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Description
I think this is the most red and also darkest (in terms of value) illustration I have done yet - I hope y'all can actually make out something on your screens, lol.

Finally after x-many years I managed to draw Nikolai's TRVE Eldritch humanoid form. I teased that occasionally in some of his portraits, but honestly, I wasn't ever really happy with the early designs of this form, which were all a bit too furry or animal-like, so i didn't post them anywhere… and what I wanted to go for was a witchy forest spirit vibe á la the Percht (sometimes also referred to as Lady Perchta / Berchta), which is part of my local Austrian folklore.

And no, a Percht is NOT a Krampus. Krampus and Perchts are two different things, which sadly became mixed up for the sake of tourism and entertainment - originally Perchts didn't run around spanking people while spewing fire and make silly shows to entertain people who like being shocked - they originally went dancing from house to house to bless the fireplace / hearth to ensure protection from the harshness of winter and to ward off evil winter spirits. No violence or spanking needed - they even gave out candy! They were the first sign, that the days are getting longer again as they usually started to appear the day of and after the festivities of January 6th (Epiphany).

I have been infatuated with the folklore of Perchts since childhood, I find them wildly fascinating due to their possibly pagan connection to old germanic and celtic folktales and how that was wholly transformed and embedded into a Christian context du to syncretism, where they remained a vital figure of people's local stories, folktales and celebrations. You'll find very similar types of figures all over Europe, such as as the Kukeri of Bulgaria or Busójárás of Hungary. They all have in common that they appear in large groups between Christmas and Easter and perform rituals such as dance to bless a place or people.

Not only do different countries have different versions and names for this being, but different regions and villages have their own, diverse variants often based on multiple folktales and legends. In Austria for example there are Perchts that are goat or beast-like (which are the classic "ugly percht" and represent wild spirits), but others are more humanoid and filled with light, sometimes carrying huge lanterns or mirrors on their head, like the Glöcklers (which are often regarded as "beautiful Perchts"). Others look like gnomes or dwarves and there are the buttnmandls who are a stack of hay (just that, a haystack with legs - they look really funny.)

So, why choosing that folkfigure as a basis for this design of a rather spooky looking humanoid? Well, Perchts are kinda chaotic neutral - they certainly do good things (such as blessing you and your home), but they are still demons / spirits and therefore are also depicted as unpredictable, capricious and also dangerous. Which makes sense, since they tend to represent the forces of nature and are truly what the term "eldritch" used to refer in the past (before H.P. Lovecraft used it in his own mythos for a specific race of fictional beings): According to Merriam Webster it comes from Middle English elfriche (realm of elves / fairies) and pertained to everything supernatural, ghostly, or „fairy-like“. So I feel it’s a really good term to describe the Percht as well.

Obv Nikolai is a good guy, but he can be really wild and uncontrollable, when he is in that form and me no longer think like an ordinary human (but more like a well, eldritch being, seeing humans then as mere food to sustain on). But he isn't evil at all - and I like it when characters are grey in their morality.

Title inspired by Malice Mizer's Beast of Blood

Description
I think this is the most red and also darkest (in terms of value) illustration I have done yet - I hope y'all can actually make out something on your screens, lol.

Finally after x-many years I managed to draw Nikolai's TRVE Eldritch humanoid form. I teased that occasionally in some of his portraits, but honestly, I wasn't ever really happy with the early designs of this form, which were all a bit too furry or animal-like, so i didn't post them anywhere… and what I wanted to go for was a witchy forest spirit vibe á la the Percht (sometimes also referred to as Lady Perchta / Berchta), which is part of my local Austrian folklore.

And no, a Percht is NOT a Krampus. Krampus and Perchts are two different things, which sadly became mixed up for the sake of tourism and entertainment - originally Perchts didn't run around spanking people while spewing fire and make silly shows to entertain people who like being shocked - they originally went dancing from house to house to bless the fireplace / hearth to ensure protection from the harshness of winter and to ward off evil winter spirits. No violence or spanking needed - they even gave out candy! They were the first sign, that the days are getting longer again as they usually started to appear the day of and after the festivities of January 6th (Epiphany).

I have been infatuated with the folklore of Perchts since childhood, I find them wildly fascinating due to their possibly pagan connection to old germanic and celtic folktales and how that was wholly transformed and embedded into a Christian context du to syncretism, where they remained a vital figure of people's local stories, folktales and celebrations. You'll find very similar types of figures all over Europe, such as as the Kukeri of Bulgaria or Busójárás of Hungary. They all have in common that they appear in large groups between Christmas and Easter and perform rituals such as dance to bless a place or people.

Not only do different countries have different versions and names for this being, but different regions and villages have their own, diverse variants often based on multiple folktales and legends. In Austria for example there are Perchts that are goat or beast-like (which are the classic "ugly percht" and represent wild spirits), but others are more humanoid and filled with light, sometimes carrying huge lanterns or mirrors on their head, like the Glöcklers (which are often regarded as "beautiful Perchts"). Others look like gnomes or dwarves and there are the buttnmandls who are a stack of hay (just that, a haystack with legs - they look really funny.)

So, why choosing that folkfigure as a basis for this design of a rather spooky looking humanoid? Well, Perchts are kinda chaotic neutral - they certainly do good things (such as blessing you and your home), but they are still demons / spirits and therefore are also depicted as unpredictable, capricious and also dangerous. Which makes sense, since they tend to represent the forces of nature and are truly what the term "eldritch" used to refer in the past (before H.P. Lovecraft used it in his own mythos for a specific race of fictional beings): According to Merriam Webster it comes from Middle English elfriche (realm of elves / fairies) and pertained to everything supernatural, ghostly, or „fairy-like“. So I feel it’s a really good term to describe the Percht as well.

Obv Nikolai is a good guy, but he can be really wild and uncontrollable, when he is in that form and me no longer think like an ordinary human (but more like a well, eldritch being, seeing humans then as mere food to sustain on). But he isn't evil at all - and I like it when characters are grey in their morality.

Title inspired by Malice Mizer's Beast of Blood