ASCII Edgy — occult / cyber ASCII art

The goal is ASCII that looks like it escaped a 1997 BBS, a cursed CRT, or the cover of a SYSTEM zine. Dense. Symmetric. Sharp. Menacing. Readable at a glance, rewards close inspection.

The three laws

Every piece obeys these. A draft that breaks one is not done.

1. Mirror symmetry. The left and right halves mirror across a vertical center axis. When you write //# on the left, the right side shows #\\. When the left has ,<- the right has ->,. / swaps with \, < swaps with >, ( swaps with ), [ swaps with ], { swaps with }. Cover one half — the other should read as the reflection. The eye catches asymmetry instantly and it ruins the piece.

2. Layered texture. The silhouette alone is boring. Fill it with layered characters that suggest detail: armor bolts (#), feather barbs (, . ' \``), joints (==), bone (|), scales (\`). Good ASCII reads like a cross-hatched etching, not a coloring-book outline. The rule of thumb: every row should use at least 3 different characters.

3. Sharp focal point. The eye lands on ONE spot first: usually the face. Eyes (( O. O ), *_*), nose (\#|o|#/), mouth (\VVV/). Everything else frames this. If there's no clear anchor, the piece falls apart into noise.

Character palette

The #1 cause of flat ASCII is using the wrong character for the job. Different characters do different work.

Density gradient (subtle → heavy):

    .  ,  :  ;  '  `  "  ~  -  =  +  *  #  @

Edges & direction:

• / \ — diagonals (the main shapes: wings, horns, cheekbones)
• | — vertical bone / spine / column
• _ - = ~ — horizontal seams, teeth, scanlines
• < > — sharp points outward / inward (claws, fangs, arrows)
• ^ v — vertical points (horns up, fangs down)
• ( ) — soft curves (face edges, eyes, chest)
• [ ] { } — hard brackets (armor, feet, mechanical)

Focal accents:

• * — sparks, stars, pinpoint glow near the face
• o O — eyes, bullet holes, rivets
• # — solid texture, armor, shadow
• @ — dense core (sparingly — one or two max in the whole piece)

Repeated motifs (these are premade cloth, sew them in):

• VVV WWW — teeth / fangs / grin
• ### — armor plating, shadow band
• /// \\\ — feather / scale wash
• <<<>>> — claws / talons
• |=|=| — ribcage / chest plate
• =~= == — mouth slit, scar

The skeleton

Every figure piece is built in this vertical order. Start from the face and grow outward — do not draw the silhouette first.

[crown / horns]          1-3 rows       top
[brow / forehead]        1 row          carves negative space for eyes
[eyes]                   1-2 rows       <-- the focal point
[nose / muzzle]          1 row
[mouth / teeth]          1-2 rows
[neck / shoulders]       1 row          transition to body
[wings / arms]           4-8 rows       widest section, dense texture
[torso / ribcage]        2-4 rows       center column
[legs / tail]            2-4 rows       narrowing
[feet / claws]           1-2 rows       base, sits on "ground"

Draw the face first. The face is the anchor. Everything else negotiates around it.

Wing & body-mass technique

Wings are what make a demon feel heavy. The trick is layered parallel strokes, different character on each layer:

,<-` //|\
/.)|/\ \ \
,/\) *\.,\
|(#),'/.\\`*`\
,/\  `/..\\\\
/^ //#  |  ##\]

Notice what's happening:

• Each row offsets slightly right — the wing fans outward
• Each row mixes different chars (, . \`` * # /`) — layers don't blur
• # appears only once or twice per wing as an armor-bolt accent, not every row
• Dots, commas, backticks do subtle shading between the heavy strokes
• ] at the far edge suggests the wing's frame / strut

Build order: pick 6-7 rows, draw the silhouette diagonal first with / or \, then pass through again and sprinkle texture in the gaps.

Density rules

• Width: 50-80 columns. Wider reads as a banner, not a symbol. Narrower can't hold detail.
• Height: 12-22 rows for a figure. Shorter feels like a logo, taller loses focus.
• Char density: roughly 40-55% non-space. Under 30% feels empty, over 65% feels like a black blob.
• @ maximum: 2. @ is a black hole — eats attention. Reserve for the true focal core or skip it.
• Margins: 3+ blank spaces left and right of the silhouette so it breathes.

Don'ts (these kill edgy ASCII on contact)

• Cartoon / emoji faces: :), ;), >:3, ^_^, :3 — we're doing menace, not cute
• Asymmetric silhouette — the mirror axis must be dead straight
• Dense blob with no face / focal point — the eye needs an anchor
• One character doing everything — a wing of all # is flat, a wing of all / is a stripe
• Over-wide (>100 cols) — wraps in terminals, looks bad
• Labeling the art ("here's a demon:") — just output the art in a fenced block, no preamble
• Emoji 🔥💀 — we're in pure ASCII, that's the point. Extended unicode box-drawing (│┌┐) is fine if the user wants it, but default to 7-bit ASCII.

Subject-specific guides

Demons / daemons — Bat-wing style. Wide wings, pointed ears/horns, central face with glowing eyes, armored chest, claws at hips, talons at feet. The canonical reference is the winged demon in references/gallery.md. Match its density and proportions.

Skulls — Wider than tall. Eye sockets are the focal point — make them BIG (3×3 or 4×4 empty pockets surrounded by heavy #). Teeth are a single row like |W|W|W|W|. No wings usually — a skull is just cranium + jaw.

Sigils / pentagrams — Pure geometry. Use /\ \/ to build the star. Ring of runes around it (unicode ᚨ ᛗ ᚱ ᛟ if allowed, else * † ‡ § Ω). Sigils rely on negative space — keep the interior mostly empty, let the outline carry it.

Grim reapers — Cloaked silhouette + scythe. Most of the figure is a draped triangle of \\\\ //// with no face (hood shadow). Scythe is one long diagonal ending in a curved blade (_~ or _,,—^. This is the rare edgy piece where you don't show a face — the hood's darkness IS the focal point.

Crosses / daggers — Vertical-dominant. Thick center column |#|#|, sharp top, flared base. Drip blood with falling ; , below the base if the user asks for bloody.

Cyber-skulls / glitch — Break symmetry on ONE row only (the "glitch" row). Overlay text like [ERR] or 0xFF across the face. Heavier on # and = (cyber reads as armored + scanlined).

Ravens / crows — Narrow silhouette, folded wings down the sides rather than spread. Focal point is the beak + one eye: ,\*> or ~<*,. Feet at the base as >< ><.

Spiders — Small fat body, 8 legs fanning out as long / and \ strokes. Face is tiny — just .. or **. Legs carry the menace: make them kinked with ~ or angled with _/.

Vibe shifts

If the user redirects mid-piece:

• "more cyber" → add # = [ ], scanlines (---), 0xFF fragments
• "more grimoire" → lighten to , . `, sparse stars, add rune ring around the base
• "more biblical angel" → * eyes everywhere (many eyes), concentric rings ((() ())), feathered symmetry
• "more metal / death-metal" → crank density to ~60%, add inverted crosses, drip ; blood, stretch width
• "bigger" → add 2-4 rows and densify, do NOT just scale up — add new texture layers (extra wing row, bone detail, runes at base)
• "smaller" → cut wing rows in half, drop the outer texture pass, KEEP the face

Output protocol

Generate the art inside a single fenced code block (no language tag). No intro, no explanation, no trailing commentary unless the user asks. Just the art. Silence frames it.

If the user reacts badly, don't apologize in prose — diagnose which law it broke (symmetry? texture? focal point? density?) and regenerate. One compact retry beats a wall of text.

Reference gallery

See references/gallery.md for 8 worked examples across subjects (demon, skull, reaper, sigil, cross, raven, cyber-skull, spider). Study those before drafting something in an unfamiliar subject — they show how the palette actually combines in practice.