HOUSE ON THE OUTLANDS
Dark Fantasy 2D Micro Short Series
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Welcome to House on the Outlands: A serialized adventure telling the dark tales of Harmony, a little girl endowed with eldritch powers. As she struggles to contain this dark magic, she uses her power to defend her impossibly crooked home from mysterious evil forces lurking beyond the fabric of our reality. This is a love letter to cosmic horror inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and Frank Belknap Long, William Hope Hodges, and Walter De La Mare– in the spirit of saturday morning cartoons.
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BEWARE WHAT LURKS IN THE OUTLANDS!
Harmony lives with her Mother in a creepy house perched on the threshold between our world and vast unknown dimensions. A typical Monday for Harmony is spent doing chores, entertaining playdates, taking care of her Mom and dealing with the dark pests, demons, spirits and ancient forces of the Outlands.
She might be powerful enough to drop-kick any minion back into the darkness, but keeping this much magic in a little girl’s body… it tempts the taste buds of larger forces.
HOME SWEET HOME
The Outlands are a forgotten maze of small towns and cemeteries that have succumbed to a dreary and overcast timelessness. At the forest edge is a quaint 19th century farmhouse. Some whisper the laws of space and geometry bend and break within the house. Others say that it is far greater in size than it appears on the outside. The house is filled with impossible hallways and non-euclidean rooms that drain the light, leaving deep shadows filled with an unknowable power stirring in the darkness. For Harmony, it's just home sweet home.
THE PAWNS OF THE OUTLANDS
There are two worlds playing this cosmic game between good and evil: there are the many pawns and puppets of the horrific, dimension-devouring goddess Tsathoggua. Then, there is the slightly-less evil Harmony and her allies, who fight to keep Tsathoggua at bay. Everyone embodies their own special niche of evil that they must battle within themselves. Some have succumbed in their obedience, while others like Harmony continue to resist. There is no good guy here.
HARMONY
Harmony is a reluctant hero imbued with great, eldritch power. Despite being fabulously powerful, she wants nothing to do with the larger problems of the universe and would prefer to spend her days wandering through graveyards and going on night strolls with her sidekick bearwolf, Furgil. Sometimes, the constant battle of keeping these forces at bay is overwhelming, and she can become disheartened and filled with despair, making her susceptible to the dark seed of limitless power that lies dormant within her. Her greatest shield from the abyss? Her mother’s love.
TSATHOGGUA
Tsathaggua must consume the souls of living beings and assimilate them. Above all else? She desires Harmony, the seed of unlimited power. While she currently must enact her wishes through her minions, imprisoned to her own dimension, she dreams of the power to feed interdimensionally, ending all of existence. She carries herself like a refined woman of high society with a cool and tempered disposition, where time is of no consequence—but hates to be disappointed. She can fly into a violent rage when her designs are not realized by her followers.
TSATHOGGUA
Tsathaggua must consume the souls of living beings and assimilate them. Above all else? She desires Harmony, the seed of unlimited power. While she currently must enact her wishes through her minions, imprisoned to her own dimension, she dreams of the power to feed interdimensionally, ending all of existence. She carries herself like a refined woman of high society with a cool and tempered disposition, where time is of no consequence—but hates to be disappointed. She can fly into a violent rage when her designs are not realized by her followers.
MOM
Harmony’s mom means well—but struggles to be the stable emotional support her daughter needs. While her daughter battles the forces of evil, she’s busy battling being a single mom with poor finances. Harmony’s mom is constantly trying to hide her dissatisfaction with life, but treasures Harmony and does everything she can to fill daughter’s life with love and a ‘normal’ environment—so much so that she doesn’t notice her daughter isn’t exactly normal either...
INCUBOY
Incuboy is a gentleman by all appearances, but underneath it all, he is snide, arrogant and spineless. He is tasked with trapping and bringing Harmony’s soul to Tsathoggua for consumption. In a fight, he prefers to use his wits to avoid direct confrontation. But beneath the bluster, Incuboy is deeply jealous of Harmony’s independence and perhaps he might even envy the mercy of her mortality.
INCUBOY
Incuboy is a gentleman by all appearances, but underneath it all, he is snide, arrogant and spineless. He is tasked with trapping and bringing Harmony’s soul to Tsathoggua for consumption. In a fight, he prefers to use his wits to avoid direct confrontation. But beneath the bluster, Incuboy is deeply jealous of Harmony’s independence and perhaps he might even envy the mercy of her mortality.
FURGIL THE BEARWOLF
Furgil is a BearWolf— a teddy bear that transforms into a vicious werewolf when the moon is gibbous. As Harmony’s faithful companion, Furgil is a silent but deadly protector— or, all-too-often, utterly useless in a fight with his tiny plushie arms. He is particularly fond of pastries and can be very “food” motivated. He only appears alive to Harmony and others familiar with the dark realms that lurk– to everyone else, he is just your average plush teddy bear.
ZOLA
In any ordinary story, Zola would be the hero. She rightly fears that Harmony carries unspeakable, potentially catastrophic powers within her—and Zola shall be the one to destroy her for the safety of humanity. To understand and combat evil, she studies dark occult rituals and magic from the abhorrent tome: Al Hazred’s Necronomicon. Zola’s life is a whirlwind of trying to please her parents, but also holding the weight of the world’s dark forces on her shoulders. No one else around her gets it… right?
ZOLA
In any ordinary story, Zola would be the hero. She rightly fears that Harmony carries unspeakable, potentially catastrophic powers within her—and Zola shall be the one to destroy her for the safety of humanity. To understand and combat evil, she studies dark occult rituals and magic from the abhorrent tome: Al Hazred’s Necronomicon. Zola’s life is a whirlwind of trying to please her parents, but also holding the weight of the world’s dark forces on her shoulders. No one else around her gets it… right?
MONSTERS AND MINIONS OH MY!
The lesser monsters and beasts in the Outlands are the foot soldiers of Tsathoggua who execute her will without hesitation. From raving martins and clever mimics to gaunt zombies and gelatinous Shogg, there is a vast host of evil that will go to any length to smite all challenges to their supreme power. However, every now and then, something 'else' finds its way through the angles of the house that not even Tsathoggua can fully control…
BEHIND THE SCENES
House on the Outlands is animated by hand in a nostalgic style of 90’s Saturday morning cartoons. The artwork is inspired by gothic and cosmic horror with unsettling forms, and non-euclidean spaces. Nothing is as it seems, as every corner and color combination are forced together to evoke dread and uneasy discomfort. Animation allows to capture Lovecraftian spaces with a new level of stylization, combining planes and angles in impossible, stylish ways.
The process starts with quick sketches and explorations of how to juxtapose round and hard, bright and dark, ying and yang in each design. After a refined and frightening style emerged, each storyboard approached the story with cosmic horror in mind and entertaining people with the question of “How will Harmony win this time?” The end result is a stark and evil world, full of danger and eldrich intrigue.
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