Week 23: The Tiw Skulls!

Happy Thursday! In my hemisphere of the world, we're going into Summer and the weather is tantalizing. I'm excited for the season of taking my work outside and sitting under a tree to write!

This week I really wanted to put together a lore post on top of the usual progress update, so I'm going to lead with that. Meet: The Tiw Skulls!

The Tiw Skulls are a gang situated in the area surrounding New Parlay confined mostly to the badlands, although some come and go from New Parlay if they aren't discovered. They survive day-to-day by extorting passersby unlucky enough to stumble into their canyons and caves. Their main hangout is the robot junkyard Tiko mentions in the first issue, where they maintain the grounds by tearing up robots and using their parts to create effigies to mark their territory.

Their name ‘Tiw Skulls’ comes from a low-grade drug consumed by few in the more arid, and deserted Northern region of Sahar (encompassing New Parlay!) called Tiw. It’s a mix of a fluid found inside older droids and tar derived from the occasional tree found in the region. When applied to skin, the irritant qualities of the fluid and the sticky consistency of the tar creates an addictive topical ointment that also protects from the sunlight, on top of rendering that area completely numb to pain. The Tiw Skulls are, clearly, fans of this. They are all users of the drug.

Their typical wear leaves most of their upper limbs exposed, with tight cloth wraps around the forearms and lower leg. Some wear hoods as well, typically more senior members. Generally, their exposed upper limbs’ skin is lathered in whatever small amounts of Tiw they can get their hands on. This makes them quite formidable opponents, because they cannot feel the pain of being struck and often will keep fighting until their body gives out.

These addicts frequently clash with the city guards and their collective goal is to sneak inside of New Parlay and find a place to stay.

They are not a very widespread or powerful gang in the big picture, but in Sahar power is within reach of everyone- its inhabitants have learned that they are all just one hardship away from completely different lives.

What do you think? Let me know! Onto the update for this week.

Since the last update my priorities have been to maintain the pace for development and get into a rhythm of work that enables me to commit time to this project whilst still being able to progress in my real-life career. Until this project pays for itself, that's going to be my approach to it! I have begun looking into furniture for my office space, starting with a desk. I have no real qualifier for my desk, so I'm starting with a pretty broad search to get an idea of what I'm looking for. I'll narrow it down after I have some things to pick from.

On the script side of things, I continued work on issue 3. It's making good progress! I also have a pretty important choice to make soon regarding the volumes that I'd planned originally and the issues in them (and other content). I have no information on this yet and the impact will likely not be seen until next year, so I'm going to set aside some time to come up with a definitive idea sometime soon and have a sort of design document for issues and volumes- I want each to have uniqueness and little details that only they have!

That's all I have for this week friends! Thanks for tuning in- I'll see you next Thursday with the next scoop!