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jocarra — Endless Realms bestiary - Corrupt Ice Spirit

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Published: 2015-12-18 17:40:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 5380; Favourites: 122; Downloads: 0
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Description 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.

To be honest, I thought more about winter in general than ice specifically, but I think it worked - I focused on cold, starvation, death, how ice has that way of slipping its fingers into even the most solid of things, then ripping them apart.  I thought of frostbite and frost shattering and infectious, piercing cold.

Then I thought about how I wish there were a little bit more of that around here :V  Mild winters aren't bad, but you need COLD in order to feel cozy in contrast, and coziness is one of my favourite things :b  Ah well!

Concept & Artwork © 2014-2017 Lunar Games Inc.

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Comments: 15

PrimordialNothingnes [2015-12-19 23:51:13 +0000 UTC]

I think an average everyday ice fairy could have worked
But you do what you have to do, i guess

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jocarra In reply to PrimordialNothingnes [2015-12-20 00:49:14 +0000 UTC]

I don't think just a plain ice fairy would have captured the negative essence of cold, though - ice destroys things, shattering open rocks and consuming limbs and sapping life.  Cold is the pagan origin of Christmas and all winter celebrations - a reason to come together, to fend off the cold.  If it weren't scary, deadly and dangerous, there wouldn't be a reason to come together to combat its cold and death with joy and celebration.

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PrimordialNothingnes In reply to jocarra [2015-12-20 00:59:46 +0000 UTC]

Winter fairies already embody all those things
But i do suppose they would not pose as great as corrupted ice spirits
After all, fairies mind their buissiness, corrupted spirits wanna cause panic and suffering

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jocarra In reply to PrimordialNothingnes [2015-12-20 01:28:31 +0000 UTC]

Well, I did mention that I was inspired more by the concept of winter than of ice, but yeah.  We just needed a corrupt spirit so the handbook would have one related to ice/cold/snow/winter that players could use.

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PrimordialNothingnes In reply to jocarra [2015-12-25 12:07:08 +0000 UTC]

Why not just use a Wendigo?
He already is asociated with winter and the cold
And is considered evil because he embodies canibalism, death and decay
And not to mention he's pretty gluttonous

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jocarra In reply to PrimordialNothingnes [2015-12-25 15:32:25 +0000 UTC]

We already have a wendigo

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lakerose [2015-12-19 01:42:59 +0000 UTC]

I have to agree with you on the COLD thing - I need an excuse to get the big wooly jumpers out. Doesn't feel like winter/christmas because it's so mild.

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jocarra In reply to lakerose [2015-12-19 03:23:58 +0000 UTC]

SUPER mild, it's like a low of only 11C or something tomorrow here :S

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lakerose In reply to jocarra [2015-12-20 00:02:26 +0000 UTC]

yep - it's kind of just wrong......grr global warming >

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jocarra In reply to lakerose [2015-12-20 00:58:49 +0000 UTC]

Also, is it always this windy here?

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lakerose In reply to jocarra [2015-12-20 10:05:48 +0000 UTC]

not on a regular basis but it winter can often have some blustery storms

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jocarra In reply to lakerose [2015-12-20 16:36:54 +0000 UTC]

Ah, I see.  So it's mostly just seasonal, then?  Because I remember finding it windy in Scotland the way other people find it rainy in Vancouver/Seattle - it was regularly windy, and in a fairly notable way.  Not just a breeze, but full on "blows your hair everywhere and maybe reconsider wearing a loose skirt out right now" fairly regularly, but conversely, it never rained like it did in Vancouver.  It'd be what we called "drizzling" and Scots would remark "Wow, it's really coming down!"

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CarpeDraco [2015-12-18 23:10:22 +0000 UTC]

Definitely looks like a killer cold, there.  Excellent ice effects.

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jocarra In reply to CarpeDraco [2015-12-19 03:24:05 +0000 UTC]

Hehe, thanks a lot

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CarpeDraco In reply to jocarra [2015-12-19 23:26:50 +0000 UTC]

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