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
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 descendants 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
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
Cursed is the Ground was to be a horror novella, the planned sequel to 90 Has No Secant, and the second entry in The Meshalutian Trilogy.

It was first proposed as a Dozerfleet Literature work in 2004, and was shelved until various other projects could be completed. While canon to Classic and Comprehensive Gerosha, as well as part of a Meshalutian Trilogy that can function on its own outside of Gerosha continuity, it is not considered canon to Cataclysmic Gerosha.

By September 30th of 2013, considerations were made to revive it and its predecessor. However, it was ruled that such a remake / reboot would not be a slavish re-creation of the originals.

In-story, young Jared Rintel, a Colorado cousin of Tom and Mandy, awakes one rainy day from a nightmare in which he postcognitively learns of the execution of Meshaluta's disciple Sanction Harlem. Being slightly more aware of Meshaluta than his Louisiana cousins initially were, Jared grows alarmed at her prospect. Meanwhile, Jared's father Earl Rintel needs to take his mother Debbie to the hospital to resume treatments for her heart. He then needs to go to work in a silver mine.

However, school has been canceled for Jared and his sister Alison, due to an animal attack in the school the night before that left a janitor dead. The kids are sent to be babysat by a worker at the Mt. Applestream Ski Lodge, which is closed to most of the public for maintenance and until winter. Jared tries to warn Alison about his dream, but she dismisses his concerns. She creates a distraction for Jared and the babysitter, Trisha Montoya. While they are distracted, she escapes and heads to a party in town in which alcohol is involved. Meanwhile, Trisha vows not to lose track of Jared. The two begin sharing stories, and learn that Meshaluta is after Trisha as well.

Just then, a former bounty hunter turned rogue stalker, Yenti Roy, shows up at the lodge looking for Trisha. When Trisha's superior Kenny Thrinn doesn't cooperate, Roy shoots him. Trisha escapes out the back with Jared, and they flee into the mountainside just as a storm system begins to set in. Trisha begins to explain, as best she can to Jared, that her real name isn't Trisha.

An entire flashback sequence reveals Trisha's past as Alyssa Delphine, and her first tragic encounter with Rintels and with Meshaluta. In that tragedy, Meshaluta caused an apartment fire that cause blood to transfer from a Rintel to Alyssa. Meshaluta began stalking her ever since, as did Roy, who believed Alyssa to have murdered the Rintels. The police eventually eliminate Alyssa as a suspect, but not before Roy becomes obsessed with finding her. She runs to her old boyfriend in Montana for safety, but Meshaluta follows her there. A dream convinces Alyssa to take on the alias of Trisha and flee to Applestream, CO.

Trisha and Jared continue to hide from Roy, but the mountain persists in making their escape difficult. Roy pursues them relentlessly along the way. Meanwhile, a landslide and other disaster disable communication that would allow for Jared and Trisha to contact police for help. A plane nosedives into the party house and kills everyone instantly, including Alison. This further prevents the police from coming to Trisha's aid. Complicating matters even further, Jared's father is trapped in the silver mine. From there, he learns of the legend of Honeybee Samuel. Trisha, who already knows of it, fears that she and Jared are getting too close to the cursed cabin.

Finally, Roy manages to separate Trisha and Jared. He abducts Jared and takes him into the cabin, unaware of the legend surrounding it. Trisha knows she is walking into a trap, but decides to attempt Jared's rescue anyway. This leads to an epic showdown, wherein which Trisha may have to sacrifice her life to end the madness on the mountain.

The Natural Logarithm
The Natural Logarithm was to be a horror novella, first envisioned in May of 2004. In addition to being the final part of the able-to-operate-independently Meshalutian Trilogy. LN has its events rendered canon to Classic and Comprehensive Geroshas.

The original premise was canceled in 2012, rendering the initial draft moot. A Meshalutian Trilogy reboot was considered in 2013, but failed to gain much steam.

Having exhausted herself both in her failed attempt to kill Trisha in Colorado and in her failed attempt to kill Mandy in Louisiana, Meshaluta decides to take her campaign back home to Boston. Her spirit raids a library, and seeks to track down any and all possible connection to any Rintels and relatives living in the present day. Young Carla and her classmate Kaleigh realize they too are targets, as all of Boston soon finds itself haunted by Meshaluta and her followers.

Bodies begin turning up dead in freak accidents, with a logarithmic graph being the one common thread in all deaths. As the girls decide to crash Meshaluta's resurrection party and cancel it, they are joined by Tim's wife Cassie. Cassie has her own reasons for wanting to ruin Meshaluta's evil plans.

While shelved almost immediately, The Natural Logarithm was developed on the footheels of developing Cursed is the Ground. It both justifies the ending of that story, and provides closure for all Meshalutian continuity. The idea for having the ghost-witch Meshaluta obsess over this number, and its close approximate of 30/11, was inspired by various math class lectures at Holt Lutheran High School, where the Dozerfleet founder attended from 1998-2002. It seemed logical that since the first story began with a title about a witch using math in her scheme of things, that the final story would also include math, bringing everything full circle.

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.