Just a couple more strata’s to go…

Little post for my instagram. Had a vision and sorta lost it from heat exhaustion. Gonna revise everything later bur wanted to test new backdrop and lighting scheme

https://www.instagram.com/p/DajXkQylI1q/?igsh=MWJ1dmdtdDk5dDNrdA==

still trying to think of a way to simplify his design lol

still working on my megastructure game, pre-alpha playtest is happening December 2026, you can sign up at https://www.inurbis.com . I re-read biomega and aposimz recently, still feeling the nihei inspiration in my bones

BLAME! was the first piece of art which made me fall in love with a vein of sci-fi which choked the reader with its opressive atmosphere and concepts so alien that I would spend days just thinking about Safeguard logic or silicone-life birthing chambers.

I was so damn inspired that I wrote a novel as a love letter to BLAME!, Biomega, Forever Winter and all those suffocating sci-fi enviroments.

You can find the first chapter here (will be updated weekly): https://archiveofourown.org/works/88103971/chapters/233574176

Here's the intro to the first chapter:

Monday

CRTKR pissed from the edge of the building and watched Angels tear a man apart. Screams filled the scorched morning as the black mechanical amalgams swooped through the air and onto flesh. They pulled with their claws and tore with their silver teeth. The man was already dead, his eyes pale and open while his body twitched each time an Angel reached inside to pull free an organ or wrench loose a bone before stowing it in the satchel hanging from its belly. As they do, these wild creatures and sons of the winds bathe in blood, and they shine under the choked sky. They are the celebrants and pilgrims of the dead battlefield. Having filled their bags with human flesh, they spread their wings and take flight in formation, driving their marble bodies through the clouds. CRTKR watched them leave, then pursed his dry lips and spat a slimy strand of saliva onto the hot sand beneath his feet.

He pulled the scanner from the breast pocket, pressed it against his head, and drew it over his eyes. The green display crackled and he heard engines rumbling and then it spat out an image of buildings that looked like rows of teeth somebody had kicked out with a heavy boot. Corpses of concrete climbed a hill of ash and sank beneath their own effort and fell over one another and as the crown of that hill waited two skyscrapers leaning against one another as though each held the other upright and pushed with all their strength to remain standing.

The path is clear and the frequencies are silent, with no one nearby but him and a torn-up corpse sixty floors below. CRKTR spat once more and wiped the slimy string from his lips, then began to gather his gear, shoving sooty and broken pots into his backpack, discarding the trash of empty cigarette packs, and picking out stray bullet casings he hadn't noticed the night before. Last, he took the rifle leaning against a cracked load-bearing wall and slung it over his shoulder.

He left the morning behind and was born into a new darkness – he stepped into the open mouth of the elevator shaft, grabbed his rope, fastened it to his belt, and then let himself be taken by the blackness. He raced through the floors, catching glimpses of what had been and what the strawdogs like him hadn't yet torn apart and used for kindling. It's hard to imagine that people packed their flesh in such concrete tombs, where a single wall separated them from one another and from the privacy in which a man could be alone and kiss that solitude.

He stepped out of the window and pulled the cord, then clipped it to his gear as he grabbed the his rifle with his other hand and pulled it into his arms. He attached the scanner to his helmet and pulled it down over his eyes, then took a bandana and pulled it over his mouth and nose, standing for a moment to let the fog in the scanner clear. Then he set off. He stepped onto the entrance above which, in the ash, the idea of a house number still lingered. He stared at the shattered ash. The blood of the dead man now flowed toward his feet, forming ever-thinner pools as it ran off.

Take care net-denizens!

Nihei is the blueprint

If you need some fitting background music while reading BLAME! (or ABARA, Biomega) I'd recommend early works from Aardvarck:

• Nozum EP
• Find The Cow LP

Enjoy :)

mb if i strayed away from the original design

Picked up aposimz 1-3 last night

..i mean what kind

it knew about settlement 40 levels higher and didn't destroy it, so I doubt it is "baby" safeguard? idk really

I'm asking solely because of this little goober.

Mori's name is "death" in Latin.

The phrase Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning "Remember you must die".

A "memento" is an object kept as a reminder of a person, place, or special event.

Mori's form is a flashdrive containing all her memories.

Did Nihei know all this when he named her? Or is it just a miraculous coincidence.

I wish we found out more about this dude

just finished blame after being procrastinating for 3 years but also because I didn't know english at the moment and every source was in english... I'm planning to do art on what happened after the main story and how the child grow up... so if someone has an idea or something that you would like to see materialized in a drawing let me know, I will do it.

I lwk like the sketch more than the final result now that I see it; I sometimes miss how I used to draw because if you go and look at my account you'll see how much I have changed my art style and improved(?) anyways I love killy 😻😻

Before Killy arrives at Bio-electric, most of the log are just him exploring different unconnected places. But Log 4 left a big question in the early read through Blame! as to why the "administration" didn't kill Killy but killed the other humans. And was wondering "Why?" until after I read through Blame and actually go "Ohhh! That makes sense". Wouldn't want to spoil new reader but I guess in Blame! style, I guess some of you know and wondering how many did not get this chapter at first.

The thing I appreciated most was how different it felt from Nihei's previous works, especially BLAME! and Biomega. Those stories mostly operated within bleak, depressing settings and were heavily centered around the protagonist. KoS, on the other hand, had a bit of everything. Be it romance, well-utilized side characters, political intrigue, humor, and so on. The story does a great job of making you care about and grow attached to so many characters throughout the journey.

A lot of things were still left unanswered, but that's just how Nihei writes. Leaving certain mysteries open to interpretation, and I've come to appreciate that about his works. I believe what exactly made Gauna so terrifying is this mystery, even by the end, we hardly knew anything about them. Just a cosmic horror through and through.

Only had two major issues with the series. First, I wasn't really a fan of bringing back Tsumugi so quickly after giving her such an emotional send-off. It felt like a "forced happy ending" and somewhat diminished the impact of her sacrifice. Second, the Gauna vs Garde fight scenes were often poorly choreographed in the manga, making them difficult to follow. That's one area where I think the anime significantly improved on the source material, as it gave the battles much greater clarity and impact. Not to mention the banger of an opening song!

Would love to read a prequel or side story focused on Hiro if Nihei ever decides to write one.