Anjil and a Prerart

An as of yet unnamed Prerart is hanging out with Anjil at Tatur’s Eatery. The stretchy move the Prerart is performing is a common greeting gesture. They are probably quite excited to meet a sorcerer of the Ayra Katrin.

Prerarts have a reptilian look, but they also have a lot of feline traits. The structure of their limbs are certainly more cat-like than lizard-like.

Robolds (Robot Kobolds)

I’ve been posting these elsewhere, but I probably should also post them to my personal site. Just some fun not related to any other CSD story line.

The character in the middle is Creative Spark Dragon, or “Sparky” for short, who is more or less the mascot of CSD. Canonically the creator of the Robolds.
Decided to diversify the team with some interchangeable tails. And one is a cat. Katbold? Katrobold? These tails are based on other CSD races, except the “derg” tail which is its own thing.
An idea about the Robolds’ interchangeable tails having some extra utility built in to them led to the spherical “Lurin” tail doubling as a compact espresso machine. Well, something like coffee exists in whatever reality Sparky and the Robolds exist in.
Okay, this may be staged. If you study the shadows being cast and how they appear to come from a localized light source instead of a star millions of kilometers away, and factor in the star field’s perspective betraying a flat matte painting instead of a three dimensional cosmos… oh yeah, and the other characters conspicuously in frame…

The Story of Yezukh’ay, Chapter 1

This story is from “Sharpheart”, which takes place in the miniature universe called the Voidplane, where a gravity-like force pulls everything from both directions towards a flat plane. A variety of nations exist on floating landmasses on the plane. Living can be harsh for the mortal beings that find themselves here, but the Voidplane is saturated with a field of energy often referred to simply as “magic”, which proves to be a great aid in surviving here. The mortal races are not from the Voidplane, but were pulled in from an “outer universe”. There are native races of the Voidplane, and these are immortal beings which often care for the mortals.

This story follows one particular mortal being named Yezukh’ay, a member of the Suyen race and one living on an impoverished small island. A grand vessel that visited regularly to deliver supplies awoke a desire in her to find out what else is out there in “the empty”.

Download the PDF here

Threpel Hessai

Hessai, the Unliving Evil that hunts the living and plagues the world of the Elehura and Sheshai the Purifier stories. According to legend, it was once just a singular being but learned to become many and take on different forms. Its instances always have common traits, though: dark gray skin, eight “limbs” (though these could manifest to appear as horns or ears), and a singular red eye.

Threpel Hessai are the most common of the Hessai variants, and the closest resemblance and size to the anthropomorphic races.

3D Character Faces 2022

With another year ending, time to reflect on progress. How about a collage of all CSD characters that have been rendered in 3D using Blender. Some haven’t been worked on for years and some are in their early stages, but these are the character models that currently exist and are decent enough to show.

Row 1 left – Agwilika Rhe
Reija, Syrsi (national guardian)
Anjil, Ayra Katrin sorcerer
Crinos Kylal, Leader of the Seven Star Nation
Row 2 left – Elehura
Tatyakori, the Divine Dragon
Salus Mudrah, the Immortal Emperor
Seros, Warrior in the Order of the Eclipse
Nuzoko, Healer and sister to Seros
Slyvette, Warrior in the Order of the Eclipse
Row 3 left and row 4 – Sheshai the Purifier
Sheshai, Healer in the House of the Hand
Miryin, Commander in the House of the Shield
Sheshai’s “Shadow”
Besuri, Second Commander in the House of the Shield
Azel, Warrior in the House of the Shield
Woklah, Warrior in the House of the Shield
Adri, Scout in the House of the Shield
Ulrae, Mentor in the House of the Hand
Saydah, Civilian and exile of Lukaudalin
Row 5 – Sharpheart
Kemadrel, Tanteru and Sha Rephart Council Lord
Lunark, Lurin and Sha Rephart Council Lord
Tatyarori, Dragon and Sha Rephart Council Lord
Besudores, Sha Rephart soldier, inspiration for Besuri
Lady Obmunjalae, Lurin in Gwil form, owner of the Voidplane’s largest vessel
Lukaud, Lurin and Lady Obmunjalae’s natural form
Yuzukh’ay, Suyen and adopted daughter of Lady Obmunjalae
Tisi, of an unnamed aquatic Voidplane native race
Upper right – Miscellaneous
The Red Triplets: Baku, Biri, and Bayzil
Pagol, Healer of distant past in Elehura’s world
Shekki, a long-necked ‘desert clan’ Gwil
Unnamed Suyen male
Unnamed “Forest” Gwil, some possible inspiration for the Red Triplets

So you can see there is a definite bias for Gwil/Dragon-type characters going on here (the lack of hair/fur to deal with probably helps), and I have yet to tackle a human 3D model. We’ll just have to see what new things 2023 may bring.

The Red Triplets and their Restaurant

Getting another post in here before the year ends, filling in more backstory to this trio.

The Red Triplets run the Three Leaf Restaurant (Ry Ajun Yumbeko in their Gwil language) in a small stopover along an inter-city road. The name comes from the leaf-like marking on their tail tips. And that there are three of them, obviously.

Baku (center) is wearing her hosting uniform, which was something I initially drew up… wow, ten years ago. Biri (left) is the primary cook, and Bayzil (right) helps out where she can. Having to cover her eyes puts some limits on what she can do. She has made various excuses for her skimpy outfit over the years. People have come from all over to seek her mystical abilities, so perhaps the look bolsters that reputation.

Anjil as an Akelikan

Anjil from Agwilika Rhe is one of my longest-existing characters. My earliest drawing of him is over 20 years old.

Recently I was thinking over how I haven’t modeled or drawn many gray skinned Gwil/Akelikan characters. As I thought over who I could work on next, I got the idea to change Anjil from a green Agwilikan to a gray Akelikan.

This would add a new dynamic to the story. During the time it takes place, there is a strong split between the Agwilikan and Akelikan populations, with most of the latter living in the downriver cities controlled by the Army King. Few Akelikans live in Agwilcress, and they have to live with a lot of distrust from their Agwilikan neighbors. Despite this, he became an adept and respected sorcerer of the Ayra Katrin.

I guess some new symbolism can be had with the two protagonists (him and Reija) working together.

The Red Triplets

They are not a part of any of the other mainline stories, but I have been putting some time into these characters so I decided to post about them.

The triplets started off as a red color variation of Sheshai the Purifier’s 3D model (at first nicknamed Sheshai-Hen, basically ‘Red Sheshai’), but they developed their own personalities over time.

The have a few anomalies separating them from regular Gwils. They don’t age and have narrow slit eyes and sharp teeth. Gwils are normally herbivores, but not in this trio’s case.

Baku on the left is the energetic, outgoing one. Bayzil in the middle has a quiet, mystical aura about her, and has a curse that requires her to wear a mask over her eyes. On the right…

…is Biri, the laid back and somewhat nerdy one, who also happens to be a butcher that takes her job quite seriously, as you can see by her gear.