Über-Proto Gerosha

Über-Proto Gerosha is one of many narrative universes to comprise the overall Gerosha multiverse, homeworld of The Gerosha Chronicles in Dozerfleet Comics. Über-Proto Gerosha, also known as the Meshalutian Trilogy Standalone Universe, has an Earth number of G1, making it the second-most primordial predecessor to actual Gerosha continuity.

In some ways, it functions more as an expansion of Hyper-Über-Proto Gerosha than as a replacement to it. Earth-G1 is also the last Gerosha universe to not contain some form of Stan or Shalia Flippo. This world began in October of 2002, and lasted until December of 2004.

History
A few details of Gray Champion mythos from Hyper-Über-Proto Gerosha are changed. Instead of the Gray Champion being a literal ghost, he is merely given ghost mimicry abilities. End of Decadence and Returns are dropped from continuity. Instead of arriving in Grand Rapids, he arrives in Boston. Instead of a mere implication that the Shrouded Entity's evil influence corrupted Bostonians in the time of The Scarlet Letter, an actual consequence is shown.

Vile Magenta Cloak
Main article: Vile Magenta Cloak

A young Sarah Umpid is corrupted by all that influence, and grows up to become a hag named Meshaluta who eventually schemes a way to form her own coven and take over the world before the Society of the Icy Finger can. Some of the Rintolin family befriends her briefly in order to keep unwanted Icy Finger members from messing with the Rintolin estate. However, the Rintolins betray Meshaluta when she is no longer of use to them, and plot to have the town murder her.

Obsessed with the natural logarithm, she places a curse on them and their descendents so that a Rintolin or someone close to one will die to the tune of 30 or so every 11 years. The curse is set to follow certain rules.

Via the Marlquaan, Meshaluta's spirit endures as an onryō. Her coven of followers vows to one day undergo a ceremony to raise her from the dead. Since she died of gunpowder explosions in her house, she has developed a strong, irrational fear and intolerance of gunpowder. She will, however, use anything in her targets' path as a means to set a death trap for them. She is especially fond of using natural disasters and weather to achieve her ends. When Zachary Rintolin decides he's had enough of his family in Boston, he leaves westward and changes his last name to Rintel. The Rintolins all die out, but Zachary Rintel's line endures. The ruse keeps Meshaluta's power at bay for many years, but she strikes back when she figures out how Zachary fooled her. One of Zachary's decedents was killed in the Peshtigo Fire.

A Miner Named Sam
Main article: A Miner Named Sam

An avowed follower of Meshaluta, Sam Wrikon, made a name for himself in the 1890s. Likewise, a witch in Meshaluta's cult of personality / coven named Sanction Harlem was executed for witchcraft about a century and a half before. Sanction left a bone-chilling poem as her last words, one that would later appear in the dreams of a boy named Jared Rintel. Meanwhile, in the 1890s, Sam Wrikon has to flee Georgia after the authorities begin to close in on him for his serial rape activities. He flees to Colorado to get a fresh start. However, his time in Colorado results in him facing persecution from locals. He creeps them out regularly. His staring and implied hatred of everything only causes the town to further not trust him. Eventually, an accident occurs in the silver mine and many miners die. Sam is blamed for it superstitiously. He is executed by being thrown into a cabin and knocked out with chloroform. He awakes to find himself trapped in the cabin with several hives of angry bees, which sting him to death. Throughout the moaning of his pain, he fancies a curse on the cabin and ultimately the whole town.

His spirit endures much as Meshaluta's did. He manifests as a ghost of a man who has been merged with a bee. He haunts the cabin for several decades, seeming untouchable. Many attempt to harm him or tear the cabin down, but all meet with death or disaster from him or from a swarm of bees that attacks. The cabin is eventually forsaken by the town, allowed to rot slowly in the elements as no one is brave enough to risk the bees. Sam is from that point on referred to as Honeybee Samuel. He places a curse on his descendants to be as horny as he was, leading to an alarming number of them also being serial rapists.

90 Has No Secant
Main article: 90 Has No Secant

Ultimately, Meshaluta's plans simply weren't good enough. Many generations later, and the Rintels had all but forgotten about Meshaluta. That was when a magnetic storm merged with Hurricane Nekoda to form a near-"perfect" storm. Meshaluta latched on to the combined storm, giving it seemingly a mind of its own. The Louisiana Rintel family had to struggle to survive when Nekoda suddenly began veering off course and making a bee line for their house. Meshaluta's goal was to ultimately kill Mandy Rintel, whom she'd marked. She gave the warning dream to Eva Rintel, who didn't understand its significance until it was too late. Rick Rintel and Tom Rintel also found themselves trapped. It was to Meshaluta's great dismay - and a major blow to her power - that she discovered that the Rintels had all survived. This was largely due to Dewey Reynolds having inadvertently put himself in the way of the very death move that was intended for Mandy, due to pushing Mandy out of the way when trying to lecture Tom to stop questioning him. Dewey and his partner-in-crime Lenny Hidds, who had broken into the Rintels' house, both died for different reasons. The Rintels managed to survive just long enough to be rescued before the eyewall hit them a second time and blew them away.

Cursed is the Ground
Main article: Cursed is the Ground

A frustrated Meshaluta turns to causing a gas explosion incident on a gas range in an apartment to wipe out the South Dakota Rintels. However, one of her victims accidentally crosses blood with a mildly injured Alyssa Delphine, who went over to the house for a babysitting assignment. Alyssa finds some of the Rintel blood intermingling with hers, and tries to wipe it away. But it's too late. Meshaluta decides that Alyssa has just become a "blood sister Rintel," and sets to work harassing Alyssa at every turn. Alyssa also finds herself being stalked by a deranged madman and former bounty hunter gone rogue, named Yenti Roy.

She flees to Applestream, Colorado. From there, she attempts to start her life over as a ski resort employee named "Trisha Montoya." Trisha at one point befriends the young Jared Rintel; but that leads to them having to flee for their very lives when Roy catches up to them. Roy murders the ski resort owner, Kenny Thrinn, without hesitation. He then sets his sights on Trisha and Jared. The entire thing leads to a confrontation at the Cabin of Honeybee Samuel. Meanwhile, a plane crashes into a residential neighborhood, killing Jared's sister Alison Rintel. Jared's father, Earl Rintel, finds himself trapped in a silver mine collapse with several other workers. Tim Lorgan and Cassie Manning, who were in the LaFoe Airport with Eva Rintel a short time before, immediately recognize the significance of events. They work to get Earl out, and Cassie vows to destroy Meshaluta's power once and for all.

The Natural Logarithm
Main article: The Natural Logarithm (story)

Kaleigh, Carla Rintel, and Cassie Manning must team up after Carla's family is abducted by Meshaluta's coven, to destroy Meshaluta's power once and for all.

Rintels

 * Rick Rintel
 * Eva Rintel
 * Mandy Rintel
 * Tom Rintel
 * Earl Rintel
 * Debbie Rintel
 * Ally Rintel
 * Jared Rintel
 * Carla Rintel

Rintel allies

 * Alyssa "Trisha Montoya" Delphine
 * Cassie Manning
 * Tim Lorgan
 * Kaleigh

Villains

 * Sarah Umpid / Meshaluta
 * Sanction Harlem
 * "Honeybee" Samuel Wrikon
 * Hurricane Nekoda
 * Dewey Reynolds
 * Lenny Hidds
 * Yenti Roy

Locations

 * United States
 * Massachusetts
 * Boston
 * Louisiana
 * Murian Twp.
 * LaFoe Airport
 * South Dakota
 * Colorado
 * Applestream

Concept
Über-Proto Gerosha began its life almost by accident. In 2002, the Dozerfleet founder graduated from high school. Elements of Hyper-Über-Proto Gerosha were still in consideration for development, but with some changes being planned. Replox: Abstract Foundations was in consideration to be made part of the same universe, but ultimately became one unto itself. However, it set a precedent for standards in world-building that would be implemented in many projects from that point onward.

On the week of October 18th of 2002, the Dozerfleet founder had been in a session of IMAG 112 (Photography and Design Principles) class at Lansing Community College. The instructor discussed line and energy theory in class, and mentioned that more-vertical lines indicated more energy until a certain point. After that point, lines stood for strength rather than energy. This reminded the Dozerfleet founder of a secant function - and of the eye to a hurricane. That same evening, his class for FILM 203 (Foreign Film Studies) saw Ringu. One evening later, he saw The Ring in theaters. Inspiration became overflowing, and the end result of that was a book dubbed 90 Has No Secant.

Meshalutian mythos was prepared in a very basic manner by the rough draft to 90. Meshaluta herself didn't get her name until about the third revision. She was originally merely "the hag in the magenta cloak with metallic green skin and red eyes." The Rintels also at one point had a basement that got flooded, forcing them into the main house so they wouldn't drown. Revisions fixed that to a utility room that a bus crashes through, exposing them to the elements and forcing them under those circumstances back into the main level. A little research on the first draft revealed that, given Louisiana's water table, a basement would be highly unlikely for anyone to possess.

Fate
Cursed is the Ground sought to take the mythos developed in 90, and expand it into a novel series in and of its own right. Further ambition sought to tie the worlds of the Meshalutian Trilogy and Gray Champion mythos together into one thing. However, concept art proved demanding. Experiments with software led to a test family being created to learn the mechanics of simulation, so as to aid in making the Meshalutian Trilogy world come to life. That desire eventually led to both the Meshalutian Trilogy and Gray Champion mythos being absorbed into a greater continuity timeline, one now known as "Proto Gerosha." Earth-G1 was absorbed into Earth-G2 in December of 2004, but its entire components were not to be explored again until 2008, under Earth-G5. Ultimately, with minor tweaks, the entire series was then re-imported into Earth-G6, before being canceled before inclusion in Earth-G7. Most of its cast can therefore be seen as existing in Comprehensive Gerosha.

Design
Hand drawings alone no longer seemed adequate for the kind of world-building that was being done for Meshalutian development. Replox: Abstract Foundations set the standard for an art style with MSPaint '98 that did a fairly good job of re-creating characters in an ideal fashion. Materials not published online also took advantage of numerous pieces of clipart to illustrate how characters should look. The exact MSPaint avatar system for characters was modified from the Replox standard. Towards the end, as the Proto Gerosha development phase began, characters were being rendered in The Sims Deluxe. Special emphasis was on developing the Rintel's house in Louisiana.