I’m currently working on revamping the designs for all the characters in Armada’s party. I’ll be uploading my WIPs through my news section because I only want to submit the complete illustrations to the Art Portal. This line of pieces is going to take a while before everything is done...

Sketched out Quill's and Koda's revamped designs. I thought I'd end up changing him a bit more visually, but I ended up liking his original face enough to not leave it totally behind. I've absolutely made him more buff/wide than he was before, though.

I’m currently working on revamping the designs for all the characters in Armada’s party. I’ll be uploading my WIPs through my news section because I only want to submit the complete illustrations to the Art Portal. This line of pieces is going to take a while before everything is done...

Sketched out Vivian's revamped design. Vivian as a companion is meant to showcase the game's invention system wherein she will develop better prototypes for her Shock Saber as the player progresses her storyline. The mechanism on Mk. 1 is inspired by Thaddeus Cunningham's static electricity generator, but later models omit the hand crank in favor of less obtrusive implements.

Also, a mock-up of the shock saber's design. The gauntlet that covers the forearm is made of porcelain, as it acts as an insulator (rubber has not been invented yet)

I’m currently working on revamping the designs for all the characters in Armada’s party. I’ll be uploading my WIPs through my news section because I only want to submit the complete illustrations to the Art Portal. This line of pieces is going to take a while before everything is done...

Sketched out Cyrus' revamped design. Finally, I've got him out of that plague doctor's mask, that was just incompatible with the setting. I was worried his appearance would not stand out as much without it, but I feel like this should do a good job, especially with how much more dramatic I've made him. I also took this as an opportunity to tune the design of the Hren in general, with more deer-like facial proportions, antlers that blend into the brow like the other primordial races have with their horns, and a distinctly longer, cervine neck.

I’m currently working on revamping the designs for all the characters in Armada’s party. I’ll be uploading my WIPs through my news section because I only want to submit the complete illustrations to the Art Portal. This line of pieces is going to take a while before everything is done...

Sketched out Wisp's revamped design. It's kind of crazy to me that there are some parts of her original iteration that are still apparent here (at least in my eyes), but I'm much happier with her characterization now compared to before.

I’m currently working on revamping the designs for all the characters in Armada’s party. I’ll be uploading my WIPs through my news section because I only want to submit the complete illustrations to the Art Portal. This line of pieces is going to take a while before everything is done...

This is a sketch of Baltimore's revamped design. His backstory was a bit difficult to get working with Freeland's new history, but I'm pretty happy with how I've got it here. I even figured out how to work in proto NOVA :)

Also, to give some more detail on the Loganites, they belong to a Hvaldist denomination informed by the lectures of the Hrenish missionary named Logan Aiseth.

Logan spoke of free will as not just a gift from the brother-god Qu’in, but as a direct link to divinity that is shared by all individuals. As such, the Loganites believe that mortals exercise their godliness through friendship and cooperation, for the act of creation, of constructing something tangible or intangible and placing it into the world, forthrightly mirrors the gods’ abilities to do the same.

Logan had inanely hoped that these beliefs would inspire reform within the Church, but the Nocrothians would not take kindly to the notion that the Restitution of Knowing could be paid through any means outside their own glorious grief, much less that mortals were divine in any way.

The Church would declare the Loganites to be heretics and persecute them, forcing the survivors to flee the continent. Most would settle with the Niami in the Leilamani Archipelago, but Baltimore and his family were among the few to indenture themselves and escape to Freeland.

I’m currently working on revamping the designs for all the characters in Armada’s party. I’ll be uploading my WIPs through my news section because I only want to submit the complete illustrations to the Art Portal.

Here is a sketch of Willow's revamped design. I ended up changing her a little more than I initially planned to, and I've updated her backstory to give her more agency and another layer to her character.

I’m currently working on revamping the designs for all the characters in Armada’s party. I’ll be uploading my WIPs through my news section because I only want to submit the complete illustrations to the Art Portal.

Here is the sketch for Armada. No big changes for her designs, I mainly wanted to her personality better with this render.

Also, I’ve created a concrete backstory for her now. I’m plotting out her hero’s journey, so there’s much more written down elsewhere. For this series of illustrations, I was wanting to try and make the descriptions a bit more digestible, and I’ve been sweating over condensing the content of the text down to fit in this small column (please let me know if you see any typos!).

The descriptions are all going to be written by Armada’s S.T.A.R., Azura, and I’ll be getting a design down for her in this set as well.

Happy birthday to the United States of America <3

Sadly, I don't have any new artwork to share today, but I'm still chipping away at the big one. In the meantime, here's a little historical rambling from me:

Technically, the USA was realized on July 2nd, 1776, when the Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution which declared the independence of the colonies as sovereign states. July 4th is considered the honorific anniversary since that is the day that the Declaration of Independence was adopted, signed, and published by the Continental Congress. John Adams believed that July 2nd should have been the day marked for celebration, but the founding fathers proclaimed July 4th to be such because most of them had surprisingly forgotten the anniversary until July 3rd of the next year.

Adams’ Federalists and Jefferson’s Anti-Federalists would continue to fight over how the country’s anniversary should be celebrated, and both men would pass away on July 4th in the same year of 1826. Jefferson wrote a letter just two days before reminiscing on the importance of the day, how it should stand to refresh our memories of the sacrifices made by our forebears to earn the rights we protect now. In reflecting this, we may better understand what it takes to do the same for ourselves and for our future generations.

Here's something a little more conservative: Armada and her party's favorite foods.

• Armada: Armada largely maintains a humble, if lean, diet of simple foods such as apples, nuts, ash cakes, and crackers — things which keep well and can be eaten with little to no preparation. She has held a taste for such foods ever since she was a child due to her godfather’s emphasis on dietary temperance, and her newfound life on the frontier affirmed the importance of such food. Nevertheless, if she is to partake in more complex dishes, her favorites include chicken fricassee with herbed biscuits and apple pie.

• Willow: It's a common misconception that since Dryads are anthropomorphic plants, they do not need to eat food like the other races and can simply photosynthesize for sustenance; on the contrary, since photosynthesis alone would not generate enough energy for proper ambulation, Dryads have evolved to become a species of carnivorous plants possessing internal digestive glands. This takes the form of an organ in their stomach that resembles a pitcher plant (which, consequently, gives their "breath" a faint floral scent). The gland maintains a chemical pool of acids, enzymes, and proteins within itself. These chemicals break down the materials they consume and later absorb the released compounds, much like a normal stomach. That being said, Willow herself is still markedly vegetarian. One of her favorite things to eat is the fruit of the ghostline plant, which tastes like what we would consider to be blue raspberry candy.

• Baltimore: A worker at heart, Baltimore likes anything warm and filling (preferably cheap, as well). His favorite is a large helping of honey-glazed grits, though he’s never had a bowl as good as his mother used to make.

• Wisp: Wisp’s favorite food is the ordinary sugar cake, which she holds symbolically as the first luxury she ever earned for herself after escaping from slavery. She copied the recipe from a cookbook she once borrowed from Whitelocke’s lending library, and she keeps the copy in her Hertha (the Phylianist holy book).

• Cyrus: Coming from a family of new wealth, Cyrus grew up in relative comfort in the colonial city of Blackwridge. His favorite meal, cream of mushroom soup, dates back to his childhood, when he and his father would look for mushrooms in the chilly woods near their estate. Cyrus somewhat ironically considers these mushroom hunts as what planted the seed for his later interest in truth-seeking.

• Vivian: Vivian keeps to a scientifically organized diet, although her recent ventures into the frontier have given her cause to expand her palate and eating times. She only chooses to eat meat when nutritionally necessary, preferring her meals to consist of a simple spread of bread, milk, vegetables (especially cauliflower), a soup, and red wine — the last of which is her favorite part. To Vivian, red wine is not only an essential health supplement, but also an important religious custom as a Nocrothian.

• Quill: An avid frontiersman, Quill most enjoys the food he hunts and gathers himself. He especially prides himself on his bear meat stew, for which he digs up carrots and potatoes after the fated kill — of course, this meal is only made on occasion. In his heart, however, Quill’s favorite dish is baked haddock. He had his first after his father taught him to fish on the east coast near Port Hopeful, where Quill lived as a boy.

• Lucius: Having grown up in the Bloodied Barrens, Lucius is intimately familiar with all the different ways to preserve food. As such, cured, salted meat is a staple in his diet, and his favorite cut of all is smoked bacon. It’s a breakfast tradition to him, and what he doesn’t eat is usually incorporated into his meals later in the day.

• Phineas: One may be surprised to learn that the favorite food of the monstrous Captain Phineas Flavo is not the flesh of men, but instead apple jack cookies. This love comes as an extension of the love he once held for a particular woman he had met in his journeys as a sailor — before the onset of his transformation into a Deep One. His fondest memories of her are marked by the apple jack cookies she would bake for him whenever they met. She was different from all the other women Phineas would leave behind for the high seas, and to him, the cookies are just as much a fragment of a pleasant memory as they are a reminder of what he has lost.

• Elizabeth: Despite her questionable mental stability, Elizabeth is a remarkable cook. Her gastronomical skill had been fostered by her mother, who hoped that doing so would help to domesticate her and curb her violent behavior. Even though much of Elizabeth’s culinary knowledge stems from more refined Hrenish cuisine, her personal favorite meal is shepherd’s pie topped with garlic and Huramom cheese (comparable to Parmesan). She prefers it burnt, a predilection she holds for everything she eats; burning her meals brings them closer to simple carbon, which better feeds her internal fire (she also likes the crunch). However, she is keenly aware that most people don’t like their food burnt. If the meal she serves you is blackened, it’s because it’s her birthday and/or she doesn’t like you.

• Colette: Colette may have fairly firmly established herself within Gorish colonial society, but she still practices many Niamian customs to, at least in part, maintain an exotic persona among her clientele. This extends to what she eats. While the Niami are physically large enough to consume solid foods, much of their historic cuisine is still liquid-based due to the race’s evolutionary lineage. One such dish, which happens to be Colette’s favorite, is called Veljavii. It is a soup primarily made from Laelamani silkfowl stock, watercress, ginger, and, most importantly, lightly beaten egg mixed with lemon juice. The dish is peppery with a bright citrus backnote, and exhibits a slightly thick and almost fluffy consistency similar to egg drop soup.

The Vaulidon do not possess the proper anatomical structure (nor magical structure, as is the case with Dryads) to enunciate words in the same way that other sapient species on Embre do. Instead of a larynx, Vaulidon possess a syrinx similar to many species of birds, utilizing muscles on the walls of the lower part of the trachea to facilitate esophageal speech. This process allows them to simulate different sounds at a much greater range than the other races.

Among fellow Vaulidon, they will usually communicate through a series of whistles, clicks, and hums. The exact meaning of these sounds will vary depending on the tribal affiliation of the individual Vaulidon, but it is generally comparable to an advanced form of verbal Morse code. When communicating with other sapient species’, they will use their unique biology to simulate words that they have heard from members of that species, similar to the way parrots talk; however, unlike birds, Vaulidon possess the intelligence to understand the meaning of the words they mimic.

Nevertheless, even if a Vaulidon were to read and understand a word in another language, it is difficult for them to formulate its pronunciation without having heard it before. Because of the methods they use to vocalize these other languages, individual Vaulidon won’t necessarily have their own voice, but will rather mimic the voices of others that they have heard before. Some will choose to copy from the person they have heard the given language spoken from the most, some may copy from a close friend, some may copy the voice of whomever they are currently speaking to, and some may randomly select a voice from their memory.

Vaulidon are customarily excellent at imitating sounds, their brains wired to remember specific contact calls to discern members of their own tribe from outsiders; nonetheless, their physiology prohibits a flawless imitation. Vaulidonic vocalizations sound almost electronic, similar to the European starling but at a lower pitch, like this or this.