the Inquisition room and the long awaited confrontation with the Council of 13. Entering the Inquisition chamber GOLIATHs tall stature is dwarfed by the pedestals from which the Council look down from. "What business do you have here Construct? Our city smoulders now from attack, and now is the time you choose to address this council?" says one of the shadowy members of the Council. "We have our sources." says a second member. "Your not in the playbook, in fact neither is that man who attacked our Courtyard. Just exactly what are you? Where do you come from?"

   Facing the council GOLIATH makes his plea. "I come from a fissure in time itself. For 3 aeon I have watched as the worlds of men fight this war valiantly, doomed to failure each time. In that time i have learned, i have laid plans, i have set traps against our enemy. The man who attacked your courtyard is David _______, the same David scheduled for reinforcement duty on that very shipment." GOLIATH proceeded to explain to the council the events of the temporal loop, and Davids ascent to power culminating as The Dark Psion. Projecting the images he has accumulated of the situation."This Council faces a threat far greater than it comprehends. The Illithid wage war across ALL the planes, in every corner of existence on each populated world they seek the power of the SEED, and it is on our world that they will find it. Should the Illithid reach the SEED they will use its power to merge as a single consciousness and become a God of Gods, reshaping the universe in their horrific vision." GOLIATH pauses a moment. "But through an astronomically unlikely series of events now David stands poised to gain the SEEDs power as well, and should he succeed..." "David intends to use the power of the SEED to extinguish the light of the universe for all time. Should he get his way the universe will not be, and in fact  will never have been. I urge this council to heed my words, the stakes are higher than you could have ever imagined, our world is but a sliver of what lies in the balance. I come to this council with a single request, to defeat the Illithid I will require an army. I can lead the armies of Litheria to victory should you give me the chance." "Give you men? Are you Mad? We have hardly the manpower to defend the Towers as it is!" exclaims one member. "What makes you think we can trust your vision of the war and how it shall unfold?" says another. "We have the prophecy, it has not failed us, and it foretells of our victory." The Council mummers back and forth, displeased at the brash request of the construct, discussing what they should do with GOLIATH.

   "ENOUGH!" GOLIATH roars, his spacial accelerators vibrating space itself to cast his voice. Frustrated by the Councils imperfection, accustomed to the clockwork precision of his own internal council, GOLIATH stands and assumes his combat stance. "I HAVE SUFFERED FAR TOO LONG IN THE DARKNESS TO HAVE THIS COUNCIL CONTEMPLATE MY IMPRISONMENT. I WILL NOT TOLERATE YOUR PETTY BICKERING. I WILL LEAD THE WORLDS OF MEN TO VICTORY IN THIS WAR, AND I WILL DO IT WITH OR WITHOUT YOUR BLESSINGS!" GOLIATH turns to exit the chamber. "This conversation is over." GOLIATH says, calming himself, as he walks out of the chamber. "HALT!" yells one of the councilmen, casting a force screen over the doorway preventing GOLIATHS exit. Pausing for a moment, then pivoting on one foot to turn to face the council again. "We have far too many enemies clawing at our doors to fight amongst ourselves my brothers." GOLIATHS says as a high pitched whine builds within the room. Turning his hands backwards to face the wall beside the doorway GOLIATH charges his spacial accelerators. Within his mind in the streams of code one line stands out amongst the rest. "Weapon Request: SAC 1, 2, 4, 5: Full Discharge." Culminating in a deafening explosion the high pitched whine of the power build up pales in comparison to the force that tears through the several foot thick stone wall of the inquisition chamber. Stepping through the newly created doorway Goliath leaves his hopes for the Council behind. Jolting to their feet several council members prepare to case offensive spells at GOLIATH. "Take your seats!" says the eldest Council member. "Clearly if the construct wished us harm he could do so, his words ring true, we should not fight amongst ourselves. Perhaps the construct is powerful enough to be of some use to us."

   Entering the Courtyard once more GOLIATHs next goal is the repair of the teleportation rings, without which the war for the Home-World cannot continue and GOLIATH is stranded on the wrong planet. Approaching the smouldering remains of the teleporter GOLIATH looks at its rings which lie shattered from the feedback of the temporal loop. His eye shining brightly Goliath begins mapping the broken pieces, calculating their reintegration. Scanning for microscopic tears and lesions GOLIATH builds a detailed repair map at the molecular level within seconds. Scanning the crowd of survivors and first responders GOLIATH calls out. "Who among you knows of constructs and of metals? I have the knowledge to repair the rings but not the means." From the crowd a Gnome steps forward. "I do." he says meekly at the sight of the giant lumbering construct. Looking at the Gnome GOLIATHS eye once more glows and a thin bright sliver of light passes up then down the Gnome. "Come here." GOLIATH says, His eye focusing down toward a broken piece of the rings, projecting cracks and knicks not visible onto its surface. "We must bridge the gaps." GOLIATH says as the Gnome kneels down and takes a closer look at the fragment. GOLIATH once more looks to the crowd "Who among you is telekinetic? Perhaps you specialize in magic of the force school?" he asks. A brash young Elf steps forward, "I am master of the 7 dimensions.". Once again GOLIATH projects an image of the fragment, but this time he expands the image greatly, zooming down to the molecular level and shining a beam of light on the exact spot on the fragment. "We have much work to do." GOLIATH says as the image of the fragment animates to show the molecules rolling back together to their original configuration.

And the beginning of Ch. 3 too. Ive had this action sequence worked out for several years and this is where it happens but its not enough for a whole chapter in itself so this chapter will remain only partially finished.

Chapter 3: The Cerulean Towers

     "RUN!! RUN!!!" Shouted the Litherian soldier, unloading the last of his ammunition from his sidearm against the monstrous aberration giving chase. Close head a young woman in flowing white robes runs frantically across the landscape. "To the East!" He screams, "Toward the towers!" The giant insect like monster gaining ground, drawing other monsters in its wake. Discarding his sidearm the soldier pulls a stone from his pocket and holds it to his chest. "EMERGENCY INVOCATION REQUESTED AT TOWER 7" he shouts, "IVE FOUND A SURVIVOR! REPEAT NATIVE SURVIVORS VERIFIED!" A voice from the stone responds "WHAT?!" "NATIVE SURVIVORS VERIFIED, HEAVY CONTACT TRAILING TO TOWER 7 REQUEST IMMEDIATE INVOCATION! CONFIRM!" a moment passes and the soldier catches up to the young woman, the top of the tower coming into view in the distance. "Invocation confirmed!" a voice calls out from the stone. "Fifteen seconds!" Grabbing the woman and pulling her to him he pulls an item from his pack, Throwing it to the ground several yards ahead of them. In an explosive instant a short trench is formed in freshly turned soil. Diving into the trench, monsters just yards behind them, he yells "Close your eyes, cover your ears, and take a deep breath!"

  High atop the simple stone tower a powerful wizard finishes his incantation. Focusing the power of the Cerulean Sign through powerfully enchanted crystals of light The Cerulean Sign bursts forth high above the tower in a deafening clap and roar shining its blinding light outward for miles. Upon impact with the aberrations exoskeleton resonance buildup tears the beast apart from the inside. Killing it instantly. The focused light from the incantation destroys blinds and disorients most other creatures of the night, leaving them helpless and vulnerable. "QUICK LETS GO!" the soldier yells, knowing not all manner of monster are vulnerable to the signs invocation. Approaching closer to the tower the stone calls out "Whats the status of the survivor?" "She's OK, Says shes a Keeper herself, tells me they have an entire society underground." the soldier replies. "Well we might need their help soon then, we just lost our teleporter back home" the voice responds. "Oh shit..." the soldier replies as they enter the base camp for the tower. "Yea..." the voice responds.

I think I’m going to have sidearms mandatory issue for emergencies, when thinking that idea over its clear your going to want a magnum, your shooting monsters not people a 9mm isnt gonna cut it. I always loved the gun from trigun. I might make the sidearms similar.

#30

I want to introduce a concept that is going to appear in chapter 3 or 4 in book 2 and get some feedback on the visuals and the general theme.

The Dragoons. Through an unlikely alliance with the Illithid, Dragons are coaxed into doing things they normally wouldn’t do.

“Perhaps we cant kill you and your brethren, perhaps you are too powerful? Can the same be said of your livestock? When no maidens remain to be devoured, what shall you do then?”

One of these things is to acquire technological assistance from the Illithid. To make Dragons in my universe more menacing and able to appear seemingly out of nowhere in an instant in a world where teleportation has been suppressed they ride specially fitted super-sonic rockets into battle.

(the gravity waves coming from the artificial planet refract teleportations like light beams and can send them in any which direction. Long range traditional teleportation is pretty much suicide.) Rocket tech is VERY old coming from ancient china, and manufacturing pressure containers for liquid fuel is no problem with magic, so the problem is guidance. Well a dragon is plenty strong enough to hold on and can guide the rocket with its wings. These guys dive in and get maximum speed and let go and kamikaze the rocket in at the destination with whatever fuel is left on-board then make a loop and come back terrorizing the landscape at high speed. Typically 3-5 dragons would attack in such a manner. This is the specific threat GOLIATH is designed to counter, he is specifically a Dragon killer.

#31

There’s actually quite a bit of lead-up regarding GOLIATH and chapter one of book 2, Goliath is already most of the way to the sister planet by the time The Dark Psion materializes before he wins his tug of war with Vecna. He has to be, he cant go anywhere near light-speed. So GOLIATH has a front row seat to everything David does unbeknownst to him. This semi-chapter is a bit too sci-fi for book 2, and especially for the beginning of book 2, that’s why I’m considering telling the story from GOLIATHS perspective in a “4th” book titled “Chronicles of GOLIATH”, but I have this part totally worked out so I figured I should go ahead and write it too.

I actually did some work modelling the underground facility, and you’ve seen the EPOCH and the launch tube. Well here is the corresponding chapter to those assets.

Deep within a remote and dormant volcanic mountain a long forgotten timer counts down to zero. Stirring to life the machinations within the mountain hum with activity. Numerous gigantic cylinders full of a thousand years worth of generated hydrogen flow through frost covered pipes into two reactors. The Micro-Reactor, a large and bulky spherical device that sits at the bottom of a mile long launch tube, and the Primary Reactor perched atop the EPOCH delivery vehicle within GOLIATHS chest. Bursting to life with a brilliant glow the partially shielded Micro-Reactor screeches with energy. Pumping the remainder of the hydrogen into the Primary Core with great force it too Springs to life and for the first time GOLIATHs body warms with electrical flow. Nearing the launch window IMPs inspect the launch mechanisms and scour the nearby area for potential leaks to the Illithid. Having fulfilled its purpose the Micro-Reactor reaches full power, hurtling the launch vehicle up a series of electromagnetic tubes at extreme G forces. Bursting out of the top of the mountains launch tube EPOCHS engines ignite and attain full power. Generating water on board magically with a decanter and then splitting the resulting molecules, EPOCH carries no on-board fuel and rockets forth with great velocity. Seconds after liftoff the Micro-Core purposely lowers its containment field, releasing the compressed superheated hydrogen vaporizing the mountain and any evidence of GOLIATHs launch.

Rising gracefully to the heavens the EPOCH releases the first of three ORCS in strategic locations around the globe ensuring GOLIATH has total visibility. Changing course now toward the sister planet GOLIATH brings up a video feed of David and his party, tracking their progress towards the teleporter. Roaring towards Litheria GOLIATHs sensors detect an expected event. "Temporal event confirmed" flashes through his mind as his ORCs capture Davids re-entry to the future. Looking down from on high GOLIATH watches as David fights amongst himself. Nearing upper orbit GOLIATH tracks The Dark Psion as he climbs into the atmosphere and beams himself from one planet to another. Now behind The Dark Psion, GOLIATH can but watch as he lays waste to the Litherian Courtyard. Hitting the atmosphere at extreme velocity GOLIATHS re-entry pod flares drag plates all around its surface. As the plates turn red hot and warp and begin to pop one by one the pods explosive bolts activate flinging the outer shell of the pod away as GOLIATHS shoulder mounted retro-boosters ignite, engulfing his body in flame as he descends. Impacting at several hundred miles per hour GOLIATH rends the earth and blackens the sky with dust. The Dark Psion now within firing range, GOLIATH claws his way out of the crater, firing immediately.
#32

I ended up writing 5 chapters last night! whew that’s a load off. Its all from later in book 2 and 3 though so I’m not ready to share any of that as its both spoilers and unpolished.

Back to modelling for awhile.

I’m working on populating the open air areas next starting with the large/siege weapon construction area. This area will be to assemble siege weapons to test fire before disassembling them and either selling them or using them themselves as well as assemble any weapon you don’t want to have to bring through the doorways of the buildings.

This actually brings me to some new territory regarding the Citadel. I’m reworking my ideas of exactly what they will be doing in the interim before the invasion. This part I find very funny.

So basically Litheria becomes COBRA, and the council could be viewed as Destro.

Litheria intends to manufacture a wide range of weaponry (juiced up versions of native tech levels, not advancing tech levels by selling cannons) and sell to the armies of the world for profit to fund purchasing the rare metals and ores they will need as well as “steal” the best warriors and generals from the armies of the world with better pay packages. This serves a multitude of functions.

First and foremost it establishes Litheria as the undisputed trade capital of the planet. The Citadel, for the most part, doesn’t ship weaponry and goods to other nations as that places the burden of shipment on the Council, so nations must travel to Litheria to secure their shipments. The council establishes a large neutral zone around its borders which it deems demilitarized and will tolerate no fighting within said area or risk banishment and no longer be able to purchase the advanced Litherian weapons. This forces nations to send professional representatives who are likely to follow the rules, forcing rival nations to play nice in a neutral area is a big step towards unity even if it is to buy weapons. The council will of course attempt to sell in such a way to keep any one faction from gaining the upper hand and slaughtering its opponents, casualties would naturally decrease compared to mass face to face sword battles as soldier and generals alike become less keen to send large swaths of soldiers carelessly into battle. Lastly it beefs up the overall lethality of the entire planets armies, slowly preparing them for the onslaught to come.

I’m starting with some trebuchets since those are my favorite medieval weapon. I’m modelling them after Warwolf. “Even before construction could be completed, the sight of the giant engine so intimidated the Scots that they tried to surrender.” I LOLed at this part, of course he isn’t going to stop building it, now he wants to see it fire!

I’m going to name the larger of the two “Bad Wolf”, a Dr. Who reference.


Litherian modifications include larger single cuts of wood used in construction, stronger metals with precision manufacturing for pins and joints, and guide rails for the projectile. I’m considering curving the bottom rail up some to start the arch off.

The larger model includes two precision made stone flywheels and several gearboxes. The idea here is 4 walk wheels run constantly, spinning the flywheels faster. When the trebuchet needs to be reset it can draw power from the flywheels and reset itself nearly instantly. Instead of stopping and waiting in between loadings the power crew can continue to add power to the flywheels even as the shot is being loaded and fired. I imagine it will be hard to keep up with the ammo concerns of this particular model.

Here’s a 6k with a little more detail and texture work. The partially obscured box at the bottom would house the complex mechanics required to allow the walk-wheels to add power to the flywheels but not themselves be turned by the flywheels, as well as a clutch to activate and deactivate power transfer to the loader. Im considering adding an option to have the flywheels add power in reverse during the first half of the firing process, so as the load accelerates down the tracks its being pulled by the weight of the dropping load plus the torque generated by the flywheels. I’m thinking maybe up to 50 miles range with large models and dense metallic projectiles.

I’m also considering how the thing will be transported. I think ill make it “transformeresque” and have it be assembled differently so that its more like a giant cart with the flywheels for actual wheels when its being transported.

#33

TRANSFORM! …and roll out?

I left behind several pieces on purpose, i haven’t cut them so several pieces are way too big. Even some of the ones ive already moved over should have been partially cut in places, but this is just to conceptualize so IDC.

The main arm hangs off the back with the counterweight to pull more weight off the front, I’m not 100% sure if the thing weould be too heavy and dig in too much to be pulled or not, but for now its towable.

You can get a better sense of scale now that they have been imported. I’m not going to do any catapults, I really don’t like the design. Next up is a ballista. I’m going to continue with the flywheel theme in place of torsion but reduce the size and make them metal to be less bulky. Im probably going to add elements of a compound bow as well. Should be interesting. Not really sure what else ill use to populate this space but I’m going to try to fill it with weapons without cloning.

#34

Ive had a blast designing this guy. It looks like something myth-busters might put together.

Reminds me of a PKE meter…




So as promised this guy is flywheel driven. My first thought when designing it is its going to break both arms clean off the first time it fires, so I’ve done some work reinforcing the wooden arms with some metal. The extrusion on the front under the thinner metal part will also be metal, its just set for a texture in the main scene and not this one. Now that I’m confident the arms wont snap off I put some springs with what will be rubber stoppers to keep the arms from overextending or beating themselves silly.

As you can see one crewman lies on his back and pedals the flywheels which are the smooth thin cylinders just above the gears. The gearing is up-geared significantly so you could reach very high RPMs with the flywheels given enough strength. There will be a clutch or something similar that catches both flywheels to use them to rotate the arms. I don’t think it really needs any compound features at this point, I think its a monster as it is considering that’s probably an Orc juiced up on magic-roids and listening to dubstep working the pedals.

I also want to point out this is the type of tech Litheria will be selling to armies. Combining a modern twist on medieval weaponry with precision crafted parts.


#35

You’ve got a lot of awesomeness here for a super ambitious project!

For me, it’s hard to give feedback since there’s so many elements and most aren’t complete, which ends up leading to my feedback: I’d pick some area to flesh out with a lot more detail so we can start to get a vibe of this city. For instance, right now everything is clean and highly engineered, though the technology doesn’t add up with the precision and it’s hard to tell if this is on purpose or if it’s just because things are unfinished.

Here’s a some questions I think might help in figuring out the detail:

  • What type of people work here, elite, poor, heavy magic users, or people that typically have no special powers?
  • Why would people work here, for the money/status, because they’re forced to, or because of artisan passion?
  • Where do these people live: Mixed in with the factories or in another sector?
  • If they live in another sector, how do they get to the factories?
  • Are there places that are dangerous to walk in at night?
  • Is this a place that has a lot of police to keep it tidy, or is it a place that would most likely have illegal activity?

From there you can focus on a general look and direct us to understanding this world by a couple renders that show the various environments and conditions that people live in. This also falls in line with trying to make a couple high detail shots and then keep the rest low detail.

Hope that helps a little and keep plugging away!

#36

Here’s a some questions I think might help in figuring out the detail:

Yay for questions! :P OK lets go.

Regarding the advanced manufacturing precision; Ive addressed that before but there’s a ton of text so I’m not surprised it was overlooked. In my universe magic and technology intersect and the existence of magic heavily affects the progression of standard technology. Using magical assisted manufacturing techniques they are able to create pretty much any shape at any precision level just like we could today with modern computer aided manufacturing processes. In places where we might use electronics to fill simple roles such as making the mirrors in the solar plant track the sun, simple animation spells make previously implausible designs extremely effective. In several places the existence of magic fills the void and actually retards the progression of technology (light-bulb) but in other places it helps to boost the tech level up by making much more complex mechanical devices feasible. (Flak 88, pressure containers, precision gears and flywheels)

1: For the most part any of the citizens of Litheria might work in the inner districts. People who work in unclassified positions IE the smelter and the metallurgy plant, grainery and lumber mill commute via the rails from the residential areas beyond the outer wall. Anyone who works in the classified areas of Litheria would have made a choice to forever live within the walls of the Citadel for security purposes. The average Joe Schmoe working the grunt jobs probably isn't inherently magic themselves but they could be, one would assume if they are magic they are doing more important work though. As far as wealth goes the Citadel goes out of its way to ensure that everyone in its employ thinks its the best job they have ever had, so your unlikely to see "the poor" in Litheria, at least not in any large numbers.

EDIT: Thinking more in depth about this question I feel I should do some differentiation between the “rich” and the “wealthy”. In my mind “rich” means you have the funds to do pretty much whatever you want, but if your income dried up you would need to make drastic changes in order to make those funds last a lifetime. Wealthy on the other hand conjures images of Donald Trump in my mind, a person who could lose half their money plus never make another penny again and still be essentially infinitely rich indefinitely. The rich would exist in small to moderate numbers in Litheria by that definition and the council would encourage everyone to be as successful as they can be. I’m not sure if the Council would look kindly on the vast accumulation of money that “wealth” implies though, with the apocalypse looming having assets like that sitting static would be unthinkable. Having set this up I immediately think “Tony Stark”, a brash and egomaniacal genius who looks at the council and thinks “I could do better.” Perhaps Iron Man might make an appearance LOL

2: All citizens of Litheria have a bit of a leg up on the competition when it comes to the invasion and believing that its coming. The citizens believe the council, and the council tells them that the apocalypse is inevitable and that Litheria exists for the sole purpose of ensuring the survival of the races of men. Laborers are well paid for their efforts, but part of the deal when you decide if you want to be a Litherian citizen is accepting the fact that you'll be doing a LOT of work, so working is compulsory once you decide Litheria is for you under penalty of deportation for refusing to fulfill duties or breaking laws. I don't think Litheria will have any type of jail system, if you cant follow the rules you get to live outside the Citadels protection and that alone should be threat enough in this world. That's not to say if you litter you get deported, there would be an extensive civil justice system where more minor infractions can be worked out through probation or community service, perhaps paying a fine. Though unlike real civil systems the fine would exist only as a deterrent, the council will be rolling in funds no need to tax the people. However any crime serious enough to warrant a prolonged prison sentence (5yrs plus) results in banishment. I'm thinking to be humane the council would have set up a second city somewhere far from Litheria that deportees could move to in the event that none of the other nations would accept them. That city would be crime ridden I imagine since by definition its full of criminals, but it would be defended to a degree from being attacked by neighboring factions so in the big picture its not as inhumane as it seems. Your not wandering the wilderness being clubbed by bugbears.

3: The inner districts are all manufacturing or other utilitarian purposes. 90% of the population lives on the outside of the ring lakes in the surrounding residential areas. Don't think the residential areas are ungaurded tho, the cannon can arch and fire beyond the residential sectors as well as still being in direct firing range of the Citadels main defenses. Soldiers would also be deployed in case of attack. The idea for major attacks is the residential districts would simply evacuate and the people would travel via the rail lines to the inner wall of the Citadel.

4: Most travel is via the rail lines, there are depots in each inner district along with streets for pedestrians to walk between job sites.

5&6: Due to the power of the council they can easily monitor the entirety of the city magically or psychically you name it, policing of the inner districts Litheria is a non-issue. That's not to say there's no crime going on in the residential districts, but its all but impossible to actually get away with crimes with psychics around, so there wont be much "crime" in the traditional sense. Plus with citizenship being voluntary (hey if you don't like it here we will deport you!) there's little reason for the average citizen to turn to a life of crime unless they are mentally unsound. There could be barfights and crimes of passion, if you don't care about the consequences you might commit a crime. A purse snatcher or mugger or rapist would KNOW that their identity would be immediately known and would never think they could get away with it therefor they wouldn't commit the crime.

I'm still in the "loose end" phase right now modelling. A lot of what I'm doing is helping to visualize the finer detailed aspects of the story to help bring to light loose ends and plot-holes that I can fill before I start getting too deep down into details that might change later and end up with a lot of wasted work and reworking. 

Thanks for the questions, walking around down at ground level and working with the mechanics is exactly where I'm at right now and questions help that process a lot. :)
#37

This guy is stumping me… The theme for this weapon is “just because I’m not good enough to model complex planetary gears doesn’t mean the Litherian craftsmen cant manufacture them.”

So this model is quite a bit more high tech. The walk-wheel is housed within the stone or metal flywheel. The flywheel has a groove in the center for all the gearing so as you walk in the inner ring the outer ring spins faster and faster. Above you can see the placeholder for the energy transfer mechanisms. The big problem I’m having here is I want this model to be able to aim up and down and side to side 45* and its going to take some seriously thick axles to transfer the torque from the flywheel to the bow arms. I don’t know how I’m going to pull that off yet.


I guess this is roughly what I’m going for. I’m not going to try to shore up the mechanics of how it rotates its too much time for a prop. I don’t mind leaving details I understand and have worked out unmodelled but I’m really not liking having a conceptual gap.

#38

Moving on from the last design i wanted to work on what will be the “high power” model ballista. I’m channeling my inner Tim “the toolman” Taylor for this one.



This model has some degree of vertical mobility but no horizontal functionality. Its geared up significantly, the idea is the gears are tuned so that a brisk walking pace is the right RPM for the stone flywheel to get maximum torque without tearing the arms and the machinery apart. Power is transferred from the flywheel to the army diagonally via a large axle that runs up the support beams.

I’m thinking of designing a weapon that spins one of these large stone flywheels up to dangerous speeds and purposely set it loose. Imagine one of these behemoths at 1k+ RPM flinging dirt and debris behind it as it churns its way toward your fortification especially if its coming downhill. Imagine a row of machines releasing over a dozen of those guys at once. It would take more effort and magic power but one could feasibly find a source of stone near the target to manufacture ammunition, it needn’t all be brought.

#39

This guy is turning out to be a beast, its been a blast designing this one too. As previously advised I’m going to spend some more time on this concept and work this particular model of ballista through to completion to the detail level I want the rest of the scene. So if you want to get nitpicky about details now is the time. Please don’t bully some of my gears though I know they aren’t great, closer to completion of this model I’ll decide how much time i want to spend making the gears physically accurate.


Ive beveled the flywheel some for guidance. I also fleshed out pretty much the entire gear system. I know the horizontal bar at the top would be gear locked, that bar will be free rotating and just there for support, the gears rotate around it. You can somewhat see the arch of fire from the beveled corners, ill work on that so the curve is appropriate. You can see i added ladders to the walkwheels and did some preliminary support work for the heavier aspects of the weapon.

Normally I would have more balance planks running forward but with the weight of the flywheel on the back end I don’t think it needs it. As I said before please feel free to nitpick any of the design aspects of this one. Maybe you think it needs another support where one isn’t etc.

Progress report so far… my hand aches from holding down buttons and dragging so much, but its looking pretty kick ass. I’m starting from the bottom up with the detail pass lining things up better and adding nuts and bolts quite literally this time.

Update 2:



Ive got most of the downstairs detailed, ignore where the gears hit in places ill get to those last. Tomorrow I’ll flesh out the walkwheels themselves then its up to the firing mechanism.

#40



Walkwheels completed. It didn’t take anywhere near the time it looks like. I shortened the placeholders to become the outer rim then made a 2x4 and centered the pivot to the placeholders and made a radial instnace. Took the original 2x4 that’s at a nice simple 90* angle and instanced over some nuts and bolts. Once I got them lined up right I added an edit poly to the 2x4 and attached the nuts and bolts and viola near instant walkwheels.

You can see there are clearly a ton of nuts and bolts, these things would have to be disassembled and reassembled many times in the course of a war, between the orcs and giants plus the easier construction methods these guys can go up and come down pretty quickly.

Clearly I’ve missed my calling in life as a mad scientist, cant wait to see the gears spinning.

#41

Okay, I like the detail level you are going down to on this model. The previous designs were interesting but actually seeing the nuts and bolts helps place it into the “real world”. Well as real as it can be. :smiley:

#42

Thanks Wyatt! :slight_smile:

After a week of all nighters I crashed hard last night, I slept almost 14 hours! Trying to get back into gear I’m listening to a series of bands on youtube and that brings me back to my tavern designs for a moment.

In a universe where bards are magical I imagine that when several get together to form a band they can generate their own rock show pyrotechnics and everything magically kind of like the holophoner from Futurama. (as well as actually play songs in battle and instead of it being a laughable strategic folly it actually repels and destroys the enemy) I want to meld the fantasy aspect of the Taverns and modern rock shows a bit, I envision actual rock bands performing motion capture shows in front of virtual Home-World audiences. This brings the soundtrack for the movies straight into “reality” with bands possibly having their own smaller sub-stories within the larger story. This would also be a good opportunity for comic effect within the darker setting.

Todays modelling goals are working on the firing mechanism and clutch etc of the upper sections. I’m thinking there will be a neutral switch near the end of the bow arms swing that cuts the power from the flywheel a fraction of a second before the arms hit the springs. This will allow for faster flywheel speeds for firing, less stress on the structure, and most importantly it keeps the flywheel from hitting a dead stop each time the weapon is fired.

UPDATE: So when considering the clutch assembly I found myself coming back to placeholders because its too complex for me to want to model for a prop. Looking through clutch assembly’s online I came across a simple ratchet clutch and I think we have a winner.

The idea here is when the crew sets the weapon to fire they pull a lever or a rope etc and it raises the plate under the springs at the top releasing the tension from the axles. There’s a bottom plate as well, the arms have a slight bevel near the end of the swing that will contact a rod and raise the arms up an inch or two at the end of each shot, pulling the gear assembly off of the power plates. So to fire one pulls said rope and the top plate slams down engaging the clutch and wham instant Titan killer. All the mechanics below the teeth would rotate at all times when the flywheel is engaged, their added rotational momentum will supplement the flywheel when its engaged.

Update 2:


You can see the assembly locked into neutral mode in the first image. I’m going to try to incorporate having the machinery default back to locked mode itself using the upward kick of the arm. Rapid fire giant basllista anyone? Can be your for only 15 schmecles!

The bottom image shows the pin released and the primary gears thrust down into the clutch teeth. The springs will help dampen the vibrations.


Here is the forced neutral position at the end of the firing arch. Ive keyframed the firing and from framed 30-50 the arms move forward unhindered. From 50 to 60 they slightly raise as the yet unmoddeled bevel catches its bar and pushes the assembly up. The outer axles will have a 2way groove that catches the plate and moves it up and down, the inner two axles will be one way grooved only being lifted by the bar.

#43

I, who am speed, eradicate!



This thing would be seriously powerful, I’m going to beef up the ratchet clutch some and make the arms all metallic and possibly put a slight curve in them. If there’s to be any dampening system for the load it will be the arms.