Hi! I'm an overworked, overtired, backwoods redneck father-of-two engineer whose tenuous hold on sanity is largely maintained by a fun little hobby project of mine: Champions of the Ice, a mythic science fiction setting where mankind nearly bombed itself to extinction and now struggles to survive on our now ruined and feral home world.

The lore of my setting spans over a thousand years, from the zenith of the American Empire and the Three Worlds League, our collapse in the apocalyptic conflict of the End War, and countless smaller conflicts against ever stranger foes since then.

It's a lot of fun, I enjoy doing it, and I'm sure there are far worse vices I could be throwing money away on. It certainly helps that I've built a great little community that supports me with a little over $175 a month in funding for concept art through various independent artists I partner with. Even though I'm trying to eventually convert my setting into a proper videogame, it's a challenging effort on my own to say the least with my existing responsibilities as a full-time engineer, a husband, a father, and a farmer.

But that's why I only ever ask for help funding the artwork: it's something I've never failed to deliver on, and it's genuinely a pleasure to look at even by itself.

This particular crowdfunding effort is centered on making some aircraft from a conflict known as the War for the Dawn.

As backstory, North America was abandoned in a great Exodus at the conclusion of the End War when Yellowstone erupted and began spewing radioactive ash across the entire continent. At around the same time as the eruption, the American Empire's own superweapon- an orbital satellite grid called SkyShield- went rogue upon activation and began tearing voidships and high-altitude aircraft alike apart. The population had no choice but to flee for distant shores on what remained of the Empire's surface navy, but unfortunately they had neither enough ships nor enough fuel to take everyone. The majority were left to die, and North America was written off as uninhabitable by the outside world.

Of course, things aren't always what they seem.

A small percentage of civilians managed to ride out the apocalypse in deep shelters beneath the ash. Their lives were harsh and fraught with peril, but they endured.

Unfortunately (once again), they weren't the only ones who stayed behind, as a cult of genetically enhanced Malthusian sociopaths from the upper echelons of the Empire had their own plans for rebuilding the world in their image...

By turning humanity into cattle, reigning over us as obligate cannibals to control the population growth of the "breeders." The "Wendigo Cult" succeeded in their conquest for many years, but humans always find a way to turn the tables on our predators. In this case, by building planes and armored vehicles from the detritus of the fallen American Empire.

I could spend all day rehashing this conflict, but I'll jump ahead to the point: I'd like to do a bulk order on the aircraft of the conflict, and I need a bit of a boost to my funding if I'm to accomplish it in short order.

UPDATE: Y'ALL HELPED BRING A TON OF MY PLANES TO LIFE AND THEN SOME!!!

There are the Confederacy Warbirds used by the scattered tribes of the wasteland as they band together, and the Wendigo Cult's Drones which are high tech and numerous but possess vulnerable supply chains.

Next to the Cascadian Thunderbird heavy bombers, the Absarokan Tornado fighters are the most iconic aircraft in the entire Confederacy. Essentially Art Deco P-51 Mustangs made from commonly available scrap, these were the first aircraft ever deployed by the resistance that managed to successfully engage and destroy the Talon drones harassing their ground forces.

The Moonshiner or "Turkey Vulture" loitering gunship is an Appalachian warbird that not only runs on untaxed ethanol but was likely designed under its influence. Its cockpit and gunner station are located in an offset module on the port wing adjacent to the centrally-mounted engine. This arrangement provides phenomenal visibility for spotting ground targets, which it can then saturate with lead using three remote-operated minigun turrets mounted in the main fuselage. It's ugly as sin but whatever it starts circling is almost guaranteed to die.

The Jamabalayan Pelican is a remarkably flexible support platform that can serve as both a gunship and a mobile hospital. Being a wheeled sea plane, it can operate in the marshlands of Jambalaya, the waterways of Cascadia, in desert flatlands, and even on the crumbling highways of the Empire's ruins.

At the Wendigo Cult's disposal are several types of mass-production drones inherited from their origins among the wealthiest and most influential aristocrats of the American Empire. Initially they only deployed WEN-99 Talon multi-role drones that excelled at striking ground targets and the few civilian aircraft still in operation, acting with impunity amid total aerial supremacy. When the budding Confederacy started assembling proper warbirds in factories hidden amongst the ancient ruins, the more practically minded members of the Cult's military realized that they were now facing a real threat while their hedonistic cohorts were too busy engaging in cannibalistic depravity for their own amusement to care. Hence WEN-107 Fang drones started streaming off the autonomous assembly lines until Confederate Rangers managed to sufficiently sabotage the supply chains.

The most powerful aerial assets by far in the Wendigo Cult's arsenal are the Eagle Drone Carriers. These colossal flying-wing aircraft once served as border patrol platforms for the American Empire but were abandoned by the Exodus fleets due to a lack of command override access when SkyShield committed regicide against the Emperor and his staff. The Cult, of course, had owned the companies that originally manufactured them and wasted no time in retasking the flying giants to secure their own control over what remained of the continent.

I asked you all for $200 to help fund my art team with the creation of six aircraft. You gave me over $700, and for that I am eternally grateful. Thanks to you, I was not only able to create my planes but even a proper piece of battle artwork depicting Confederate Warbirds engaging the Wendigo Cult's drones as they fight for their freedom!

This isn't the end though by any means: this war has only begun.

Right now I am working with my artists on an even bigger piece involving the Nuclear Killdozer being deployed to breach the Wendigo Cult's Sanctuary Wall- a massive, oppressive barrier that barred Confederate forces from launching effective attacks into the Cult's home territory, as the air defenses behind it were too effective and entire armies of conventional ground vehicles had died in failed frontal assaults. But an up-armored American Empire Bulldozer equipped with an atomic cannon and supported by Turboraptor cavalry? Well, the Wall seems to have finally met its match if they can survive the overwhelming firepower from the death-gaze of its towers and the cliff fortifications.

Final Render is expected by the end of October.

As for other items, you can see here an American Empire Dropship (The Cult will have their own variant with a far more hostile face)

Bloodstalkers like this one are nasty beasts of war that the Cult deploys to flush out Confederate infantry hiding in cover. Their sharp senses can detect stealth units even through walls, and they can disable organic units with the paralytic saliva that coats their fangs and quills.

And of course in case I wasn't perfectly clear before, the Biodrone really drives home that there is no "grey morality" in this war. This isn't an android or a vat-grown homunculus: it's a human victim who has been fully lobotomized to act as a servant, plaything, meat shield, or even emergency rations for its masters. They aren't particularly adept at combat, but they inflict horrific psychological damage on any non-sociopathic organic troops that have to deal with them because these were frequently the loved ones of the very people they're fighting.

The Wendigo are truly evil bastards, and I'm going to expand their unit roster with things like the Maxitaur Gladiator.

What's more, I now want to do a deep dive into expanding the Confederacy's ground forces. From their rag-tag Militiamen who spawn with randomized equipment/perks all the way up to Rangers, Pathfinders, Medicine Men, Spiritwalker cyberwarfare specialists, and Buffalo Soldiers (because not every Minotaur appreciates that their race was created to serve as literal "human cattle" for the Cult)

I'm going to keep working on this project indefinitely because it's my passion. I've been building this strange, beautiful, terrifying world of mine since March of 2013, and little by little I have turned it from a simple, short-story homage to other mythic science fiction settings like Too Human and Destiny into something grand and truly unique.

I hope you will enjoy it with me.