Pithlit’s Velorians

Long time lurker.I was a follower of the Aurora Iniverse series by “Sharon Best” Loved the Kara Zor’El series.Never contributed in til now.this is my vision of Kara Z in Book 2-Growing Up Super.wWish I could get those stories again.  

Don't see a link here. Where is your writing?

I probably should dig around and try to find all that old writing. It's gotta be somewhere on my various computers.
Then repost some of it. Growing up Super was fun to write, but I think that series started in the 1990's. Another time.  

Shadar

shadar wrote:

I probably should dig around and try to find all that old writing. It's gotta be somewhere on my various computers.
Then repost some of it. Growing up Super was fun to write, but I think that series started in the 1990's. Another time.  

Shadar

Someone made this some time ago, collecting various stories from the old Infinity Bridge site, AK's works(oddly listed under Infinity Bridge), the Bright Empire, and various stuff written by Shadar, including the old Aurora Universe.

aurorarchive.altervista.org/?path=Aurora%20Universe

Let me try again.


 

If people like them, I’ll do more

murdough wrote:

shadar wrote:

I probably should dig around and try to find all that old writing. It's gotta be somewhere on my various computers.
Then repost some of it. Growing up Super was fun to write, but I think that series started in the 1990's. Another time.  

Shadar

Someone made this some time ago, collecting various stories from the old Infinity Bridge site, AK's works(oddly listed under Infinity Bridge), the Bright Empire, and various stuff written by Shadar, including the old Aurora Universe.

aurorarchive.altervista.org/?path=Aurora%20Universe

Looks like all the OLD AU stories are in there, including KaraZ which includes the Growing Up Super book. That saved me a lot of digging. 

Shadar

I admit, finding it was an interesting blast from the past, especially since it also includes chapters I contributed to the Aurora Universe in the early 2000s. The "Andrew's Perspective" chapters of the AURG Convention series are relics of a time when I fancied myself a writer. I also contributed to the creation of the character of Michael Logan, who appeared in the final chapters of Growing Up Super. Hard to believe it's been over twenty years since those days.

Thanks all

murdough wrote:

I admit, finding it was an interesting blast from the past, especially since it also includes chapters I contributed to the Aurora Universe in the early 2000s. The "Andrew's Perspective" chapters of the AURG Convention series are relics of a time when I fancied myself a writer. I also contributed to the creation of the character of Michael Logan, who appeared in the final chapters of Growing Up Super. Hard to believe it's been over twenty years since those days.

I'm having a hoot today reading the old KaraZ story line under the Old_AU. Thanks to my lousy memory, it reads like something totally new that was written by someone else (which some of it was). Glad you were one of the contributors, Andrew. A lot of good writing back then by a lot of us with more passion than practiced skill, but it really turned out well. Long-form fiction which took its time doing world and character building. 

That was also a period where I was living in Southern Colorado and was much taken with exploring New Mexico cliff dwellings and thinking of the reasons the people in those dwellings all disappeared (don't tell the Hopi that). So I found it fun to create a new mythos that used aliens to explain their disappearance, including the half Arion, half tiger humanoids named Kintzi. (A term I stole from a famous SF writer and changed the spelling and history), and created the second Velorian-on-Earth origin story. 

I was approached by a Hollywood script agent in the late 90's about whether he could purchase that series of books for potential script development. I checked him out and he was legit. But I was so buried behind my second Nom de Plume at the time (started with Betu Best on the pre-Internet BBS era, then Sharon Best and subsequently Shadar on the Internet), given I was entering the peak of my professional career, and I just replied with the tongue-in-cheek disclaimer I put on all stories at the time:  

"License is granted to freely copy or distribute this story as long you give the author(s) below credit and that you leave this notice in place on all copies. I explicitly DO NOT grant the right to use any of the contents of this page for any commercial purposes whatsoever! I'm not making any money on this, so you shouldn't either!It is my goal that these stories, along with my Web page and its contents, will forever be free for reading by anyone of legal age, anywhere in the Milky Way galaxy. However, permission may be requested for use of this material in other galaxies by writing the author and describing the place and purpose for such use.This story is strictly for us 'grups', for those of us who remember the comic books and their limitations and who dare to go where the comics could not go. And for those of us who still have a fertile imagination, a love of fantasy, a sense of wonder and an appreciation for All The Myriad Ways..."


Of course, it would have been very difficult to license given all the wonderful contributors and collaborators who gave of their time and energy to create something fun. Those were simpler and optimistic and naive times when I firmly believed a new form of publishing had arrived where people traded freely and without any thought of compensation. The old Hippie wannabe in me. That didn't last long before the Net fell into the clutches of commercialism (other than a few remaining places like SWM). 

Anyway, thanks Pithlit for awakening some thoughts, and Andrew for reminding me of what was.

Shadar

Here is another.Let me know if you all want more. 

shadar wrote:

murdough wrote:

I admit, finding it was an interesting blast from the past, especially since it also includes chapters I contributed to the Aurora Universe in the early 2000s. The "Andrew's Perspective" chapters of the AURG Convention series are relics of a time when I fancied myself a writer. I also contributed to the creation of the character of Michael Logan, who appeared in the final chapters of Growing Up Super. Hard to believe it's been over twenty years since those days.

I'm having a hoot today reading the old KaraZ story line under the Old_AU. Thanks to my lousy memory, it reads like something totally new that was written by someone else (which some of it was). Glad you were one of the contributors, Andrew. A lot of good writing back then by a lot of us with more passion than practiced skill, but it really turned out well. Long-form fiction which took its time doing world and character building. 

That was also a period where I was living in Southern Colorado and was much taken with exploring New Mexico cliff dwellings and thinking of the reasons the people in those dwellings all disappeared (don't tell the Hopi that). So I found it fun to create a new mythos that used aliens to explain their disappearance, including the half Arion, half tiger humanoids named Kintzi. (A term I stole from a famous SF writer and changed the spelling and history), and created the second Velorian-on-Earth origin story. 

I was approached by a Hollywood script agent in the late 90's about whether he could purchase that series of books for potential script development. I checked him out and he was legit. But I was so buried behind my second Nom de Plume at the time (started with Betu Best on the pre-Internet BBS era, then Sharon Best and subsequently Shadar on the Internet), given I was entering the peak of my professional career, and I just replied with the tongue-in-cheek disclaimer I put on all stories at the time:  

"License is granted to freely copy or distribute this story as long you give the author(s) below credit and that you leave this notice in place on all copies. I explicitly DO NOT grant the right to use any of the contents of this page for any commercial purposes whatsoever! I'm not making any money on this, so you shouldn't either!It is my goal that these stories, along with my Web page and its contents, will forever be free for reading by anyone of legal age, anywhere in the Milky Way galaxy. However, permission may be requested for use of this material in other galaxies by writing the author and describing the place and purpose for such use.This story is strictly for us 'grups', for those of us who remember the comic books and their limitations and who dare to go where the comics could not go. And for those of us who still have a fertile imagination, a love of fantasy, a sense of wonder and an appreciation for All The Myriad Ways..."


Of course, it would have been very difficult to license given all the wonderful contributors and collaborators who gave of their time and energy to create something fun. Those were simpler and optimistic and naive times when I firmly believed a new form of publishing had arrived where people traded freely and without any thought of compensation. The old Hippie wannabe in me. That didn't last long before the Net fell into the clutches of commercialism (other than a few remaining places like SWM). 

Anyway, thanks Pithlit for awakening some thoughts, and Andrew for reminding me of what was.

Shadar

I was in a very different place when I wrote those chapters. Practically a different person. Very early 20s. Stinging from some personal failures. Struggling with getting by. The very early stages of what would eventually become an alcoholic bender that'd wind up lasting for the better part of a decade. For me, writing was a form of escapism from all that crap. I'd be up all night in various chat rooms, writing fiction entries in Yahoo clubs(and later groups), roleplaying in EverQuest, and otherwise trying to vent my creative needs. Usually with Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory or Metallica's Black Album blaring in my headphones acting as my muse(ah the '00s). Like you said, reading the stuff I wrote back then...it feels like it was written by someone else.

It was practically the golden age of this genre, with you, AK, Tarot Barnes, LFan, Toomey, Moxie, and even Paul Smith being some of the big names(just to name a few). Not to mention the original Mandi Steele site. I'm glad I was able to contribute in my own way.

I agree it was the golden age

pithlit wrote:

Here is another.Let me know if you all want more. 

I think you've done an excellent job of depicting a muscular but still trim and shapely female. While there are many different and legitimate visions of supergirls, not least Velorians, you've captured a pretty convincing Velorian. 

Only thing I would change is to make the eyes much bluer, to the point of being startling so. At least that's how we often described Vels. 
As opposed to human blue eyes, which lack pigment and bend white light such that they emit blue due to the Tyndall effect (similar to why the sky looks blue and thus only look very blue in the right angle of light at the right spectrum and intensity), Vels actually have a blue pigment and a high energy matrix that make them glow even in subdued or no light. But everyone's mileage may vary on that point.

Shadar

  Right, the blue eyes. I forgot.

Here we go.

Perfect!  The large, bright blue eyes and smiling face is exactly how a Velorian would approach someone. Disarmingly friendly and warm, surrounded by the faint but compelling scent of honey and wildflower,
her pheromones floating freely from her hair.

She hunts the powerful Arions, even their mighty Primes, an assassin of their kind, but she has a soft spot for Terrans, whose company she enjoys. Keeping Terrans and other peaceful species free from the oppression of the Empire is the
only thing she was born to do. She moves with the astounding grace of someone who is vastly stronger than any human, stronger even than the mighty Primes, and more flexible than any acrobat, her feet often failing to even touch the ground. 

Shadar

As a fellow longtime lurker, I’m a huge fan of Shadar’s writing and world-building ever since the late 1990s and early days of the AU. I imagine a lot of people wish the Hollywood caliber film versions of the AU could happen. It seems increasingly likely within 5-10 years, we’ll be feeding AU stories into an AI generator and it will produce a high-quality film version. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, enjoy my carefully curated favorites on Deviantart where the “Team Amazon” and “Team Valkyrie” sections are definitely homages to Shadar’s creations: www.deviantart.com/kratos1326/favourites

Thanks for this

Kratos1326 wrote:

As a fellow longtime lurker, I’m a huge fan of Shadar’s writing and world-building ever since the late 1990s and early days of the AU. I imagine a lot of people wish the Hollywood caliber film versions of the AU could happen. It seems increasingly likely within 5-10 years, we’ll be feeding AU stories into an AI generator and it will produce a high-quality film version. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, enjoy my carefully curated favorites on Deviantart where the “Team Amazon” and “Team Valkyrie” sections are definitely homages to Shadar’s creations: www.deviantart.com/kratos1326/favourites

You've got some really nice images under your Favorites. Perhaps the best collection I've seen, with many that appeal to me. 

Nice...

Thanks,

Shadar

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Those are some amazing super-heroine AI legs.  Many of the AI images still look soulless to me but this is a nice one.  Thanks for sharing and improving it!