Source Material

In Praise of Great Worms

2010-07-29T18:37:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a small trend in worm-based flash games these days. Cases in point:

Worm Food - Pointed out on the Delta Green list as an example of a Cthonian-themed game.

Effing Worms - An evolving worm trying to devour the area's technologically advancing inhabitants.

Wormland - More along the lines of space slugs or Duneish Makers.

Gone to Sleep

2010-07-16T19:58:00.000-07:00

Moby and Kelli Scarr make a song based on this picture by artist Phil Toledano.

The video about their creation process (and the song itself) gives a great vibe of eerie desolation.

Author's note: the first night I watched this it inspired a fascinating nightmare about Changeling: the Lost's "Gentry", so I'm considering it prime fodder for that game at least.

Transportation Accessability

2009-10-25T09:45:00.001-07:00

Need to strand your PCs far from hope of backup?

This should help you hit the right ballpark:

The New Scientist article also gives maps of world-wide roads, railways, and navigable rivers.

Via Fast Company, via the Delta Green Mailing List.

Everlong (Foo Fighters)

2009-09-12T16:33:00.000-07:00

An oldie but a goody.

Great portrayal of marauding tulpa, free-ranging nightmarish archetypes preying on the dreams of others. Also a neat example of dream shaping combat.

Via Daily Motion.

Basilisk Images

2009-08-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

Exerpt from the comp.basilisk FAQ:

5. How does a basilisk operate?

The short answer is: we mustn't say. Detailed information is classified beyond Top Secret.

The longer answer is based on a popular-science article by Berryman (New Scientist, 2001), which outlines his thinking. He imagined the human mind as a formal, deterministic computational system -- a system that, as predicted by a variant of Gödel's Theorem in mathematics, can be crashed by thoughts which the mind is physically or logically incapable of thinking. The Logical Imaging Technique presents such a thought in purely visual form as a basilisk image which our optic nerves can't help but accept. The result is disastrous, like a software stealth-virus smuggled into the brain.

6. Why "basilisk"?

It's the name of a mythical creature: a reptile whose mere gaze can turn people to stone. According to ancient myth, a basilisk can be safely viewed in a mirror. This is not generally true of the modern version -- although some highly asymmetric basilisks like B-756 are lethal only in unreflected or reflected form, depending on the dominant hemisphere of the victim's brain.

- David Langford

Metatron

2009-08-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm not a huge fan of the idea that the Gentry of Changeling: the Lost must be completely inimical to humanity. But there is a certain appeal to a portrayal of the fae as juxtaposing concepts in a way which does not make sense to the human mind:

A realm of darkness and cold metal populated with horrifying mechanical creatures and devices. Yet strangely the existence of this nightmare relies on the fact that a lone woman peacefully knits at the heart of the machine.

Print by Ray Caesar.

Please Don't Worry

2009-08-29T09:46:00.000-07:00

Please don’t worry.
When I wake up I'll be something new.

Painting by Daniel Danger.

Decemberists Poster 5

2009-08-29T09:40:00.001-07:00

Steamech Bibliophile Chimera.

Via Gig Posters.

Decemberists Poster 4

2009-08-29T09:35:00.001-07:00

Sidhe minstrel.

Via Gig Posters.

Decemberists Poster 3

2009-08-29T09:26:00.001-07:00

Hedge Assignation.

Via I Have a Yellow Hat (though who knows where she got it).

Decemberists Poster 2

2009-08-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

The great Forrest Whale chimera.

Art by Daniel Danger.

Decemberists Poster 1

2009-08-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

Most likely a region of the Dreaming or Arcadian Realm.

Drawing by Jay Ryan.

Rescue Pod

2009-08-23T19:34:00.001-07:00

Click for more detailed image.

Also more sketches by Evgeny Buryat Onutchin for the Core77 sketch contest.

Chronotron

2009-08-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

Don't be fooled by the cartoonish artistry and lack of fire-arms: This game is a vital training tool for any agent likely to be mucking around with the nightmare that is causality violation.

It will re-wire your brain.

Via Diggy Games and Newgrounds.

House Dougal Pooka

2009-08-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

Motola the elephant: Landmine survivor.

Via The Daily Mail, via Dirty Russia.

Reiko

2009-08-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

A little too overtly bloody to prefectly fit the Slaugh archetype, but subtler than the stereotypical Redcap. Still seems like she'd fit in pretty well with the Unseelie Kithain crowd though.

Many flash animations available at the artist's site here.

Via Newgrounds.

The Ice Plane Scavangers

2009-08-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

It is said that in the olden times our ancestors often found treasures in flying houses such as this one. But it was still strange to us and we approached it with caution none the less.

Photo by Darran Rees.

Via Presedia Creative, via Core77.

Tangible Holograms

2009-08-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

A little something for the deckers and Virtual Adepts out there:

Holograms with physical interaction made possible through motion capture technology combined with precisely focused ultrasonic sound waves to stimulate the sense of touch.

More via Core 77.

Walking House

2009-08-06T19:17:00.001-07:00

Still a little slow, but you get the idea.

Also, maybe this is just some pre-existing toy, but thought it was pretty cool:

Via Dirty Russia.

Island of the Dead

2009-08-06T18:49:00.001-07:00

By Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin. Likely based on the similarly fascinating Greek isle of Pondikónisi:

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

2009-08-06T18:04:00.000-07:00

Trailer for the ITSP videogame.

More at the Michelgange blog.

Via Offworld.

Extra-terrestrial anomalies

2009-08-06T17:32:00.001-07:00

UFOs and other oddities caught on NASA film and imagery.

Ice particles and photographic artifacts? Or evidence our secret masters don't want you to know about.

Via Dirty Russia.

Paradox Realm of Finance

2009-08-04T18:23:00.000-07:00

After successfully over-leveraging his assets by several orders of magnitude, a Syndicate Technocrat stumbles into his first Paradox Realm.

Alternate explanations:

Arcadian Realm
Otherspace
Hastur Incursion
Nightmare Realm

Via Dirty Russia.

Premium Coffin Hotel

2009-08-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

I'd only read about coffin hotels (ie. "capsule hotels") in fiction, but apparently they're a real phenomena sweeping the globe since the late 1970s. Pictured above a model with swank amenities recently designed by Masaaki Hiromura and Takaaki Nakamura as part of the 9h building.

Via The Design Blog, via Dvice, via Superfuture.

Steampunk Monkeys

2009-07-31T20:36:00.000-07:00

From Chet Phillips "Steampunk Monkey Nation" card set of assorted steampunk monkeys.

Check it yo.

Via Boing Boing.

Bachelorette (Utena version)

2009-07-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

Utena - Bjork (bachelorette)
by bangayo

I see this as a Fairest Durance, or a love affair involving Sidhe or Marauders.

Editorial:

Revolutionary Girl Utena the series was a fascinating, if repetitive, set of highly stylized vignettes. It involved a series of staged and structured confrontations at a boarding school each culminating in a sword fight. The ultimate goal of these confrontations to catalyze the metaphysical alteration of reality on a grand scale.

Revolutionary Girl Utena the movie was a completely surreal, bordering on nonsensicle farce involving the same characters and setting as the series. To those who've never seen the series, the movie will make no sense. To those who have seen the series, the movie will make little more sense.

However, one good thing did come out of the movie: Some industrious person recut the most interesting bits and pieced them together with bits of the series into a slightly more cohesive narrative. Setting the whole thing to Bjork's Bachelorette made it dynamite.

Bachelorette (Isobel version)

2009-07-31T17:38:00.000-07:00

Love the recursion. Seems a good portrayal of a Durance.

Quicktime version available at Bjork's official site here.

Crescent

2009-07-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

by Phil Rossi

On the old, massive, half-completed space station Crescent something forgotten is stirring again. This in spite of the influence of the community's ancient crone and the ruthless efforts of it's corrupt mayor.

It's a story old as time: A thing or things want to exist which would better not. Toward this end locations, people and events are being manipulated into the horrific arcane conjunctions necessary to hasten it's arrival.

It could be argued that the story is unevenly paced, plodding over some events while sweeping right past others. Or that it dwells too heavily on scenes of carnage and sexual depravity in an attempt to set the tone of seediness and horror. But in spite of these flaws I found Crescent to be an interesting take on the idea of a Lovecraftian "Great Old One" style incursion in a non-standard setting.

Warning: Heavy adult content.

Here's a direct link to the first episode.

The rest of the series can be found at Podiobooks.com or at the official Crescent Station website.

Terrain Adventurer

2009-07-12T11:16:00.000-07:00

Futuristic off-road capable truck designed by Patrick Clark of Diseno Art.

Link via The Design Blog.

Mythic Miami

2009-07-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

From the Miami New Times:

On Christmas night a year ago, God fled Heaven to escape an audacious demon attack -- a celestial Tet Offensive. The demons smashed to dust his palace of beautiful blue-moon marble. TV news kept it secret, but homeless children in shelters across the country report being awakened from troubled sleep and alerted by dead relatives. No one knows why God has never reappeared, leaving his stunned angels to defend his earthly estate against assaults from Hell. "Demons found doors to our world," adds eight-year-old Miguel, who sits before Andre with the other children at the Salvation Army shelter. The demons' gateways from Hell include abandoned refrigerators, mirrors, Ghost Town (the nickname shelter children have for a cemetery somewhere in Dade County), and Jeep Cherokees with "black windows." The demons are nourished by dark human emotions: jealousy, hate, fear.

One demon is feared even by Satan. In Miami shelters, children know her by two names: Bloody Mary and La Llorona (the Crying Woman). She weeps blood or black tears from ghoulish empty sockets and feeds on children's terror. When a child is killed accidentally in gang crossfire or is murdered, she croons with joy. "If you wake at night and see her," a ten-year-old says softly, "her clothes be blowing back, even in a room where there is no wind. And you know she's marked you for killing."

The homeless children's chief ally is a beautiful angel they have nicknamed the Blue Lady. She has pale blue skin and lives in the ocean, but she is hobbled by a spell. "The demons made it so she only has power if you know her secret name," says Andre, whose mother has been through three rehabilitation programs for crack addiction. "If you and your friends on a corner on a street when a car comes shooting bullets and only one child yells out her true name, all will be safe. Even if bullets tearing your skin, the Blue Lady makes them fall on the ground. She can talk to us, even without her name. She says: 'Hold on.'"

A blond six-year-old with a bruise above his eye, swollen huge as a ruby egg and laced with black stitches, nods his head in affirmation. "I've seen her," he murmurs. A rustle of whispered Me toos ripples through the small circle of initiates.

Full story here.

Less pretty, but also available at Archive.org.

Limbo

2009-07-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

A young mortal protagonist trying to navigate one of those strange, bleak realms found in Wraith, Mage: the Ascension, or either of the Changeling games. Alternately, an otherworldly locale from Unknown Armies.

Better video and some concept art at the official site here.

Cult-reviving politician killed by lightning

2009-07-11T12:52:00.000-07:00

Reposted from Mosnews:

A Ukrainian politician who had been excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church for his attempts to revive ancient pagan cult was killed by lightning on Saturday while on a fishing trip, Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reported on Monday.

. . .

A former activist in the Soviet youth movement Comsomol, Chervoni started an independent political career in early 1990s with radical Ukrainian nationalists. At some point, the politician joined the religious movement Runvera – a Ukrainian sect that seeks revival of obscure ancient cults, in particular, the worship of the sun god Dazhbog.

When he was retired from the governor’s post in 2006, all Orthodox churches in Rovno Region had a special prayer thanking the Lord for deliverance.

This story was trawled up by the Delta Green folks who had the obvious take that, in the name of nationalist cultic revival, this guy had been dredging up ancient powers best left forgotten.

But from a World of Darkness point of view he might just as easily have been fried by the Technocracy before he could use his newly acquired reality deviant abilities to revive yet another brand of superstitionist practice among the masses. Simple Paradox backlash wouldn't be out of the question either.

Via Tenebrax on the Delta Green mailing list.

Abandoned Places (etc.)

2009-07-11T07:54:00.000-07:00

As a source for desolate, claustrophobic, and/or seedy locations to set a game I highly recommend the Abandoned Places blog. A smattering of it's more famous or interesting areas includes:

Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong

Abandoned Places:

Kowloon used to be one of the areas of Hong Kong city. By the end of 1970s Walled City began to grow. Square buildings folded up into one another as thousands of modifications were made, virtually none by architects or engineers, until the entire City became monolithic. Labyrinthine corridors ran through the City, some former streets (at the ground level, and often clogged up with refuse), and some running through upper floors, through and between buildings. The streets were illuminated by fluorescent lights, as sunlight rarely reached the lower levels.
. . .

By the early 1980s, Kowloon Walled City had an estimated population of 35,000. The City was notorious for its excess of brothels, casinos, opium dens, cocaine parlours, food courts serving dog meat, and secret factories.

Centralia, United States

The moderately well known Pennsylvania town where a mine fire, raging unchecked since 1962, occasionally still opens smoking rents in the ground and chars hillside foliage.

Gunkanjima, Japan

Abandoned Places:

Mitsubishi bought the island in 1890 and began the project, the aim of which was retrieving coal from the bottom of the sea. They built Japan’s first large concrete building, a block of apartments in 1916 to accommodate their burgeoning ranks of workers (many of whom were forcibly recruited labourers from other parts of Asia), and to protect against typhoon destruction.

As petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960s, coal mines began shutting down all over the country, and Hashima’s mines were no exception. Mitsubishi officially announced the closing of the mine in 1974, and today it is empty and bare, which is why it’s called the Ghost Island. Travel to Hashima was re-opened on April 22, 2009 after more than 20 years of closure.

Pripyat, Ukraine

Ukrainian community built to house workers at Chernobyl. Evacuated and abandoned after the 1986 disaster.

Photo by Artem Grinchenko.

Link.

Thanks to Mike Lake of the Unknown Armies mailing list for pointing out the site.

I Lived On the Moon

2009-07-06T16:50:00.000-07:00

A Sluagh father schooling his son in Dreaming lore.

One of my favorite videos ever. My hat is off to Yannick Puig and Kwoon.

Much more information and better quality video here.

The Horned Man in Sports

2009-07-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

One of the old gods proving his mettle against these modern human contrivances. Probably a Firbolg or Runnerswift.

Image originally from Mutantti aamulenkillä.

Via Dirty Russia.

Evolvers

2009-07-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

Via Dirty Russia.

Bug Hunter

2009-07-04T13:51:00.001-07:00

Via Dirty Russia.

Crypto Taxidermy

2009-07-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

Blood Rat

Iris Tongued Snapper

From Mascara.

Via Dirty Russia.

Public Restrooms

2009-07-04T13:27:00.001-07:00

From Fantlab.

Via Dirty Russia.

Christoph Morlinghaus

2009-07-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

Cathedral of the Grand Unification

Industrial Chapel

Venusian Arcology

Arcology Village

Link.

Via Dirty Russia.

Bottled Curios

2009-07-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

Unknown Specimen

RECOVERED FROM CHEST CAVITY OF DECAYED ANIMATED CORPSE. ANIMATION OF CORPSE CEASED UPON REMOVAL. SPECIMEN BEGAN TO DISSOLVE WITHIN MOMENTS OF REMOVAL FROM HOST. DISSOLUTION CEASED WITH FORMALDEHYDE AND ACETONE. HAITI, 1894

A handy how-to guide on preparing your own spell components, containing unruly familiars, and formalin-preserving other oddities.

Link.

Liverpool Crowds Flee Spider-Mech Rampage

2009-07-01T16:53:00.000-07:00

More info.

Writhing Brood Clusters

2009-07-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

They're in our sewers now.

More info.

Via ialdaloboth on the Delta Green Mailing List.

Knights of Cydonia

2009-06-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.joost.com/08200gs/t/Muse-Knights-Of-Cydonia-Video"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Muse - Knights of Cydonia&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;
Post-apocalyptic sci-fi kung-fu spagetti western has never been so cool. The kind of parody you want to live.

Link

Forestry Blades

2009-06-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

Some random, cool-looking implements intended for wilderness and/or forestry use.
Click images for more information.

Gator Combination Axe
Gerber: purveyor of fine baby foods and bladed implements.

Woodsman's Pal Axe
Also available in salty sea dog.

The Magnum Kukri
Because it's tough to go wrong a giant black machete.

Again via the Delta Green list, c/o the MIB.

Logging Spider

2009-06-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

This prototype spider-walking logging tractor (apparently designed by John Deere / Plustech Oy) may be a bit slow but would seem to provide a couple advantages over conventional means: The ability to maneuver through the confines of a forest for selective logging, and the ability to navigate previously impassible terrain while providing a stable platform for heavy machinery.

Clearly the era of Labors is nearly upon us.

Via the Delta Green mailing list, via Tech Fresh.
(And apparently through a million other blog re-postings as well.)

Paradox-free Mouse

2009-06-06T07:21:00.000-07:00

Finally a mouse custom-made for the Magi of House Thig.

More steampunk/arcana projects and cephalopod pics at the artist's website.

The Shadows of St. Petersburg

2009-06-04T17:29:00.000-07:00

The hungry ghosts crowd in great overlapping mobs, swarming unseen through the places they haunted in life. They search wearily and in vain for something, anything to give their prolongation meaning, to feed the emptiness inside.

Of Alexey Titarenko:

Major photo series include "City of Shadows" (1992-1994), "Black and White Magic of St. Petersburg" (1995-1997), and "Time Standing Still" (1998-1999). In those series Titarenko paints a bitter picture of a Russia (seen through the lens of St. Petersburg), where people live in a world of unrealized hopes and where time seems to have stopped.

More here.

Nature's Wrath

2009-06-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

A spirit of wilderness and desolation lashes out with impotent rage at the highway desecrating it's land.

Or, alternately: The last remaining eddy of excess energy released by a powerful ritual in the area.

Via Nothing To Do With Arbroath, by way of Boing Boing.

The Dyatlov Pass Accident

2009-05-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

Of the event Wikipedia has this to say:

The mysterious circumstances and subsequent investigations of the hikers' deaths have inspired much speculation. Investigations of the deaths suggest that the hikers tore open their tent from within, departing barefoot in heavy snow; while the corpses show no signs of struggle, two victims had fractured skulls, two had broken ribs, and one was missing her tongue. According to sources, the victims' clothing contained high levels of radiation . . . Soviet investigators determined only that "a compelling unknown force" had caused the deaths, barring entry to the area for years thereafter. The causes of the accident remain unclear.

Article here.

Via the Delta Green mailing list.

The Protean Swarm

2009-05-29T06:33:00.000-07:00

It's movement unnatural as it slid across the sky, growing, contracting, throwing out amorphous limbs of animate specks. But it seemed to us that what we saw was only the smallest extremity of a thing whose bulk remained housed in some strange sub-dimensions.

Video.

Gristle for the Mill

2009-05-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

Mark Powell sculpts morbid and realistic tableaux. His dioramas depict the aftermath of terrible events, the sort of things investigators pray never to come across.

Link.
Warning: this stuff is not for the squeamish.

In Crystal Abiding

2009-05-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

Blue crystal everywhere. The apartment's interior was completely covered with the stuff.

What ritual needed this as a focus?
What arcane process gone awry left this in it's wake?
What bizarre thing, new to sentience, dwelt here in dark mineral-saturated waters for a time? Or left this residue behind, a spent chrysalis?

Article and video here.

Via Boingboing.

2009-05-27T16:46:00.000-07:00

Much of Paul Laffoley's artwork is derived from conspiracy theory, the occult and fringe science. Perfect fodder for transcendent cults and obsessive adepts.

Link

Discovered via Boing Boing.

The Imaginary Victims of Osaka

2009-05-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

Passers by in Osaka falling into the role when shot or slashed with invisible weapons.

Dolorous blow at work or some Adept charging up?

Reposted from Danny Choo's article on Boing Boing.

Red Moon & Armed With Wings

2009-05-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

Red Moon and the two Armed With Wings games present stories set in the same Black Mist universe. Although this world incorporates certain unusual metaphysics, character abilities evoke the sort of wuxia and magically enhanced fighting styles familiar to Exalted fans.

Maybe not the most polished work out there, but the art and game animations in the latter two games are quite good. The post apocalyptic ambiance of the and character animations in Red Moon are especially nice.

Armed With Wings

Armed With Wings 2

Red Moon

Via Newgrounds.

Giacattoli Ray Guns

2009-05-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

Sean Michael Ragan provides an insightful commentary the toy ray gun designs of Edision Giacattoli. Some great pictures of beautifully designed futuristic weaponry here. Check it out:

Link.

Via Boingboing.

Neo Steam

2009-05-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

Looks like a typical anime flavored high-magic steampunk world. Maybe a bit on the light side, but semi-relevant to Exalted, specifically Autochthonians. Also, potentially Nockers of course.

Apparently still in beta as of this posting.

Link.