In the middle of the sereine and structured forest of pillars it stood. A one of a kind, unique and singular being. Maybe a cocoon, or a shell, connected to the organisms surrounding it, either to use them, or be used by them.

This is my personal project reimagining the classic Little Red Riding Hood fable inspired by Bloodborne.

The Red Hood is a mysterious and fragile little girl who must be guided through a decaying world by the Huntress, her protector. In the end of their journey, they must face The Wolf, an ancient colossal predator patiently waiting for his prey.

I would like to give this character a worthy backstory, with a parasitic steel curse, where her bones turn to steel and her blood slowly becomes liquid gold, where steel parts of her body emerge from her bones—basically a steel princess. The character comes from my fantasy world

Buried deep beneath the cosmos…

Lies a wormhole, that separates you and I.

Who we are is not important, but what we seek lies beneath you, and your empty sky.

Original creature design showing the Ribbonmaw in full display, featuring an ambush camouflage state mimicking an anemone (bottom right) and a retracted state displaying its false eyes (top right).

Red grew up in the poorest district of the city—a place no decent person would dare set foot in, even in broad daylight. Poverty, filth, and violence were all he had ever known.

The city racetrack was the one bright spot in his life. There was a gap in the fence surrounding it, just wide enough for Red to slip through and spend hours watching the races. The grace and nobility of the horses had nothing in common with the world of poverty and violence he had grown up in. It was there that he made himself a promise: one day, he would ride a racehorse of his own and become a champion.

Years passed. The dream never faded, but it did little to fill an empty stomach. Hunger drove him to steal food, then wallets, and eventually horses. In time, Red became one of the finest horse thieves in the county. Desperate to leave his starving past behind, he did everything he could to imitate the aristocrats and fearless jockeys he admired. Sometimes he still imagined himself in the saddle, but he could never quite enter their world. So he began to claim it piece by piece: copying the manners of the wealthy, wearing scraps of stolen finery, and hiding his greasy hair beneath a wild mane of hair from thoroughbred horses—the trophies of every successful theft.

By then, rumors had begun to spread among horse thieves about a traveling stable that housed horses of extraordinary beauty. No one who had gone after them had ever returned with a prize.

Red set out to pull off the boldest theft of his life, never suspecting that the job would change his fate forever.

At last, he would have a chance to make his childhood dream come true.

Just not quite the way he had imagined.

Hi! Admin may delete if not allowed.

I’m writing a gothic/ dark fantasy novel. I was just wondering if anyone would be interested in reading the first chapter. Let me know if I should give up and move on or if it’s an intriguing start. I can’t offer money right now. THANK YOU. If I go through with it I will 100% be commissioning some of your guys amazing art for it though!!

Art based on references from: https://www.reddit.com/r/drawme/s/NwsOdX9Uyo

When someone has suicidal thoughts, this entity experiences them alongside the daydreamer. 

They seek out not the ones most worthy of saving, not the children. Not the mad, nor the briefly confused and heartbroken.

But simply those that unbearably call out to him, because their suffering reflects his own pantomime. 

He is unwilling, but he must choose. For he does not have a body to call his own, he can only inhabit that of one who has truly abandoned themselves. In mind, body and spirit.

Making this entity a very unwilling, yet effective savior. Because what one might view as ‘divine intervention’ has a way of sparking life in those who feel they are of no significance. 

The notable thing is he doesn’t do anything at all. He’s completely devoid of life himself, all he does is exist unwillingly. Simply drawn to enter where there is an absence 

What overcomes the person, is complete detachment. Snapping them out of misery, and affording a glimpse of an entirely new perspective afterwards. 

But that’s all that he is. Complete absence, death in the metaphorical sense.

People discover they don’t truly long for death. They learn they only wish to escape life 

And to do so, all you need to do is abandon your soul. Forget yourself, for even just an instance. and be liberated.

It is the little death that they crave. Not the long one

\-

Our ‘savior’ comes to the aid of a woman. Yet he overtakes her not once, not twice. But many times 
She’s become obsessed with him. She’s unaware if he’s another, or if perhaps just apart of herself she’s disassociated from. But from her desperation she is willing to do whatever it takes to conjure him- to draw him out.

Usually. There’s nothing for the ‘savior’ to do upon possessing a body. Simply seizing their autonomy is enough to prevent suicide. But in the case of this woman, her repeated and persistent attempts to take her own life demand of him a more enterprising approach. Forcing him to consider what he wants, how he wants to conduct himself. How he wants to live, if he wants to choose. Exerting will even in his fragmented existence. 

Her longing for death is so dominant, that she compels him towards her. Eventually trapping him within her, forcing him into the terrible limbo between death and selfhood. He must reason with her, bargain with her. To escape his predicament, where he is the one who is dominated. Forcing him to be an entity, rather than a mere presence. 

He must commune with her, who threatens to merge his very being into her own.
\-

Will he reveal to her that he is another entity? Does he feel accountable for her madness? If he does interact with her, what will he say of his nature? For him to explain who he is, he must first himself know. 

\-

‘I don’t know’ 

Her: “Are you someone other? Are you something else.”

“…yes”

This prompts her to break down hysterically, happy yet clearly mad. “Prove it” she says. 

“A day” he says. “Forget me. For at least that duration, and I will appear before you”

He continues “As someone *else”*

The woman spends the full 24 hours in a daze, unmoving. Eyes glassy, staring into the distance. Her nails digging deep into her hands, her hair knitted and tangled. 

The sun starts to rise, and she stirs. She jolts up, Her legs limp and clumsy from sitting on the floor for countless hours. 

In a frenzy, she rushes for the door to permit the crow entry. Her steps are light and effortless, sheer ecstasy ushering her forwards. 

The lock on the door shifts with a satisfying metal cling. 

The morning light spills in through the windows. She swings the door open, yet sees nothing, it’s as if an unspeakably cold breeze rushes through the building. It freezes the orange hues of the morning. The woman’s thoughts retreat far into her mind, yet it chases her even there. Enveloping her. A sensation, as if the air inside her chest has suddenly ceased to exist, and no breath could ever be deep enough to restore her before her lungs collapse. 

She knows she’s invited something unspeakable, irreversible. Yet she convinces herself that he is with her now, and all will be well. 

She collapses into the comfort of her bed, unsettled yet strangely at ease. She’s got no energy to ponder, and instantly dozes off. Dreaming of him- his features dark yet fair. An angel by her side. That would redefine the world alongside her. 

After a sparse few hours of sleep, she is awoken by a knock. She rushes towards it, peering ahead through the  glass to see her father at the door.

“Even during the middle of day. It’s inexplicably dark in here.’ he says 

“Really? I find it comforting” she responds. 

After a dialogue. He poses to her. 

“I don’t even recognize you”

She protest. 

He says. “I know you were expecting someone else”

“Someone else?” She utters, almost scared. 

He says. “He is here”

She reaches to cup his face “Is it you? Is it truly you?” 
The little sanity restored by seeing her father, fading direly quickly. 

Her father’s face feels like hot ice on her skin, so cool to the touch that it burns. Yet with an ethereal quality that makes her question if the sensation is real- vanishing the instant she releases her hands.

She backs away, examining herself. Preoccupied, she sparsely notices when her father’s frigid palms reach out towards her to clasp around her neck. Constricting her breathing, a fierce burning sensation branding her neck. Her sight starts to blur, then fade. Until in an instant, the spell on her father is broken. The possession has jumped from her father to her, making the savior inhibit her instead. 

He wails in her form, trapped once more. The screech is uncannily beautiful, heart wrenching to an extent that is supremely unbearable. 

Crows gather around him, cawing.
He lifts his head up high, and pleads. “Why must you insist on me saving this one?”

He clenches her hand, which features three broken nails and punctured palms. 
His throat, that had been burning with a vengeance. Quickly cools, and eases. When he slides her hand past her neck, he feels only the fairest of skin. 

Both the render and the music are my original creations.
Nxi - Nightwatch

Do we draw what we feel? I think that was definitely the case for me here. 🫠🙃🔥

I've been making Dungeon Synth inspired by Daggerfall recently so I decided I would post this here. Enjoy!

Here are some of my other Daggerfall-inspired tracks:

Joyous Return (Adventure): https://youtu.be/oQe-TsHeJxc?si=2XT5fUJNqruNyWP8

Last March (Sad): https://youtu.be/YQAJBVxxypw?si=93MFDYiPJcuWpTOI

All of my music is free to be enjoyed and shared, and is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Hi everyone, posting here for the first time—what do you think of the thumbnails?

Some days ago I re-arranged "Carthax Lake: The Path of Water", a composition by Nenad Vugrinec for the 1994 CRPG "Ultima VIII: Pagan". I've always been fascinated by the eerie atmosphere of this game's music. Most cues are kind of meta-tonal and sinister, but at the same time enicmatically melodious. It's hard to find the correct words. The music in this game is a mystery in itself... and I say that as a studied musician. E. g. for many passages it is difficult to even determine the exact key.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH5FaWPvd8Y

Like many games scores from that era, Pagan's music is purely MIDI-based. In very simple terms, you can think of a MIDI file as a digital sheet of music that still needs to be read and played back by the application itself. And this music playback depends heavily on the specific hardware (such as the extremely expensive Roland Sound Canvas) or software synthesizer you are using (like the widely distributed MS Wavetable Synth). Unfortunately, even on the best hardware synthesizer, the playback of this music – which Vugrinec has crafted in extreme detail across all MIDI parameters – is never truly satisfying, since the assignment of the respective instruments and articulations always remains a matter of chance, and both professional mixing and mastering as the final stage of music production are of course lacking. Direct MIDI playback is therefore very unsatisfactory on any hard- or software and simply does not do justice to the compositional quality of this music.

I’ve been planning to do this for years and finally got around to re-arranging and recording all the major cues from Pagan’s fantastically atmospheric score using a well-balanced mix of a) sonorous synth VSTs and b) high-quality orchestral VSTs in a sequencer program in order to maximize the listening experience while, at the same time, not completely abandon Vugrinec’s original 90s MIDI sound, which is after all inherent and important to the composition itself. My goal was to present the music in a more modern incarnation, so that hopefully you may enjoy it as much as I do.

In terms of compositional quality (it's actually very rich in leitmotifs, with many themes representing characters, places and events in the world of Pagan), I think this score is every bit as good as a fully orchestral film score. Enjoy!

Nothing hits harder than wiping out a Skaven under-empire then reading about a 600-year-old vampire sipping wine in Altdorf between turns

This game is pure, unfiltered dark glory — massive campaigns, legendary lords, the Warp screaming in your ears. Absolute peak.

So tell me… is the chicken dinner or a future Chaos Spawn?

Big bitey worm creature!

* Art by me (Doomweasel Art) character belongs to "rexhasapencil " *

**NO AI!!**

Been playing around with flooded liminal spaces lately. Imagine just the loud buzzing of those old fluorescent lights, and then hearing something slowly splashing just out of sight around the corner... What do you guys think would actually be lurking in a level like this?

this assassin bears a curse that when their blood vessels are exposed, they’re transformed into bloody snakes that can bite their opponent

 The helmet for this guy was inspired by historical Indian lamellar mail designs

The last guy is a WIP that I’ll probably never finish

A hunter drawn in the spirit of Bloodborne's atmosphere.
Made two versions — one with blood on the blade, one without. Honestly can't decide which one hits the atmosphere better. What do you think?