Mark of the Schalemh - Writing a horror-fantasy novel

I'm a big fan of horror, and I've wanted to create a story about a horror-style monster for several years at this point.

Originally, I had planned on making this a comic. Recently that has kind of changed. In what was supposed to be a plot outline that I was writing, I instead created some legit book writing.

I figure I should explore this direction with this idea, since I don't know how well I can tell this story through a graphic-novel style. It's also just funny to think about, as when I was a kid I wanted to be an author/illustrator. If I end up making this a book, I might do some illustrations, and sprinkle them sparsely throughout.

...but what IS Mark of the Schalemh?

A Brief History of the Schalemh

It was either late junior high, or early high school, when this idea of a monster first appeared in my head. Inspired by the growing apathy and hatred of the world at the time (which I somehow noticed as a teenager, back when I struggled to pay attention), it was a fleeting daydream I had one day on the bus, as we were waiting to go home.

Its original design was that it was human-shaped, with its body segmented like characters were in the Scribblenauts games. Its head shape and face originated from the Binding of Isaac item "Mask of Infamy," an item that occasionally (or fully) blocked shots coming at your face. The expression on the face was an open-eyed face of despair, with the mouth doing a ghostly gape. The schalemh's face is constantly in this form, and if you peer into it you'd mostly see nothing but pitch black. Occasionally, there will be two pinprick lights inside the empty head - one for each eye. To finish it off, the monster was fully monochrome, being mostly darker grays.

The first image I got of this thing, it was slumped on the ground inside a padded room, colored in a desaturated dark-blue, with a flickering, dimly-lit lamp hanging from the ceiling. Its head slowly looks at me, its eyes begin glowing, and I hear this dull hum, droning almost like a machine. A few seconds later, the vault door closes and locks the schalemh inside its room. An even darker atmosphere surrounds the door, with fog coming in from the sides, and shadows almost reaching the door's frame, stopping just shy of the entrance.

...and that was my first experience with the idea.

Ever since, I have always thought it was a good-ass design for a monster. I soon expanded upon the concept of a Schalemh, previously known as a Husk. Husks, I decided, were sort of like a plague monster, turning others into more of itself. They were also very strong and durable, had the ability to float, throw its limbs at things, and could even summon more by making that low drone humming noise.

I had tried to use them in certain ideas I have had before, but then I had some characters plopped in the same universe as the Husks, and then I struck gold (in my brain (back then)).

New Targets of the Schalemh

If you've seen this linked post, then chances are you know what these characters are.

Several characters were now permanent residents in the universe that houses this monster once I came up with the video game idea. At this point, I had to make a name for the things, especially since the first game idea had several types of Husks, so I wanted a name that united them.

The etymology of the word Schalemh comes from three separate languages, each contributing one word for the name:

• The German word "schatten," meaning "shadow"
• The Swedish word "ledsen," meaning "sad"
• The Scots Gaelic word "cnamh," meaning "bone"

Scha-Le-Mh = Schalemh

That was how I created the name.

With the name in place, it was then time for making the other parts of the idea. As you can see, the game "Schalemh Island" doesn't exist, but obviously several ideas have been kept. Mainly, the characters.

As explained in the linked post, out of the six protagonists that I wanted to have, only two of them were specifically created for the world of Schalemh: Barry Liffer, and Cylvia Sybill. Jade Kee (as she's named in the post) was originally meant to be a character to draw doing battles, and the other three came from other story ideas (Wick Everburg came with Tina Welford from the Dreamworld or something, and Frederick Wardson was the antagonist in the story he originated from).

Now, these 6 are perpetually forced to deal with the Schalemh within the battlefield of my imagination.

With this, I had attempted to come up with a good design and powers for these things, since I wanted them to not be the disassembled bone dolls that they previously were. Still have not made an attempt at drawing them, but I may do so soon.

I think the linked post does a good job at explaining the idea that I had for them, but essentially it was a story set in modern day, within the town of Drearyside. The schalemh are released upon the world, corrupting a majority of the world's population in just a few days (a week at most), leaving the protagonists to try and find safety in a world that lost it.

What is the Mark of a Schalemh?

This new idea is still in the early rough draft phase, but I can tell you some information.

If you have seen THIS linked post, the name Normore might sound familiar to you. Funnily enough, despite talk about how I can fix my problem with not finishing projects, that one was left in the dust. I couldn't get an idea to work, there were too many getting juggled around, not to mention I didn't want to write a whole-ass wiki for myself just to make a story.

In this story, Normore was once a prosperous kingdom. The greatest of its time, one could say, as it had everything a kingdom needs, and more. Unfortunately, it had become "the biggest blight on any world map" throughout the other kingdoms due to a surprise emergence of the schalemh threat. Now in ruins, the kingdom is only frequented by "naïve explorers" and "arrogant treasure hunters."

Despite this, six separate people have made a trek towards the continent the ruins lay on, for similar yet differing reasons. In the end, they will have to face the same threat that the old kingdom faced, plus some new foes that have taken the opportunity to wreak havoc.

I am a bit more excited at writing this story than I expected to be. Partly because I am relying more on the imagery of the words, rather than the designs and drawings of my art style. Plus, it's easier to do pacing in a written format than it felt to lay out a comic panel.

I don't have any sort of rough draft yet to share, but maybe there will be one soon. I have a few ideas to work with in regards to the project, mainly due to sharing it with people to see if I'm doing good so far.

That's all I have for today. I hope to come back here soon.