A World of Monsters. (An Encyclopedia on the creatures of the world of Null, Original Writing.)

[TripleMRed]

(Hey everyone, it's me, the author.

I apologize for the long absence, a mixture of RL and other Quests has caused me to lose track of time and thus I had to put this story to the wayside.

Now, I should set something straight, I greatly enjoy writing this story. I find it fun to write, fun creating these creatures and setting up this whole world chock full of lore and the like. However, while I can clearly see from the vote up above that there is a clear and present audience for this story, I'm left unable to bring myself to keep writing due to an uncertainty as to what, exactly, it is that brings my readers here to enjoy my stuff.

So I ask you guys, what is it about this story that you like? The creatures? The glimpses of the world, the owner's notes, the lore, what?

If I can find out what it is you guys enjoy so much in clearer words, I can feel more confident in my writing and find out what you'd like more of. Now, obviously, we've still got a LOT of creatures to go through, but what else would you guys to see more of? Do you like the side-story stuff, would you like to see more 'Goods of the World of Null' posts, more Power Armor stuff, other kinds of bonus lore entries?

My RL is still busy and my schedule isn't as flawless as it used to be, but I intend to try and get a new update this month, with new side-story content based on what you guys ask for, stuff like that.

I again apologize for the long absence, and cannot promise you that another haitus like this won't occur eventually in the future, but until that happens, I'm hoping to post more often than I don't. Current goal: At least one update a week at max, at least one a month. Bare with me guys, and we'll see this story reach it's end and the Encylopedia completed sooner rather than later.

So yeah, what is it you guys enjoy the most about this story and what would you like to see more of? I'll be crossposting this with all the forums this is on, so I'll be taking all of the feedback into consideration!)

 

[TripleMRed]

(Howdy Guys, I had the Hammer line of weapons from here commissioned into some art pieces showing what they look like!

Pinhammer:

Jackhammer:

Sledgehammer:

Feel free to head on over to the artist's relevant Deviantart pages and be sure to give him plenty of support!

https://www.deviantart.com/fluffywolf36/art/Maddock-Industries-Pinhammer-V10-Pistol-876691669

https://www.deviantart.com/fluffywolf36/art/Maddock-Jackhammer-V10-Rifle-876697746

https://www.deviantart.com/fluffywolf36/art/Maddock-Arms-Sledgehammer-V10-DMR-876700819

Each page has more lore and info on the respective weapons and other lore goodies, for those of you who enjoy such things! For those of you who can't access DA for whatever reason, however, here's the relevant lore in their respective pages.

Spoiler: Maddock Industries 'Pinhammer V-10' Pistol

This massive pistol (or depending on who you ask, small rifle) was created by Maddock Industires as a companion side-arm for their Jackhammer and Sledgehammer line of rifles. tTe Pinhammer is widely well regarded by users of its previous incarnations for its sturdy construction that makes it an excellent bludgeon in a pinch, while being an excellent side-arm to be paired with a melee weapon in the user's main hand. The current V-10 model, the latest of its kind, was planned to have an automated paint reconstruction capability alongside with its self-maintenence subroutines, though this was scrapped for the final production models due to bizzare inconsistencies and glitches in the paint-reconstitution efforts.

The Pinhammer comes with a wide variety of customization options, such as longer barrels, sights, flashlights, extended mags, foregrips, stocks, and even fire selectors for burstfire or even full-auto. For those who see it as a little too much for a pistol or need something lighter, it's very easy to modify it into a carbine.

In carbine mode, it can be equipped with Grenade launchers, flamethrowers, rail shotguns, electroshock zappers, and bayonets. You could attach these while just using it as a pistol - you could - but it would be extremely front-heavy and we do not recommend.

Displaced Customer note*
"Created for use against the flora and fauna of Null, which ranges from lethal, to outrageously lethal, to 'warrants the use of antiarmor weaponry.' It holds 18 rounds of .50 caliber 'slugger' microrockets, and it's built expressly for people that don't have a concept of overkill, just 'dead' and 'reload'." If you see yourself being caught with your pants down in the face of some kind of beast made of murder and knives, all out of ammo for your longarm, you can't go wrong with this one.

It also comes with a free bayonet!

*Displaced are new-comers to Null, individuals brought to the Deathworld against their own will by this world's magical monstrosities and with little choice other than to live alongside the Nullians due to lacking any ways of getting back home.

Spoiler: Maddock Industries 'Jackhammer-V10' Rifle

"You can always tell when it's a Displaced picking up a Jackhammer for the first time. Maybe they've seen how many bullets the animals can take, or maybe they've just never seen a rifle so meaty.



"...meaty?"



"Yeah, you know. Meaty. Makes a big boom, sounds and feels satisfying, turns targets into raw meat."
Conversation between an Oros Knight and a Displaced weapon enthusiast.




A steady and stand-by classic of Maddock Industries, the Jackhammer remains a popular weapon for both rookies and experts in the field due to it's extremly solid construction allowing it to be used as a blunt-force melee weapon while reliably capable of being used even with extensive damage to its structure, allowing it to double as an excellent make-shift shield. The Jackhammer's V-10 model, the most current version out on the market, had been delayed from final release due to the discovery of a previously unseen defect in the factory standard holo-sights baked into the weapons as standard. Unwilling to go through another V-3 Defect Incident and recall, it was wisely decided to move the final release back several months in order to avoid a repeat of that ancient drama.

The Jackhammer comes with a wide variety of customization options, such as longer barrels, sights, flashlights, extended mags, foregrips, stocks, and even fire selectors for burstfire or even full-auto. It can also be equipped with Grenade launchers, flamethrowers, rail shotguns, electroshock zappers, and bayonets.

Displaced Customer note*

I got a chance to try this thing out on the range and it's weight actually works to its advantage: All that stuff up the front means as long as you hold the trigger down and have steady hands, you'll stay on target for pretty much the entire mag. Not sure if you'll be bothered by the weight even if you'll feel it, due to that whatever the hell those squid things did to us to allow us to keep up with the locals. Just don't question it enough that you slow down in a heavy situation and get eaten or deboned or something."

*Displaced are new-comers to Null, individuals brought to the Deathworld against their own will by this world's magical monstrosities and with little choice other than to live alongside the Nullians due to lacking any ways of getting back home.

Spoiler: Maddock Industries 'Sledgehammer-V10' DMR

"So it doesn't have the range of a railgun or gauss gun, the round is slower... what the hell does this thing have that a railgun doesn't?"



"It hits like a truck."



"Yeah. I've got the bruises on my shoulder to prove it."



"That all? You ever seen what this will do to the other guy?"

As the latest iteration of the Sledgehammer line of DMRs, the V-10 continues to use the heavy .65 caliber 'Long' sniper Slugger rounds ranged weapon enthusiests have come to know and love. When accompanied with the proper scope, the Sledgehammer has an effective range of nearly 7 miles, paltry compared to the rail sniper rifles beloved by Rangers, Hunters, and Trackers, but more than enough to provide fire support from anywhere in direct line of sight to a battlefield. Experienced Normal Body-Type Oros in particular have been known to make the best use of this due to their instinctive capabilities with ranged combat, managing to consistently hit targets from miles off even in the chaos of the modern battlefield. Despite this ranged capability, the power of the V-10 means that it's more than excellent in close range and medium support roles as well, allowing Hunters, Knights, and Guardians alike to have some accurate heavy firepower during hunts and Spider-Ant hive raids alike.

Displaced Customer note*
'Now, I tried the Sledgehammer and heard all the hype about it. I don't think any of us who've fallen in love with the local guns haven't. So I was pretty surprised and unimpressed with how it took a couple of rounds to reliably kill any of the small fry stuff like those Wolf-Hound things, nevermind the number of mags you go through to fight against stuff like the Slinkers or Wolf-Tigers. Hell, I saw a buddy of mine accidentally eat a round from one of these on the range because he was an idiot, and all he got was this relatively small hole that his new regen fixed up in a couple of seconds flat. I started to complain about it being a rip off, and immediatly shut up when I saw some weapon tests on dummies specially designed to mimic our durability back before we came here and got changed to match the locals. I just.....That can't be right, right? People back home don't just.....turn into mist when shot by a [expletive]ing DMR round from around here, right? Right?

I'm not sure if I'm intrigued or unsettled about the heavier things we can get our hands on..."
*Displaced are new-comers to Null, individuals brought to the Deathworld against their own will by this world's magical monstrosities and with little choice other than to live alongside the Nullians due to lacking any ways of getting back home.

The artist of these lovely pieces is one fluffy, so be sure to give him all your love and support!)

 

[TripleMRed]

Vidcapture of an Oros Knight dancing with his war hound, circa 1900s, Null:



Happy April 1st, all!

 

[TripleMRed]

There is a myth, a legend passed down by the generations, of a time long ago at the dawn of the World of Null. The world was young, its people younger. Life was difficult, brutal, but early society form, and the birth of culture came with it. It was not good, but it was tolerable, as much as life in those times could be.

And then, the sun went out.

The light of Dominus ceased to fall over the world, and as the cold set in, all knew they were doomed.

The peoples of the world gathered together, for it was said that only an act of great devotion would Dominus return to relight the world and bring light and warmth back to it.

And so, the peoples danced.

The first were the outsiders, the Ogra. Their dance was brutal, primitive, violent, but there was a grace to it that could not be denied.

The sun did not return.

Next were the Empusa, the smallest of the Chimera. Theirs was a dance of aggression, of passion that was coiled tightly and unleashed in a storm of activity.

Still the sun did not come back.

After them was the Chimera themselves. They were grace, flowing and sliding into each motion like water, their dancers moving as one with one another, regal and beauty given form.

Dominus remained silent.

Next to go was supposed to be the Cerberi, but something happened. They stood together with the Oros while the others danced, communing. Finally, when the time came, the Cerberi stood back, bringing out primitive instruments: Drums, and strings, and the lightning-flutes of captured Fulgerite. The Oros all stood back as a single one stood tall, in the middle of the assembly. A Cerberus brought forth a spent piece of Solarite, the solar crystal dead and silent and lightless.

The Oros stood tall, took a deep breath.....And began his dance.

Spoiler: The Sacred Dance

As the music and the dance continued, the spent Solarite crystal came to life, and all at once, Dominus returned, bathing the world in warmth and light.

---

"And that is how we Oros got our sacred dance."

"Wow, gramma, is that true?"

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Regardless of the truth, it's our dance we share with the Cerberi and it's why all our cultures know it."

"Cool!"

"Actually, it's quite silly, but if it's good enough to amuse a sun back to life, it's good enough to keep on doing!"

 

[TripleMRed]

Median Territories, Eastern Arisa, 15XX

---

It had been days since the assault started. Spider-Ant attacks were predictable, but it didn't make them any less threatening: The citizens of Riverview had been manning their positions for hours upon hours, switching between manning the emplacements, repairing and rearming the Orthos Drones, running ammunition, or being relieved for a few hours of rest. The Ants themselves were in full force, a horde fit for an entire town rather than the humble village of Riverview. Their only saving grace was that they still had small mountains worth of munitions and equipment left over from the Unification War when they had been the site of a supply depot.

"Keep firing!" Shouted Luz Bakshi. The Bughunter descended Oros woman has been the humble banker of their village's communal money repository, and now found herself on the front lines once again to act as one of several coordinators for the defense. "Just keep firing!"

"I didn't know they could come in so many numbers!" One of her subordinates, a Stonecutter man named Jace Sturmaxt, was manning a water cooled heavy machine gun from his position on the village's wall, focus firing the heavy rounds on the larger Spider-Ant variants. Amidst the swarms of slashing Soldiers and scavenging Scrappers were the heavily armored Warriors, who with their acidic bile could begin to eat away at the walls' integrity if allowed to get close. As the heavy weapons teams focused fire on those creatures, the others poured down fire and mortar shells unto the swarms, with dedicated melee teams cutting down any that got past.

Almost 120 hours of this, nearly four whole days.

"Focus fire on-" Luz began to say when a massive explosion rocked the near by watch tower. Her head snapped to look in that direction and watched as the outer layers of the tower, blasted and cratered from the explosive impact, were beginning to melt and slough off. Her head immediately turned to scan the horizon of the distant tree line when she spotted it: There, within the cover of the treeline, was a hulking Scorpius, the Spider-Ants scorpion esq long ranged biological tank equivalent. "I need someone to take out that Scorp, now!" She shouted behind her. A near by heavy weapons team-A Normal Body Type male with a bow and arrow and a hulking Warrior Body Type female with a truly massive rocket launcher on her shoulders-Immediately ran to the front of the wall.

The male ran one of his arrow's crimson tip against the rocket's own Solarite tipped warhead, the two glowing in sync for a brief moment, before taking aim with his bow. Pulling back nearly a ton's worth of draw weight from the metallic stringed war weapon, he carefully aimed his bow against the flowing of the wind, high up in the air and seemingly off course. The Scorpius managed to launch another long distance blast of explosive acid, this time the glob detonating against an Ant-Lion sentry nest on the ground, when he launched the arrow.

It sailed through the air, being dragged by the wind into a new trajectory where in it wound up sinking in between the plating of the nitro-acid launching tip of the Scorpius' tail, sinking into the flesh beneath. His Warrior partner, meanwhile, took aim skyward with her rocket before firing it. IT shot up into the air before its tip glowed red and it immediately began to correct its course, turning to come screaming down at the Scorpius' tail tip like an act of God.

The resulting detonation rocked the treeline, leaving a 10 meter wide crater that took scores of Spider Ants with it. This seemed to be the breaking point in the assault, as the moment the Scorpius and its immediate surrounding area went up with titanic force, the surviving Ants that had yet to be cut down cut their losses and began to flee back into the woods, making as fast as they could back to their nests deep and far from the village.

A resounding cheer erupted from the crowds of Riverview's defense force even as they remained on their guns to give parting shots to the retreating Ants. It was not until a full 10 minutes had passed did they finally, truly relax, turning to one another for victory body slams, hugs, and the occasional high five in a really cool way.

For her part, Luz sighed as she took off her helmet, looking up to the cloudy sky with smile of relief on her face. Almost four full days of the biggest Spider-Ant assault in Riverview's entire history, and they had done it. They had survived. They had won. Even clouds seemed to begin to part as the glowing light of Dominus began to filter through the-

Luz narrowed her eyes in a squint as she looked at the approaching light. That.....Was not the light of the sun.

Coming through the clouds, adorned in an ill fitting T-Shirt that read 'Community Manager', was an honest to God Uplifter. Was it....drinking a coffee? Silence reigned as it stopped just over her, hovering in place as it took a sip from the drink in its myriad of tentacles.

"Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that there was a mistake last patch and we're going live with a quick fix until the next update. Have fun!" It declared. Its strange words meant nothing to the assembled Riverviewers, but they still left an ominous feeling mounting on their hearts like rocks being tied to ones feet over deep water.

As the Uplifter began to lift up and leave, the words 'Live Patch In Progress.....Live Patch Live' appeared over the sky and in an instant, every single Spider Ant that they had slain the past few days suddenly sprang back to life, healthy and intact like they hadn't been shot, sliced, burnt, or detonated apart. Even the Scorpius was back......and for some Godless reason, there was now an additional 3 of them spread across the tree-lines. The words in the sky changed once more: 'Survival Mode Activated'. A moment of silence stood between the Riverviewers before the reality of the situation hit them like a charging Shinook, and they all scrambled to their defenses to begin anew.

"Fuck enemy buff patches, this is Sloughshit!" Someone howled in anger, to which they could only begrudgingly agree with their continued on pouring of firepower.