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Sighter — Drowned 1
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Published: 2010-09-26 10:26:25 +0000 UTC; Views: 862; Favourites: 23; Downloads: 0
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"Johnny Hob's body got left in the water all night long. His blood stank in the water, shit, it coated the sea thick that night. Chains weighed him down."Johnny Hob was a black priest you see, devoted to dank, unforgiving spirits that fed on blood, the sea- on pain. Slaughterer of a dozen families, and the Vizier to Bloody-Hand-and-Spiral, sea-demon. Feaster of fish and the bones of babes. That Johnny Hob.
"Outside of Cuba, on a boat, on a hot August night, in the year of 1923, the black pussing bastard Johnny Hob met his end. They made sure to put a leaky helmet on him. They wanted him to suffer. A message to the Bloody-Hand-and-Spiral.
"A few recalled the image. Two men drowning a man slowly. Each man stood out, one wearing the mask of a Wolf and the other wearing a headdress that looked like a Bear's head.
"They say it took Johnny Hob thirty days and thirty nights to die, that the sea kept the bastard alive. Truth is, Johnny Hob died the night they put him in the water. He still floats there, in the sea. His bones, his flesh... Well he isn't still.
"Johnny Hob, the Sea Witch swims, struggling with stumps. No legs move him. But he keeps trying. To reach the shore. To rebuilt his body..."
--From the Caribbean Annals (5th edition), by James A. Spencer
Hey, I wasn't working on the comic for a reason. A new piece of undead madness, long time no see. Twas a vision I beheld in my head, and it had to come out in some form or another.
You like it? I do. My best attempt at combining undeath and sea life, you know?
Oh, and by the by, I have two different colored versions of this. I don't really have lineart- its a combination of three or four different pieces of lineart combined, so hey, no lineart. Too messy without colors. Maybe I could try a black and white version...
Anyway, there will be a follow up in the other colors.
See yah.
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Comments: 19
I like the colors in this version more, 'cause of the sea x3
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Ah. Blue is blue, unless its not, huh?
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I think I prefer this version as well, for reasons Temiel explained best. The atmosphere just feels better with the contrasts between the rusts and the teals.
I really like those evil little fish by the way... they look darn cool with those pointy teeth.
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I imagine decades in the sea have horribly corrupted and driven the local fauna into undead horrors. And who can't love horribly pointy teeth?
Contrasty teals and rusts look nice, but the green/yellow-ness of the second one appeals to me too. Argh, close call. I'm not sure which one is the better...
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That's entirely plausible. Pointy teeth are oddly endearing... case in point, the bunny in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Now that I think about it, I'm not sure either. Yellow and green are good indicators of decay and such, but the combination of rust and teal makes the watery grave image all the more evident. I dunno. :/
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Yeaaaah... I'm thinkin' its a tie...
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Both versions are really cool, but I think I like this one best. It has a lot of the coolness you usually associate with undersea stuff, which in this case isn't a cliche because it adds to the whole feel. (Besides, I often find undead et al associated with warm colors: rust, blood, arid landscapes... doesn't work that well for me, since part of the unique condition of being dead is the uncanny coldness.)
On a side note, this makes me think of that White Wolf sourcebook about All the Stuff In the Ocean That Will Kill You. They have animalistic, monstrous undersea vampires in that book. I find that awesome and very unsavory.
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Ach. I have a pdf copy of that book. Lots of fun. I always wanted to see Gangrel versus the Rokea. Always sounded like a nice long fight.
Reds and Blues... I think I gravitated toward something green to try and break out the contrast. To make things red, the color of blood/rust, its awesome for use. But I don't usually associate the undead with warm reds. Warm reds are a favorite color of mine, but hey, something has to be said for colors that look wrong some how- that surrealist dream fog of colors.
Oh well. Its interesting who has what opinion on which version. I'm not quite sure which one I'm supposed to like more. Hmm. Kinda a mix up. 
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Gah, I bet it would be. Something tells me the Rokea would win eventually. I don't care how badass a vampire you are, the Rokea will MESS YOU THE HELL UP. 
DO you know which version you like better by now?
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No not really. I'm partial to both. One has the nasty rust thing going on, yet two feels as cold as the sea should.
I think I shouldn't have made two...
Oh, I'm sure that some elder vampire somewhere could manage against Gaia's chosen survivors. Of course, it depends what the situation is. I always wondered who would ever want to play a Rokea- its like wanting to play a Lupus Garou. So very... animalistic.
Of course, vampires can be just as odd in their mindsets. I guess that maybe, somewhere, a Nosferatu and a Rokea go out on dates and discuss environmental issues, while feasting on some whoever they manage to go on a double date with.
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Well, as to who would play a Rokea, I can tell you that Alan did, and he LOVED playing that huge illiterate bastard. 
Man, this conversation is making me way psyched for the VtM Dark Ages chronicle we're starting soon. I've spent YEARS trying to get him to run a Vampire game for me... I think he had trouble wrapping his brain around the idea that vampires CAN be not-totally-evil protagonists.
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Gangrel (and the other four clans that formed the Camarilla) were meant to represent one of the various flavors of the vampire myth. I don't think of them as feral... and not like werewolves. Gangrel embrace a more bestial form of vampire, but they lack the sheer... frightening, scary, gore-y, bloody, war machine, raging, potential-to-hurt-those-you-love-without-meaning-to nature of werewolves.
Gangrel don't have to deal with the same issues that werewolves have to deal with either, but I like Gangrel for their honesty. They feel more honest than other vampires. Not nature nuts, but honest enough. Them and the Malkavians.
Actually, the point of playing Vampire is the struggle (to me, anyway) between the urge to be human and the fact you happen to be a monster that feeds on living. I love Vampire, but don't care for the Dark Ages setting much... instead, I like the modern era- or even better, crossover games set in the near future. Star Trek meets Modern Fantasy meets Serenity.
Of course, history has a tendency to repeat itself, so there could be room for some futuristic setting with vampires during a dark age after humans colonize the galaxy or something. Swords, Lasers and Fangs and some such. With werewolves out in the wilds, trying to keep everything primitive, yah know.
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Yeah, I think of it the same way (in terms of the human-monster continuum struggle). I think he's only VERY recently come around to the idea that vampires can be anything BUT monsters. (Though quite honestly, I see this as a very fluid continuum, and I'm sure anyone who's lived that long and has to feed on people to live has done more than a few things their human self wouldn't necessarily be proud of.)
We're planning on starting in the Dark Ages and if it's good enough, extending it into the present day. Mostly I just like the idea of playing someone who's really, really old by the time it becomes "now"... I wonder if she'd still even be remotely interested in anything approaching "human" after having seen everything turn around and repeat so many times.
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There is a generational aspect, too. Childe and all that. If only to change things up, I suppose.
I've thought about doing that for a Vampire or Werewolf game- echo the theme of the "Sins of the Father are visited upon the Son" idea. The secrets only the ancestors know, and the consequences to be faced by the descendants. Of course, there is a great deal of appeal to play a vampire for a long period- like, experiencing the American Civil War, the Boxer Rebellion, Etc., but from the Kindred side of things.
Thats something I remember Buffy the Vampire Slayer played on from time-to-time. Never went as far back as the Dark Ages.
Speaking of the Dark Ages (while I'm doing the Stream of Consciousness thing) its a matter of where and when that determines whether its a dark age or not. 1237, Spain. Dark Ages... in Northern Spain. Moroarabia, or the rest of the Iberia peninsula, ruled by the Moors isn't quite as bad. Baghdad's height, very Golden Age. Moroarabia always seemed like a sweet period to do some historical gaming. Moors vs. Christians, internal Christian strife, the long war to expel the Muslims, El Sid, etc.
1033 England or Ireland? Yeah. Very. Backwater countries the rest of Europe ignores, or some cases abuse for their own benefit.
Yeah. Lots of fun to be had there.
The question I always think of for vampires, the really important one, is about how moral and humane they really are. Because all vampires can eliminate their curse, stop what they are doing, and easily end the whole process.
Why haven't you [the vampire in question] killed yourself? Why haven't you embraced the Final Death? Why not order some Ghoul or someone to chain you to a stone and leave you out in the sun to burn? What is so important about you that you deserve to live for so long?
Otherwise, I'm glad to blind you with a mountain of text.
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Ah, no worries! This has been a great text wall to comb through.
I'm fairly certain 1179 England would count as being in quite a dark age. A little better after the Norman conquest, at least in terms of being included in that whole European fellowship if only by virtue of having been, you know, conquered... but it's still pretty backwater. It'll be really fun to play this out over the passage of time, I think.
And yes, that's ABSOLUTELY a question! I was actually wondering that myself the other day. I think that's probably a question worth asking of every vampire, even if the answer was as simple as "Well, if you had a second chance at life when you were on the verge of dying, wouldn't you take it? And isn't it always easier to keep doing what you're doing instead of stop?" I imagine for some (NOT all, of course) it may be something like a bad habit.
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The question is more interesting when you look at vampires who were embraced as victims- like, they didn't get a choice, and had been embraced as a cruel act. Nosferatu come to mind, as do some others. Either way, I wonder why victims embraced don't try to finish themselves off, since they know how it feels.
Yeah bad habit is a interesting excuse, but I sometimes wonder if the real answer is the same as those who choose to shoot up heroin: they're addicted to the blood, and their addicted to taking it. Its the hit that keeps them high, and the vampires rarely get off the wagon.
Sounds like fun, considering all the various ethnic slurs being thrown around...
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