Alright folks, I need help with an artistic decision! I want to use NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) as a 'muse vacation' to indulge some fun D&D story ideas that have been sitting on the backburner for a while. What topic do I choose? They both sound fun! I've boiled it down to these 2 story choices.
Read the pitches below and let me know your choice in the poll!
CHOICE 1 - TITLE: SACRED & PROFANE
Zombies, werewolves, and romance between monster hunters.
SYNOPSIS: When Red joined the Blood Hunters' Lodge, she thought she'd be using her awesome skills to be hunting down worthy prey, not babysitting Nils, another hunter who's seemingly good for nothing more than corpse retrieval and granting last rites as an ex-priest. On the road, the two face the dangers of the Path, their own troubled histories, and finding a true friend in each other.
CHOICE 2 - TITLE: FLAME OF THE SULTANA
A Barbarian's tale of her rise from harem princess to Warrior Saint.
SYNOPSIS: Rabs never thought that her first mission as a Burning Saint would see her at the edge of civilization escorting a kid who was doomed to die by execution or join the Saints, a refuge for aid workers, particularly criminals who earn redemption through humanitarian efforts.
Along the way, Rabs distracts her charge with the firetale of her life, hoping to convince them that there is always light in the darkness, even as a mob closes in to exact their own brand of justice against her apathetic ward.
Their journey through the wilderness stirs up old emotions. Is Rabs a monster like her mother and father who committed atrocities in the name of reform and revolution? Is her mission a worthy one when misguided innocents are hurt in the process? The road of a Burning Saint is a long one walked in contemplation, service, and restraint she's not sure she has yet.
(*A note about the use of the word 'harem' here too, since that can have negative connotations. For this story, it denotes a cloister in which Rabs and other female members of her family stayed in seclusion & not a place for concubines.)
I'll be choosing after 7 days. I'm so excited to see what you guys will choose so I can start the NaNoWriMo plotting!
After much deliberation, I've decided to take a stand against this site's stance on allowing AI generated imagery in its current unethical state. Until this tech is not based on data laundering of artist's hard work, I won't be participating much with new work here and have cancelled my subscription. I will be more active on Inkblot instead, a site that has taken a firm stance against AI imagery on its platform.
This is difficult for me. I've been on DeviantART for 20 years. I've made lifelong friends and have good memories of all the old artwork I shared on here when I was a young, excited artist who turned to this community for support, advice, and encouragement. As of this writing, I have 886 Deviations. Many of you can imagine my horror when I learned that all of my years of work posted with joy and in good faith have been scraped without my consent to train a technology meant to replace the need for artists. Meanwhile, DeviantART irresponsibly joined in on promoting this tech before prioritizing the protection of artist's work, first and foremost, before jumping on releasing DreamUp to chase the AI trend. I feel betrayed and heartbroken because I can't use this place or trust it to have my best interests at heart anymore.
I hope DeviantART will make a better effort to separate AI generated work from the portfolios of living artists who need and deserve to be supported in an industry that increasingly devalues and disrespects them.
For further reading, I've compiled Resources for Artists Against Unethical AI that I hope will help the community and art appreciators educate themselves about this current dilemma. I encourage supporters of the effort to regulate unethical AI development to help the fundraiser spearheaded by the Concept Art Association to raise funds for paying lobbyists and enacting real change in this arena.
![69888089 1670950380237156 R[1]](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/8ca3c796-5c30-4408-abd4-b74458ddd2a3/dfkkvb1-e56d47a4-b867-417a-99bd-6afd70f996a6.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzhjYTNjNzk2LTVjMzAtNDQwOC1hYmQ0LWI3NDQ1OGRkZDJhM1wvZGZra3ZiMS1lNTZkNDdhNC1iODY3LTQxN2EtOTliZC02YWZkNzBmOTk2YTYucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.jL07WJTj1cNbEHSeLgjpkozBUQbHuKHyf_udh4-_sOY)
Follow Me Elsewhere
I don't know how much I'll be looking at art here or sharing my art anymore. My enthusiasm for sharing here was completely shot when I saw the most common source of my work on haveibeentrained was stolen from DeviantaRT in particular. As such, you can find me more actively sharing art in the following places:
My Twitter (at least till this site dies too)
I'm not here to debate my stance on this issue. Any comments on this journal making bad faith arguments insulting artists or arguing against a technology very clearly based in thievery in its current state will be deleted and the commenter blocked. We cannot argue for the positive merits of a tech like this until it is first regulated.
I appreciate all the folks who have supported me over the years here and who have been fans of my work. I hope we cross paths elsewhere and that I might return to this site in the future once it proves to me that it actually cares about the needs of artists and doesn't prioritize greed and unethical tech trends.
Take care of yourselves and each other!
- Ang
I'm Back! (Where Did I Go?)
For those who didn't know I was gone, a couple of weeks ago, my account was hacked with disgusting images and anti-George Floyd memes. First off, I'm so very sorry that any of you all had to see these awful things in your feed! I didn't even see them before my account was perma-banned. Generous fans contacted me afterwards to let me know of the incident so I could contact support about the issue.
Thankfully, DeviantART has helped me to restore my account, though I have sadly lost all of my Watchers and my entire Watchlist, as well as all of my stash. It's a bit of a blow and a hard lesson to secure my accounts better (which I am now doing with hash generated passwords from Bit Warden).
Losing my account made me remember how much in that 20+ years since I first joined as a wee high school student all the good memories and life-long friends I made here, as well as how dA helped me grow as a young artist. I'm glad to be back so I can keep participating when I can, despite the fact life keeps me able to participate here as much I used to!
DA has generously offered a one year sub to help with the sting of this incident (thank you!). Now I just need to rebuild my list, so if you like my work here, don't forget to re-add me to your devwatches! I'll try to re-watch as many folks as I can remember, but even my Favourites were nuked, so it's all from memory right now (which simply won't cover how many folks I've gathered in 20 years).
So drop me a line via Notes or drop a comment on this journal if we've been mutuals on here. I want to make sure I rewatch everyone!
Glad to be back! I'm taking this as a chance to tidy my account and make the best of things.
- Ang
PS.
If you want to Follow me where I'm most active, here are the places I hang out the most:
Twitter (My main chatty hangout!)