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It has sort of come to my attention that I'm a rather ungenerous, Scrooge-esque individual who's primarily interested in earning cash off of his art. That is entirely true. I'm not here to make a lame excuse for that - I love money, and I don't enjoy doing work knowing I may not get paid, much less appreciated. If you're good at something, don't do it for free. However, in light of recent events, I'd like to make two major announcements to the community. First of all, I'll be leaving in September. I'm currently involved in mooting for my local university before my first official year as a law undergraduate, and I foresee a veritable torrent of activity after September when my term begins. By extension, I'll be gone for a very extended period of time, possibly forever if my schedule doesn't let up - which is entirely possible and probable, given what the older students are going through. In other words, there is a good chance I will not return. Second, and this is a direct extension to the first, I will be releasing my own set of resources every month, on top of ReStaff contributions and miscellaneous bits I'm doing for Tsarmina's game Sugar Sweet. All resource releases will be completely free to use. No catches, no fine print. Use as you see fit. Be sure to credit me for the work. Obviously. Also, it's Spectre/Spectre Studios, not Sceptre. I'm looking at you, random dude with 5 posts. I will only be releasing Portraits, Busts, or Static Battlers due to time constraints. The catch is, since I've barely enough time to do up freebies, this is the only time you can request specific resources from me. All resource packs will be released at the end of every month in the Resources Forum, under Spectre's Freebies (month & year). How this works is fairly simple. Comment the types of resources you'd like to see from me, or their genres - sci fi, animals, robots, big armored guys with swords, big-chested ladies and skimpy attire etc. and I'll pick the most picked theme (within reason, and please make sure it's family friendly) and make freebies out of it. If the poll/comments are largely ignored, I'll select a theme on my own accord, but mind you I'll be fairly upset about it and release significantly less resources for that month. On top of that, please note the following: Obviously, no sexually explicit, offensive, or gory imagery. You will be reported. Please do not suggest a specific description of your original character. I'm trying to work around generic themes for everybody to use. Please do not ask me to draw My Little Pony. You will have your cookies and friends taken away from you. I will not entertain re-sketches of existing resources, recoloring or drawing over another's resources. If you want a tutorial or comments on your artwork, please PM me in private. So, exalt me, mortals, and comment with the top resources you'd like to see for this month. A few of you may be wondering about art quality - no, it's definitely not going to be similar to the doodle I did above. For those who have yet to see my works, or are unfamiliar with me, here is a link to my art thread. Expect to see quality similar to, if not identical, to the pieces displayed below: Now, it's open to you guys: ask away. I'll be publishing the first release for resources on 15th May, 2015, so vote away or suggest your favorite theme(s), and I'll churn out something that'll make unicorns go into depression for paling in comparison to what'll emerge from the dark bowels of my pen tablet.

Hello, and welcome to the first post of my new blog: Writer's Resource. A blog where I will seek to provide both new and old writers alike with resources to help with the processes of character development and world building. (Apologies for the terrible punctuation.) For this first post I would like to introduce you to something that many people know about, but I still seem to find new people who have never heard of it before, so I figure it's as good a place as any to start the series. Here is a link to the Myers Briggs test. It is what we'll be covering today. What is the Myers Briggs test? Well it is a test developed to help define certain personality types commonly found in society. It was created in 1921 by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers. And is actually officially called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, but people tend to shorten it for obvious reasons. If you want to read more about it's history, then check out it's wiki page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indicator Now. What exactly is the test useful for? Well it's a good way of gauging how a character will generally act in everyday situations. Think of it as something to help set the foundation of a character, or how they will react to something when you're drawing a blank. What you do is you fill out the series of questions with either one thumb (agree/disagree) two thumbs (strongly agree/disagree) or three thumbs (completely agree/disagree) as your character would in the situations represented and you will get a general personality type of that character. Don't get hanged up on whether or not these situations would actually happen in your characters world, or time period. Just answer like they would if these did happen to them. It should be stressed that this is not something that will write the character for you, you still need to do that. Nor does the result your character gets from the test mean that they will never stray from that general personality throughout the entire story. How a character reacts depends on how they have changed over the course of a story, or what has recently been happening in the story. Well that's the first Writer's Resource. I plan to do this on a weekly, or bi-weekly basis. But for me to do that I'm gonna need help from you guys. If you know of articles, tests, other blogs or videos that you feel are helpful for writing characters, or worlds then please share them with me via PM saying why you think it is a good resource and I will post it either by itself or with another resource depending on how many resources people share with me. Anyway. I hope you all got something useful out of this, and I hope you all have a good day. -LS

THE RATS UNIT Within the Keeper organization, operatives are placed within different units that often consist of somewhere between five to eight people, including an official of the Church. The name of these units vary, but the most recent unit to come around is the Grandmore Rats Unit, which consists of six members. Their mission is marked as being the new unit in regulating the Havalon branch of possibilities, but it seems that there is more to their job than even the captain seems to be aware of… All pictures are from Makapri of Kingdom Rise and Fall. ____________________ “Even if all of you are new here, I expect all members of this unit to be professional. It’s unfortunate, but I cannot allow any one of you to make amateur mistakes in this mission – the time for improvement ended the day you entered the organization, so all of us have make damn sure that this unit won’t suffer a setback.†William of the Keepers: The captain of the newly-formed Rats Unit, William may be the veteran member of the group, but the truth of the matter is that he feels very unproven to be placed in such a role. At the age of thirty-two, his young daughter Alexis was just born between him and his wife, Alana, who works as a barkeeper in one of the most popular pubs in the city. Naturally, William works very hard to make sure that he could put bread on the table, and although the job benefits of being a Keeper makes it much easier to not worry about the bills, the thought of never being able to be there for his family when it matters most has often pained William to the point of coldness. What little he could do though, for when he chose to become a Keeper, William believed that there was a higher purpose to his work, and over a decade later, every thought of retiring from the organization has always been countered by the doubt that his work was far from being finished. This is the sort of destiny that William could see within Reid Grayson, one of four rookies assigned to the Rats Unit under him, and recent times have left the captain wondering what the main motives are for people to enter the Keepers organization in the first place. Although he appreciates the level of professionalism Kyle has been able to display, the captain finds himself at odds with the apathetic personality and violent background of the boy who had simply been recruited to join the Rats Unit without any formal training, and William keeps a sharp eye on the necromancer, unwilling to trust the lives within the unit to a criminal. _____________________ “This wasn’t about just doing the things you’ve been ordered to do! This is about making sure you’re taking care of the right thing! How could you justify such horrible crimes against life itself when it’s happening right in front of you! There are more important things to look out for than some command from a man behind a screen!†Reid Grayson: A recent graduate from the Keepers Academy, Reid Grayson had spent the past twenty years of his life believing that he was brought into the world with the sole purpose of maintaining the peace that Grandmore enjoys today. Born into a family of knights, Reid’s father had recently retired from the Paladins, a society of religious knights of the highest honor, and is currently the owner of a rapidly-growing restaurant. Although Reid felt no pressure to enter the path of the knight by his parents, the same could not be said for the rest of his relatives, who believe that every member of the family should be serving as a member of the most politically-influential military body in Grandmore. However, Reid, the youngest out of three children, did not agree with this notion. Even if his immediate family was the exception, he did not see the knights as a group of glorious heroes, but as politicians, even more than members of the political body of Grandmore. Wishing to throw himself right into the action and doing what he can to make a difference, no matter how small, Reid matriculated himself into the training program of the Keepers, a requirement for most people who wish to enter the organization, when he was seventeen. He would spend the next three years receiving training in various fields, whether it be as a battlefield medic or a soldier, and while he was not an outstanding student, Reid stood out as a natural leader. An idealistic and enthusiastic young man, many people would see Reid as naïve, but the young man knew different – he simply hasn’t given up on his childhood dreams, and he truly believes that a time will come where he and everyone else will finally witness just how possible it is for goals to become a reality. Friendly, almost to a fault, Reid chose to ignore the necromancer talents of Kyle upon their first meeting, instead choosing to welcome the boy as another member of the Rats Unit – after all, Reid understood that the abilities and past of a person does not speak for everything in an individual, and out of everyone within the Rats Unit, Reid truly believes that Kyle is just as capable, if not more so, to be a Keeper and more importantly, a great person. ____________________ “I can’t say our races get along too well, boy. However, the gnolls often judge the worth of a stranger through his or her displays to combat, but they judge the value of a friend on just how brave the companion truly is. We all live with the belief that only the bravest of people could possibly have the opportunity to be the most caring, because the brave are the ones willing to shoulder the fears of the tribe and lead the way out of the shadows.†Khartok: A crow gnoll, Khartok resembles a humanoid bird – although he has arms, legs, hands, and feet, all of his body is covered in dark feathers, and he has powerful wings that extend from the sides of his torso to underneath his arm. His head is that of a crow, although he rarely makes any primitive sounds, instead speaking in a surprisingly articulate manner. Polite and wise, the twenty-six year old gnoll is unlike most others of his race, who are often regarded as a wild and idiotic species. The gnoll was once a victim of species trafficking, where criminals from Grandmore would bribe a corrupt Keeper into giving them access into a more unknown possibility in order to bring in products for the underground slave market. For the past twenty years, Khartok grew up with nothing: no family, no past, and no future. He was eventually sold to a man who was obsessed with gambling – Khartok’s new owner would often lose entire months’ worth of salaries in order to fund his bets in the nearby fighting ring. The then six-year-old gnoll was given the name Khartok, the name of a vicious gladiator from the past, and the gnoll was thrown into the ring to fight for his life and his owner’s money. For each loss, the gnoll was punished, and for win, he was rewarded. Khartok, who had little experience of the world, did what he could to attain any semblance of relaxation or happiness during these fights. The gnoll wasn’t incredibly successful in the ring, but he would spend the next fifteen years growing more powerful, and making a name for himself in the underground ring. When Khartok had reached his twenty-first year, his owner had been found dead floating in a nearby pond, and Khartok was later taken captive by the same criminal group that had taken Khartok from his birthplace. The gnoll would spend the next couple of years fighting for them, with no reward, until the Keepers somehow got wind of this species trafficking ring, and busted the criminals. Khartok, who found himself with no purpose once, was unhappy with the current situation, and it was made worse when other law enforcement organizations made a point to use him as evidence against the criminal organization, but it was the Keepers organization who finally won the lawsuit, making sure Khartok was not recognized as material evidence, but a witness who could testify on the stand. Feeling grateful for what the organization has done for him, the gnoll would spend the next three years in their training program, always placing himself in a higher standard because of his origins: he would have to be more eloquent and intelligent than the rest of his peers, due to his age and status, if he wanted to be seen as an equal. The gnoll would find himself graduating at the top of the class, and shortly afterwards, recruited into the Rats Unit of Grandmore alongside two other of his classmates. Khartok would find himself intrigued by the violent necromancer Kyle, for the gnoll realized that he would’ve been no different from Kyle had he chosen not to become a Keeper, and pities the young boy for being unable to take the life-changing opportunity until it was too late. ___________________ “I wonder why this sort of information is natural for me to pick up – I grew up in the desert, where we had rocks for trees and sand for dirt. Not once until today have I stepped foot into a forest, and yet, this place gives me a feeling of comfort similar to the sands of my past.†Rebecca Nejem: A desert elf who comes from a long line of nomadic residents of the sand, Rebecca is actually incredibly young for an elf, being only nineteen-years-old; however, the maturity cycle between a desert elf and a woods elf is incredibly different, with a desert elf actually being closer to living out the length of an average human’s lifespan than they are to living out their woodsman relatives’ cycle of life. The desert elves, particularly those of the Nejem tribe, originated from a possibility known for a mysterious group of assassins who were hired only by the nearby royalty. Much of the assassination and combat techniques, such as archery, knowledge of poison, martial arts, amongst many other skills, were passed down to the descendants. Rebecca excelled at these abilities, if not much else. She would be unable to become a good mother, for her skillset is so wired to the battlefield that her family even feared she would end up crushing a child upon cradling a baby. Knowing this, Rebecca swore herself into service as one of the Queen of the Heaven’s knights, a female parallel of the Paladins whose members swore themselves into celibacy. Rebecca was recruited into the training program of the Keepers on her sixteenth birthday, as the members of the Nejem tribe and her family all agreed it was best to exile her, as they believed that she could not live a normal life amongst her people – she simply had the soul and blood of a warrior, an idea that went against the peace-loving lifestyle of her people, who only passed down the martial techniques of the assassins for defensive purposes. Rebecca excelled in the program when it came to physical tests, but it she seemed to care little for the other parts of the training, and she barely graduated alongside the rest of her class. She is the last of the three recruits from the Keepers training program to be brought into the Rats Unit. Although she knew of both Reid Grayson and Khartok, her two classmates, she thought little of them, and the nature of their relationship changed very little even after the recruitment. However, meeting Kyle was a memorable event for the desert elf, for like her two classmates, the elf also saw something within the necromancer that spoke out to her – the loneliness of being different from others. Although she won’t admit it, she feels a connection with the necromancer, who may be the only one out of all them who really experienced loneliness at the cost of other people, but unlike everyone else in the unit, she could see that Kyle never had anyone to help him when it mattered most. ____________________ “I never thought of these ceremonies as a mere formality, you know. There’s a purpose to each and every one of them, because why else would they be put into the books and passed down the church? We don’t get any monetary reward for doing such things, and at times, I do feel like I’m producing a miracle through my prayers and observances. Maybe I’m a sort of a megalomaniac? Just the idea of me being the only one capable of performing the miracles when we need them brings a bit of a smile to my face – it makes me feel reliable.†Cosette of the Church: A young girl who was orphaned at an unknown age, nineteen-year-old Cosette grew up with a very humble background, brought up through her education to become a priestess of the Queen of the Heavens. She is also the only one of the Rats Unit who is not officially a member of the Keepers, instead being brought in as a representative from the Church to make sure the Unit doesn’t do anything that breaks the regulations set by the Keepers and the Church when it comes to meddling in the affairs of possibilities outside of Grandmore. Although she gives off the image of being a cheerful and talkative young woman, Cosette gives off an aura similar to that of Maiden Torri: she seems to have a number of things to hide, and will take great measures to avoid conversations pertaining to her past. However, unlike Maiden Torri, Cosette seems to be able to express genuine emotions, and there is no doubt that she enjoys her current occupation – her greatest goal in life is similar to that of Reid’s: to be able to make a difference where it matters most. Cosette is also incredibly talented in the brewing of medicine and other such concoctions, although she requires a fee in order to transport the recipe and ingredients for these items – as it stands, she does not carry a lot of funds to make regular orders.