The Silken Spirit and A.I Constructs

A few days ago I was in work, tapping away at my desk as per usual listening to a bit of Morcheeba (Trigger Hippie, great song) ticking off my list of jobs, looking forward to my break which was in fifteen minutes or so, but then my phone buzzed, it was a friend of mine; He didn’t begin with ‘Hello young man,’ or ‘You alive?’ or ‘How are things, you good?’ like he usually does, instead he opened with a question, and that question was: –

‘Do you have a description of one of your characters?’

He’s always been a supporter of my work, whenever we get together for a drink or ten, he always asks about it, and a wholesome conversation typically follows, but never has he reached out so directly before, which honestly rose a little suspicion in me. I replied, quite innocently with: –

‘Dude, I’m up to my perfect ass in character descriptions.’

‘Send a description over, there’s a good lad.’

I wasn’t replying in that way just to be comical; I actually am sinking in character descriptions at the moment. When I want one drawn for example, I send the artist a brief, and the brief is broken up into three parts – First comes the overview, the biography of that character, a list of things starting with the obvious, their name, his or her origin, age, race, occupation, height, weight and so on. Then comes a paragraph of their place in the world and within the story. I share their motivations, their history, their fears, their strengths, weaknesses, and hint at their journey’s arc. It’s all written from a third person perspective but the idea is to give the artist more than just a cold list; Sometimes character artists need a little more than the obvious, sometimes they need to enter the headspace of said character to nail facial features, stature or pose, the more someone has to work with the better the sketch is usually, plus this opens the door for them to add a personal touch. As I keep saying, the people I hire are creative too, and instead of dictating to them at every step of the way, I encourage them to embrace their own artistic flares and take a risk with what they see in my ideas. This is important. Finally, the third part is the key notes; The key notes are descriptions that HAVE to be included or acknowledged in the drawing, for example, if the character has curly hair and green eyes, if he or she uses a particular weapon or is adorned with a scar, these things must be considered and cannot be altered in anyway, they’re hard rules so to speak and not things up for debate. Occasionally, the artist will require some reference images or sketches from myself to assist them, all my characters are unique, but some are more so than others, and giving the artist something more to get them on the same page as I am, is necessary. Once he or she has everything they need, they’re good to go, they’re instructed to message me at any time if they need anything more and they’ll get back to me in a few weeks’ time, with a first draft, followed with a second and third; Typically, we’re on our way to completion after the second interaction but there have been instances when we go into the fourth and fifth draft. Once the drawing is completed, they send over the completed file, I send over their payment, we shake hands, and we get on with our merry day. The work, when published is credited by both myself and the artist, and often features in an article such as this, and that’s it, that’s the process behind character concepts. It’s no great secret or mystery as to how this all comes together, it’s just a simple matter of relaying your vision to someone who is visiting your world equipped with different skill sets, and I try to employ the same methodology and principles when working with outsiders, whether they be character artists, landscape artists or musicians, the goal is to give them something to work with, something which coherently translates and can be adapted accordingly, as close to the books as possible. So, to continue with the story, I sent over a slightly edited version of one of my character briefs to my friend, I sent him the description of Chloe Augustien aka The Silken Spirit, and within two minutes, he messages back with not one, but several concepts of a fully rendered, fully realised, beautifully interpretation of Chloe. It’s hard to convey how I felt in that moment, on the one hand I was astonished, enthralled, and overjoyed at the concept of not having to pay for art anymore, to get not one but several incredible interpretations of characters who have been floating around in my head for an enormous amount of time. Where normally it would take weeks sometimes even months to receive one drawing, now I could get many in a matter of moments, tweaked to the highest degree and depicted in whatever setting my imagination would allow. Fucking marvellous! However, what I have learned in all my years doing this and as a human bumping around on planet Earth, is that everything comes at a cost whether it be in the short or long term, there is no free lunch, nothing is too good to be true and cutting corners negates the grind necessary to become something of a success, whether it’s in the public eye or from within yourself. I hate to quote Star Wars considering what it has become over the years (a diabolical unforgivable sloppy mess, a disaster that stains the film industry), but the original trilogy, Empire Strikes Back specifically, relays this lesson perfectly; Rushing, and taking the quick and easy routes might pay off in the short term, but often ends in chaos. It’s actually the practise of patience, hardships and setbacks that exist in the journey that really make you what you are. This is what I would like to talk about today, not only the grind but what has only been perceived and speculated upon in regards to A.I is now fucking here, the technology to create whatever I want is literally at my fingertips; What this means for not only myself, but for creatives and the industry moving forward from now on, is worth a mature analysis, and I’ll do my best to articulate how I’ll be conducting myself in the future. But first, I’d like to talk about the most recent character sketch of Chloe Augustien, someone who was mentioned I believe only once in Episode One-The Utopian Dream but is fully introduced in the first third of Episode Two-Rise of The Black Doves and comes into her own in Volume Five. This is article 100 called, The Silken Spirit and A.I Constructs, do grab yourselves a drink and let’s get started. Hope you enjoy.

Chloe Augustien is an interesting and important character in The Ancestral Odyssey series, it might not appear that way to start with, but overtime she finds herself thrust into the wars between the mortal and the immortal worlds. She not only represents someone who struggles to find her own place in Equis, something that I think we all can relate to, but she becomes the centre piece after having gone on that lonesome journey of self-discovery, becoming a figure of extreme importance between multiple factions that bicker over her fate. The irony here is that she starts as a nobody, a petty thief with a tragic past who associates with thieves, The Dark Rogues, who embellish independence and freedom; She breaks away from said guild when they begin to form certain alliances, when they begin to loosen those wild and free ideas that attracted her to them (Draygo specifically) in the first place, they becoming an army in that of themselves, something to be commanded and moved about at a moment’s notice. Chloe abandons them, to live a life where she can feel in control and pursue her own purposes as once promised by Catherine Quistel (leader of The Dark Rogues), but before long she’s dragged back into these old feuds that she sort to escape from, where not only her destiny is bickered upon by almost every faction in the human world, but is realised in the demonic landscape also; Chloe going from just another girl, to a highly significant piece on the board of war where everyone wants her dead or alive. Initially, I thought this story would suit Draygo Dumear’s character arc, Chloe’s Dark Rogue partner in espionage (or I should really say ex-partner), but as the story began to unfold, taking on a mind of its own as it always does, Draygo’s path became one of redemption, he is after all nicknamed The Redeemer. Throughout the series, in Ep2-Rise, he redeems his competence in the eyes of Riagel, in Ep3-Seeds he is on the path to redeeming his allegiance in the eyes of Catherine, but redeeming himself in the eyes of Chloe Augustien, is something I consider to be his ultimate redemption arc, one that may require him to make a difficult choice. I’ve already mapped out the story between Draygo and Chloe, and it’s to me one of the strongest journeys in the series, not only is it realistic in the ways of human relationships, but it speaks to people about the importance of friendship and loyalty. The map/guideline branches off toward the end, it can go one of two ways in this moment, but this is a brilliant problem to have, a writer’s dream so to speak, because whichever way I decide to take this story come the time, I believe readers will be left satisfied. To learn more about Draygo Dumear and The Dark Rogues as a whole, I did write an article in December of 2020, it’s number 62 called, Weapons of Redemption. It’s a great read and covers plenty of the groundwork for The Dark Rogue story, but I must warn you, when I re-read it in preparation of this article, a few facts have been altered to fit a more compelling narrative. This is a common problem with us pesky writers, we’re always evolving, what ideas we had six months ago might not be the same when you fast forward, likely they would have grown into something stronger, into something that makes more sense or have been dropped entirely, it happens.

Interestingly, when I think back to the development of Chloe, a development that stretches back well over a decade now, originally she was going to be one of the myths of Equis, something that the humans call, The Forest Stalker; She was in the beginning going to be a hulking, humanoid, male hunter similar to that of the famous Predator creature, that appeared in the 1988 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, a being that hunts other apex predators down for sport or (given a slight fantastical twist) those foolish enough to tread on his hallowed ground. The Forest Stalker was to be a champion of a once sophisticated tribal race, one that valued honourable killings, glory in the battle and the right to mate with alpha females. The forests of Equis which were much larger in the ancient times, were not only where this species cultivated their ritualistic societies, societies that worked in harmony with the ecosystems, but they acted as their arena as well, each tribe having carved out its own unique territory along the forest’s boarder, while the giant fenced off centre was where the battles and competitions would take place between the mightiest of warriors – Organised tribal warfare was a term I used when summarising their law of the land. The concept was that over time, the greatest male warriors would rise victorious over other males in the arena, and in turn would earn their right to pass on their genes with the strongest and most beautiful of females from the tribe (or tribes) they just defeated, and through an orchestrated yet natural selection process, over time only the strongest would survive and be able to breed. The tribes would eventually merge into one, and the gene pool would be at its most powerful. This is a very loose idea I must admit, and it clearly wasn’t something I continued with for obvious reasons, for one it’s far too close to that of the Predator lore, and second it just jarred with me for reasons I cannot put my finger on; Whether this idea has just been played out far too often or because I massively prefer the Alien (Xenomorph) over the Predator, I don’t know, but I dropped The Forest Stalker almost completely and at one point, I never thought I’d come back to its broken remains, but I did many years later, and what was left, what was salvaged from amongst the wreckage, were the best parts of the initial idea; A hunter that resided in the depths of the forest, something camouflaged that lived in harmony with its environment and something that appeared ethereal in nature, beautiful when you caught a glimpse from a distance but deadly when up close and personal, hence The Silken Spirit was born, and it sewed itself so eloquently onto the character of Chloe Augustien, it was too delicious to ignore. The seed as it were had ripened into fruit – I left the honour killings on the floor and replaced it with a poacher who poaches poachers after having given them fair warning, and I dropped the survival of the fittest regime with something far more relatable and innate, something that resides from within all of us, especially women. Once I had a base for the character, someone who desires freedom and independence over a constant career, someone who much like Draygo takes issue with authority, favours darkness over light, adheres to dishonour over honour, tactfully selects the stealth option over outright brawling and employs ingenuity over outright power, once all of this had been established I could really roll-up my sleeves and go to work, giving life to her characters personality and aesthetic, one who embraces the traits of something that could be mistaken for a phantasm, a phantasm stemming from the fact that demons are after her, yet still she cloaks herself in a malevolent persona. Chloe is awesome, she’s resourceful, intelligent, observant, brave, logical, warm with those she trusts, deadly to those who cross her and knowledgeable about her forest environment. Unfortunately, she sometimes fails to appreciate and respect dangers, often feeling like she can survive alone and live a life consequence free, despite her lawlessness actions however justified they appear to be in her world, a world fortified with a Dark Rogue mindset, she does have an ego and a tendency to go too far. Chloe’s greatest hindrance comes from an incident rooted in her past, she suffers mentally from a trauma no one should bear, and due to tragedy, one that beset her in her youth, she was forced to cultivate a mentality that helps serve as a blockade even to the strongest of telepathic demons, who are unable to enter the space in her consciousness – This blockade, does not only serve as neuron camouflage that keeps demonic forces at bay, but it’s so strong she sometimes forgets her empathy, and needs reminding from time to time that she is after all a deeply caring, loving person. Equis has a way of exploiting the goodness in people and warping it into questionable acts that mirror a sinister nature. Conveying this wonderfully complex character to my artist, Evelyn, was a challenge, but one I feel was successfully achieved, and I started by describing one of Chloe’s defining features, her Silk Spinners.

The Silk Spinners are essentially complicated devices that attach to the forearms of the wearer, they’re metallic casings that ride up to the elbow, but it is what they hold and contain that is important. On the right, this device has the ability to fire projectiles attached to a line of silk or otherwise depending on the situation. It fires something similar to that of crossbow bolts and can do so at devastating speeds, speeds that can punch through armour at short distance and break chainmail at medium distances. Those fired attached to a line of silk, however, can be retracted, acting as a sort of arm extension and retriever; It’s important to note that because of the rights dual design crafted for offence, it can only hold two cylinders of silk. The left spinner’s sole purpose is a propelled grappling hook, it harnesses a variation of grappling heads depending on the user’s location, and can hold up to four cylinders of silk – This mechanism has a longer range than the spinner on the right, but combined, when the wearer has both equipped, these Silk Spinners of a unique design, when used with as much professionalism as Chloe is capable of, can run rings around units of hardened soldiers and even the most experienced of fighters. The source of this equipment is of course the silk that is fed and retracted through the device’s mechanics, for it is special silk that is not on the market or in trade with lone dealers, nor can it be simply harvested in nature without the secret knowledge to its ingredient – And those secrets only Chloe Augustien is privileged to after many years of trial and error. The secret comes from a particular forest spider called, the Burrow Spider, famous for its large size, its broad diet that consists of both insects and rodents and its creation of impeccably strong web, so strong that it can even trap and entangle some birds. Chloe knows this and went to work, she adopted a Burrow Spider and named it after a good friend of hers, someone she no longer is in contact with due to her decisions to make her feel less lonely – Burrow Spiders might be extremely poisonous but they have never been known to attack humans or be aggressive unless severely provoked, in fact they make incredible roommates and ward off intruders that seek to disrupt the equilibrium in the space; This is where they get their name from, once they burrow in they are burrowed for life mother fucker, becoming faithful companions. Unfortunately, this positive message is lost in translation, drowned out by the stories of their impressive size (as large or larger than a dinner plate), their monstrous appearance and the highly poisonous toxin stored in their venom sacks. Chloe, utilises the spider’s ability to make strong web, she feeds her eight-legged friend a diet of carefully selected moths and rare insects that not only keeps spider happy, healthy and loyal, but increases production and the overall resilience of the silk, which when weaved intricately together by an experienced seamstress that Chloe’s mother was, who passed on her knowledge to Chloe when she was a child, one can create a material as sharp as wire, and as strong as a metal chain – This is what Chloe threads through her spinners, this is the root power of her alias, the Silken Spirit, a Forest Guardian, a shadowed protector, who like the Burrow Spider, maintains the equilibrium to Equis’s largest forest. One way in which she enforces this equilibrium, is by poaching poachers, those who wield someone else’s technology to dominate the wildlife in their own habitat; Chloe, ironically uses a superior technology, one created by both man and nature and turns it on those who abuse harmony, are self-serving and care for nothing but profit through cruel exploitation. Chloe/The Silken Spirit does not only hunt the hunters, but sometimes lures poachers into the domains of the apex predators and lets nature take its course. Chloe has been accused of being cold, with a heart made of stone, she’s learned to shrug these accusations off, however, coming from specific people, wake-up calls can cause her to slow down and warm to the side which comes most natural to her, someone loving, someone kind, thoughtful and fiercely compassionate.

There is more to Chloe’s character and her journey throughout this series, she really goes on a wild ride, bouncing from one location to the next, encountering all sorts of characters and creatures, re-equating herself with former friends and partners, growing not only in herself but adapting her armour and gear as she travels, a trait the Dark Rogues embrace. I’ve a very vivid vision with how her story is resolved and honestly, it brings a tear to my eye when I think about it, I really do feel like I explore this character thoroughly, there is plenty to work with and a fair portion that allows me to touch upon some sensitive issues, that speak to the human experience, not only in this fictional world, but in ours also. I’ve been rather selective with what I’ve chosen to share here today, because for those of you reading this, coming at this Odyssey with a fresh outlook and might want to indulge, I don’t want to spoil it. I hope you liked my description of Chloe Augustien, also known as The Silken Spirit. To see her first rendition, the concept is found in the Gallery on my website and is among the most recent posts on my X / Twitter page. Please check it out if you’ve a spare few minutes, I would love to hear what you think, it would mean a lot, not just to me but to the artist, Evelyn, who is now working on Mumbi Kahina, who also goes by the name of, Lady Nightshade. You can expect an article written up about her and her role in this Ancestral Odyssey soon, she really is a wicked character who makes her first appearance in the first third of Episode Two, I’m looking forward to that. This is where I would usually sign off on the article, I’ve covered Chloe rather extensively, set up for future projects and essentially brought you up to date, but as you’re aware this segment has an addition, something that NEEDS covering for it is important, it changes the creative space and industry, and once again, as if the squeeze to be productive wasn’t already tight enough, it just got a little bit tighter (how great). This is something that has always been lingering on the horizon, something that has always been in the back of my mind, but now it’s here, I’ve quite literally access to the app on my phone, a piece of software capable of rendering any image I’ve ever wanted, say hello to A.I Generated Art everybody…fuck!   

I feel like the best place to start is with the positives, because there are some to highlight; Bear in mind that I’ve only had access to this software for a few days and I’ve only had a play for an hour or two a day, just to see what I can come up with, but the first thing I noted was the user friendly nature of the software – There is a hiccup in this positive footnote but generally, it is so easy to use, for people who have grown up with Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign and for those who have not, you won’t struggle. All you do is you need to input a description of the character, the scene, structure, or environment, you hit process and within a short load, you’ll be met with an array of interpretations from said description. You can proceed to use filters, insert settings, you can even add additional content to overlay what you already have and the program will run it all through, almost instantaneously, it’s so easy, it’s so efficient and in moments you have produced a series of images/concepts that would otherwise take weeks perhaps months to finalise if it had been left to a lone human being. It is pretty extraordinary, especially for someone like me who has fallen into a steady routine, a routine that I described earlier, one that is timely and costly, but thanks to this new software I can save insane amounts of time and huge amounts of money…Don’t worry, we’ll get there, but on the surface, this is a fucking game changer. The hiccup, I suppose will not affect the casual artist/creative, I am sure the A.I software will be able to meet their demands and more-so, going above and beyond each and every time, however, I personally did hit several snags along the way – I experimented with some of my already established catalogued designs, inputting the software with the descriptions I sent Will Towns and Evelyn, and oddly enough I got some very varied results. Zoe Nebrie for example, a relatively simple design, a twenty-eight year old girl from Krondathia who has brown hair, green eyes, white skin, is of average lady height, has a multitude of jobs due to her financial situation, and is often spotted by other protagonists, running from place to place, this running in turn has strengthened her legs, legs which are naturally long. Zoe also has a silver finger strapped to her hand, which raises (I hope) some intrigue into here circumstances. To learn more about Zoe Nebrie, I recently wrote an entire article on her, article number 98 called, The Girl You’d Want To Marry, it was fun to write and seeing as we’re here, I have re-read that article recently and ironed out all of those (admittedly hilarious) typos, it happens guys please don’t hate me. Zoe’s more important than you might realise, it’s all covered in that article, I do hope you check it out. With that said, her description was not captured very well by the A,I, certain parts were mirrored beautifully, such as her hair and general physique, but her outfit and soul behind the eyes was somewhat lacking, plus her clothing didn’t seem to fit well with her character. But it wasn’t until I introduced the A.I to our Silken Spirt, where things got really interesting.

Like the experiment I ran with Zoe Nebrie, I input Chloe Augustien’s description in the exact same way, a paragraph which matched Zoe’s in length, and I would say was the same level of detail, the only thing I left out was the intricacy of the Silk Spinners; Eager to see the results, I hit the process button and well, see for yourself. The images that you’ve likely seen at the top of this article, the images on the left, is what the A.I made of Chloe’s face, and it’s beautiful. The only thing I would have added was a little more wear in her face, she is after all almost 42 years old, she’s led a hard life and has spent the last few years living in the depths of one of Equis’s most dangerous forests. With all of this considered, it is not unreasonable to think she’d have been touched by a little age at this point, but for the most part, this image matches Chloe, however, the moment I added her Silk Spinners into the equation, the A.I did something insane, and again, if you’ve seen this blogs title image which can only be viewed by going through this blog directly or on my X, you’ll see exactly what I mean – The A.I reflecting and contorting Chloe into a faceless, angelic demon, using her original concept and warping her entire physique into a technologically advanced deity, the software unable to properly marry her spinners with the woman, her arms coming straight out of a dystopian, cyberpunk hellscape, eerily revealing to me one of the story branches I have in mind, one that’s potentially in store for Chloe’s character arc later on down the line.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding A.I at the moment, and if you’re reading this, if you’ve got this far, then it is very likely you’re a creative too and are aware of the problems orbiting the subject. I’ve covered some of these problems in past articles, one of which was my largest essay I’ve ever written, called, The Exploration of Soma, and I’ve verbally talked about it in a documentary, one that I made a few years ago about the making of Episode Two-Rise of the Black Doves. As it stands now, in 2023, I am all in favour of A.I being used as a tool to write news articles, I doubt it can write stories authentic to the human experience, but that is another subject for another time; To my understanding, it should be able to decipher what is true and untrue, it can do years and years’ worth of research in seconds while maintaining a non-bias framework, writing up error free informative articles in a short space of time, and that I believe is important, especially in today’s world where no-one trusts the mainstream news (for good reason) anymore, where everyone decides for themselves what is fact from fiction and is unwilling to admit when they’re wrong, and I say this (obviously) from a human perspective. Everyone, including myself is prey to this, we need (dare I say) an authorial voice on the truth while taking into consideration context on a case by case basis; From a certain philosophical perspective, in this Godless era we’ve entered, we need a “God” to dictate to us truth, and because A.I, the singularity has been dubbed by many in most if not all scientific communities to be God once it’s set free, maybe just maybe, this is the solution to many of our problems we’re facing today, the problem of fake news, psychotic conspiracies and miscommunication. When it comes to A.I creating art, we must understand that the A.I is not coming up with anything from scratch, from the description you input it hunts down anything relevant to the details, mashes it together and blends it beautifully with software that humans painstakingly put together for decades upon decades, and the sad reality is that these artists whose work the A.I has pulled from, are not receiving royalties, when I think they absolutely should. It gets scarier when I analyse my own creative process, for I nor anyone else on Earth can come up with anything 100% original; What I do, and I have described this far deeper in essays prior to this one, is that I cherry pick from the things I love and am inspired by, I mix it all up with a dash of my own unique experiences (I call this my Duncanisms) and translate it in a way that is best understood, going off of what my skill level as a writer will allow – That’s how I work in a nutshell, not everyone can do it, understand it or has the discipline to knuckle down and work at it, it does come from within, the real originality comes from inside and you’ve seen the results if you follow me. Does it appeal to everyone, no, can it be improved, yes, is it something to be proud of, does it tell a good story and merits the chance for fruition, yes! But the fact of the matter is that A.I does exactly what I do arguably faster and better, but without the necessary grind and the ingredient of …fuck’s sake… The ingredient of the individual’s soul!   

I understand I’ve opened up a can of worms toward the end of this segment, I am aware it is a hot topic right now and can stir up a lot of emotion, but in truth is that if we give over our creativity to A.I, we are giving over a piece of ourselves that is innate in us and makes us into what we are, to surrender this so candidly, to so easily rely on a machine to do the work for us, comes at a cost, a cost I cannot equate nor fathom right now, for a world without artists from every spectrum, is a world I do not want to be part of, not now and not ever. Instead of arguing with one another, instead of cutting corners with A.I, I say we approach it maturely, I say we embrace the new technology simply as a helpful tool, something that can inspire, perhaps aspire and something we can have fun with, while leaving the real work in the hands of those who have a passion for creativity, where it truly belongs, in us. We must continue to encourage and cultivate artists, show them that they’re not replaceable, that they’re needed more than anything – Sure, the outcomes might not always be perfect, humans do make mistakes, sure it might cost entrepreneurial types money and time we do not have an abundance of, but you know what, speaking from a place where I could really REALLY fucking benefit from the use of this advanced software, I’d rather grind, I’ll take the long way around, because there is a beauty (however frustrating) to be found in the journey, for once you achieve your goal, once you arrive at your desired destination, all you have to look back on is the road behind you, it’s something to value, something to reflect on, to study all the lessons learned along the way and in turn grow from, as an individual and as someone whose acquired talent. Instead of being seduced by a bypass so hack-handily with the downloading of an app, instead of taking the easy route succumbing to something that this modern era has artificially created, instant gratification! You remove the hardship which is integral to build yourself. So, I’ll repeat, approach this new technology with cautious curiosity, adopt the attitude that this is merely a tool and NOT an indication of skill level, for not everyone is creative, not everyone can write a book, take a picture, compose music or shoot a film, true we all can think and imagine wild things and dabble with the technology, but just because you use A.I to reveal your thoughts does not mean you’re in anyway a creative or someone built for this life, because if you think this way you’re faking, you’re gravely mistaken and your inevitable fall will come hard and swift revealing you for what you really are, someone who tried to cut corners and that is not admirable – What IS admirable is the all go no quite mind-set, people who are dedicated and passionate about their chosen craft. It has taken me two decades to be able to confidently say that I can write on an effective level, most people can put words together but this does NOT make them writers, in the same way most people can cook, sing a tune or make shorts on their mobile phones, this does not merit them the title of professional or in any way give them clout in the industry, talented perhaps, but you have to fucking earn it! You have to do the work there is no other way! As I said, it has taken me years of practise to write effectively, years of trial and error, years of failure with little to any success, but over time, through the grind that’s fuelled with passion, eventually you begin to look at sentences differently, your vocabulary broadens, you employ stronger more potent words to describe or detail whatever it is you’re engaged with and you get better – I kick myself for not having learned these necessary lessons sooner and the same goes for most artistic people; Mr Will Towns for example, the guy who drew up some character concepts for me, did not practise for a bit at his desk and say ‘I’m a pro character artist’ nor did he have an interest in drawing, download an app that translated his designs and then label himself as a professional artist, fuck no! He had to grind too, he had to fail and only after many, many years of pushing himself did he fall into the position he’s in now, and I am so proud of him, same goes for Atlas Audio, same goes for Kate, Evelyn, Oliver, Ashley, Bojan, Jilaine and Alex, I’m proud of anyone who sacrifices their spare time to improve themselves, to work on something whatever that might be, because that is what it takes to define yourself as a combatant over a spectator. One of my most cherished articles is article number 66, it’s called, Be a Combatant not a Spectator, again, if you’ve some spare time, I’d appreciate the read, but if not, cheers anyway. So, to summarise, I believe this new A.I software, as brilliant as it is, will become a stigma, it will stain all works in the future which is why I’ve decided to stick to the hard work, work that might not merit 100% perfection, but at the very least will be branded with a human signature, and that is far more important than producing artificial results.

No A.I was used in the process to create The Silken Spirit.

Guys, thank you so much for reading today. I’d like to thank Evelyn once again for conceptualising Chloe Augustien, I think she did a good job, it’s not what I expected and I don’t think it does her justice, but at the very least, Evelyn, a human being achieved something; I look forward to what she will make of Lady Nightshade and so on, do keep up the great work Evelyn, you’re appreciated. Right, well well well, this was my 100^th article, it feels good to have reached this milestone – I did have plans to release a sort of statistics essay, you know something of an evaluation, but I just got tied down with too many additions such as character concepts, editorials and music videos, which all needed and deserved fair coverage, overall being busy is a good problem to have but it would have been nice to have met the 100 mark with a chilled out report of everything I felt was a triumph, to point out all the things I’m proud of, all the things I sucked at and what I’d like to cover in the future, what the next one hundred will look like. That being said, I want to take some time away from Taoteque Articles, I’ve been pushing them hard for a while now and they really are a marvellous outlet, not just for me but for you guys as well, I’ve noted a rise in readership and interest and for that I thank you, but I’d like to apply the breaks for now and focus more energy on new content for Episode Three-Seeds of War, to complete Chapter Five which is called One Thousand and One. I do need to focus on it because honestly, I miss being wrapped up in the creation process of writing, I miss the characters and just losing myself in this world; I’d like to continue with this Odyssey, while editing Volume Five with Joyce of course and networking with others in the hopes to get something of a film made, whether it be animation or if there is still life left in the Live-Action idea, all I can do is keep knocking on doors and refining the material. Unfortunately, to celebrate this milestone I was going to go to Amsterdam, to have a massive blow-out in an Airbnb, but I cancelled a few days ago to conserve funds for another project. Anyway, I’ve had a blast doing this and I will be back in a few weeks with something new, it’s likely that this will be my last post for 2023, so I’ll see you there with a fresh outlook. With that being said, please take care of yourselves everyone, now more than ever, I’ve seen the atrocities going on in the world today, I’ve purposefully chosen not to write about said events in my most recent articles but do know that I am not blind to what has been happening – I’ve witnessed the insanity and it’s almost impossible not to be affected by it. The journalist I’ve been following who has been on the ground, his name is Douglas Murray, I’ve been a supporter of his for years and recently, he has been doing a tremendous job relaying the news and cutting through the mess we’re all plagued with, I wish him well and will continue to learn from his work; But stay strong guys, look out for one another, watch each other’s backs, keep working on yourselves and the things that give you meaning, don’t cut corners, take the long way round, do the work, call your friends, talk to your children regularly if you have them or chat with your parents / guardians once in a while, they’ll appreciate it, take care … Oh and don’t forget to send me a billion dollars so I can invest in an Iron Man suit. PEACE!

E-mail – taotome@outlook.com   

X (Twitter) – @MegasTeque  

Official Website – www.taotequevault.com

Donation Page – http://www.taotequevault.com/support  

YouTube – www.youtube.com/channel/UC-nc_VEmC27AIz6pP51UVkQ

Bitchute – www.bitchute.com/channel/x9K5vwi2SsNu/  

Author Page UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B01JMZ2BE6    

Author Page US - https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01JMZ2BE6

Trigger Hippie by Morcheeba – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylyG8UM78TQ

Oats in the Water by Ben Howards – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaH4W1rY9us

D.W.Gill