HOME | DD
Daemoria β Project Ziggurat
Published: 2017-01-06 21:35:18 +0000 UTC; Views: 2871; Favourites: 41; Downloads: 44
Redirect to original
Description
Source files from 2008 (first Goza design) to 2012.A bit of a peek behind the perverted curtain of my brain. Project Goxa began as a series of Dwarf Fortress games that I played during my college years. I heavily modified the base game, to add just a bit more of an alien flavor, and let the world generation calculate the rest for me. In the world history the modded game gave me, the Human race crushed the majority of the 'fantasy' races in a series of wars spanning centuries. The Dwarven peoples managed to surivive, due to their isolationist strongholds buried deep in mountains, as did one Goblin dark tower, isolated on a island chain away from the main pangea-like continent.
The Human cities ended up sprawling across the map, deforesting (I assume) and polluting the world. Now, hundreds of years after the fall of the fae, all that remains is the labyrinthine city built on the bones of fallen civilizations. The humans themselves succumbed to plague and the ravages of time.
The City is silent, but rumors reach even the far off shores of the Goblin nation. Rumors of a massive ebony structure being constructed in the heart of the City. A ziggurat that hums with foul magics, growing taller each year.
Related content
Comments: 39
It's my passion. Stick around if you're interested in seeing more from this setting (Ziggurat) and others. I work in the scifi, fantasy, and horror genres mainly, but I like taking breaks from those specifics from time to time.
Time permitting, I also do collaborative art with other artists here on deviantart. I know you already know one of them, alexichabane . It's a great way to grow as an artist.
π: 0 β©: 2
You had me at "sci fi, fantasy, and horror genres". Consider me intrigued.
π: 0 β©: 0
Wooo! Art collabs are where its at!
Also note... there is a Senya art contest on as well!
π: 0 β©: 0
So this is all the result of endless hours spent playing Dwarf Fortress? Whudda thunk?
I really, REALLY like the armor design you had going on in the bottom right corner; the bevor especially.
π: 0 β©: 0
...now I gotta try my hand at character creation again. It's been so long since I really modeled an organic character 
π: 0 β©: 1
ξ¦
Mature Content
ξ¦
Mature Content
π: 0 β©: 1
I was thinking of slime girls, but I've been there, done that. So what I actually thought of was Strawberry's long-lost sister Rhubarb... who was stolen away as a child by an eeevil summoner. She's got coloring and pattern similar to Strawberry, but with darker colors, and she's a bit more tart.
...but slime girls are a lot of fun...
Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β ...so, maybe?
π: 0 β©: 1
Can't have enough slime girls, I say. Go for it!
Also did you just sneak in an implied loli slime girl?
π: 0 β©: 1
I may have.
But to be fair my interpretation of slime girl 'age' is based more on current mass and not chronological time.
π: 0 β©: 1
And to be further fairer-er, my poor slime girls' apparent age is just based on current hydration levels. Care to top her off?
ξ¦
Mature Content
You wouldn't make a woman beg, would you?
π: 0 β©: 1
I have considered the 'problem' of slime girls (and other slime creatures) extensively in the past (a slime-based tentacle monster is a main character in a series of short stories I wrote). What I've come up with is that (like any other single celled creature) there are 3 basic parts to a slime girl... her nucleus, cellular matter, and water.
The nucleus is the DNA-bearing core, and is extremely resistant to chemical and pressure attacks... only heat/tearing/piercing can really harm it, while cold simply slows cellular chemistry (right to the point of freezing, which induces 'hibernation'). Unless the nucleus' skin (extremely durable... would take a crossbow bolt, bullet, or lightning strike to really burst it) is disrupted the slime girl can recover from any 'damage'. A slime girl 'embryo' is simply the nucleus itself, drop it in any kind of water-based liquid and the slime girl forms around it, taking on traits representative of the actual liquid used... alkaline, acidic, color, trace minerals, etc.
The slime girl creates her cellular matter from any organic matter available to her, and the amount of this cellular matter is the real limitation on size (large or small) she can take. The cellular matter is where most of the real biological 'work' happens, the nucleus is information and basic reproductive equipment. So the cellular matter is the undifferentiated cytoplasm and organelles of the slime girl, both of which require water to do the work of living.
Hydration is the most obvious determinant for body size, as water is the main component of slime girls by mass, but there are limitations on the density of solution that can maintain life processes. Too little water per unit of cellular matter and the slime girl is too dry to maintain cellular functions, and becomes progressively faster (until she dries out and 'mummifies' into immobility), weaker, and smarter until she goes into a kind of 'dry hibernation'. Too much water per unit of cellular matter and the slime girl is too wet to maintain the required density of solution to carry out cellular functions, and she becomes progressively slower, weaker, and stupider. At some critical point a hyper-saturated slime girl will 'dissolve' into dirty water as her outer membrane fails due to attenuation, leaving behind only her nucleus to reform a new body in the future. As all slime girls can control the rate of diffusion (of water and most other compounds) across their outer membranes (skin), this only happens in extreme conditions, unlikely to be met on a 'normal' world.
These last 2 constraints, cellular matter and hydration, give the minimum/maximum size of a slime girl, and there is a huge variation in relative solution density that works, so there is a correspondingly large variation in sizes possible. At optimal density (best balance of speed, strength, and intelligence) a slime girl is about 30 parts water per 1 part cellular material (four times 'wetter' than a human of the same mass). However, a slime girl can still 'live' at a density of 2 parts water per cellular material (at 1 to 1 and below she's in 'dry hibernation'). At 100 parts water per 1 part cellular material she's noticeably slower and stupider than at optimal, but up until 200 parts water per 1 part cellular material she can still carry on a simple conversation and move at a human's average walking pace. Over 500 parts water per 1 part cellular material you're going to mistake her for mindless, slow slime monster of some kind. At around 2000 parts water per 1 part cellular material the slime girl is going to simply burst and wash away.
The main thing you'll notice as a slime girl hydrates/dehydrates is the clarity of body details. The ability of a slime girl to maintain upright form and human details depends on the ability of their outer membrane (skin) to hold up (and hold in) all their mass... and water is heavy at 1kg/liter. As a slime girl gets more water in her she begins to look wetter, rounder, droopier, and jigglier, her cytoplasm become clearer (as it's density of solution drops), she shows more 'drops', 'strands' and 'bridges' in her humanoid form, and her entire shape becomes more 'drop-like' as her membrane thins out to accommodate her increased volume. The opposite is true of slime girls below their optimal hydration level.
At any level of hydration lower than 20 parts water per 1 part cellular matter (20/1) the slime girl is going to get progressively darker in color and less translucent (more like jade than slime) and her humanoid form at 10/1 looks rather thin and begins to appear dry and possibly wrinkled, as well as being notably faster and smarter (but just a bit weaker) than at optimal hydration. At 5/1 she looks dark, wizened, and mostly opaque, but is still very fast and as smart as she will ever be, but is physically weaker than a human her size. At 1/1 she looks like a humanoid mummy/desiccated corpse and is incapable of meaningful movement, although she may still be capable of conscious thought until she drops below 1/1 solution density.
On the other hand, at higher levels of hydration a slime girl will look larger and/or more voluptuous, possibly even obese. At 30/1 a slime girl looks like a strong and well-proportioned human female with clear details possibly including hair and eyelashes, usually with larger than average breasts and ass, a nice 'busty petite' or 'slim stacked' girl. At 50/1 she's super fine, thick and busty, amazing ass, really voluptuous andΒ probably sporting wide hips and thighs and a thicker waist, but not at all 'fat'. She's still strong, fast, and smart, and just dumb enough to make poor decisions... like a 'buzzed' drunk. At 100/1 a slime girl is amazingly (perhaps even impossibly) curvy and voluptuous, but still has a 'proportional' rather than 'fat' look to her, and she's decidedly slower and dumber, while still being as strong as a human of her size... a lot like an actually 'drunk' person. At 200/1 a slime girl is beginning to have trouble holding her full mass off the ground and looks rather wet and pale. At the 200/1 point most slime girls only maintain their upper body in humanoid form, move and react slower than a human, and body details begin to 'melt' into each other and details like hair and fingernails are lost or become blobby. Also at 200/1 the slime girl is rather stupid and is finally weaker than a human of the same size, making this a dangerous point for them, as they can be confused, coerced, and tricked with ease. Despite (or because of this) a slime girl at 200/1 solution density is a favorite target of horny males, as she's still amazingly voluptuous and easily convinced to engage in sexual activity. At 500/1 and above the slime girl cannot lift her mass off the ground, looks like a blobby melting caricature of a human head (and sometimes upper torso) with fat weak limbs and is slow, dumb as an animal, and actually dangerous to anyone that's not a known friend, as her body will begin to hunger for more organic materials, to build up her solution density of cellular material vs water. Most slime girls never go past 500/1 solution density as they don't like how it reduces them to animal/monster status. At 1000/1 and above the slime girl is essentially mindless, slow, barely capable of maintaining any kind of form/tentacles, and most resembles a large blob of pale slime that rolls laboriously across flat ground or tumbles helplessly down even minor grades. Even then she has survival instinct and reflexes that will try to dump excess water and return her to 'normal'.
As examples, I would consider your slime girl in "Dehydration" to be between 15/1 and 20/1, probably closer to 15/1. She's not actually in trouble, but she doesn't like it, being at about half her optimal hydration level. In "Slm 00" I'd say she's about 60/1, maybe a bit higher, but she's definitely passed 50/1. In "Slimy Satisfaction" (aw yeah!) she's probably getting close to 100/1, 80/1 at the least. Because of the square/cube law it's difficult to tell how much larger a slime girl is getting, because it's not until she's eight times more massive that she actually appears to be twice as large.
TL;DR - Because of solution density constraints, A slime girl who weighs 1kg 'dry' weighs 31kg at optimal hydration levels, but can be anywhere from 3 to 2000kg and still be 'alive'. Slime girls of human size are 2-3kg 'dry' at most, and 62-93kg at optimal hydration, with a huge range of possible weights between 6-9kg and 4000-6000kg. The 'average' human sized slime girl has a 'dry' weight of 1-2kg and looks like a 'normal' human female between 30-100kg, becoming progressively more voluptuous and lush at higher weights.
...and I love to see a woman beg!
π: 0 β©: 1
Klara, clear out my appointments for the day. Donald Brent wrote up another thesis paper.
I've actually got a few slime sub-species in mind, for this setting. Simple oozes, gelatanous cube-like formations, and anthropomorphic variants. It would depend on their hunting habits (passive, versus active) and environment.
Keep in mind, the majority of the cellular density is provided by magical binding elements. I imagine the first slime was a wizard experiment that escaped, and got down and dirty, replicating various sub-species across the world of Zur Anbat.
Welp, I'll have to draw some more stuff up now.
π: 0 β©: 1
It's not a...
Β Β Β Β Β ...ah well.
It's a short thesis paper by my standards! 
I like the idea of magical binding elements, and 'escaped magical experiment' is the backstory to some of my favorite creations!
Get back to drawing! *cracks whip*
π: 0 β©: 1
Yis mastah! Spare the whip, mastah. I have drawings! See, see?
π: 0 β©: 1
Have you heard of Daz3D? It might make things easier for you.
π: 0 β©: 1
Not sure why I'd need to use that. I have 3d software that I am proficient in using, not to mention the fact I'm not limited to whatever ships with the software, as is the case with Daz or Poser.
I enjoy the effort that goes into creating things. Ease is a relative term anyway, I don't care if there is something that is 'easy', if I didn't actually create the final product... why should I showcase it as my own?
π: 0 β©: 1
Good point. I use Daz3D for my lack of Artistic skills 2D and 3D. Also it great for prototyping. I arrange a character in Daz render it out. An pay a artist to draw it in 2D. Now that you mentioned it. Couldn't you use your Zbrush skills to create a character in upload it to Daz. To use their poses, clothes and hair on it. To save time?
π: 0 β©: 1
Zbrush could theoreticallyΒ rig a mesh, using zspheres, but you would have no way to paint and save a weightmap.
There would need to be an intermediate stage, using 3Ds max, or Cinema 4D (my current program of choice) for rigging and skinning.
At that point I could just use that for the render. Once again, no need to use Daz/Poser.
π: 0 β©: 2
Wait one more question. When it comes to clothes. What your opinion on Marvelous Designer 6?
π: 0 β©: 1
I look forward to learning it, given the time. It's a pain in the ass to find good english training materials, but I did finally get a few good DVDs over december that I've yet to look at.
π: 0 β©: 2
By the way you have to check out her website. If ever want to use MD6 for clothes her patterns are great. patternmakerpro.com/
π: 0 β©: 1
Video looked good, and then I scrolled down for more info. Hello monthly subscription fee. :u
I'll have to keep this in mind for later, I suppose. I really don't want to spend money on a service I might not end up using.
π: 0 β©: 1
Yeah I forgot to mention that. The monthly subscription is cheap. What you could do is pay for one month to see what available. Only after you get serious. And I have feeling you will get serious. I took a tutorial on Zbrush. An I took a tutorial for MD5. I know this if you want to make uniforms and non armor clothes. MD6 is God send. But if you have to do Armor Zbrush is the way to go.
π: 0 β©: 0
I know someone on YouTube who can help. She help me understand MD5. Here you go. youtu.be/Z1di8iIkDcE
π: 0 β©: 0
Interesting. Correct me if I am wrong. For Im still new to this. I believe all that mentioned you could do it with Daz3D much easier with their plugin(www.daz3d.com/goz-for-daz-stud⦠). I seen many Zbrush user praise Daz3D. In Zbrush central. Still I don't have enough knowledge to back that up. Unless you want me to bring forum topics.
π: 0 β©: 1
Nah, just not really interested in it. For reference; It just sort of strange to suggest different application/workflows. I've had people suggest Daz/Silo/Maya/Mudbox/3d Coat... and while they're all great programs, it's just not what I use. I've heard many great things of all those programs, and have acquired trials or otherwise learned how to use them over the years. You can't really form an opinion based on a position of ignorance, after all...
My workflow is my own, and I've added software as needed, and replaced redundant applications to streamline the process.
Sorry if I'm coming off as slightly 'bitey', but I like what I use. I enjoy the difficulty in mastering the various programs I use, and it is a small matter of pride that I can do what I can using them.
---
Currently I'm learning the Substance suite (Painter and Designer), for advanced screen based texture painting, and procedural texture generation. I'm not against learning new software, by no means.
π: 0 β©: 1
Ah I think I see what you mean. And no you didn't sound bites. After all it internet,it impossible to tell someone tone by the text. Ether way my bad. I should realize someone would suggest Daz3D. What I don't get however is someone suggesting Mudbox. No offense to Mudbox users. It just odd to suggest a Zbrush user to Mudbox. There pretty much the same software except one has more features,and the other is just cheaper then the other one. No offense to Mudbox users! And correct me if I'm wrong.
π: 0 β©: 1
Mudbox was at one time more feature complete than Zbrush (r3 at the time). Zbrush has blown mudbox away since then, though. I'd say Mudbox could have been a contender, if they just hadn't ceased all development.
Ya, you'd think it strange to recommend a Zbrush user Mudbox. Just about as strange as it is to recommend DaZ to a 2d/3d hybrid artist using photoshop/c4d/zbrush/headusUV.... but I think you see my point now.
π: 0 β©: 1
Ah so at one point Mudbox was the Top and Zbrush was the bottom. Now their position Switch
π: 0 β©: 0
All of this stuff was done by me, yes. I used Zbrush, 3d Studio Max, and I think...HeadusUV for the texture unwrapping.
A friend of mine did the dwarven megafauna, but he's no longer active on deviantart.
π: 0 β©: 0
I'm glad to see more of Goza, honestly she's my favorite character of yours and I'm hoping to see her world get expanded and brought to light.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
I'm actually working out the best way to do some 3d planet texturing at the moment. Once I figure that out, it's time to figure out how to break a moon apart.
(as hinted at, below)
Lots of good world crafting to do. Ask any sort of questions you feel you have, as well. It helps me come up with new story!
π: 0 β©: 1
3D planet texturing? I spent a couple months looking at that a few years ago. I eventually came up with the notion that Terragen is the most complete planet texturing program, but I'm too dumb to use it properly... or I never found the right tutorials? In any case, I more or less gave up on texturing an entire planet. If you find something that works for you, I'd love to know about it!
π: 0 β©: 0
Such a lovely amazing assemblage of assets! I am seriously impressed. Are these figures fully modeled by you? Or manipulated from some 'base humanoid figure' (like I do it)? Goza looks splendid, the creatures are magnificent, and the dwarves are really nice!
π: 0 β©: 1
Each mesh you see pictured above is hand crafted by trained artesians, utilizing the finest text editors, and custom firmware for rendering on the Windows 93 operating system.
---
I made everything by hand, no default meshes downloaded from the intertoobs. I did use a single basemesh between the Goxa and Dwarven mesh, though, of my own creation.
π: 0 β©: 1
Good lord... and yet you're not a world-famous character artist working for pixar?
Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β ...or are you???
Beautiful work, amazing form and proportions, and really good edge-flow on the low-poly version!
That kind of character modeling work is what I learned to do in college, but have never actually done because Daz Studio is so much easier.
π: 0 β©: 0