The First Brotherhood

Before Cassady, Saphron, and Tiberus teamed up against the forces of the western raiders, Cassady was a stuck-up prince, Saphron was a street performer, and Tiberus was a farmer. Cadelia was just a humble kingdom with a fairly small castle. Small enough to be prone to everything.

Luckily for the citizens of Cadelia, the high-esteemed and well-endowed General of the Cadelian Forces, Darbus Fabius, did everything in his power to protect what was to become the greatest power in the Northlands. With the Sword of Cadelia in his left and the Town Shield in his right, he defended Cadelia with honor and pride. He did not know that he was not alone, at least not until after certain circumstances:

In one of the many farms on the outskirts of the city, Phineas Rocket decided that farm life just wasn't what he was born for. His desire for adventure led him out of the Cadelian Fields and into the kingdom itself, where he met, of all people, Aric Girdersen, who was then Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Hierat.

Both of them, along with Darbus Fabius, played an important part in the creation of the First Brotherhood, an organization dedicated to the protection of Cadelia.

Meanwhile, in yet another farm in the Cadelian Fields, Grotto, a cattle raiser, and his sister were catering after Tiberus, their young, reckless adopted little brother. Little did they know, however, that Tiberus was going to be chased out of their ranch, into the busy streets of Inner Cadelia. After the revelation of the legacy of Darbus, his true father, and arduous training, Tiberus witnessed his transformation into the Captain of the Guard of Cadelia.

AQW Designs1

From now on, I will be periodically submitting drawings and designs for Adventure Quest Worlds, an MMORPG made by Artix Entertainment...

Enjoy the view!!

Dark Warlord Armet - This intricately locked mouthpiece built by Tiberius Fabius restrains certain dark warlords from literally eating your soul.

 Dark Warlord Blade - Infused by Tiberius Fabius with the power to drain the souls of its wielder's enemies, the Dark Warlord Blade's single eye targets the next victim. Will it be you?

 Dark Warlord Crown - The only way to make your minions obey your every will. Made by Tiberius Fabius.

 Dark Warlord Set

 Dark Warlord - Evil seeps through your veins and makes you both a skilled warrior and a dark being. Inspired by Tiberius Fabius

 Veteran - Created by Tiberius Fabius to show that the ability to battle on for years has made him a war-hardened fighter, ready for anything.

Veteran's Zweihander - Only the most experienced warriors can wield such an honor. Emblazoned within the blade is the name of the creator, Tiberius Fabius.

Yami Bein Double Scythe - Yami Bein stands for "Darkness Bane", and it does its job nicely. Made by Tiberius Fabius.

ATLAS

Once you appoint yourself to be one of the Anti-Tyranny Legion of Assassin Saviors, there is no turning back. You become an assassin for the rest of your life, taking on the jobs no one would do by their will alone. You are one of the thousands that live to break the Rosstone Empire's tyrranical grasp from our freedom.

You may battle alongside one of the most efficient of our assassins, a Sword User by name James Christopher Merrick, codename M. He is not only an effective close-quarters combat companion, but is also the very tip of our spear when it comes to overthrowing the Rosstones. However, his actions may falter in the presence of another assassin who seems to be his love interest, another Sword User called Silvia Lorette Lester, codenamed L. They are almost equal in skill, though Merrick is also an adept at hand-to-hand combat, a weakness for Lester who is impractically weak despite her efficient sword skills.

You might also meet the mentor of the previous two, a Bludgeon Wielder called Benjamin Hurt. He uses a cross-shaped club which he can also use as a sword at times. His is the way of defense, as he is more expected to take on enemies from afar. His aim is flawless, and his trained eye also makes him a Searcher, which is useful in search & destroy requests as well as some rescue missions.

The ATLAS will accept any and every person willing to fight for their ideals, but they won't allow anyone surrendering their skill to the power-hungry Rosstones. The penalty for cowardice is death, lest the assassin commit suicide for the sake of his/her dignity. Though we have lost many brave and honorable fighters during the course of our 80 years of existence, we have not lost the confidence in that we will someday emerge as the secret writers of the history of HeroVille, and our names shall never be forgotten...

Imagery (and wallpapers!! *gasp*)

Lately I've been into drawing my fellow characters. Nice, huh? Well, I've drawn our epic heroes to the extent of actually remodeling them... a bit.

You all remember this rash sketch of the general Brotherhood plot... you know, the one in the original book cover:

The crappy one extracted from the Flash preview...

Well, as you can all imagine, that's a bit old. Ok, now check this out: a salvaged, 9-month-old concept sketch of the Necrolord:

Man, he could steal your life force with his one soul-piercing blue eye.

Also, I've been a bit busy lately, but I had time to do these -- check out these fresh wallpapers featuring the "Heroes of Old":

You' ll be noticing a few things. First off, these are downloadable 1024x768 wallpapers for your desktops (:D) Second, our fellow captain Tiberus is... different.

That's because I remodeled him to look more like a renowned captain, with a regal robe, but still giving that roughed-up appearance not only with the prosthetic metal arm, but also with a seemingly deep wound in his left eye.

Also, try comparing Necros from the book cover to Necros in the Necrolord's wallpaper. HUGE difference: the one in the wallpaper is more humanoid and actually appears bulky enough to break your bones apart (which is pretty capable of doing either way) whereas the one in the book cover is kind of a blob with skinny fingers.

One last thing: you guys might be wondering, Where the heck is Aric Girdersen? Well, good fans, I still have to redesign that guy because the Viking-ish dude's manhood was insulted by one of my aunts... So I' ll upload Aric Girdersen's muy-macho wallpaper soon.

Hadron II

Let's recap: Hadron is a human turned cyborg by Trillian. He becomes a respected hero, even though he's a novice.

Well, a few months into the job, someone is already interested in Hadron, and plans to use him as a model to create an army of cyborgs fit for domination. His name is the Scarecrow.

Scarecrow uses magic to counter the technology of Hadron's anatomy. However, Scarecrow is never seen alone; in fact, he is always with his two loyal bodyguards Hex and Jinx, brother and sister, who make Hadron's life a pain.

There's also the fact that Hadron's robotic parts were Trillian's success after a failure caused a previous experiment to become Ripgun, the armor without a body. Although it's infected with a virus, Ripgun seems to control his own consciousness. Even so, he stops at nothing to achieve superiority. When he realizes tha Hadron is a "better version" of his own weapons, he decides to search for him, with murder on his mind...

Derek Daemen "Catastros"

Remember when I said that the Necrolord was the ultimate evil??

Well, someone has more vile intentions.

Derek Daemen was an average citizen that shunned the world because it wasn't perfect for him. His hate towards everything that existed grew only so much that one day, Necros's younger sister Disordia (more on this later) appeared upon Derek, and, promising great powers that could change the universe, she possessed him, turning him into Catastros.

Catastros, unlike the Necrolord, depends on morphing attacks rather than dark energy. Although Necros is older, wiser, and stronger, Disordia's power can be enhanced depending upon the desires of the person she possesses. In Derek's case, she has enough power to confront Necros and Cassady.

Just as the Necrolord transforms into the Necrowolf, Catastros transforms into the Helldog, a hairless canine twice as large as the Necrowolf.

Trivia #1

Starting out with my fav, Tiberus:

• He's blond.
• He's the second character to appear in the most time periods of the Heroes Within Timeline (the first being the Necrolord)
• His sword can be considered the Heroes Within average sword: approximately 50% of all existent swords are shorter than it (and the other 50% are longer)
• He's the only blond character in Heroes Within.
• He has had the most redesigns (this is the designer speakin-- er, writing) concerning mood, armor, weapon, etc.
• He is arguably one of the strongest normal-weight characters in Heroes Within, besides The Curse, Hadron, Blackout, Mark Seraph, and the Necrolord.

Cassady/Necrolord:

• He was never intended to be a possessed Cassady. He was initially only an excuse for a villain in Heroes Within until the story of Brotherhood unraveled and his backstory as the shadow Necros came out.
• The Necrolord is the only normal-weight character that sports gray hair.
• Cassady's persona and appearance is almost entirely inspired from Prince Marth from the Fire Emblem games for GBA and NDS.
• Originally his cape was going to flare out from his waist (much like Saphron's) but the cape was strapped onto his shoulders to match a more regal appearance.

The Curse:

• He is my first hero.
• His creation is possibly a miracle since I took no inspiration from anywhere.
• He is the only character in Heroes Within to sport more than one outfit.
• His first story was titled "The Curse Begins", an allusion to the similarly titled movie "Batman Begins".
• He has the lightest armor of all characters in Heroes Within, merely a padded orange shirt (and his titanium-fiber glove)
• He is one of the modern Generals in Heroes Within: Invasion.

The Wrath:

• He was originally going to be The Curse gone bad, and his original name was The Bad Curse.
• He can be easily confused with Blacksheath because of their similar white plastic armor.
• His stone hand is on the right, whereas The Curse's is on the left.
• A DNA factor gone wrong caused his hair to go completely white (not old people white, but snowy white)

Berto Dodgers:

• Is the second character ever invented by me.
• Was originally intended to be The Curse's sidekick, but after fixing The Curse's personality as a lone wolf, he got his own lair, uniform, and weaponry.
• His other job as a racer was implemented years after I dumped the idea of a retired scientist to spice up Dodgers's characteristics and bring him back to the ranks.
• His first name is a fragment of my own name. His last name, however, comes from the Warner Bros famous Duck Dodgers.

Blackout:

• His backstory is similar to the Batman's, in the way that he was orphaned at an early age, and to secure justice he became a crime fighter for his city.
• He is the only modern character in Heroes Within to wear realistic protective gear (a Kevlar bulletproof jacket)
• He originally had a gun that fired rubber pellets that stunned the victim, but the idea was dropped since Blackout relies mainly on hand-to-hand combat.
• He is the only hero in Heroes Within to sport comic-hero-style briefs on top of his uniform.

Legion

Among the few people who praised Dracula during his reign there were magicians who sought to serve him in his castle. Among those magicians, there was a man who planned to overthrow the Dark Lord and replace him as the new Dark Lord. His name was Leon Exodus Grutas.

When Leon figured out that Logan was going to do the job for him, he just tried to gain more power within the castle for the time of their confrontation. However, when Logan found the crystallized Thousand Soul (an orb containing the powerful prayers of a vast but long-dead army) Leon appeared and seized the treasure for himself, only to discover it was a trap devised by Dracula for Logan.

The thousand souls broke free from the crystal container and engulfed Leon, turning him into a demon possessing and being possessed by one-thousand and one souls. He declared himself a servant of the Dark Lord.

I am Legion. I am many... and we are one...

Legion can dissipate into a cloud of souls to avoid physical damage, even from a weapon as saint as the Ghoulslayer. His domain of many souls combined with his old magical powers enable him to use the abilities of each of the thousand dead warriors, including an elongated grasp, an oversized sword, a sudden barrage of horses, an arrow rain, and other attacks common in war.

Like the Necrolord, Legion can also steal his opponent's life force to become stronger.

Marcus Drauffganger Seraph

During the rule of Dracula, the Seraph family (that is, the remains of the Seraph family) lived in a state of disorder. Their only way to live peacefully was to succumb to the Dark Lord, but Patrick Renvall Seraph wasn't going to kneel to a tyrant, nor was his son, Marcus Drauffganger Seraph.

So, in order to end this nonsense, Mark traveled to the evil lord's domain, only to encounter another person that shares the same grudge: Logan Anderson.

Mark Seraph is an adept weapon wielder, holding any kind of melee weapon (he hates guns) His two favorite weapons are the Seraph Hatchet and the Valmanway Sword.

Belmont Magnums

The twin Belmont Magnums are two guns equipped with stake-shaped bullets that encase holy water, garlic, and a small but effective wooden crucifix, all to promote its effectiveness in unholy creatures.

It's name comes from the Belmont family line, a family tree of Vampire Hunters destined to destroy Dracula during his rise from the dead. Simon, the first Belmont to become a Vampire Hunter, merely used these as a last resort, for his Vampire Killer more than did the job for him. But it still was and still is an effective weapon against vampire ghouls, lycans, lich people, and other undead creatures.