Quinquennial Epilogue Released!

Yes, the madness is finally coming to an end after two straight months of flashbacks and nostalgia. It's been a fun little journey, seeing my headcanon finally coming to life and revisiting old characters and places, but all good things must come to an end and I have some more ideas for STNL².

Anyways, this epilogue essentially serves to wrap up Quinquennial and transition us back into the normal series as well as a new story arc. However, lemme just say right now that I take one last opportunity to bash my past self and his incessant Artemis Fowl references...

The Quinquennial logo for the last time, here hovering above Space
Vancouver.

NO... NO... NOOOOOOOO!!

The fact that Belati is so easily terrified means whatever is coming
is horrifying indeed...

RANDOMOSITY HERBERT DOES NOT WANT

Commentary: In case you're wondering, the epilogue takes place after Jercy has been revived, since showing it in the Afterlife would've been boring and superfluous (literally it would've been like just Deathpool saying "Okay, that's it, you can leave now" and Jercy walking into a portal to return to reality), so I used Occam's Razor to trim it down to Jercy waking up.
As you may have figured out, the returning menace is indeed Holly Short. Thankfully, she's still definitively been purged from the Revolution Universe, and her appearance in this part is due to Rando'Moss'Iti meddling. Honestly, I have no real good explanation for her return in this part (much like how I have no honest idea of why I promoted her to Gavalantarus Empress in Stratagem), but at least Rando'Moss'Itis are excellent plot devices in that you can explain anything away with them. Holly Short? RANDOMNESS. Giant cows eating tepees? RANDOMNESS.
Heck, what if they're the reason Holly Short and her fairy friends appeared in STNL to begin with?! (cue X-Files theme song)

Actually, now that I think about it, a certain dumblydum is to blame for the Artemis Fowl/STNL crossover madness. See, Holly Short made a cameo appearance during Lives of the Toriin, and since I was into both Artemis Fowl and that series at the time, I was like "Well, if it worked for dumblydum, then certainly it can work for me, right?" As it turned out, it didn't work for me at all.

In other news, tomorrow there's supposed to be some Spore.com maintenance for "a few hours" (on the same day I start school, incidentally), so I'm putting this out just in case things take longer than expected. Even if that does happen, hopefully it'll just be less than a week before things get back to normal.

Quinquennial, Part 12 Released!

For the last part of Quinquennial proper, I decided to mash the fast-forward button to the interim between STNL: Journey's End and STNL²: Stratagem and showcase what led to a young girl named Khrelan Galagat turning against her Gavalantarus bosses and warning Jercy of their reconquest of the galaxy.

Note that as I mentioned earlier, this will be the last flashback part of Quinquennial. Next part will be an epilogue that helps us transition back into STNL proper. But for now, let's talk Khrelan!

The Quinquennial logo, here hovering amongst several Gavalantari.
(BONUS: Can you spot Jercy in disguise?)

The ruined surface of Sotis, which of course become even more ruined
during the events of Bloodlust.

Wait, who the heck is this Gavalantarus? All I know is
those wings should be one someone else's back.

The Gavalantari don't take too kindly to dissidents, which makes you
wonder why they didn't kill Khrelan when she came back. Oh wait...
SHE CAN NEVER FREAKIN' DIE.

Commentary: As mentioned, for the last part of Quinquennial, we see Khrelan go against her Gavalantarus overlords and warn Jercy while he's vacationing on Risa Asir, thus setting the plot of Stratagem into motion. We also get a look into Khrelan's head (does she have one, given her unique nature?) and see what she was like during her days as a shy minion of the Gavalantari.

If you remember Stratagem, then you'll remember my stupid idea to make Holly Short lead the Gavalantari. Honestly, there was no good reason for it and the plot still makes sense without her. But fear not, for I have rectified my mistake and atoned for my sins by doing just that! I decided to replace Holly with a new character called The Architectress, a female Gavalantarus who was born wingless and wears a set of mechanical ones to compensate. (Trust me, one of these days I'm going to remake Stratagem without Holly Short/Artemis Fowl references just to prove my point).

So yes, really this part was to allow my bashing of my past self and his obsession with Artemis Fowl to culminate in the final, final purging of Holly Short from the STNL/SR canon. In fact, this entire special was merely a ploy to get rid of her forever, with the flashbacks and all just being filler!

Quinquennial, Part 11 Released!

You heard it right, it's time for another Quinquennial part! In fact, unless I decide to change things around later, this is going to be the penultimate Quinquennial part, and then we go back to business as usual. Don't get me wrong, this has been a very fun special to make and I've enjoyed revisiting the series I've devoted my life to for the last 5 years, but I feel like we should get back to normal STNL before I start school up again. Besides, July 1st was almost 2 months ago!

But enough with the future, let's think about the present. This part sees us take a trip to an alternate universe, where a familiar species known as the Toriins is about find a mysterious gateway to another dimension...

The Quinquennial logo, here hovering next to the Toriin
equivalent of 10 Downing Street.

A random Toriin bystander poses for a picture.

Jercy stares at the Toriin city and its... funnily-shaped buildings.

A beautiful shot of the Toriin capital and its environs.

Commentary: This episode takes us back to early 2013, as a great crossover with Spore the Next Level and dumblydum's (as he was known at the time; today he goes by Aardvark123) Lives of the Toriin is unfolding. Here, we see the beginnings of it from the Toriins' perspective.
I decided to show this moment since dumblydum/Aardvark123 has loved this special from the very beginning, plus this was the only major thing that happened in early 2013 that was commanding enough of my attention, so yeah. Also, I have a plan or two up my sleeve for what to do with the Toriins when STNL² comes back... >:3
There's also a bit of backstory for STNL²'s current antagonists, the T'Rons, embedded in here, due to the fact that they're the descendants of a group of hapless genetically-engineered Toriins who fled through the Passage into STNL continuity.

Artist's concept of Proxima b, the closest exoplanet to Earth
and possibly the homeworld of  a race 
of tall orange frog-lizard-men.

In other news, a funny thing happened while I was making this adventure. Yesterday, the discovery of Proxima b, a potentially habitable exoplanet just over 4 light-years away, was announced. The reason this is relevant here is because, according to dumblydum, Proxima Centauri is the star around which the Toriin homeworld orbits! According to the report, Proxima b is probably about the size of Earth, and orbits at the right place around its small star that liquid water can exist on its surface. Unfortunately, the planet is likely to be tidally-locked, rendering it unable to produce an electromagnetic field to shield it from the solar flares red dwarves like Proxima Centauri are known for. (However, it's also likely that it's in a 3:2 resonance, meaning it spins 3 times for every 2 orbits. While it'd rotate slowly, it would allow it to have a magnetic field and be similar to Earth, much like the Toriin homeworld. Alternatively, the planet could also have a large moon that orbits close enough to tidally-lock the planet to the moon).
This also means that both the Kleekoonanoni and Toriins live on planets based on real-world exoplanets; Kepler 22-b and Proxima b respectively.
All that's left, I guess, is to start up a petition to have NASA rename Proxima b to Toriinland! (Hey, they've done it to other planets, so why not this one?)

Quinquennial, Part 10 Released!

Hey, lookee here! Another Quinquennial part!I guess Quinquennial is officially my longest special episode (even though it isn't all that special).

I know this one's a bit overdue, and I don't really have a good explanation. So rather than bore you with that, I'll bore you by telling you about the plot of this part! It takes us to the never-before-seen Morlox homeworld of Morloxica, where things are about to go horribly wrong.

The logo, here hovering above a bunch of very miffed Dweebles...

HURR DURR DERP I ARE MORLOX

The planet of Morloxica and its beautiful ring system.

A shot of the Morlox city. There's gotta be some reason
why every planet has only one city...

There goes Shadow, breaking the 4th wall again...

Commentary: You heard this right, we're gonna be seeing the Morloxes since that one Clark and Stanley adventure of mine! The Morloxes were developed solely to be yet another cause of Clark and Stanley's comedic deaths through their enmity with the Dweebles, but they only appeared in one adventure and disappeared along with the Dweebles. Since I already brought back the Dweebles for Quinquennial, I decided to take a look from the other perspective and show how the Morlox reacted to the crisis Jercy inadvertently started.

Of course, that meant developing their culture somewhat. I knew already that they were militaristic warriors, so I took a page from Stellaris and Starship Troopers and developed their government as a military republic where citizenship is only granted to those who serve in the military. But then, I had this idea where the government not only supported continued xenophobia towards the Dweebles, but embraced it and used it as a propaganda machine. I recalled the Two Minutes Hate from 1984, so I decided to make their government a Big Brother-esque totalitarian state that is supported by brainwashing and propaganda, and combined it with the martial citizenship to make an interesting and unique government. Their architecture was designed with this in mind, giving their city an even more authoritarian vibe (helped with several propaganda posters).
I also based their rivalry with the Dweebles on the Cold War, where the United States and the USSR waged war not through arms but propaganda, constantly getting into debates and arguments that can at times seem childish and petty from a modern perspective.

Originally, the adventure was to be set on a Morlox colony world, but then I remembered that Morloxica was never actually developed (I did have a template for it, but that unfortunately got erased from my computer). However, I remembered enough to know that it was a ringed and dry planet with 3 moons, and took the adventure planet and redesigned it to comply with that.

Quinquennial, Part 9 Released!

Yup, another Quinquennial part! I think we're starting to approach the end of this little special, since I want to cover only the very start of STNL² before we transition back to normal. But until then, let's see about this part! 

(I could've finished this part yesterday, but during production it became "corrupted", let's say, and I had to restart production from an earlier state. Thankfully, the only consequence was that I needed to take new screenshots.)

Here, we take a trip to the Dweeble homeworld of Dweeb, where the President has conducted a special meeting to ascertain the cause of the Rantross Incident. However, Clark and Stanley are in attendance, and we all know this can only end in disaster!

The logo, here in the middle of Dweeb's cityscape.

The meeting itself, convened in a skyscraper on Dweeb.

Clark smiles as everyone begins to see his side of the story (I think),

The Dweeble president (no, he's not some caricature of anyone in real life!)
screams in terror, almost certainly due to Clark and Stanley.

Commentary: Part 2 into our look at the end of the Dweeble Empire shows us the Dweeble homeworld before it was ruined. Here, we see just how the Dweebles decided to actually listen to Clark and Stanley (I don't wanna spoil it just yet, but let's just say they don't do it willingly) and go after the Morloxes, igniting a war that will later prove to be their undoing.

The planet seen here is based off an old template of mine made in January 2011, just 6 months before STNL began. I decided to keep it mostly the same (with some replacements to compensate for Rois incursions as well as quality improvement), which is why it doesn't use the new Dweeble building set and instead uses the skyscrapers made by user jamesgelfand.

This part marks the (as of writing) only time we see Dweeb before the Last Dweeble War and the planet's near-destruction, and the only time a published adventure of mine has used the template (I was going to make a "Dweeble Origins" adventure series that took place on Dweeb at various points during its history, but I abandoned production). 

We also get to see the unnamed Dweeble President, showing that the Dweeble Empire is in fact a democracy (a direct democracy, to be precise).

Quinquennial, Part 8 Released!

Guess what? It's time for another Quinquennial part! Since we've been mashing the fast-forward button like crazy, I figured it was darn time that we actually slowed down a little bit and see what happened immediately after Jercy's raid on Earth: the destruction of the Dweeble colony on Rantross, and the subsequent war that destroyed the Dweeble and Morlox Empires.

Also, remembered how I said I was done with multi-part events? Well, that was a bit of a lie. This one will have three parts, but after that the series will almost certainly go back to the format we've had so far.

The logo, hovering above the ruined
Dweeble colony and Leroy* (not Holly) Jenkins the giant Dweeble
scientist.

A refugee camp, constructed to house the "survivors"* of Leeroy's
massacre.

Yes, it's Clark and Stanley! Because no Dweeble-related adventure
would be complete without the doomed Dweeble dunces.

A hologram of Rantross, apparently
showing it under siege from giant green arrows.

*You remember that Dweebles can resurrect themselves sometime after they die, right?

Commentary: This multi-part flashback shows us the beginning of the end for the Dweeble race. In part 14A of STNL², I explained the absence of the Dweebles by stating they got involved in a temporal war with the Morloxes, and were almost completely erased from history at its end (a bit like the Time War from Doctor Who). When I came up with this part, I realized how odd it was that the Dweebles never looked into things more and went after the Kleekoonanonis. But then I remembered Clark and Stanley, whose stupidity has been known to cause chaos and destroy planets (a bit like Donald Trump). Then I realized I had the perfect explanation for the Dweebles' lack of further investigation.
One concept I did have that I decided not to implement was that C&S would insist the Morloxes were responsible for the destruction of the Rantross Colony even as everyone else discussed the Kleekoonanonis, and finally the Dweebles would decide blame the Morloxes just to shut Clark and Stanley up. (That doesn't mean that event won't happen; it just means it doesn't happen in this part).

Quinquennial, Part 7 Released!

As you may have noticed, there was a more than a slight delay between parts. This was due to the combination of the following:

• An episode of the dread Creator's Block
• Starbound's 1.0 Release
• A family get-together from August 1-today

Thankfully, all that has passed, and I'm ready to continue Quinquennial! In this part, we'll be returning to Earth and seeing what happens when Jercy remembers how the humans wantonly colonized his homeworld of Epindol...

The Quinquennial logo, here hovering in low-Earth orbit.
I wonder if anyone notices?

A Terran lady with flaily arms panics at the chaos going on
around her.

Hannah, Zeerois, and Cannabeth return from the depths of obscurity
to make dumblydum/Aardvark123 happy.

*insert something about the Circle of Life and The Lion King
and etc. etc.*

Commentary: We start off the best stage of them all: the Space Stage! I decided to start it off with our very first mission, where we went to Earth and oddly launched an attack for no good reason. I decided to go back to this for a few reasons:

1. Firstly, I felt Jercy needed a bit of a motive to attack Earth, and I decided to reveal that motive. 
2. Secondly, eme12 indirectly made me realize that we were skipping a lot of time when important stuff actually happened. Although we barely talk now and it's my series and I can do what I want (heh heh) I do feel a lot happened in the Space Stage (there wasn't much to the Solar Stage anyways), and while I don't wanna show every little thing (since that would be pointless), I do want to revisit some of the more significant events, such as the very first mission and how it made the galaxy really aware of the Kleekoonanonis.
3. Thirdly, it allows me to continue bashing my past self and his stupid use of Artemis Fowl references. Thankfully, 2012 saw those began to decline in number and blatancy, starting with the original adventure.

Quinquennial, Part 6 Released!

Yes, I know that this took a while to make, but it's only because someone decided to release the fabled 1.0 version of Starbound on the same day that some of my cousins spent a few days at my house (both of which are quite enjoyable, BTW).

But my real-life strife isn't why you're here! No, you're here to play the latest part of Quinquennail! This part skips us ahead to the beginnings of the Solar Stage, where the Kleekoonanonis have almost finished the USS Titan and selected Jercy to captain it. But will he accept their offer? (Obviously, yes, thanks to dramatic irony).

The logo for the series, here over the nearly-completed USS Titan.
(Fun fact: The Titan was originally going to be under construction and
have exposed bits and wires, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work).

The Shadow and Zawnty of this time period have a heated
debate about something... or someone...

TheJercy of this time period stares in bemusement at his
future counterpart (although, strictly speaking, this shouldn't
be possible as this is a nonphysical recreation of the past
and therefore nobody is aware of the time travelers).

Jercy sits on the edge of the Kleekoonanoni Needle, wondering if
falling from it will kill him (nope, thanks to Spore).

Commentary: Here, we zip right through the Civilization Stage into the Solar Stage. I was planning something involving the Thistils initially for the next Quinquennial part, but I decided to skip it and instead show how Jercy got started on the Titan.

Sadly, this is the era in which my insipid Artemis Fowl Crossover Madness™ is in full swing, but luckily my old friend Retconning is here to save us! You may notice numerous characters speculating about someone called Holly Short and her existence (not to be confused with the badass, totally awesome, and definitely existent Holly Jenkins); this is because whenever I look back at my old Artemis Fowl-related adventures, it's actually shameful and physically revolts me. Keep an eye out for more retcons that do away with the Artemis Fowl Atrocities™!

Quinquennial, Part 5 Released!

Yes, there was another delay when family got in the way of my creating... but let's not focus on that! Instead, let's focus on this quick little part, which takes us to Epindol's Tribal Stage as the Jonterops (i.e. Zawnty) fight for their freedom.

The series logo, here floating mysteriously
over the Kleekoonanoni's ancient
tribal village.

The nameless tribal protagonist, his war-party, and Zawnty
are on the warpath.

Zawnty shows a Burkenton who's boss.

Shadow and Zawnty (this one from the future) chill out
after the somewhat-big battle.

Commentary: I decided to revisit the Jonterop slave revolt for a few reasons: first of all, the Jonterops and Burkentons were eme12's first contributions to STNL and later the Revolution Universe, and I decided to honor that by showing them first. Secondly, this was when it became clear the Kleekoonanonis are quite powerful, and my personal theory is that this is what got the attention of the Garadreads. Finally, since Zawnty is accompanying these tours, it seemed appropriate that we should look at what he did in life.

Quinquennial, Part 4 Released!

To conclude our look at the beginnings of the Kleekoonanonis and Garadreads, we go to the same space station where several people voted on which cell would become a spacefaring creature!

The logo for the series, hovering atop the cell-containing tanks.

This is... random.

Jercy admires his cellular ancestors.

Archon Prel talks with the scientist from the first STNL part,
who is indeed a reuse of one of those Illusioneering
Industries guys.

Commentary: Quinquennial finally catches up with Part 0 of STNL, as we discover what led to the Kraygans deciding to let other people decide how the Klees became Kleekoonanonis. This will also be the last Quinquennial event shown over several parts, as I'll take a different approach and compact future events into a single part.

In terms of continuity, I explained the aforementioned scientist reuse as the Kraygans outsourcing their work to Illusioneering Industries (why they did that I'll never know) and having them create the cells. Also, you probably don't remember it, but I initially explained the unleashed aspect of the series as a result of the Kraygans telepathically contacting me. Well, I'm gonna tell you in advance I came up with a better explanation! :-D (Ye gods I'm turning into Shadow)

Quinquennial, Part 3 Released!

Our exploration into the origins of the Kleekoonanonis takes us to the planet Baidaan, an arid planet home to the Zukakka species and their Kraygan uplifters. Here, Archon Prel Moka receives a disturbing new report while on vacation, and immediately has to make plans to counter the latest Experimenter plan...

The logo for the series. It's almost as good as the one for one of the
Bloodlust episodes a few years ago.

A random Zukakka.

Archon Prel Moka's reaction to learning that Starbound 1.0
is on the horizon.

OH GOD WHAT IS THIS UGLEH BLUE THINGUS

Commentary: I knew that Prel had to learn about the Garadreads before she could create the Kleekoonanonis, and this is what led to that. I considered setting this adventure on their homeworld of Cralofania-3, but I was feeling a bit more creative and set it on Baidaan, just to shake things up.
Also, while making this adventure, I noticed a plot hole: why didn't the Kraygans destroy (or at least bombard) Epindol when the Garadreads were being created? This adventure will solve that plot hole once and for all (now I just need to solve the immesurable plot holes in fungus3's adventures).

Incidentally, the Zukakkas are based off of the Zukakkan, a race of pre-sentient reptilians I found and uplifted in one of my Stellaris campaigns as the human race. Similarly the Zukakka depicted here, they lived on an arid planet called Baidaan III (which I later renamed to Zukakka in their honor) and were strong fighters and industrious workers, but weren't exactly the smartest knives in the drawer...

Quinquennial, Part 2 Released!

To kick off the special proper, Jercy, Shadow, and Zawnty go back to the VERY beginning, to a time before time existed for the series! Yes, they're going back to the moment that started everything (well, in-universe anyways): the creation of the Garadreads!

The logo for the series. Notice that spaceship...

Jercy looks out the window at what will become his
homeworld...

Lord Inzhener, leader of the Experimenters, making a comeback after
unceremoniously getting beaten by fungus3 and a caterpillar.
(Hey, it's the past, so it's okay
if a dead person makes a return cameo).

Shadow is confused for some reason...

On the commentary side of things, I thought that showing the creation of the Garadreads was the perfect way to start the flashbacks. It wasn't established until 2013 that this led to the creation of the Kleekoonanonis and thus the beginning of STNL, and we only knew that some people called Experimenters and Roslians were responsible. And now here we are, three years later and getting to see both of them before fungus3 ruined everything by using a caterpillar to kill them in their prime.

Also, the character of Bayos Flor wasn't created specifically for this adventure. He featured in an Easter Egg for my old "After the End" series, and his description hinted that he helped create the Garadreads. I decided to bring him back for this and expand on what he did to create STNL's first villains, to make his role explicit.