Saturn's Shadow - Mineral Ventures

Turns out the alcubierre drive wasnt nearly as out of reach as we initially thought, and now man is officially an extra planetary species having colonized the moon and mars. We now have children who are no longer "Earthlings" and we're still trying to figure out what to call someone born on a mining colony in the asteroid belt. Still this is only the beginning and a spaceborne gold rush is on as hundreds of mega corporations across the solar system vie to reach beyond the shoals of the inner system.

Zheng Bao Deep Sky Group are intent to be the first to do it, having commissioned a next generation jump system from Cadence Aerospace. The Tiny Dancer was to be the first of its class, capable of reaching Jupiter, but this plan was dashed with the announcement by Marilarr Exo Solar having made a launch of a similar nature. Last second changes to the original plan were made and the Zheng Bao Deep Sky team would now be reaching for Saturn and it's vast array of moons. Hasty modifications to the Dancer were made against Cadence Aerospace's recommendations. This is where Mineral Ventures Steps in.

Mineral Ventures doesn't actually own any space ships, which are generally so expensive as to only be within the reach of full countries or the largest mega corporations. What they do have is a vast talent pool of some of the most experienced geochemists, geophysicists, topologists, seismologists, geologists, surveyors, prospectors, miners, and bodies capable of lifting heavy things this side of Mars. While Zheng Bao Deep Sky would provide the management team, and Cadence Aerospace would provide the crew, including three jarheads to manage the minutiae of the ship, Mineral Ventures would be sourcing the team that would actually do the research once on site.

The Ur Project - New Epoch APA

(Taken from an new student admission packet)

Welcome to the New World
New Epoch, Advanced Placement Academy (NEAPA), is a prestigious new school in former downtown Seattle. As an angel of the Lord, the academy's headmaster has uncountable eons of experience in education and team management. They can cite a long list of projects brought to fruition with a level head, clear communication, and a natural talent for team management. The headmaster helped usher in the World-That-Was, and watched over it right up to the moment it ended. Now it's your turn.

Remnant - The Ruin and the Pale City

It's not quite the end of the world, but of you were going to pick a spot to watch it come in, Pale would be an excellent choice to do it from.
A fire burnt down the world, and the survivors blamed a dragon. One by one they found their way to Pale, the last city, humanity's refuge under the moonlight glow of the Tower at its heart. Pale isn't a place you'd want to live in or visit. Every day is a fight for whatever Color you can get your hands on but, in the spaces between desperation and disparity, there's a vibrance that could only come from a body at the edge of its own extinction.

What was left of the world after the fire had something vital taken from it. Most folks call it Color, but who knows what it actually was. In its place was left a Ruin, proper noun, as far as the eye can see and as deep as the heart can feel. It doesn't work like a normal landscape anymore, with major landmarks that should stay put suddenly moving around, and things that can move... well you'll pray to god stay where they are. Ruin births are no joke.

Project Thesis

I have a lot of ideas rattling around up in my head and I'd like to show them to people. The but in that sentence is that most people expect a story attached to the idea, or want there to be some form of classical narrative to anchor it all. I'm actually incredibly bad at all that. Narrative is a sticky, tricky process where characters have to be developed and imbued with wills and intentions. They have to be wound up with motivations that feel reasonable and their reactions to those motivators have to be proportional. Almost any of these things can fall apart or fail to deliver with the slightest misalignment. I don't have the patience for that. What I do have though are settings. I also have a lot of training in graphic design, logo design, iconography, font selection, illustration, composition, and a whole bunch of other fancy terms to armor myself in as an artist. I can bring these things together, describe places through the things in them rather than a bog standard narrative. I've spent a lot of time considering how I would go about this, and this site is the result.

I present Sigilacra: An exploration of fantasy worlds through their branding, iconography, and other items that help anchor it. I don't plan on describing these worlds through extended blocks of fiction. Instead I'll be posting images and logos along with a tag for what world it belongs to, and a broad description about where it fits in the world. I might post more in this later as the thesis grows and changes, I consider this a stepping stone more than an unmovable edifice, but this is the base idea.

Now lets see if any of this actually works *hits publish*.