Assembled in only a week, The Gerosha Chronicles: Assorted Heroes and Villains Coloring Book is a mostly-AI-generated coloring book that lets you imagine different characters and scenes from The Gerosha Chronicles, or color those scenes in for yourself! It's made in the same vein as any Marvel or DC coloring book.
Comic afficionados who love coloring, especially tweens, teens, and young adults, may have a blast with this vivid comic book world. Feel free to check it out for yourself.
There was a time when there was serious consideration to pitch a video game adaptation of Ciem: Ash Cloud to Insomniac Studios. They presented with their 2018 Spider-Man game the perfect formula for how such a game could go. A little more on that pitch in a bit.
In fact, some mockups were made with Wonder AI to demonstrate what different members of the Sodality of Gerosha might look like inside Spider-Man 2, should the PS5 game ever get a PC port as the first one did.
The first game was referenced many times in Dozerfleet fanfics from 2018 to 2023, including A Centipede Returns to the Spiderverse, Percolation Warriors: Spider-Faith, A Centipede Once Again Saves the Spiderverse, and A Centipede and Her Friends Save Two Spider-Men.
Unfortunately, this happened:
This is hardly the only list of complaints about the new game. YouTube, for a time, was saturated with videos filled with complaints about the smug, tone deaf, ignorant, clueless, self-righteous unrighteous new direction Insomniac has gone in.
Alas, like all major corporations, Insomniac can't pay its real estate bills unless it has certain credit qualifications. Which increasingly operate on a Chinese Social Credit-style system, courtesy of BlackRock and the Herodian Mafia. All of Esau's brats, Nimrod's ambitious, are at it, again. All their evil offspring: commies, wokes, the usual suspects; all up to the usual nonsense.
And that has cast doubt there ever being a Ciem: Ash Cloud video game in the Insomniac style of gameplay. While the work is willing to negotiate a little on gameplay mechanics and art style, the writing, the soul, and the God-centeredness of the story's message, are not interested in ever being sacrificed! The core of what Ash Cloud aims to be about is not negotiable! Yet, it's that very heart of its messages that would be the first things attacked, undermined, or replaced by the social credit club.
How Ash Cloud would work, narratively
Because Ciem: Ash Cloud is integrated into a greater schemata of mythology within The Gerosha Chronicles, it'd be almost impossible to tell the story's opening in a video game the same way as how the book would open. There'd need to be prologue missions to initiate the game with, similarly to how Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers for PS2 started players out with some of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli's missions in Fellowship of the Ring before jumping players into The Two Towers' actual movie plot.
Unless Ciem: Inferno and Anarteq: Guardian of the Soo became games first, which would then require a Blood Over Water and a Purge-Flare: Stickin' It to Pencil adaptation prologue for Inferno and a few other prologues for Guardian of the Soo, then the most logical way to initiate an Ash Cloud game would require an Inferno climax prologue. This would be followed by a Guardian of the Soo prologue mission, a Sniperbadger: Fall of the Critter Resistance mission, a Goatgruff Kahoopiliana mission, an Anarteq Kahoopiliana mission, and finally, a mission involving Ciem and Goatgruff in Madison. The next would be a Rise of Korsicht mission for players to play as the Gray Champion. An Escape from Boston mission from The Gray Champion: Shaken Dust could also be included, but wouldn't be necessary.
After the Gray Champion mission in which Korsicht rises up, however, the plot would get rolling pretty quickly. A few small missions as Candi Flippo would play out, and then would come the Anitos. Playing as Goatgruff, players would fight the Anitos and Screwworms until it was canonically time for Candi to become Ciem again. She'd then become the main playable character for the rest of the game, with maybe one mission of playing as Purge-Flare, one as Flintirah, and one as Extirpon.
From there, the Ash Cloud game would follow the book's story pretty faithfully, right up until it was time to close everything down with the final mission of returning to Madison before time runs out. A DLC could possibly allow for Ciem: Caldera to be played as well. The epilogue to Ash Cloud could include a stinger of Tanya Woven's tragedy and Ajeerma Casey's death, teasing the arrival of the Ciem of Seattle. A Ciem of Seattle follow-up game could occur, set after the Caldera timeline. This would have a lot fewer playable characters, and be more focused on Tanya. However, side missions as Yong or even Plum Bixie could be possible.
Since Insomniac stated their desire to make a spin-off Wolverine game also set in Earth-1048, it wouldn't be unreasonable to build off of Ciem: Ash Cloud and its Anarteq and Nemara missions taken from Guardian of the Soo to create a spinoff Anarteq: Tropic Mercenary game that also borrows a little from Guardian of the Soo and Ciem / Anarteq: Kahoopiliana.
There's already artwork available for what an Insomniac-style Ash Cloud game could look like, AI-generated:
This is Candi in a hallway of Unit 5 of Madison Juvenile in 2016; right as things go haywire during Korsicht, the Anitos', and the Screwworms' raid.
Korsicht. The main villain.
Patty Trean. Betrayed by her father and left owing a lot of money on a fraudulent check, she finds herself in Unit 5. Scared, Patty is relieved to make friends with Candi quickly.
The Screwworms. Compromising other prisons.
Flintirah.
Long, straight-haired variant of Nancy Hizrah.
The original Taterbug: Meagan Amez.
Why a woke Insomniac would be a bad choice
Intihar's mad vision for things would be total toxicity to any part of The Gerosha Chronicles, and that's in spite of the fact that its canon already makes several emasculation concessions:
Goatgruff gets killed by the Anitos.
Korsicht captures the Gray Champion.
Extirpon isn't shown doing much until almost the very end.
Anarteq is barely able to defeat Wishpon.
Yet, modern Insomniac would probably still not be satisfied! The following changes are consistent with Intihar's "genius," and would totally butcher the plot and heart of everything:
It's very likely Tanya Woven would be introduced into the plot way too early. While it narratively makes sense for Miles Morales to be included in the 2018 Spider-Man base game, Tanya isn't introduced in Ciem mythos until just before the Caldera timeline. This is to be narratively consistent with the fact that Tanya is inspired by real life Taryn Twine. Therefore, she can't be in prison until February of 2017 at the earliest. As such, telling her story set after the events in Ash Cloud as happening earlier makes little narrative sense. Yet, it'd be consistent with the desire by the studio to have her phase Candi out.
Simping for Tanya wouldn't end there. There'd be racial bias for preferring Tanya. Both Candi and Tanya are half-black; but Candi was raised primarily by a white older adoptive sister and by a Japanese inventor godfather, so she has "white" speech mannerisms. Tanya at least talks "black," so they'd dote on her instead. Tanya's hairstyle is more "black" than Candi's as well. On top of that, Tanya had a black father and a white mother. Candi had a white father and black mother. Stan Flippo being experimented on by aliens is literally how Candi inherited her centipede powers, but woketards care more about not letting white straight men have credit for anything!
Speaking of aliens, the Phaelite Society of Earth subplot would be too complicated for the studio. They'd probably just have Candi get bitten by a radioactive centipede or something instead. Weak.
They'd make Anarteq suck at everything, not just at keeping his cousin out of trouble. They wouldn't be able to find enough ways to emasculate poor Isitoq!
Mary Sue-ification of Nemara. They'd make Jissika "Nemara" Sundue a smug little taint, unable to accept any responsibility for her own screw ups. In canon, when she goes to juvie in Sault Ste Marie, she equally blames herself and Wishpon for her being there. She doesn't deny that her own impulsive actions were partially to blame for what happened. But Insomniac would make her try to place ALL the blame on Izzy! In canon, she only faults Izzy for not taking the threat of Wishpon more seriously sooner. But she still admits she screwed up by attacking Wishpon without backup!
How many gods do we need? They'd make Pakulihi Lekaho as "Kamohoalii" a literal god, instead of an elaborate Marlquaanite imposter of one. They'd also remove his canonical hatred of Hawaiian Democrats over the fact that they murdered his fourth wife back in the 80s. Instead, they'd have him rant about generic something something "racism."
More emasculation: They'd make Goatgruff be miserably incompetent, rather than just get unlucky because the Anitos overpowered and outnumbered him.
No white father figures allowed! They'd completely change Candi's entire motivation for going to Cincinnati, even in ways that make no sense for her character; because they'd be much too butthurt to adapt a story about her risking her life for a white father figure in Bruce Almin, the only father figure she had left with Stan dead and Imaki denied contact with her. Not even the fact that Korsicht is half-Russian would convince them that Candi should risk her life to stop Korsicht from murdering an elderly white prison warden!
More Mary-Sue-ification: They'd probably also try to turn Cynthia Trenson into a total badass. Which is insulting to her actual role!
Even more emasculation and character assassination: They'd make Jordan Grentzwell a jerkwad, so that Candi and Cynthia could abandon him in the rubble and feel no guilt. In canon, Jordan was pretty respectable as Candi's supervisor. The girls make every reasonable effort to save his life when he gets injured.
Sociopathic Girl Power: Even more insultingly, they'd not only have Candi leave Jordan for dead; but play up Candi leaving Jordan for dead as some sort of "girl power" moment! Because nothing says "female empowerment" like showing women to be unable to rise above petty hatred for a bald man that did nothing to them!
In conclusion
Insomniac's new creative direction has proven quite a disappointment, one which may very well doom any chance that Ciem: Ash Cloud ever had to be adapted to a video game. The art style and gameplay looked promising; but a game based on any part of The Gerosha Chronicles would require godly writers that have a love and passion for the art they're making. It would require competent writers as well. Writers who aren't into a satanic BlackRock agenda. And writers who would never dare place such an agenda over and above the need for good storytelling!
In so many ways, Spider-Man 2 got gypped. And so did the players. Dozerfleet Labs has no intention of letting Insomniac make the same mistakes with a Ciem game!
At long last, Pete Hassler's cabal gets their main headquarters added to the Swappernetters: Frontliner Story Pack for The Sims 4. This addition is to celebrate the fact that the apartment complex where Hassler is set to be in-universe has now been officially defined as the Forest Place Apartments of Little Rock. Lack of scouting in 2020 for an actual location for Hassler's apartment led to use of in-game defaults from the Eco Lifestyle apartments, which aren't guaranteed accurate to the floor plans of any real life apartment.
This setup makes it harder for Hassler to hide his activities with Frontliners than in the previous draft, resulting in visitors seldom coming to his door other than Atroce and Triflow.
Another noteworthy detail about Hassler's apartment is that this version is safer for download. The original wasn't included on DzMD, due to its requiring TwistedMexi's T.O.O.L. mod. This version can get by without it. The floor plan for Hassler's apartment is the Magnolia plan.
The Swappernetters: Frontliner Story Pack has been revised as of 4/4/2023. The old Trista Clarion and Bret Kamhold cabal HQ houses, which were draft concepts, are still available for download. However, they are now offered alongside new models, which take their designs based on real homes in the Little Rock area.
Trista's home is especially noteworthy, given how connected it was to other places in the original draft. However, the structure and terrain needed for a house like that in real-life Little Rock was too far from downtown to be practical. The new address for Trista's base of operations for her cabal is now specified to be located at 1524 W. 19th St. in Little Rock.
Kamhold's hideout also has a real address now, in nearby North Little Rock. His new hideout is 914 Roseclair Dr. While not nearly as functional as the original hideout, it is consistent with real world geography. It also reflects how Kamhold wouldn't necessarily be operating with the same generous budget as Trista, in spite Steve Trussel and other benefactors at the top of the chain financing both cabal bosses.
Paradox's new game Life By You is causing much stir, mostly due to how it seeks to be a modern-day-suited revamp of The Sims 3, while beating out EA in almost every category of game design. However, it's future on Dozerfleet Labs - and in other divisions of Dozerfleet - will be contingent on many different factors.
Screenshot licensing
The desire of Paradox to protect its IP is understandable. However, the exact terms of licensing for players regarding what can and cannot be done with modified screenshots of content generated inside of the game determines the practicality of utilization with regards to Dozerfleet Labs acquiring a copy of the game for anything other than simple gameplay and amusement.
Scenario 1: Screenshots may be used in for-profit novels, without paying royalties to Paradox
If something on par with a Creative Commons or similar license is permitted, and for-profit novels may have their illustrations use screenshots from the game, with credits to the game and its developers provided as a sort of free advertising, then several Dozerfleet Literature productions may feature modified screenshots. For-profit comic release deals could also be made for Dozerfleet Comics. Under this setup, all future Sims 4 content packages would be canceled, and replaced with Life By You story packs. Only Sims packs that already exist will remain supported.
Freelance photography notwithstanding, nothing else on the Dozerfleet Studios end currently involves any money changing hands as part of an immediate business transaction pertaining to production. Therefore, machinima videos are not affected by this. Art for the Dozerfleet Database, and for Dozerfleet Records productions, would similarly switch over to using Life By You for anything that can't simply rely on Wonder.
The value of images in most instances would be as thus:
Most valuable - Photos with full permission for use or full ownership.
Photos with adequate permission for use.
Wonder AI app generations, modified or otherwise.
Life By You modified screenshots, or artwork otherwise generated from in-game assets.
Character Creator 3 or MakeHuman renders of sufficient quality.
Sims generated with The Sims 4.
Sims generated with The Sims 3.
Sims generated with The Sims 2.
Scenario 2: Screenshots will require a deal, or may not be used at all in for-profit third-party works
If only free content made by third parties may feature anything generated by virtue of the game, then other factors related to the product and its growth / popularity would determine future investment in the product.
If its performance can outshine The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 in almost every imaginable way, as promised, even on older CPUs, then it will replace The Sims 4 as the de-facto generator of machinomic panels for any work that isn't already too invested in Sims, or hasn't been made yet, as additional content for Life By You becomes available. Character art leaks at present have a very Sims 3 vibe to them; but that could change as the game improves.
Failing to meet this criteria, Dozerfleet Labs will likely not invest in Life By You. If it can't deliver better peformance, it'd be a waste of time and money, when so many characters are already in Sims formats, and would require some pain to translate to another game format.
Age of hardware
The current Dozerfleet Main's shelf life is up for debate; but it has already turned six years old. While its original hard drive for the operating system was replaced with a solid state drive in 2020, and it received a RAM upgrade in 2022, the motherboard won't last forever. There is currently no money for an upgrade to another tower, at least not until next year. Even then, Ryzen mini cube PCs appear to be the future of PC for Dozerfleet.
Playout by division if adopted
Literature: Depending on game screenshot modification lisencing in the game's TOU, screenshots may or may not feature in for-profit works. Free works would be fair game, assuming the game were purchased and replaced Sims 4 as the default game engine employed for machinomics. Free works otherwise will still use Wonder, while for-profit works will take pains to stick to photos owned / created by Dozerfleet.
Comics: Any comics in the set of comics designated to be made that haven't yet been made will be shot using this game as much as possible. While it's too soon to know the practicality of Life By You's performance for rendering characters of a fantastical nature from Ciem / Anarteq: Kahoopiliana, nor Sniperbadger: Fall of the Critter Resistance, Path of the Ming-Cho might be feasible. And if so, would replace Wonder as the art generator for that title. Sorbet could also get updated to include Life By You. Only Blood Over Water and Volkonir 2008 are hard-set on using The Sims 4. Already-produced works in post-production, like Corando's Don't Lose Hope, are exempt from this future business politics debate. Their association with The Sims is grandfathered into their design.
Records: Character art may or may not be made with Life By You, all things considered, especially in instances where Wonder proves inadequate.
Studios: The future of Life By You for machinima productions is up for debate. It would arguably depend on the occcasion.
Labs: DzMD would switch over if all other criteria are met. It's unknown how many characters would be re-created in this new format, however.
The Straggele work for Krampus in The Horrorday Gang, part of The Gerosha Chronicles. Just in time for the holidays, these dark and scary counterparts to the typical "Santa's elves" you see everywhere in December now have a game, where you can guesstimate what your codename would be if you were one of them.
Done in the spirit of those "What's your elf name?" type silly games on Facebook, but with a dark twist.
Given all the occult confusion surrounding what sigils are and what they do, it's best to address what they mean in Cherinob literature and comics.
In The Gerosha Chronicles:
Sigils themselves carry no power. They're merely a pictorial signature, aligned with predetermined phonetic rose structure.
They identity an Apthalan or Biroot by the name most recently assigned unto them by Dolondri, the Giver of Titles.
They can be generated as projections in mid air by an Apthalan or Biroot, but only if God allows it.
A sigil detector gun, like Krystal's, may force an Apthalan or Biroot to generate a sigil of their own names on a nearby wall, giving away their identities and making it harder to remain in disguise via Humanoid Manifest Construct.
Since demons make more convincing human disguses, since their goal is to deceive, Krystal's gun is more useful against demons.
Angels have a lot less to hide.
This process works by stimulating them into doing so by bombarding their HMC with a neutrino signal that reverberates off an HMC's already disrupting neutrino patterns in its presence.
Hence, exploitation of an Apthalan's "neutrino footprint" can compel them to betray their true identities.
Since a real human body and spirit has too weak a comparative signal and disruption, human bodies that are real produce far less significant neutrino footprints, and thus don't yield a sigil.
To even come close to the gun being powerful enough to make a human body project a sigil, it would need enough power boost to potentially produce electromagnetic fields capable of generating beta, X-ray, or even gamma radiation. In which case, a normal human subject is more likely to get cancer than produce a sigil.
This doesn't mean all sigils are completely harmless. In Cherinob 2, Cherinob scolds Krystal against becoming reliant on them, as focus should be on the character of others, not a fancy way of spelling their names. She also warns Krystal that studying demon names carries "memetic hazards," allowing the demons whose names are invoked a way to take root in a victim's psyche, producing unhealthy obsessions that can turn the mind into a weapon against others - or against itself.
The location where the Shard of Kritchobol lodged itself in the back of Cherinob's shoulder blade often manifests as a tattoo. This tattoo is of Kritchobol's sigil. By this, Kritchobol taunts his ancient enemy, painting his sigil on her in a sort of domineering manner, as if marking his territory, or branding her as "his." He blasphemously tries to steal from God the credit for Cherinob's creation, especially in her original Velithia form. Instead of acknowledging God created her, Kritchobol declares Cherinob to be his own creation. His sigil on her is his failed attempt to claim ownership of her.
Sigils generated of Apthalans' and Biroots' names in The Gerosha Chronicles all consist of an Anglicized version of the Hebrew Rose Cross method for phonetic linking.
Fallen angels' names have beginning and end caps, each made of a two-pronged fork symbol. This simulates devil horns, to indicate an evil being.
Holy angels have circular caps, symbolic of retention of a halo.
Invoking their names by drawing them can backfire. Demons are more likely to respond, if any respond. Angels will only respond if God's prior counsel permits.
While angels do periodically instigate conversations with human characters in The Gerosha Chronicles, few mortals get to instigate two-way communication with an angel first. Rather, they usually insist on concerns being taken directly to God in prayer.
