It’s so fun avoiding reference for personal stuff and trying to identify where you naturally drew inspiration from. Really pretty piece, such a fun pose too.

yeah, even if I avoid using references, there’s no escaping preferences

Ohh, this looks so awesome! I love it!

Thank you!

Hmmm, tempted on making a form like this for Rulo'th. Dunno tho, dunno if it's an open species

Also are these guys the same species as Esker?

I can't really claim ownership to a concept since it's not like any of this is wholly novel, but they're all very personal designs.
That being said, nothing wrong with taking inspiration if they're distinct! I've certainly been driven by my own here and there...

Roughly speaking, yes; they're all weird shadowy spectral space dragons that toe the line of natural and unnatural.

The general idea has been that they were born from the collective will of an distant world that faded away, and are absolutely foreign, alien, supernatural - but rather than being emissaries of decay and entropy, they're wholly benevolent caretakers compelled to stave that off even if they may not fully know their origins; a strange unknown at worst. From a design perspective, the intent is for each of them to capture a different kind of mystique or wonderment, with a major constant being some kind of "masked" appearance, whether it's a skull, a proper ball mask, a visor, or the guise of a statue. Looking like they act, acting like they look; vaguely out of place, but fitting in with their environments anyway...

I love their designs so much. Especially Eskarat's