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Epulon447

Dreamer
Salutations!

Had a friend link this forum on Facebook, and decided to check out the neighborhood in the hopes of finding another tool in my quest of my book writing. And also to be able to nerd out with fellow fantasy and sci-fi geeks like myself.

So, a little more about me. Antiques, 1980's spaceships, free form fantasy, classic cars, grounded science fiction genera, classic small motor bikes, and a few more things here and there that make up my hobbies and fancies. Yup, I'm a square, I freely admit it.

So what got me into fantasy and science fiction?

The fantasy portion would have to be when I got my hands on a pc Warcraft 3 Battlechest. I liked the game well enough, although not enough patience for a 14 year old to NOT use cheat codes just to hurry the story along. It wasn't until the mmo adaption that came a few years later that got me hooked. World of Warcraft. To this day, since I played what is coined "Vanilla Wow" or essentially the first expansion, I have been hooked on most of the stories that Blizzard has come out with so far.

Literature on hand was a big help for me on this too. Yeah, I read Harry Potter, but that isn't what enamored me. I liked Christopher Paloni's Eragon book like fire to a bone-dry log. (To be honest, the other books were a let down after that.) I got lost in the Death Gate Cycle series, albeit it was only two books my school library had at the time. The Lord of the Rings, although a long read, I liked a lot as well. The Hobbit I enjoyed a lot more. Perhaps it was the combination of the colorful descriptions plus the audience Tolkien was aiming for was what sold me to the whole franchise. But who am I kidding? The 1978 Hobbit cartoon movie cast me in the 'sold' group with the sing alongs.


The science fiction came out a long time before all this fantasy, of course. Growing up with a 1990's Sega Genesis and Nintendo SNES, I had a whole lot of RoboCop and Metroid style shooter games to play. To this day, my favorite memory of me as a young 5-6 year old was waking my mother at 4 in the morning asking permission to go play Mega Turrican on the Genisis. I typically didn't need to ask permission for game playing, especially at 4 in the morning. She said 'yes, go away'. So I did. Played the game for about an hour before I got tired again. Since the tv was in the basement, and me being a chicken of a child, I turned out the lights and ran up the stairs before the evil got me. And me, being the innocent child and wanting to be a good boy, asked my mother if I had permission to go back to sleep. 'Yes, go away'. So I did.

I had other games than just these sci-fi oriented puzzle shooters. Anything classic Zelda grounded me in fantasy. I had Shadow of the Colosus, Baulder's Gate 1 and 2, Age of Empires 3, some of the Lord of the Rings games, and a few others.

Star Wars, of course, didn't help. Would watch the classics with my family several times and not get bored with it. I especially had a love of the ships and droid armies when the Phantom Menace came out. And not to mention, The Duel of the Fates with Qui Gon Jinn, Obi Wan, and Darth Maul set any precedence on what a proper sword fight or duel should be in my teenage mind.

One other movie I want to mention that has heavily influenced my liking of both sci-fi and even fantasy would be Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa and the Valley of the Winds. The art style, pace of story, fantasy and real elements, and a love of nature enamored me with this above all things in my life so far. And it was all in Japanese with no subtitles. It still captured my attention because it was different, and it was a good different. I'm not going to spoil it with details, as I highly encourage anyone with an interest in sci-fi fantasy to watch it. After that, go watch Castle in the Sky. Another of Hayao Miyazaki's fantastic work.

Alright, I think I have written enough now. Pretty sure some of you are at the 'TL: DR, get to the point' at this end of what seems like an essay. Felt like sharing and a friendly hello is all. It's 3:10 AM as well and I need to go to bed. Also, a humble request. I am going to need some help with a few things on my book writing, which I'll be writing another post in the next week or two.

Thank you all for reading my short life hobby, and I wish you all a productive writer's block free day!

Cordially,
Epulon447
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
Hail and well met Epulon447
Good to have you here.
I'd forgotten all about The Hobbit cartoon. The Lord of the Rings cartoon was enough for me.
If you like a good sword fight I highly recommend The Princess Bride “My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!” and The Advantures of Robin Hood.
 

L. Blades

Dreamer
That was a good intro Epulon; I just joined as a member today and haven't written mine yet, but then again I did join this morning towards the end of my nightshift, and right now I'm currently awake thanks to nanotech/magic in my veins (and insomnia!). What's not to like about 1980's spaceships, and classic cars / motorbikes??

Oh yes and before I blew up your profile picture I squinted and thought 'is that a drawing of a dwarf swinging a hammer?', but I see it's a robot of some sort. Nice anyway, did you make it yourself?
 

Epulon447

Dreamer
That was a good intro Epulon; I just joined as a member today and haven't written mine yet, but then again I did join this morning towards the end of my nightshift, and right now I'm currently awake thanks to nanotech/magic in my veins (and insomnia!). What's not to like about 1980's spaceships, and classic cars / motorbikes??

Oh yes and before I blew up your profile picture I squinted and thought 'is that a drawing of a dwarf swinging a hammer?', but I see it's a robot of some sort. Nice anyway, did you make it yourself?

Make it myself?.... Yes, and no. I wish I had that much artistic talent, hahaha! I befriended an artist that lives in my state. What I do is I commission him and we end up having a session that can last anywhere from one to two hours of me showing what I want and I just guide him. He get's about 80% of it done, with me navigating what I want in the picture. He then finishes it when he has time. I get these to help give me visual perspective of my characters. I'll be linking more pictures when I eventually present my book ideas and such in a post later this week.

Speaking of which, the picture in question is one of my main two characters from my book: Epulon. That would be his tech suit. I'm still not satisfied with the size of the maul, as I want something that still looks beefy but the head is still too large, even for someone like Epulon to swing around. That hammer at that size would weigh somewhere around 150 pounds (68 kilos). Oh, bothers. I'll fix it someday and fix it right. Once I figure out how to insert or attach images to a post, I'll link you.
 

L. Blades

Dreamer
Cool, are you going to finish it?-What I mean by that is I draw my own characters, but I then use computer software to add all colours, textures, shadows, and backgrounds etc.. I couldn't tell it was a powered (tech) suit, mostly due to the image quality, but now that you've pointed it out I can see that. Yes that hammer looks like it could weigh as much as an average adult, But you can get away with that if the suit itself is powering the swings! *hint-hint*
 

Epulon447

Dreamer
Cool, are you going to finish it?-What I mean by that is I draw my own characters, but I then use computer software to add all colours, textures, shadows, and backgrounds etc.. I couldn't tell it was a powered (tech) suit, mostly due to the image quality, but now that you've pointed it out I can see that. Yes that hammer looks like it could weigh as much as an average adult, But you can get away with that if the suit itself is powering the swings! *hint-hint*

I plan to keep it the way it is. I'll be commissioning more in the future, as well I have a small pile already of stuff I'd like to share, just no clue how to attach pic files to this forum.
 
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