These were some of the earliest pictures ever drawn for the SOA concept, at this point called 'Team Shalost', following a common fanfiction title convention. The name 'Shalost'...didn't mean anything. I had a habit of naming things purely based on saying gibberish, trying to spell it, then deciding if it looked good. A lot of the earliest SOA characters followed this naming 'convention'.

Even back then, I loved drawing backgrounds. Typically, I liked drawing detailed and intricate landscapes, both large and small-scale, and cityscapes more than I liked drawing characters. I loved filling out hills and mountains with foliage and complex valleys and ravines. This is all, funnily enough, because I live in an extremely flat and boring area, so drawing beautiful landscapes is something of an escape for me, even today.

Here we see a close-up on the main cast of this early version of SOA. The human's original name was 'Richard' (Yes, the Richard from the final SOA was named after the original hero!), with the partner going through several names like 'Kalseari' and 'Valsar', always being a Cyndaquil. This was, of course, directly based on my team in Red Rescue Team, Magnemite included.

Aside from PMD, one of the other primary inspirations for SOA was Assassin's Creed (particularly 2 and Brotherhood). This is what led to the 'Arcean Style' - flowers, curling vines and Roman-esque frills and architecture. Arceliaze itself is like a mutated version of a Poke'mon-based fantasy Renaissance Rome, all because I loved Assassin's Creed so much.

On top of all of this, the Assassin's Creed inspiration is what led to the idea of this world having a church and a religious leader that were evil and pulled the strings at the Rescue Guild to trick the heroes into doing bad things. There were a few specific concepts this was showed in:

1. The Hero and Partner, on behalf of the guild, delivers a package to a religious dissident which contains a bomb that explodes as they leave, much to their horror.

2. Their Magnemite partner ends up being wanted for...I guess just dissent. For having free thought. Cut me some slack, I was in highschool!

3. Valsar/Kalseari having to come to terms with the fact he's gay (which, in this early version of SOA, was not only a big deal but a huge twist.)

4. There were light themes of prejudice against a group of foreigners named 'Illaminians'. It was sort of just another atrocity by the Arcean church rather than being a major focus - at the time it was inspired in large part by the sentiment regarding Mexican immigrants (which is to say, the abysmal stereotypes and treatment of said group). It stuck out to me, though unfortunately I was still just a white southern kid in the middle of their propaganda-infused American Highschool life so I had only a surface-level understanding of...everything, really.

A lot of this was stemming from my own experiences growing up in the Deep South of the USA. Religious fundamentalism permeated every part of culture back then and still does to this day. Things like homosexuality and gender nonconformity were and are extremely frowned upon (putting it lightly), meeting sharp criticism from authority and friends alike. For me, at the time, crafting a story centered around rejecting religion and writing a gay character felt like a huge deal.

In this way, SOA has evolved alongside both myself and the changing times. As I've learned and experienced more about the complexities and nuances of the world around me so too did SOA slowly become more complex and nuanced to match my current worldviews.

With this (rather weak) concept built I decided to try and make 'Team Shalost' into a comic. Originally the comic was posted on DeviantArt but has since been removed. Below you'll find the first posted version of this early comic in years.