[2/22/21] The Children of the Monsters - Snow hike

Finally, the forest dwellers have their own thread. I am open for name suggestions. They are far from being finished, but I wanted to share their story and first impressions. So I made some silhouette pics, very forgiving.

Music for the mood, give it a try:







Deformations
When a mysterious pandemic outbreak hit humanity, less than 0,001% survived.
Totally undetected until three days after incubation, with a mortality rate of 100​%, it crippled civilization forever.
But was there really no way to detect an infection?
Actually, a relatively small number of humans developed visible symptoms, some kind of physical change. On the first day of infection, it seemed that the veins popped out more, like blueish webbing on forehead and temples, later extremeties and body. The next day, the skin began to change. It became rough, dry, itchy and wrinkly. On day three, the Infected started to lose their hair. A few hours later, the tongue seemed to grow and the tissue around the teeth was weakened.
Anyone who was not killed - or killed themself - until then, realised that the 'Deformation', how it was called, wasn't just there to torture the Infected. The body was fighting the disease with everything it had. 80 hours passed, 90...and they reached day four.
Until now, the third day was lethal in 100​% of the cases! But not with these people. They survived a fifth, a sixth, a seventh day...finally losing most of their teeth and also their noses, but not their life.
At least not from the infection.




Fleeing into the forests
Whatever was happening, in the panicked and chaotic last days, they were not seen as a kind of cure, but a threat: Carriers of the infection who would not die like every other decent victim could spread the disease everywhere. They were forbidden to come close to quarantine centers and camps, often shot on sight, abandoned and locked in their houses or forced to leave. Horrible decisions had to be made. If you recognized you are 'deformed', you knew you could infect your family, if you haden't already. Would you leave and never see them again, giving them a chance? Or spend the last days with them, probably seeing them die while you undergo a disturbing deformation and be left living as some kind of monster? Nobody was able to put the whole picture together, and all kinds of scenarios happened in this horrible time.
What we know is that in Europe, many of them ended up alone in the forests. Easily recognisable, they were avoided and sometimes attacked from afar. That's when they started to conceal their faces with scarfes, hats, helmets, wigs, goggles and masks. Some camps left supplies to be picked up by the Deformed, with a note to please leave immediately and never come back.
As the time passed, stumbling around through the forests alone, the Deformed found a new kind of friend, if they weren't accompanied by them already: The now wild roaming dogs, often set free in the last days of their owners life. They might have spread the human killing disease further, that's why many dogs were killed of at the camps. But not so with the Deformed, who could need some company anyway.
It took some time, but as the weeks passed, Deformed loners started to stumble upon each other. Disgusted by each others appearances at first, they decided to keep their faces masked. Another realization: they were barely able to speak and unable to communicate through language, only guttural grunting, moaning and choking, some were able to whistle.
But despite the Deformation they soon realised they all were humans, still. They banded together into 'tribes' and avoided healthy humans, marking their territories as a warning. Nobody wanted to come in contact with those deformed death bringing monster people, anyway.
In the first weeks there were suicides, but the survivors started to accept their new life...their bodies had fought the deadliest disease humanity ever faced, and won, why throw away that gift?
The acceptance among each other grew, and a new normality  found a way into their lifes. So normal, that life took a natural path again. The few technological devices the outcasts hat brought with them started to die, they slept under the stars, while cities around them burned. And 'civilized' people slowly turned into hunters and gatherers.
But when the first Deformed became pregnant, everyone wondered: What would happen?



Children of Monsters
The fear of giving birth to a monster and dying in agony was great. But they wouldn't accept that it would all be over, that they were the last generation.
And when the time came, when the 'monsters' finally gave birth, the most beautiful, healthy, happy babies were born.. Hope spread spread faster among the forests than the disease that had driven them here. And the children were immune to that disease. The 'monsters' had a purpose again, rising the next generation, believing they might be the last humans on earth. And while they were parents unlike any before, the children loved them unconditionally, despite their deformation.
As the first generation grew up, their language evolved in a totally different way, mimicking the strange guttural, throaty sounds of their parents.
And as there was no way communicating through known language, multiple kinds of gesture languages evolved, enabling them to communicate in complete silence. There are multiple 'accents' of this language now. Today, the forest dwellers are masters of mimicing animal sounds to communicate over long distances, unnoticed by any intruder.

For the children, everything was normal. Most of them had never seen 'healthy' adult humans.
When they played, they wore their masks and painted their faces to resemble adults. Or they painted there faces – many Deformed had painted their faces to conceal their deformation whitout the need of a mask. The years went by and soon new, primal cultures developed, isolated in the regrowing European forests. Today, they still wear masks to honor the Ancestors and scare off intruders, protecting their territories fiercely. When the original Ancestors grew old and came closer to death, they were treated and cared for like saints. They wanted their bodies to be burned, in case they might still carry the Virus. Today, cremation is a tradition reserved for the oldest and most venerated tribe members only.



New World
Today, the legends and myths of the 'monsters' who brought them to life are deeply embedded in their psyche, as well as the knowledge that the old world died probably because of them. They worship those First Ancestors in daily rituals. And every child born with untypical looks, a disability or the inability to learn language is seen and worshipped as an envoy of the Ancestors.
But there are disagreements among them . For some the deeds of the Ancestors - the killing of the world so they could live -  is seen as a burden they have to carry, while others are proud that the Ancestors sacrificed the stone pillar dwellers to cleanse them of their weaknesses, sins and the the evil machines and systems that took over their lifes and enslaved them.
...

They are hunters and gatherers mostly, neolithic vibes, so I used leather and fur scraps and wood. The stone tools are made from carved polymer clay. And I have to learn how to make antlers!

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Interesting music (always a chancy thing recommending music -- or a book, or a movie, etc -- to someone else), and definitely fitting your imagery of this group and their world. Interesting scenario, too. When you were describing the "monsters" I was pretty sure I wasn't going to enjoy seeing them, while appreciating the beautifully shot nighttime woodland scenes with silhouetted forest-dwellers. Then to my relief, I read about these being beautiful happy babies that grow up wearing masks and practicing a neolithic lifestyle.

Ahhh, I love everything about this!!! Starry boreal-looking forests! Monstrous ancestor backstory! Wild dog friends! Re-wilding Europe! Hunter-gatherers! Masks!!! Antlers!!!!!! 

Sounds like paradise to me. ;D 

And the music you chose??? OMG... I know one of the people in this band, from my Viking reenactment days! But ahh, yess. My style of music all the way. My husband I run an annual folk metal festival in the UK, and this kind of thing is totally our 'jam'. 

I'm so excited to see more of these characters!

Interesting and intriguing— from the music to the story to your cool silhouette photos. Really looking forward to seeing what you’ve created here.

Very intriguing story.  I like the mystery of not knowing what they will look like.  As to naming them; I think they would choose a more benign them for themselves than Children of Monsters

Children of Darkness?

Ahhh I love this concept so much! The attention to detail in your worldbuilding is so good and immediately draws you in. I can’t wait to see the revealed characters.

And every child born with untypical looks, a disability or the inability to learn language is seen and worshipped as an envoy of the Ancestors.

I really love this aspect in particular - there are ancient burials all over the world of people with physical disabilities who were obviously well loved and looked after, and I think a lot of people assume that more ‘primative’ societies would have ostracised anyone who wasn’t seen as productive, when that couldn’t be further from the truth, so I’m glad your world has that view too!

Yeah, I agree, Lynkhart, that was a very nice detail. 

Regarding their name, I'm sure you've already come up with something excellent, but I was thinking 'the Wilderkin' or something like that. Partially because their origin as 'monstrous' outsiders brought to mind the Grendel-kin of Beowulf.

GubernatorFan wrote:Interesting music (always a chancy thing recommending music -- or a book, or a movie, etc -- to someone else), and definitely fitting your imagery of this group and their world. Interesting scenario, too. When you were describing the "monsters" I was pretty sure I wasn't going to enjoy seeing them, while appreciating the beautifully shot nighttime woodland scenes with silhouetted forest-dwellers. Then to my relief, I read about these being beautiful happy babies that grow up wearing masks and practicing a neolithic lifestyle.

Well, the world would be a boring place whitout taking chances.   Glad you like them, I haven't planned on creating any deformed, maybe in illustration only. I like them to be a mystery, although their looks might have found their way into art, masks and effigies. But we know how accurate those religious images are after some centuries, see blue eyed Caucasian Jesus.

skywalkersaga wrote:Ahhh, I love everything about this!!! Starry boreal-looking forests! Monstrous ancestor backstory! Wild dog friends! Re-wilding Europe! Hunter-gatherers! Masks!!! Antlers!!!!!! 

Sounds like paradise to me. ;D 

And the music you chose??? OMG... I know one of the people in this band, from my Viking reenactment days! But ahh, yess. My style of music all the way. My husband I run an annual folk metal festival in the UK, and this kind of thing is totally our 'jam'. 

I'm so excited to see more of these characters!

Wow happy to see you like it that much, and yes it's some kind of paradise, although they might lead the least comfortable lifes of all 'my' people. At least there are no giant spider crabs. Does anyone own affordable 1/6 dogs? I guess they are the new Wolves now.

And the part about the music....well, you captured my reaction quite well: OMG. You know one of them? Then I guess you witnessed a Live Performance which must be great. Maybe you can point out the person on one of the videos.
You are also allowed to share more about this festival, only if you like of course!

Stryker2011 wrote:Interesting and intriguing— from the music to the story to your cool silhouette photos. Really looking forward to seeing what you’ve created here.

Thanks a lot!

ScotsCav wrote:Very intriguing story.  I like the mystery of not knowing what they will look like.  As to naming them; I think they would choose a more benign them for themselves than Children of Monsters

Children of Darkness?

Thanks for your suggestions. You are right of course, they wouldn't call themselves the children of Monsters, those are names the surrounding peoples will give them. They probably have very foreign/alien sounding names in their new languages just meaning 'human'.

Children of Darkness would make a good teenage Metal Band, anyway.

skywalkersaga wrote:Yeah, I agree, Lynkhart, that was a very nice detail. 

Regarding their name, I'm sure you've already come up with something excellent, but I was thinking 'the Wilderkin' or something like that. Partially because their origin as 'monstrous' outsiders brought to mind the Grendel-kin of Beowulf.

Haven't drawn the connection to Grendel yet, maybe I wasn't English enough. Very attentive of you!
I guess Wilderkin can be ONE of the names the surrounding humans might call them.

Lynkhart wrote:Ahhh I love this concept so much! The attention to detail in your worldbuilding is so good and immediately draws you in. I can’t wait to see the revealed characters.

And every child born with untypical looks, a disability or the inability to learn language is seen and worshipped as an envoy of the Ancestors.

I really love this aspect in particular - there are ancient burials all over the world of people with physical disabilities who were obviously well loved and looked after, and I think a lot of people assume that more ‘primative’ societies would have ostracised anyone who wasn’t seen as productive, when that couldn’t be further from the truth, so I’m glad your world has that view too!

Thanks and very glad you liked that detail!
I guess I am just unable to create 'evil' people. Doesn't seem very logical to me. They can be creepy, unsettling, strange and brutal as a people, but not evil. There will be some really bad things the Cargo people of the Atlantic Coast city states will do to them (They need wood for many reasons, but most of the forests are protected by the Masked) and bad stuff will happen because of misunderstandings, disrespect, hate, stereotypes, greed and religion, but well they are all human with all their flaws.

No figures yet, later today maybe. Now just some Neolithic stuff. Polymer clay was used to make rough shapes for spear tips, knives and arrow tips.

I used a cutter and cut in a slight arc to achieve a 'flint flaking' effect. Don't know how to color them yet, greyish to black, but light primer or black primer?


I also made some primitive shoes, following a 2012 tutorial by Tony Barton on OSW. It's wet leather I formed directly on the foot.  I am a lazy person so I just glued on the sole, maybe some fake stitching later. The elastic fabric looking thread the Mediterranes love was used too.

Great work on the neolithic weapons and footwear! I'm pretty sure this will be another beautifully realized fantasy group.

Already an impressive and promising start! Very clever way to make the 'flint' tools! And for how to paint them, you can experiment with different versions, as I think there could always be some variety in the colours of the stone. Flint can be anything from dark grey, to black, to brown, to green, or even pale/white in colour, so have at it.  

As for the Grendel connection... well, I'm not originally from England, myself. I just happen to live here and also be  a huge Old English nerd -- Old English and Old Norse literature is what I focused on for my MA in medieval studies, back in the day.    Originally I grew up in the US, though even then my family is not from there. My dad is from Iran and my mom is from Canada -- though I suppose on her side, there is some English heritage in there. ;D 

Regarding Heilung -- the person I know is Kai Uwe Faust, the main founder of the group. A very awesome person, and an incredibly talented and skilled traditional/primitive tattoo artist. Always at Viking events, he would be tattooing people there.

Here he is on stage: 




And here he is a bit more recognizable  : 




And if you are interested, here is some info on the annual folk metal festival. We are in our ninth year now! 

Website [still showing last year's event, will surely be updated soon]: http://www.warhornsfestival.co.uk

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warhornsfestival/

Our annual multi-day festival is usually held in September, but this coming year in addition to the main event, we also have a one-day Winterfest: https://www.facebook.com/events/2324983507824553/permalink/2414611785528391/

Awesome work, Ovy. This keeps getting better and better. At some point I want to see an epic confrontation with all these different tribes of yours.

Man, Christmas came early this year, it's like knowing your parents bought the gifts but you've searched the entire house and can't fin them, such teasing.. I'm really looking forward to seeing them, your world building is exquisite and manages to transport you into this place where you manage to get a glimpse of this world.

I've always thought of flint as a sort of light brown-beige, but I suppose there can be plenty of variety. The Beowulf epic may survive in an Anglo-Saxon version, but is rooted in north Germanic/Scandinavian tradition.

GubernatorFan wrote:Great work on the neolithic weapons and footwear! I'm pretty sure this will be another beautifully realized fantasy group.

Thanks a lot! Feel free to try it yourself.

skywalkersaga wrote:Already an impressive and promising start! Very clever way to make the 'flint' tools! And for how to paint them, you can experiment with different versions, as I think there could always be some variety in the colours of the stone. Flint can be anything from dark grey, to black, to brown, to green, or even pale/white in colour, so have at it.  

Thanks for the suggestions and the links, had no idea of your metalness!! \m/ Actually, that Kai Uwe screamed into my ear a lot while I made the figures, so pass my thanks if you meet him again. And of course there will be some tattoos for my foresticians. (No actual official name)

Stryker2011 wrote:Awesome work, Ovy. This keeps getting better and better. At some point I want to see an epic confrontation with all these different tribes of yours.

Thanks! Yep there is conflict potential, although I don't have any 'bad guys' in the works yet. But some stories in the head.

Theboo-bomb wrote:Man, Christmas came early this year, it's like knowing your parents bought the gifts but you've searched the entire house and can't fin them, such teasing.. I'm really looking forward to seeing them, your world building is exquisite and manages to transport you into this place where you manage to get a glimpse of this world.  

Thanks a lot, great to hear! My brother an I knew our dad had hidden 'The Empire strikes back' somewhere in the house when I was 6. We found it and showed it to him, asked if we could watch. Didn't go as planned...xD
And yes, world building gets more important to me the more time I spend with decisions regarding their looks.

And I wanted to finish their shoes at least before taking photos. [/url]

I made outdoorshots because the weather and light was nice and I didn't see a point in putting them in front of a forest backdrop. They are sturdy fellas, no fragile shells or delicate seamless bodies.


Anyone remembers the masks I made for my undead Magician? I recycled those and wrapped wet leather around them.


The 'horns'  are placeholders. Still have to learn to make antlers.


The father has three layers of clothing. First light puffy 'linen' pants.


Some might know Jeff Bridges...


Maybe I will tattoo him and give him badass chest hair.


The pants are multi functional!


Second layer: Leather wrapping.


I like the bark-like texture.


Fantasy blacksmith? Da riddel uf Stihl?


Brown leather poncho.






I played around with the textures, horizontal stripes for the Father, vertical stripes for the Daughter.



The armguards are rough on the right (for birds maybe?) and smooth on the left for bow shooting. And for covering joints of course. The red brown leather is good for cameo.




Some might know her. Acrylics for the facepaint.


The shoes in action! The fur wraps can be taken off.

Ovy wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions and the links, had no idea of your metalness!! \m/ Actually, that Kai Uwe screamed into my ear a lot while I made the figures, so pass my thanks if you meet him again. And of course there will be some tattoos for my foresticians. (No actual official name)

You are most welcome! And ha, I suppose it's just such a 'normal' part of my 1:1 life I didn't even think to mention 'til now. You can be sure I'll pass along your appreciation. <3 

Tattoos like those Kai creates would be incredible. Though pretty much anything prehistoric/primitive looking would suit these characters. 

Speaking of, I am loving their look so far. Awesome idea to give Mr. Beardy some long tibetan lamb locks. He looks suitably grizzled and badass. The face paint looks beautiful, too. I love the earthy colour palette, perhaps brought out even more by the beautiful autumnal scenery.  Great use of the leather, and... what did you use for the fur? I'm always curious about 1:6 fur 'pelts'. 

Finally, my fave thing so far are the masks with the antlers. Definitely evokes a bit of that Star Carr shamanic headdress! 

Keep up the excellent work. Looking forward to seeing more of the 'Nameless'. ;D

Very cool use of layers and different leathers for these figures. And your outdoor photos are awesome. Beautiful work.

They look great. You can give Beau crazy chest hair, but I'm not sure anyone would notice. Tatoos will be impressive and possibly fitting, although I'm personally too much of a square to advocate them. You might be able to take a useful shortcut where it comes to antlers by taking a look at the Christmas stuff out there in stores -- not all of the sizes or quality of detail would be appropriate, but some of it will be (or can be customized).

Oooh I love them! The masks are both charming and creepy in equal measure! XD

They look great, the texture on the leather is great too. And the clothing is quite creative, I really like them.

skywalkersaga wrote:[....]

You are most welcome! And ha, I suppose it's just such a 'normal' part of my 1:1 life I didn't even think to mention 'til now. You can be sure I'll pass along your appreciation. <3 

Tattoos like those Kai creates would be incredible. Though pretty much anything prehistoric/primitive looking would suit these characters. 

Speaking of, I am loving their look so far. Awesome idea to give Mr. Beardy some long tibetan lamb locks. He looks suitably grizzled and badass. The face paint looks beautiful, too. I love the earthy colour palette, perhaps brought out even more by the beautiful autumnal scenery.  Great use of the leather, and... what did you use for the fur? I'm always curious about 1:6 fur 'pelts'. 

Finally, my fave thing so far are the masks with the antlers. Definitely evokes a bit of that Star Carr shamanic headdress! 

Keep up the excellent work. Looking forward to seeing more of the 'Nameless'. ;D

Yeah, the badass dad; Wait until you see his wife, but she has no body yet.
And mentioning Star Carr reminds me of giving them pendants. What do you think, just one pendant per necklace would suit them better than full Mediterran pearlyness? They also don't want to make too much noise.

About the fur, I took those with me when my workplace was relocated and a lot of stuff was going to be thrown away. They were from an old crafting box full of little leather and fur scraps. No idea were they came from, must be over 10 years ago they were acquired. Some had little number stickers on them.

GubernatorFan wrote:They look great. You can give Beau crazy chest hair, but I'm not sure anyone would notice. Tatoos will be impressive and possibly fitting, although I'm personally too much of a square to advocate them. You might be able to take a useful shortcut where it comes to antlers by taking a look at the Christmas stuff out there in stores -- not all of the sizes or quality of detail would be appropriate, but some of it will be (or can be customized).

Thanks, Christmas might be a good time to plunder the stores for 1/6 materials.

Lynkhart wrote:Oooh I love them! The masks are both charming and creepy in equal measure! XD

Thanks Creepy and charming describes many masks well.

Theboo-bomb wrote:They look great, the texture on the leather is great too. And the clothing is quite creative, I really like them.

Thanks, very happy about that leather.


Experimented with more facepaint. Not sure yet if I want to go for a more assymetrical look or not.

The experiment is a success. I think it looks stunning in every shot. I realize for face paint it could have been more expansive or blatant or asymmetric (like a clown face or Kiss, though neither seems appropriate here). Then again, that might distract from the likeness (which is important to me as a collector of these scale likenesses, though perhaps not important to the characters in your scenario). But since they wear masks anyway, perhaps the face paint need not be too heavy. I like what you've got, wouldn't go farther with the face painting on this character myself.

Oooh, wow, loving where you're going with that face paint! He looks incredible! :O 

I think your idea about the jewelry being something that wouldn't make too much noise is spot-on. 

As always, amazing work, Ovy!

Nice job on the face paint. Looks appropriate for the character.

GubernatorFan wrote:The experiment is a success. I think it looks stunning in every shot. I realize for face paint it could have been more expansive or blatant or asymmetric (like a clown face or Kiss, though neither seems appropriate here). Then again, that might distract from the likeness (which is important to me as a collector of these scale likenesses, though perhaps not important to the characters in your scenario). But since they wear masks anyway, perhaps the face paint need not be too heavy. I like what you've got, wouldn't go farther with the face painting on this character myself.

Thanks, maybe some tweaks, but I won't change that much. And I don't think a Kiss face would be inappropriate.

skywalkersaga wrote:Oooh, wow, loving where you're going with that face paint! He looks incredible! :O 

I think your idea about the jewelry being something that wouldn't make too much noise is spot-on. 

As always, amazing work, Ovy!

Thanks a lot! Mom incoming.

Stryker2011 wrote:Nice job on the face paint. Looks appropriate for the character.

Thanks.

First pics of Mother's headsculpt. Symmetrical facepaint again, like her daughter. I started to shave and root yesterday, but ran out of time. Don't know if I can finish it that weekend but here is some WIP.