The Ravens Nest

When AI Image Generation Goes Wrong.

Ahh…the AI debate is back making the rounds again. I made my stance on it that using it as a tool, not a replacement is fine and, if you read The Nocturneverse, you know that I love to zip over to my favorite engine and create an image for that or even here at times.

As on-board to a limited degree that I am, I have to admit, it has major pitfalls. I want to cite one example, the character of Neferet-hotep. If you haven’t read her standalone entry, I suggest you do. I keep her entries, short, sweet, cryptic and punchy. Being that she is a Thousand Year-Old Vampire character, I do fully intend on taking her and putting her into Vampire: The Dark Ages and use the two games in unison to really make her part of The Nocturneverse as a whole. Now will she interact with our characters from today? That remains to be seen. I have no plans for her other than I just want to play an inhuman monster. That’s it. So let’s have a look at her and I’ll tell you everything you need to know about this character.

I thought these two images were a great starting point. What you need to know about Neferet-hotep is that she doesn’t do what most vampires do. She’s a break from the typical blood-drinking, pale, Eurocentric model. I’m playing with mythology and folklore here so I’m using books like this.

The how is simple. Notebook is self-explanatory but I use Codex Egyptium (because she’s an Egyptian character, natch), Vampire: The Dark Ages will become the primary mechanics for the game and Thousand Year-Old Vampire is the engine. That means the prompt becomes the situation that Neferet-hotep needs to resolve and what isn’t pictured is what I use as an oracle: The Fate Mill Die, the Solo rules for Vampire and the random encounter tables that I use. Honestly, you could do the same and just swap out with a d20 or just use Mythic GM Emulator. Of course, links provided. I’m aware that I’m giving you the link for the older Mythic GM Emulator and that’s fine, it does still work. If you prefer to get the newer one, I understand and it will still work.

In short, the game has become Thousand Year-Old Vampire: The Dark Ages.

The character of Neferet-hotep will operate largely on her own. She’s not concerning herself with trying to navigate vampire life, she’s out to be Meretseger’s Devourer here in our world. She’s pure evil in many ways and you’re going to see some terrifying shit from her because, I’ve designed her to be a villain.

She has three forms. You’ve seen her human form which blends easily. However, what you don’t see is what happens when she decides to “slip into something a little more comfortable. Her skin becomes obsidian and her eyes have the glow of molten gold.

It’s her final form that is the problem. She has the upper half of a woman with scales strategically and not, placed. She still has discernable human features on her upper torso, however, her hands aren’t so delicate and end in claws, her entire lower half becomes that of a snake and her head does the cobra hood while her fangs are long, narrow, retractable and, she’s also venomous.

Now you can kinda get the idea. This is how she appears when she’s decided to claim a victim and it’s about to go down. It’s that final form that’s a problem. Let me show you. No matter what I’ve done, I can’t get her final form pictured. In fact, trying different engines, revising prompts, looking up what I need to see, even using the original pictures as references for her face and …yeah Night Cafe just isn’t interested in getting it done.

Since NightCafe wants to ban words and resist every attempt at getting this, fine. I won’t get an image of her in her final form, I’ll accept it. Cool.

…but that doesn’t mean I won’t roast their bitch asses on the Internet for fun. So where’s the problem?

FOUND IT! I mean I know I’m pretty specific but…What In The Blue, Shit-Ringed Fuck Is This?! This looks like a bad 90s CGI-Fest like the OG Mortal Kombat cartoon. I even tried to originally go for a Jackal motif and it turned her into a fuckin’ furry!

And, for fuck’s sake, Night Cafe, Vampires are not going to hurt people by allowing them to be generated as images, just allow the damn word, otherwise, You Put My Character To Death, Already! I have no clue what the hell this is but it is most certainly not instilling fear here.

While this one is hot DAMN gorgeous, NightCafe keeps wanting to add cat ears for some fuckin’ reason. Let me try something…

There…better. Now let’s have a look at another pic of her…

This one has one minor issue, she’s a little too pale, however, being Egyptian and staying out of the sun…not a deal-breaker, I could potentially use it. Let’s look at another one…

Even this one could work, Now you can see her “vampire” form.

This look works for Modern Day even though she hasn’t made it that far yet, I’m kinda wondering if she would so I made her for modern day as well…

Would…

Let’s get back to the horror show.

This is what you don’t get to see. I’m going to show you so many of the absolute failures that this engine hallucinated despite the prompt being specific as hell. Too short, it imagines things. Too long, it disregards what you wrote and then tries to impress you but manages to frustrate you.

Yanno, I don’t claim to be the brightest bulb in the box and I have an absolute phobia of snakes but if I saw this one, I don’t think I’d be terrified. I’m not sure what’s coming out the side of the head but I’m almost certain that’s what is causing the brain to completely dysfunction.

This one’s not terrifying either. Looks like she keeps an oversized snake as a pet.

NightCafe’s engine just noped out halfway through.

And in the above two picks, we have Serpentress. This was The Baroness’ career post-Cobra Commander when she took over Cobra-La from Serpentor.

Hideous, not terrifying. I’ve seen Katy Perry be more intimidating.

I don’t want to even know where that tail is coming from…or what it might be attached to.

Predator Badlands, Season 2, everyone.

Fuck Awful.

Who the hell is this?

Oh fuck all the way off, the hell is this shit?

I’m writing a vampire, not Species 4.

Mmmm…nnnnnnnope!

I guess ICE got her and this was her mugshot?

These look more like Predator Badlands, Season 3 because why would it not?

In short, as many others can attest, there are so many failed attempts, close-enoughs, etc. In the end, what you wind up seeing is probably one out of twenty or more that we’ve had to tweak, fuck with and constantly hit the generate button until it produces what we need. The rest like these absolute failures, well, they get deleted or archived.

I know what some are thinking “Hire an Artist!” Okay, with what money? I work and I pay bills, I’m broke quite a bit of the time.

“Then just don’t publish it. You don’t have to publish.” Does anyone have any inkling of how much self-restraint it takes not to want to launch my fist into the person’s throat who says shit like that. Get Fucked. You don’t have to read it.

One of the things we were thinking was possibly going to a tipping model. Rather than putting these stories behind a paywall, we put the option out there to financially support the work we do.

If you’re among the ones that say “Man I can barely afford shit right now” that’s cool, we understand that and there’s no pressure at all. It’s gonna be there. Whatever you can, whenever you can would be heavily appreciated but again, not going to sit there and try to convince you if you’re struggling with bills. Take care of your bills first.

“I’m not giving you money if you use AI.” Okay then the AI song mockups and the images will remain in use. Those who don’t express this sentiment will understand that the tips we hope to collect will go toward artists and bands to take these songs and make something real with them. Real art, real companion soundtracks, that’s what we’re aiming for. If that’s what you want, then you’re gonna have to work with us but, if not, then what we have remains as is until we go to print and once we do go to print, then the whole playing field changes. I happen to know a couple of photographers who might help out with the book cover and one of them happens to live in my area. Book cover isn’t an issue. I know the guy here in town and I can work with him. ISBNs will be another issue because it costs about $120 for ten of them. That allows us ten volumes rather than just one book. Something that could come out of pocket? Sure, in time. I still want to buy the ISBNs for our book so that and I own our characters, their likenesses, etc. Also, we’re considering licensing our characters to anyone else who wants to use them in their work. The license will be for one work (Book, Story, Manuscript, etc) but the character cannot be changed without our permission. Also the licensing fee, it’s probably gonna be something ridiculously small. This way, it keeps the open table alive and it keeps you from having to scrub out our characters if you decide to go to print. You just have to provide attribution in your work on top of the tiny fee we’ll charge for the use of our character’s names and likenesses in your work. That’s all.

As for World of Darkness, our stories will continue to live here on Substack and on ScribbleHub. I’m also looking at a couple of other places to put them, including on the blockchain so that way, they can’t be taken down without shutting down the whole of the internet to do it. Mirror, Mirror and all that.

In the meantime, Against All Odds and The Nocturneverse are my top priorities right now.

Likewise, you can do this yourself. You can join in, link your story and I can include it with your name on the by-line on ScribbleHub as part of The Nocturneverse proper if you want it’s inclusion.

The Darkness calls and your story awaits. See you there.