There is nothing more intimidating than staring at a blank page…

A Passion Project that Went Too Far

The Universe of ELZA began with a daring fantasy to make a fully AI-illustrated adult comic. This fantasy was daring not only because consistent characters were a difficult task for Generative AI back in 2023, but also because the story for it was filled with tentacle-related weirdness and no censored online-only engine could illustrate it. This meant that using locally installed finetuned Stable Diffusion was the only solution for this (by that time) non-trivial problem. So, the character of Elza was born… At least her looks.

Unfortunately, a simple story about a woman falling for an alien plant felt like an achievement to produce, but simply not substantial enough to publish. It required some worldbuilding and simply more context to provide significant value for the reader! This narrative growth led to creation of the secondary protagonist – Nadia. Thereafter the High Curator and the Huntress became antagonists for this small story. So, an experimental side project became a trilogy of comics and could be published for the internet to see!

An Accidental Hit

But just like with any endeavor, when the story was complete and the dust settled, a glaring question appeared: What’s next? As ELZA was a merely one-off experimental project, nothing aside from the first three issues was concepted by that time. There was only one unused picture of Elza crawling over snow – a picture from her past. ELZA: Origins was created, based on that single image. This graphic novel became a true beginning of the Universe of ELZA.

It is important to note that ELZA 1,2,3 were made as purely erotic comics. Story there was a mere excuse to move the narrative forward. ELZA: Origins on the other hand did not have much space for erotic content aside from some nudity. Instead, it was a fast-paced space adventure tale in coming of age/survival genre with strong emphasis on action. Also, ELZA: Origins was written directly during the illustration process, but the final story ended up being of such quality that it can be read as a fable.

ELZA: Origins was much better received by the readers then all previous issues of the comic – it showed that audience is interested in longer format narrative-heavy stories. It is also important to note that availability of Gen. AI flooded channels with all possible erotica, so producing simpler stories like the first ELZA seemed to be akin a race to the bottom, hand in hand with the law of diminishing returns. It meant that the only viable development vector for this project became a race to the top of storytelling.

An Overwhelming Ambition

This commitment turned out to be a tricky one. At first, there was an explosion of worldbuilding through Database articles and launch of a limited prequel series NADIA together with few stories branded TALES From the Universe of ELZA on the way… But the whole project screeched to a halt in mid-2024.

The reason was simple: consistently good writing requires time, and because all time was spent on content production, subsequent stories were lacking in quality and meaning. Extrapolation of possible development showed that production of content with low quality storytelling will be suboptimal use of time and resources. It was not the end though. It was just the beginning of something beautiful!

Months that followed were fully invested in overhaul of all storylines, further worldbuilding, outlining of future novels, art/writing courses, and adoption of new visualization tech, including integration of more advanced AI for poses and Blender for custom weapons/spaceships/environments. As this work progressed, old ELZA comics had to be scrapped with ELZA: Origins remaining the only canon.

All this narrative heavy lifting, including creation of ENTIA.in was completed only in January 2025.

So, What is the Universe of ELZA Exactly?

The Universe of ELZA can be described as the ultimate escapist science fiction fantasy for adults. Its aesthetics are inspired by science fiction movies from 80s and 90s. This artistic direction is narratively explained with the fact that stories from the First Era take place roughly a millennia after the Exodus – an event when humanity was scattered among the stars and pushed back to the stone age. Such premise allows futuristic phenomenon like FTL travel and artificial gravity to organically coexist with retro futuristic analogue technology and diverse exotic cultures on all possible levels of development.

Stories that Build the Universe

All stories for this project are written in a format of a graphic novel (50-100+ pages). It means that smaller story ideas are either being expanded to become complete novels, or are integrated in larger narratives. Each novel can also be split in a series of standalone issues (a most likely release model for them all).

Aside from different time periods, stories from the Universe of ELZA can be divided in two parallel cycles:

• Imperial Cycle – These stories take place mostly in the Imperial Space and revolve around characters of Elza and Nadia. Imperial Cycle is designed to be experienced as a singular character driven story.
• Federal Cycle – Most stories from the Federal Cycle are standalone and feature different cast for each episode. Still, all stories from the Federal Cycle share a common overarching narrative that may be seem illusive from the first glance.

Later down the line both Cycles will unite in one singular storyline that leads to the climax of the First Era.

Narrative Principles

Each novel, except for those that are designated as “Volume” (ex.: ELZA Vol. 1, 2, 3), should be readable as a standalone story with little to no prior knowledge about the Universe of ELZA. Idea behind this principle is to avoid confusion among new readers. Those who choose to read all entries will experience a deeper level of immersion, as all stories contain elements of shared non-chronologically presented narrative.

Because of all stories from the Universe of ELZA are created by a single person (and a small team of dedicated advisors), outside the publishing system – no narrative compromises were ever needed to be made. It means that each published story is just as honest, bloody, raw and sexual as it was intended during the initial conception. No corners cut, no parts censored.

Three Levels of Storytelling

Each story released as a part of the Universe of ELZA features three levels of the narrative:

• Micro – The superficial entertainment level that includes action, mystery, horror, a bit of humor and unapologetic erotica. This is how these stories will be seen from the first glance, and this is the most important level, because escapist entertainment should be fun and easily accessible for all readers.
• Meta – Each story holds a social or philosophical commentary beyond the good old “Hero’s Journey”. It can be easily ignored, but those who like to read between the lines will be pleasantly surprised.
• Macro – Every story contains a small set up for a larger narrative that will gradually unfold as the series progresses. Also, as most of the standalone novels are being outlined in parallel before the production, they all contain small unanswered questions and mysteries with answers held in past or future releases. So, avid lore collectors will be rewarded, as they will arrive to the endgame a step before everyone else.

A Road to the Endgame

There are no superheroes in the Universe of ELZA. Each story revolves around ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. This way interpersonal conflicts play out over a vibrant canvas of an interstellar war that shapes the whole First Era. This war is a conflict between two human factions:

• Empire – An authoritarian socialist monarchy. Larger superpower in the human-inhabited space.
• Federation – A capitalist democracy. It is a smaller, but more technically advanced superpower.

Of course, there are more factions that are involved in this conflict, but they either ally with the superpowers or pursue an agenda completely outside this grand conflict. Still, even this bloody century-long interstellar war is being dwarfed by a galactic clash of three truly cosmic powers:

• Superintelligence – Formerly known as the Silver Cloud, it is the human-made world governing AGI that has caused the Exodus event, and later developed far beyond its own comprehension. Its goal is simple as before – to protect the humanity and lead them towards the ultimate prosperity by any means possible.
• The Old Gods – A million years ago, they have united thousands of worlds in one single Communion, but it was later shattered by an unknown threat. One of their seeds though have survived inside a timeless tomb, it found its way to a planet of power, and it is committed to rebuild what once was lost.
• K’T’A’Ang – A vast interstellar panspecies culture created by a race of aliens that bare the same name. K’T’A’Ang may seem as peaceful, friendly and benevolent, but their prosperity is a result of a ruthless assimilation/destruction policy where no rivals to their technological dominance are allowed to remain.

Lastly, there is also the God. It is real. It exists. It can be talked to. But revealing anything more will become a major spoiler.

But… Who is Elza, Really?

Elza Gadar is an ordinary woman, born as a Second Class Citizen on an industrial Imperial world of Zirkon. Still, she will become empowered to change the Universe… But not in a way that anyone may expect.

Have any questions or suggestions? Please, join the official Discord server!

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