#dotu conversation

[bob-artist]

Heya Bob! It's been many years since I've read Demon of the Underground, but I saw you post and wanted to check it out again. I really love this story and the art. The shading you do is so lovely, and your expressions are killer. The pops of color too! This comic was so inspiring for me, so I'm glad I found it again. Amazing work!

PS Samsid is so cool, I love him a lot. Pogo forever has my heart, though.

Ahhh thank you for the ask, and for reading DOTU!!

Also, in case you didn't know since I've done a REALLY horrible job of announcing this: I'm publicly releasing lots of Demon of the Underground pages that were previously patrons only!

So yeah, new free DOTU pages!

I'll be releasing pages at least till the end of chapter 4, and possibly into chapter 5 as well. I typically release batches around the beginning of the month at the main site, and weekly pages on Tapas. So that's something to watch for if you want more of the story.

Anyway, I'm always happy to hear people are still reading it, and I hope to get back to a more regular schedule once my graphic novel work is done!

[demonoftheunderground]

Do the South Sphere also trade people with the other spheres? They seem protective and secretive

They do, actually! Not everyone born into the South is a good fit for the culture, and the South is pretty quick to expel people they view as traitors to the cause. Though that's not to say that they don't also sometimes send Freya into trade negotiations just to troll the other spheres, because yeah, that happens too. XD

Merritt's Story book 3 has a good trade scene that I hope I get to write someday. (I did do a quickie sketch of it in one of the previous Patreon sketch rounds...)

[demonoftheunderground]

Hi Bob! What is the plot of Sub-Lakeview Blues? (I have been rereading Devoted again again😭)

Aw yay! I'm due for a reread myself haha...

Sub-Lakeview Blues is about a new King from sub-Lakeview (played by Lyra, of course) who goes undercover as an ace in the North Sphere military to try to root out traitors intent on attacking his hometown. But instead he ends up forming an unbreakable bond with his fellow soldiers and comes to learn that aces are in fact humans and good people (gasp!).

Spoiler alert: he ends up in the shield squad but still won't reveal he's a King to get out of it. Very high drama, a real tearjerker, won all the awards. Written by a former blue-tie turned red-sash. Much more popular in the South, East, and West spheres than in the North. (Blue-tie elites hated it.) North Sphere aces thought it was all right, though some found it a little condescending. Lyra won several Best Actor awards for his heart-rending performance.

(I mean, not to say he didn't also deserve awards for his performance in Killer Cucumber, but...)

[demonoftheunderground]

What do North Sphere citizens think of Merritt now? Do they know he was captured by the East, or do they think he defected?

They know he was captured.  It was a big event, and the East was pretty blatant about rubbing the victory in the North’s face. :)

As for what North Sphere citizens think of Merritt now, it depends on who in the North we’re talking about.  For example, the citizens of the sub-Norwood slums would probably feel different than the elites of sub-Ravenswood.  Many of them would think his capture was a sign of failure, but some would suspect that he’d been set up.  Either way, they’d now consider him an East Sphere citizen - and not “one of them.”

Of course, his closest blue-tie friends might have a different perspective...

[demonoftheunderground]

What are your tips for doing really good worldbuilding like you've done in DotU?

I’m so sorry it took me so long to answer this question!  I’ve been offline for most of this week taking care of some life junk I’d been neglecting.

First of all, thank you!

Everyone has different approaches to worldbuilding, and different approaches can get equally good results.  So your mileage may vary, of course.

I’m not the type to sit down with lists of worldbuilding questions or boxes to check off.  I build my world around the plot and characters.  If something isn’t relevant to the plot, isn’t interesting, and doesn’t impact any characters’ on-page lives or behavior, I don’t spend time developing it. It can be very easy to fall into a trap of over-developing, and I try to focus first and foremost on the elements of worldbuilding that shape the lives of the characters.

For example, in most stories I wouldn’t bother to develop any worldbuilding around the subtle differences in water quality from one region to the next - but BECAUSE we have this dweeb

I ended up going there.  Water quality in the underground only matters because Merritt is a frickin nerd who loves water. XD  Sometimes worldbuilding IS character development, and vice versa.  (Asking, “what’s your main character’s favorite food?” leads to questions like “how often can they eat it,” “is it readily available,” “is it affordable,” “is it healthy,” etc. - which are all worldbuilding opportunities.)

You don’t have to have every worldbuilding detail fleshed out before you start writing.  I like to let the plot, characters, and world grow together.  It makes the writing process more fun because I get to discover new things along the way.  I also find it easier to avoid info-dumping early in the story by limiting just how deep I develop the world in the beginning stages.  I can always go back to my draft/script and edit in the details that will make the world feel richer without overwhelming the reader.

I read/listen to a LOT of non-fiction.  Much more non-fiction than fiction.  I listen to it to get a better understanding of subjects that are related to DOTU that I don’t have a thorough understanding on, or to understand the mentality of a person who’s gone through experiences I feel relate to DOTU.  The better I understand my own world, the better I can create others.

A couple examples: around the time I was working on the chapters of Merritt’s Story involving his poison immunizations with Archer, I read The Demon in the Freezer, which is about the history of eradicating smallpox.  After that, I read A Higher Loyalty because it got me into the mind of someone who’s driven by an internal moral code that’s as rigid and imperfect as Merritt’s (though in different ways and for different reasons).  I have a lot of books, documentaries, and interviews by and about notable hackers on my list.  I seek out perspectives from the types of people I don’t always get to spend time with in real life.

I spend ~20 minutes or so a day reading news articles on a variety of subjects - whatever interesting headlines catch my attention - which helps me rack up my collection of random useless knowledge. XD  I even occasionally watch some of the toxic political stuff because propaganda and misinformation are a part of DOTU’s world too, and observing the way information is given and received tells you a lot about how a society works - or doesn’t work.

I go to physical locations.  I’ve taken many Chicago trips for both visual and worldbuilding inspiration - which includes observing and interacting with other people there.  I do this for my other stories too. Reins of Death (Lychgate: Book 3) takes place in Willow Springs, IL, so I took a few field trips there.  It made a HUGE difference for me.

I also try to seek out new experiences that are relevant to the world I’m creating.  (Yes, I’ve been to some places that are VERY West Sphere. XD)  Psst, depending on the type of location/experience and the level of safety, it’s often better to go with friends.

Overall, I think the main thing about my method of worldbuilding is just that I spend a lot of time, mentally, “living in” DOTU’s world.  It occupies a lot of space in my head.  I think about it while driving, while I’m in the shower, while I’m cleaning.  Idle time is great for brainstorming in a way that doesn’t put a lot of pressure on you.

[demonoftheunderground]

(1) So I've been wondering this for awhile: if you're not allowed to remove your Sphere signifiers, what does that mean for a medium such as TV? Like if they were to make a series that went on in Medieval times and would people just still have their red sashes or blue ties on? or since that sort of thing probably wouldn't be of much interest to the people of the underground, how about like a standard underground drama or horror flick and so on? Like would they have to hire an actor from a

(2) specific sphere to be acting a person from that sphere? Like North for North, East for East? With a caste system in place would it be inherently problematic for someone of a lower caste to be playing a higher ranking person? Like an Ace Playing an Elite? What would people like the Elite Squad and Face Cards feel and think if someone made some sort of entertainment product with them as an actual character in it portrayed as the "good" guys or bad?

(3)Like IK Belmont wrote erotic novels based on real people he knows, but how about DIRECTLY? If you were to write something including actual people and but your actual name on it would it be likely to land you in trouble or would ppl be more like o_o “You are a weirdo.”? Would TV-series even be widely produced outside the West?Sorry for writing so many questions but when I began writing they just kept popping up in my head, I’m really curious about this topic^:D

---

Haha it’s all good, I love complex word-building questions. XD

So, the thing to remember is that, while the underground has “laws,” it’s essentially a lawless place that relies on vigilante justice to deal with any and all infractions.  If you make powerful people - or a large enough number of average people - angry, you put yourself at risk.

There are circumstances where people can get away with not wearing sphere identifiers.  As long as they aren’t in the presence of anyone who’ll get offended and take it upon themselves to beat up the person without the SI, they’re safe.  No one on the set of a movie would freak out on an actor in costume, and people generally understand that actors are actors.

That said, viewers will always find a reason to complain, including if they think the wrong person was cast for a role.  But it’s not against any established rules for an ace to play a King, etc.

Movies and TV are not widely produced outside the West Sphere’s big studios, but there are indie creators throughout the underground.  The creators of a movie or TV show are free to write whatever subversive content they want, but if they make the wrong people mad, they’re putting their lives at risk.  Again, vigilante justice.  If a movie portrays Mercury as a horrible, manipulative, corrupt King (total fiction, right?) and tries to incite a blue-tie rebellion, you can bet a whole lot of people involved in the production will mysteriously turn up dead...

The West is able to get away with more than an indie creator would.  Their entertainment entities are so powerful and pervasive that they’re insulated from a lot of backlash.  If they do decide to create something especially incendiary, it might be because they’re trying to bait another sphere into war. :)

Would someone get beaten up, ostracized, or murdered over writing an unflattering book?  Yes.  Would the underground go to war over a bad West Sphere movie?  Yes.

[demonoftheunderground]

How is Valentine's day celebrated in the Underground?

[demonoftheunderground]

What would had happened if Pogo had fell at first in the South Sphere or in East Sphere? (Would Samsid had taken interest in him if the first encounter circumstances were different?) I imagine that in the North Sphere he would have been taken to the Shield Squad or something like that

This is an interesting question.

In the East, anyone who found him would have presumably taken him to Samsid.  Pogo would have ended up in a similar scenario as he did in canon - He would have had to prove to Samsid that he was worth being kept alive.  Pogo’s creative; I’m sure he still would have found a way to get the job done.

In the South, things get dicier.  As much as Pogo is a fish out of water in the East, he’d fare even worse among the South Sphere birds ( “bird” is the South’s equivalent of the East’s “armbands” or the North’s “blue-ties”) who’d have no patience for his... personality.

Again, assume he’d be taken to the Queens.  Noble would say “throw him back onto the surface.”  Iris would say “find out if he has any valuable skills, and we’ll see if he can be used against the other spheres.  If not, throw him back onto the surface or put him to work cleaning up after the goats.”  But Freya, who can see his “black tears”...... well, we might find out what she’d do next chapter.