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Description
Okay, here it is. Linework complete version of this big tribute piece. Still considering my background and color options with this one, but for now, it is what I wanted.

A lot of progress was made during this piece, and my process refined quite a bit. Good learning piece overall.

So let me explain it a bit, and where these OCs come from.

My wife and I play pen-and-paper RPGs constantly. Like 2-4 times a week. The vast majority of my work is heavily inspired by these sessions, and this piece is no exception.

The characters above are all actually the same character. About a decade ago, my wife created a surprisingly fun and amazingly persistent character for a modern vampire campaign whose name was Marius.

That campaign spun out to incredible complexity and became the foundation of an entire mythos.

Since that time, Marius has returned as a number of characters, his life echoing into eternity and playing out in a huge variety of ways. This is about a third of the Mariuses that have graced out games, and I'll describe them a bit here.

Starting at the top and moving clockwise -

SteamKnight Marius (top left) - Knight and prince of a great merchant household in the floating steam city of Levian. This Marius was surrounded by merchant and political intrigues and a great war, where the knights fought in huge mechanized armor suits that bore the spirits of their families ancestors/

Ranger Prince Marius (Top right) - Seen in a few other pieces here, this Marius was a part of an story meant to tell an apocalypse tale, and a post-apocalypse tale, and still have the same POV throughout. He was a Virologist at the beginning of this tale, and a grim quiet protector of the remains of humanity at the end.

Variant Marius (center)- Seen a lot in other works of mine, this Marius was a gifted teen genius in a fun world. This world was an attempt to use the X-Men concept (humanity evolving superheroic powers) but to do the whole thing more consistently and intelligently. Their world was much more grim than superhero tales tend to be and the gifted ones eventually drew a line of skirmish and held their ground against the world. This game ran for about a two years overall I think. A lot of backstory...lol

Night Sky Marius - (Center, younger one) - Inspired by some anime I can't recall, this Marius was a very young assassin. The kids in this world were trained, controlled, and used by a sinister political organization with unknown goals. It was really kind of Harry Potter but instead of magic, the kids were learning to murder people with their minds. Sounds weird when I put it that way..lol

Demon Hunter Marius - (Bottom Right) - Our current Marius iteration. Here he is a young demon hunter in a world besieged by dark forces. Still figuring this one out. The world is fantasy, but of a "pistols and rapiers" swashbuckling era.

Dark Elf Marius (Bottom Left) - This Marius was a elven necromancer, and the political prisoner of a rival elven family. In the long run, this world became a fantasy apocalypse (I love a good apocalypse), and this world tied directly into Dark New York.

Dark New York Marius (Center Left) - This is New York Marius, the first and, he would contend, still the best. He was a character in the aforementioned modern vampire campaign, and a drug-addicted prostitute/model at that. This little guy kicked it all off, and surprised us with our own imagination. He eventually left us, when his world came to a close, and I swear my wife was in mourning for like a week! Seriously though, this character is the center of this entire mythos, and his tale touches everything mentioned above in some way. The characters from this world still find their way into any new game we are running. This game ran for almost two-years.

Whew that's a lot of text...enjoy the pretty picture =] the rest is non-sense

Description
Okay, here it is. Linework complete version of this big tribute piece. Still considering my background and color options with this one, but for now, it is what I wanted.

A lot of progress was made during this piece, and my process refined quite a bit. Good learning piece overall.

So let me explain it a bit, and where these OCs come from.

My wife and I play pen-and-paper RPGs constantly. Like 2-4 times a week. The vast majority of my work is heavily inspired by these sessions, and this piece is no exception.

The characters above are all actually the same character. About a decade ago, my wife created a surprisingly fun and amazingly persistent character for a modern vampire campaign whose name was Marius.

That campaign spun out to incredible complexity and became the foundation of an entire mythos.

Since that time, Marius has returned as a number of characters, his life echoing into eternity and playing out in a huge variety of ways. This is about a third of the Mariuses that have graced out games, and I'll describe them a bit here.

Starting at the top and moving clockwise -

SteamKnight Marius (top left) - Knight and prince of a great merchant household in the floating steam city of Levian. This Marius was surrounded by merchant and political intrigues and a great war, where the knights fought in huge mechanized armor suits that bore the spirits of their families ancestors/

Ranger Prince Marius (Top right) - Seen in a few other pieces here, this Marius was a part of an story meant to tell an apocalypse tale, and a post-apocalypse tale, and still have the same POV throughout. He was a Virologist at the beginning of this tale, and a grim quiet protector of the remains of humanity at the end.

Variant Marius (center)- Seen a lot in other works of mine, this Marius was a gifted teen genius in a fun world. This world was an attempt to use the X-Men concept (humanity evolving superheroic powers) but to do the whole thing more consistently and intelligently. Their world was much more grim than superhero tales tend to be and the gifted ones eventually drew a line of skirmish and held their ground against the world. This game ran for about a two years overall I think. A lot of backstory...lol

Night Sky Marius - (Center, younger one) - Inspired by some anime I can't recall, this Marius was a very young assassin. The kids in this world were trained, controlled, and used by a sinister political organization with unknown goals. It was really kind of Harry Potter but instead of magic, the kids were learning to murder people with their minds. Sounds weird when I put it that way..lol

Demon Hunter Marius - (Bottom Right) - Our current Marius iteration. Here he is a young demon hunter in a world besieged by dark forces. Still figuring this one out. The world is fantasy, but of a "pistols and rapiers" swashbuckling era.

Dark Elf Marius (Bottom Left) - This Marius was a elven necromancer, and the political prisoner of a rival elven family. In the long run, this world became a fantasy apocalypse (I love a good apocalypse), and this world tied directly into Dark New York.

Dark New York Marius (Center Left) - This is New York Marius, the first and, he would contend, still the best. He was a character in the aforementioned modern vampire campaign, and a drug-addicted prostitute/model at that. This little guy kicked it all off, and surprised us with our own imagination. He eventually left us, when his world came to a close, and I swear my wife was in mourning for like a week! Seriously though, this character is the center of this entire mythos, and his tale touches everything mentioned above in some way. The characters from this world still find their way into any new game we are running. This game ran for almost two-years.

Whew that's a lot of text...enjoy the pretty picture =] the rest is non-sense