Ask Emperium

An ask blog for the upcoming webcomic Ashes: The Soul Stone, where you can interact with characters in the world of Emperium! Blog by Lanmana (from DA).

[aonoexorthieves]

The owner of Glittering Cloud (http://centchi.deviantart.com/) has stated multiple times that she does not own a Google+ Account:

https://plus.google.com/106748152016490341293/posts

On her DA account, there are blatent recolors and uncredited bases:

...

[askemperium]

I want to add how difficult it has been for Centchi and for all of us who have tried our best in the past few weeks to report this girl. Google has a form system for creators who have had their work infringed upon and upon filling it out, it took WEEKS for google to finally respond. During that time, people have tried commenting on this girl's google+ only to have their comments removed minutes later and their emails blocked from accessing the page. 

Also during that time, she has made not one but TWO accounts on DA for the purpose of mocking or harassing Centchi. The second account is the one in the OP, emma-the-art-time.

With each passing day, this person has continued to post more stolen Glittering Cloud art and fan art, from various sources. Google finally acted upon the mass of reports by.... removing only the specific pieces of art that had been reported on her google+ account. The thief has responded to this by deleting the empty posts and posting 7 NEW PIECES OF STOLEN ART

THE VERY NEXT DAY.

The way I see it, this person will not stop no matter what you say to her, and no matter how many times you report her. It's hard to say why the thief is doing all this and why she is so stubbornly clinging onto Glittering Cloud. Perhaps she's doing this for all the artificial popularity that she's gaining (as of this posting, her google+ has over 200k views, though I'm sure that a lot of those views are from people trying to get her banned). Perhaps she's doing this because she has some kind of grudge on Centchi, even though she doesn't know this girl. Maybe she's just seeing how far she can take this and is treating all of this like a game.

Whatever this is, it is sick and it is causing Centchi and the people around her massive grief and stress. If there's anything that anyone can do, even if it's just to show support or to spread awareness of this thief, it would be greatly appreciated.

I want to remind everyone that it's not just Centchi's art and characters at stake here, everyone who has EVER drawn Glittering Cloud for her is at risk of their art being stolen by this person.

[askemperium]

Oh...

Suddenly so much activity on my tumblr...

[askemperium]

omg you guys OH MY GOD Novalis is a plushie now, my feels... CANNOT HOLD THEM I'm so happy and I can't wait to hug him myself, Moggy over on DA did such an amazing job that I cannot even q-q <3 Check out Moggy's other plushies too! (pic leads to their DA) You won't be disappointed~ ;u;

[askemperium]

So, Stray Shot, do you have a rival of sorts? Someone you want to overcome?

T-they.... I...

.... I don't want to talk about it, go away.

((Which is clearly Stray's way of saying yes, haha. There actually is someone, and if this was a show then it would be during the so-called second season when this is covered. I still haven't fully fleshed out that part myself, since it's so far in the future, but Stray definitely has his own problems that don't concern the others. ;u; ))

[askemperium]

I tweaked Novalis' design slightly now, just very minor changes to the armor, his cutiemark (which didn't really match his color scheme before) and his legs. I admit I'm a little nervous posting this here without a watermark like on DA though since he's the main target of so many art thefts but I haven't changed any of my other pics here so I didn't want to go that way for my tumblr. If you see anyone who isn't me using Novalis, just let me know and I'll deal with it. Also small update, I've moved now and basically traded most of my free time for peace of mind. The consequence is that I needed to get a job to pay rent, so job get I did... that basically took all of June to sort out ;-; I still need to dig up the Ashes logo that I was working on before I moved. I wanted to surprise you guys but I guess things don't always work out the way you want them to (lately nothing has in terms of this tumblr). Still I refuse to let the comic slip into purgatory, I'll find a way to get things rolling one day.

[askemperium]

Twelve was made on an impulse for celebrating Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the horse, and it's also my own zodiac animal so I wanted to do something special. The number twelve also has significance and means a lot to me, so I named him as such (I figured something like "Zodiac" was way too cliche anyways LMAO). I wouldn't exactly say he's just a pony, since he can transform into the other twelve zodiac animals, depending on the cycle of the years. So every 12 years he cycles through the animals. No one knows for sure which animal is his true form, if any of them are. I've put him up on my redbubble as well so stop by my shop if you'd like this design as a shirt/hoodie, poster or a print! Lan would be very much flattered and honored if you did~

[askemperium]

I know it can be a little concerning or confusing for anyone new to watching this blog and wondering where the updates are. I haven't abandoned this story idea or anything, it's just a matter of me not having time for it until I'm done my other projects. The fakemon project I've been posting for since August is more than half way done now, with 68/100 fakemon completed and me doing batches of roughly 5 a week. If I did at least 5 each week that project would be done in 5-6 weeks, finally allowing time to actually start back on this project, huzzah~ Along with that and commissions taking up my time, I recently got a small gig as a colorist for a comic. Unsure of how long this will take at the moment but it's at least giving me more exposure and experience with comics, so hopefully that experience will come to good use when I can work on my own stuff here. It's really demanding, but I'm putting my best foot forward and giving it my all. Also considering doing a nice Ashes wallpaper, since my desktop one is really outdated. Not sure if I should do a standalone image or to draw up the cover for the first chapter and just turn it into a wallpaper as well, hmm.... e7e

[askemperium]

Happy Birthday Lan!!

Aww, thank youuu~ ;e; <3

[askemperium]

Sorry posting this took so long, I finally found some time to throw this in After Effects just so it would render properly as a .mov file. /WEEP

So this is my entry in Nazegoreng's OC contest, where you were supposed to draw one of her OCs interacting with one of your own. The entry could be in any format, so I opted for an animation. 

I did the cover for the song too because technically I'm not supposed to be getting any help from anyone for a contest. I asked and was allowed to do a cover from an existing song, since my efforts at playing the song myself were pretty lousy (not a musician LOL;;; ). My apologies if my voice is high and unbearable, I've tried recording at least over 20 times, and exported what I "thought" was good exactly 11 times, only to decide to re-record each time. :/

This is my most complex animation to date, and took roughly a month to complete. I hope it can only get better from here.

[askemperium]

I was wondering what is your blog about?

This blog is mainly about my MLP-inspired webcomic titled Ashes: The Soul Stone. I'll post any related news or art that I have as I go, though sometimes I like to show some general MLP art I've done on here too.

You can ask the characters from the story questions as well as me (so long as it's not something like "what happens next in the story" XD). Unfortunately I have to wait a bit until I can finally find the time to start on pages as well as finish the website I was making for this, but you can check the whole blog for little tidbits of info I have posted so far such as the prelude and character bios. c:

[askemperium]

Well the animation was done but it seemed like the video wasn't working properly? Can someone please let me know if they were able to watch it all smoothly and the entire video wasn't missing a great chunk of its content? I can't tell on my crappy mac :l

EDIT: Hnn, my bad. I'm constantly exporting new files and checking them to see if they work but it's giving me difficulty. In the meantime you can all just view the original flash format on my DA here. It's a big file, if it lags for you then I recommend letting it loop to load all the detailed backgrounds that my big dumb butt put in it. unu

[askemperium]

I've basically been slaving over an animation for Nazegoreng's contest on DA for the past month and a half, and in the past couple of weeks I've been working on it literally every day, forsaking most of my other free time activities to do it. 

The animation will feature a character for the Ashes comic alongside Naze's OC Pebbles, as is required for the contest guidelines. My character Chariot has not formally been introduced on this blog yet because he technically wasn't supposed to come into the story for a long time. Watching the animation will spoil nothing though. 

This is the pic that shows with the credits, just thought I'd let you know what I've been up to lately. The deadline is in 4 days, so expect it to be posted by then~

[askemperium]

I don't think I ever posted pics on my blog about when I won WhiteDove's OC contest thing almost a year ago with Petal Grove, but yeah she made me a free plush of Petal Grove and I just wanted to share it with you guys. She's very nicely done~ ;u;

[askemperium]

Hi Lan, do you have or use livestream? I would like to see how you work, if it's possible?

Ah, I do have a livestream account, though livestream no longer is compatible with my snow leopard OSX mac that I use to do my art with (same with join.me, and actually tumblr has this banner over my dashboard now saying my mac is no longer compatible with it either :l). I do have a pc laptop with LS but I don't have the programs that I use regularly on it. My pc just has this barebones photoshop that came with it.

With that said it would be possible to livestream on that laptop if I really wanted to, but I'd be working with unfamiliar equipment, so it's possible the resulting art wouldn't be the best it could be, or done as quickly as it could have been. It also doesn't help that my pc keyboard is too big for my tiny lan fingers to reach the control shortcuts easily either, haha.

Either way though the thought does cross my mind every so often on wanting to stream for you guys, so maybe despite those setbacks I could try a stream some day.

[askemperium]

Starketcher/Lithiel asks: To stray Shot- I'm curious how long mercenary of your caliber has trained for? Out of your forms of sword play- which is your most reliable/preferred style? And finally, since your trade of choice means you can be hired top do tasks for money by anyone- are there some jobs you refuse from an employer/ or is there a type of employer you would refuse regardless of pay?

Stray Shot: Being a mercenary doesn't require training, it requires the will to do whatever it takes, for the right price. My training with the art of swordplay started young, before I was even ten, and that's where you should start if you plan on taking it seriously. I don't have a personal preference in swordplay. I want to learn all of them, as they each have their unique uses and weaknesses.

I only refuse jobs that don't pay enough for what they ask of me. That is all.

[askemperium]

Stray Shot I challenge you to a duel! Do you accept?

Stray Shot: Just let me know when you’re ready to lose.

[askemperium]

Rejoice! I have Chex Mix! Enough for all! ((Not a question, but still... chex mix...))

Chex mix...... /HEAVY BREATHING