TO ALL AGENTS OF THE BLACK BRUSH, 

THE WILDFLOWER HAS CONFIRMED THEY ARE ASSEMBLING, JUST AS PROMISED. THE EVENTS OF PHAETON MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO COME TO PASS. THEY WERE THE VILLAINS ONCE BEFORE, BUT THE BUTTERFLY’S WINGS FLAP ANEW.

I HOPE YOU ALL WILL HAVE AS MUCH FAITH IN THEM AS I DO. 

BE READY FOR BASKETWEAVING 101… THE FIRST CHAPTER IS ABOUT TO BEGIN. 

– THE SCRIBE

Basketweaving 101?

Basketweaving 101 is an upcoming modern fantasy comic series based on what was originally a tabletop roleplaying campaign between eight friends. At its core, this is a story about loneliness, isolation and belonging, rooted in our own experiences and feelings.

Forrest Lycidas is an outcast at the prestigious Emory Byron Academy for Wizards, Witches, and Warriors. His power to see souls and speak to the dead destines him for evil, but when a string of strange murders erupts across campus, he’s the only hope of uncovering the truth. To save the classmates who scorned him, he must put his word against some of the most powerful and beloved cultural figures in the world. Will anyone believe a curse like him?

The first chapter is coming this March. Black Brush Stories has an active presence in the Orlando FL area and we’re hoping to grow our community to tell this first story, because we know that what we’re doing is important! You’ll be able to find us at local comic shops, art fairs like the Goblin Market, and major conventions like MEGACON 2027! We want to grow our world to more than just comics-we’ll be creating TTRPG material, merch, and we even have a sample action figure already produced!

Keep scrolling to learn more about the world and our main cast. At the end, we’ll ask you to take a survey to share your thoughts!

Setting the Stage

The sky of planet Paxus is surrounded by a colorful mass of infinite potential known as the Aurora Animus. It’s where all souls go when they die, where they wait to reincarnate and live again. Every one of these souls is marked by a tarot card, called an Arcana, that indicates their role in the universe–their fate. A rare few Paxians are considered Arcane: a unique supernatural ability has manifested out of their soul’s arcana that allows them to control the aurora’s energy. The arcane who fight for the betterment of Paxus are known as adventurers and heroes.

Superhero work has become trendier as global arcane birthrates rise, but the Emory Byron Academy still stands as a bastion of the traditional adventuring ways in a society where superheroes bathe in stardom. Though not nearly as flashy, adventuring is still a respected job reserved for the elite, and often involves specializing in an area of academia such as history, magic, or monster hunting.

The academy’s namesake, Emory Byron, was the world’s most legendary adventurer. Over a century ago, she exposed a shadowy group known as the Incarnate, who stirred global conflict for centuries. She is credited with putting an end to a global war that was on track to destroy everything. The ancient monster Alnaz, a former Incarnate conspirator and nemesis of Byron, had a sudden change of heart, and the two became great friends. After Byron’s passing, Alnaz opened the academy to preserve her legacy and raise future generations of adventurers. He is still the headmaster of the academy today.

Hopefully They’re Heroes

Forrest Lycidas

Our protagonist, Forrest, was born bearing the same mark on his soul as some of the worst terrorists and criminals in history, that of The Tower tarot card. According to common religious orthodoxy, those who bear this mark are fated to, willingly or not, serve as a catalyst for apocalyptic disaster. The people closest to them will die grisly deaths, and the current era of history will be brought to a violent, bloody end. 

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Forrest’s birth was such a bad omen that it halted all momentum of his father’s political career. Articles and thinkpieces have been written about whether Forrest should be allowed to continue to live given his destiny. Despite the common belief that Forrest is doomed to join the ranks of history’s most terrible villains, Forrest has a strong sense of responsibility for and protectiveness over the people around him, and is unable to turn away a person asking for help. He is also very headstrong and argumentative, willing to stand up to anyone should the need arise. 

Forrest’s power allows him to see and interact with the energy that makes up the soul. He can see the souls of the living and the departed, and can shape the loose energy into threads that he can use for healing, restraining, or cutting. He is one of the only people capable of seeing the aurora and re-binding a soul to a body, bringing a person back from the dead. He resurrected his grandmother after she died in an accident. The public blamed him for her death. When he brought her back, they treated his powers as unnatural and another bad omen. Forrest was admitted to the Emory Byron Academy because the headmaster, Alnaz, previously bore the mark of The Tower and had it changed. Now Forrest wants to find a way to remove The Tower from his soul like Alnaz.

Rowan Northwick

Rowan is the deuteragonist of Basketweaving 101. Despite his distant and quiet personality, people notice when Rowan enters a room. The clicking of his cane (which contains a thin, one-handed sword), his heavy, rhythmic footsteps, and neatly maintained hair all stand out on their own, but his peers report that something about his presence makes the air in the room feel thinner.

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Rowan is outwardly stubborn, standoffish, and largely unwilling to work with others. He isn’t very eloquent, which when combined with his propensity to use force to get his way may lead some to conclude that Rowan is unintelligent and brutish. This is far from the truth, however. Rowan is coldly pragmatic and viciously efficient. As a fighter, his movements are fast, precise, and practiced. 

Although his strictly regimented way of being has led some to guess that he was raised as a soldier of some kind, Rowan’s origins are largely unknown. He was admitted into the Emory Byron Academy after he appeared suddenly and challenged a professor to a fight. Although he didn’t win, the professor found that strangely, no injury inflicted on Rowan impeded his ability to move or fight, regardless of their severity. The professor recommended him based on his superhuman endurance & durability.

Zephyr Alexond

Zephyr is the tritagonist of Basketweaving 101. Painfully shy, Zephyr often sits alone and tries desperately not to draw any attention to herself, in spite of her unusual lavender skin, dated sense of style, and the way she speaks to her equipment as if it were alive. Her fellow students have noticed her attempts to minimize herself, and have elected to mostly leave her be. This only served to further convince Zephyr that nobody likes her.

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Despite her awkwardness, Zephyr is a very earnest and hardworking young woman. Her low self-esteem and her family’s legacy as prominent monster hunters left her feeling that she still needs to “earn” her spot in the Emory Byron Academy despite her talent for engineering and hand-to-hand combat, as well as her superhuman speed.

Compounding this issue is her mother, who often drops by Zephyr’s dorm unannounced to get involved with her academic and social life. She has a profound love and fascination for mundane technologies, like microwaves, cameras, and “color movies,” to the point that one might think she had never seen them before. Zephyr works closely with the school’s idol, Bethany Neoma, on her independent EBA-focused news publication, the Byron Gazette, as an interviewer and photographer.

Atsuikage

Astuikage (real name Jeremy Smith) is a main character of Basketweaving 101. He is that one 15-year-old in your college classes. A one-in-a-million natural talent, Jeremy Smith spent most of his life as a timid boy, believing he was unspecial, finding escape from the mundanity of everyday life in video games and anime and (like most weeaboos) hoping that one day, he would awaken some hidden power inside him. However, unlike most kids who naruto-run through their high school’s hallways, his wish would be granted. When he suddenly developed special powers, he quickly applied for and was accepted into the Emory Byron Academy under the alias “Atsuikage.”

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Atsuikage has since styled himself in the trappings of the classic shonen anime protagonist. He’s cocky and eager to test out his new powers. In addition to giving him superhuman physical capabilities, he also has the ability to develop new “special moves” seemingly at will. One of the EBA students Atsuikage once challenged to a fight stated, “obnoxiously, it seems like he can do anything.” 

Due to his cocksure attitude, poor sportsmanship, and trash-talking, nobody really wants Atsuikage in their party, despite his tremendous power. The only people on campus that really want anything to do with him are his old tutor Schmester and his “Sensei,” Kurufude Choujiro.

Bethany Neoma

Bethany Neoma is a main character in Basketweaving 101. She is the daughter of Kyria’s most famous religious leader, Joel Neoma, known for her striking resemblance to the Goddess of the Stars. A child star, Bethany has been modeling, acting, and producing music for most of her life, and continues to do so on top of her many extracurriculars, like cheerleading. She also runs the school newspaper, the Byron Gazette.

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Formerly a student of Emory Byron Academy’s rival school, her transfer to EBA made dozens of headlines, and she quickly became the school celebrity. Despite her popularity, Bethany has yet to join an adventuring party. As an adventurer, Bethany boasts a magical girl-style transformation, wings, and healing capabilities. She usually has an elegant, grappling-based fighting style, but her preferred way of fighting is closer to professional wrestling. 

Despite the positive attention her presence brings to EBA, she mostly uses her news publication to spread private information & gossip and heavily (sometimes unreasonably) criticize EBA. Despite seemingly being a shallow mean girl, Bethany is highly pragmatic; Her seemingly malicious behaviors are more to further her own career than to hurt other people. To her, that’s just an unfortunate side-effect. Her success and sickeningly sweet mean-girl facade mask a deep dissatisfaction, a cynicism developed over years of stardom, and an attempt to escape her troubled relationship with her father, who also happens to be her manager.

Help make it real!

Hi there,

I’m Niko, the founder of Black Brush Stories and the creator of Basketweaving 101. What do you think? I’m participating in the University of Central Florida Joust – a new venture competition (like Shark Tank) that grants business support and financial awards! Winning will help us pad our early costs: convention and market attendance; artists’ and employees’ wages; and producing physical editions of our products!

If you’re interested, and want to support a startup that hopes to spread a positive message and create new jobs for indie artists and storytellers, please take 1 minute to do the survey below. Help us win by proving that what we’re doing is in demand!

Thanks for your support,

Niko Veletsos

All concept art by Joshua Noble

Additional writing & editing by Ian Morrison

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