Evany Starr & Midnight Penn™ STARRFALL THE starr blog
New Verance City™ is bleeding through time. The past is breaking in. And three people who never asked to be heroes are the only ones who can stop it.
Who??
Midnight Penn – A private conservator and secret heir to an ancient bloodline. Her memories of that legacy have been erased, but when a series of targeted thefts hits her shop, she realizes the city is assembling something catastrophic. She doesn’t chase power; she chases containment.
Evany Rae – A self‑taught engineer and former Coda street vendor. She dreamed of inventing a new sport, but after the Guild rejected her, she kept her prototype bat for protection. By jury‑rigging a broken Vein Core relic into the bat, she created STARR — a reality‑bending weapon that forces ancient magic to obey human engineering.
Emma Rae – Evany’s twin sister. Emma can rebuild her own memories into physical holograms that overlap with the real world. The cost is devastating: the deeper she searches for clues about their missing parents, the more her present‑day memories are violently erased. A faceless stranger haunts her most precious memories, evicting her whenever she gets too close to the truth.
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Welcome to New Verance City™, a city where the past isn’t just a memory — it’s a physical place you can accidentally walk into. Beneath the neon and rain operates the Coda Network, a sprawling black market where thieves and hawkers deal in salvaged tech and ancient contraband. But Coda isn’t just a criminal enterprise. Without knowing it, their everyday smuggling is a city‑wide ritual — a reflection of a hidden cult called The Chantry. The Chantry’s only members are The Acolytes. They believe they are orchestrating the return of the Ancients through the alignment of Vein Core Relics — rare, reality‑warping artifacts. When Cores get too close, reality breaks down. Pockets of New Verance become “Rollback Zones,” frozen in past decades. Ordinary citizens walk through them and never notice anything wrong. Their memories simply adjust. The Acolytes want to force a world‑ending Convergence. The rigid Inventors Guild wants to lock away any technology they can’t control. Caught between them are our three unlikely heroes. Midnight Penn – A private conservator and secret heir to an ancient bloodline. Her memories of that legacy have been erased, but when a series of targeted thefts hits her shop, she realizes the city is assembling something catastrophic. She doesn’t chase power; she chases containment. Evany Rae – A self‑taught engineer and former Coda street vendor. She dreamed of inventing a new sport, but after the Guild rejected her, she kept her prototype bat for protection. By jury‑rigging a broken Vein Core into the bat, she created STARR — a reality‑bending weapon that forces ancient magic to obey human engineering. Emma Rae – Evany’s twin sister. Emma can rebuild her own memories into physical holograms that overlap with the real world. The cost is devastating: the deeper she searches for clues about their missing parents, the more her present‑day memories are violently erased. A faceless stranger haunts her most precious memories, evicting her whenever she gets too close to the truth. New Verance is bleeding through time. The past is breaking in. And three people who never asked to be heroes are the only ones who can stop it. -YGA
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If someone this meticulous left his workbench before putting everything away... what could have been important enough to pull him away? The tablet offers our best clue. It's still running, while everything else remains exactly where it was—as though the investigation simply paused mid-thought.
 Researcher's Desk
Someone was working here.
Someone expected to come back. Or perhaps someone found the answer they were looking for and left knowing exactly where the trail would lead. The Researcher, one of 6 Acolytes of the Chantry - is not simply a collector of old knowledge, he helps preserve and create it. Alongside the Architect (another Acolyte), he has spent years restoring lost texts, translating ancient records, and publishing modern editions for Chantry study. Many of the volumes stacked across his shelves are their own work, field journals turned reference books and forgotten histories given new life. Unlike most Acolytes, he commands no Delegates of his own. Instead, trusted sources are loaned to him by his peers because his investigations serve them all. His research underpins much of the Chantry's understanding of relics, resonance, and the world they believe is unfolding. Unlike many scholars, he prefers to verify his findings firsthand. Thorough practical, and often working in the field, he is just as likely to be examining an artifact as reading about one.
The shelves themselves tell a story. Studies of Vein Cores and Resonance and Rollback phenomena sit beside restored accounts of ancient artifacts. Discussions of the Lattice sit beside historical surveys and field manuals. Some volumes build upon one another. Others seem to argue quietly across the shelf, offering different interpretations of the same old mysteries. Some of these books were recovered from forgotten archives, old scrolls and manuscripts. Others were written here, assembled from years of investigation and careful translation. The Chantry preserves history—but it also continues the conversation. The desk itself reveals an equally practical side of its owner. Resting atop an older, occult-looking volume are two exposed Vein Core relics, carefully laid out for study rather than display. Beside them sits an intricate magnifier, its layered lenses positioned for close examination. Someone wasn't simply cataloging artifacts here. They were comparing, measuring, and looking for details hidden beneath the surface. The open notebook, the resonance logs, and the field samples scattered across the workspace suggest the same thing: observation from every angle before reaching a conclusion. Today's focus is on 3 of the books and the notepad:
Book 1: 𝐕𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬 - Composition, Reaction, Interaction Vein Cores are the remnants of an ancient system. They don't just sit there—they interact with the Lattice, the underlying structure that keeps reality stable. When two cores come close, they try to synchronize. That's not a design flaw; it's a feature of the original system. But the system was never meant to be triggered by people who don't understand what they're handling. The book breaks down:
But if you read carefully—between the lines, in the margins—you'll find the warnings. The Researcher didn't just document the mechanics. He documented what happens when someone gets it wrong . What you need to know: The book exists because the Researcher has spent years trying to understand a system that doesn't come with instructions. His findings are a map—but the territory is still dangerous. Book 2: 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐖𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 - Rituals, Lineages, and the True Calling Where Vein Core Studies is clinical, Blood Wakes is esoteric. If one explains the mechanics, the other preserves the ritual. Believed to have been compiled over generations by Acolytes of the Chantry, Blood Wakes predates what modern followers now refer to as the Red Awakening. It is less a technical manual than a theological record—part instruction, part warning—describing how Vein Cores were once joined with specially prepared vessels. The text explains that a Vein Core is not itself a weapon, but a condensed reservoir of ancient resonance. Only when housed within a compatible frame—whether an engineered receptacle, ceremonial relic, or lineage-bound artifact—can its stored resonance be directed into a useful form. Ancient craftsmen carved these housings with precise resonance pathways that matched the unique structure encoded within each core. The resulting object became an extension of both its bearer and the Lattice itself, capable of extraordinary defensive or offensive function depending on its intended design. Most surviving frames are inert. Without a compatible Vein Core they are little more than beautifully engineered relics. Likewise, an unmounted Vein Core remains unstable potential—power without purpose. The final chapters describe the Blood Wake, a rare awakening in which certain lineage-bound vessels recognize both their rightful bearer and the Vein Core housed within them. Modern Acolytes attempt to reproduce this event through what they call the Red Awakening, believing the ritual itself grants power. Whether they are restoring an ancient process or misinterpreting it remains uncertain. What you need to know: This is the book the Acolytes don't talk about publicly. The Researcher and Architect preserved it because they believe history shouldn't be erased—even the parts that contradict their own doctrine. 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐏𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐚 - Temporal Displacement Zones — Observed Effects Rollback Zones are locations where parts of the city appear to have slipped out of sync with the present. Streets, storefronts, and technology may reflect earlier decades despite showing no signs of preservation or reconstruction. Most people never question these inconsistencies. Acolytes believe the phenomenon subtly influences perception, encouraging observers to accept the environment as normal rather than recognize it as impossible. Whether Rollback Zones are remnants of past events or evidence of something still unfolding remains unknown. Researcher's Annotation"Rollback is often described as reality moving backward. This interpretation is misleading. The evidence suggests reality is not reversing—it is remembering." Notepad and Tablet: The notebook records more than observations—it captures an investigation in progress. Every note references the same event: the Library Incident. The accompanying tablet is fixed on a single resonance return, while nearby Vein Cores appear unusually active, suggesting the Researcher was comparing multiple sources in real time. His interest may never have been the twins themselves. Instead, they may have represented the first observable proof that resonance disturbances could be tracked across the city. If Rollback Zones are echoes left behind by changing resonance states, then perhaps the tablet wasn't searching for people at all... ...it was learning to follow the city's memory. 
1. World of New Verance
Everything about the city, the Lattice, Vein Cores, rollback zones, and the rules of reality. 2. Characters Profiles, sketches, and thoughts about Evany, Emma, Penn, Velek, the Acolytes, and Delegates. 3. Lore & Artifacts Deep dives into the Chantry, the Acolytes, the Continuum, STARR, the Milican Blade, the Artemis Core, and any ancient history. 4. Process & Sketches My 2003‑2004 drawings, rough layouts, script snippets, and any “behind the scenes” content. 5. Blog Updates Shorter posts about milestones (new art, convention appearances, crowdfunding, site updates). 6. Excerpts & Previews Sample pages, panel descriptions, or short story fragments. |
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STARR BLOG POST #1
WHATS THE NAME ABOUT?
AuthorI’ve been a comic artist since 1992. This is my first story — born from a dream, lost to corrupted hard drives, but kept alive in sketchbooks from 2003. After a recent rewrite, it’s finally here. Archives
January 2030
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Character Intro #2
Welcome to New Verance City™
The Championship That Never Happened
Starr Blog Intro
Vein Core Relics
Earliest Sketches of Evany Rae 2003-
The Rae Twins & CODA
The Remidy Saga:
Unwanted War
MASK ATLAS ARG DEVELOPTMENT UPDATES
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