Progress Continues!

𝑲𝑯𝑶𝑹𝑵𝑨𝑻𝑬 𝑭𝑨𝑼𝑵𝑨 - 𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑯𝑨𝑴𝑴𝑬𝑹 𝑭𝑨𝑵𝑻𝑨𝑺𝒀

Khorne lacks the whimsy of his siblings and so does not find it prudent to actively design life forms for his Kingdom, especially not when the mutating energy of the Warp does this anyway. Thusly, almost all fauna and flora in Khorne's kingdom are not the Blood God's doing. That being said, Khornate daemons interact with these creatures in ways important to their culture and traditions and so the Blood God makes no move to exterminate most of them. This list is not exhaustive.

Blood Worms - An invasive species originating from the lands of Nurgle, Blood Worms were Bloodletter parasites that have grown fat on the death and gore of Khorne's realm. They are massive beasts able to swallow a Bloodthirster whole.

Flesh Hounds - The Sole Creatures created by Khorne's hand, Flesh Hounds are fiercely territorial daemon-dogs whose packs can number in the hundreds. The hunt overground when hungry and sleep underground in nests of bones when inactive. Like mortal dogs, Flesh Hounds come in a wide variety of breeds and even species.

Brass Ticks - Another Nurgle-devised parasite unique to Khornates.

Blood-Flies - Tiny crimson insects that feed on the blood-nectar of black-petaled Death-Flowers near the Tree of Souls. They lay their eggs in the bodies of the fallen, which give rise to Blood-Fly Maggots. Though called flies, they serve a purpose more similar to bees and are aggressive as wasps.

Brazen Bulls - Brass-furred daemon-beasts and one of the few obligate herbivores in the Aethyr. They consume the twisted, gnarled vegetation of Khorne's realm. Brazen bulls are ritually hunted and killed by daemons and, when they fin their way into the mortal realm, by men. Their prized brass skulls are offered to Khorne and their blood and bones are used in rituals and rites. They resemble bulls of various species. Their horns are often turned into war-horns or drinking devices.

Drownscale - Living in the myriad Blood Lakes and rivers snaking through the Realm of Khorne are the Drownscale. These reptilian horrors snatch the unsuspecting from the banks of their territory in the manner of giant, bloodthirsty daemon-crocodilians.

Drowndrake - Similar to the Drownscale, Drowndrakes are massive creatures that make their homes in the abyssal blood-oceans of Khorne's realm. They are more draconic than the Drownscale and can breath blood-fire onto enemies, but prefer snatching daemons from the sky and dragging them to a watery doom beneath a sea of boiling blood. Drowndrake skulls, when acquired, may be worked into Daemon Lairs.

Furnace Beasts - Furnace beasts are creatures of twisted metal; the remains of slain Juggers and battle debris pulled together and reanimated by the hatred and bloodshed abound throughout the Realm of Khorne. They affect no one shape, but tend to have a discernable mouth, body, and be-weaponed limbs. Some are covered in a layer of stolen flesh and sinew, while others are purely daemonic-alloy.

Gorger - Another massive creature, Gorgers are heavy-jawed knuckle-walking daemon-animals important to Khornate culture. A beast of sinew, multiple mouths, and endless hunger, they are common targets for enterprising Bloodthirsters. When Slain, the skull of a Gorger is made into or worked into the lair of a Deathbringer and it's host. The larger the Gorger, the more prestige the Deathbringer has.

Bonestealer - One of the more unwelcome daemon-beasts in Khorne's realm, Bonestealers are bipedal, therapsid looking creatures with spinal crests. One of their hands ends in a long scything bone and the other in obsidian claws. As their name implies, they steal and horde skulls and bones from battlefields-- Blood Hosts often busy themselves with finding, slaying, and retrieving these stashes so that they may be added to Khorne's throne.

Skull-Lairds - Skull-Laird are a variant of the Bonestealer, the result of several lairing together and one gaining primacy over the other. This larger beast is called a Skull-Laird and is a fair challenge to a Daemon Prince. These creatures never stop growing, commanding a nest of Bonestealers, and every so often grow to massive proportions. Such beasts are Greater Skull-Lairds and the most infamous of them is Vah'lruhk, the Skulls Thief, who has many Daemon Prince, Herald, and even Greater Daemon skulls in its horde.

Butcherboar - The Butcher Boar is a disturbing creature which broadly resembles a wild hog, but there is a vaguely humanoid quality about the animal as well. They are hooved nightmares with a bladed mess of tusks and overlong claws on their front limbs. Like the Gorger, they walk on their knuckles. Butcherboars are often hunted by Flesh Hounds and vice versa.

Kharndrill - The Kharndrills live in the dense jungle-wood near the Tree of Damned Shades, in the Forest of Damned Shades. They are dog-ape creatures with long fangs and dominant among them have large horns and brightly colored faces of red and orange. Kharndrills eat bloodfruit, but will snatch up and eat daemons who venture through their forest. They can overpower a Bloodletter and will snatch Chaos Furies from the sky if they catch them. When the forest is barren of fruit, they raid the gardens of Daemons who tend Khorne's meadows.

Bloodsteed - Bloodsteeds are equine-like creatures kept by daemons and used for work and war. On occasion, they are granted to mortals as godly gifts. Bloodsteeds have black or deep-crimson fur, fiery eyes, and flaming hooves. Their temperament is more fit for work, but they are warbeasts just as any creature of Khorne. Wild herds of them run above Khorne's lands, eating the coarse vegetation or flesh when they cannot find it.

Brand Ant - Brand Ants are so named for their superheated mandibles, which leave last marks in flesh when they bite a victim. They are hyperaggressive eusocial insects that create large mounds from the red earth of the realm. Brand Ants war amongst themselves, attacking rival mounds. They are fearless and will not even hesitate to swarm a Bloodthirster should it step on their home. Though typically not dangerous in small numbers, Brand Ant venom has an agonizing sting-- this species has found purchase in some Slaaneshi and Nurglite circles for that reason.

Wrothsire - A Wrothsire is among the largest of beasts found in Khorne's realm. They thick, leathery skin that can turn aside blade and spear and a 'Y' shaped horn on the end of a beaked nose. The slumber beneath the earth, and may awaken during a particular vehement rage by Khorne. Wrothsires bring fell storms and burning rain when they rip their way from the ground, able to toss about bloodhost as a child might several small toys. The biggest Wrothsires require a coordinated effort from several daemonic armies to fell and by the time the beast is killed, the death-toll is high. The Daemon who struck the killing blow is accorded the skull of the creature and the most sought after Skull-Fortresses are made from the heads of these beasts.

I had a fucking wonderful conversation with a Director who is a trans woman today.

I originally responded to an ad of hers looking for a transfem video editor for a documentary about trans people, but I was several months late. I specifically responded knowing I may not get the gig, but I wanted to work with her on this project that I felt was so important. It was important to me as a person developing a career in film, it was important to me as a trans girl hoping to engage and give to a community I want to be a part of, it was important that a project get made that could help people like me figure out what the fuck is going on with their identities.

So I waited for a response. Eventually one came. We set up a meeting for this afternoon, and the conversation we had was euphoric. I was so anxious and in my own head about the whole thing, but when it came time to talk, I felt like I was unapologetically myself while talking to her. I didn't need to mask, or change how I behaved for her. I just was. It felt wonderful. I've never had that with another person before, I think.

We talked about film work, trans experience, and MOTHERFUCKING TTRPGs!!!!!!!!! She called me "girl" in conversation and that was butterflies in my tummy. When I mentioned I was only 3 months on HRT she unashamedly and excitedly exclaimed that my chest was going to start hurting soon, and that lack of timidity about the subject was so fucking refreshing.

She mentioned how she enjoyed taking on the role of teaching younger trans people and being motherly. I added that my friends say that I'm the same way, but that I don't really have someone to be that way for me. It was a strange feeling to realize mid-conversation that I may need something like that at all. I never felt like I wanted a motherly force in my life, but maybe as I find myself in femininity that's something I need. My husband can only do so much to help me, and he's not exactly the posterchild for this sort of thing.

Nearing the end of our conversation, she told me to keep in touch and ask any questions if I need. But then she mentioned that we could go to get our nails done together sometime soon (I'd mentioned my experience with hand/nail dysphoria from a few days ago). I shut down. I stared at my screen through to her silently for a moment. I then stuttered, trying to answer. She asked if I was okay and if she overstepped any boundaries. I admitted that I needed a moment to restart my brain. Then I explained that I don't have any feminine friends to do "girl stuff" with. I've never been able to before. The idea excited me beyond belief. I said yes emphatically. I almost started crying a little, to be completely honest.

We said goodbye, and I closed the call.

Im doing a little tiny cry now, I feel so fucking good. I feel so proud of myself for trying for this and sticking with it. Proud of myself for not canceling because of my anxiety. Proud of myself for allowing me to be me unapologetically with absolutely no fabrication for the pleasure or comfort of another person.

Writing this now in bed. No other plans until later tonight. That call took a lot of my energy. Time to rest.

Night night💜

Alright! Let's actually talk about this waterfall thing. It is an amazing showcase of many things that I adore from late 90s graphics. I am replicating this in Blender, through mere observation of the final game, so some things might not be exactly accurate to what the PS1 does.

First off, this is what I started off with, straight from the Noesis exporter into Blender.

"Looks boring!" "What are those weird gradient quads?!" Oh we'll talk about those too, don't worry.

Let's start simple, figuring out the Layers.

We've got the base level geometry, then two layers of water, each with a different texture.

Let's focus on the bottom Water layer first. A waterfall's water falls, and the age old trick to replicate that behaviour is to scroll the texture along the mesh by offsetting the texture coordinates every frame.

Simple enough. Not too convincing yet.

Let's do the same with the other layer.

Look at it goooo!

An often-used trick to enhance the waterfall effect is to increase the distance between vertices (or squash texture coordinates) as the geometry goes down.

This affects the scrolling velocity for the texture in each section, making it look like gravity is accelerating the water.

MGS pulls yet another trick on top of that:

Vertices are subtly animated to oscillate, making the water flow seem more irregular.

It seems to be something similar to what is done to geometry when the camera goes underwater in the docks or vents area.

One opaque layer of water on top of another is no good.

Alpha Blending is an expensive technique and it'd not give the desired effect.

Additive Blending is used instead. The lower layer is rendered first, the second layer is then rendered on top, adding the color values together.

Now we get to talk about those weird quads.

They are darkening gradients! Instead of using Additive Blending, they do the opposite, the color value from the texture is subtracted from the scene that was rendered below, effectively creating shadowed areas.

Who needs HBAO+ anyway?

Lighting pass!

I just threw a few point lights to try and replicate the original vibes of the scene.

MGS, instead, uses lighting information baked into the vertices of the scene to create this mood. And what a mood it is!

Here's an additional example of the same techniques used in the bottom part of the same scene. Although the game seems to be rendering that water mesh as (almost?) completely opaque, there is an actual floor mesh under it.

There, I fixed this post. If you enjoy my posts, shit or not, consider supporting me on Ko-fi, I will appreciate it a lot 💞: https://ko-fi.com/parametricpalta

Campaign 3 Class Predictions

This is just what I think the cast might pick as their classes for next campaign (I have no idea what races they might pick, aside from Sam)

Travis - Either a Cleric or a Paladin or a Wizard. He is very much the dad of the group and he has said multiple times that he enjoys strategizing and being able to play an intelligent character.

Marisha - After Keyleth and Beau I feel like she'd choose something with a high charisma to shake things up, so I feel like she'd choose a Sorcerer.

Laura - Barbarian. She has made it incredibly obvious that she just wants to deal a shit ton amount of damage. She might also pick a race that is large like a Goliath, Half-Orc, Aasimar, something like that. Or she might choose something exotic like a Tabaxi.

Sam - I feel like Sam might play either a Fighter or a less standard class like Blood Hunter (especially since we didn't get to see the full extent of a Blood Hunter's abilities in this campaign). I also feel like after playing two Small characters he'll switch it up to a Medium or Large character.

Liam - I feel like Liam might choose either a Bard or a Druid. With both his natural charisma and his incredible insight as a person he'd be naturally adept at either. He also just rocks spellcasting classes.

Taliesin - WARLOCK.

Ashley - Honestly I have no idea on this one. She has played both a Barbarian and a Cleric now, two classes on opposite sides of the spectrum (I mean I know she was a War Cleric so she was still technically a Tank but she was also primarily a Healer). She might pick Rogue as a good medium but I'm honestly not sure.

Again, these are just my personal predictions, I have no idea if they're gonna be right or not, I'm just throwing this out there.

It would be cool if most of the class picked some of the stranger classes or subclasses available now that so many of the Unearthed Arcana material has been officially published. It would also be cool if for their Races they picked more exotic characters like Tabaxi, Genasi, stuff like that. Fuck, even a Kenku or Aarakocra would be cool.

Either way, it's so weird to think about this because this campaign doesn't feel like it's close to ending. At least for me. In campaign one it definitely like the endgame because of all of the build up and the stakes being set super high and everything, but this one just doesn't have that same feeling.

But I am still excited to see how this all ends and to see how the ending of this campaign will affect the beginning and world of the next campaign.

Artwork by Gina Iacob

Noise Marines - Plan C

I did what I didn't want to do. A valiant servant of the chaos gods sacrificed a critical part of his armour kit to give me something that looks a bit like a speaker for the muzzle of the sonic blaster.

I don't think he minds.

The end result looks just like I hoped. The skull and jaw placement will need some finesse to ensure the grille's not hidden, but I'm surprisingly happy. Also meant some pinning to line it up properly and I'm a sucker for pinning, just a tad more than I'm a sucker for magnets.

Recently been struggling with very poor mood, sudden upsetedness (feels like a tantrum to me), etc.

Husband noted that all this started immediately after I doubled my dose of Estradiol. Good information to record.

Puberty was kinda okay for me the first time, this second ones gonna be a bitch.

I've been a nail biter my entire life. Tried to quit for years and years. It's silly.

Watched one video that started me on hand/nail dysphoria.

Haven't bitten my nails ever since then. Nails growing nicely. Never been this long my entire life. The video fuckin killed that habit. Insane.

World Building Checklist

Have you ever started writing a story and realized your world has a bunch of unexplained shit and you have to fill in the gaps as you go? Me too, buddy. Me too. Here’s a checklist so that you can fully flesh out your world to the max. (I’m dying)

How does Time work? (Minutes, hours, days, the daylight cycle, years, ect.)

Species (if Fantasy. Will probably make another post on this.)

Countries, Nations, Tribes, ect. (nationalities/ races. Will probably make another post on this.)

The geography of the world (draw a map. Doesnt have to be good. Just for a general idea.)

Rivalries between races (includes prejudice, racism, ect.)

Religions

Technology

The Magic system. (Will probably make a whole other post on this.)

animals, plants, ect.

The sky: Sun, Moon(s), Stars, Constellation, Are there rings? (If the planet has rings)

Educations system

Government system

Politics

Methods of transport (Vehicles)

Can’t really think of anything else. If you have more to add then reblog and add to the list! :) bye bee