Tales of the Ba'tala

In the end, it's still a shitpost.

The more I can't translate an animal trait to a human's as an anatomical comparison, then that's where I take more stylistic liberties (like with fish or birds).

I'm contemplating on updating the Mikra (bugs) with this philosophy. More on that another day.

Drawing animal heads isn't just hard--stylizing them is too. I try to be as faithful to the metaspecies' head and face proportions while allowing human expression.

I've tried more realistic faces, but I was told it looked too uncanny valley. And they're right.

Last one for the night: a WIP. Initially started off as a shitpost because I was tired, it ended up being practice for drawing Polore's polar bear head and drawing food. The penciling for the food is not shown in this screencap.

I have an easier time drawing *hands* than I do for animal heads.

So there is that. On top of for funsies and expression references, human counterparts are for people who want to do art trades with me but can't draw animal heads, and for if I need to fall back on human designs if I decide to abandon using anthros for Tales of the Ba'tala.

Not that I would.

The rest is straightforward.

Kuraqa is a Nile Crocodile, so of course he's Egyptian/Levantine in appearance.

Ezamina is about Asian/Indigenous American because of sea otter distribution along the northern Pacific Ocean.

Jackson's chameleons are East African, and so is Kamaya's human counterpart.

Ri'anoh was initially created by my sister and named after her crush at the time (we were kids). I tried making Ri'anoh look Indonesian but it didn't feel right. Then again, Ri'anoh canonically is mixed (komodo + chameleon), so it'd make sense to him more ethnically mixed/ambiguous.

Ri'ita is originally created when I had an obsession of black sitcoms in the 90s, such as Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Sister Sister, and the Wayans Brothers. So her human counterpart is vaguely inspired by them. You can argue she's perhaps Afro-Brazilian given the caiman's distribution.

Patisha was a hodgepodge of assorted 80-90s actresses and her hair (when my anthro women was given humanoid hair) was based on the curly style of the time when I made her in 1997. Honestly, she looks like she stepped out of Baywatch, haha (no I never watched it, just parodies).

For instance: although Gi'utoh is based on the American River Otter, I bought his puppet around 2003 in Innsbruck, Austria. Thus, his human counterpart would be Austrian.

Similarly, Polore was given Russian jokes when I was a kid. His human counterpart has to be some kind of Slav now.

Ethnicities are arbitrary and non-canon. They're usually based on the metaspecies' global distribution, but exceptions can be made depending on my emotional history with the character.

Drawn more recently (hence a bit of improvement in rendering). Left to right, starting from the top: Patisha, Ezamina, Ri'ita, and Polore.

This one was definitely needed: I was struggling with Ri'ita and Polore's range of expression as a caiman and polar bear, so human alts helped with direction.

Drawn 2020. They're supposed to be gajinka-fied Kamaya, Ri'anoh, Kuraqa, and Gi'utoh. In addition for funsies, it helps me visualize the emotional range and how to translate them with animal faces as I do not draw eyebrows on my anthros, at least the ones for Ba'tala.

Fun fact: I created Polore in 1997. At the time, he had asthma, dyslexia, and a fear of heights (all while being 6'10" and a martial arts teacher).

Turns out, I might have some form of dyslexia myself. Walls of text tend to be a major struggle for me to read, especially in writing and roleplay.

Kuraqa and Polore are living in my head rent-free. I'd make them pay, but they'll surely crush my skull with their teeth.

Loose doodles to practice drawing Kuraqa, because crocodile heads are hard.

If you know what the bottom nonsense is referencing, you are officially cool.

There will be comics, vignettes, nonsense, and shitposts on occasion, of course. Because sometimes I just want to cut loose and just have fun.

Otherwise, the storytelling methods and social constructs are very Asian-coded, especially Filipino. There are some African, European, and Indigenous American, as they were folk tales I grew up on--from Aesop to Anansi to Coyote. For this reason, my stories are intended to feel like folklore.

I want to write a constructed setting that doesn't rely on real life race and ethnicities to determine geopolitics, all while not relying on existing fantasy races like orcs, elves, and dwarves to tell the story. Instead, I use taxonomy and human-related myth and history to determine racial groups.

Yes, the stories feature anthros as opposed to humans or fantastical humanoid races such as elves and dwarves. That is a deliberate choice despite me being fully capable of writing and drawing people.

The story of the Bonobo King is about a greedy, gluttonous king who would rather hoard scraps and crumbs than feed his own servants. He gets what he deserves when he demands the servants brave the pieces of the Broken World to feed him something he shouldn't eat.

Until then, I hope people enjoy the story. I hope they come to fall in love with Ri'anoh, Kuraqa, Gi'utoh, Polore, Kamaya, Ri'ita, Ezamina, and Patisha as I have since childhood. Yes, childhood. They've been around since I was 11-16.

Some of the worldbuilding will feel dense. It's been worked on since 1997. TGKF is meant to help me get a feel on making the world familiar enough to follow comfortably all while having folks grasp the fantastical elements quickly without exposition. If I don't succeed, I can always try again.

As an exercise and something for fun, the story draft is crude and often one-shot. It also forces me to plan out what is important for the narrative and art, all while weeding out what ISN'T important so I don't overplan.

It's also to show how I write anthros in this setting. The people of the Broken World in general, but especially the Hitoh, are socially divided up according to their real life taxonomy and relationships with the environment, especially as keystone species, which often determines social hierarchy.

The story itself is about eight individuals caught at the crossroads of life where what they want in life cannot be granted without the Grand King's favor. It's intended to demonstrate how rigid the society of the Hitoh people and how cruel the people of power can be.

"Tale of the Bonobo King" does contain some disturbing imagery, which I intend to timestamp for those squeamish of body horror. Otherwise, it's a story that introduces the gist of the Tales in general, as a sort of self-contained "pilot", so to speak.

Meanwhile, "The Grand King's Favor", a story posted on Tumblr, is undergoing some dialogue changes. I also need to make some more icons, and edit them to have names so people won't be confused at who is speaking.

This particular project is mostly done as an exercise as well as for fun.

The test story, "The Tale of the Bonobo King", is a very short story that can be spoken, listened, and read in a matter of a few minutes. The initial drafts are complete, and some concept art has been sketched on sketchbooks as opposed to digital. Now I'm testing a few things before I progress.

Pictured is an illustration of a cardboard box that reads "Under Construction" while containing anthropomorphic animals of the following species, from left to right: a caiman, a river otter, a polar bear, a komodo dragon, a chameleon, a crocodile, a sea otter, and a light-skinned brown bear. The polar bear and the crocodile in the back are snarling at each other while the komodo dragon and sea otter look anxious; and the brown bear and chameleon look amused. The caiman is unamused while the river otter's face is neutral.

Hello, everyone. ImagenAshyun @imagenashyun.bsky.social here. This bsky account is to journal my progress in getting my person project, 'Tales of the Ba'tala', out there for the world to consume, either as comics, prose, blog posts, or Youtube videos.

As seen in by these dorks, my works are WIP.