The Force in the Depths of Manaan (SWTOR Fanfic Photoshop Experiments)

Meditating on the Ocean Floor

When it came to working the story’s main image, using a screenshot as background was the simple part. I had to place in other parts of another screenshot here and there to give it some depth. I found an image of a Sith meditation sphere and altered it to suit my needs.

The Sphere on Manaan (Protectors Story 11 Official Image) (from Connections in the Force, Story 11, Star Wars Fan-Fiction by Celinka Serre)

Maranna Is Watched

Maranna is an intriguing character who begins to take more shape as more stories develop. Here I placed her in one outfit and onto a background. I created a character for her in SWTOR. Her actual armour gear is more badass than this, and I can’t wait to unveil it for the next stories.

Maranna begins as a new secondary character who later becomes the primary villain. If you recall, she was the lover of the late Relsor and has a Force defect of absorption that causes an immunity to many Force abilities and makes her currently unable to use the Force herself, yet she is very Force-sensitive and trained as a Sith for a time.

Maranna as a waitress on Nar Shaddaa (from Connections in the Force, Story 11, Star Wars Fan-Fiction by Celinka Serre)

Getting To the Bottom Of It

Talyc and Nriwe here are on Manaan, attempting to sell baskar as their ruse. Talyc is of course one of the main characters, Mandalorian, married to the here missing Fane, leader of Clan Kandera. Nriwe was once Talyc’s Second, is also a past concubine, but she is now married to Lian Kloh, the Guardian of the Crypt, and is the mother of the young Thera Kloh. She has her friend and clan leader’s back, always.

Talyc and Nriwe selling beskar on Manaan (from Connections in the Force, Story 11, Star Wars Fan-Fiction by Celinka Serre)

It was fun to place them onto this nice screenshot from my Manaan stronghold. Talyc, as usual, needs his armour re-colouring, and his head is actually not from SWTOR but from Dragon Age: Inquisition, and for both I had them do emotes to get their arms how I wanted. Aside from it being time-consuming, it was a fairly simple Photoshop job.


Fane awakens in the Sphere on Manaan, and as you know if you read the story, he has lost a good many years of memory here.

His head is from Dragon Age: Inquisition. It’s not a perfect angle. I did have trouble getting the little bit of his outfit to have the right perspective, but it does the job.

Fane awakes in the Sphere on Manaan (from Connections in the Force, Story 11, Star Wars Fan-Fiction by Celinka Serre)

Knarf, now the Second of Clan Kandera, recently created in SWTOR, previously cosplayed by my husband, is growing his hair. I can’t wait to show-off the Mandalorian braids I’ve got for him. This was a simple placing of character on screenshot background with the usual soft light borders and colour balance adjustments that I do for all my images.

Knarf on Manaan (from Connections in the Force, Story 11, Star Wars Fan-Fiction by Celinka Serre)

Lightning and Dark Side Energy

I had lots of fun with this one. I seem to always have fun with lightning. I mean, it is afterall my favourite Force ability. I’ve become quite adept in creating it in Photoshop. To get the pose right, I used a Mood Emote on my character in SWTOR and used a Gree toy that regenerates health to get this pose. Then I placed him on the background. Placing and colourig the lightning was fun. Then I wanted some of the lighnting’s colour to reflect on Storimbu. If you notice, there are two colours, a more purple on the sides up the arms, and more blue streaking forward towards him. I selected one of each and added an outer glow that I adjusted to the desired effect.

Storimbu tortured by Awgro on Nar Shaddaa (from Connections in the Force, Story 11, Star Wars Fan-Fiction by Celinka Serre)

This is from the scene when Awgro tortures Storimbu in many different ways, draining him and using lightning on him while the Miraluka is trapped in the Dark Side energy contraption. Hence the two colours of lightning, purple for the dark side energy contraption keeping him unable to move, and blue for the lightning coming from Awgro and Mar Dalkars.


Two Husbands Reunited

Originally, I had Fane in his original gear, because I had done this one a while back and wasn’t sure when I’d use it. However, on Manaan, he is in the outfit he wore at his wedding to Talyc, so I had to make the adjustment. The rest is pretty much the same as I always do for them with the colour of their armour and whatnot.

Fane and Talyc abut to kiss on Manaan (from Connections in the Force, Story 11, Star Wars Fan-Fiction by Celinka Serre)

And then they face Awgro. I wasn’t sure how I wanted Awgro in the scene, a side view or not, perhaps seeing him from behind, but I found it that much more dynamic and interesting to show his reflection in the transparisteel (window). I even flipped him so that the reflection shows him exactly how a reflection should.

Fane and Talyc face Awgro on Manaan (from Connections in the Force, Story 11, Star Wars Fan-Fiction by Celinka Serre)

Technically in the scene, Talyc has his vibroblade out and Fane blocks Awgro’s lightsaber with his own, but there is a moment of tenseness where Awgro uses to Force to send Fane crashing against the glass and Void comes in to give them a hand. The image does depict the tension well, however, and I am most proud of this one.

As usual, feedback is always welcome.


These images were created for my Star Wars The Old Republic Fan-fiction story, Connections in the Force, Story 11 in the Protectors of the Force series.

View more Fanfic Photos from Connection in the Force

Read Connections in the Force

View more Fanfic Photos.

Read The Protectors of the Force series.


You might also enjoy other SWTOR fanficsDragon Age Fan-Fiction short stories,  Mass Effect Fan-Fiction, or Stardust Destinies the High Fantasy Fiction series.


About binkyproductions

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Binky Productions is a video production company that produces Films, Commercial Videos and Multimedia for artists. Binky Ink is the writing division for freelance and fiction writing, as well as screenplay formatting. Celinka Serre is also a YouTuber for Dragon Age gaming, and Green Healing for alternative and natural healing from abuse. View all posts by binkyproductions

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