The Story:
The structure is there, just as you remember it. Standing bleak, shattering the horizon, a nightmare framed by dark clouds and even darker motives. But it hadn’t always been that way. No, you can faintly remember a time when your dreams weren’t haunted by it’s less-than hallowed halls and dark towers, stabbing high into the sky like some foul monument to sins past and future.
Such a place shouldn’t exist, you whisper. Couldn’t exist.
And yet, you've heard the rumors. You've heard the screams. You've smelled the darkness. You’ve tasted the fear. So something deep down inside you knew it was real all along.
"Hello child.. What big eyes you have..."
You clench your hands into fists, hard enough to draw blood. Your lips tremble. You turn around slowly and raise your eyes, and force yourself to stare into the eyes of a creature that should never have been.
“Be still, little piglet. I am not here to eat you..”
Even in your dream, you step back in disgust, repulsed by the creature’s voice, honeyed words dripping with malice. Your throat quivers.
Something is amiss.
The dream begins to fade. But not like other dreams. No, where other dreams would slowly fade to reality, you simply fade deeper into the dream. Deeper into the nightmare.
Deeper into the Everafter.
The castle has a name, after all. You glance hesitantly at the shadow, and he seems to smile at you. Yes… it was the creature’s doing. Time is short, the shadow whispers in a tone dark and menacing as the Abyss from which it was spawned. Make your choice, little piglet.
There’s a strange envelope in your hand. Ornate and delicate. Emblazoned with an insignia. The insignia. Unopened. Choice? What choice, you want to ask the creature. But words fail you. Because even without opening the mysterious letter, you already know its contents. Deep down inside, you already know what choice you have to make.
Do you return to the reality from which you came? Or sink deeper into the nightmare’s depths?
Steeling your resolve, you muster all your courage one last time. “I’m ready,” you murmur.
And the nightmare begins.
(intro by Skylord)
The Contest:
A tournament should be deliciously immersive. The idea of entering your character should be exciting to you as well as to the other entrants, seeing combatants from all walks of life and areas of the ‘world’, so to speak. In this case, our little art community here. Your character should have something to offer, fill out a part of the spectrum that no one else does, sport a style all their own. Just like actual fighting games, where the roster is comprised of a cast with differing abilities, pros, cons, goals and endings.
The Audition:
Important! Please Read!
Unlike first-come first-serve OC tournaments, this one will operate a little differently in its inception. In an effort to discourage those who would enter on impulse and later drop due to lack of interest/etc, there will be an audition phase to choose the 64 combatants.
Interested parties should draw a picture of their character encountering/being chased by/willingly going with/struggling against/etc the Big Bad Wolf from the Everafter comic (seen here: www.deviantart.com/deviation/4…, as well as in the rest of the Everafter comic.), as he is the method of delivery to the asylum which will act as the tournament battlefield. This picture can take place after the intro from the “Story” section above, or simply depict scene itself, with your character included.
The picture can be as simple or as epic as you want to make it, but just enough to show this is something you’d enjoy being a part of. (Besides, Big Bad isn’t terribly difficult to draw, he’s a black blob with features, haha.) It would be fantastic to have a common tie between all the characters.
Have either a reference sheet of your character ready, or images in your gallery to assist your opponents in drawing your character. These will be needed if you are selected for the roster.
Great examples of audition pieces so far:
:thumb57757149:
:thumb58118427:The Judges:
The Prizes:
Grand Prize: A full scale, multiple-page final showdown sequence between the winner and the ‘last boss’ of the tournament, drawn by myself. Who is the last boss? That’s entirely up to you. The winner will be able to choose any character from Everafter, Living in Sin, Ree, Tarna or otherwise, provided it’s in my gallery. And we’re talking all the frills here. No cutting corners. Action, dialogue, and a fight worthy of being called a ‘last boss ‘battle.
Additionally, the winner will be sent a signed print of the comic.
Second Prizes: The player defeated in the last OC match will go home with an illustration of their character fighting a 'mid boss battle' with one of the Everafter cast.
Third Prize: ALL FOUR combatants who reach the third-to-last round will receive gift-art of their characters taking on "mid bosses". In effect, just for reaching this round, you will have a guest artist give you a gift. One of these gifts will be from scrotumnose himself, who will draw your character fighting one of his as a mid-boss.
The Stages:
After your run-in with Big Bad, you are delivered to the island Everafter is situated on. There are a number of places you can set your battles here. I’ve included a rinky dink sketcherdoodle for you, a la amusement park maps. Haha.
You are encouraged to use the settings, but not adhere to any particular details. It should be how you personally envision it. Nor do you have to use a different setting each time. If you want to be inside the asylum every match, so be it.
1. The Asylum - Everafter is a monument to either genius or mania in terms of its design, combining the practical banality of a medical institution with the grandeur of gothic architecture. This includes all the standard parts of any given asylum, kitchens, inmate corridors, administrative offices, laundry, medical wings, etc. Feasibly, your character could spend every match in here. It’s quite big.
2. Misty Woods - Most of the island is covered in thick forested areas, with crisp, cool fog blanketing what areas trees don’t possess. Visibility is quite poor.
3. The Moat - As if cells, reinforced doors, armed guards and gigantic walls weren’t enough, the heads of the asylum thought it best if they dig a tremendous moat around the perimeter of the asylum. That’s cold.
4. Craggy Canyon - (You must be this tall to enter Craggy Canyon..
) The canyon is basically a big rocky area with a chasm running a length of a ways through, with rough, uneven footing. 5. The Bluffs - The cliff area outside the great walls don’t lead to very much, outside of a couple hundred feet drop into the ocean. But then that’s one way to defeat an opponent..
6. The Faculty Residence - Being on a remote island for work either means you get yourself a dormitory, or face a four to five hour commute coming and going. Most of Everafter’s grunts, nurses, janitors and such have a tiny housing area to call their own when they aren’t mopping up limbs or sedating gibbering flesh-eating youths.
7. The Labs - A large compound for experimental medicine, research and technology, as well as an animal stockyard. Surrounded by a giant protective fence on all sides.
8. The Wall - The perimeter of the island is dominated by gargantuan walls, stuck together quite haphazardly like great fused sheets of metal.
9. The Control Tower - If a tornado managed to pick up about four dozen gothic cathedrals and slammed them all together, it’d look like the Control Tower. This is where the most esteemed of the asylum’s faculty remain, making sure things stay honky dory in the asylum from afar. It is the tallest establishment on the island, a tapering spire reaching far into the overcast sky.
10. The Port - For public relation purposes, the asylum holds tours now and then to display their technological prowess and good intentions. And most nobles from the mainland don’t like traveling Air Big Bad, so a port suffices.
The Rules:
Characters:
1. Fancharacters will be turned away at the door. Nothing from any popular franchise’s universe, unless of course, it is your own franchise. :3
2. One combatant per slot. HOWEVER, each entry can be a collaborative effort between artists. If you are a writer who gets an artist friend to draw for you, fine. If you can only pencil and want a friend of yours to color, sure, go for it.
3. Characters can use familiars, summons, dopplegangers, separate entities, etc. I just don’t want squads of OC’s squishing into ‘one’ combatant slot. All the same, big giant Capcom-esque group special moves could still work. Haha. I have a soft spot for those. So basically, other characters can ‘lend a hand’ a la fighting game special moves, but not be consistently battling alongside the combatant in every match. The focus should always be on your main combatant.
Battles:
1. Battles can be done one-shot portrait style or in comic format. Though I’ve noticed a trend of comic format entries always doing much better, so just realize from the get-go, that’s the type of thing to get noticed. They are encouraged. This contest should be, after all, about expanding your artistic horizons, and there’s nothing like trying your hand at comics to learn you a thing or two about perspective, composition, pacing.. and of course backgrounds.
2. Comics don’t have to be in color. Of course a masterfully colored/grayscaled entry is going to stand a much better chance than flat pencils, but it’s entirely up to you and what you feel most comfortable with.
3. Battles don’t necessarily have to end in death. Nor are they going to be judged by gore, badassery or cleverness alone. It just needs to be a ‘defeat’. We’re looking for creativity here, an overall high standard in all categories, or whatever makes your art ‘you’. If you err on the side of comedy, be funny. If you like super gore, go for it. (Try to stay decent with accordance of the rules on DA..) The main thing is, bring yourself to the table here, with your own cards laid out, the way you want them. And do it with some pizzazz. XD
Long story short, just show your original character defeating who you are matched up with. And make the judges want to see more.
4. The battle will take place on the Everafter asylum grounds. The settings will be illustrated later in the entry.
5. 64 combatants means six rounds. 64- 32 - 16 - 8 - 4 - 2 . Endzone is meant to be short and sweet, but with matches that really count. You will have a full two weeks to submit your entry, in an effort to encourage working at your own pace and giving it your all. The contest will be culminating around September, and if school demands extended time to enter, I will be more than happy to let the remaining folks have it.
Any other questions? Post them here. If you ask something that was already answered in the Rules or anywhere above, you won’t be addressed.
Oh, and by the way.
Auditions begin now.
Auditions close the 30th of June. And the roster will be displayed on the 1st. From there on in, the battle begins.
IN SHORT, THIS IS HOW IT WORKS, STEP-BY-STEP. PLEASE READ EVERYTHING HERE IF YOU ARE CONFUSED.
1. Have an original character. They can be old, or created just now. They do not have to pertain to the Everafter universe. Any character of yours. Provided it is not a fan character from an established series.
2. Create an 'audition image' which will act as your registration for the roster. Not everyone will make it. There is a limit of 64, after submitting your audition image, the judges and I decide who is in and who isn't based on the overall creativity and dedication displayed in the audition image.
The audition image must depict your character and Big Bad, as your character is being approached in their native turf to be taken to the island where the tournament is being held. This can be a portrait, or a comic in itself, simple or complex. Just show us that you want in, and you're in this for the long haul. It can have any number of other characters in it. Just make sure your combatant and Big Bad are there.
Upload your audition image and note me with a link to it.
3. Wait until the audition period closes on the 30th. A week or so later the roster will be announced, and you will be paired off with an opponent.
In the mean time, submit a reference sheet of your character, or link to images of your character from your gallery so your opponent knows how to properly draw them.
4. Draw either a single image or an entire comic about your character defeating your opponent, somehow or another. Death doesn't need to be included, it can be defeating them, humiliating them, just basically putting them out of your characters way so you can move on.
5. The judges will view your entries and pick which displayed more creativity, composition, cleverness, etc. The winners will be announced when all the entries are in.
6. Rinse, repeat, until someone is the top winner.
Good luck to those entering.
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Everafter Webcomic: Updated Saturdays: ea.snafu-comics.com
A Tribute to Uncle Will:
endling.deviantart.com/journal…
endling.deviantart.com/journal…
