Observations of the Fox

This notebook was filled with illustrations for the "Familiar" game I've been working on... I did it during one of the Inktober runs one year, but deliberately didn't use the specific Inktober prompts. Instead I combined two lists and whatever the pairing of word might have been, that was the direction the illustration went. Some of these pictures have been published already in various places (including here on the blog), others are being revealed for the first time (I think). A few of these were photocopied, distressed, spraypainted over, and modified in other ways before being sold as one off artworks for the Incognito Art Show last year (a cause that raises funds for art therapy and art classes for disadvantaged and disabled people in Australia). I'm happy with maybe half of the images in total, there are plenty of other images that aren't even being shown now. I might modify some of the images 

I shared this on my assorted social media feeds... "bluesky", "threads", "facebook", etc... "Does anyone know of any good #Inktober variants going around this year? I'm in the mood to make art, but I'm not sure how the whole issue with Jake Parker has unfolded since the controversy a few years back." It wasn't long ago, so I haven't had responses at the time of writing, but I've gone searching and found a few viable options. I'm starting a day late, so we'll see what happens. I might do the thing where I combine prompts from two lists to get my images.

 Most years, when I remember it, I do Inktober. This year I've been hearing controversies about Jake Richmond, the guy who founded Inktober ( here's a link to someone else's blog if you're interested , but I thin there were a coupleof other issues too), and was tossing up whether to participate. DeviantArt has specifically cancelled it's promotion of the event.  I usually try to combine a pair of lists to push myself artistically, then follow through into November by designing a game for NaGaDeMon inspired by my October works. Or I use Inktober to develop the artwork, then format them into a game. Johanus Battey shared a possible listing of artworks in the "RPG and Fantasy Writers and Artists" group on Facebook, so I'll probably be combining that with the Inktober listing. The list from Johanus The Inktober List That gives me... Fish Goblin Wisp Elf Bulky Demon Radio Redcap Blade Dwarf Rodent Bard Fancy Cleric Teeth Ratfolk Throw Sword Hope Wizard Disg...

With work and other busy parts of my life this year, I've certainly not shown the blog as much love as I have previously. October was no different, with my attempts to post stories behind my Inktober work failing dismally. I did manage to get a full complement of Inktober drawings, just didn't manage to post them here. This post is a collection of some works from the latter Inktober sequence.

A magic system in a role-playing game can be used to say a lot about the world in which it is set. Perhaps just as much as the general rule system, it provides a context of what is easily possible, what is metaphysically unlikely or pushing the boundaries, and what is simply forbidden. In many settings, building new life is something outside the realms of even the most powerful magic. In some settings, achieving this goal may be one of the tasks that marks one as ready to join the archmages and ascended mystics. In this way mystic potential is directly reflected in the status of a mage.

One of the things that has appeared in a few discussions lately regarding magic in RPGs, is the idea of mystic resonance. The more a user of magic opens themselves up to specific energies, the more control they have over those energies... and almost symbolically, the more those energies influence them. A magic user focusing on plants might open themselves to floral energies, but in order to reach the next step they need to approach a state of one-ness with the energies involved. To manipulate plants more effectively, they become one with plants. Sometimes this is a deliberate choice, sometimes they simply find those energies shifting and mutating them as they use them too frequently.

Everybody wants something, everybody needs something, everybody has desire. There are places in the world where the obscure and the highly desired can be purchased at a price, but even the proprietors of such establishments sometimes have things that they yearn for. It's this desire that fuels their need to change the world, their innate ability to work with the mystic forces that shape reality. Finding the right lure to attract the desire of mystics is a delicate art. An art that familiars have refined over millenia of interaction with humanity. 

Magic manifests in many ways. Not always in spectacular or obviously unnatural. Sometimes the most effective magic is subtle, such as an athletic edge, an ability to see things invisible to the rest of the world, or a gut feeling. For those who dabble in magic, life can be strange. Even if they avoid seeking out the more blatant elements of the supernatural, sometimes the blatant elements of the supernatural seek them out.

I'm going to try to post something for each of my Inktober images. This will be a short passage to help set the context for magic users within the "Familiar" role-playing game that I've now been toying with for a few years. There are spiritual forces in the world, some of which exist in wild flux, others as eternal constants, and some as cyclical agents of balance countering similar energies in a natural harmony. Those who become attuned to the underlying spiritual forces often find themselves attracted to one or more of these energies. Some may find they draw power easily from specific foci, others may find certain times of the day more advantageous to their manipulations of the metaphysical forces, some may may attune to a season. Everything is different.

This year, I'm thinking of combining these two lists. First the official one... ...then this unofficial one... We'll see how far it gets.

Today, our Inktober journey concludes. Yes, it's a week late, but I wanted to make sure I finished. It is said in some of the hidden texts, that immortals transcend the physical world to explore the metaphysical realms beyond mirrors, behind dreams, obscured by shadows, and echoed in myths. These texts also contain hints of another level of transcendence, where a soul may exist beyond even the pseudo-reality of the spirit realms. But the thing about metaphysical reality is that there is always something bigger, something nastier, something stranger, something less well defined. For all the horrors across the known planes of reality, there are more dangerous things outside reality, unnamed and unknown by mortals of the physical plane, and carefully ignored by even the most powerful entities who wage war across the corporeal and incorporeal realms. To acknowledge their presence gives them power, to name them gives them reality, to depict them gives them solidity, even if only in...

Sometimes technologies that never were drift across the cosmos between realms. The places where these items were created might gave been eroded into nothingness by maelstroms of oblivion, or maybe the items have drifted into our reality's metaphysical orbit after creation in other universes entirely. The most interesting (not necessarily the most powerful) fetch a high price on the ultraviolet market, and many are sought by collectors in all parts of the realms.

Those who exist in the most high-tech realms, rarely know that their lives are reflections of possible future realities and dreams. Existence for them is just the same daily routines that they have known all their lives. If reality shifts around them, their memories will change, and they will always remember things that may or may not gave been a part of their lives yesterday. Quantum ripples shift their existence, but they never feel them. The awakened citizens of these realms know better. There is a lucrative trade in technologies that have yet to be developed in the physical plane as well as those that should not ever be brought into existence. The ultraviolet market specialises in trading these goods to visitors who might scatter them across the realms. Such items might include energy infused bio-locked swords that might only be drawn from stones by those with the right DNA markers, or symbiotic realm hopping devices with chameleon circuits locked to match a 1950s British Po...

The term 'familiar' applies less to a type of spirit entity, and more to a function that certain spirits undertake. To be considered a familiar, a spirit needs the strength to manifest in the physical world, they also need to have mastered the knack of catalyzing the mystic potential in an awakened mortal. Familiars have a variety of forms when they manifest in the physical realm, but the most common are animals, "intelligent" weapons or amulets, or small humanoid homonculi. In the spirit world, the true form of a familiar is revealed. Such forms often reflect the physical form, but with some differences... animal spirits might combine traits of various beasts, swords may have wings, homonculi may be full human size. Arrogant mystics who don't regularly show appreciation or give gifts to their familiars sometimes find that their magical potential is weakened by a poor relationship. Those mystics who do cultivate a strong relationship with their familiar oft...

We've got to that time of year when I'm running behind on Inktober and NaGaDeMon has already hit. That means I need to finish off a bunch of pictures (I think I'm three behind, but about five behind when it comes to posting here) . The NaGaDeMon plan is to finish off the Equipment and NPC books for The Law. Both of which are in various states of development on my hard drives. It feels like it should be an easy task, but then again, I've thought that since the beginning of the year.

Chimera has been introduced earlier in this series, as have her dedicated followers from the Order of the White Lotus . As an avatar of dreams, Chimera has the ability to change her appearance in a limited way to blend into the dreamscapes and spirit realms she wanders through, but anyone capable of seeing the truth in dreams will always notice her dragonfly wings. Chimera has a second ability that has gained notoriety across the realms. This is a technique of ripping apart the fabric of time and space to create temporary wormhole portals. Depending on the elemental pressure or energy charge differentials, there is often a shockwave produced by these portals, sounding something like a thunderclap... the greater the distance or the differences between realms, the larger and louder the shockwave. Members of the Order of the White Lotus are said to know ritual markings that help to ground these wormholes. This allows Chimera and the most powerful generals of the Order to travel th...

In some parts of the spirit realms, belief is fragile and the bubbles of planar reality are at risk of being obliterated by the howling winds of oblivion . In other parts if the spirit realms, rigid tradition, faith and stagnant belief lick reality in a stranglehold. The hellish realms of the outer reaches feed on the beliefs people have in a tormented afterlife, their denizens and rulers bond themselves to these eternal beliefs, becoming virtual immortals as they do so. In these stagnant realms, darkness can fester, groweing like a fungus, sloiwly consuming the living, recycling it to give birth to new energy in time. There are forgotten parts of these realms, areas where the darkness grows over parts the people want hidden, but in those hidden places the dark truths lie concealed. Demons torture the souls of those who lived lives found wanting, and sometimes they themselves grow bored of the torture, leaving pitiful souls strapped to torture implements as the darkness slowly s...

Just as it is possible for a consciousness to transform the spirit world around them, those who are not careful find that the spirit world changes them. Those with a singular focus find themselves becoming corrupted by the energies associated with that goal... of course they themselves may believe that corruption comes from dilution of the regined energies of a singular focus, as such they see themselves purified of external taint. Those who linger too long may develop notoriety as a conceptual avatar, perhaps becoming synonymous with a concept like hate, torture, or fear. In this way the decadent noble houses of the outer reaches were born, and new upstart revolutionaries seek to overthrow them with their own twisted power.  Some call the pin-headed cenobyte the eldest advisor to the noble House of Pride, others claim he is a more recent denizen of the realms, twisting fate and reality with a mysterious cubic artefact dredged up by crustacean scavengers and traded for the s...

There are legends that unicorns are able to sense innocence, and will only allow the most innocent and virtuous virgins to ride them. Legends accompany beliefs, beliefs fuel the spirit realms, and the spirit realms give rise to legends in a symbiotic feedback loop. In certain outer realms, there are anthropomorphic unicorns, appearing generally human except for their equine heads, tails, and pearlescent horns. Linked to the mythlore of the unicorn, these beings are able to sense purity and innocence among those around them. In those places where these unicorn-folk are found, they often adopt the roles of judges and arbiters of truth. While they have few members, there are rare settlements where half a dozen or more may make their homes, and in such places they will take turns as the local executioner, using their ability to sense virtue as a final line of defence to ensure only the guilty are executed.

It has been mentioned that humans aren't the only soul-bound mortal dreamers capable of influencing the spirit realms. Cetaceans and cephalopods are among the most notable of the aquatic dreamers, but there are certain long lived crustaceans who also have the ability to achieve the deeper levels of awareness necessary for dream. Some of the oldest of these dream crabs scavenge the bottom of the dream sead, collecting the detritus of the forgotten and the abandoned, sometimes adorning their shells with the trinkets they find, and sometimes restoring and trading the forgotten back to the shallows where they might come back to the terrestrial realms (whether they are wanted or not).