I took this photograph at Lake Anne in northern Virginia. It was a cloudy day, but the green of the springtime was overwhelming, and the fountain reared it’s head over the lake.

There were a few things which sparked (haha, get it? =P) the seemingly serious failure to follow through. Here is a list of them in no in particular order.

• I quit my job

Actually, come to think of it, that is pretty much the only reason. It seems whenever I strike out to do something fun with my life my checkbook gets in my way. I mean, EVERY TIME.

Ah well, life has a funny way of doing these things to us, I spose.

Anyways, there are some new updates to be aware of:

• I moved the forums again! “YOU MOVED THEM AGAIN?!” Yeah, it couldn't be helped though. The good news is that now the forums, are TOTALLY integrated with the rest of the site. Something I have been trying to do since 2003.
• I added a “upload an image” link (look under creativity) where logged in users (its free to subscribe!) can upload any of their own creative work. Digital photos, computer graphics, you name it. If you made it, you can upload it to show off to the rest of the Rogueskies community.
• I also added an “Add a video” link to the same place in the menu. Any videos that you made you can also link from Youtube to this website. Just put in the Youtube link and a title, description, and tags, and it'll show up in our gallery :).
• I also organized our special projects. We have three major team epics on this site. Itranix, which is already finished is in the process of being rewritten. We also have Labyrinth and Angels of the Sea which are gearing up to start sometime soon (no date on Labyrinth and Angels Of The Sea is already gearing up to start).
• I added a chatroom which is hosted on the dal.net IRC network. I'll be hanging out there and I hope to see some of y'all show up sometime :).
• Also the theme is updated. I custom programmed this theme from the ground up (took me about a year to get it to where it is now. Its one of the best wordpress templates in the world :) ). I know you don't care, but I gotta brag :mrgreen:.
• Your going to have to register again! (Bah, humbug!)

Cya around the forums!

God Bless,

-Dan

One of my all time favorite graphics. I did this picture in 3d Studio Max. The image depicts a dream-like lake with a boat coming through the fog up to a dock which contains a portal to another universe.

“We know all of this! But what do you plan to do about it?”

Remnan was taken aback for a moment. The crowd began murmuring, obvious that they were waiting for an answer from him. He stood silent for a moment. The noise continued. Finally he mustered up every last drop of leadership quality in his body and announced:

“We will survive! We will overcome! We must outlast them then march out and destroy them!”

The man in the crowd sneered at Remnan. “You and what army?” the man said. “Look at us! We’re no more than two hundred! We are trapped like a rabbit in its hole in this bunker. How are we supposed to take on the entire nation of the Riijame?” Our cities are in ruins, and most of us are already dead!

Remnan took no time to answer. He turned to General Sigman Nextar, who was standing next to him, and beckoned for Nextar’s pistol. There was a loud crack as a bullet ricocheted from between the man’s feet. The man jumped back out of surprise. The crowd quieted from Remnan’s strong action. “Don’t you ever question where our strength comes from. It comes from within each and every one of us. We are few in number but we are strong!” He raised his arm up with the gun and gave a loud cry. The crowd cheered at his show of strength.

He made his way off the platform there was a click and whir as a small portion of the wall clicked open to allow Remnan to pass through.

Remnan collapsed in a chair behind the desk in the little office they entered. “This is not going to be an easy victory,” he lamented, letting out something of a sigh. Nextar nodded as he pulled out a small datapad from his belt. He sat down in a smaller chair located on the other side of the desk.

“Well, we have enough supplies to last several hundred years, so I don’t suppose you have to feel too pressured.” Nextar laughed slightly, as he tried to lighten the mood.

Remnan ignored the attempt and looked up at Nextar. “We have to leave the bunker, we have to send out some sort of strike force,” he said.

Nextar furrowed his brow and stared through his datapad as his brain tried to comprehend how Remnan’s strategy could work. “Yeah, I suppose it could be done,” he almost whispered. “Yeah,” he said with more assurance, “I’ll put together a team ASAP. We’ll send them out to procure weaponry and tactical information about the enemy. Any ideas on who should be part of that team?”

Remnan smiled, “Yes, an old friend.”

Nextar thought for a minute, then smiled back and nodded, “It’s about time you gave him a purpose again.”

Anyways, that time of year is right around the corner when everyone makes their new years resolutions and then fails at following through with them.

Bravo to the select few of you who actually make a promise to yourself and keep it! As for me, I think I’ll just buy the T-shirt :P.

Not to deter you from losing any weight, but if you have already chosen the path of the couch potato, you can display it proudly by clicking through :P.

God Bless,
-Fabier

The Fall Of Itranix is a Team Epic.

Back in 2005, myself and several other authors started to collaborate on what we called a Team Epic. In a Team Epic each author has one or more characters leading their life in some over-arching storyline. The authors take turns writing their character’s involvement in the plot. There is no set end to the story, or any plan of how to get to an end, and the authors all act (for the most part) independently of each other.

The end result is a very deep storyline with several extremely well developed characters because each character is championed by one author.

In this specific case, the glorious nation of Itranix, a country located in modern day China about 300 years into the future, was invaded and destroyed by a nation, in what is now modern day India, called the Rijjame.

The story begins with a woman named Draille who is rushing to get the word out about the invasion, but she is thwarted by the invading army and dies screaming into the radio as quickly as she can. The story then picks up with Remnan, the leader of what is left of Itranix, giving a speech of hope to a small group of Itraxians trapped in an impenetrable bunker in the capital city of Isis.

Isis is in ruins, all hope of restoring Itranix lost, and whats left of the people of Itranix are in despair. It is here where the adventure begins.

Having already written the story from start to finish, I can already tell you that this trilogy of books is loaded with action, adventure, passion, revenge, and some more experimental things. Since every author had their own unique writing style, you’ll never be able to predict what happens next. You’ll wonder how each of these characters will make it through the ruined cities of Itranix, the greatest nation which ever stood.

God Bless,
-Fabier

A door on the first floor opened sharply. A woman rushed through the lobby and to the elevator, her shoes clicking with each step. She jumped inside and started pressing buttons frantically. The peace in the slowly waking elevator was broken by a massive tremor in the ground. The woman hit the buttons harder and waited nervously as the elevator started its ascent.

Another tremor rippled through the building, sending her into a fit of panic. She folded her arms and tried to stay calm. When the lights finally indicated that she had reached the nineteenth floor, she rushed out and stopped, looking from one direction to the other. She groaned to herself as she realized she had chosen the wrong floor. Turning, she tried to re-enter the elevator, but the ground shook again, and she stumbled back slightly.

The doors opened, and she heard a loud crack as metal fixtures began to buckle and bend, sending the elevator on a crash course down the shaft. A shower of sparks and debris filled the air as a loud explosion rumbled through the building. The lights flickered off and on as the building awoke long enough to re-adjust power distribution to the fire-control systems. Then it went back to sleep. The woman listened for a second, deciding what to do now that she had lost her fastest method of transportation. She spun around and rushed for a stairwell. Upon reaching the top of the flight of stairs, she almost lost her footing as the ground shook again. At the pace she was going, it was hard to keep her balance on the highly polished floors. She kicked off her high-heeled shoes and sprinted as fast as she could for an office down the hall.

The clicking echo instantly evaporated into the soft pitter-patter of her shoeless feet. She slid into the office. Inside was a radio set. She rushed over and turned the radio on. Her hands were shaking as she tried to make the machine work. She picked up the receiver and spoke into it, trying to send a message through. No response. She tried another band. No response. She tried again and again, hoping to get in touch with someone… anyone. The room shook terribly as the ground beneath the building buckled. The tremor knocked her back into a large desk chair behind her. She was too late; it was all in vain now. She picked up the receiver and spoke into it again on a broad-spectrum message. “This is Draille, a civilian of Itranix… Twenty minutes ago this city came under attack… We don’t know who they are, or why they’re here… They’re destroying the city of Itranix, please-” The room shook again, and a deafening explosion sounded nearby. The building’s power grid failed, and the radio went dead. Draille let the receiver slip from her fingers, tears welling up in her eyes.

The building shook violently once again, an unseen force shattering the windows and ripping them out into the open air. Draille stood, looking out from the space where the window had been. Giant, mechanized beasts ravaged the once beautiful city of Isis. Heat from the fires outside washed into the room. “The epitome of human society… Destroyed in a day…” she said to herself, heartbroken. One of the massive beasts stepped in front of the window, blocking her view. A tear slowly fell from Draille’s eyes as the beast turned its head to look into the office. A red field shot out from the monster’s eye and scanned the room. A klaxon blared as the machine recognized her as an Itraxian target. Draille closed her eyes and waited for her fate. A moment later, floor by floor, the building exploded from the inside out and collapsed into flames and rubble.

Because seriously, its a lot of work just to BE in a place with other people, so cut me some slack! It’d be really nice if someone else came up to me to introduce themselves and ask to be my friend.

~~~

Ok, I’m actually about as extroverted as it gets, BUT The Called, who created this shirt design, is a wonderful young introvert who knows where it is at! You’ll completely understand this shirt if you are introverted, so grab one for yourself and show the world who you really are!

God Bless,
-Fabier

After hours of counseling, love, sweat, and tears, I learned one all important thing. I just couldn’t move on! I was CLEAN for almost two whole years. But in the end, I just ended up back where I began.

If you don’t know what Rogueskies is, then read down a little bit, I’ll tell you some of the story of the site. If you do know what this site is all about, I am sorry, but things are about to get ugly.

Yes, thats right. I SAID THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET REALLY UGLY!!!

Why is that? Because you are about to discover that after being free from the subtle addiction that this site provided for almost five years back from 2002 to 2007, you never really rid yourself of the draw…

So for the first time in history, I finally put into words what made Rogueskies so lifechanging.

But first, I promised a moment ago that I’d give a little history. This is good because if you don’t know what this site was all about then you’ll learn (but be aware, you may never leave again, mauahahahaha!!!) if you already know, you probably need a refresher anyway!

So, here are the cliff notes:

• In summer of 2002 I started a website called Rogueskies.net to feature my artwork and writing. Rogueskies was a name based loosely on the phrase “Liquid Skies” which I heard in a song and really loved. The concept from the site was born out a project called the Sine Die Forgotten Society — it was a group, hidden away from the world.
• In the fall of 2002 I added a forum to the site and started inviting/guilting/persuading/strong-arming my online friends to start participating in.
• By the end of 2002, the site had a very active forum and we were having a good time. It was around this time when the site really began to gain traction.
• During 2003 and 2004 the site climbed in popularity and grew from about 10 active forum members to over 30 daily participants with over 140 subscribed forum members. The site was averaging over 400 unique visitors per month which was pretty impressive when compared to the average 200,000 hits per month from some 30 odd countries. Not bad for 2003 and 2004 :).
• In 2005 I added in several community features so others could feature their artwork on the site. The result? A HUGE art gallery developed (which I’m working to resurrect). We also collected many powerful short stories and other misc writing which represented the collective emotions and dreams of a hyperactive base of users. 2005 also featured the birth of a newsletter which had a short, but lifechanging, run. This newsletter, Higher Ground, featured dozens of articles which shared the Love of God with our user base. It was focused on young adults.
• In the end of 2005 something magic saw its beginning. On the Rogueskies forum, something called Team Epics began. In about a year’s time, the members of Rogueskies wrote a full blown three novel series called The Fall of Itranix. An epic tale of several dozen characters who lived in a future world that collapsed. This was one of the pinnical achievements of Rogueskies.
• Unfortunately, in 2006 – 2007 the college monster came and gobbled up many of Rogueskies’ most active members and so the project was eventually shelved to reappear at a later time. Now… three years later almost overnight, Rogueskies has reappeared. Like a legend from ages past, its back with a vengeance and a whole new generation of young adults are going to have the opportunity to be completely changed by this revolutionary website.

So whats the big deal? Why should I care about all of this?

I truly did not understand just how much of an impact that Rogueskies had on the people who spent those incredible five years here on the site. Fully two years after the site closed down I started to hear whispers of the impact that Rogueskies had had on people’s lives.

It had given people hope. It was so encouraging to some that they turned their entire life around and have since grown into strong believers. In fact, one person who I won’t mention by name related to me that when she first joined Rogueskies she had such a poor self-concept of herself that she was considering suicide as an option. Her time here at Rogueskies turned that in a complete 180. She fed off of the positive energy that this site created and it helped to revitalize her.

It brought a tear to my eye that this project, my baby, had helped someone so profoundly.

Since we first had that discussion I’ve heard from others that they have had similar experiences.

What was the reason for the change?

It has taken me eight years to figure out what it was about Rogueskies which made it so endearing to people. Aside from good company and fun things to do. Rogueskies was always about passion and the release of that passion.

I’ve spent the last three years of my life burning through the passion that I had gathered together from this site. When it finally ran out earlier this year I realized that I had something missing in my own life.

It is a passion driving MACHINE! It gives you the opportunity to express yourself. It is the chance for you to be who you want to be. There is a chance for you to express your deepest desires and dreams.

Unfortunately, in the world that we live in, freedom of expression is slowly disappearing for believers. We don’t have opportunity to cut loose and just enjoy each other’s company in a wholesome and positive manner. It almost seems that we are a dying breed. But Rogueskies is a haven to those who are lost. It is a trumpet to those who are unknown, and it is a temple to those who have been forgotten.

So join us for the latest iteration of Rogueskies: Project Crimson Storm.

God Bless,
-Dan (Fabier) Kolansky