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Description
Gl'xh prepares for her new mission.
Page Notes:
* Gl'xh is receiving this information through neural induction. Essentially, it is being microwaved into her brain from a distance. Of course, she could have just read it on a monitor, but this is the future! Also, all of the information: target dossiers, floorplans, equipment requisitions, etc, would be more quickly assimilated if you could just "recall" it... So here, in essence, she is learning about the mission and planning it, just by thinking and having computers help her plan it and set it into motion. Though none of this is explicitly illustrated, Gl'xh emerges with Robot in tow, already requisitioned, and a mission plan being relayed to it, ready to go.
* The Creche statue in panel 2 is representative of its role in Amaxeni society. The pourer stands in a pool (gene pool) and pours water from that pool (genetic information) back into it. The Creche does the same thing, by taking in genetic information from donors and pairing it with others, tailoring it for societal needs and to correct any corruption stemming from not having Y chromosomes, and then feeding the result into incubators. This process isn't explained until much further into the novel, where it becomes the focal point of the story. The female pourer represents the Amaxeni tenders working within the Creche.
* The "landscape" follows an Amaxeni ideal. A mix of natural and synthetic, large and open, bold and free. Distance doesn't mean a whole lot when vehicles are free and fast - Amaxen don't walk from one place to another, but they like to walk around the places they visit. Trees and nature are abundant, as are waterfalls, rivers and fountains. The whole place is intended to be idyllic. The pipes here were more for setting boundaries to the area and to show the Creche is "connected" to the rest of the world.
* I wanted Robot to basically look like a floating garbage can. Simple and unassuming. It is inspired by the drones of Iain M. Bank's Culture novels, who are described as looking like large metal suitcases, but they are festooned with the highest technology available. Robot isn't quite as sophisticated as Bank's drones, but technologically speaking, it is nothing to sneeze at: forcefield projectors, AG field generators, rapid fire EM mass accelerators... It is essentially a floating gunship with a sophisticated electronics warfare suite. Robots form the backbone of Amaxeni culture, simply because they do all of the hard work and heavy lifting. The Eden Rosette couldn't exist without robotic assistance on a massive scale. However, the robots of modern Amaxeni technology are more sophisticated, and more stringently controlled because of that sophistication, than Robot is, who is about a thousand years old, considered obsolete and kept in storage. As for why it was kept for a thousand years, I guess you'd have to read much further into the story...
* Robot's personality: For a long time now, there's been a character trope that robots can be surly, rude to humans, usually psychopathic, perhaps in response to the long-loved Asimov's Three Rules of Robotics, where robots are behaviourally restricted from causing, or allowing for, humans to come to harm. Especially in the Star Wars, there's are a lot of droids who are more (flawed) humans than robots: HK-47, BT-1 & 0-0-0, Chopper, even R2-D2. Bank's Culture droids are no different, but show a lot more range from deadly psychopaths and manipulators, philosophers, to artistic recluses. I tried to position Robot in between - he has a bad attitude sometimes, but isn't all that bad, but can still fight and kill in the role he's been assigned to.
* Floating droids are a dime-a-dozen in SF material these days, so it would be easy to draw parallels to other recent works (such as Nier: Automata), but the real inspiration for Robot in Amaxeno was the Satellat droid used by Sov assassin Orlok, in Judge Dredd: Apocalpyse War. Satellat was a mindless floating droid that Orlok uses to infiltrate a chem facility to spread the Block Mania drug, using it like a handglider... kinda like which you'll see on the next page. Vincent from the Black Hole was another inspiration.
* The "Ohnk Ohnk" was actually how he was supposed to communicate all the time, but I wanted him to have more personality, and so "Ohnk Ohnk" becomes Robot becoming somewhat passive-aggressive derisiveness.
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Page Notes:
* Gl'xh is receiving this information through neural induction. Essentially, it is being microwaved into her brain from a distance. Of course, she could have just read it on a monitor, but this is the future! Also, all of the information: target dossiers, floorplans, equipment requisitions, etc, would be more quickly assimilated if you could just "recall" it... So here, in essence, she is learning about the mission and planning it, just by thinking and having computers help her plan it and set it into motion. Though none of this is explicitly illustrated, Gl'xh emerges with Robot in tow, already requisitioned, and a mission plan being relayed to it, ready to go.
* The Creche statue in panel 2 is representative of its role in Amaxeni society. The pourer stands in a pool (gene pool) and pours water from that pool (genetic information) back into it. The Creche does the same thing, by taking in genetic information from donors and pairing it with others, tailoring it for societal needs and to correct any corruption stemming from not having Y chromosomes, and then feeding the result into incubators. This process isn't explained until much further into the novel, where it becomes the focal point of the story. The female pourer represents the Amaxeni tenders working within the Creche.
* The "landscape" follows an Amaxeni ideal. A mix of natural and synthetic, large and open, bold and free. Distance doesn't mean a whole lot when vehicles are free and fast - Amaxen don't walk from one place to another, but they like to walk around the places they visit. Trees and nature are abundant, as are waterfalls, rivers and fountains. The whole place is intended to be idyllic. The pipes here were more for setting boundaries to the area and to show the Creche is "connected" to the rest of the world.
* I wanted Robot to basically look like a floating garbage can. Simple and unassuming. It is inspired by the drones of Iain M. Bank's Culture novels, who are described as looking like large metal suitcases, but they are festooned with the highest technology available. Robot isn't quite as sophisticated as Bank's drones, but technologically speaking, it is nothing to sneeze at: forcefield projectors, AG field generators, rapid fire EM mass accelerators... It is essentially a floating gunship with a sophisticated electronics warfare suite. Robots form the backbone of Amaxeni culture, simply because they do all of the hard work and heavy lifting. The Eden Rosette couldn't exist without robotic assistance on a massive scale. However, the robots of modern Amaxeni technology are more sophisticated, and more stringently controlled because of that sophistication, than Robot is, who is about a thousand years old, considered obsolete and kept in storage. As for why it was kept for a thousand years, I guess you'd have to read much further into the story...
* Robot's personality: For a long time now, there's been a character trope that robots can be surly, rude to humans, usually psychopathic, perhaps in response to the long-loved Asimov's Three Rules of Robotics, where robots are behaviourally restricted from causing, or allowing for, humans to come to harm. Especially in the Star Wars, there's are a lot of droids who are more (flawed) humans than robots: HK-47, BT-1 & 0-0-0, Chopper, even R2-D2. Bank's Culture droids are no different, but show a lot more range from deadly psychopaths and manipulators, philosophers, to artistic recluses. I tried to position Robot in between - he has a bad attitude sometimes, but isn't all that bad, but can still fight and kill in the role he's been assigned to.
* Floating droids are a dime-a-dozen in SF material these days, so it would be easy to draw parallels to other recent works (such as Nier: Automata), but the real inspiration for Robot in Amaxeno was the Satellat droid used by Sov assassin Orlok, in Judge Dredd: Apocalpyse War. Satellat was a mindless floating droid that Orlok uses to infiltrate a chem facility to spread the Block Mania drug, using it like a handglider... kinda like which you'll see on the next page. Vincent from the Black Hole was another inspiration.
* The "Ohnk Ohnk" was actually how he was supposed to communicate all the time, but I wanted him to have more personality, and so "Ohnk Ohnk" becomes Robot becoming somewhat passive-aggressive derisiveness.
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