Cipher of the Aremian Language

Presenting the cipher of the Aremian language! This is a substitution set-up that will allow readers to translate Aremian script found in the comic. I will be writing signs, papers, and other background points in Aremian, so you can translate the text into English.

I’ve added the cipher to the DjinnWiki for easy reference!

Aremite vs. Aremian

Aremite refers to the people and culture of Aremshah. A person from Aremshah is called an Aremite. They produce Aremite jewelry and celebrate Aremite festivals and culture.

Aremian refers to the written and spoken language of Aremshah.

You can see some Aremian on the website now, and I’ll create some more sample writing later. As I further develop the website, I’ll put more Aremian across the website.

Stay tuned for more language ciphers in the future!

DjinnWiki

I am pleased to announce the opening of the DjinnWiki!

The DjinnWiki is going to become a comprehensive source for all Djinnborn setting information. Why do I need one, you ask? Because the Djinnborn world is vast. I’ve developed a lot of information for the world, and the comic alone will not give me enough space to show the world. I created the DjinnWiki to serve as a companion to the comic.

Reading the DjinnWiki is optional! You will not need to know everything in there to enjoy the comic. The DjinnWiki will expand on things mentioned in the comic and more. I am developing it to provide context and expose readers to the world beyond the comic. The first comic story takes place in a single city. It will only hint at the rest of the world. So the DjinnWiki is your source to find out more about those hints.

The DjinnWiki is a work in progress, just like any wiki. Right now it contains basic information about the world and the five nations. I will post regular expansions to the wiki content and announce them here. If you see anything you think is amiss, feel free to contact me.

Speaking of updates, I just added the World page today!

You can access the DjinnWiki by clicking the link at the top of the page!

Release Schedule

I will be releasing the prequel, The Guide to Aremshah online in July 2013. This 16-page mini-comic will feature the Guide giving a visual tour of Aremshah City. Readers will be treated to a look at Aremshah City’s sights, and the Guide will explain some of Aremshah’s culture. This will make an excellent companion piece to the Djinnborn comic since the first story arc takes place almost entirely within Aremshah City.

The mini-comic will be released in two formats:

• Print Format (Price TBD): I will release the comic in print as soon at the same time I release it online. This is the full 16-page version of the comic, so if you order this you’ll get to read the entire guide all at once! It will also contain some extras (specifics TBD) that will only be available in the print version. Pricing will be announced as soon as I have it.
  
• Web Format (Free!): This is the “traditional” web-comic format. Comic pages will be released on an “X updates per week” schedule. I will tentatively be updating twice a week, but may go more or less frequently. This is free to readers, and may include a few things that cannot be found in the print version.

Once I have enough guides, I will release them all in a full collection/trade/anthology thing with even MORE special features!

I will post page previews periodically throughout the next few months.

Convention Schedule

I’m starting the convention circuit! I’ll be at CAKE Chicago this June, though I might not have a table and I might not have print comics ready to show. Still, if you’re going, let me know and maybe we can say hi.

I am also applying to the Alternative Press Expo, which takes place in San Francisco in October. I’ll be going to both with my good friend CJ, the artist and writer for City of Cards. I’ll keep you updated about my application status.

That’s all the conventions this year. I’m looking at other options next year, such as an east coast con. If anyone has a con to recommend, let me know.

Osoron always liked and admired his parents, but was never close to them. Because he was a younger child born a sorcerer, his parents kept him distant from themselves and the throne. But he was still a prince, and if nothing else, the image of the royal family was more important than being a sorcerer.

Osoron understands why his parents did what they did. It causes him occasional melancholy, but he grew to accept it, and even embrace it. His distance allowed him opportunities that his brothers and sister never got, and in the end, Osoron feels like it all worked out.

Naskos loves his mother, but hates his father and his stepfather. He is a half-Aremite, half-Krekonian cross-breed, the product of an idle dalliance that his real father had with his mother, then a young Aremite noblewoman. The affair ruined his mother’s reputation, and Naskos grew up watching her suffer for it. Naskos himself has dealt with difficulties, too. His Krekonian blood makes him bigger and stronger than the full-blood Aremites he grew up with. Other children, and even adults were always afraid of him, or treated him poorly because he didn’t quite fit in. It is part of why he joined the Ministry of Magic — because at least there he could put his superior strength to use for Aremshah.

He despises his stepfather, and the feeling is mutual. His stepfather sees Naskos as a blight, a constant reminder of his wife’s infidelity. Naskos sees his stepfather as nothing more than an abusive, manipulative bastard. He knows that the marriage helps keep his mother and her family from being totally disgraced, but he also knows she’s not happy. Naskos really wants his mother to find happiness.

Kollan grew up in a stable, lower-middle class Ropoldi family. He loves and gets along well with both parents. Like all Ropoldi mothers and fathers, Kollan’s parents encourage him to do their best. And like all Ropoldi children, Kollan wants to live up to the expectations of his family and his culture.

A little bit of tension has arisen since Kollan won the competition to accompany Prince Osoron on his voyages. Kollan’s parents have always been hard-working but never wealthy or popular. Kollan’s sudden new status has brought a lot of attention on the family, and his parents are having difficulty adapting. Ropoldi culture demands perfection, and his parents fear what will happen if the Ropoldi find them too flawed.

Finally, Mevar gets along well with his parents. His father is a low-ranking Aremite nobleman and a retired professional athlete. His mother is a feisty Takhari woman. Since Mevar has an older sibling, he’s not expected to carry a lot of weight. As long as he doesn’t tarnish the family name too much, his parents let him have fun, and he’s okay with that. They’re wealthy enough to support a comfortable lifestyle, so Mevar finds his relationship with his parents very positive.

Of course, being away a lot and traveling with Prince Osoron helps since he can get away with a few more indiscretions when he’s not at home.

I think my next art project is to make some dynamic headshots of these guys that I can use for the 30 Day Challenge and other sundry things.

I’d like to kick off this effort by posting about the Minister’s Council of Aremshah.

The Minister’s Council is a body of seven people appointed by the Caliph to help him govern Aremshah. Those seven people are as follows (click on the name to jump straight to the description):

• The Chancellor
• Minister of Military Affairs/The High General
• Minister of Magic
• Minister of the Exchequer
• Minister of the Interior
• Minister of Foreign Affairs
• The High Priest

The Caliph may appoint or dismiss ministers as he sees fit. Some positions have been passed through family lines for a few generations while other positions are held by new nobility. The only positions that are traditionally never hereditary are the High General and the High Priest.

Without further ado, I present to you the Minister’s Council!

The Chancellor

Chancellor Hasal

Currently held by: Hasal

The Caliph is the head of state, but the Chancellor is his right hand. The Chancellor serves as a sort of vice president. He handles many affairs of state so the Caliph can tend to all his duties. The Chancellor also typically serves as regent when the Caliph is away or indisposed. It is a powerful position that has tremendous direct access to the Caliph and all the powers of the throne.

The current Chancellor is Hasal. He was appointed by Osoron’s father about twenty years ago and has served the throne loyally ever since. After the coup attempt, Hasal stepped in to hold the throne until Osoron returned to Aremshah.

Minister of Military Affairs/The High General

Currently held by: General Asom

The High General is the commander of all of Aremshah’s military forces. He advises the Caliph on all military affairs and serves as the liaison between the Minister’s Council and the military.

General Asom is the current High General. He is young for the position, but established his reputation as a talented officer in his youth during the Takhari Liberation War twenty years ago. He has only been High General for a couple years, but his career has been marked with dozens of accolades. Asom is a fierce man who is not afraid to voice his opinions in or out of council sessions. He butts heads with Khefir often and some Ministers believe Asom argues for the sake of arguing sometimes.

Minister of Magic

Khefir, Minister of Magic

Currently held by: Minister Khefir

The Minister of Magic oversees magical research in Aremshah, but his primary and most-recognized task is enforcing the rules and restrictions on sorcerers. The Ministry of Magic is responsible for finding, training, and keeping an eye on all sorcerers in Aremshah. The Ministry also employs and trains special wardens responsible for watching sorcerers and dealing with them if they get out of line. Naskos, one of the main characters in the comic, is one such warden.

Minister Khefir is one of the most outspoken members of the Minister’s Council, especially now that a sorcerer is the heir-apparent. A sorcerer has never held the Caliph’s throne and Khefir does not approve of Osoron, even though he is the only known surviving heir. Khefir argues frequently with Asom, even when they’re on the same side, but his surliness has increased since the coup attempt.

Minister of the Exchequer

Currently held by: Minister Orshalla

The Minister of the Exchequer is essentially the chief accountant for Aremshah. This position administers, maintains, and oversees Aremshah’s treasury. The minister has final say on all spending by the state, subject to overrule only by the Caliph or the Chancellor. Even then, the Caliph and Chancellor traditionally only use their veto power rarely.

Minister Orshalla holds the position. She was born to a noble family in Aremshah, but her family moved to Musia to help establish good relations following the Takhari Liberation War. There, Orshalla studied finance and economics under a noted Musian lady member of Parliament. Upon her return, she joined the Exchequer and was appointed Minister by Osoron’s father. Orshalla takes her position very seriously and attempts to maintain Aremshah’s financial interests despite any political agendas by the other ministers. This has earned her little love, but not enough enmity to cause the other ministers to unite against her yet. She takes everyone’s side sometimes.

Minister of the Interior

Currently held by: Minister Messan

The Minister of the Interior is responsible for Aremshah’s national security. While the High General oversees the military, the Minister of the Interior manages the police force and keeps tabs on any threats that arise within Aremshah’s borders.

Minister Messan is a paranoid, unstable individual. He was appointed to the position  by Osoron’s father because of a favor owed to Messan’s family, but Messan’s effectiveness is often questioned. He disapproves of Osoron as a Caliph, suspecting the Caliph picked up some unacceptable ideas and attitudes while traveling. He also questions the wisdom of Osoron keeping company close company of foreign dignitaries.

Many speculators believe it is only a matter of time before Osoron dismisses Messan.

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Currently held by: Minister Lerasa

The Minister of Foreign Affairs is Aremshah’s chief diplomat. This Minister is responsible for handling all relations between Aremshah and the other Djinnborn nations. He or she must travel to visit other nations, but also must receive foreign dignitaries and advise the Council and the Caliph on foreign relations.

Minister Lesara was appointed a couple years ago after her mother, the previous Minister of Foreign Affairs passed away. Lesara is young, close to Osoron’s age, and is still learning the ropes of her position. She speaks all Djinnborn languages fluently, and is curious to know about the new Caliph’s interactions abroad.

The High Priest

Currently held by: High Priest Roso

The High Priest is the cultural authority in Aremshah, present to advise the Council on tradition, religion, observances, and the path laid down by the Djinn.

The current High Priest, Roso, has held his position for a good while. He comes across as placating, accommodating, even friendly, though there is an underlying smugness beneath it all. Roso typically agrees with the Chancellor and the Caliph unless he feels that he can outdo them at Council.

Members of the Minister’s Council will appear throughout the Djinnborn comic series. Keep an eye out and look for them soon!

I am doing heavy research and practice this January. I am trying to nail down some artistic basics and also pick up a few new techniques that will be useful.

In this post, I’m going to show the first part of the coloring process I am working out. I’ve never done one of these before! I also learned some new techniques thanks to a good friend, CJ Joughin, artist and writer for City of Cards. So without further ado, the step by step!

This is the character I’m using for practice: Malzahar from League of Legends.

During the Christmas break, I drew a bunch of League characters for practice/warm-up sketches and I completed a Malzahar sketch that was very well-received. I decided to polish it off and make a drawing worthy of a print. So I used this image as a rough guide toward getting started.

Here’s the sketch I’ve come up with. I did this in Sketchbook Pro, but sometimes I do sketches with regular pencil and paper. I wanted an ominous back-lit image, so I decided to go with a full-frontal view and I plan to put the light directly behind Malzahar. In comparing the two, I may go back to using the angled view because it feels more alive and dynamic. But that’s for later!

Next is inking. This part’s pretty straightforward process that I do in Illustrator with the Blob Brush tool. I usually keep details like cloth folds to a minimum because I feel they look better done with the colors rather than the lines. Note that I moved Malzahar up and made him a little smaller to give the impression of floating behind his voidlings.

Flat colors next! I also do this in Illustrator with the LivePaint tool. I make a background a dark grey so the colors stand out more, and then I laid in the base colors.

Okay, now I get some of the fancy stuff going! I keep my lineart and my flats on separate layers and I export the file to Photoshop. Once in Photoshop, I copy the flat colors layer and use that as the mask for an Adjustment Layer, then set the layer to Multiply. This lets me do a few things.

First, with an Adjustment Layer it’s easy for me to change the shadow’s color on the fly. I just open a panel and adjust some settings and the color changes!

Then I use layer masking to “erase” parts of the shadows. The reason I use a layer mask is because it’s easier to fix any mistakes. I can “unerase” pretty easily by manipulating the mask.

This is as far as I’ve gotten so far. Here I use selections to mark off parts of the image, then I use a large, soft airbrush to add some highlights to the shadows and make them a bit more dramatic and realistic.

Next I’m going to use a layer mask to adjust the highlights. After that, I’m going to use some more soft airbrushing to make it more realistic. And, of course, I am going to color the voidlings and the background.

I’ll update with a new post when I have more of this done.

I have two goals for this mini-comic. The first is to explore Aremshah City and Aremite culture.

The second is to set the stage for the first Djinnborn story. I want to show some landmarks that will appear in the story. That is why I want to take the tour to the Soaring Palace and the Temple. I hope to create familiarity so that when these places appear in the story, readers will recognize them.

Here’s the outline. I don’t mind sharing it since it’s not spoilers. Most of the information you’ll read in the mini-comic can be found online and will be in the DjinnWiki once I get that ready.  If anyone has any suggestions, fire away!

• Arrival at Aremshah
• Visual First Impressions
  • Architecture
    • Rounded features and motifs
    • Spacious open areas.
  • People and clothing
    • Loose fitting clothes
    • Scarf importance.
  • Art (Glassblowing and use of glass decorations)
• Food and Recreation
  • Delicious pastry treats
  • National favorite alcohol
  • Wind instruments and singing
• Major city landmarks
  • The Soaring Palace
    • Center of Aremite government.
    • Home of the Caliph.
    • Meeting place for the Ministers’ Council
    • Kept on the Jewel of Aremshah (name for the lake) to represent connection to Djinni of Water.
    • No building in the city is allowed to stand taller. The palace’s height represents connection to Djinni of Air.
    • Both symbols reflect the royal family’s direct descent from the two Djinn.
  • The Temple of Air and Water
    • Built in a circular design to reflect the significance of the circle and the cycle of life to Aremites.
    • Story of the Cycle of Air and Water.
    • Aremite belief in reincarnation.

That’s the part I should do next. Everyone needs a good About page and I will craft one for myself. It will be the most amazin About page ever.

Cast Page

I will tackle this section next. I have a couple ideas for what I want to do here, and it will involve sliders and jQuery goodness. It’s about time I really brush up on all this technology and make it work for me. I’m planning to use some nice slider effects and other stuff to make the site look pretty slick. I just hope I don’t overdo it.

DjinnWiki

The DjinnWiki is actually run using a MediaWiki installation, not WordPress. I don’t have much there right now, and I am going to redo its CSS to make it fit with the main site’s theme. I probably won’t use the buildings design at the top. In fact, I’ll probably keep it similar to a regular MediaWiki-powered wiki to keep it familiar to visitors. I will change the colors and add some Djinnborn themed design enhancements.

The hard part for me is figuring out how to structure the DjinnWiki. I know what content I want to put, I’m just not sure how I want to organize it. I’d like to get the hierarchy developed earlier rather than later.

Once I am ready to start on the DjinnWiki, I will be making weekly updates — at least until I launch the Djinnborn comic itself (and possibly even beyond).

Gallery

I have a nice plan for the gallery. This gallery will primarily highlight Djinnborn art, but it will also show some of my other art. I have found a good jQuery plug-in I want to use for it, and I just need to figure out how to make it work with WordPress.

To-Do List

In addition to the above, I have a list of other things I need to get done.

• Create a solid logo.
• Add some social media buttons.
• Adjust the color of the sky so it’s not such a startling blue.
• Create some more Aremite script graphics to go with sidebar headers.
• Update and adjust the website taxonomies so I have better structure here.
• Put some of the advertising on.
• Figure out exactly what I want on the sidebar.
• Keep an eye out for my CSS measures.
• DO MORE ART!

Thanks for watching! Keep an eye out for more updates and changes soon.