Some cool stuff/what I have been working on...

Ohai.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy...

Look at me, talking to the internet like the girl I "forgot" to call. I need help, don't I? Anyway, I am making another post (obviously) to let you all know what I have been doing recently. Since I have been pretty busy, and have neglected to post as often as I should.

For those of you that do not know, I am a devout League of Legends player. I love the game, the community, all that jazz. I frequent the forums to post, troll, and speak with developers from time to time. I also follow them on Twitter (SHAMELESS SELF PLUG: www.twitter.com/punk_roc) to get updates about the game and random bits of knowledge about the gaming industry. And of course, random stuff about their personal lives. Because, obviously, that is what the internet is for. right?

Recently, some of the more popular "Reds", gained cult-like followings on the forums. And it all started with concept artist IronStylus. He is a lover of parrots (his forum avatar is a Scarlett Macaw) and awesome concept artist. His first ever champion created was the lovely Lady Leona. League of Legends' first female tank character. He is one of the most avid posters on the forums, and is constantly summoned by either placing crackers in the thread, or going: "LEONALEONALEONALEONALEONALEONALEONA". His posts are usually very informative, very funny, or just plain awesome.
One day, forum-goer DeathPizza decided to create a cult that worships IronStylus and the Great Parrot, called the Iron Solari. Of course, Iron was right there, loving every bit of it. It grew, and grew, until eventually we created our own guildlaunch page. Some members even got name changes in the game to put "IsC" in from of their name. This was the first following of a developer, and has since created possibly the most intense forum event in the history of... Well, League of Legends.

The great Riot War of 2011 was started in a thread made by the great IronStylus. It contained the following:

"@Morello - About you macking on my girl.

Standing in the other aisle of desks in front of me.. he began to speak of my lady Leona as a woman to be lusted after.

The gauntlet has been thrown down.

ಠ_ಠ"

This thread garnered lots of attention, as well as response threads which brought about the creation of the New Morello Republic by the biggest forum troll of them all: Shaella. Player Sagarys took it upon himself to create a poll which said:

"Declare your Allegience! The Iron Solari or the New Morello Republic"

This poll received over 4,400 responses, highly in favor of The Iron Solari. Soon after, other factions based off of more popular Riot developers started popping up. The Nikasaur Manifest, a neutral legion of artisans, white knights, and cyber stalkers with Nikasaur as it's leader. The Knights Who Drink Tea, a neutral faction that worships Tryndamere (President of Riot Games Marc Merril) and partakes in Gentleman/Lady conduct and the drinking of tea. The Nyandalegion, a militant faction of poptart eaters and rainbow enthusiasts, spearheaded by Nyandalee. And the Imperium of Tons of Damage, composed mainly of laborers crafting many Trinity Forces for the Phreakemperor. Other, smaller factions came into light as well.
This is a lot of people and threads, as you can probably imagine, and it got my artistic brain going. I started to do some brainstorming, and what started out as an idea, slowly formed into something so grand, I honestly think I might be in over my head.

I originally just wanted to write some fan fiction for the Riot War. Just a short story, for funsies really. As I wrote more and more notes and ideas, I started wondering how far I could take this. I was always more of a Sci-Fi writer than anything, but I have read plenty of fantasy, and I love fantasy games and such, but I got more and more excited as I started writing and expanding. I eventually decided that I needed to find an artist so the story would pop, so where do I look? Deviantart? No way, not my thing. Google? Nah, too much info to go through. 4chan? Obviously the right choice.

If anyone reading this has seen the move Black Hawk Down, there is a soldier named "Griz" who is drawing a picture for his childrens book during the start of the movie. That is the style I was going for. So, in order to find an artist who could do this, the obvious choice was to go to Netflix, open the movie, find the scene with a good shot of the picture, and screencap it. Which I totally did.

This was the picture I posted on 4chan.org/ic/. It got no responses for the first half an hour or so, until one person agreed to do some quick character sketches for me. We met in a chat site, and eventually moved to Steam. He sketched out a quick idea for the main character and a "Phreakonaut" based on some details I gave him. The products he showed me confirmed my crazy thought that this could actually be something good:

This is a concept for the Phreakonaut 

(changed to Imperial Juggernaut to make the names more serious)

And this is the concept for Tobias Argyle, the main character.

As you can see, I found a great artist. I was lucky to find someone this good on a website as ridiculous as 4chan. And so my idea started to unfold. I asked Gordon (the artist) if he would like to do work for the story, which he agreed to. He is working on one of the first illustrations now.

I then approached my good friend Patrick Sullivan, a business major at the University of Texas, about possibly helping me market and advertise this (not like big time, just across the internet or with people at school). Which he readily agreed to after hearing my pitch. So my dreams of making this happen are coming closer to fruition. And we are slowly gaining support on the League of Legends forums, including support from IronStylus himself.

I do not have a definitive date on when the first chapter is set to release, as I need to finish writing and Gordon is still working on the illustrations, but when I do, I will surely post on this blog, as well as the forums. So please, start spreading the word! I will also be releasing a teaser for the story about a week or so prior to it's release. So stay tuned for that.

Thank you all for reading, and don't forget to follow me on Twitter (@Punk_roc) and check out League of Legends (Developed by Riot Game: www.leagueoflegends.com).

Now go outside and do something productive.



For more info about the Riot War, check out this thread:

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=16197813#post16197813

For more info about the Convlave of the Iron Solari, check this site out:

ironsolari.guildlaunch.com

If you are a League of Legends player, stop by thread and give it a bump! Much appreciated.

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=1415942