Proteus Apocalypse Series Reveal

"A year from now, Beletrix will be destroyed. Nearly everyone you hold dear will perish because of a mistake you will both make because you were being kind. It starts with the human's adopted ship, Aurora. When she came to Earth so long ago, she was one of four sisters. Her Avoran crew abandoned her there, but the other three ships travelled to their home system. Aurora will make contact with her sisters and will try to escape and you will help her and discover a place of wonders and death. A team from Beletrix will go there aboard Miras and Saya and they will uncover the secret of the Avorans, a promise of unlimited energy but a bringer of death as well. It is what destroys Beletrix. Only Koli, Saya, Qidgee and Norcee escape. Miras, Terrik, and the other younger sisters will perish alongside our friends and family, as will the young Emperor to be, Tath and so the horrible spiral of destruction begins. The Emperor's heart breaks at the news of his son's death, and within six months, he passes and the Apeyron fall in to civil war. Razon's madness is rekindled. With the remaining survivors of Beletrix settling on Aemus to mount a defence, Earth is wiped out as the start of the Second Apeyron war begins. The human race is extinguished. After a long and bitter war, the Apeyron are annihilated, but Aemus lies in ruins, billions dead. During the war, the Proteus family grows hundreds of individuals filling the sky but in time, the survivors of the Vu'kno reach the end of their natural lives and the only remaining legacy of our once proud species is Proteus."

That passage will be familiar to readers of my work. It is the Koli from 1700 years in our future as she returns to our time to right a terrible mistake she made and prevent that nightmare from ever happening. 

With Proteus as a series approaching its end, the upcoming Proteus Unbound Series has long been known about and it deals with the fall out of what old Koli did, breaking the laws of time itself to prevent that history from ever occuring. However as I have been working on Proteus Odyssey and Apotheca, setting the stage for those two series, it was becoming clear that the story of the Future That Never Was was growing beyond this simple starting point. In fact I had already go the basics of that entire timeline down.

It became clear to me that in the telling of Unbound, Odyssey and Apotheca, I really needed to tell the story of the Thousand Year War and as a result, I have now laid out a new 12 book series that will run alongside Proteus Unbound, aptly titled Proteus Apocalypse.

In the series you will learn the whole story as well as meet a new cast. In fact I have already created thirty new and unique Proteus ships that will star in the series, adding to those that have already been put forward in the other series. So... may as well do an introduction...

Meet Forze... 

Expect more on this soon.

Meet the Cast of Proteus on Youtube

One thing I do like to do is flesh out what my characters look like and considering my characters are living starships, then obviously I breathe life in to them. When you are writing, imagination is everything, but if you can really visualise what these characters look like in your minds eye, it really does give them true shape and form... which is why I create 3D models of all the main characters.

My daughter and I were talking the other day about how this is hard to visualise even with the spec sheets I create for the ships. There is a big difference between a flat image and something that allows you to see them. So I suggested I do a video animation of them... one thing then led to another and... well, I now have a Youtube channel.

At the moment I am simply doing 3D rotation animations, roughly 16 seconds in length. These let you see each of the ships in a real time environment. Most people would think this is a straight forward job, but doing high quality HD animations in 3D is quite an involved process. Each animation is 480 frames and takes approximately 4 hours to render.

On my channel you can find all of my current ship designs from Symbiotica, to Proteus, to the Olympus Initiative, to Proteus Unbound, then to Proteus Odyssey and finally to Apotheca. There are 63 ships in total and finally you can see each of the ships in a far more real way. 

I will as always be adding more to the list including more from the Odyssey Series including Mercy and the little Knights of Avalon (they are baby Proteus ships) as well as new members of the Proteus families that will be making an appearance. I will also be introducing Strava, a new Asteria ship that is one of the stars of the Infinite Empire Series.

Check out my animation work here if you are interested.

 Alexander Nassau's Youtube 

Enjoy!

Apotheca - Cast update & Images

 The Apotheca Series has slowly been taking shape and I wanted to really flesh out some of the characters in the new series. 

The first surprise will be they are Proteus, specifically from the Future That Never Was.

Anyhow... enjoy...

Proteus Art - Apotheca

Been a while... I know.

Welcome to the world of Covid... makes a mess.

I have been working on elements from the upcoming Proteus Odyssey Series and its companion series Apotheca. These are the Quai, terrifying and powerful living ships that live in a galaxy far... oh you get the idea.

 With things getting back to something of a normal, I will post more soon. I have been working as best as I can during these awful times, but balancing everything has been extremely difficult.

 

Enjoy

 

 

 

 

Proteus Unbound Teaser - Evolving

One of the key themes of the upcoming Proteus Unbound Series is that of evolution. So far I have been showing many of the new players in the series as well as the new family branches such as Hellion, Hyperion, Imperfecta, Osiris and Asteria.

Proteus ships when born need time to mature and become who they will be, but it is all down to environmental factors. Both Qidgee and Hataka are set for some changes and needless to say, this is a first sneak peek at those changes.

Enjoy!

Proteus Technical Art - The ships of Unbound

Okay - I am going through all the new ships that I have recently created and doing my usual tech sheets on them... However due to the fact these are all part of a series that is still being created, I decided to leave out any info on them... so you are just getting renders.

ASTERIA

IMPERFECTA

OSIRIS

There you have it... there are a few more none Proteus ships coming although still a long way from completing the meshwork.
Enjoy

Proteus Art - God Hunters

The Thousand Year was on the verge of its climax, one that would see the Apeyron wiped from the Universe.
Shortly before the end came a new family of Proteus. They became known only as the God Hunters.
It is said that they saved everyone from Death, but they paid the ultimate price for their heroism.

(The final family of Proteus arrive and they are quite different from everything that came before. Really happy with the models of Anubis, Ammit, Neith and Selqet.)

(Edit... Okay, I decided to rehack Ammit and Selqet and then do a new version of the image... can't help it if I am a perfectionist... got to agree this image really does hit home more though)

Proteus Art - Polaris and Sirius

 

 

Polaris and Sirius are brother and sister (Sirius on the left and Polaris on the right). They are genetically very similiar and are almost the same size, sharing many features although it is not hard to tell them apart. They are also naturally born Proteus ships, much like Saya was.

They are typical kids, learning, playing and fighting a bit too.

These two are set to make their debute in Proteus Unbound Book 7, the first book of the Legacy Saga and to say readers will have a rollercoaster ride is an understatement when you meet these two.

Proteus Unbound Artwork - Meet the family

(Updated)
It seems so long ago I was sitting here working out exactly what each of the ships in Proteus looked like. Back then all I had was Koli, Terrik, Lunar, Miras and Saya to deal with. Things change though and as you can see from this, I have created a full size comparison guide to all of the Proteus ships that will be in the Proteus Unbound Series.
As you can also see, they are separated in to families.

Genesis were the original Proteus Ships although they would in time become Proteus Valkyria with their upgrades.
Obviously the new Valkryia ships join the first batch too including the Hyper Titan Servey, a ship that dwarfs every other ship by a long way.

On the far side you see the Hellions, Proteus ships born of hate and anger, designed to stop an endless war.

You have the Hyperions - nuff said.

Then you have the Asteria, the strange and a little alien family, familiar yet different.

New to the line up is Osiris. Technically this 5th family is not going to be in Proteus Unbound although they need to be included. Their story relates to the Imperfecta ship Kek who is also new.

Finally you have Imperfecta. It is not a slight against them, but more where do they really fit. I have updates this with both Sirius and Polaris and also the dark ship called Kek.

If you want the full size, simple click on the image, then right click on that and select "View Image".

So, there you have it. 50 ships which is a far cry from the 12 that were in Proteus... I'm looking forward to introducing you to them all.

Proteus Art - Asteria

The Legends of Proteus tell of the four great families, children of the stars.
It is said, the Valkryia family was born of the hope of a world for a future.
The Hellions were born of hate and violence to stop an endless war.
The Hyperions were born of dominance and the thirst for dominion.
It is said though, the Asteria were born of kindness and empathy, yet they

are not fully Proteus, deep within their DNA, they have the hearts of gods.

The Asteria will make their secretive appearance in Proteus Unbound - Legacy Saga.

They are Proteus, but they are also very different from any of the other families. They are hybrids of a race that really shouldn't have Proteus ships at all.

(Update... Okay, artists are never happy and considering everything, I decided to go back to Asteria and look at them again. They are actually almost the same, but a few tweeks makes them far more impressive and strange. Much happier with this version)

Proteus Unbound Art - Various

As always, I like to get to know my characters before I write about them. The best way to do that is to create them, both as profiles and detailed information and with artwork.

To that end I thought I would throw out the Hyperion and a sneaky look at Nemesis.

 

 

 

Proteus Art - Hyperions

The second installment of Proteus, provisionally titled "Proteus Unbound" covers 12 books.

The overall theme of these books explore time travel and the consequences of it and in fact each of the books will show the principle of "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction".

Everything really started back in Proteus book 6, at the end of the Endless Saga (or did it really ever end?). A version of Koli from 1700 years in the future comes back in time to warn her younger self of a simple act of kindness that would send the galaxy in to a ceaseless hell. Old Koli succeeded and disappeared, having been wiped from the timeline.

Nothing is ever that simple though.

Future Imperfect, the first saga looks at the Thousand Year war and the fall out of it in our time even though it had been avoided.

300 Years, the second saga deals with the new youngsters that have been brought in to their family although they have to face a new threat, one that could consume the galaxy and one that Koli was partly responsible for.

Legacy, the third saga sees the consequences of these errant time travellers on the chaged future as they have to face a threat unlike anything they have faced before, a threat from within that knows Proteus better than they know themselves.

Finally, there is the Hyperion Saga. I wont tease too much, but Proteus must face their greatest enemy, one that was created as a direct result of the time travellers wake in our time. They are Proteus, but they will become known as the Hyperions, an entirely new breed of Proteus ships that are capable of beating their cousins and they are not under the Alphians control.

This is just the first group of Hyperion class ships. You can see Avaddon, their Titan class leader in the centre. The two aqua marine ships are the battle field doctors, Pluriel and Cassiel. The three yellow tinted ships are their destroyer class ships lead by Raziel. Finally Azreal is the leader of the smaller fighter class ships.

Now for the bad news. You won't get to meet these lot for a while. Actually 34 books from now. I like to plan out my stories and I like to not only flesh out my characters in detail, but I also like to give them form too. That way I know who they are, what they look like and how they behave.

Proteus Art - Nemesis

From the future planned Proteus Legacy Saga.
This is the dark ship only known as Nemesis.

Nuff Said

Children of the Empire Cover Tease

Nuff said. Logo done, cover done for the first book... missing something...
Oh... not finished writing it yet although 3 chapters in now....

Proteus - Destiny is Coming

They were created to save their people from the end of the world... they failed.

Destiny is Coming...

The clues were always there though, an unfinished story, their true destiny

The Proteus Destiny Saga will kick off with Proteus Serendipity... coming soon.
This is the first ever shot I have done of all the Proteus family together including little Ayra, the newborn of the fleet that will change everything.
Destiny is something I have been working on for over 2 years now and to say I have been a stinker is an understatement. Those of you who love my books will have seen the clues all along but probably never given them a second thought.

Proteus Art - Hellions Technical

Well, you have seen the first piece of art and now its time to introduce the Hellions.

Proteus Art - Hellions

In the darkest period of the Thousand Year War, the Alliance and the Apeyron were in stalemate, neither side capable of putting end to this circle of insanity.

As the two great enemies, the Aemon and Archals finally put aside their differences they embarked on a secret project. Both races knew the truth, that while heroes are forged in the fires of war, heroes would not be the one who would win the war.

To do that, you needed villains. Monsters without morality, without conscious and without mercy.

As Proteus worked on the Starlance Weapons platform, a planet killer designed to be the ultimate deterrent, the Aemon and the Archals took the Proteus genetic archive and in secret created their own weapons. Twisting the Proteus Genome, bastardising it they created the Hellions, the first true male Proteus Warships.

Bloodthirsty and ruthless, the Hellions were everything these two ancient races had hoped for. Freed of the morality of their creators, this offshoot of the Proteus family tipped the scales giving them the upper hand. However their arrival strained the Alliance to its core, Proteus unable to control their new brothers and in the end they were banished, forbidden from entering the war, not that it stopped them.

Then things changed. The Hellions had made an impact on the war, forcing the Apeyron in to deeper darkness as the Archals homeworld of Arisal was destroyed in retaliation ending another of the great races of the Empire.

It is not surprising that at this point of the war everyone was focused on this atrocity rather than something that would come to light much later. Emperor Razon had been rumoured to have left Apeyra on a mission to save the Empire, and at almost the same time the Hellions disappeared. Neither Razon or the Hellions were ever seen again.

In dark whispers around the alliance it was rumoured that Grand Council Servay had made a deal with the devil, sending Novak and his team of brigands after the Emperor to cut the snakes head off and end the war. Even if this was true, the war did not end, the fight growing desperate and vicious.

It is still the one mystery that nobody ever revealed though. What was the fate of Emperor Razon and the Hellions that were sent to hunt him down and kill him?

Proteus Art - The Future that Never Was

There was a future, one where a simple mistake led to hell for the whole galaxy. It started with the destruction of Beletrix, home of the Alphians by their own hand as their scientific curiosity got out of control. This then sent the Emperor of the Apeyron insane as he mourned the loss of his son and set the Apeyron in to Civil war, one that spilled out to the rest of the galaxy.
Earth, Dendritia, Arisal and other worlds were wiped out in what became known as the Thousand Year War.
At the heart of the Apeyrons war efforts were fleet of Harbinger class ships, planet killers and the only force to stand in their way was an allience between Proteus and the Aemon.

This is the last stand of Arisal as the Harbinger closes in for the kill. Vexa, Grand Arbiter of the Proteus fleet tries desparately to save the world before its destruction.
(Merry Christmas Everyone!)

Sneak Peak - Proteus Future Imperfect Saga (Artwork)

As usual, I have been busy although behind the scenes and its time to introduce seven new Proteus ships that will make their debute in the Future Imperfect Saga.

So without futher ado...

Rather proud of these lot although I have a few favourites in Vexa and Kreyo.
Needless to say one of these ships is the anti hero of the Future Imperfect Saga and perhaps could be considered to be the villain of the story. Needless to say this is almost the opposite to Proteus Evolution as we get a snapshot in to the Future that Never was.

Sighs... only 20 more books to write before I get to Future Imperfect...

Proteus Art - The War Doctor

 

Another sneak peak art wise at another new character that will be introduced in the Proteus Future Imperfect Saga.

This is Servey and she is something else all together.

Technically classified as a Super Titan, Servey is near enough 5 kilometers long, a true leviathan. She is a carrier ship capable of acting as a mobile starbase and medical facility for other members of her family. She is of such a scale and mass she is actually incapable of going down to planets as the gravity would kill her.

Servey has 6 docks in her abdomen capable of accepting all other Proteus ships and to give an idea of scale, the ship next to her is a Titan. These Docks offer full medical and repair facilities to tend to the wounded. In addition Servey comes as a package. She has Io and Callisto, two heavily armed Proteus Warships as her protectors and her personal assistant, little Bix. Servey requires another support ship to help her jump due to her size and Bix fulfils that role.