Abpolis 2: Immurement Cults and Elemunters

Print PDF

ABPOLIS : 

some general notes about it:

A non-specific but terrible event <EPISTEMOLOGICAL RUPTURE >  that did weird MAGIC BUT IN A INEXPLICABLE SCI-FI WAY BUT BASICALLY MAGIC stuff and now everything is broken and cars try and kill you directly and immediately rather than <CLIMATE JOKE> 

Bands of humans scavenge and build little communities and dunno grow silverbeet and make tyre armour blah blah , more importantly: monsters! ruins! garbage swords!

That's all I got so far, it's just enough of a foundation to make concrete monsters fight frog mutants.

I have stray thoughts of using it as a campaign setting  , BUT if I went straight up horror , I could still leave the human stuff barebones and let the player determine how they go about surviving; either as a small band or trying to build a little community . While the various factions grind into each other potentially wiping all their progress away if one gets far too much power and sweeps everything up in its way.

<I don't know if I can rightly describe things like the Nu_Wolves or Bitu-men as factions. Actually I flat out cannot , but I'll use it as a place holder for "threats of significance" or something more accurate>

If I went more d&d with the campaign setting , then would need to add aspects to the setting to give players options of weird psychic powers, biografts, kludgeware parts and other power advancements that aren't just learning more about the setting and stockpiling napalm.

But right now, excuse to make monsters.

SPEAKING OF WHICH:

Sketches of the Immurmers (cone hats) and the Elemunters (punk looking guys)

 

IMMUREMENT CULTS:

Blood is, and always has been, the mortar most true

The densest population grouping are those of the Immurment Cults. By virtue of being having large to very large ambulatory cement creatures  ("Cementals") to protect them.
The animatory force behind them is something the Immuremurators* claim has always been present in successful buildings, and has always need some form of blood sacrifice to sustain it.
As burying people alive , either in or under , a building getting built, in order for it to stay built ,shows up in a surprising range of cultures .  (Hitobashira for example).

More well known human sacrifice (cutting hearts out atop a stepped pyramid  , burning children to Moloch) is also interpreted by the Immuremurators as actually being for the good of the building and the city , and was misunderstood by the superstitious and close-minded.

The also claim worker fatalities in construction and homeless deaths were the modern surreptitious way of continuing the practice.

Anyway they provide a horrible form of theocratic warlordism and are not united at all , continually raid each other for sacrifices and converts .

 

 The most successful and populous of these has the biggest Cementals , because of the obvious positive feedback loop of force and implied force application.

These Cementals they create and feed are basically equivalent to stupid and angry dogs that are alternately given worrying amounts of xanax or meth.

DESIGN NOTES:
I guess if these guys are warring cults they should have different creeds and fancy outfits but right now all I got is them wearing rags and traffic cones.

*Not sure about this name here.

As yet unnamed Cemental

Hornpipe

Rebarbation

ELEMUNTERS:

Can a bunch of squabbling idiots wearing traffic cones and sicking parts of buildings on each can be described as a religious orthodoxy? 

Arguably. The Elemunters are those that would argue that , as they have developed far more dynamic and creative methods of evoking the cities latent ambulatory energies. 

From fire, to wire , to sludge, to gas, to glass , to pipe, if its part of the life and death of city , an Elemunter has likely worked out how to evoke it to life.
 

They mainly use this be a bunch of squabbling idiots siccing ambulatory bin-fires on each other.

They don't really gather together or gather people around them , as they are independent and free thinking to the point of serious maladaption.

Still they can less dangerous and more straight forward to deal with than others, and can often be bartered with to provide a wirehorse or conflagrant for extra muscle .

Well the ones that aren't brutal marauders or unhinged babbling visionaries that is.

Wirehorse

 

Conflagrant

Here's a link again to everything I've put on insta so far. 

https://www.instagram.com/explore/search/keyword/?q=%23abpolis&hl=en

It doesn't seem to work for someone people and don't know how to fix it , but searching up instagram toiletworldultra #abpolis seems to work

Abpolis :What? -> Exhibition , Frogs, Bita-men ->Oh Cool, Sounds Grand

Print PDF

 ABPOLIS

 Abpolis is an extremely open-ended ongoing creative project , made to inform and inspire the designs and experiments I've been doing with model making.
It's open-ended in the sense that I'm not letting myself get stuck on "having" to make it a campaign setting , a blog series , or a commercial product (or typically all three) , instead making up just enough about it to give a direction to the design of figures and material experiments.

But importantly still have enough space to pivot around what the materials themselves offered in creative direction. 

That's not to say it can't or won't be turned into something else at some stage.

But as I've kept finding myself ensnared and burdened with speculative project bloat and vasts trees of " Oh I'll need to include/do this" , and it's resulted in doing fuck all, Abpolis is a change in approach. 

You may of already been aware of all this seeing VARIOUS FIGURES on the instagram, and regardless if YOU ARE here's a link for both your convenience and elucidation :

AB POLIS SO FAR

IT IS ALSO going to be included in the exhibition in Nottingham I'm part of:

 

Some of the dudes going to be shown

 I'm including various figures I've making , and big mess of sketches, speculative design notes, lore dumps and some bigger developed drawings.

SPEAKING OF lore dumping , I'm using this (and future posts ) to force myself to consolidate the nearly coherent jotting and text fragments that currently exist about Ab-polis into something approaching readability and even informability.

As that's something to be included in this exhibition as well. BIG WOW!

The Frogs:

Hungry protean fellows, driven by assimilative cannibalism and consciousness blurring fungal infection. Sing and talk about being One and The Song of All and they spend most of their time fighting and eating other in state of hunger, desperate mania and celebratory joy.
The frogs blessed with the largest forms and stable forms gain strength and power from eating other frogs (and anything else) , in a fairly conventionally "eat and grow bigger" lifestyle.
Less conventional is when the eaten frog is incorporated into the eater , not by digest , but just kinda growing out of them somewhere.
The frogs that manage only to get mostly eaten from these predations have their insufficient forms and injuries tended and reinforced by the latent fungal infection they share, potentially becoming nigh unrecognizable masses of fungal what-ever.
A third vocation exists of just biting or pulling off parts of other frogs that they fancy , running away and then sticking them on their body.

 

The Song Of All :

I will eat you and you will live with me, we will grow and eat and become

no death 

Only death 

the death of the skin-lie

The eaten is the eater is the eaten is the eater

the song is all all is the song

 

DESIGN NOTES:

Chaos frogs / body horror mutant hive mind / messy goons aren't a staggering new concept , but thing about Ab-polis is that it wasn't about impressing anyone with my creative brilliance as was creating something to inspire some fun model building. And mutant frogs are a great shape for that, with their simple cartoonishly expressive forms (oversized mouths and limbs) . 

Then add fungus and general wacky body plasticiness and you got yourself a gay old time.

I don't know if the name is a reference , exactly, to Aristophane's play other than I like the play. Like there's zero thematic matching here ? "The Frogs" is sinister in its innocuousity though and I'm sticking with it.

BITU-MEN

Terrible results of reusing/failing to properly dispose of an adaptive smart material, that was otherwise being wonderful for making appliances, industrial machinery, pets, "domestic" servants, etc.
The tanks and other storage facilities to contain, dispose, and research were already showing inadequacy even before the epistemological rupture . Now they present an unpredictable danger to an environment already full of unpredictable dangers.
Each bitu-men is barely stable amalgam of half-remembered roles and purposes, which they will still try and follow. 
Resulting in something potentially harmless (sucking up dust and attempt to clean the glass on empty window frames) , to far less harmless (sucking up internal organs and trying to clean and sort human bone) .

They can be really worrying when they have grudges or emotion fixations from some of their previous uses, especially if they were misused or abused in their role. 

DESIGN NOTES:

These are 100% the result of playing with Shoe-goo, a difficult material to use , but one that gives alot in weirdness and texture. They've got a wire frame underneath them.

I'm not sure if the figures really match the lore at this stage, they look a little too protean and don't particular suggest their past uses. However if I start including basic looking machine parts they start blurring into the visual design space of the Scrunges (ooze that makes junk forms for itself) .  Maybe I should include some kind of Pompeii event where the smart material entombed and their dying psychic echoes imprinted on them?

Or lean into some kind of tar-pit or petrochemical industry horror?

The lore was developed around trying to make them into something more than a unstable flailing ooze that just tries to kill you. Anyway this an example of when the material inspires some world building but then the world building starts going against the potential of the material.

There's then a whole mess of creative choices around trying to push the material into doing something against the result (which can result in something amazing or just a tepid mess) or readjusting the lore (which could result in going in an exciting new direction or compromising into something generic ) .

They also feel pretty similar to the Gilgamash from Veins of The Earth. 

But this is why Abpolis is currently opened ended, so things can be scrapped , pivoted , reworked, etc. Or just left behind if there's deeper and richer mines to exploit.

 

NEXT POST WILL COVER : The Immurement Cults and Elemunters

BEAST PEOPLE NAMES FOR BEAST PEOPLE

Print PDF

 

BEAST PEOPLE NAMES FOR BEAST PEOPLE

1. Secrete To Everyone 

2. Hoot Forever 

3. Dirty Fingers 

4. Gusset Maul

5. Farmer Criminal 

6. Party On Dude

7. Internal Temp Fried Chicken

8. Bovianal Malease 

9. PIG's 

10. Hot Mums Area 

11. Disease Herd Me

12. Erected Orfistial

13. Foetal Impaction

14. Hardcore Horn

15. Slaphead Goo Numple

16. Badess Dadess'

17. Honour's Gayhorse 

18. Malerider 

19. BallsPickle 

20. Slurptown Population YrDad 

21. Labial Terrorist

22. Dukes O'gizzard's

23. Gods Ripe Idiot 

24. Organal Pig Pong 

25. CumShooter 

26. Electric Shitman 

27. Not Like The Other Girl's 

28. Orificer 

29. Caprinal Nuggets 

30. Defection Bia's

31. FreedomIsAJustTurd4NothingTwoLoo's

32. Wee Man Warcriming

33. The True Scot'sman

34. Sled Full of Garbage

35. Rich Tapestry of Violence

36. Josepth The INtellecutal

37. Wet Sack Wet Sack Wet Sack

38. Pet Food Only

39. Baboon Responsible

40. TheyMadeMeTheBoss

41. Zibaldon't Alice

42. Huge Yelling 

43. Wombs's Dis'creteCannon 

44. Loon With a View

45. The Badbrain Unchained

46. Cuu Screaming Disappoinment

47. Dark Proctor

48. Wars Sauce's

49. Outlast Safety

50. Goat Disco

51. Bloatgasm Cane

52. All I Goat Wa's T-shirt 

53. Busta Creeps Chilling 

54. The Pygmalion Audacious 

55. S'crot's Lightning 

56. Big Anger Teats 

57. Clown Car 

58. Junior Clown Car Senior'MD

59. Misery Festoon's

60. Hots Buggery&Chrome

61. Jammy Hypnosis

62. Hers Pestilence 

63. Ruby Of The Colon 

64. Indigence Glands Indigence 

65. Endonope Goit

66. Tax Fraud Of God

67. Spike Sex Batman

68. Gorg Piss Prince

69. Pumper Mungo

70. Grit Dickhead

71. Big Big Big

72. ShitOnYourLawn

73. Abrasive Wheel’s Can Maim

74. Terror Poo

75. Ugly Carpets Hate Man

76. ExtraBad

77. Numpty Dingdong

78. Wanton Empathy 

79. Wild Ass

80. Chargrill Baby Yum Town

81. The Feening

82. Lamb Of the Dmaned

83. Punishmeek

84. Mangler Gibbles

85. Wanton Gammon

86. Brainsaw

87. Broke Nuttle

88. I LIKE KILL

89. Ruin Of Gut’s

90. Canal knowledge’s

91. Ramdominion 

92. Pope Tits

93. Disaster Man

94. SoilsChild

95. NoThankin

96. House Is Toilet

97. 1Thousard’sMancorpseHaha

98. Grimey Dick

99. Corpse-doer

100. Ape-Puncher

Six Secret Books

Print PDF

YO

I'm going to start pushing out some these little baby bird posts that never really grew to a decent size but just sat in my draft folder demanding that I throw up some insects into them.

Oh Fuck , also keep forgetting to mention you can use the code on the following PEECHO print on demand books:

 Frosty_12495 (might only work with Fire On The Velvet Horizon) or

Frosty_60310 (ditto but for NooFutra)

(Peecho makes it a bit of nightmare to keep revenues separate or distinct so 2 books 2 different accounts.)

to get 20% off. The email said best order by the 4th December to get books by Christmas so that's already completely buggered to damnation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(LINKS TO PEECHO BOOKs CHECK OUT IN THE HEADER ↑↑↑↑↑↑

Anyway look I wanted to glue some MILD content on to that greasy CONSUMMATION bait and other stuff kept happening.


OTHER NEWS

been making various SMALL ENTITYS

There might even be a world building post at some stage. I have zero concrete plans other than making a bunch of these things but we'll see if any ideas stick in my head long enough for A COHERENCY.

ANYWAY
1d6 books, did it need to be a table? Well why have a list when it can be a table and a list? Are you NEW? IF SO hi.

1. Hand written book, with various splotches , stains and repairs. Resembles an encyclopedia in contents Most extensively stained first chapter. The real book of value is read by using the first chapter to learn which stain or smot corresponds to which word. Learning the book of stains gives insight into the secret weaknesses, failings and hypocrisies of the world

2. Odd barked  dead tree, actually a giant scroll written on extremely resident  translucent paper (skin of legendary eel), rolled up into a tube. What appears to be bark is the interlayed words

3. An injury to the world itself , was sewn shut by a single golden hair of a saint. Unpicking this stitching opens the wound , letting horrors sneak into the world, but a great book of wisdom is written length ways along the hair, requiring an ingenious lens or ant(s) servant(s) to be read

4. Ink poured into a human brain, the brain then dried , and cut into fine sections reveals a singular tome

5. A great book, a monolith, yet turgid, documenting a thousand years of successions and slow regime changes. Each of its thick pages is actually part of singular piece of paper, folded concertina style. Slitting off the spine and unpicking the stitching reveals the occulted book written on the inside folds of each page. It reveals the conspiring , stratagems and tactical betrayals that was the engine behind this dry history . Furthermore it shows that each event , however mundane or anodyne seeming, was an advancement of a purpose most sinister. 

5. A book with covers so wide and tall, that they could be repurposed for a door or modest dining table.
It is splayed open and a thriving hive of bees has ensconced itself in-between ,over and around each page. However removing the bees and their wax-industry would show each page is blank. Instead the honeycomb cells formed directest on the page hold the letters, each a sluggish black bee larvae, part ink and part grub-flesh.

6.This book has been burned to ash but still holds its shape. A single breath will cause it to collapse into irregular soot. However by mixing that soot with water and using it as ink, the book can be recreated, each page arriving in a dream. The trick is each page gets dreamed up by a different person, and only they will be able to recreate it using the ink. Each page describes a different , accurate , destructive prophecy , with the last page revealing the cataclysm that will again destroy this book by fire.

NooFutura available for purchase

Print PDF

 

 

 

NOOFUTURA

 

NooFutura the weird fantasy cyberpunkesque toolbox/overgrown zine/ setting guide / barely coherent vapourware book I wrote for the Mothership rpg is live for buying.

I went with Peecho, a print on demand company, which , after a very moderate search, I've found to be the best print quality for price.

It doesn't have any of my art in it , as originally it was an opportunity to just get paid to write something without having to worry about any other aspect of the project. However it proceeded to have an incredibly messy development which resulted in me taking on various other roles in the project. (I will do a "how the sausage was made" as a follow up post to this in a week or so and go into a bit more depth about that). One of those roles was art direction and the subsequent artists for the project were Amanda Lee Frank ( instagram ) and Sam Mamelli (also instagram). So that's whose stuff you are seeing on this page right now.

So before we get to links, I need to point out that
 Peecho doesn't have much in the way of an online shop front , instead it just gives you shareable links , that drop the clicker straight into the checkout.

 So as well as this post serving as the shop front , I'll make a permanent page at the top of this blog , beside the Peecho Velvet Horizon page .


If you want a quick look through the contents here's a preview pdf: CLICK ME

 

LINKS FOR PURCHASING:

EDIT: Peecho's phone checkout menu is kinda ass, and it doesn't show the prices so I'll include them here as of 24/4/22

Magazine

( 21.83 us $ not including shipping)

 

Softcover

 (28.01 us $ not including shipping )

Hardcover

 (39.00 us $ not including shipping)

 PDF

(5.00 us $ )

(via itch.io) 

Here's some (basic) photos of the binding on the magazine & hardcover format