Monthly Archives: December 2010

Congratulations to Imp for winning Friday Night Fights 2! The results were not as close as I'd have expected:

As the winner, Imp will receive a custom color illustration of pretty much whatever he likes (within reason), and as the Runner-Up DiCicatriz will receive a black and white character illustration. Congratulations to them both for making it this far.

And in the last Consolation Round, the winner is Frevoli!

Frevoli wins his choice of any item or any portrait to be included in the final HM3 release, or a Sketch of the Day style drawing. Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone who participated either by submitting characters or by voting. Let me know what you thought of the whole process, and I hope you enjoyed it.

Finally, I wanted to show all of Imp's team, along with the full backstory, so it'll all be in one place. Enjoy!

Setting:  This is a neo-feudal/corporate-run galactic nation, the Terran Empire.  Corporations have become the 'new nobility', with CEO, CFO, and other titles becoming hereditary.  The Emperor himself is elected by the Grand Combine, a high council consisting of the CEOs of the most powerful corporations.  The Emperor serves for life unless he gets voted out on a 'no confidence' vote by 85% of the Combine.  For the last fifteen years, the Empire has been at war with the Gath, an alien stellar nation with similar technological levels and motivations as the humans.  Unfortunately, this has resulted in a stalemate for the last decade.  The current Emperor, Diarmid VIII, has been on crusade on the frontiers for the last nine years; despite continued calls for votes of no confidence, the Grand Combine has been unable to reach a majority.  This had led to unrest and even outright rebellion in certain Imperial sectors as local despots seek to increase their own power at the expense of the citizenry...
 
Colonel Robin Hood:  Once a colonel in the Imperial Skyforce (a combination space fleet and air force), Hood is the son of Albert Hood, CEO of Hood Industries and Duke of Covington, an Imperial Sector within the New Albion quadrant.  His family has been life-long friends and allies of LM&P (Leaford Mining and Pharmaceuticals), the rulers of neighboring Nottingham Sector.  While serving on the frontier in the war against the Gath, Robin was captured and spent three years in a Gathi prison.  When he finally escaped, he made his way home, only to find that his Sector and Nottingham Sector had been 'reorganized' by the Sheriff of Nottingham.  His father was dead, and Robin himself was quickly declared an outlaw.
 
Sheriff Roger Lacey:  The Imperial Marshalls are the internal peace-keeping forces of the Empire.  In this time of strife, certain Sheriffs (the heads of the various Sector Marshalls) have declared martial law... and sometimes worse.  One of these is Roger Lacey, the Sheriff of Nottingham.  No friend of the current Emperor (since Lacey's ancient House/Corporation was disgraced and disbanded two decades ago), Lacey has set himself up as the virtual dictator of two Sectors, Covington and Nottingham.
 
Marian Leaford:  Former Duchess of Nottingham Sector and heir to LM&P, Marian was declared an outlaw and her properties and titles forfeited by the Sheriff after she was discovered funnelling arms and money to Robin.  She has since become an active member of the local rebellion against the Marshalls.
 
Friar Wolfram Tuck:  A priest of the United Church and a former member of its Viridian Order (an order of fighting monks), Tuck was discredited by the Church after certain embarrassing incidents involving vast quantities of alcohol, hiraga weed, and young women.  He was thrown out of the Viridians and became a wandering monk, eventually making his way to Nottingham Sector and joining Robin Hood in his fight against the Marshalls.
 
'Little John':  A member of the Varsulan race.  A hero on his native planet during their war against the Empire thirty years ago (a war which the Varsulans lost; they were inducted into the Empire as part of Covington Sector), John has joined Hood's Rebellion on the condition that Varsu be freed when and if they triumph over the Marshalls.  'Little John' is Hood's nickname for the alien; his real name is pretty much unpronounceable by the human tongue.