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Endless Realms bestiary - Corrupt Spirit of Passing
Bestiary artwork for Endless Realms, a D&D-like "pen and paper" fantasy RPG I'm working for.
While normally I get a mix of different kinds of creatures, this monster block consisted of entirely corrupted spirits. The world(s) of Endless Realms has a number of gods, but they are normally quite removed - spirits, on the other hand, thrive in the Corporeal Realms of mortal races, often creating symbiotic relationships with its people, places, and principles, inhabiting places such as villages, forests or rivers, or representing concepts such as harvest or war. However, sometimes these spirits grow hungry for power and become corrupted, twisted versions that feed off the world rather than nourish and balance it - for these various concepts, I've tried to capture the darker, nastier essence of what they represent. The art director required all the spirits to be humanoid, but requested that they all be "eerie and strange" - I took that quite liberally. There's a lot that can be done with the basic humanoid shape, and alternatively making them all "people with different horns and bits on them, or wearing different outfits" seemed terribly boring.
Up until last night, this one was going to be a corrupt dream spirit, a spirit mad with power who now feasts upon the chaotic, vibrant energy of dreams and nightmares. In my head, this translated into a creature overwhelmed by its own greed and hunger, morphing into something all grasping hands and gaping maws, like a drug addict who can no longer control his own needs, addicted to the power of dreams.
However!
The art director came to me and said she felt making it a corrupted spirit of passing was more appropriate - that once, it was a spirit that escorted the souls of the dead as they passed from life, and readied them for reincarnation, holding their hands and keeping them close, protecting the vulnerable souls from spiritual predators. However, once corrupted, the spirit instead feeds on those it used to protect.
Concept & Artwork © 2014-2017 Lunar Games Inc.
Endless Realms FAQ: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5774483/
While normally I get a mix of different kinds of creatures, this monster block consisted of entirely corrupted spirits. The world(s) of Endless Realms has a number of gods, but they are normally quite removed - spirits, on the other hand, thrive in the Corporeal Realms of mortal races, often creating symbiotic relationships with its people, places, and principles, inhabiting places such as villages, forests or rivers, or representing concepts such as harvest or war. However, sometimes these spirits grow hungry for power and become corrupted, twisted versions that feed off the world rather than nourish and balance it - for these various concepts, I've tried to capture the darker, nastier essence of what they represent. The art director required all the spirits to be humanoid, but requested that they all be "eerie and strange" - I took that quite liberally. There's a lot that can be done with the basic humanoid shape, and alternatively making them all "people with different horns and bits on them, or wearing different outfits" seemed terribly boring.
Up until last night, this one was going to be a corrupt dream spirit, a spirit mad with power who now feasts upon the chaotic, vibrant energy of dreams and nightmares. In my head, this translated into a creature overwhelmed by its own greed and hunger, morphing into something all grasping hands and gaping maws, like a drug addict who can no longer control his own needs, addicted to the power of dreams.
However!
The art director came to me and said she felt making it a corrupted spirit of passing was more appropriate - that once, it was a spirit that escorted the souls of the dead as they passed from life, and readied them for reincarnation, holding their hands and keeping them close, protecting the vulnerable souls from spiritual predators. However, once corrupted, the spirit instead feeds on those it used to protect.
Concept & Artwork © 2014-2017 Lunar Games Inc.
Endless Realms FAQ: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5774483/
Category Artwork (Digital) / Fantasy
Species Exotic (Other)
Size 800 x 800px
File Size 653.2 kB
Thanks! Yeah, I'm doing more or less all the artwork for Endless Realms, including the player's manual and monster manual. Haha, and yes, we're about 2/3 done or so :b Some of the entries won't have illustrations, like for mundane animals like, "falcon" or "wild dog" or "ox."
Hahah, for sure! Clever :V
Would be funny if there was some sort of quest that required players to "cross over" in order to stop the corrupt spirit from interrupting the cycle of reincarnation, and they just made sure to bring a whole crapton of food with them :b I wonder how nice the GM would have to be in order to make that work...
Would be funny if there was some sort of quest that required players to "cross over" in order to stop the corrupt spirit from interrupting the cycle of reincarnation, and they just made sure to bring a whole crapton of food with them :b I wonder how nice the GM would have to be in order to make that work...
Welp Regulos, Dragon-god of Extinction is very pleased right now, for a new nightmare passes through the Rifts from the Elemental Planes to Telara now, woe to all now that the forces of Death and Nightmare work together, the Dark Sleepers threaten the mortal realms.
NIGHT-MARE FUEL
NIGHT-MARE FUEL
My bio background just screams "ganglion cell" when you zoom out a little bit! XD
Very neat. I must admit I feel like I agree with you a bit more than the director's interpretation. Something with that many teeth screams hunger and consuming. Yet it doesn't seem to strike me as something that would be guiding lost souls, even without the teeth. Seems like a stretch to me I guess. *shrug*
Very neat. I must admit I feel like I agree with you a bit more than the director's interpretation. Something with that many teeth screams hunger and consuming. Yet it doesn't seem to strike me as something that would be guiding lost souls, even without the teeth. Seems like a stretch to me I guess. *shrug*
Haha, I can definitely see it! "Look out, it's got dendrites!" :O
I think I can see it going either way - maybe in its original form, it holds the hands of mortal souls in some hands, and wields ethereal weapons in the other, fending off spiritual nasties, and looks more like a multi-armed lower deity or something rather than a nightmare monster :b
But yeah, I thought the mouths/hands representing the greedy overwhelming hunger the art director wanted for the corrupt dream spirit, and being a crazy dream creature, I thought the uncanny valley horror look would fit it well. But I'm not too disappointed, really - to be completely honest, after seeing it, the art director was just going to make it a scary undead monster, because she didn't see it was a dream creature, until she came up with the idea of the soul-guide at the last minute.
I think I can see it going either way - maybe in its original form, it holds the hands of mortal souls in some hands, and wields ethereal weapons in the other, fending off spiritual nasties, and looks more like a multi-armed lower deity or something rather than a nightmare monster :b
But yeah, I thought the mouths/hands representing the greedy overwhelming hunger the art director wanted for the corrupt dream spirit, and being a crazy dream creature, I thought the uncanny valley horror look would fit it well. But I'm not too disappointed, really - to be completely honest, after seeing it, the art director was just going to make it a scary undead monster, because she didn't see it was a dream creature, until she came up with the idea of the soul-guide at the last minute.
You know, it's sort of funny... I was kind of inspired by Kingdom Death's monsters that I had been briefly looking at with my husband (I'm a sucker for models, even if I never have the money for them :b), which are fairly uncanny valley horror in look, and your mentioning of a wet nurse makes me think of, well... their wet nurse monster...
http://www.tabletophell.com/wp-cont.....se-2_3_900.jpg
It was one of the most popular models and sold out immediately o_O
http://www.tabletophell.com/wp-cont.....se-2_3_900.jpg
It was one of the most popular models and sold out immediately o_O
To be fair, it was originally Kickstarted, I think, by a SUPER obsessed model game fan(s). It just generated a huge, huge response because they went out of their way to try to produce the highest quality models possible with maximum customizability - like, you can actually change the armour your little miniature model wears and stuff, so your in-game loot is actually reflected on your model.
Hehe, you're right - he's been left hanging one too many times :b
Thanks a lot! I thought maybe he'd look more like a "normal" multi-rmed creature, maybe more like http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/th.....oncept_art.jpg or something?
Thanks a lot! I thought maybe he'd look more like a "normal" multi-rmed creature, maybe more like http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/th.....oncept_art.jpg or something?
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