(Second) Evas vs. Angels Design Contest! (Afterthoughts)

[pat457]

Thanks everyone.

Oddly though, just a few days ago the scanner (parent's ordered one) came, my home Internet connection got really messed up and I lost the original drawing...so much for trying to send a better picture.

[Chowwow]

My thoughts before the next Angel is posted.

I really like this one as well, as it has a very unique shape and design. I love the illustration, it was very detailed (bad camera quality notwithstanding) and conveyed the unconventional form and composition of the Angel. It's very artistically stylish!

It's not the best fighter, but it has a few tricks up its sleeve. I don't mind the "video game boss" motif at all, unintentional or not. I think that it can pose a reasonable threat in a battle, but the main draw would be its entrance and presentation.

Don't anyone feel discouraged just yet: we still have many more designs to go! Remember to just put out your best!

[Chowwow]

September 9
Team New Guys (NemZ and Rhyno)

General Data:
Name: Dumah
Title: Angel of Deathly Silence and Vindication
Measurements:
Roughly spherical body 140 m in diameter.
Maximum reach: 520 m from center of body mass
Mass: 8,000 metric tons
Class Rank: A
Type: direct assault with environmental hazard



References:
Wikipedia: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumah[/url]
JewishEncyclopedia.com: [url]http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=D&artid=515[/url]
Inspired by the proposal’s Shateiel, but focused on the other, creepier angel of silence.

Characterization:
While generally very focused, Dumah is more irritable than many of his brethren. The many noises, actions and other such stirrings of Lilith’s various spawn are a grievous sin in his eyes. He seeks completion with the source in order to force these chittering things to cease their irritations, and this vengeful goal drives him onwards to Tokyo-3.

His irritation, if sufficiently aroused, could be used to lure him from his path momentarily in order to bring stillness to a particular pest… such as an Eva, or another city. In the presence of especially irksome beings he may lose track of other factors and focus entirely on the immediate destruction of the irritant even to the exclusion of other nearby threats.

Physical Description:
Dumah’s body takes the shape of a mass of curved forms much like a mass of opalescent mollusk shells pitted with regularly spaced gleaming yellow eyes. The majority of his body is subdivided into many bluish-gray sections of flexible tissue with a texture much like smooth oiled leather, each of which is pitted in a regular pattern with Dumah’s many deep-set eyes. These areas are separated by raised, chalk-white, smooth-worn ridges that divide the overall shell into a number of semi-regular curved areas. Dumah hovers roughly fifty feet above ground level, adjusting his height as necessary to avoid touching down or making any sounds do to incidental contact.

When threatened, the many shell-like partitions of Dumah’s shell can warp and stretch to reveal a number of crevices. Four of these openings, evenly spaced about the body in a tetrahedral pattern, open widely to act as roots for his primary striking limbs. These limbs consist of thickly ribbed red-orange luminescent structures, resembling nothing so much as gourds, attached to the main body by long sinuous ropes of dark gray elastic muscular tissue. These limbs are capable of large, powerful motions as well as impressive stretching, but they are not suitable for anything resembling finesse.

The other opening sections open only slightly, revealing a thin slit into the body’s interior space. From each of these openings smaller muscular tendrils with forked extremities may extend. These tendrils are much shorter, weaker, and less elastic than the primary limbs, but they can are much more dexterous, capable of grasping and manipulating objects in a crude fashion.

Dumah’s core is held internally within his leathery shell, though when the shell forms are open its red glow is visible peaking out from the cracks. It is buried quite deep in his form and thus only weapons with long reach can be expected to strike it unless an opponent first carves a much larger access to the interior.

Abilities:
Dumah’s primary offensive tactic is a passive projection of a modified AT field over an area nearly 8 km in radius. This field creates interference in all manner of electromagnetic waves by dampening electromagnetic activity with exponentially increasing strength as the distance to Dumah himself decreases.

At long range (3 km+) this field effect can interfere with the functioning of unshielded electrical and magnetic devices, disrupt radio communications, and cause mild drowsiness, or headaches in people and animals sensitive to EM activity… including those damned cicadas!

At medium range (1-3 km) unshielded electronic devices cease up, moderately shielded devices (including entry plugs) begin to show disruptions in performance, and radio communications are simply impossible. EM interaction with especially susceptible life forms may cause momentary blackouts, heart arrhythmia and/or seizures, but nearly all creatures will experience nonspecific pains, occasional muscle non-responsiveness, a sense of spatial disorientation, and difficulty maintaining focus.

At close range (-1 km) even heavily shielded electrical devices begin to experience disruption and not only radio but also light-based communication methods will be stymied by fluctuating distortions and signal voids. Complex lifeforms in the area will experience severe nerve disruption leading to paralysis and/or coma, with extended exposure resulting in death.

Defenses:
Due to his constant projection of an EM disrupting AT effect, Dumah’s direct shielding ability is somewhat weak by angel standards. An N2 device (assuming it were to function within the radius of his suppressive field) would cause significant damage to his shell comparable with that sustained by Israfel. If the disruption field effect were canceled, however, his maximum AT field power would be on par with some of the most durable angels, such as Ramiel or Shamshiel.

Dumah’s AT field is backed up by the protection afforded by his leathery shell. It is far short of Zeruel’s physical shielding, but it is still superior to that of most of his brethren on superior to all but the most reinforced sections of the Evas’ external plates. His unarmored tendrils and numerous eyes, however, are significantly less resistant to damage, specifically edged weapons.

Dumah may heal minor damage such as regrowing secondary tendrils and patching small cracks in his shell within a few hours, but large holes in his hide or the amputation of one of his primary limbs would require an impractically extended rest to fully recover from.

Offenses:
Dumah’s primary offense relies on his suppression field. If pressed into physical combat, his options are rather limited. He typically flails at foes with his elongating primary limbs, using leverage and centrifugal force to deliver extremely powerful hammer blows easily capable of shattering an Eva’s reinforced limbs or severely damaging the heavily armored head and chest cavities. At closer ranges he typically uses his secondary tendrils to pivot quickly and deliver rapid but less effective swings with his striking limbs.

When especially irritated by a persistent foe or brought to point-blank range Dumah typically switches tactics, grappling foes with his secondary tendrils and using his striking limbs to repeatedly toss himself bodily onto his target, using his mass to bludgeon the offender into submission.

Miscellaneous abilities:
Dumah’s possess panoramic vision over a much wider band of electromagnetic radiation than a human eye, but his acuity is usually rather poor as the distortion affect affects all incoming waves. Thus only rather powerful sources of EM waves are likely to be noticed.

His primary sensory path is through auditory and physical vibrations. Dumah has extremely sharp sense of hearing and touch, and thus is quite hard to ambush despite his lack of sharp vision.

Dumah’s senses can be converted into a weakness if constant or strobing waves are generated within his sensory range, especially high frequency microwaves and sub-sonic vibrations, both of which he finds extremely distracting. He tends to react with irrational rage to sources of these types of noise.

Combat Strategies:
Dumah’s primary plan is to simply move towards Tokyo-3, sadistically enjoying watching any bothersome pests whom he comes across on his travels succumb to his distortion field. Though driven, he is also rather petty and temper-prone and so may alter his course to specifically attack any targets of opportunity along the way that attract his attention.

If interrupted by an Eva he will pause his advance if necessary to engage in physical assault, but unless wounded or particularly driven to anger he will not press an attack after an Eva falls silent. If enraged he may well throw a bit of a tantrum and pound the offending Eva into a misshapen mess before continuing his trek.

Until steps are taken to provide increased EM shielding the Evas will likely be quite ineffective against Dumah. His disruptive AT field will interfere with targeting systems at long range, will disrupt pilot synchronization rates due to interference with the entry plug’s systems as well as causing physiological symptoms in the Evas themselves at close range, and regardless of shielding general communication difficulties will hamper teamwork and tactical/diagnostic support from NERV HQ.

Designed by:
Team New Guys (NemZ and Rhyno)

Very good! What does everyone else think?

NEXT TIME
Omegagouki

Get Ready!

[Action_Bastard]

Well, you get a dancing Rei for adding color! But that is the only thing I really like. You did provide a lot of info, but some of it is not clear. You say it can disrupt EM waves, which I like a lot, but then you say that one of the ways this angel sees is by detecting EM waves. I smell redundancy. Also, isn't the angels' primary objective to find Adam or Lilith and instigate 3I? This angel doesn't seem to want to do that, it only provides Lilim suffering. This is not one of my favorites, but there are plenty more after you. Still, Congratulations!

[TheAyanamiOtaku]

Duma. I was planning to name my Angel Duma. I am glad I decided to name it otherwise, phew!

@Action Bastard: The stronger the (intensity of?) EM Waves, the more attracted Dumah will be to stop this source of EM Waves.

Also, isn't the angels' primary objective to find Adam or Lilith and instigate 3I?

The Angels we create do not have to have 3I in mind.

MY Review:

I really like it. It seems like it's vulnerable, because of its many functioning eyes, but you really pulled a nice trick with Dumah's wonderfully effective passive/defense nature of its active ATF. Shinji boy's going to be in deep shit when he goes all temper tantrum, races down a hill and then finds out that Duma cut its sync percent with Momma by 90%. Heh heh heh.

Duma, thoughts: "BUTTSECHS TIME!"

The personality addition also is a very clever idea. It gives a sense that one is dealing with a human, and not an Angel. This may work as a "BUT IT'S SO HUMAN-LIKE I CAN'T KILL IT!" thing. Or maybe I'm just imagining. Anyways...job well done. Congratulations, Team New Guys!

[Action_Bastard]

^ ok, got ya, on both accounts.

[BrikHaus]

pat457: Good job. I especially like the various faces. Kamina would be proud.

Team New Guys: The color was a very nice touch. Interesting idea to give the Angel a personality.

[NemZ]

Oh, he wants to do the 3I thing, but mostly to get rid of all the annoying little Lilim things infesting the place. Just think of him as a racist, cranky old bastard of a neighbor who constantly calls in noise complaints. He especially hates strobe lights and throbbing bass... ravers beware!

Note: Dumah doesn't disrupt EM energy by broadcasting interfering waves, but rather by acting as a sort of control rod. EM waves are distorted, repeatedly interrupted, or outright blocked by the effect.

Ironic for his 'silence' theme, his fighting style was adopted from those crazy little drums featured in Karate Kid 2... very irritating instruments.

Color? yeah, I got this whole adobe cs3 package for school so i might as well use it for fun stuff too.

Personality (or lack thereof) was listed among the recommended content for entries on page 1. I'd also argue that several of the non-kaworu angels do seem to have a bit of personality, such as zeruel's apparant intent to 'cross blast' the command bridge just for spite and just plain mean 'poke, poke, poke' method of attacking the helpless 01.

[Chowwow]

The text descriptions of the Angel were very detailed and described more of your vision behind this design. It has some really nice tricks and interesting features without being too outrageous. It's personality, while simple by human standards, is subtle and fitting for an Angel. I'm glad you took the time to develop some kind of personality traits for the design and I think it is one of the most well-developed ones out there. Though, I should say, levels of sentience and character development in these beasts doesn't have to stop here at this point.

[Omegagouki]

Ah, I hope I'm not too late!

General Data
Name/Title: Metatron, the Voice of God
Measurements: 800' in length from head to tip of abdomen, about 350' tall when/if standing on legs.
Class: C
Type: Aerial, long-distance, soundwave/annoyance attacker.



Refererences
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metatron (Wikipedia entry)

Characterization/History
Like regular cicdas, Metatron hatched from its mandorla from beneath the ground. Metatron is somewhat mechanical in its personality and actions, while being evenly tempered until in a desperate situation. Metatron likes to rely on being indirect than the opposite, unless provoked.

Physical Description
Metatron looks like a large pupal cicada with a bluish purple carapace with semi-crystalline features. It has the owl skull on the back of its thorax, while its abdomen has stripes that look somewhat like a cross. The Angel stays semi-curled up unless attacking. Its legs have skeletal-like dual digit claws on their ends.

Abilities
Endurance - Medium
Range - Long
Damage Potential - Medium
Meta-Shriek: This is the Angel's soundwave attack that tears apart AT Fields and shatters fragile objects. As the Angel's form is similar to that of a cicada's pupal form, it does not use wings to create the effect.
Meta-Laser: The Angel gathers proton energy between each set of legs and then fires them off. While dangerous, this is far less dangerous than Ramiel's laser attack, which is far more concentrated and penetrating. These can still punch through Eva armor or destoy structures, however.
Meta Crusher: An ability Metatron will only used if angered and/or desperate. The Angel will gather energy into itself before launching itself at its foe and latch onto the target, then setting off a damaging burst, damaging both the Angel and its target.

Defenses
AT Field Performance - Heavy, except under certain conditions, such as dissipating when using Meta-Shriek.
Armor type - Chitinous-crystalline, this armor can be quite tough and gives good protection to its core, but it does have exposed joints and spaces.
Regenerative abilities - Near nonexistent, Metatron relies more on keeping foes away and attacking at long range, and therefore isn't a necessity..

Offenses
The Angel uses soundwaves to do damage to objects and threats, these soundwaves are strong enough to shatter glass out of entire buildings along with completely penetrating AT fields, this also, unfortunately for it, means its own AT Field will be affected as well. Still, its "voice" can keep its foes at bay, usually with enough time to reactivate its field. The soundwaves are mainly used as a distractive and deterring tactic to attack foes with its more dangerous abilities.

Miscellaneous Abilities
I suppose the Angel being able to fly counts.

Combat Skills and Strategies
Open up with Meta-Shriek and then fire Meta-Laser, move to a differing location to excape retaliation, and repeat. Use Meta Crusher when heavily damaged and cornered. While being an annoyance, the Angel's AT field loss from use of Meta-Shriek can also be its glaring weakness. Meta Crusher being used also harms Metatron, another weakness.

Designed by:
Omegagouki (J. Winter Productions)

I was going to PM it to Chowwow, but I wasn't able to get online until now, so I have posted it myself just in case.

[Action_Bastard]

Well, this one sure is different. I like that it relates to the cicadas that are in a frenzy throughout the show. I was surprised that its name is an actual angel name! Other than that, nothing else really. The sound attacks work good along the lines of the cicada idea, but that's about it. It would have been a lot neater if it did metamorphosize into a wigged angel, like that of an adult cicada. This seems like a 'monster of the week" angel. Not my fav, but good job. Congratulations

[NemZ]

Gigantic cicada? Heh, If the little ones were enough to make Shinji freak out and run away in ep4, what will a big one do?

This guy looks like he should be hanging out with bug-themed Megaman X bosses. Has a strangely cute Sachiel-like appeal, however.

[Lucretius]

Here's a rather belated Rei for NemZ and Rhyno.

[Chowwow]

@ Action_Bastard: Actually, you'll find that most of the Angels featured here are named after actual Angels from Bible lore. It's one way to help us form concept anchor points and to bring an air of deep symbolism in them.

@ Omegagouki: Another good attempt, good job! The concept is interesting, though seems a bit blocky and cartoonish-sounding. Perhaps future revisions can make it look more mechanical or organic, depending on what direction you want it to be.

The arsenal of weapons the Angel has are some of the more directly aggressive and destructive ones that we've seen so far. While it's not exactly a weapon of mass destruction, this thing can pull off a few explosions and tricks to bring in the hurt. I'm also glad that you didn't roll in that direction too much and give him more firepower than he deserves.

NEXT TIME:
AsukaChan

[Action_Bastard]

@ Action_Bastard: Actually, you'll find that most of the Angels featured here are named after actual Angels from Bible lore. It's one way to help us form concept anchor points and to bring an air of deep symbolism in them.

Yeah, I know that. Just the name threw me off.

[BrikHaus]

Omega: Cool idea, and particularly scary because Cicadas are annoying as hell. Plus, I like the little Sachi mask on its back.

[Chowwow]

It appears that SSD won't be able to present anything even after the extension I gave her. Oh well, life happens:

The Schedule:

Sept. 11: AsukaChan
Sept. 12: Sailor Star Dust (Withdrawn)
Sept. 13: CorporalChaos
Sept. 14: TheAyanamiOtaku (redux)
Sept. 15: devil_eAter (redux)
Sept. 16: Hazukari (redux)

Since the schedule is a little late, I'll post AsukaChan's Angel from now 'till Sept. 13, so no one else has to adjust.

Damn, I need to get back to work too!

[Chowwow]

Here we go!

September 11 - 12
AsukaChan

------------------

General Data

Name and Title: Kushiel, "Rigid One of God"
Size Measurements: Kushiel is about 900 feet (about 274 metres) in height with a diameter of about 100 feet (about 30 metres). To give a sense of scale, the Empire State Building is 1,250 feet (381 metres) in height. Kushiel's weight is unknown, but it's quite clear that an object of its considerable size would weigh quite a bit.
Class Ranking: A-Class
Type: Spawning Type
References: In Jewish folklore, Kushiel is one of the seven angels of punishment. Depending on your source of reference, Kushiel either resides in the third heaven or presides over hell, punishing with his whip made of fire.





Personal Characterization / Background History: Kushiel's appearance was very sudden. Presumably, it was once in orbit around the planet, but no one was aware it even existed until the day it appeared. This is true, of course, of all the angels except that no one even detected it until it made contact with Tokyo-3. Its entrance was rather dramatic, dropping unexpectedly from the heavens and impaling itself deeply in the streets of the city with the sheer force of its impact.

Kushiel is rather "laid back" and does not attack unless it perceives a threat is present. Unless it is being directly attacked it is simply the quiet, almost lifeless pillar it appears to be. However, when challenged it can lash out dramatically.

It is also somewhat curious. Its abilities allow it to explore and familiarize itself with the surrounding area and it makes use of this often, which creates an "infestation" of sorts throughout the city.

Kushiel's goal is to enter NERV and initial Third Impact. It hopes to achieve this using its unique traits to tunnel through the surface and eventually into Terminal Dogma itself.



Physical Description: Kushiel's body consists of two distinctly different sections.

The first is the pillar-like "container" portion that is most prominent. This portion is segmented horizontally and has various "eyes" distributed in what seems to be a random patterning throughout. However, more of these organs seem to be concentrated on the upper-most segment. Kushiel's body appears to have the texture of shiny stone or marble. Starting at the top, a long whip-like tentacle wraps around the body, fitting into a slight groove on the surface. When threatened, this tentacle becomes very flexible and moves at very rapid speeds. It's about as long as Kushiel is tall, and so its attack radius is quite large. It too is segmented, but the segments are very thin and up close it seems to have the texture of some sort of flexible tubing or even resemble the flesh of an earthworm.

At the top of the tall pillar are a pair of what appear to be long wings consisting of some sort of gossamer-like material. These have a bit of an internal luminance which grows brighter over time.





The second part of Kushiel's body consists of what are known as Spawn. These are numerous entities that are fully mobile on their own and separate from the pillar-body. They are about the size of a compact car and have four thin legs which they use to crawl about very rapidly. Also, each Spawn has the distinctive "Sachiel face" marking on its back. There is an unknown number of these Spawn contained within the pillar-body.

Kushiel's core is somewhere in the lower region of its pillar-body.



Abilities

Defenses: Kushiel's main defence is its AT-field and the outer shell of its pillar-body.

- AT-Field Performance: Kushiel's AT-Field is of medium strength. In combination with its outer shell, the Angel can withstand most minor explosions. Oddly enough, its AT-Field is much, much stronger at ground level than it is higher up.

- Armor Type: Though Kushiel's shell appears to be made of stone, it is really a chitinous material similar to that of an insect. It is incredibly durable and actually absorbs most of the blows by distributing the force of the impact and reducing the strain taken by direct hits. It's because of this strong, yet flexible surface that it did not crack under the incredible force of its impact with the earth. Most bullets will bounce off harmlessly.

- Regenerative abilities: Kushiel has some limited regenerative abilites, but the process is quite slow and it can take up to two weeks to completely rebuild an entire missing segment. The Spawn are the source of the regeneration and without them the process does not take place at all. Through the use of many of its Spawn, the smaller creatures secrete a rich substance that helps to rebuild the lost pieces, much like bees will repair a damaged beehive.



Offenses:





- The Whip: When threatened, this is Kushiel's most direct form of attack. However, it has multiple uses. On it's own, it's more closely resembles an elephant's trunk or an octopus' tentacle. Simply, an appendage. It's quite strong and can lift and fling heavy objects. Unfortunately for Kushiel's enemies, this is not the form of the tentacle most often seen in an attack situation. At that point Kushiel would channel energy directly into the tentacle. Not only can it use it to inflict crushing blows, or even to grab something and squeeze the life out of it, it can also sear through materials or melt things. It would be able to cut through most things like a hot knife through butter, given the speed at which it travels. It would also burn or melt an Eva's armour, if the Eva happened to be in contact with the energy whip long enough. The whip cannot stretch beyond its length.

- Spawn: These are Kushiel's most dangerous aspect. The pillar-body can be compared to a large incubator or container. If any portion of the body is completely destroyed or a large hole is created somehow, Spawn will begin to pour forth from the "wounds". They seem to have different purposes, though they are all identical in appearance. Some will remain and attempt to repair the pillar-body while others will go out and attack. These Spawn can produce various substances inside of them. One is a substance that seems to be able to liquify solids by altering the composition of solid matter on an atomic scale. This means enough of it could turn a very solid metal car into a pile of goo in a short period of time. This is especially dangerous if a large enough swarm gathers in one place and begins to secrete this substance all at once. This is Kushiel's main method of accessing the Geofront and eventually, NERV. Using the Spawn to tunnel through the earth beneath it, it will eventually open a path which will enable the pillar-body itself to pass through the barriers in its way. These are not physically linked to the main body by means of some sort of tether or anything, though they are all technically a part of Kushiel's biomass itself. The Spawn are, however, "mentally" linked to the main body, meaning all information received by the Spawn is directly transmitted to the main body. It learns what they learn and fast. Total eradication of the Spawn involves destruction of the pillar-body first, before the Spawn themselves can be destroyed (not because the Spawn are invulnerable, but because the pillar-body will continually replace the fallen Spawn).



Miscellaneous Other Abilities: Kushiel also has the ability to absorb surrounding energy. This means it is able to draw in energy from things like power lines, street lights, etc. for storage. This is the energy that is channeled into the Whip. The glowing of the wing-like appendages seems to scale with the amount of energy it's absorbing. However, cutting off all energy near Kushiel will not completely stop it, only slow it down and reduce the efficiency of its whip.

It could also be said that one of Kushiel's "powers" is its ability to so accurately determine what is threatening and what isn't.



Combat Skills and Strategies: Until it receives damage, the majority of the Spawn are locked up inside of the pillar-body. To fully attack, Kushiel depends on receiving some damage, most likely to the uppermost sections of its pillar-body in order to release the greatest amount of Spawn. Until then, it will attack primarily with its Whip while a smaller number of Spawn concentrate on digging down through the armour layers.

Once the Spawn are released they will attack ceaselessly until the threat is either eliminated or retreats. Sensing the threat is no longer present, Kushiel will again enter a "quiet" state where it does not actively attack anything and instead focuses on investigation through its Spawn as well as the continuation of its digging.

Kushiel is so passive in "quiet mode" that an Eva could walk right up to it and even go so far as to touch it with no ill effects. Unless, of course, the Eva intends to do something bad..

Names of Designer: Asuka-chan

Ok! What does everyone else think?

NEXT TIME
CorporalChaos

[Action_Bastard]

OMG, I have thought the same thing for an angel concept: spawned minions and a hive mind. This is my favorite, I don't think anything can top it! I love it, love it, love it! I have nothing bad to say about it. I just can't believe someone thought of this concept. I also like the whip, though it reminds me of Shamshel, but it is good stuff. Seeing it's entrance into the Earth would be epic as well. To bad I am not a judge, because I would vote for this. Major Congratulations!


Oh and a Rei for color!

[AsukaChan]

lol Yay! Thank you. ^^