The Captain

The galaxy is not as empty as one might imagine. Shipping lanes guiding cargo ships and luxury floats litter the connections between civilized planets. And where there is loot capable of being taken, there is those that would try to take it. 

A few pirates stand out from the rest and their names are whispered in fearful tones when they are near. One if these men is the legendary mercenary-turned-scourge captain Seridais. He was the man who acquired for himself the first fully operational mech known as the space kraken, but even before then he was already well known as an incredibly dangerous character. 

Another is one of Seridais many lost and forgotten children. Joseph Baxter was born to a poor tavern maid. He was raised without any knowledge of who his father was or what he did. He was constantly bullied from his peers and often fought with people far older than him. But Joseph was not an idiot. On the contrary, he was incredibly intelligent and believed the only way to truly defeat any opponent was to outsmart them in every way. So he studied everything he could get his hands on, even going as far as stealing thousands of books from various libraries. He was already a natural engineer and mathematician and had a passion for history, but he quickly became just as good as almost anything else one could name. At the age of twelve he had already designed and built several operating firearms based on stylisations from various planets core histories. By the age of sixteen he had designed a more compact, efficient, effective oxygenerator and was making frequent trips into space in jacked crafts. Everything he did had been honed to an artwork; writing, crafting, flying, fighting. He had a comprehensive understanding of physics and was capable of creating energy weapons that harnessed the natural flow of a planets magnetic force, with devastating results. 

His mother died when he was nineteen. While Joseph was away on one of his illegal ventures to the nearest moon, some of his bullies, turned enemies, took his mother and raped her with intention of holding her ransom in an attempt to make Joseph leave permantly. When Joseph found out about his mothers kidnapping he went to the rendezvous to free her. He mutilated the men, many twice his age, with nothing but a steel pole. During the fight he was trying to protect his mother from harm, one thing he wasn't entirely practiced at. She was shot and the bullet went through her and into Joseph, mortally wounding her and slicing Joseph's side open. After the last man had died Joseph returned to his mother who explained who his father was and why she had kept this secret from him before she finally died. 

Joseph left. His soul turned cold and deadly. He joined a band of pirates and quickly rose ranks, eventually leading a mutiny and claiming his first ship. He immediately killed the rest of his crew and sold the vessel, using the money and all his recently accumulated loot to buy parts to create his own unique ship. The Dergrosse. The most advanced vehicle in the history of the galaxy. The first of its kind. 

He wanted to kill his father. So when he found out Cassius beat him to it he was furious. During Cassius reign many pirates became a sort of 'police' in Cassius employment. But Joseph remained firmly against him, rallying his own band of ships and equipping them with (less advanced) technology to give them an advantage over Cassius ships.

Finally the two came across each other. Cassius underestimated Joseph's technology far too much, the cost being that it nearly killed him. But Cassius was far to strong still and soon overpowered him. Just before he went to strike the final blow he stopped, and instead offered Joseph his hand. Not as a servant, but as an equal, as one man might greet another man that he respects. Joseph approved and accepted the hand, becoming a mutual ally. They were not friends, and the feud would continue, fueling Joseph's study and design to new heights like that of which should not exist for many years to come. 

On that note, he decides to look like this. 

So... Am I a bad person yet?

I recently watched REC. I like that. Especially the freakyness at the end. And it got me thinking. 

"What if I found some images of anorexic people and put new heads on them? My style heads?"

"I dunno man, that sounds kind of offensive. People might not like you screwing with shit like anorexia."

And so it was decided amongst my self to do it. Photoshopped their heads off and threw some sketches in there. 2 made the cut. The next step is to colour them and make them look a little more like they belong in the picture. 

Another Abyssal mutant

Before you say it, yes this is heavily dead space themed. I had a couple of necromorphs in my bed and I was trying to learn a thing or two about their design and style. I though I have doused my fluffy white tail, I have emerged... Enlightened. 

A bit more of Widower fun

A color scheme for my darling widower on the iPad. 

Frontline

The Widower

The Widower is a result of illegal tampering with the abyssal virus, mainly blood from the Widow, hence it's name. 

Arzeus Black, a dark Mage and one of Cassius ten kings, was illegally experimenting on prisoners on Cassius space ship, using his magic and various strains of abyssal toxin. His aim was to try and recreate some the abyssal monsters that had evolved naturally into what they are, with mixed results. The subjects that got close to resembling a creature died quickly and the ones that survived either looked nor acted nothing like what they were supposed to or were simply brain dead, often both.

However, Arzeus came very close to successfully creating a Widow. It wasn't as smart or as strong and only loosely resembled one but it was alive and not brain dead, which was a success so far. The reconstructed Widow became his whole project, abandoning or putting on hold any other creatures that might lead to success and focusing on making the false Widow more Widow-like. He infused limbs taken from a real Widow into it, as opposed to human limbs, and used some of the real Widows royal venom to try and make it naturally 'heal' itself. 

Royal venom is the serum inside a special sac in the Widows head. It uses this venom on eggs (it's just deadly poison to any non-Widow, even other Arachnids) to create princess Arachnids, it's heir should the Widow die. If these princesses grow too large they will escape and make a new hive, lest their mother eat them for becoming a threat to her reign. 

The venom nearly killed the new creature but Arzeus saved it by forcing the fluids around its body and keeping electricity flowing to the brain using his magic. The energy coursing through the creatures body put its cells into over drive and the thing nearly popped in front of Arzeus right there, but after a moment it settled. The thing had forcibly created its own new limbs, organising them into a more symmetrical figure than any Widow. It had also doubled in size and was now the size and length of two school busses. 

He found that the creature, dubbed 'Widower', was driven mad with rage at the scent of Widow blood. It wasn't as smart as a true Widow but was stronger than Arzeus could have imagined and still had an intelligence many other abyssals lacked. It's venom was not like that of its cousin though. If infected by the Widower victims wold turn into an unstoppable juggernaught, whether they be human or animal or abyssal, it did not matter. The juggernaught would die a few days later. 

For a time Arzeus used this creature as a game attraction, forcing other prisoners to fight it for the entertainment of the crew, all the while Arzeus had full control over it thanks to a stunning piece of technology on the creatures head. 

But one of the more important prisoners, Cassius most dangerous enemy as it were, escaped and broke the sister device Arzeus kept at all times. He then freed as many prisoners as he could and then broke into the Good Doctors supply storage and stole a large amount of widow blood, spreading it about the ship. The Widower was driven into an uncontrollable rage at the omnipotent stench of Widow and broke out of its holdings, which was supposed to be nigh indestructible. 

The Widower raged about the ship, destroying everything and leaving very little survivors. The prisoners had taken almost all the escape pods, dooming the crew to a painful death at the hands of a raging monster or throwing themselves into deep space. The remaining shuttles were taken by Arzeus and any of the other high ranking men. 

The ship was still floating near its last achievement, a planet called Fiorisha, which they had infested with abyssal mutants that now all but controlled the planet. The ship began to fall and crashed on the planet leaving no survivors save for the Widower. It then started its hunt for food. 

The Widower is drawn to the scent of Widows, and began hunting them on Fiorisha. It is driven by the need to feed and reproduce, base instincts for most abyssal drones, but for the Widower it is more difficult than just finding humans. It will attack a Widow hive, turning the Arachnid drones into its own temporary juggernaughts, and taking the nest, eating what it will. It then infects the Widow. Instead of turning into a juggernaught, the Widow collapses and begins its transformation into a new Widower. Many of the drones collapse and die after a few days, giving the new Widower a rich first meal. The new Widower will then repeat what it's father did, hunting down other Widow nests and creating another Widower. The heads of the Widows it infects are taken and used to adorn its own head. A Widower with more skulls atop its crown has killed more Widows and you should stay well away from it. You should really stay well away from all of them actually. 

But that's not quite the end. The Widower venom in the princesses does not outright kill them. When the venom wears off the princesses will leave and make new nests as new Widows, giving the Widowers an ever replenishing food source. 

They are an apex predator of the abyssals, and will kill you if you get in their way, but won't hunt or give chase if you get far enough away. They are near impossible to kill but one of the easiest to avoid.  

The Wandering Victim

This here is called the Wandering victim. One of the sad survivors from Cassius scientist experimentations. They were trying to make a naturally armoured soldier by infusing him with crab genes, but the organs and tissue they were implanting were taking so long to adapt machines had to be installed to keep he subject alive. 

This meant no anaesthetic or pain relief, as that would screw around with the healing process and make in incomplete, temporary final product. 

The pain drove the subject insane but not before the strength from the genes kicked in. Emergency poison was injected to kill the creature but the crab DNA rejected it, though it did leave the arm severely swollen. 

The creature escaped and started its mindless search for food, more crab-like than human.