I'm not sure I've ever mentioned this here before, but it's worth mentioning: I have a condition known as Aphantasia. Wikipedia calls that the inability to create mental imagery, but sometimes I will (not really correctly) say that I lack a visual memory. The example I'll give to people is that I can absolutely recognize my parents when I see them, but if you ask me to picture them in my mind, there's no ability at all to do that. If you ask me to describe something or someone to you, what I'm doing is recalling the features I remember of the person or object, not actually "picturing" it and describing what I see. I am worthless at those "look at this picture, then in a minute we'll show you another one and you need to identify what changed" sorts of tests.

I only found out about this in the past few years, by watching a YouTube video which described it. My reaction was apparently what most people who have this have as their reaction: Wait, you mean there are people out there who CAN actually create images in their minds?!? I always assumed "picture ___ in your mind" was just an expression not to be taken literally. It was really depressing at first; all these creatures I have "in my mind," I can't really visualize or see without actually having an image of them in front of me.

I have never been able to draw anything. I've tried, countless times, but realized with that video why: if you can't picture something in your mind, it's really hard to draw it. There are some classical artists who had it, but they tended to be very, very reference-heavy, often doing portraits, landscapes, or similar things where they can literally see a reference for what they are creating as they do the work. That's not to say it's just a copy, but that they've got a good starting point they can literally see.

I had an artist who I commissioned once tell me that I give good feedback on sketches for changes to make, that they are actionable, clear, and generally something that they end up agreeing with, once pointed out. I can see when something looks wrong, but for me to try and actually paint the image would be virtually impossible. I almost always get the perspective terribly wrong, can see that it's wrong, but if I do another sketch, it's just as wrong, just differently wrong.

Digital sculpting, though, is a totally different thing. Yeah, it's really challenging to start out a sculpt, and I need a ton of reference pictures of whatever creature I'm trying to create. The difference is that I can start to pan it around, look at it from different angles, and see the problems in the sculpt. As I pan it around, I suddenly realize things like "Oh, the eyes are too high, so if I lower them a bit, it will look better," then just do that. There's a feedback loop on the screen which fills in that gap in what I can't see in my mind. With this, I can pretty quickly move from "I'm sculpting a snake head" to "I'm sculpting this fantasy creature with a snake-like head, but one which has non-natural, fantastic features."

I'm still very much in the "learning the art" phase, as I think I really only deeply focused on the actual sculpting after seeing the YouTube video on Aphantasia around 3 years ago, hearing a comment made as an aside that while there were few painters with it, there are historical sculptors who likely had it. The ability to turn your model in the real world (or on the screen) and see the angles really fills in that missing gap in not being able to see it in your mind.

What's interesting is what I've been posting lately, with the "quick renders" of the snake dude in various settings. Those are basically doodles. Those are me, after hours and hours of sculpting and texturing, playing with the thing I just created. For every one I post, there are ten I don't bother posting. For every one I don't bother posting, there are another ten where I didn't even render it, just played around with the scene, then deleted it. Those are me, unable to picture the snake dude in my mind, picturing him on the screen in various settings. Those are me daydreaming of the creature. Those are also me brainstorming what the next set of sculpting work I am going to do is, either how that creature is going to develop over time or what the next creature I'm going to create is.

I would almost bet money that SOMEONE out there reads this and says "wow, I've got that and never realized it was a thing," just like I did. It's surprisingly common and equally surprisingly unknown. Well, there's some good news: with all this, with some exercises, I'm slowly starting to actually develop the very beginnings of the ability to create mental images. I have a more or less standard scene I put all my creatures in, and while laying in bed going to sleep, I will simply try and visualize it. It's a small thing, but in those final moments between being awake and being asleep, I can start to see the image I'm trying to create. It's not much, but it's something. For reference, the "standard scene" is one where the creature is standing in front of a class, teaching some variation of magic or demonology; the class looks like it could be something out of Hogwarts. And yes, I have renders of virtually all of my creatures in that very setting, to help "prime" those visualizations.

I am going to try something...

I know I've posted a fair number of renders of the snake character (The Yuan'Ti) here recently. I actually often go through a lot more, just playing around with the character and poses. I've created a telegram channel where I'll post more of these, including more rough drafts, just stuff I'm messing around with, etc...

This channel will contain NSFW/18+ content, including human nudity, potentially violent acts, and vore. You've been warned. :)

https://t.me/+3n8k1-6OZwAxNjc7

I don't promise I will keep it around, but I'll see the reaction.

I just realized how behind I am on posting commissions... I am going to post a bunch now, from literally years of commissions I've gotten done and never posted.

I think I'll stream some demon creation for a bit...

https://www.picarto.tv/gilrandree/demon

If people here (or elsewhere) notice I'm a bit harder to reach now, that's because of the time of the year... I'm the art director at a local volunteer haunted house, which is also a volunteer position, which means my evenings and weekends are pretty much entirely booked getting things ready for October. Bottom line is, if it seems like I'm hard to contact, it's not just you. :)

If anyone knows anyone open to do Telegram stickers (or if you are open for them), send a link my way! I'd like to get a set for both Odon and Gil.

I've been planning to look myself for a few weeks now, but been really distracted, and haven't had time, so thought I'd just throw it out here. :)

I'm going back over a bunch of old artwork again, posting things which I've been way too long to post. I actually feel bad for some of the artists, who might think I didn't appreciate as I didn't post. I promise you, it was just me being lazy / a slacker more than anything else!

It's also worth noting, regarding my prior "commissions wanted" post: that's pretty much always true! I am entirely fine with artists approaching me if they'd like to sell me a commission. I know that's an unusual mode of business here, but it's one I don't object to if someone really wants to draw one of my beasts.

Currently looking for:
Vore commissions! Want to draw either Odon or Gil eating someone, drop me a line. (Note, I am NOT talking about free stuff, I expect to pay.)
I am especially looking for more violent / gore images with Gilrandree.

I'm getting a comic sequence done of Odon dining upon someone, but we don't have a someone worked out yet, so I'm open if anyone wants to be snake-food.

Drop me a note if you are interested. I'll take anyone interested for a few days, when I need to get back to the artist. Anthro characters only, and characters with wings likely won't work for this particular scene just due to the way the art is set up.

(This is not first come, but rather based on a selection of all of the potential options, which seems to fit best. As is expected from Odon, the comic shows unwilling prey, fatal vore, so if you're not comfortable with that, you probably don't want to send the note. Comments disabled, notes only, please.)

To clarify: I am not asking people to share in the cost of the commission. It is fully paid, I just need to get a character to feed to the snake. :)

Please no sexually explicit references.

Artists, feel like drawing Odon taking others as his meals? I'm in the mood to commission more art of him in his evil, hungry, serpentine self! I'm certainly talking about commissions, which mean money changes hands, not asking for free art as well.

Got any openings and interested in drawing a snake demon eating people? Drop me a line!

For the past few months, I’ve been engaged in some online RP with someone concerning their character’s raise in power in Hell. This character started out mortal and, over the course of these sessions, has become Odontaspis’ Duke of Corruption. Just going through this has lead me to some interesting realizations.

First, there is so much detail in my mythology now about how Hell works it’s almost scary. I know who all the major ArchDemons are, how they interact with each other, where the balances of power lie, and so forth. About half of this is written out in notes I have, though much of it is just in my mind, a complex history existing entirely unwritten.

To some extent, I keep thinking I need to actually take this history and make a story out of it. Certainly both Odon and Gil have stories which I think I could write up, and there’s so much going on in the Abyss that there’s plenty of other places I could come up with things happening. It’s a complex universe down there, the interactions between the beasts certainly full of deception, intrigue, occasional war, and even those odd moments of affection between two allied beasts.

The second realization, though, was just how truly evil Dar, Odon, and their colleagues are. I understand how how damnation of human souls happens in this mythology and what happens to those damned souls once they are in Hell. It’s absolutely in the Demon Lords’ best self-serving interest to lead more souls to damnation, which is what they spend their time doing. Odon, as Lord of Corruption, is always exerting his influence on the mortal realm to lead people, especially people in power, to become more corrupt through deceit and seduction. Gil, Lord of Wrath, encourages murder, violence, and war.

In other words, they are evil, in a very real, meaningful way. It’s kind of a weird feeling as I more and more shape the characters, realizing just how bad they really are. Gilrandree is brutally violent without any concern who falls victim to his violence, as is fitting to the Lord of Wrath. Odontaspis is deceitful to a fault; everything he says is strictly true, but he’ll do everything in his power to shape those words to lead people, mortals especially, to agree to things they don’t realize they are agreeing to. Of course, there are two halves to his realm, deceit and seduction. He not only deceives people into corruption but seduces them (not necessarily in the sexual way) into becoming corrupt as well.

On one hand, I find these sorts of creatures fascinating, perhaps because of their near complete lack of morals, but on the other, it’s actually kind of disturbing just how dark these characters I identify with have become.

Is there anything you’d like to know about Hell in this mythology?

I woke up this morning in the middle of a dream, which is rather unusual for me. It was also a rather complex one with a story to it, so I thought I’d write it up. This is more or less the narrative as I recall, with only a few places I had to fill in missing pieces.

It was early and it was already hot outside. I could see the sun glaring in through the window, and the house was already getting hot. Putting a glass under the faucet and turning it on rewarded me only with a drop of water. “Josh!” I called out accusingly to my housemate, “Did you use up all the water again? I told you, no more baths!”

“I’m not even up yet, I haven’t used anything.”

Grumbling inwardly, I went outside to check on the well. I knew something was wrong immediately: the pump was running, but didn’t sound right, like there was no load on it. Opening the top, it was dry. I switched it off and went back inside.

“The well’s dry,” I said, somewhat dejected. “There’s no more water.” The drought had taken its toll, and we both knew this day was coming.

“There’s a water delivery coming in today,” he said, “A train arrives this afternoon, downtown.”

I nodded and began to gather containers. It was a long walk to the station, and we’d have to leave soon.

As we got to the station, we walked along a narrow path. On one side was a steep bank leading up to the elevated tracks. On the other were old warehouses, mostly empty now. It was oddly quiet here. We’d expected a rush of people all wanting water, but it was nearly deserted. “Everyone must already be at the station,” I said. “We better hurry.”

As we started running we could hear the rumble of the large diesel engines behind us. The train ran by on the tracks above, tank after tank full of water. We paused a moment, looking at the train pass, astonished just how much water it was bringing in. As one of the cars passed, something wasn’t right, though: One of the wheels was at an odd angle, as if it had broken its axle. What happened next almost seemed in slow motion: the wheel jumped around on the track, clearly a dangerous situation, eventually jumping entirely off.

Slowly, the car turned to an angle, its rear wheels also falling free. The train slowly began to derail directly above us, with buildings on the other side, trapping us in. “This is bad,” I said to Josh, “we need to get out of here.” We turned back the way we came, hoping to reach safety, as the train slowly began to tumble down the side of the berm.

The sound was intense, metal on metal, grinding and scraping, as the train fell. We both ran, as fast as we could, back the way we came, the falling train just on our heels. As I passed the final car, still moving forward even as it started to topple, I slowed. “We made it,” I said, exhausted.

Josh wasn’t with me, though. I turned, looking back at the rubble behind me. Twisted metal was everywhere, water spilling from broken tanks. It was eerily quiet, as the train came to a rest. I called out Josh’s name, to no answer. Was he buried under that wreckage, somewhere far behind.

Voices came from the wreck, after a moment, though. Someone lived! I moved toward it, but stopped short: The metal was sharp and looked dangerous. The voices continued, and I called out.

A head raised from the wreckage, but nothing about it was human. It was vaguely canine, black flesh with evil, red eyes. I took a few steps back, heart racing. The hounds were here; that’s why it was so deserted!

(This is exactly the form I saw in the dream: http://www.milesteves.com/gallery/v.....d+-52.jpg.html )

As the beast growled, a grin crossing his inhuman face, I took off running. I sprinted away from the hellish creature, hearing him make chase behind me. He called out, both to his companions to join the hunt in a rough, animal-like voice.

Somehow, I made it to my house. Perhaps I was stronger than I thought, or perhaps the demons were just toying with me. I slammed the door behind me, though had little belief that would hold them off. I could hear them outside, growling, clawing at the siding. One cried out in English, taunting me, telling me these weak walls wouldn’t keep them out long.

The front door creaked as one threw himself at it and I ran into the back of the house just as it gave way to a second lunge. I hid in the small bathroom off my bedroom, lights off, in the remote hope they wouldn’t find me. I listened in horror as they ransacked through the house, destroying it in their search for me.

They reached the bedroom, presumably tracking my scent and I began to panic. I was trapped in a small room, the beasts just on the other side of the door. There was a window outside, but it was small. I opened it, trying to squeeze through the opening, just as the door crashed open, the beasts diving in upon me.

And that’s where I awoke… I think I’ll finish it up, though, in a way which I can approve of. :)

I felt one’s jaws closing around a leg, my escape cut short. Brutally, I was dragged away from the window, onto the floor. The pain was intense, but worse as more tore into me with their teeth, carrying me out of the small room, into the bedroom. They threw me onto the bed, blood pouring from the wounds they’d made.

I looked to the monsters; there were only three of them, it seemed, and they were resting by the bed, faces covered in blood, both my own and others’, probably including Josh. The one in the center, the largest one, grinned as he stared at me.

“We have come to take you home, master.”

Those were the last words I heard before they descended upon me, tearing me to pieces.

As I lean back in my throne now, he sits to my right. My own clawed hand rests between his ears, my wings folded behind me. My hooves tap on the ground as a small human cowers before me. I tap the Hell Hound’s back, sending him toward the sacrifice, and watch with a grin as he and his companions carry out their gruesome task.

“You have served me well, my pets.”

For the past few weeks, I suspect some folks who know me have noticed I’ve not exactly been 100%. In fact, I’ve been under a lot of stress from three or four issues, all of which more or less came up at the same time.

None of these are particularly bad issues, none have any real risk of causing significant problems for me long-term, but they’re all enough to keep me out-of-balance and generally a bit “not myself” lately.

The good news is, within two to three weeks, most of these issues will be resolved, one way or another, so at least this set of stresses will be gone. If all goes well, I’ll be back to my usual happy, evil self within a month!

Every now and then someone will ask if Odontaspis "lets anyone out" after eating them or similar things about Gilrandree, though he's a bit harder in that regard, since he tends to rip people apart when he eats them. Sometimes people ask if I really mean for my primary original characters to be so dark and vile.

Odon and Gil are demonic predators, so when they take prey, the prey is basically done for in the context of the story, probably not only their flesh but their soul as well are devoured by the demons.

Odon and Gil, to put it simply, are evil. They are bad people, horrible monsters, vile murderers. They are, at the best, anti-heros, though more likely downright villains. They are a story's antagonist, not the protagonist.

They are the bad guys.

Why do I have them as my main characters, then, if they are so evil and bad?

Damn, it's fun to play the bad guy!

I've gotten a few notes over the past few weeks asking if I might be interested in RP. The answer is basically yes, but I'm not going to give out Skype or any other such chat system contact information.

When I RP as either Odon or Gil, it's usually to play a fairly evil character doing evil things (usually involving feeding). Those sorts of RP I just about exclusively confine to Eka or F-List; if you see either Odontaspis or Gilrandree on those, they are me. If you see me anywhere else, either it's not actually me or it's somewhere I log into NOT willing to do RP. You can usually find me on Anthrochat as well with the same names, but I generally do not do RP on that, oddly enough.

There is an upcoming commission of Odon taking multiple prey in the scene. I'm presently debating between random humans or anthros as the prey.

_IF_ I go the anthro route, I'd be happy for people to "nominate" their characters as snake-food, if interested. The commission is already fully paid, so no charge for this, but also no promises who I'll use.

If you are interested, comment here or send me a note if you'd rather remain anonymous until it comes out. It is not first-come, first-serve, but rather me selecting from any names which are put out there. Likely there will be one case of someone actively being eaten, one very close to it, one bound up in coils.

Between comments here and notes, I have more than enough now. If it goes for anthro prey, I will let people know they're going to be in the image.

So, this has been my project for the past few days...

http://chaos.aeto.net/post/82857976931

I really like the way this ended up looking. Need to get SnakeFriend done now, though.

Mordrude posted a few days ago a post trying to recruit people in the greater Seattle area for some tabletop RPG. I expressed interest and a willingness to run a ShadowRun game, and it looks like we're actually making some progress toward a small group.

We could use one or two more people, though. If you think you might be interested, drop me a line.

I'll pass along the same warnings as in her post, which I'm in agreement with:

NO FLAKES. Seriously, if we get embroiled in a good game and you start being unreliable consistently I'll make your character die a gruesome, embarrassing death.

MATURE PLAYERS. My characters tend to have foul fucking mouths, disembowl things frequently, and sometimes they use their penises! If any of these things squicks you out, probably shouldn't be gaming with monsters ;3

EXP. While we can introduce some n00bs, we'd prefer to be able to more or less jump right into it if possible.

COMMITMENT. Obviously this is going to depend on everyone's scheduling, but I'd optimally like to do a min 4hr session once a week, give or take a number either way on either figure. We'd like to run the kind of game where there's never really an 'end', so this could go on indefinitely if everyone wanted it to! We've got a badass custom Cards Against Humanity deck, Munchkin, Flux, and some others (ouija board lol) for the days we can't or don't want to do serious gaming too.

A series of four images of the worshippers of Odontaspis Have recently been posted, at the links below. I thought I'd fill in a bit of the story around these four forms, what they mean, what they are, so here that is, as well... (All of this, of course, in my demonic mythology.)

Stage 1: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12934525/
Stage 2: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12934574/
Stage 3: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12679397/
Stage 4: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12934640/

(Note that all stages, except 4, appear in both male in female forms. Shown forms only for illustration purposes.)

While the demon lords, Odontaspis included, are clearly not gods, but they also most certainly aren't mortals. They don't rely on worshippers for their power (as gods in that universe would), and they aren't terribly efficient at "harvesting" the power from worshippers, but they do have them. The worshippers do present some power directly to the demons they follow, but more important is the services they perform. They conduct sacrifices, summon the demons forth when they need to take direct actions in the mortal realm, and so forth.

Serving a powerful demon so closely doesn't come without a "price," though. In the universe of Odon and Gil, the mortals are all basically human in shape, but as they begin to worship demons, their bodies become corrupt with the backlash from the demon's form. Of course, to one so immersed in demon worship that these changes begin to happen, such corruption is no curse, but rather a gift.

Odontaspis, in particular, makes specific demands of his "priests." He's a serpent, and I follow some of the traditional serpentine demon aspects. While he's certainly a creature of destruction (and, let's be honest, voraciousness, enjoying the act of eating people), he's also one of temptation, corruption, and seduction. It is this nature he encourages in his priests, especially the lower ones. As such, he largely forbids his priests clothing except when unavoidable. As a cold-blooded creature, he tends to be worshipped most commonly in tropical regions, making it all the more likely that little clothing is socially acceptable, as well.

In the first stage, they still maintain close contact with the general population, attempting to recruit more potential worshippers, through whatever means possible, which often means outright seduction of others. The fact that they have a long, snake-like tail, red eyes, and the beginnings of scales over their bodies certainly doesn't make this easy for them to attract most people, but it does do one thing: Those who would be attracted to them also are more likely to accept the serpent demon as theirs.

The second stage adds something else to their nature: death. With the large snake-like head, they become killers as much as seducers. While Stage 1 have fangs, certainly, they are mainly for defense and not as effective as the ones in the giant snake-heads of Stage 2. They become entirely carnivorous, typically eating small mammals, swallowing them whole, just like a snake. They aren't nearly big enough to eat a grown human (only being slightly taller than a normal human), though there may be some worlds in which they personally take small children as sacrifices, as unpleasant as this may seem. That being said, they are still expected to participate in the seduction side of things, though it DOES become more difficult for them.

By the third stage, they have turned entirely from seducers to killers. There aren't many of these forms, at most a handful, and then only on worlds infested with worshippers of Odon. They rule the worshippers, and are dealmakers, negotiators, and, if a deal is broken, enforcers. While it's not intended as their main diet, the largest of them may even be able to feed upon the humans around them.

Stage four, clearly, is when a worshipper has entirely given themselves to the demon, no humanity left. They are still, technically, mortal, though just barely. There would be, at most, 4 or 5 of these in the entire universe, Odontaspis moving them from world to world as they are needed. They (unsurprisingly) feed on the population around them, voraciously in fact. Unlike the other forms, these are exclusively female, and often serve as the demon's companions when traveling in the mortal realms.

The offspring of Odon and his arch-priestesses are basically giant snakes, though not nearly as large as the priestesses' serpentine bodies. They are intelligent enough to speak and typically live as "pets" within temples. (I am uncertain on this... May change this area of the mythology.)

I'd really like to get some additional art of either Odon (the snake) or Gil (the demon) "feeding," ideally on human prey. I know many artists don't like to touch this little area, but if anyone reading this happens to be an artist looking to take on those sorts of commissions or know of others, I'd love to hear.

(And yeah, I realize it's kind of backwards for a customer to put up a call for artists rather than the other way around, but I figured I'd throw this out there and see what comes of it. Worse case, I've typed stuff without purpose. :) )

I'm not leaving here or moving, and plan to still upload new commissions / photos / etc... here, but I'll be doing the same on Weasyl.

For those who are moving there or watching in both places, it's the same username: aeto

https://www.weasyl.com/~aeto

I'm curious about people's views on the "appeal" of different characters.. If you'd like to give me your input, hop over to http://aeto.livejournal.com/154121.html and fill out the short poll there.

I'm going to try to make use of LJ again, at least for some stuff.

See http://www.aeto.net/ for more journal stuff (including all of the mythology posts)

This weekend, I’ll be writing the next one or two segments of the demon mythology stuff, and (for the few people actually reading this :) ), I’m wondering what I should focus on next? Here are some of the ideas on the queue:

Subdemons and Underlords
Manifesting in the Mortal Realm
Possession
Demonic Seals and Summoning
Demon Sexuality
The nature of Good and Evil, Order and Chaos
And, of course, anything else people find interesting.

Thoughts?

This time, doing fursuit work, fixing up Gil's jaw hinges.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/aetobatus

Recently, I bought a resin kit of the demon from Curse of the Demon: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u.....2023.33.03.jpg

I'm going to start initial assembly today, as well as working on repairs to Gil's head.

Come and keep me company! http://www.ustream.tv/channel/aetobatus

EDIT: Aaaand, back streaming again