The Legendary Prerarts: Pamar the Thinker

Posted on October 26, 2020 by CSD

Well…. I haven’t touched on these characters save for a few brief references since at least 2011 when I rebooted this site into WordPress. By a random whim to update an old picture, I thought “how about a reintroduction?”

The Prerarts that live in the same region as the Agwilicans and Akelikans have a number of legendary people they tell stories of. Being legends, some may be complete myths and those that were actual historical figures likely had their stories embellished. Their tales have been passed down through oral tradition, and only with the introduction of their humanoid cousins did these stories get written down. Each has a signature talent or feature, and a story of a famous feat showcasing that trait.

Pamar was an especially intelligent Prerart, particularly being interested in mathematics, something most Prerarts don’t get involved with much. In her time, Agwils generally considered Prerarts dumb animals. That changed when one met Pamar, learned to communicate with her, and became quite impressed by her mental acuity as they engaged in academic challenges. Her famous feat was creating a written number system that she used to show off her smarts to the Agwil. The numerals she came up with (shown in the bottom of the picture) were eventually adopted by the Agwilikans and Akelikans.

At the opening of Agwilika Rhe, there are ten Legendary Prerarts:
Salmandano the Firedancer
Tama-Tameree the Flier
Pabam the Listener
Miridyr the Swimmer
Tatur the Eater
Bisuwiki the Runner
Raralara the Sleeper
Pamar the Thinker
Buridamer the Songmaker
Kemidamer the Singer

Miryin

Posted on August 18, 2020 by CSD

Miryin is another character from the “Sheshai” novel I’m writing. He is the leader of the House of the Shield crew that recruits Sheshai.

Oh no, somebody’s finally played with the hair particle engine in Blender…

Lady Obmunjalae

Posted on August 15, 2020 by CSD

Lady Obmunjalae (translated to Voidplane Master) lives independently of other nations of the Voidplane. She is not actually a female Gwil, but a shape-shifting Lurin that became personally attached to this form and the Gwil culture.

She owns the craft also known as the Obmunjalae, the largest mobile Voidplane vehicle in existence. She is one of the most traveled of beings on the Voidplane, and has been collecting, trading, and exploring on her journeys for a long time. She is responsible for many of the sparse nations being aware of each other.

She often visits Sha Rephart, especially to meet with her fellow Lurin, the Council Lord Lunark. She occasionally invites citizens of Sha Rephart to go on tour with her.

Lady Obmunjalae’s Personal Craft

Posted on August 14, 2020 by CSD

A small personal craft used by Lady Obmunjalae. It’s one of the most compact voidplane craft in service. It was designed for single person use, though a couple of guests could tag along on short trips. There’s a small cabin with enough room for a nap and to stow supplies. In the picture, the craft is parked in the Obmunjalae’s hangar.

The craft’s hull resembles the core shape of the Obmunjalae. I don’t know if that shape has an actual name, but it could be imagined as the cross section of a lens revolved on a different axis than the traditional 3D lens shape.

(This is the 2D base of the shape I’m talking about)

Oh hey, and there’s a model of Lady Obmunjalae in that picture…

Sheshai

Posted on July 30, 2020 by CSD

As a complete side project, I am in the process of writing a novel. Sheshai is the main character, a healer in the House of the Hand, and she gets recruited by a crew of the House of the Shield, warriors that fight the unliving evil of the world.

Obmunjalae’s Home Base

Posted on March 16, 2020 by CSD

Obmunjalae’s Home Base is a massive structure (136 vertical meters between the tops of the arches) that serves as the hangar for the titular vessel. It also contains the foundries that forged the components of the Obmunjalae’s structure, and the equipment used to put those components together.

Along the sides of the base are four rows of buildings. Industrial sections are on the outside, and residential on the inside. Terraced balconies of the residential sections can be seen on the left side of the image.

Obmunjalae Updates

Posted on January 8, 2020 by CSD

I’m starting to get used to the new version of Blender and its new rendering engine. I’ve mainly been working on the Obmunjalae as practice. I went off on a tangent planning through its construction steps (again…), but finally got back around adding some new details.

New circular dock doors have been placed in the center of the big window. The black circle near the nose and below the balconies is a lateral engine intake/outlet. The four lateral engines allow for sideways movement and rotation of the craft. I also changed the spot in front of the big roof window so it mirrors the back – it has circular rooms shaped like the elevators.

The machine room now has an actual machine – the main generator, which powers the main engines and distributes energy from the crystal core to other equipment.

No major changes to the hangar, except for the new ceiling lighting rings.

The main pilot controls. On the lower left is the nose door opening control. Above that are alert indicators linked to stations all over the vessel. The stations can rotate a color wheel to communicate status to the pilot. Below those is an intercom linked to those stations. In the middle is the compass. The Voidplane doesn’t have a magnetic field to track, but special beacon crystals are used to triangulate location. The first control set on the right is for the main engines. The lower right control set is for the lateral engines. Then there’s some engine status indicators above those.

Put in a Blender

Posted on November 2, 2019 by CSD

Just a few days ago I decided to update to the new 19.10 version of Ubuntu Linux. Along with that came the latest version of Blender – 2.8. This version is a huge overhaul and they changed some fundamental things like how texturing works. In other words, it broke all of my existing stuff. Am I going have to get an earlier version of Blender to figure out how to update the old settings to be compatible with the new system, or am I going to rebuild texturing from near-scratch? At least the bitmap images are still there, just have to re-associate them, but there’s going to be a lot of rebuilding to do. Most of my materials used procedural textures and so far it doesn’t look like there’s a way to quickly import them. On top of that I have to learn the new setup. I’ve been sick for at least a week so this is just making me a bit crankier.

Ayra Katrin Library – Front area updates

Posted on September 12, 2019 by CSD

Some more changes to the front area of the Ayra Katrin Library. There was an area of sloped terrain near the top of the stairs that has been replaced with some more patio area. A small room with a spiral staircase links the covered patio areas below with the new upper ones.

There is only a small layer of sand/soil at the top level of the library campus, with the top of the underground floors just below. Because of this, trees would not have enough room for their roots up there. I removed the trees from the area, but added a grove in the lower section to compensate.

Speaking of which, here’s a better view of the lower section. Small lamps were added to the walkways and some adjustments made to the shape of the walkway and railings.

Ayra Katrin Library – new buttress design and side rooms

Posted on June 22, 2019 by CSD

A new design for the buttress pillars on the Ayra Katrin Library:

The new cylindrical design replaces what was essentially a placeholder that was copied from an old pillar for the city wall. Here is what those looked like:

In close proximity to these new buttress designs, the library’s lower floors are expanding to fill in the space between the main structure and the perimeter road. These areas are highlighted in green below:

Below is a construction image of this area, showing how the buttress and gazebo structures extend down two floors. I’m still working out how the floor plans are going to be laid out and what functions these side rooms will fulfill.

Critical Systems Digital

Electronic Worlds