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03042017 - the watermelon is passed sweet Lolth's fuzzy butt, what started as one chapter months ago got bigger and bigger until I had two chapters' worth. I do sincerely hope you enjoy the encounter with the Drow. I strove to make my Drow unique, which ain't easy what with such prolific Drow subjects out there, like D&D Drow, the manifold books, and of course webcomics like Drowtales (which I highly recommend for its nearly 16-year-long production run and massively involved world, dynamic script, more characters than some small countries, and of course the awesome art). but BBRB is not a fanfic per se, so I had to roll my own. naturally, this is influenced by D&D insofar that it uses D&D races, rules, spell names, etc. with artistic license modifications to fit my story. due to the popularity of Drow, I seriously considered avoiding taking this trip into the vast underground realm. but it's like that departmental box of pizza that some kind soul paid for. diet, shmiet, it's FREE FOOOOOD! I hope you like it so far, and if you don't like Drow (what, really?), well, just pretend they're orcs. smexy orcs
05042017 - alrighty. so Pana and Chawinda ended up getting sucked into Viturhimin's teleportation field, and they now find themselves where they didn't quite expect to be. some readers may wonder why Pana didn't say 'forget the guided tour, take us back yesterday!' it's actually a good thing they didn't, because by that time, Mundhelm and his party were no longer there, and the Quzayshehir is in no condition to re-board (it's busy falling for the ocean in pieces). in case you haven't figured it out yet, with the masks with round eyeholes and the black outfits, Viturhimin's Skibbyen is mostly crewed by Drow (the Vindbrugers aren't, but they're also in cahoots with Viturhimin). as Mundhelm explains, when he slammed the gateway to the Elemental Plane of Air shut, and the Vindbrugers still inside the mechanism didn't come out, it means they ended up on the other side. at least they won't suffocate (but food and water might prove problematic...poor Vindbrugers)
as I said earlier, there are so many Drow stories out there. so if you read them, and see familiar things, it is purely accidental, as I haven't read the Salvatore books. my knowledge of Drow come from D&D itself, Drowtales, Norse mythology and that Thor movie. I think anyone who's played the way-old module D3 The Vault of the Drow would be inspired by the fantastic cave-world of those Drow (albeit that was for 1st edition rules). I don't think those Drow used spiders as draft animals, but I could be wrong Drowtales is surprisingly bereft of spiders, there is a small one which was a lap spider pet, and a slightly larger one that one Drowling wore like a backpack, but overall there are nearly zero spiders. those Drow also don't worship Lolth after all D&D references were retconned out. my Drow are more like the D&D version, but Lolth isn't a demon living on a plane of the Abyss. if anything, Lolth was a proto-elf who died and rose to godhead at the whim of the apparently one god (please don't draw parallels with real world religions, for God's sake )
another thing: why do my Drow royals have jumbo racks? Drow tend to be these wiry, lean things, so why the almost-comical hooterage? well, it is a matriarchal society, and I figure they closely associate their queens and the empress to motherhood. besides, they're a lot of fun (heh, eggplants...) and fit in to the reproduction-obsessed Drow culture. for 46 chapters, we had only seen Chawinda and her near-twin Sialkot, and neither were buxom. they are built wiry and lean, which works for their rogue/assassin character classes. but by the time you're old enough to be a matriarch, I guess they get progressively bigger? I wouldn't ask a Drow about that, you might just get stabbed for your trouble...
speaking of stabbed, my belief is that Drow as a culture might lean evil, but not every Drow is that evil. you saw that in a compare and contrast in chapter 47 part 1 between Vijya Durandesh, who wanted to save the High Elf children, and her sister Radica, who thought children make a fine snack. some Drow did indeed go nuts due to the famine (as Radica might have), and welcomed eating intelligent meat. but others (like Vijya) find the practice abhorrent. it's like how some Drow like spiders, while the commoner Drow don't like them. just another aspect that makes it hard to stereotype them as a race
oh, and the last scene of chapter 49 part 3, heh. that little spider has a lot of personality for a minor role. maybe 'talking spider' will prove to be a major player, who knows. btw it's been years since I've read Charlotte's Web by E.B.White (nope, haven't seen the movie), the spider's dialogue is meant as a nod to that book. while not explicitly referenced, I also liked another old book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (the rats had an elevator...AN ELEVATOR...in their nest)
will add more later. as always, thank you very much for reading my story!
John "Basileus Ioannis"
05042017 - alrighty. so Pana and Chawinda ended up getting sucked into Viturhimin's teleportation field, and they now find themselves where they didn't quite expect to be. some readers may wonder why Pana didn't say 'forget the guided tour, take us back yesterday!' it's actually a good thing they didn't, because by that time, Mundhelm and his party were no longer there, and the Quzayshehir is in no condition to re-board (it's busy falling for the ocean in pieces). in case you haven't figured it out yet, with the masks with round eyeholes and the black outfits, Viturhimin's Skibbyen is mostly crewed by Drow (the Vindbrugers aren't, but they're also in cahoots with Viturhimin). as Mundhelm explains, when he slammed the gateway to the Elemental Plane of Air shut, and the Vindbrugers still inside the mechanism didn't come out, it means they ended up on the other side. at least they won't suffocate (but food and water might prove problematic...poor Vindbrugers)
as I said earlier, there are so many Drow stories out there. so if you read them, and see familiar things, it is purely accidental, as I haven't read the Salvatore books. my knowledge of Drow come from D&D itself, Drowtales, Norse mythology and that Thor movie. I think anyone who's played the way-old module D3 The Vault of the Drow would be inspired by the fantastic cave-world of those Drow (albeit that was for 1st edition rules). I don't think those Drow used spiders as draft animals, but I could be wrong Drowtales is surprisingly bereft of spiders, there is a small one which was a lap spider pet, and a slightly larger one that one Drowling wore like a backpack, but overall there are nearly zero spiders. those Drow also don't worship Lolth after all D&D references were retconned out. my Drow are more like the D&D version, but Lolth isn't a demon living on a plane of the Abyss. if anything, Lolth was a proto-elf who died and rose to godhead at the whim of the apparently one god (please don't draw parallels with real world religions, for God's sake )
another thing: why do my Drow royals have jumbo racks? Drow tend to be these wiry, lean things, so why the almost-comical hooterage? well, it is a matriarchal society, and I figure they closely associate their queens and the empress to motherhood. besides, they're a lot of fun (heh, eggplants...) and fit in to the reproduction-obsessed Drow culture. for 46 chapters, we had only seen Chawinda and her near-twin Sialkot, and neither were buxom. they are built wiry and lean, which works for their rogue/assassin character classes. but by the time you're old enough to be a matriarch, I guess they get progressively bigger? I wouldn't ask a Drow about that, you might just get stabbed for your trouble...
speaking of stabbed, my belief is that Drow as a culture might lean evil, but not every Drow is that evil. you saw that in a compare and contrast in chapter 47 part 1 between Vijya Durandesh, who wanted to save the High Elf children, and her sister Radica, who thought children make a fine snack. some Drow did indeed go nuts due to the famine (as Radica might have), and welcomed eating intelligent meat. but others (like Vijya) find the practice abhorrent. it's like how some Drow like spiders, while the commoner Drow don't like them. just another aspect that makes it hard to stereotype them as a race
oh, and the last scene of chapter 49 part 3, heh. that little spider has a lot of personality for a minor role. maybe 'talking spider' will prove to be a major player, who knows. btw it's been years since I've read Charlotte's Web by E.B.White (nope, haven't seen the movie), the spider's dialogue is meant as a nod to that book. while not explicitly referenced, I also liked another old book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (the rats had an elevator...AN ELEVATOR...in their nest)
will add more later. as always, thank you very much for reading my story!
John "Basileus Ioannis"
2024 Happy New Year 2024
01012024 - may we all have a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year. here's to those who aren't with us any more: my dad (28 years ago), my dog (17 years ago), my mom (2 months ago), thank you every one.
Ten Years...already?
06092023 - so, looking at my Gallery, and seeing the oldest deviation was Limousine - A Short Story from March 31st, 2013, I realized that holy smokes, this is my 10th anniversary. As a matter of fact, March 31st has become a bit of a sore anniversary for me, as that was the date five years ago that I moved out of my home of 19 years and ended up in a hotel with my mom. Yeah, I take care of my elderly mom. Anyway, this means I started posting in dA five years before I became effectively homeless. Ironically, when I began posting in dA ten years ago, I was in a hotel in Las Vegas on vacation, and I started marathon-writing chapters for Bad Blood Runs Black starting the 1st of April 2013. Yeah, they were rough drafts, but I cranked out a chapter a day for about a week or so. Gradually it slowed down, until now, I posted chapter 54 back in October 2022, so it's been eleven months since I last posted to my story. I started writing the story in a hotel room, and now I'm still writing it in
Happy New Year 2023
07012023 - Happy belated New Year! I've been posting every picture I have on my computer over the past couple weeks or so. some are gifts from other artists, and are so credited. most are my own mouse-drawn-using-MS-Paint poo. I wish I had more, the older stuff hand drawn on paper, but most have been lost over the years, or are currently in storage and I can't get at them yet :grump: now, I think I can get back to writing my story, what is it now, chapter 55? it'll be a new story arc, so good time to introduce the reader to characters, both heroes and villains, new and old. I won't giveitaway now, but I've done a pretty good job of tying up loose ends so far, so there aren't too many left, huh? or is there a whole continent to the south that we haven't explored yet? and what about the ocean to the east of the High Porte, or west of Albi Aula? endless possibilities, so please bear with me, and thanks for viewing :wave:
Bad Blood Runs Black is up
28112022 - all 54 chapters combined, proofed/edited, added table of contents, and pages numbered (637 pages, plus placeholder page 638 for pending chapter 55). removed all exclamation marks and half the ellipses (dang there were a lot of ellipses...I mean...). had to do some editing to correct mistakes or clarify things, but I tried to keep changes to a bare minimum. it was fun, going through all the chapters again :squee: the other day, I saw a movie on TV called Life-Size 2 with Tyra Banks as a living doll named Eve, and her in the initial pink outfit reminded me of Slikkepind the Ghaele Eladrin. really, the way she talks to people to cheer them up, and doesn't seem to care what everyone else thinks is so her. Slikki was not influenced by Eve, as this was the first time I saw the movie, but it doesn't surprise me that there would be some similarities (of course, instead of a Barbie-sized doll growing to Tyra's substantial height, we have a 6 foot+/2 meter tall Ghaele Eladrin who
© 2017 - 2024 BasileusIoannis
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Twisting Lolth are we? That's heresy! xD