Unfamiliar (First Issue Comic Script)

UNFAMILIAR:
CONFLUENCE ARK
Name
Address
Phone Number
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PART I: INTRODUCTIONS
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Prologue:
PAGE 1:
Four horizontal panels, divided evenly.
1 - The people of the urban chic talking on cellphones among

classical, European architecture.
2 - An array of illuminated screens: racks of slim TVs and

giant lcd billboards.
3 - A dirty, frail looking black boy, a street urchin,

dressed in tatters and with a weary gaze, shivers under an
overpass in this nameless city. This is CHARLES.
4 - A shadow in an alleyway in the light of the urban dawn: a

four legged beast standing roughly ten feet tall. This is
NAUMAI LODUS.
*At the moment I’m thinking that Naumai will be the only
narrator in the story, that his and Charles’ sections will be
the prologues of each chapter and will otherwise be outsiders
for much of the narrative involving the other characters.
Their dialogue needs to be distinct from all other text.
NAUMAI LODUS (SUBTITLE)

The pact is broken - The hidden
border is crossed - A long
forgotten chill.
PAGE 2
1 - The boy walks through a maze of alleyways, wires crossing

wires overhead.
NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

For a thousand winters I have been
waiting, in this place that you
would call home.
2 - The boy in a crowded marketplace.
3 - He spots an unattended stall and tries discretely to load

food into his jacket.
2.
4 - The shopkeeper spots him and he bolts into the crowd,

terrified.

But this is no home for you.
5 - Night. The shadow walks through the empty marketplace.
6 - Daytime. The boy, running, drops food on the ground as

he stumbles through the crowd.
7 - Night. The shadow sniffs at the trail.
PAGE 3
1 - Charles pushes through a cluster of people, panic written

on his face.

Such fear.
2 - The shopkeeper screams with rage.

Such anger.
3 - two horizontal panels: The boy falls violently to the

ground, spilling the rest of his cache.

Such pain.
4 - Night. The shadow sniffs at the marks of spilled food

and blood.
5 - Night. The boy huddles under the bridge. In his hands

is an apple.

You are slipping away. I feel you
growing dimmer.
PAGE 4
2 x 3.
1 - The boy sleeps, curled in a tight ball.
2 - Same view, farther away.
3 - Same view. The shadow enters the frame.

3.

Do you remember?
4 - It stands over him, towering over the boy.
5 - Very close up on the creature face, a weary eye.

Let me show you, child.
6 - Charles’s eyes, shut very tightly.

See the glory that you once were.
PAGE 5
Epic full page spread:
A kingly warrior in ornate ceremonial armor sits upon the

shadow beast, flanked by soldiers, surrounded by lances and
flapping banners. Revealed, for the first time, the beast of
this time is a frightening thing, similarly armored and
roaring, baring layers of fierce teeth. The King has a halo
of radiance, lightning arcs across his hands and his eyes
glow with fire.
PAGE 6
3 x 3, with the last panel taking up the bottom third.
1 - The boy, eyes open, stares up at the beast.

And that you will be again.
2 - Same view, pulled back, his familiar revealed. In this

time, it is weathered, tired, an impossibly old and noble
creature.
CHARLES
I’ve dreamed about you.
3 - The creature lowers its head in reverence.
NAUMAI LODUS
My master, it is time.
4 - Charles reaches up, grabbing at the straps of the beast's

halter.
5 - The creature lifts him far off the ground.

4.
6 - The familiar walks out into falling snow, its king riding
on its back.
7 - Same view, wide shot, the pair in the distance.

Let me tell you a story.
PAGE 7
2 x 3
1 - The exterior of a hospital. Night.

There was once a world that was an
unsolvable puzzle.
2 - A child's hospital room.
3 - A closeup of a pile of flowers, stuffed animals and other

get-well trinkets.
4 - Two blond children, a boy and a girl, ten years old, lie
in adjacent beds behind plastic curtains, oxygen masks over
their faces, asleep.
5, wide panel - Exterior. Walking toward the hospital are

two of the familiar animals.
PAGE 8
2 x 3
1 - A slovenly security guard walks down a hallway, eating a

candy bar.

It was a planet made of countless
moving pieces that were always
changing shape.
2 - same view - A beast passes just behind him in silhouette,

followed closely by another. It dwarfs him, spanning the
with of the hall.
3 - same view - A second stops behind him. Menacing eyes

stare at the man.
4 - same view - The guard turns quizzically, but the hall is

empty.
5.
5 - same view - He turns back, and the beast is still behind

him, staring.
6 - same view - It walks on.
PAGE 9
1 - Close up of a stuffed animal in the children's room.

It was a place where all that was
possible was real; one only had to
explore until they found whatever
they could dream.
2 - Reveal of the beasts as they enter the room, very

different from the one seen before. They are heavily
augmented, consisting primarily of ornate armored sections
like cyborg insects, but with the heads of horned mammals.
They are TRAIUS and RALENCE.
3 - Each stands over one of the beds. They look terribly

sad.
4-5 - Multiple pairs of mechanical arms, tipped with clawed

hands, lasers, cameras, medical instruments and needles
unfold from patterns in their chest plates.
6 - The same scene, a different time and place. The

creatures, seen from afar, hover over beds in a lavish room,
one fit for royalty.
PAGE 10
1 - The hospital: half a dozen needles are stuck in the body

of the frail looking girl, an arcane device above her shines
a light that reveals bones and organs under her skin. A
spiderlike object is held to her forehead and a metal claw
caresses her face.

Tribes of men and women, much as
they are here, began to make their
own way, as one, all over this
shifting globe. They worked
together to explore its endless
mysteries.
2 - In the past: A limp woman is held by the beast, bloodied

and soot-covered on a charred battlefield, plumes of fire arc
across the sky.
4 - Present: Traius looks mournfully at Sarah. It speaks.

6.
TRAIUS
Don’t let them fool you.
5 - Past: A man lies on the floor. Sticking out of his skin

are hundreds of wires leading into the shadows of a
monumental clockwork engine that fills the room. Above him
stands Ralence.
6 - Present: Ralence lifts and inspects Sam’s tiny hand.
RALENCE
You are stronger than this.
7 - The children's eyes open, their bodies still dense with

needles and now cut open, instruments dancing in their
innards.
8 - They see their guardians and they are not afraid.
PAGE 11
1 - Lasers seal their incisions.
NAUMAI LODUS
They learned much about the nature
of their world and of themselves.
Their knowledge became vast, but
they always desired more.
2-4 - The instruments withdraw, but arms remain. They cradle

the children and carry them out of the room.
5 - POV of a security camera in the hall.
6 - Pull back. The creatures appear on the monitors, as a

security guard leans back in his chair, asleep in the
foreground.
7 They reach the roof.
8 - The creatures leap off and fall into the night.
PAGE 12
1 - A boy, eyes tightly shut, under water. This is LIAM. An

arm presses down on his chest.
2 - The arm belongs to his father. A large man, he is

steadfast, resolute in the ritual. He is drowning his son in
their bathtub. Next to him stands FATHER SIMM, bible and
crucifix in hand.
7.
FATHER SIMM
Nos eriperes de potestate diaboli!
NAUMAI LODUS
The tribes met, and they found that
they had not all learned the same
truths. For 10,000 years they
fought to see whose knowledge was
strongest.
3 - In an open field at night, a portal opens like a rip in

space. Liam’s guardian bounds out of it.
4 - Liam, calm under water.
5 - Liam, walking with his father through a convenience store

parking lot.
FATHER
I don’t know what’s happening in
this country anymore. Got a Muslim
in the White House and I know he’s
givin’ Iran the bomb. Homosexuals
on the TV all the time.
6 - He opens the trunk of their car. Liam, in the

foreground, is in a daze.
FATHER (CONT'D)
2012’s coming and this whole
country will be in cinders. It’ll
be hell on earth. Maybe then
they’ll learn.
MIRN (V.O.)
Maybe then they’ll learn.
7 - Liam turns.
PAGE 13
The first panel dominates the page, taking up two half of the
page.
1 - They are gathered on a ridge overlooking a vast stretch

of scorched land, dotted with fires, camps, and piles of
dead: Mirn (the sick boy), his body a grotesque biomechanical
skeleton, Sutur Amn Quosa (not yet introduced) a stately,
exotic minimalist, and, at the moment, young Liam. Standing
next to each are their guardian beasts.
8.
NAUMAI LODUS
The leaders of these tribes became
warriors of incredible power.
MIRN
I say we let the damn things go
over the border. Let them wreak
havoc on those fools in Tirral
until they beg us to come to their
aid.
2 - Amn Quosa, Liam in foreground.
AMN QUOSA
We will not allow that. They have
done nothing to deserve such a
betrayal.
LIAM
Haven’t they?
3 - Now in Liam’s place is Lykael Onsvarim, a tattooed,

emaciated figure contorted and bound in a bizarre meditative
pose. He’s a scary dude.
LYKAEL
Haven’t they been asking for this?
Every day that they sell themselves
to the pleasures of the body,
growing weaker and more foolish,
more open to attack from all sides,
haven’t they been secretly praying
for this judgement? I can hear
them. This is what they want.
4 - He leaps to his feet and screams.
LYKAEL (CONT'D)
SINNERS!
5 - Liam, in the parking lot, hysterical with anger.
LIAM
You are all sinners!
PAGE 14
1 - His father looks down at him.
FATHER
Liam?
9.
2 - Liam rages, tears streaming down his cheeks. He seems to

have a dark aura.
LIAM
Amul sem rowa! Judgement is
coming! The fires of Hell!
3 - He doubles over with pain, something is growing out of

his back.
4-6 - It grows taller and bigger, before splitting open

explosively. A portal opens above them. Black tendrils and
flames burst high into the air.
PAGE 15
Two panels, the first taking up a third of the page.
1 - Liam, screaming.
LIAM (CONT'D)
YOU WILL ALL BURN!
2 - The flames shape themselves into a demonic face.
NAUMAI LODUS
They became living gods that
controlled all the furies of
existence.
PAGE 16
1 - Liam is raised out of the water, the instant of terror

when he realizes that he’s drowning.
2 - His father looks just as frightened.
3 - His mother speaks from the doorway.
MOTHER
Is it working?
FATHER SIMM
I don’t know!
Ab omni hoste visibili et

invisibili!
4 - A window of the house, from the outside, rimmed with

speedlines. Something is flying toward it at great speed.
5 - Liam’s guardian smashes through the wall of the adjacent

bedroom as if it were paper, knocking the mother unconscious.
10.
It is a terrifying thing: clusters of glowing eyes and teeth

on a tattooed skull, claws and tendrils radiating from the
core of its body, the arcane engine that powers it..
(Design note: this creature looks scary, but actually leans

toward benevolence. It should be able to be sympathetic.)
NAUMAI LODUS
They created life.
They created us.
PAGE 17
1 - It faces them.
2 - Jaws drop.
3 - The creature tosses the priest like a ragdoll.
4 - Liam’s father grabs him out of the bath.
5 - He backs up against the wall, the beast in the

foreground.
FATHER
Stay back.
6 - He’s outmatched. The creature fills the room, as tall as

the ceiling.
FATHER (CONT'D)
Lord protect me. You can’t have
him.
NAUMAI LODUS
Their guardians, their servants.
PAGE 17
1 - The creature rears up.
LIAM
Don’t!
2 - It stops, bloodied claws inches from the man’s face.
3 - Liam reaches out to the creature.
NAUMAI LODUS
Their companions in life and death.
4 - It takes him, very carefully, from his father’s arms and

backs away.
11.
5 - Then it is gone.
6 - Liam’s father falls to his knees.
PAGE 18
1-3 - Magic hour in the Arizona desert. Cacti, coyote,

strange rock formations and, in stark contrast, an
intimidating wall stretching to the horizon.

Then, after 10,000 years, there
came an uneasy peace. The peace
became an alliance. The united
tribes were among the greatest
civilizations that the world had
ever known.
4 - Looking at it from cover, travelling alone, is the twelve

year old Mexican boy ARTURO. His lips are chapped, his eyes
bloodshot from lack of sleep.
5 - He scratches graffiti on a rock with a piece of charcoal.
PAGE 19
1 - Night. He treks steadily under the light of the stars

along the edge of the wall.

For another 10,000 years the tribes
grew, and in that time the leaders
learned to conquer death itself.
2 - He draws a few drops of water from a canvas canteen.
3 - He looks at something excitedly.
4 - At the top of the wall there is an opening.
5 - He stealthily approaches it.
PAGE 20
1 - He pulls a crude grappling hook from his pack.

For aeons they watched their
empires thrive.
(MORE)
12.
They rode with their armies to the
farthest edges of the land, places
that no one had ever seen, and that
no one but they and their strongest
warriors could survive.
2 - It catches on an edge of the wall.
3 - He climbs arduously toward the gap.
4 - His hands bleed onto the jagged metal edges as he pulls

himself through.
5 - He drops down to the other side.
PAGE 19
1 - He lands.

In these strange lands they found
glories and wonders that humbled
even them, in their majesty.
2 - Lying on his back, he clutches his hand and smiles.
3 - He stands up.
4 - Bam! Spot lights target him.
5 - They shine from the roof racks of three looming trucks,

and standing next to them are six armed border patrol agents.
BORDER PATROL #1
We got one!
BORDER PATROL #2
It’s just a kid. Is he alone?
6 - Arturo shields his eyes. He is very scared, and very

angry.
PAGE 20
1 - An agent approaches him, one palm held up, the other hand
resting on the holster of his sidearm. He alternates between
speaking English and Spanish.
BORDER PATROL #1
Frank, you got this?
BORDER PATROL #2
Take it easy. (Spanish) You
alone? (Spanish)
13.
NAUMAI LODUS
And also fear, as they had not
known it in millenia.
2 - Arturo pulls out a nasty looking shiv.
3 - Guns go up.
BORDER PATROL #2
Whoa!
4 - Arturo, speaking:
ARTURO
(I’m not going back. You can’t
take me back!)
5 - Frank, in a defensive pose.
BORDER PATROL #2
Easy!
BORDER PATROL #1
You got it?
BORDER PATROL #2
Yeah, I got it. Stay cool.
6 - Frank grabs a taser from his belt.
PAGE 21
1 - He aims and pulls the trigger.
2 - It clicks.
3 - Frank, inspecting the taser.
BORDER PATROL #1
What’s up?
BORDER PATROL #2
Taser’s jammed. Hold on,
something’s not-
4 - Amn Quosa, the chaos mystic, in front of a sheer rock

face, encircled by slavering four armed monstrosities.
5 - Frank doubles over and falls to his knees.
BORDER PATROL #1
Frank!
14.
6 - Amn Quosa is levitating, in a graceful pose, seemingly

buffeted by a strong wind. The creatures are being torn
apart from the inside out, and in places their bodies are
being melted together like plastic.
NAUMAI LODUS
Yet never did they turn back. It
was not their way.
7 - Arturo runs up and puts his knife to Frank’s throat.
PAGE 22
1 - Arturo, screaming.
ARTURO
(I don’t want to hurt him! Just
let me go!)
2 - The border patrol, guns trained.
BORDER PATROL #2
Put the knife down! (Spanish)
BORDER PATROL #3
Shoot him!
BORDER PATROL #4
No! Don’t shoot!
BORDER PATROL #2
He’s just a kid!
BORDER PATROL #3
But he’s going to kill him!
BORDER PATROL #1
Fire a warning shot!
3 - Somebody pulls a trigger.
4 - The gun clicks.
5 - Confusion ripples through the guards
BORDER PATROL #3
It’s jammed!
BORDER PATROL #1
Mine too!
BORDER PATROL #3
What the hell is going on?
15.
6 - Their guns turn to dust in their hands.
PAGE 23
1 - Their eyes go red, the arteries rupturing in unison,

veins bulging in their faces.
2 - The bulbs of the spotlights burst.
3 - Their trucks explode, spikes of metal ripping through the

hoods.
4 - Perched at the top of the wall is the beast SESSURA.

This creature is a glorious vision, sublimely beautiful, a
bioluminescent masterpiece of abstract sculpture.
5 - Close up of its face.
SESSURA
Master, let him go.
6 - Arturo lowers the knife.
7 - Frank scrambles away.
8 - The other patrolmen gape.
PAGE 24
1 - Sessura speaks.
SESSURA (CONT'D)
Leave.
2 - The agents bolt clumsily away into the dark.
3 - Sessura slides to the ground in front of Arturo.
4 - Arturo looks at the creature in awe,
5 - and then collapses.
6 - Sessura catches and lifts him away in a graceful arc.
NAUMAI LODUS
And always, until the very last
moment, were we with them.
PAGE 25
1 - The low, tepid flatlands of the suburbs.

16.
2 - A beautiful Pakistani girl, 15 years old, dressed in all

black except for her head scarf, walks angrily away from a
fairly standard two story house. This is AYESHA.
3 - Her father, a pudgy and very angry looking man, is at the

door, yelling after her.
FATHER
You have brought shame upon our
family! You are not welcome in my
house!
4 - Ayesha turns.
AYESHA
I’m just getting started!
5-6 - She takes off her head scarf and throws it on the
ground.
7 - She raises her hand in an obscene gesture. The father’s

eyes are wide as saucers.
8 - Ayesha’s mother steps out from behind the father.
MOTHER
Ayesha!
9 - Ayesha is walking again, away from them. She will never

see them again, and in some way she understands this.
MOTHER (CONT'D)
Come Back!
NAUMAI LODUS
At the end of the world, they found
that they had gone too far, and
that they could never return.
Their world would never be the
same.
PAGE 26
1 - Ayesha and her blanche friend KYLIE are in line for a

concert along with lots of other teenagers who are all
wearing black. The sign of the venue, above them, says
“SALOME.” Ayesha’s demeanor, in contrast to the last page,
shows her to be a smart, thoughtful girl.
KYLIE
That sucks. What happened?
17.
AYESHA
They found out I got a tattoo.
KYLIE
How?
AYESHA
I put pictures online.
2 - Ayesha, contemplating.
AYESHA (CONT'D)
Lots of pictures. They were really
mad.
KYLIE
That sucks.
3 - Kylie, texting device now in hand, smiles at a tall, thin

poser boy.
KYLIE (CONT'D)
They’re not going to, like, kill
you are they?
4 - Ayesha looks at her, disapprovingly.
5 - Kylie, flustered.
KYLIE (CONT'D)
Not that- Islam people do that
sometimes. Well I mean, I’ve heard
of, you know, honor killings or
whatever.
6 - Ayesha, same expression.
AYESHA
No. This’ll blow over. I should
have been more careful. Can I stay
at your place tonight?
7 - Kylie, bubbly.
KYLIE
Sure, of course you can! My
parents love you!
8-10, quick panels - Ayesha catches the eye of a boy with a

mohawk. She looks away.
18.
NAUMAI LODUS
Something had been waiting for
them.
We should have stayed. They should
have turned back.
PAGE 27
1 - A metal band on a stage, and in the foreground the tangle

of bodies of a mosh pit.

They could sense what was coming,
and so they sent us back to their
people. They told us to build.
2 - Ayesha and Kylie watch from the back of the room.
3-4 - Kylie yells in her ear, Kylie runs into the crowd.
5 - Ayesha watches her go.
6 - Kylie falls into the arms of the tall poser boy.
7 - Ayesha, disapproving.
8-9 - She catches the eye of the boy with the mohawk again.
PAGE 28
1 - He approaches her.
2 - She shrinks, but can’t help smiling.
3 - He yells into her ear.
AYESHA
What?
DUDE
I said can I get you a drink or
something?
4, wide shot - Ayesha and the boy talking.
AYESHA
I don’t drink.
DUDE
Oh yeah, I used to be the same way.
How about a Coke?
19.
5 - Ayesha, smiling.
AYESHA
Sure.
6 - The boy at the bar, discretely slipping something into

the drink.
7 - He hands it to her.
DUDE
Here. My name’s Trey. What’s
yours?
AYESHA
Ayesha.
8 - She drinks.
DUDE
That’s a beautiful name.
PAGE 29
1 - The band, walking off stage.
2 - Ayesha, standing next to Trey.
DUDE (CONT'D)
Have you seen them before? I’ve
seen them like eight times, they’re
amazing.
AYESHA
I feel a little weird.
DUDE
Really? The bathrooms are over
there, want me to show you.
3 - Ayesha braces herself against him, looking very out of

it.
AYESHA
Yeah.
4 - Trey walks away from the crowd.
5 - Ayesha’s face seems to be doubling. A ghostly version of

herself is splitting away.
6 - An ornate palatial gallery. In the middle of the floor

is a large, finely detailed, somewhat menacing sarcophagus.
20.
PAGE 30
1 - Amn Quosa walks toward an imposing doorway flanking by

guards armed with tall lances. Sessura follows close behind.
2 - He stands before them and speaks.
AMN QUOSA
I wish to see her.
3 - The guards, in closeup, are empty suits of armor.
4 - Amn Quosa takes another step.
AMN QUOSA (CONT'D)

I am not leaving.
SESSURA
Master, please.
5 - The guards raise their lances.
PAGE 31
1 - A woman has appeared behind him, semi transparent. She

whispers in his ear.
DRELISA
My love, I am here.
I am always with you.
AMN QUOSA
No.
2 - An explosion of entropy atomizes the door and the guards

are turned to rust.
AMN QUOSA (CONT'D)

I must see you!
3 - Ayesha, in ethereal form, watches herself being dragged

through a doorway.
4 - Trey lays her body against the wall of an empty

stairwell.
5 - He touches her empty face with side of his hand.
6 - Ayesha watches, a hand over her mouth.
7 - She screams.
21.
AYESHA
Stop it!
8 - Trey turns, fearful.
9 - The stairwell is empty.
PAGE 31
1 - The concert hall.
2 - Same view. A beast made of blinding white light leaps

through the wall. This is an angelic being, a ribbon of
energy with a face something like an African mask.
3 - It moves into the opposite wall, passing through a group

of scared people that are unable to move out of the way.
4 - It emerges in front of Trey, above Ayesha. As it passes

through this wall it materializes, seeming to draw energy out
of the air, and grabbing Trey with its claws.
5 - It throws him to the other side of the room with

incredible force.
6 - It drops him to the ground.
7 - It turns on Ayesha’s body.
8 - It looks at her ephemeral self.
WEIA
Empress.
9 - Ayesha, wide eyed.
WEIA (CONT'D)
You are safe.
PAGE 32
1-2 - Weia picks up her body.
3-5 - Weia, incorporeal except for the arms that carry

Ayesha, flies up the stairwell.
6 - Trey looks up, wide eyed.
PAGE 33
1 - A rocky wasteland.
22.
NAUMAI LODUS
They sent us their last messages,
the last words of the dynasties
that would end with them, and then
we felt them die.
2 - A point of light hovers above the pale dust of the

ground.

What they found at the end of the
world had killed them, the greatest
of us. They said that one day it
would be at our walls, and that it
would level every city and kill
every man woman and child of all
our great empires.
3 - The light becomes a small, simple geometric shape.

What we were building was an ark.
We had to take as much of our
homeworld with us as we could and
leave it forever.
We could not disobey.
4 - It grows in size and complexity.

We were to find another habitable
planet and to build new lives for
their people. It fell to us to
lead them.
But that . . . We could not do.
PAGE 34
Over the course of these panels the view gradually looks up.
1 - More of them appear.

We had to bring you back.
2 - They join into branching, crystalline formations.

We did not know when you would
return, or where, but we would find
you when you did.
23.
3 - The shapes grow. The edge of a blue sphere becomes

visible at the top of the panel.
4 - It is the earth.

Now you have returned, my Lord.
You are all here.
------------------------------------------------
House/Character Reference
------------------------------------------------
House Lir-Olu (Solemn Disc)
Lord Riyam Dei: Ashen Rider of the End Wurm, Ruler of the Red
Sands - reborn as Charles Winston Moore, homeless African
American orphan
Beast Naumai Lodus
A culture based on strict isolationism informed the creation

of this house. It values individuality with the knowledge of
one’s heritage, the forging of a strong character by
continuously testing one’s mettle according to an ancient
code, usually forbidding the aid of others. Friendships,
though rare, are valued very highly. A comparatively
primitive group, they are no less among the most respected,
in part due to having cultivated an enigmatic reputation.
They are among the most respected of all the houses, their
warriors among the most feared.
They practice elemental magics and advanced martial arts.

24.
House Yulashei Noroba (A Thousand Bladed Arms)
Twin Consulars Mirn and Mira of the Walking Cliffs - reborn

and Sam and Sarah Welles, sufferers of an abnormal, chronic
illness.
Beasts Traius and Ralence
This group strives for perfection in all ways, often

achieving it by manipulating themselves using extraordinary
means. There is no reverence among them for the past, they
strive continually toward a future of seemingly boundless
potential. They are the transhumanists of their world,
masters of technology, biology, medicine, surgery and
mechanical augmentation. The preference of customized
robotic bodies to organic ones is commonplace, and the
house’s rulers were undoubtably the most radically
transformed.
Their familiars are shining machines, master engineers and

technicians that are their own universal toolboxes, able to
build and reshape themselves according to any environment
that they find themselves in.
In terms of combat, their sophisticated armors, shields and

weaponry make them very aggressive fighters, able to send in
hand-to-hand fighters while their artillery hammers the same
lines.
The royal family trains in blades, as their name suggests,

but their bodies are their most powerful weapons.
They prefer the laws of science to the unpredictable nature

of magic and other chaotic disciplines.
House Tirruk Almir Som (Shining Spear of the Mind)
Sovereign Prefect Lykael Onsvarim, Guard of the Aether

Ligature and Seer of the Tunneling Worldmind - reborn as Liam
Freer, Son of Christian religious zealots
Beast Dsirl Rouk
A highly spiritual and monastic faction, based primarily on

the knowledge that the visible world is merely a shadow in
the mist of the universe, one of an infinite number of planes
running in parallel. They believe in a hierarchy of these
worlds, both higher and lower shades of existence relative to
ours, something akin to heaven and hell except with infinite
permutations of both, and thus no real concept of good and
evil but of a seamless gradient between all extremes.
25.
They are adept at manipulating and controlling portals

between these worlds and ours, using these tunnels for any
imaginable task: a portal to a world in which all space is a
burning star can be a source of infinite energy, and this
portal can housed in the matter taken from a universe in
which a super insulative element is found that could not
exist according to the physical laws of our own. At the time
of their destruction on Old Somosai they were beginning to
communicate via sophisticated telepathic links with beings
from other realms for the first time in known history.
This house practices extreme forms of meditative training,

including asceticism, flagellation, the use of psychedelics
and mortification of the flesh as passages to spiritual
ecstasy and to cultivate the incredible discipline required
to telepathically create and shape interspace portals.
These portals can be used as weapons, summoning plumes of

fire or spears of matter or energy, as wormholes for
instantaneous transport (basically Portal * Nightcrawler
rules), to create controlled miniature singularities, etc.
House Na Reyoso (Will of the Cloud)
Sutur Amn Quosa, Impure Star God - reborn as Arturo Morales,

illegal Mexican immigrant
Beast Sessura
The founding rule of this house is that if one can quantify a

thing then one can control it, but if a thing is not
quantifiable, and thus cannot be controlled, it must then be
more powerful than anything that can be measured. From this
maxim was born a philosophy based on the destruction of the
ego, of seeing oneself as a conduit for the will of these
godlike forces rather than one who is arrogantly dependent on
the meager force of their own will. The strange practices of
their ancient tribal precursors made them objects of mere
curiosity to the civilizations that sprung up around them,
but any attempts to subdue the tribe met with abject defeat.
Only a few Reyosan channelers were able to hold back full
battalions of encroaching armies. Men and women who looked
like simpletons and beggars would suddenly become shifting
mirages, possessed titans that were able to wield chance and
entropy as weapons.
Eventually they did develop into their own great empire, but
these concepts continued to shape their culture. Humility is
for them the greatest virtue, and they strive to be conscious
of the outside forces that are at work before they seek to
dictate them.
26.
At the same time, the chaotic aspects of the self are given
great weight: passion, emotion, intuition and creativity.
House Ellik Atama-Tersal (Far Seeing Without Trace)
Empress Regnant Drelisa Lizuul, The One and Many
Beast Weia Drao
Similar to other philosophies, this culture sought to

transcend the material world and their physical forms. In
doing so their mystics became masters of astral projection
and practicers of frequent and prolonged periods of complete
sensory deprivation.
This informed a culture of strict isolationism, walled cities

from which the citizens scouted and explored by sending out
their non-corporeal selves, or by possessing artificial
bodies if they wished to perform physical labors such as
farming or waging war.
As their power grew so too did their ambitions, venturing

farther and farther away from the bodies to which they were
bound, but never as far as they would like, and also becoming
the controllers of more and more complex physical forms. A
lone Ataman engineer could pilot and maintain a Yulashei
steamship from his cabin, for example, a task that would
normally take a crew of dozens of trained men, but never for
extended periods of time as the strain inevitably becomes too
great for the most seasoned Projector.
Being removed from the physical limitations of the human body

creates a number of jarring discrepancies. Being able to
hear every aural frequency, see the entire spectrum of light
in all directions simultaneously or to feel all the
sensations of a bustling metal body inhabited by other beings
and so on, created an extreme sensory overload that the
Atamans balanced out of necessity with time in their physical
bodies removed from all such distractions. Every practicing
Ataman Projector lives primarily in a metal sarcophagus that
allows no light or sound and is filled with a super dense gas
on which the body can lie as if weightless, and without any
physical sensation for periods of days, weeks or months at a
time with the aid of certain Yulashei medical technologies.
Their Queen, Drelisa Lizuul, was known as one of the most

beautiful women of the known world, though seeing her in
person was an exceptionally rare privilege.
27.
She was a Projector of unparalleled skill, able to appear in

multiple places simultaneously, to will herself into physical
being remotely, and also to control whole battalions of
armored bodies when necessary with perfect tactical grace.

Unfamiliar (First Issue Comic Script)

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Unfamiliar (First Issue Comic Script)

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UNFAMILIAR:

Four horizontal panels, divided evenly.

1 - The people of the urban chic talking on cellphones among

2 - An array of illuminated screens: racks of slim TVs and

3 - A dirty, frail looking black boy, a street urchin,

4 - A shadow in an alleyway in the light of the urban dawn: a

NAUMAI LODUS (SUBTITLE)

1 - The boy walks through a maze of alleyways, wires crossing

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

2 - The boy in a crowded marketplace.

3 - He spots an unattended stall and tries discretely to load

4 - The shopkeeper spots him and he bolts into the crowd,

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

5 - Night. The shadow walks through the empty marketplace.

6 - Daytime. The boy, running, drops food on the ground as

7 - Night. The shadow sniffs at the trail.

1 - Charles pushes through a cluster of people, panic written

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

2 - The shopkeeper screams with rage.

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

3 - two horizontal panels: The boy falls violently to the

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

4 - Night. The shadow sniffs at the marks of spilled food

5 - Night. The boy huddles under the bridge. In his hands

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

1 - The boy sleeps, curled in a tight ball.

2 - Same view, farther away.

3 - Same view. The shadow enters the frame.

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

4 - It stands over him, towering over the boy.

5 - Very close up on the creature face, a weary eye.

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

6 - Charles’s eyes, shut very tightly.

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

Epic full page spread:

A kingly warrior in ornate ceremonial armor sits upon the

3 x 3, with the last panel taking up the bottom third.

1 - The boy, eyes open, stares up at the beast.

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

2 - Same view, pulled back, his familiar revealed. In this

3 - The creature lowers its head in reverence.

4 - Charles reaches up, grabbing at the straps of the beast's

5 - The creature lifts him far off the ground.

7 - Same view, wide shot, the pair in the distance.

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

1 - The exterior of a hospital. Night.

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

2 - A child's hospital room.

3 - A closeup of a pile of flowers, stuffed animals and other

5, wide panel - Exterior. Walking toward the hospital are

1 - A slovenly security guard walks down a hallway, eating a

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

2 - same view - A beast passes just behind him in silhouette,

3 - same view - A second stops behind him. Menacing eyes

4 - same view - The guard turns quizzically, but the hall is

5 - same view - He turns back, and the beast is still behind

6 - same view - It walks on.

1 - Close up of a stuffed animal in the children's room.

NAUMAI LODUS (CONT'D)

2 - Reveal of the beasts as they enter the room, very

3 - Each stands over one of the beds. They look terribly

4-5 - Multiple pairs of mechanical arms, tipped with clawed

6 - The same scene, a different time and place. The

1 - The hospital: half a dozen needles are stuck in the body