an alternative fantasy

Catch you on the Flip Side!

2010-03-02T06:06:00.000-08:00

This blog continues in Art of Edath, my new blog.

I realised i wasn't spending much time talking about other fantasy than Edath, so why not just have a dedicated blog and be done with it!!

And Lo, a new Blog was made where i talk about the World of Edath with respect to the artwork that i'm doing for it - concept art, card and book illustrations, comics, you name it.

See you there!

hit the link 'art of edath blog' and read on!

Cheers!

Attack from the other side of the flatscreen!

2009-12-04T09:53:00.000-08:00

Lo'Seqqo rider detail.

Work continues apace.

Companion book to the War for Edadh game also coming along, with details of the world egtting edited.

More conventions attended. Dragonmeet was the last one which went particularly well for us.

Christmas approaches. This is the deadline to get all the card art and designs done and dusted for the Nuko'yr War Deck and Art of Conflict deck. Which means a February release. That'd be cool, eh?

Ooohhh! Attack from the Aethereal..

2009-11-20T04:04:00.001-08:00

Thought i'd have a go at doing a Vaechi 'realistic' style. So here we are, a Woods Canopy Vaechi made of leaves and catkins.

Leaves for hair and leaves for hands and catkins for tails, but it does look like a couple of the catkins could be arms and hands doesn't it? Fluffy hands. And either is fine. maybe it's both? (Versatile little suckers that they are.)

Well, nuff said.

IndieCon Attack from the Demo table!

2009-11-12T23:51:00.001-08:00

Well Indiecon starts today, running for three days. New Milton is the place on the South Coast. check out the site at www.indiecon.net for details.

Last year was its first year which makes this year.. its ... um .. second?

All good stuff, well worth the visit.

Show your support for the Indies! They're the true future of the genre.

Vaechi Attack From Above!

2009-11-06T10:20:00.001-08:00

Here we go, are you ready for another Terrain card? We have Land and Water already and now it's the turn of Canopy.

We decided the Canopy needed to be its own element per se, on par with Land, Water and Air, at least interms of Terrain.

So here is the new Vaechi image i knocked up today .. well okay a bit of it. The card itself is coming along. I'm sketching the final design element this very eve.

Thought you might like to see ..

Lo'Jou Attack from the Side!

2009-10-27T13:26:00.001-07:00

Thought you might like to see the fruits of my first foray into photoshop...

While not my favourite of the few i've done so far, it's the latest, so as i finished it i grabbed this shot to post here. The final image will be alot smaller, which is why the teeth have been left to stand out.

It's for the reverse of a new troop card - for the Nuko deck to come out in February for the game War for Edadh.

Hope you like it.

It's of a Lo'Jou warrior, which previous posts may have allowed you to guess.

Needless to say i'm enjoying getting to grips with photoshop and wish i'd got it a long time ago.

Lo'Jou Attack from Above!

2009-10-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

Work is underway now on the final stages of the Nuko Faction Cards, with illus and such getting wrapped one after the other.

Release of the expansion is some way away of course (the New Year) but then it all needs to be wrapped and ready to print a good two months in advance of that release date.

I'm currently putting the final tweaks to the Nuko Troop card design, ably helped by our Design I/C whose eye catches all.

Illu-wise, it's those lil' Lo'Jou, one of the two species that compose the vast majority of the Nuko'yr culture (with other Edadh species either not showing or in very few and random numbers when they do). The Troop type of this particular card use clubs in melee and atlatls in ballistic and charge. As they have four arms, you can imagine that their rate of fire is greater.

The whole tactical approach to battle for the Nuko differs from the Ang and Dzaa (as featured in the base set) and they tend to operate at charge and melee, though these guys are an exception. They still like to do the 'attack from the Canopy above' thing of course.

After the Conflict comes ..?

2009-09-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

As you may know already, the expansion that follows the Art of Conflict decks is for the Nuko. AoC gave the Ang and Dzaa more Troops and Stratagems amongst other things, adding to the Ang and Dzaa armies that appear in the starter set - War for Edadh: the Beginning.

The art progression posts (scroll down a couple of posts to see) showed a serentine species known as the Lo-Seqqo. They do not have a verbal language of their own that anyone can understand but themselves, if they have one at all. So how did they become known as the Lo-Seqqo?

The Lo-Jou live amongst the Nuko, alongside the Lo-Seqqo. They have their own language, if basic in it's scope, but have learned the languages of other cultures to enable trade, spying etc. This is how the Nuko'yr got to naming themselves.

The Lo-Jou are four-armed and make the canopy their habitat, which is not exclusive, being no stranger to the ground.

There are many sub-species of Lo-Jou and probably they are the most diverse of all Edadh species.

Art of Conflict is here!

2009-09-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

The first expansion set for the War for Edadh game has just landed on our doorstep, the last couple days and we'll be collating the preorders and posting them out next week.

How cool is that?! The starter game has done well and so the expansions were inevitable. The art looks great - the colours and clarity etc and you'd have to be blind not to be able to read them. But the thematic look is maintained so all's well and it's actually only enhanced because of the great work our new manufacturers have done on the cards.

The expansion decks (one Empire (Huaos-Dzaa) the other Rebel (Angueth)) offer more troops for each faction in the starter set as well as more terrain, stratagems and a new card set - the Conflict Card, hence the Art of Conflict moniker for the expansion release. These, as with the modular rules for War for Edadh, can be played with or not as the players decide, and for those that do they add another tactical twist to the core mechanic, the mastery cards, as well as allowing for eventualities like capturing the opponent's standard.

Good times ahead.

Nuko Sketch Alternative

2009-09-05T13:14:00.001-07:00

Here's the alternative colourwork to the Nuko Warrior as covered in the art progression previously on Buffy. As you can see, it's a little different.

I've noticably changed the colour of the Lo-Seqqo as slightly less noticably added patterning to the edging of it's armour and shield.

For this edge patterning I chose stunted stripes that match the Lo-Seqqo's own skin patterning so that the armour would belong.

I still like the colours of the other one somewhat and will do a yellow Lo-Seqqo at some other point. I thought red seemed more aggressive, which to me fits the swordclub and shield weilder better.

For this version the sketch was scanned in again, this time at 600dpi, before colourwork began afresh.

Sketchy Nuko - step3

2009-08-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, so part 3 commences.

Here I've have added colour to the shield and other armour as well as the clubsword.

It's looking more complete now, with the linework adding in detail like the ribs on the armour plates and shield. The base colour of these very similar to the scaleplates down the Lo-Seqqo's front which was done for integration purposes, much like the ribbing itself, making the armour and it's wearer belong together.

I wanted the edging to the armour to continue the earthy coloured theme, and went for a reddish hue as this guy is a warrior and red is a very warlike colour.

Now, i could leave the illustration alone at this point, but unfortunately i've just got a new pc which can handle pictures at 600dpi (all previous have been the bare minimum 300dpi cos they had to be) so i'll be redoing the whole thing.

Other than that, i could leave the colourwork as it stands, as it fits with the style i wanted to achieve.. which is? If we ever do animation, or comics, i want the look of Edadh to feel universal between the media, so you know you're looking at an Edadh thing whether it's an animated TV series or card art or whatever. That's the plan. I'll see how far i can push this when i get into doing full colour comics and epic colour canvasses of various places / events in the world of Edadh. (now i have the new pc, it's something to be attempted, but don't hold your breath cos i've got to teach myself from the ground up!)

Sketchy Nuko - step2

2009-08-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

Continuing the progression of some Edadh Art, we take the Nuko'yr Lo-Seqqo a little further, adding the first colour, starting with the Lo-Seqqo itself.

I begin with the skin here, being one of the most prominent features of the illustration. If i'd done this illu down the line i may have started with the armour and shield, but this is my first colour Lo-Seqqo, so i want to try a few ideas with regards to the species look.

I've gone for a yellowy hue here and then added patterning on another layer, so i can correct it or ditch it or change it without altering the base colour.

I like the idea of playing up the non-serpentine quality of the species by having markings that would seem at home on a mammal, though with the long tail it's inevitable that repetition will feature. Maybe not in all cases, but it's a familiar place to start.

For the scales down the front, i've decided to follow the idea of a repetitious patterning, partly because i didn't expect to see a pattern there and wanted to see how it'd look. Seems to work out.

I may change the skin colour and patterns later, and keep this particular illustration for general reference. Armour next.

Sketchy Nuko

2009-08-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

As promised, here beginneth the sketch-to-finished-colourwork series of an illustration for the game War for Edadh.

I've picked on the Warring Faction of Nuko'yr, or Nuko for short, as this is the next faction to get a card release (come February). This culture has two main species that compose it, the Lo-Seqqo (as pictured left) and the Lo-Jou (not as pictured left).

I start with a sketchy sketch, very loose, and build up the detail from there. I get the body position down (mostly, sometimes) before going on to armour or clothing. Sometimes the idea of, say, a shield might be lightly shown with a few loose lines.

Before working on bringing up the detail, i'll reference concept sketches to ensure things are gonna look right for a species, or to decide on how the costume should be.

I'll work on the lines further, going over them again until i'm happy with their position. When the illu is basically there, line-wise, i'll wub it out with a putty eraser (which leaves enough of a residue to see the image by, then go over it with either a darker pencil line or fineliner for inked stuff. The illu above was inked. This isn't tracing the image as i like my lines to still be free to some degree. It's more like having guidelines.

After the linework has been concluded i'll add the shading in pencil. It's now ready to scan in. After scanning, i use the eraser tool to get rid of unwanted lines. It's also a good time to look at it fresh to see if i've done something proportionately stupid.

Intentions

2009-08-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note really to give you a heads up on a new thing i'm gonna be doing.

I've been requested to show the progression of a piece of Edadh fantasy art from sketch through to finished coloured work.

So that's the plan.

I'm working on the final art for the Nuko warring faction cards that are going to be released in February next year, so as i go i'll show how some of these illus progress. I've already begun the troop card illustrations so the first post will be soon.

Hope you enjoy the behind the scenes of the creative process (well, the ash pyne edadh art creative process anyway. can't promise it's like other peoples' Well, i guess it must be in some ways, beginning with a sketch (though some people don't, they just jump in at the colourwork) ) ..

Guarding the Van

2009-07-28T13:42:00.000-07:00

With the special cards in the Art of Conflict expansion there's this dude, a Fiadrytch, a demonic entity who takes physical form by using the bones of dead things (whether dead life or elements - being water, earth and air. yep there's dead elements.)

The shape is uninspired in that it's in mimicry of a Vaechi. In this case the Vaechi that appears on the Vanguard Mastery Card 1/7.

Most Vaechi in Edadh are tied to clans and wildplaces etc. But some have allied themselves to more abstract ideas, such as honour, or mastery (skill). The Vaechi on the standard Mastery Cards are those that can be found hanging around ponds, trees and so on. The Vanguard Mastery Vaechi are those that are tied into the concept of mastery itself.

Their look has elements of the WarriorElite logo, as do the Conflict Card Vaechi. They do exist in Edadh, it's just that they're the embodiment of certain manifestations of Mastery. They will help or hinder a pupil learning a skill, as is the fickle nature of the Vaechi, in this case that of War.

Their mastery level is beyond that of mortal ability, and what sets them apart, one from another, if they are even seperate entities, is their preference for attack or defence.

The Fiadrytch who counterpart them mimic this aptitude, but in an unreserved and purely destructive fashion, uncaring for the wellbeing of any 'pupil'. They may be sneaky, and thus seam to be more defensive, but all they desire is chaos and the kill, whereas the Vaechi are more artful and willing to pursue the course of minimal force neccessary to overcome the foe. Sometimes.

I want more Dzaa, f...

2009-07-09T10:39:00.000-07:00

The twin deck to the Ang's in the War for Edadh expansion release belongs to the Dzaa. This deck gives a Dzaa player more cavalry. Cavalry to give nice strategic choices in the game.

The light cavalry utilise the speed of faster mounts than average, with troops armed with carbines. These are ideal for mounted ballistic combat. As they can outrace their foes, a common tactic for these is to avoid melee by closing from ballistic range to charge and then returning to the ballistic range again, all the while using their guns to inflict damage to their enemies.

The cavalry mounts are of heavier species of the light. or at least distantly related. Ideal for close quarters combat and well armoured, these aggressive melee specialists enjoy a ferociously effective attack in that first moment of impact after a charge and can decimate a unit with this.

Lastly, the Heavy Cavalry. These mounts are more powerful than the other two kinds and as such are basically an even more devastating attack troop than the standard cavalry. These mounts are various species, the favoured one in the northern climes being very hairy and with horns.

So there you go. More Dzaa.

Bagsie i play the Ang!

2009-07-03T14:26:00.000-07:00

The Angueth, or Ang for short, have bagsied one of the expansion decks for War for Edadh. Their riders have invaded and they've brought with them some new Terrain, Stratagems and Conflict Cards. All this and another set of Mastery Cards so those multi-player games become more accessible.

The Ang Riders use bipedal mounts native to Cerchae's eastern foothills. They are surefooted on the craggy ground and able to swim against powerful currents - the foothills being swept by many streams and rivers. This has allowed the Ang to take the beasts beyond the hills and into the lands of Cerchae proper.

The MarshRiders are reknowned for their use of a curious qaudraped that sports an additional set of forearms. Discovered by the Ang in years past, the creatures are natural swimmers and utterly unhindered by marshy terrain.

The Great Riders ride large beasts with great horns, very useful in close quarter combat. Found in herds in the wild, these creatures are not saddled so that Ang may hide themselves amongst native groups when evading their foes.

All the art is done now for these cards and they're just waiting to go. The last touches on the box art for the two decks is all that remains. Give or take a few niggling things.

watering the stones

2009-06-22T09:09:00.001-07:00

If you water a stone, does it grow? As some are more porous than others, maybe in density they do. But then does this infusion of water actually expand the stone itself? Ice can crack rock should it get into it and ice expands water, so .... ahh whatever

Over the weekend we were in Waterstone's in Poole promoting War for Edadh. The day went well, as did the run-up to it. We met some great people, old friends and gamers new who got to demo the game and go on to pick up their own copy.

I also got to draw some new Vaechi (Edadh fae) which expands the pile of concept sketches i have by a few pages. I can never draw enough Vaechi.

On that score, i've been working on Vaechi specific to the two Factions present in the starter set of War for Edadh. These are for cards in the expansion sets. I expect they'll appear on the website soon.

by Gully that's Ruined it!

2009-06-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

Let's take a look at a couple of Terrain Vaechi (wildspirits); specifically the Gully and the Ruins 'Chi, given that these guys appear in the two 'War for Edadh' expansion decks that comprise the Art of Conflict. Which are forthcoming.

This one here is the Gully Vaechi, a wildspirit who frequents (can you guess?) gullies. They like to cling to the embankments amongst the foliage where they have a commanding view of their territory, ie the gully in question. They'e quite small and not overly powerful, especially not outside of their chosen domain. Within it, however, they can cause all sorts of mishief.

Some Gully Vaechi prefer the shade that wooded or overgrown terrain offers, whereas another kind relishes the sun and frequently can be found basking in their open and preferably rocky landscape.

As with all Vaechi, their nature is fairly unpredictable, sometimes helping travellers, other times hindering them.

This particular Ruins Vaechi inhabits places where buildings have met a violent end, either by mortal destruction or storm damage. They compose themselves from debris and plantlife that has overgrown the stucture generally, this flora serving to help to distinguish regions of the world they may be found in. They sometimes roam the surrounding area of the ruins, but mostly are found within the walls themselves.

They like to degrade traveller's possessions should they stay for any length of time, and though generally passive, using briars and rocks to scrape and tear here and there, they do (rarely) attack tresspassers.

The Terrain Cards that these two frequent are Secondary Terrain Cards. Basically the terrain features can be found on a nother terrain type, such as ruins on grass (grass being the primary terrain)

Larger scale versions, which would then be classed as primary terrain, would include ruins of villages or a castle, or a valley or gorge, which attract more powerful Vaechi.

beds are burning

2009-06-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well, we've just come back from another convention. I may have missed lunch and sleep, but it's always worth it to meet gamers, new and old.

I think the best part of doing demos of War for Edadh is seeing a person go from clueless of the system, or even sceptical of it, to that point where they get it and like it. Their enthusiasm for it then makes the years of development and refinement worthwhile.

And gamers are generally a friendly bunch, so the atmos is high and enjoyable.

It's also cool to see new games, or ones i haven't seen before myself even if they've been around for ages.

Cathing up with folks we've met before, finding out how they've been getting on since the last con we crossed paths at. Also good.

If you've never been to a con, i can highly recommend it.

Of course for us it's now catch-up time! Back to burning the midnight oil to try and get the cards wrapped up for the first expansion asap. I'm looking forward to my own copies, truth be told!

so what is it?

2009-05-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

So, what are these Vaechi then? I keep illustrating them and they do appear on alot of generic cards, but where do they fit into the way of things in the world of Edadh?

I thought i'd start embellishing on the fantasy world of Edadh between posts of artwork i'm working on. And what better place to start than the Vaechi.

The Earth parallel would be the faery folk of European folklore, the nature spirits of Native American, the demons of Asian. They're beings of supernatural quality, not of the material world but of the aethereal, the spiritual world of Edadh, if you like.

They can take many forms and have varying allegiances. Vaechi of the deep wilds are wildspirits of unpredictable nature and loyal only to themselves and their reportedly whimsical natures. They take forms that have characteristics of favoured plants or animals or both and may even look like said thing. Some even take on elements of rock, crystal, water or fire.

Most wildsprits have forms more like the fauna, flora or element they emulate, rather than humanoid bodies, though they do sport appendages - arms, sometimes legs, hands, wings and head also.

Take the illu above as an example. Thistle like 'hair' takes prominance over a twig-like head and body with no legs, but with two twiggish arms. (Vaechi commonly have three or more arms)

There are countless Vaechi kinds, but as one would expect, there are certain commonly known or reknowned ones. I'll take a closer look at these.

view conflict pointings

2009-05-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the post title doesn't make sense, i've just jumbled around the last posts's title for kicks.

Here's another l'illu of another Conflict Card Vaechi. This one, if you hadn't guessed it, is ballistic related.

The effects of the card only come into play at the ballistic range, so i showed guys with bows to enforce that. This means that, though it'll be marked on the card that it works only at ballictic, the illu is a giveaway too.

I added a few designs to the normally plain blue of the 'Chi, such as the target over the eye, as well as the feathers in the headband. This is one of those illus i enjoy building up the colourwork on (which can sometimes prove monotonous), as i work over black, so i get to see the form slowly coming to light.

This card will appear in the 1st expansion for the War for Edadh game.

conflicting viewpoints

2009-05-14T10:46:00.001-07:00

Another card to be found in the War for Edadh game are the Conflict Cards. One of these was given to preorderers of the original WFE starter set, the Vanguard Warrior.

This l'illu is from a new one, to appear in the first expansion sets and shows a Vaechi (fae (kind-of) of Edadh) in a pose loosely representative of the effect of the card itself. This one is for attacking an opponent's Combat Master with your own.

I've done the sketches for a few of the others and just need to add the colour to them. The look of the Vaechi for the Conflict Cards is different to those appearing on other card sets, like the Stratagem and Mastery cards. The Conflict Vaechi have a look borrowing from the WarriorElite logo. This grounds them in a warrior-humanoid look, mainly as the Conflicts are to do with actions of Troops or Units.

The idea is that they generate their own light source and fade into visibility from black. Hence the dark background.

Vaechi on light backgrounds appear diiferent, with whitish edges rather than black.

They're not too time consuming to do, which is part of why i like doing them, but as each is different according to the card effect it means i get to stretch my creativeness a little.

Battle Masters

2009-05-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

Currently i'm sketchifying and colourificating the Battle Masters for the first expansion of War for Edadh. There's one card for the Ang and one for the Dzaa, each card needing two illus each, for front and reverse. Each.

Sometimes it takes a while to get the sketch right, sometimes it's as easy as pie. (an easy pie, with, like, very few ingredients and preperation time, preferably one baked by someone else). Of the four, the hardest was the last, the Dzaa reverse. I'll crop the sketch and post here in a while.

The colourwork goes along. It can be monotonous when the pc decides to take fifteen million years to process a single mouse-stroke, but seeing the finished article approaching is gratifying and makes the long years worthwhile. One day i'll have a faster computer. And a bigger boat.

What i really want is one of those octo-processor macs with a graphics tablet, widescreen flatscreen monitor, zxbells and cpc6128whistles. I can't really see the need to upgrade that kind of machine, but i could be wrong. One day i'll want enough to do my own animations ...

Time to Die Vaechi..er macloud

2009-04-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

Who wants to live forever anyway? Besides me. And all those other people. Though preferably without the avoiding-being-beheaded lark. Lots of swordfights could be fun though ..

As the game of War for Edadh progressed, we've invented and created and also destroyed and discarded. Other things we've retired or sent elsewhere - some Stratagem cards are such.

In codifying the various tactics and strategies one could employ in a fight, as a unit of troops using formations or not, we mde room for the rules governing them in Stratagem Cards. Some rules ended up on other cards, such as the formations that certian troop types could adopt. Seemed sensible to put them right there.

This meant that certain Stratagem Cards got the chop. Lost their heads. And so went the illustrations that accompanied them, as they were designed specifically for Stratagems and wouldn't have worked elsewhere. Oh well, so it goes.

So i've made a home for some of them on Deviant Art in my brief gallery. They'll also all appear in their multidudinous entirety on DreamCrows at some point too.

Land Ho!

2009-04-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

Along with the new Water Terrain card illustrations, there are a number of fresh new Land Terrain cards that will be available in the War for Edadh expansions. The pucky little sprite on the left is a Vaechi (wildspirit of the world of Edadh) whose haunts are that of the open heath.

I gave it characteristics of a plant similar to a .. um... what are they called again? Can't ... recall ... the name ... AGhhhhhh! the cogs and gears of my mind lie idle (in a hammock on a beach to which i'm not invited). This species finding familiarity on the heathlands of Cerchae (where the rebel Ang roam). These heaths lie mostly to the south where the land rises more consistently above sea level. (Cerchae is an expanse of flooded lands, with hills and ridges rising from the marshy, wooded flats, lakes and rivers)

It's also based on an early sketch i did when concieving of the less humanoid type fae of Edadh - using plant forms to compose them - which made sense as they lived in the wilds.

I've probably mentioned this before, but drawing the Vaechi is great fun, and probably what i enjoy most as it's very freestyle and imaginatively creative. The annoying part would be in having to reproduce the same 'species' twice, although in the case of this heath-'Chi i enjoyed it and found it quite easy.

The name of that plant still eludes me .... (i can see it's face..)

Water, Water Everywhere ...

2009-04-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

Work continues apace on the cards for War for Edadh's expansions. The little guy to the left, who in the reality of the world of Edadh isn't actually that small at all, is representative of the Water Terrain.

We've already had Land Terrain cards, four types of which are within the War for Edadh beginning game set - they having the Land Terrain Vaechi (fae wildspirits of Edadh) and Fiadrytch (demonic beings of Edadh). The Vaechi you see here has it's counterpart Fiadrytch too.

I've had them sketched for a while; i just needed to do the scan and colourwork. I suppose the Air Terrain might be next in line, given the existance of aerial troop types in the expansions. After that are the Canopy cards, wherein monkey-type animals and suchlike roam.

What i'm really working on are the remaining Troops for the Ang and Dzaa (well, those we've outlined fully so far to give extra tactical consideration to armies...yes, we have even more conceptualised that will one day see the light of day). .

What i'll probably do next post is outline some of these Troop types and give a little insight into what their role and origins are.

Edadh Comic - Bloodlines Intro

2009-04-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

Take a trip over to the warriorelite website to see the first Intro instalment to the new comic i've been working on. The one i've been yakking about.

You'll find it in the Library pages.

I was intending to post it here, but it's too large, and my knowledge of how to therefore do it is lacking.

I'll add in a direct link asap

oh look, here it is - http://www.warriorelite.com/library/library.php

We shall call it...this Land (and water)

2009-04-04T01:33:00.000-07:00

In the new batch of cards we're working on for the War for Edadh expansion packs there's a few illustrations i've needed to do. This includes the alternative Terrain classes, being Air, Water and Canopy, (we already did Land)

This little snippet of a picture is for the Water Terrain cards. It's similar in pose and mass to the Land Vaechi (vay-chee - fae wildspirit of the Edadh world) but is composed of aquatically found forms.

I've been working on the colouring for it also and i'm not too far from being done. Then it's the turn of the Vaechi's counterpart, the demonic Fiadrytch. They'll appear on the reverse of the Water terrain cards positioned opposite each other like Jacks or Queens on playing cards. (sort of)

These little guys are alot of fun and generally my favourite thing to draw, mainly because they satisfy my preference for concept sketches.

have you got a video?

2009-03-25T11:15:00.000-07:00

After some requests, here is a video of a sketch in progress. I actually draw this fast. No, really..

The beast was made up on the day and is yet to find feature on a card somewhere. The little guys riding it are Lo'Jou, part of the Nuko'yr faction, which is one of the next three Factions to get cardified. It isn't a part of the expansions line-up, but then there are Ang and Dzaa in the wings that don't get on stage yet either. Note the yet.

Let is know what you think - feel free to rate it on youtube aswell!

what's your style?

2009-03-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

Show me some of it!

The think behind the Edadh comic can be found on my blog 'manga of doom', ie why i've done it in the way that i have.

In this post i just wanted to briefly cover how it ties into the Edadh mythos.

It begins in a Cerchae clan town that gets a mention in the flash story Aeiry, as found on the warriorelite website in the Library pages. This seemed a good hotspot, a powder keg which could go up at any moment.

As the story unfolds you'll get a feel for the protagonists involved as individuals, but also as to the politics that occur within any clan under the Huaos-Dzaa rule.

That's the aim, to give a clearer idea of how things play out in the world of Edadh as well as telling a good story. Of course, it also satisfies my yearning to do a comic.

It's not too far off now either and the Intro should be posted soon.

Edadh Comic

2009-03-11T14:06:00.000-07:00

Well, i'm working on a comic series set in the world of Edadh. I've wanted to work on this for ages but haven't had the time. I still don't really, which is probably why i've forgotten what sleep is.

It's not the same project as the all ambitious one i've had in mind for years. No. This baby is kind of like the flash fiction we write for the WarriorElite website, but comic style. It's not the other idea i've had or our online comic. No. It's more like pulp fiction except without the burger conversations. (I mean the old pulp novels and short stories, of course..)

The hardest part is sticking to a gameplan. I keep wanting to push it further and further, getting way too ambitious for it and having instead to cut back and rein myself in. One day..one day...

When i get something solid i'll post a glimpse here. Actually, i had the first part done but we decided to go with a little more to begin with, so ive had to redesign the start a little, which is where i'm at right now on it.

And having just finished reading a good little guide on novel writing i'm applying what i've learned to what im doing in the comic so hopefully it will come out better than it might have.

Of course, in tandem, i had another idea for another comic which would be in a different style, look and plot-wise, yet still Edadh. So there'll be oodles to do and see and read and stuff in the years to come. Oh yes indeed. Ooodles.

Unleash the Hounds!

2009-02-27T12:11:00.000-08:00

I thought it deserved attention, so herein i will mention the review by the Dane of War.

He's very complementary, and not a bit sedentary and of four stars he gave it a four.

We think that's pretty cool, he's certainly no fool and has played it in and out for three whole weeks.

And he has alot to say, and i'm certain he will play the game somemore with tears of joy upon his cheeks.

(okay, so i was in need of something to rhyme and may be exagerrating abit) but check out his War for Edadh review all the same. You can find it at:

http://daneofwar.blogspot.com

We said What?

2009-02-26T14:00:00.000-08:00

Want to know what lies behind the game War for Edadh and the company WarriorElite? Well you can!

There's a couple of Interviews out there now. Flagship magazine has one which you can view online at their website - i'll come back and add the link here soon.

The other Interview is on Gameshark.com - just head to the features section. It's in two parts and i personally recommend, from me to you, that you start with the first part. No problem. Any time.

Don't get confused by some chap called Lloyd answering some of the questions, that would be me! Ash! I'm greedy and have two names. Soon, the world will be mine also. Mwah hahahaha!

DOOM on you

2009-02-21T14:15:00.000-08:00

The Manga of Doom has/have come! Your destroyer must be chosen ...

although as yet there are no options listed.

I've started a new blog - Manga of Doom - in which i intend to showcase various comics etc that have eaten up my free time due to the nature of being addictive works of cool. That's any comics, graphic novels etc, but as manga is my current addiction it got the limelight.

There's an intro post, but hey! i have limited time! give me a break! I'll post some stuff soon!

There'll also be a monthly installment from myself as the Edadh NetComic goes live. It's only monthly to begin with cos i have time issues (anyone starting to get the vague impression that i don't have a lot of time to spare?) and it's only gonna be a panel or two at a time. To begin with. But i hope you like it. I thought about leaving each panel strip on a cliffhanger, but that'd prove a little tricky, so i've gone for leaving them on curbhangers instead. Not quite so precarious i know, but hey.

Thank you for your cooperation, and remember, the next time someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!

this Monkey's gone to Gaming Heaven

2009-02-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

Now that Conception 10 is over and their website proclaims the 11th I guess it's okay for me to show the logo.

You'll probably notice that the colours are very much brighter than my usual fare. Well, those are the colours as requested, which match up to their website. Very striking. You can see the full image on the conception website.

It was great to do this - I enjoy commission work, even if i am picky about what i take on.

But the conception guys are friendly, as were the gamers who attended, and so i'm more than happy to oblige. I haven't drawn goblins for ages!

Conception Convention 08

2009-02-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

Four days of friendly gaming in New Milton on the South Coast of England. We've been back for a couple of days now and i thought i'd post a post about it

Conception came recommended by various gamers at other conventions we attended during the year and as it's local we thought, why not?! Well it was well worth going if just for the atmos, but overall it was successful for us from a business point of view too.

Whereas previously we were the unknown outsiders, it seems people have been talking about us behind our backs, or we met them at previous cons. Folks would come up to us saying they'd heard good things about War for Edadh and wanted to know more. We were running demos over the four days and whilst it's mainly an RPG con, our game went down well - probably due to the tactical mechanic and the future plans to bring out the Edadh RPG.

We got to catch up with guys who'd bought the game previously and played a couple of more expanded games with them.

We talked to traders, gamers and games designers alike and it was very welcoming and friendly.

The next con isn't for another couple months, which is annoying, because I'm really settling in to the whole experience.

We must have caught the bug, because we ended up playing Mah Jongg on Sunday night after we'd got back (usually only get the time on Boxing Day).

Hip to be Square

2009-01-27T12:29:00.000-08:00

Four days of conception is coming fast. We'll be there. AND we'll be square.

Conception, for those who aren't in the know, is a four day games convention, Thurs to Sunday, New Milton. Primarily RPGs it also caters for other types of game.

You can come for a day or two or four and take part in some games.

WarriorElite will be there with War for Edadh running demos.

Chris Loizou of Cursed Empire RPG fame should be there demoing the War for Edadh rules also with is all new brand spanking new home-made Crimson Empire WFE cards. It's a collaboration folks. Early days yet but it's going places.

See you there, if you're square, or even if you're a round.

Things are a foot

2008-12-15T14:04:00.001-08:00

Well, a feet. Well, feet. mm. 'feet' is starting to look really odd. But things, nevertheless and willy nilly are definitely afoot.

Probably that's the wrong saying to be applying because it's not as if anything nefarious (great word) is going on. Indeed, it's all good.

We've had a couple of reviews for War for Edadh now and all in all they're good reviews. Positive and really showing how much they like the game. So we're now working on the numbers on the cards to ensure they're clearer and thus easier to see. But our hours upon hours of playtesting and revisions followed by hours upon hours of playtesting and revision has payed off. The game is all we hoped it would be, and it's proving to be a game that others really enjoy too. To quote a few descriptives - 'genius', 'loved it', 'AWESOME!' (the caps were as written).

As for the foot? It's from the Great Rider illu. that i've revisited and improved. I'm also working on a couple of other pics for the Angueth cards that we're gonna release next to improve them also. It turns out that most folks like the art too. cool.

Lots to do. As always.

Dragonmeet

2008-12-10T12:58:00.001-08:00

One day in London this convention was and it was busy and well worth attending.

Got some more orders for our game, War for Edadh.

Saw some folks we'd met before.

Played some demos.

Had a long train ride.

Took some photos.

Had the briefest glance around the hall.

Gave out pencils. (great pencils. even the eraser works.)

Next convention? Conception

well hello there

2008-12-10T12:50:00.000-08:00

thought i'd drop by, say hello

we've been busy. hence the absence of posts. Still busy, but for the ether that doesn't read this i thought i'd better rear my ugly head again

The first review of our game War for Edadh had gone up and from feedback from gamers etc it's official - the game rocks! People like the game, the core mechanic. they like that you can play it simple or add in depth.

all in all it looks good

GameCon

2008-11-16T10:22:00.000-08:00

GameCon in Manchester is of course also worthy of note. It's just we had no time after coming back from it cos we were off to Indiecon the next weekend, well, the Friday even, so i didn't get a chance to post about it, and IndieCon was fresh in my mind, so i posted about that first. sorry.

So what was Gamecon all about?

Big hall plus little side halls. It's more a tournament convention we think, cos many gamers were there for that, and blinkered as some can be many gamers strode through the trade hall like it was an inconvenience after their sessions. shame.

We still met some great guys and hope that they'll check out our website and get back to us. Hopefully the kind and generous offer by one lovely lass to help us by demoing our game instore is still open? (if you're reading this) Hope so, as it really would help.

Also remet a guy who'd tried the game at Gencon, who said he liked it even more having played it again. (Hope you both enjoyed the con! (for other viewers just tuned in, he wasn't two people, he was with someone else))

We got some preorders and made some new friends. Even got to try a couple of games.

The talented guy next to us on the Sunday was a sculptor by trade and gave us the inspiration to contemplate a statuette for War for Edadh. It'd be great! we plan to do miniatures one day if there's call for it, and a rules set to cater for it (same core rules, just takes into account movement options with miniatures or something) and we're already looking at it more seriously as we may have access to some miniatures that'd tie in (a collaboration we've entered into with a fellow at IndieCon)

So there you go. The highlights.

IIIINNNNNDIIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!!

2008-11-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

Well, here's the revised map-genie logo for IndieCon '09. Compare it to the last post's old one and you'll spot the difference.

This one's more striking eye think. (i see what i did there! it's so clever!) I can't take credit for the idea as Nigel was instrumental in thinking up the concept.

Where i went wrong on the other one is i tend to do subtle, which doesn't always work. It takes an outside opinion to get me to be more 'in yer face'. Mostly. My fae on black worked out pretty good and some of those are pretty bold and they were all me.

Anyway, check out the new logo at IndieCon's homepage.

Indie, Bad Dates..

2008-11-16T07:37:00.000-08:00

We've been to a few conventions now, IndieCon 08 being the latest. Was it worth it? Read on to find out..

It all began on the Friday. We arrived and set up, got our trusty banner up, this time with some A4 sized blow-ups of card designs (not inflatable, just enlarged images, in case you were momentarily mistaken).

First day, first gaming slot and we got some!(to misquote Ghostbusters slightly) We went not expecting to get slot sign ups, rather just to demo War for Edadh, but there you go. The first intrepid gamers at Indiecon to give it a bash.

By the end of the con, we'd taken a good number of preorders and met alot of folks. Very friendly atmos altogether really.

So what's the illu at the start of the post? Well, it's the new, maybe, if it survives, IndieCon logo which can be found on their homepage http://www.indiecon.net/. Well it was there last time i looked. (i'm gonna tweak the eyes yet). I be glad i had the honour of designing this for the very awesome con originators and organisers Karen and Chris (Chris who created Cursed Empires RPG). We got to chat with Chris a fair bit, who has some good experience with his own game over the years (promoting it etc).

We should be adding an events roundup section to the events page of our warrioelite website too.

Con for Indies

2008-11-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

Just got back from a good lil' convention where we met some great folks. A con for Indies. Even though some guy was running a game of 4th ed. Eh? Indie con anyone?

The idea is that Indie publishers converge and gamers try new stuff, supporting the lil' guys. Great idea.

If you're thinking of attending next year, i urge you to so do.

The weekend before we were in Manchester at Gamecon. At the end of the month we'll be at Dragonfest in London for the day (sat 29th) Hopefully there'll be gamers there willing and courageous enough to try something new - ie War for Edadh.

We've had such good feedback from guys who've tried it, scepticism giving way to strong interest and sometimes even enthusiasm. We've sparked a few imaginations and people have responded to our desicion to avoid the CCG thing.

Ex-gamers, new gamers or current gamers have all been impressed. Of course we knew this would happen (smug mode!) cos we spent so long making sure it played damn well, and we're not motivated by money, rather by personal conviction that gamers shouldn't have their games outmoded by new editions every few years, or their wallets emptied horrendously by supplements of random contents and thus leaving them with things they don't need or want.

Nope. We made our game for gamers. We're gamers ourselves and we thought, what would we want?

extended periods of Tim

2008-10-23T13:36:00.001-07:00

How time doesn’t fly when you’re waiting for your stock to arrive. Tim doesn’t fly either.

Well, in this meantime, we’re working on a few things, some of which I’ve mentioned before, so I won’t bore you with repetition. Repetition. Repetition. Well, maybe a little – War Packs expansions. There, I said it.

Specifically, I’m amending oversights on my part with regards to the aerial cavalry. They are now strapped safely in for those risky aerial maneouvres. No more plummeting to their deaths for the riders cos their steed wants to pull a loop-the-loop. Plus Nigel’s been working on the stats and I’m importing the finalised ones into their respective cards. That project ticks along nicely and inbetween times, when it all gets just a little too monotonous…

We’re working on an illustrated story, well, two, but with the same characters, well, different characters but of the same kindred. Nigel’s doing the story, I’m doing the pencils and Debs is up for the colourwork. It looks like it’s gonna be a good end result and it’s great to be doing something so utterly different.

For my part, I’m also occasionally frequenting (if there is such a thing) Deviant Art and Elfwood, sometimes uploading my art to my galleries, sometimes browsing whatever catches my eye. There’s a lot of talent out there. Tim’s not a hard taskmaster and it’s nice to have a bit of breathing space to do all this (as well as a cartoon idea I’ve reacquainted myself with which is coming along, and learning Japanese, and reading novels and manga, and getting back my verve for music (which had died ignobley (I wonder if that’s how you spell ignobley..) Mercury Rev’s latest! Yay!) and I’m sure I’m forgetting something..

It may all end when our War for Edadh stock gets into the hands of our Vanguard preorder members, reviewers and such. When this Tim expires (poor chap, but he does get reccuringly ressurected from the dead like some persistant zombie movie sequelisation thing, so he doesn’t really mind), well, I hope I’ll have figured out a way of keeping it all going.

Oh yeah. Uploading to my own website. I guess I’d better do that too.

too much Horsing around

2008-10-18T04:16:00.001-07:00

New illustrations are afoot, well, ahoof. The latest upgrade being to the Huaos-Dzaa Light Cavalry.

As with the Cavlary, their horses have been erased to extinction in Edadh and replaced with counterparts.

I wanted the origins of this steed to be ‘shoreside’ for reasons of my own. For the standard cavlary I did the same, the beast taking inspiration from seabound mammals with a penchant for beaches and the like, those crazy tourists.

The light cavalry differed slightly in that I went with a combo including other animals, in this case a boid. The build is fundamentally the same as the cavalry one, with forelegs more powerful than hind, but slimmer. We wanted to show speed over strength, even though the power level of the animal is the same as it’s more stocky kin.

Power levels are the heirarchy of animals, with a ‘10’ being more powerful overall than a ‘9’. It helped us in the generation of stats as well as codifying the animals for use in an RPG sense.

Closer to the release of the expansion packs, of which the light Cavalry is a part (the standard Cavalry are to be found in the starter game), they’ll be available for view in the card database. I might upload them to Dreamcrows long before, though. They need a home. Even if I am absent for extended periods of tim. Er .. time. That’s what I meant to type.

Extended periods of Tim eh? Is he bearable company or a smell that hangs around? Who knows? Polite suggestions and extrapolations welcome.

Interlude: These Fairy Mountains

2008-10-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

A massive influence on my work has been that of Arthur Rackham. He illustrated stories like Rip Van Winkle, the Snow Queen and the Tempest to name but a very few.

Though I like his work consistently, there are some few pictures that resonate with me especially, including the one titled as of this post.

The name of my webpage – Dreamcrows – is inspired by the Snow Queen illustration ‘They are only dreams’ said the crow, which I dreamed of before I ever saw it with my eyes. Curious eh? Like Pearl Jam’s Ten album, which I swore I’d heard before and was able to hum along to first time through…

I’m surprised I never got into inkwork particularly, (Rackham is a master here, and this puts him ahead of others of similar fairy style.) Over the years I dabbled, never finding an inking medium I liked much. Pretty much like colour. Thought watercolours would be my thing, probably still are, but never saw it through. It wasn’t until digital art opened up and I got myself a good enough pc and paint program that I began my colour career in earnest. Mainly due to the Undo feature, which the traditional methods don’t have.

My colours are preferably greyed out and faded, earthy and natural. I don’t go for bright colours particularly (though they have their place; neon is great and some of my fae have neccesarily bright colourwork, like the thumbnail above) and maybe this also I inherited from Rackham. My work isn’t a clone. It’s something else. I let my imagination and creativity take me other places and I was inspired by various other artists along the way, some who influenced my personal style by their own. Mostly, I just have in mind what I want to achieve with a particular piece and do what I think is best for it.

But I’m sure my interest in folklore was encouraged by fairies’ tiffs with birds, drowned forests in the Serpentine and twilight dreams.

My brothers and I would go looking in tree trunks for little doors, hoping to catch sight of little folk out the corners of our eyes. In the end I had to draw them in my own particular fashion, but by then they were something else.

One day I hope to collect the Rackham illustrated editions of the old classics I grew up on, or missed. There are a couple of good books that collect different aspects of his work that are still available, and I thoroughly recommend them.

It’s one of my wishes to have a favourite Rackham print hanging off the wall.

They are only Dreams ..

2008-09-24T13:40:00.001-07:00

My art website is undergoing a change, as dreams i've dreamed flock to the pages thereof. In other words, there's more art to see on it now, and more to come.

Dreamcrows is the website's name. There's to be some more stand-alone art under the Warriors heading, including the commissioned art i promised in previous blogs (for DivingDragonGames' 'Geek Fight' game)

It's also an opportunity to see larger scale pictures of the illustrations for the War for Edadh cards, beginning with Infantry Troop types for the Huaos-Dzaa Empire and the Angueth rebels.

The world of Edadh will get full view here in time so that it becomes accessible to gamers and non-gamers alike.

You might note that the earlier stuff has little commentaries and the new stuff doesn't. In time i hope to add commentaries for each of the major works or bodies of work, to give a better idea of what they are and why they are the way they are. So there you are.

If you haven't checked out the warriorelite.com sketchbook recently, or at all, it's been added to - take a look. Links are to the right of this page.

In the dark, dark woods ..

2008-09-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

That was a kids book, if a remember right. A dark, dark book, in which a dark, dark tale is woven.

Well, I’ve started to create accounts in various public places like Elfwood for starters. I’m also gonna post to facebook etc.

My purpose is for folk to get to see not only the various artistic interpretations of various existing mythologies that I’ve created, but so that non-gamers might get to see the World of Edadh.

My DreamCrows site shows some of the portfolio of various myth and legend interpretations I’ve done or will do (it need a lot more posted to it). It’ll also showcase some choice species, creatures and cultures of Edadh, linking to warriorelite.com for the full overview of this unique / alternative fantasy world we’ve made.

It’d be a shame to keep the world to just the gamers. Appreciators of fantasy might never otherwise get to know of it’s existance. And I think it’s important to realise that high fantasy isn’t the only fantasy. There are alternatives.

The World of Edadh exists in the dark of the deep woods right now, little known or heard of, but in time I hope that it will find it’s way out to the fringes from where it may be caught in the corners of travellers’ eyes of various roads.

Who will then tell of the sights they have seen on their wandering ways…

It's all abit Sketchy

2008-09-14T04:10:00.000-07:00

As part of the new Sketchbook feature on the WarriorElite website, you’ll find all sorts of concept sketches for the various Warring Factions.

I've posted a few head-shots here to give you a taster. The sketchbook contains the full size illus.

You can link to the Warring Faction page from there or to the forum where you can ask questions, and we’ll answer as best we can.

At the moment we’re adding to it a bit at a time and hope that these illustrations will help to show more of the world of Edadh.

We’ve put a few images for two of the Factions so far to begin with for now. After doing the same for a few others we’ll go back and post somemore, sometimes just after I’ve drawn them.

Fingers to the Bone

2008-09-07T01:11:00.000-07:00

At the same time as finishing off the cards for the first series of War Packs (non-random 15 card expansion packs) for War for Edadh, I’m also spending my waking hours on sketchwork for the Warring Factions that will follow.

Some of this work will appear in the Warring Factions pages, but I thought I’d post a few early concept illus here aswell. Well, bits of illus. The odd decapitated head etc.

For the Nuko’yr culture’s Lo’Jou species I wanted a variety of sub-species, various kinds with each having a distinctive look. Of all the species the Lo’Jou are the most varied, in shape as well as in colour, body hair or lack of it.

So far I have four figured out, which are pretty similar so far, but intend to do more varied and differing ones as I think of them. All in all I’m aiming for 7 or hopefully more.

Ah! Another possible one just popped into view, my brief train of thought culminating in the idea. So that’s five. I expect to work them over and refine them, but three of the sub-species concept illus can be seen directly below.

The Lo’Jou are a canopy dwelling lot and when the Nuko’yr Faction gets released, so will the rules for Canopy fighting.

GenCon UK

2008-09-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

These were a great four days and now our first ever convention and great unveiling (albeit low key) is concluded.

The organisers were friendly and helpful and the other traders in the hall the same.

We met a fair number of very supportive and encouraging gamers, many of whom pre-ordered War for Edadh (they’ll be getting their two exclusive cards with genuine thanks).

It was great to meet these guys, who are to become the Vanguard gamers of WarriorElite’s first ever release. They’ll have the first run sets and Vanguard icons on the website forum to show that they were there at the beginning (plus the two exclusive cards – ‘First to the Field’ and Vanguard Warrior’ – which are playable in the game)

We learned much.

We learned that people appreciate our efforts to create something new and fresh – an alternative to the existing games on the market.

We learned that people like that we have an alternative gameworld for them to discover.

And a whole lot of other stuff.

It’s great to finally be offering our game to gamers, knowing they’re gonna dig it.

And So It Begins...

2008-08-24T12:38:00.001-07:00

Well, we’re taking preorders for War for Edadh as of now. It’s a benchmark event.

This project has been our closet baby for a long time, and now it’s finally available for gamers everywhere and the preorders are beginning to come in. It all begins here, in truth. The last seventeen years were only a preamble, a prelude to the true chronicles of Edadh.

Well, it brought smiles to our faces!

We wanted to do something special for those who do preorder, so we decided to make two cards that preorder gamers would get gratis to mark that they were really there at the beginning.

The two cards can be used in the game like other cards but will ONLY be available with preorders of War for Edadh.

The cards are aptly named ‘First to the Field’ and ‘Vanguard Warrior’ and I’ve posted a snippet of the Vanguard Warrior at the start of this post.

We also intend to give anyone who preorders who signs up to the forum a Vanguard icon.

Want to be part of the exclusive Vanguard?

Who are you calling Four-Arms?

2008-08-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

New species are being discovered all the time. Some are being invented.

With our attention coming off the two initial Warring Factions and turning thus to others that will follow, we decided that the serpentine species of the Nuko’yr (noo-coe-ear) Faction needed some friends – live-in chums as it were. And thus were created the Lo’Jou.

They’re not the only species in the pipeline either, as the aquatic residing Sukoya Faction have had some very sketchy fellows hanging about in the wings for quite awhile.

We like the idea of cultures being composed of or/and originated by more than one species and this will be found to be the case with various Edadh societies, the Huaos-Dzaa Empire being foremost of examples right now.

Creating the species themselves is great fun. Not only do I get to draw something new and different, putting together a (hopefully) plausible anatomy, but their ethnics and origin myths also get to be created. And then the fun begins as I fit them into the history of Edadh. Luckily this history was formulated for such possibilities as ‘new’ this and that, as time (and future releases) will unravel.

the Warring Factions

2008-08-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

Work continues apace on the Warring Factions. At the moment it’s the Nukoyr, who follow the Angueth and Huaos-Dzaa into the fray.

I’ve been working on key illustrations for each of the Factions. The Angueth and the Huaos-Dzaa have theirs in colour to show they are available (well, soon to be in the War for Edadh starter game – Oct 2nd so you know!). They’re now posted on the website.

For the Nukoyr and others the aim is for a one-tone illustration to show the Faction’s ‘unavailability’, which will appear in colour when it is available. Hopefully it’ll work, but the level of detail might scupper the plan and demand colour.

Because the last few years have been about the starter game which includes the Angueth and Huaos-Dzaa, those two factions have had most all of my attention, with other cultures getting sidelined. Now that I’ve come round to looking at other factions – the next three to have army cards released – I’ve had to swat up on them! For these guys, it isn’t just a case of drawing illus off the cuff; research is needed, concept sketches indulged in where I haven’t had anything pinned down before, etc.

So they’re taking a little longer than I’m used to, but it’s great! At last I can really flesh out other parts of the world for all to see.

-
I usually work with music playing, but since my system has broken I’ve had to go without. It’s funny how used to something you can get and it’s been a tough adjustment. I definitely work better with music in the background.

Well, I’m off to trawl to net to see what I’m gonna replace it with.

the World of Edadh

2008-08-02T03:43:00.001-07:00

Edadh (ed-ath) – alternative fantasy world in which the Edadh series of games are set.

Now that the beginning instalment of the Edadh games has been finalised we have the opportunity to take a look at the world of Edadh abit further, namely to add more detail to the website in a fashion that communicates the reality of it without any confusion.

It is a unique world. There are familiar elements to it, but it departs from the normal fantasy setting enough that certain held assumptions might get in the way of appreciating it for itself.

There are no humans. There are no Tolkienesque (standard fantasy) elf, dwarf, halfling, orc, goblin etc races, either. There are no wizards in pointy caps to take offense at the verge being trimmed so late.

So what is there?

There are Warring Factions vying to bring their agendas to fruition, such as the Huaos-Dzaa Empire who continue to try to subjugate the world’s cultures more fully after centuries of rule. There are the rebel factions who fight against and undermine this rule. There are fringe cultures who live within the subjugated lands but are small or scattered enough that the Huaos-Dzaa does not dominate them. There are those who live outside the borders of the Empire and fight it’s expansion into their territories. And there are roving bands not contained by borders.

There is magic of sorts, of various kinds. There are sentient species, unique animals and disctinctive landscapes. There is depth and history and a future progression to the world.

The website details the various Warring Factions and more and is being improved and added to regularly. The first Factions to undergo this overhaul are the Huaos-Dzaa and the Angueth, the two cultures available to the players of the beginning game - War for Edadh.

17 Years of saying Pa Don

2008-07-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

17 years ago my brother and I had an idea, well, a premise composed of a few key ideas. Today, those ideas have culminated in the starter game of War for Edadh going to the printers.

The ideas?

To create a game where the player had a more causitive role in determining a conflict against opposition.

To create a fresh and original gameworld to set the game in.

We quickly created both in developing an RPG which satisfied these ideas, to a degree. We could have released this early version, but we knew it could be improved upon and only wanted, as we still do, to have ONE edition of the game ONLY. So we continued from there over the course of the remaining years developing, overhauling, tweaking and honing both the game and the world.

After thorough playtesting and revisiting we finally have what we sought to achieve.

Except it just expands from here and diversifies to allow for many sub-games and ways of playing, the world opening up bit by bit to reveal it’s expanse.

War for Edadh really is just the beginning…(yay!)

Once more Unto the Breach..

2008-07-11T14:07:00.000-07:00

Here it is, a glimpse of the new Troop Card. Doesn’t really show you much does it?

Work on the final designs for War for Edadh's starter deck cards has concluded, just about. They’re a whole other level now, so anyone who’s seen the demo decks will be in for a pleasant surprise - as general concencous, I’m quite happy to say, has been positive.

Things are beginning to wrap up and the end of this particular tunnel is in sight, often pleasant tunnel though it has been and not all fire and shadow.

I’m doing the art for another card for Charon’s Diving Dragon Games’ game aswell, and that’s coming along, if in the background at the moment. As it’s a rather messy work in progress I’ll save the sneak peek till it’s a done!

I think I’ve mentioned everything else before and cos time’s an issue, that old friendly grindstone beckons, so I must be getting on with it…

D'you Feel Lucky, Punk?

2008-07-02T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well, do ya? One of the things we’ve been up to over the last month includes the use of the illu as shown in part here. You can see a fuller depiction on the warriorelite homepage (which should hopefully shed some light on the title of this post)

The full-full illu is for an ad, one of the various things we’ve looked at.

I’ve also done some illustrations to show more of the starting cultures which, when coloured, will appear on the website in their respective places. They should give a better feel for each of the warring factions detailed and I look forward to unleashing them. No sneak peaks yet as I’ve yet to go over them the final time and haven’t actually scanned them in yet.

My time has mostly been spent working on the card design upgrades. At the time of writing this post the cards as can be seen in the card database of the warriorelite site are now not the final ones. The overall look is similar, but so much better now! We look forward to unleashing them too.

I Want More Time, F...

2008-06-29T04:13:00.000-07:00

Thought i'd post something. Haven't done that in a while., thanks to just not having enough time. And what have i been up to eh?

Well, basically working like a maniac trying to get all the things i need to get done for War for Edadh, the WarriorElite game, done.

The image here is a classic example of one moment's inspiration leading to an improvement in design. The look of the Noery'Iom species had been bugging me for ages but was one of those things i had a mental block on. Then the illu above happened and now i'm happy.

It was the nose that had to go. I never wanted them to have beaks, though they are winged like birds and have other features thereof. And i didn't like them having conventional noses. And now they don't. Huzzah!

That's just one little smidgioning snippet of what's been going down in the world of WarriorElite as all the cards have been upgraded in terms of design aswell, for one thing of particluar note. Quite alot of work really.

Anyhow, i'll see if i can't beat this month's record for posts next month. See you then.

Sword of 1000 Souls

2008-05-12T13:46:00.001-07:00

Well, Charon from Diving Dragon Games has unleashed the first of his cards from his business-card game ‘Geek Fight’. Check it out with the diving dragon games link.

I haven’t posted the art on Dreamcrows yet as I have so many other more pressing things to do for the War for Edadh game it’s just silly. I’ve just come out of a weekend of playtesting multi-player rules, with some one-on-one games thrown in too. Not to blow our own trumpet, but it really is a good game! I had fun even when I lost!

But anyway. I can’t wait to see how Charon’s game pans out. I’m glad I had the opportunity to contribute art for it. I tend to work better when it’s for someone else – even if I do get creative freedom – as the neccessity to meet a deadline and not let someone down tends to generate a better final product from me.

Having an audience may well be like that, (players of one’s games or fans of one’s art). Authors would know.

The card design is really cool too (back to Geek Fight) plus the logo kinda reminds me of the Foos’ first album cover or something (flash gordon-esque sci-fi – I mean the excellent movie or the old b/w tv series here). So Well Done to the creators. Good show, old beans!

the Fabulous Destiny of ...?

2008-05-07T14:43:00.000-07:00

Art can make you laugh. It can make you cry. When it really is Art it’s beautiful. Aesthetic. Cool.

My true muse resides in art, and I recently got some inspiration, rather motivation, for a short while thanks to Amelie. This is such a beautiful film from start to finish. (Some films are like that, with not a single duff line or frame.) Makes you want to skip stones on water, or punch holes in leaves (maybe), and of course go out and find the One to leave trails of clues for.

Some of my favourite movies are foreign films. Of the French films, Horseman on the Roof stands out. I saw this quite some years ago at a small cinema and felt a great affinity for it. I bought it on video two years later to the exact date, which I didn’t realise till I checked the cinema ticket stub later on. Strange goings on that occur all the time, another element that makes Amelie so quirkily smile-inducing.

When I was in the south of France I strayed into a book shop and fell in love with French comics, specifically the ones I purchased then and there dans le sud (or is it la sud?). They’re in French of course, and my language skills fall horribly short of understanding, but the art carries it superbly and you can kind of tell what’s going on from just that. They’re all hardbacks and feel more like graphic novels than comics.

Anita Bomba is the name to look out for. There was an American translated version, but I want to learn French and so leave the books as future motivation to do so. The art style is unique and distinctive, and the stories quirky (what I can glean of them).

I would confidently say I continue to be inspired by French artists like Cromwell (Bomba) etc, with regards to my sporadic dabblings in comic layouts and stories, and I appreciate the humour. The depth and character that the artists give their work is unique in it’s flavour, just like manga gives one a second-hand taste of Japanese culture and idiosyncrasies. Each country definitely has it’s own rich style with many fine examples.

I’m currently reading through the diverse range of ‘First Second’ graphic novels, which collect artists’ work from various sources, and is consistantly good but over-looked stuff (hidden gems).

I wish I had more time to read more and discover more still. It’s like music. I’m sure there are a shed load of artists I’ll never hear who deserve hearing.

finishing touches ..

2008-04-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

I’ve started work on the last of the card illustrations for the War for Edadh starter game, illus which up till now had to be sidelined so we could get everything done for the demo games that were lined up.

A snippet of the first illu can be seen here. There are a few different illustrations to do, all with a similar theme so to keep some continuity over these cards.

Like all the designs so far, they have evolved over time, each change made being an upgrade. Of the major card types, these are the last, their final design having been mostly in my head all that time.

And speaking of time, we have little of it and much to do.

There are minor tweaks on other cards and the packaging designs still to finalise. It's a nice feeling to have so much in the bag though, even if the odd thing does escape sometimes. The next few weeks, in terms of the starter game and all it's components, is really just a matter of applying the finishing touches. We've never been this close. After it's a Done, well, then it's another ball game with somemore of the same thrown in for good measure.

For me personally, i look forward to the day i can start doing this full-time. Something to do with being a glutton for punishment.

the world was Black and White twice

2008-04-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

If you’ve read my previous posts you’ll probably have noticed that I have an interest in folklore, myth and legend.

The classic mythologies with dragons, chimera, divinities, leprechauns, heroes, ghosts and all that, has become very popular with certain things becoming well known and standard in fantasy, like dragons.

These next sketches are of classic mythological things that have been lying around in my piles of sketches for quite some time.

Dragons are so incredibly cool and there are just so many ways they appear, with artists taking their own spins on them. Myths from over the globe credit them as creatures of legend, each culture having their own look, from Chinese dragon-gods to western St George type dragons. This sketch is more western, though the thin body borrows an Eastern influence. It’s from an early card design.

Centaurs are very powerful looking, having the bodies of horses to augment their physical forms. This design sketch was a trial in proportion and features, such as the long face. The design aspect has exagerated other elements, like the hair.

Medusa had a snake-like tail and snakes for hair. I decided to make her less human looking and went for the more serpentine look. My take departs from the Greek myth quite a bit and indeed the myth was merely a starting point in this case. It kind of reminds me of a couple of Harryhausen creatures.

unfinished symphonies

2008-04-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

I was working on a new series of fae for the Dreamcrows website in my insomnia hours, but my inspiration has ceased to acknowledge my existance, as it were, so that's that. The sun died. The flame went out, like someone sucked all the oxygen out of the room. Wouldn't be the first time.

I seem to have quite a few unrealised projects. Mostly my time got eaten up with the WarriorElite gameworld and artwork, of which there is much. Too many ideas, not enough time. Once in a while i pick them up again and progress them somehow, before Edadh demands all my time again that is!

Still lots of work to do on the WarriorElite game and universe so i'll dig deeper into that, being the constant, consistant artwork my brother and i can get into create on. It really helps that it's a collaborative effort. And now we're getting interest in it, the responsibility to deliver the finished, best possible game is giving us greater impetus. With the first blind-testing due to begin imminently much midnight oil is getting burned and our elbows are well greased as usual.

After the demo decks are finished and handed over to the willing victims .. er.. volunteers, well, there's polishing up the cards etc so they're utterly done and ready to go to the printers and there's the booster pack cards to complete, which is time consuming to say the least. As long as all goes well.

These last many years have been sometimes hard, with lots of work, but the end is in sight, at least with regards to putting the game on the market. Post release of the starter game are the boosters for it, then other culture cards and the campaigns expansion, then other cultures, and then the following two games with other cultures.

Sounds like alot of work, which it will be, but the Edadh world has depth that needs to be explored and getting to work on it will be cool.

Attack of the SnowClones

2008-04-06T01:05:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s April 6th and it’s snowing outside. How random is that? At least I got to see a real snowflake this year (all those fake ones just rub it in).

The sheer out-of-the-blueness of it has inspired a twist on a theme I had running through my illustrated story, as well as giving me ideas for more fae.

It seemed to me as I watched the fall from my window that as the wind shifted the flakes in one direction then another, it was like an army, or a mass pilgramage of fae-like beings in the guise of snowflakes – not like being present at a mass sponge migration or something, but all the same, an earthly invasion by spirits of the air made manifest, neither benevolent or malevolent, just cold. They were pretty fat flakes, so of a good size, (not wil-o-the-wisp fairy fat, but fluffly fat, you know what I mean!)

Of course, I realise that I’ve already done it – the fae that is – based on that fluffy thing. They reside in Edadh as Vaechi and a form of them can be found on one kind of stratagem card in it’s design. Not snow-based but something else.

But the floaty fluffy snowflake type mass migration angle is new. Don’t know how I’m gonna portray that yet.

Oh, they’ve just got fatter and fluffier and more numerous. Wonder if it’ll settle? (ha ha! no such luck)

The last time I saw deep-worthwhile-snowing-snow was some years ago (IOW. Now that is SOME years ago). But I do have the fortune to have witnessed a thunder and lightning snowstorm. I recall seeing lightening flash from outside (lucky that, the ones from inside are hair-raising) and looked out the window to see a good, presentable snowfall. My brother’s schnauzer loved it! But the lightning and thunder, that was odd - but exceptionally cool.

So the squillion-strong race of snowflake fae will be created on paper and the freak storm shall find a place in the world of my illustrated story. – on that score, I finally, after all these years, nailed the look of the main character. All this time and he was the only one proving seemingly impossible to realise. And I’ve just gone and knocked out a couple of new denizens too. (when they come to, they should hopefully be grateful of their place in the scheme of things). Hmm. I’ve just gone and had another idea..

The flurry has finished and not a settled flake to be seen. I miss the deep snow and will just have to take a working ‘holiday’ sometime, somewhere where they have drifts aplenty. Somewhere with noone else around. Waking up at 2 am and walking in the forest on fresh and undisturbed snow is a poignant experience. A hermit has to get his kicks somehow!

the world was Black and White once

2008-04-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

I thought I’d post a few sketches (well, bits of sketches) that have been lying around for ages. I scanned them in a while ago - can’t recall what I was going to do with them. Maybe colour them for the Dreamcrows website. Probably that.

The first is kind of a Leshy – a russian tree spirit that can possess trees. I guess the more popularised myth reference would be LotR Ents. The close up I’ve chosen shows it’s face. I don’t believe leshies would really need eyes, but they help to show sentiency and such. I’ll work on that point in later sketches till I’ve succeeded in gouging out their eyes for good (in a kind and helpful way). Anyone got any sharp things I can borrow?

This next one is of a sea-dwelling being, more powerful than a mermaid or mere Nixie. I was influenced by an artist called Cristos Achilleos who argued that mermaids wouldn’t have scaley tails, as they were essentially mammals, and I followed suit, though being supernatural I guess it doesn’t really matter in the end. I have an affinity for the ocean or any watercourse, except black pools that hide engulfment and destruction. I’m gonna do a malevolent fae based on that.

I did this next one whilst on a cruise ship in the med and though that was some few years past, I still like it and intend to colour it, perhaps in the next wave of aelf. It represents the wind made manifest and the freedom that I sensed at that time. The fae is poised in motion before the disc of a twilight sun, whether set or rise does not matter as they are both the same moment seen from different places on the world’s surface.

Things that were, and things that are …

2008-04-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

.. and things that yet may be. Though the world of Edadh is populated with all manner of original races, cultures, flora and fauna, as well as various alternative spins on things, this isn’t to say we’re not fans of the tried and tested.

Folklore and fantasy as it is well known is a great interest of mine – being those realms of dragons, elves and dwarves, magicians, faerie, knights and arch villains.

One of my favourite and well read reference books details elves, faery folk or little people as you like. Written a long while back, I have yet to find a contemporary better. My knowledge of the fair folk was forged here and it was an early reference tool in creating the differing wildspirits of Edadh, as well as for influencing my Dreamcrows faery. The Edadh Vaechi are unique in character, but the ideas that came from that tome helped to organise our ideas for the wildspirits. My mum was kind enough to let me have the book, which was hers originally, mostly because I’d kind of permanently borrowed it.

I’ve sketched dragons of varying kinds and will post some of the coloured artworks on Dreamcrows in the future. I’m contemplating introducing a sketchbook section to the site, cos I have A LOT of sketchwork that will otherwise never be seen and which I hope might prove insightful. Of standard fantasy and of alternative, including early Edadh concepts. Some choice illus.

There’s cartoons yet to be realised too, some of which I’ll have to change due to being beaten to the post by others in regards to characters I’d concieved of years ago (martial artist princesses being one, damn yous – maybe I’ll keep them in anyway)

Most of my projects are about a decade old or more. Some have roots that go back further still. I have short stories, part done long stories, songs I’ve recorded with friends from years ago, poems (I might not inflict these on you, though some of them are silly and funny), and ideas for online comics. Oh, and another story (collaberation with my brother again). Some day I’ll have to learn how to work harder so I can realise them all. I’d like to add music to parts of the Dreamcrows site, perhaps to accompany my illustrated story, so to add atmosphere.

Just the other day I finished that illu I mentioned in the last proper post. I’ll be posting it to the Dreamcrows website sometime in the next couple of months, I hope.

Still got a lot of artwork to do on the War for Edadh game, which always takes priority, but I did get inspiration for a flame-haired knife-wielding elf sketch in the early hours of monday morning. That’s right, the sketch was brandishing knives and demanding realisation. My next insomnia I’ll polish it up and scan it in to colour. The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about (though I’ve thought about it – and the result was fold-out paper snowflakes made from all my other sketches and pages from books, with the elf sketch standing by and laughing maniacally. And pointing.)

pinch and a punch

2008-04-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

In the early hours of the morning i woke to find a gibbering monkey poised on the end of my nose - it was medium-sized and not at all heavy. I'll never smell again. Luckily, a portal opened and we were sucked into a cartoon world full of giraffes and donkeys who quickly transmogrified the monkey into a great song called 'circlesquare' (which is a great song, did i mention?). We didn't dance along to it cos that'd be silly, but the snunglebuck contemplated doing so.

Then i woke up.

Then i woke up again.

The long and the short of it is that i'm going to cut off my hands and splice flippers onto them at the earliest opportunity.

HA HA! FOOLED YOU! You thought it was all real didn't you? SUCKER!

Whistle while you work

2008-03-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

At the moment, as usual, I’m dividing my time between many projects. There’s the cards for the War for Edadh game and the upcoming cultures to illustrate. Plus the rules manual for the starter game demo that’s about to undergo playtesting.

But once in a while I get to do something different. The little box art at the start of this post is a sneak peak at a work in progress that I’m doing for the guy who runs the ‘under the table gaming’ blog (check out the link). He’s created a card game and asked me to do an illustration for one of the cards.

This illu was created from just the title for it, and that’s exactly the kind of thing I really enjoy doing – allowing my imagination very few bounds and just getting in create on it. It’s a lot of fun and though the concept sketch was the easy part, I’m having fun with progressing the colourwork. There’s so much to take into account.

I want to expand my faery line-up sometime too, as well as pursue the off-shoot idea of that, which involves animal spirits. I have a couple of sketches ready to go already, but finding the time is the hard part. It just has to wait. I even have finished art waiting in my general portfolio. It just needs the time to get it into a postable form and to post it.

Unless you’ve tried creating your own artistic product you just don’t grasp how much time, attention, thought and effort, time, energy and time is involved. One has to make sacrifices one didn’t conceive of before starting. The Edadh series of games has been like that. And continues to be. But it’s been great. We’ve ended up with what we concieved of at the beginning, those many years ago.

Interlude: What binds the Hunter to the Hunted?

2008-03-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

Why do master-mentors insist on speaking in riddles? Just spit it out, in plain words!

Following on from the theme of adaptations from the last post, this one borrows from legends and ye olde tales of olde.

This beauty really was an inspiration and a far cry better than the modern tosh. Taking odd legends and superstitions and making them ‘real’ in this classic hero story was genius and brave. What it did was give it a dark edge and actually made it more real than story interpretations which avoid the supernatural like the plague. There’s something lacking about historical accounts that ignore this theme.

Of course, the old Flynn movie was great too, but for other reasons.

I once tried to write my own Spectrum game about Robin of Sherwood in Basic. I got a title page with a picture of a tree stump and the title words in the same style as the show, followed by a screen where an arrow flew across the top of the screen and stopped in a target far right. Without leaving a trail behind it. Took me ages. And I mean ages. But that’s the kind of motivation I got from the series. Lego castles included.

Some things never change. Creating the Edadh universe took well over a decade in all. And fleshing it out is ongoing. But during that time my art got better and I was able to put on paper what was in my head more easily and more swiftly. And the world got better realised too. It had time to marinade and acquired a better flavour for it. And depth. But all that’s to come.

In Robin of Sherwood there was something about having the characters grounded in a gritty and ‘real’ setting (rather than technicolor swashbuckling escapades of earlier decades) that I found very satisfying. The fights were simple and sweaty affairs and most unglamorous. Compare this to Flynn-style swordplay and the duels of films like Scaramouche or Crouching Tiger and there’s a wide gap in style.

For the Edadh games we were inspired by both. We wanted combat to be ‘realistic’ – taking into account the various factors that influence an actual conflict. But we wanted that swashbuckling, cinematic feel to it too – swinging on chandeliers, leaping on tables etc. In one-on-one combat (later releases than War for Edadh will introduce this) this will hopefully show.

For the flash stories, mainly we’re just trying to help people get a feel for the world itself and the various cultures that live in it. That’s the prime motivation, aside from enjoying writing stories in the Edadh world. So some tales may not have wild and crazy derring-do, but rather show a portion of the lifestyle of some folks. Grounded in the ‘reality’ of peoples’ lives, as it were. Which is not to say there aren’t any buckles being swashed. There are lots of buckles.

Interlude: Bed and Breakfast in Isengard ..

2008-03-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

.. Understand?

There are some things that inspired me more than others as I grew up. Eventually, the net result of those fantastical inspirations would result in my brother and I crafting our own fantasy world. The same brother who haunted the countryside of the Isle of Wight with me, fighting Black Riders, and other coloured riders to boot (never content to keep things just the same).

This particlular inspiration addicted me to animation ever since, not to mention galvanising our interest in fantasy. But whether you agree with me about this being a good film, it did have the most unnerving black riders. All that slipping in and out of their shadowy world (Fly! Fly! The enemy is upon us!)

Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings animated film was an atmospheric affair, but was dissapointingly never finished.(come baaack. Come baaack!) But then again, in later years some other chap made the books into a trilogy. You may have come across them – the extended versions being the best. And perhaps visually better realised than Bakshi’s noble attempt, (it probably helped that certain artists had refined and defined the look of it over the years).

It’s always tricky, this film-from-book adaptation thing. You have to treat the movie as another viewpoint of the same myth, rather than a straight crossover, or there’s gonna be dissapointment. That hurdle overcome, there are some great films in this vein.

And what did this rotoscoped affair lend us? Mostly, it fuelled our imaginations.

I’d like to see an animated series or film set in the Edadh universe (wanted to be an animator since seeing this. Yet another of my as yet unfulfilled ambitions.) None of this modern digital malarky that doesn’t quite look right, though. It’s odd how cell animated characters have more life and humanity to them than these ‘realistic’ CGI ones.

Actually, my style of illustration for the inhabitants of Edadh was deliberate, thinking ahead with regards to graphic novels and to this idea of an animated story. Being inspired by artists in these fields naturally influenced my style in this direction anyhow. I wanted the look to be consistant, however, to look almost the same whether on the cards, website, in books, graphic novels or animated film / tv series.

Perhaps I could add more atmosphere with shadows and such, and I’m sure I will along the way when it becomes appropriate, like when we delve into the underearth…

And I do already have ideas for a comic. I just need the time to do it.

Is this Love that I'm feeling?

2008-03-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

Maybe. Maybe not. It all depends which Race you’re from. In Edadh, there are many races, and each has it’s own unique origin myth. Each also has it’s own identifying characteristics.

These characteristics are not just physical. I mean, this is the most obvious way to identify one race from another, but we decided that there would be departures mentally aswell.

Love and family is one of these where from race to race there is a different attitude and emotional manifestation. Some races are inclined for a pair to mate and stay together for life. And others like to love 'em and leave 'em, as it were. Some have a matriarchal societal inclination. Others, some other system. Where children are concerned there are differing attitudes about who gets to raise them and how.

And Love? Well, not all races display this emotion, as such, but may have a variation of it - a particular manifestation of it which also defines them. This really only comes into play in later releases, like the RPG, but given that I’m yakking on about the world I thought I’d mention it.

In cultures where there is a mix of races, this will have become, once a curiosity and a point of no-understanding, accepted and understood. Who knows. In cases where one race abandons a child to fend for itself, maybe some other race will have adopted it? – there ain’t no interbreeding in Edadh. The races are not ethnics. They’re very different.

There are ethnics, however, for each particular race. Some don’t bother to distinguish them – as in the Meoqai who are, or are not, amphibious and have families that span between them. Others, like the Tior-Cur, have clear distinction between ethnics, in the case of the Tior-Cur interbreeding does not occur between these ethnics.

Family is recognised as a foundation of society and in Edadh we thought it would help to make the races and cultures more interesting.

And what of other emotions or mental functions? Here and there we’ve thought about this too. It’s said that the Ohl-Ver-Ku feel no actual pain, and the Suqoya are without conscience. And so on.

For the current gen on races and cultures check out the WarriorElite website. Over time this will be expanded, but as it stands at present, I hope it offers a good perspective on who lives in a place like this world of Edadh.

It was a Time of War ..

2008-03-15T07:12:00.001-07:00

..said the voice-over man in a deep, resonating and husky voice. And indeed it is. But what’s it all about?”Can’t we all just get along!”

Not a chance. The world of Edadh was crafted in the cauldron of conflict to make for an interesting playing field. But at the end of the day, taking a look at the cultures of Earth, one sees vast variation in lifestyles and belief systems. And who’s to say one is right and the other is wrong?

We created cultures with histories, customs and beliefs that made them individual one to the next. Partly for the sake of variation and subsequent interest, which was actually the prime motive.

But where there is this cultural difference, well, there’s the opportunity for conflict. Plain old intolerance, historical animosities, and of course, prime cause of war, those who profit from it somehow.

Which takes me on to the Powers and Factions of Edadh. These agendas are the motivations of one, some or many in Edadh and they often are opposed one to another because of their particular ideologies. Let’s face it, where there’s fascism there’s going to be some who don’t appreciate it. Same goes for anything that gets enforced, especially to the detriment of others. And in Edadh there are those who are zealous enough to do just that.

The most common enemy lies in not the Huaos-Dzaa, conquerors and subjugators and rulers of the known world though they are, but in Luageth, or whatever he is called in whatever dialect. The Evil One. The not necessarily real, but postulated identity that is supposed to govern the antics of malicious and evily motivated creatures and individuals. And races. (Suqoya). Well, according to the majority verdict. Who knows for sure? This is the motivation that causes chaos, havoc and degredation, as well as the snuffing out of life, whether or not there’s someone behind it.

And in opposition? Perhaps no-one and everyone. What? No force for good? We created many political ideologies in a shades-of-grey world. But we do have a system in place that caters for what could be deemed good or evil. In later releases this will come into play more and more. Though the Vaechi are in opposition to the Fiadrytch (said to be evil), they are not themselves seen to be ‘good’, being fickle and cruel sometimes. So there is a duality that’s useful for design work. But it’s not neccesarily good vs evil. It’s more about turf wars, maybe.

Each faction has some agenda, a purpose and goals. Some may be benevolent, others malevolent. Some a mix of both. And each faction has something to gain by war or by alliance, by trade or by monopoly.

What do you reckon? Is it gonna work?

These guys need some way to live

2008-03-09T06:20:00.000-07:00

In fact, we wanted variation, and not just between the different races. We wanted cultures that were not necessarily composed or originated by just one race.

Looking at history, there are a whole ton of ideas, customs, technologies etc that have been passed around between the cultures of Earth. The Roman empire had a mix of ethnics, as does the contemporary global empire.

The cultures began as a series of ideas, like “Let’s have a hilltop-living bunch of guys who eat hamsters for breakfast!” except without the hamster part.

Carrying on in a similar fashion it wasn’t long before we had quite a few cultures. From there we departed, as some of these were quite close to historical ones, being ‘things we wanted in the Edadh universe’ (except it was un-named then). So we took elements we really liked, that we thought defined these cultures of ours and made them interesting, and went from there.

Years later as the world became better crafted, time was spent finalising the history, based on the races etc we’d come up with. After that had been nailed, some things changed, in races and cultures, mostly to ensure that each would be a culture we’d want to have a character originate from, making them distinctive. Eventually, it was noticed that it would be necessary to organise these races and cultures completely with regards to Edadh’s history and how we wanted them in the world’s present.

The look of each culture, the pastimes, the customs, the skills, the languages et al. are all in accordance with this integrated history. Where alliances were made, so too did costume and architectural styles get influenced. And so on. The look of the cultures was thus organised and I was able to draw finished illustrations and know they would fit, continuity-wise. In fact, this step was essential to being able to get the look of each culture’s architecture.

The Huaos-Dzaa Empire, rulers of the world were it not for the rebels (scum) and those minor cultures still at large, needed a distinctive look. Check out my post on the WarriorElite forum on Huaos-Dzaa for more on this.

In the Beginning there was a Meoqai

2008-03-08T04:36:00.001-08:00

Although they weren’t called Meoqai then. Indeed, temp-named though they were, these early attempts at unique races would spark the idea that would eventually inhabit the entire universe of Edadh.

You can check out the races currently on show by visiting WarriorElite. There are others, as yet avoiding the limelight.

The real idea came some time after we’d been living with humans and our own spin on dwarves (no mountains or big beards involved here, and certainly no stubborn holding to grudges), and these dwarf-like folk survived the human extinction, but underwent their own transmogrification in later years, becoming the race of Ithei.

So what was the idea? It wasn’t particularly original, but unlike the contemporary theory we get taught (or not) in school, our spin on it didn’t leave any holes or gaps in the final logic. Yep, I’m talking about evolution.

The part relevant to this little post is Man from Ape. I split the animal types up and ‘evolved’ races from these - mammals, reptiles, birds. (the ‘fish’ came later on, after it was seen we needed a common enemy, a race who were bad and under the wing of evil – the other races are not good or evil, you see, in our shades of grey world)

An lo, there were land bound fellas who had certain racial characteristics that would make them unique, one from the other, and interesting therefore to play. (the games began as an RPG)

I honed their looks over the years, and their racial characteristics changed a little too. I didn’t want them to look like men with cat heads etc, so spent some effort into creating a balanced look between humanoid and animal. Maybe I could have added certain other features and made them even less human, maybe not, but I decided on how they look now for various reasons, one being to avoid excessive originality (see previous posts, ‘Alternative how?’). Though wait till you see the .. um. Well, we’ll come to them some time in the future.

I hope I succeeded in creating an integrated array of races whose presence in the world fits snugly together alongside everything else.

They’ve even got their own Origin Myths, which stem not only from the religious inclinations of the cultures that exist in the present of the world, but having passed down from the depths of Edadh’s history for each of the races themselves, whether true or not.

You’ll notice that races and cultures are not synonymous in our game. I’ll talk about the cultures next.

this Alternative Fantasy

2008-03-07T04:48:00.001-08:00

Middle Earth has become so synonymous with the word ‘fantasy’ that people have taken to using ‘alternative fantasy’ to describe something that isn’t grounded in Tolkien’s vision.

Long ago, when it came to creating a fantasy universe in which the games of WarriorElite would be set, my brother and I started with the notion that it would not include the classic Tolkien elves, dwarves, orcs etc. We also knew we didn’t want to have a pseudo-historical setting either (medieval fantasy) and early on, dragons died an ignoble death (it was a hard fought battle). We really wanted something different and fresh.

However, there are certain fantasy elements that are rife throughout history, mythology and legend, as well as fiction, that we knew would have to play a role. Magic. A certain level of technology. Heroes. Trees. Populaces.

So there would be very recognisable elements in our universe. But how would we make them unique? As in, how could we put our own spin on them? Obviously, we didn’t want to get into making the universe so offbeat that people would find nothing of familiarity in it and so be put off. Also, we wanted various things we really liked to have a place.

So we continued by making a map (the true origin of which might never be known). Then we populated it with ideas. We wanted this kind of culture and that kind of blah, and before long we had a world, kinda. It was a starting place.

We knew as we went along that as we went over it and fleshed out the cultures etc that we would make it more and more differing. Indeed, the first races here appeared, some of which exist today, others of which never made it. Like the humans.

Now that was a bold move, methinks. How do you get rid of humans and still have a strong enough point of reality that players can identify with?

Our decision was helped along the way by predecessors, by those in the world of the arts who had successfully done the same, the particular example that springs to mind involving bits of broken crystal. This wonderful work of art really showed what could be done with a fantasy world. Without humans.

We spent a little time debating this, going over the pros and cons of it. And in the end they were wiped out, the race extinguished, like they had never been at all…

And that’s what I’ll get into, next post. The races of Edadh.

Elves, Fae and the Folk of Lore

2008-03-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

Arthur Rackham set the standard for folklore for some time, in my humble opinion. He illustrated many stories, the Brothers Grimm and Washington Irving being two authors that spring to mind. I still consider his illustrations as the official ones for ‘Wind in the Willows’, ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland’ amongst others.

His work has greatly influenced that of artists who followed, with little variation, although a number of artists in more recent years have put their own distinctive stamp on things (probably the source of their popularity).

Still, however influential these artists are, i found myself inclining to my own ideas on the matter. I read a lot of books on folklore and mythology and came to know about the fey spirits of the world – well, okay, mostly europe – and these creatures found a place in the world of Edadh, albeit in a new form. Actually, I suspect they’d been there already, we just hadn’t discovered them.

Further study of nature spirits, little folk, Sidhe and of other cultures of the world broadened my knowledge. Fascinating stuff and I intend to go back and find out more, whether it’s Native American nature spirits, or Japanese animal spirits, or …

Over time, my sketchwork came closer to visualising the ideas that existed in the corners of my imagination. (ever had an idea you just can’t seem to duplicate on paper?)

A concerted effort was made to once and for all pin down their look. Actually, that last effort was fairly quick and painless, which sometimes happens. One of these sketches appears in the glossary of WarriorElite’s website (makers of the Edadh world and games) under Vaechi (the name we gave the wildspirits of that world). Check it out. I’ll talk about these in more detail in a future post. Their realisation was almost simultaneous to that of the look of Edadh’s demonic entities, the Fiadrytch (see glossary again).

I also delved into portraying fae from traditional folklore, like Redcaps and Night Elves, to satisfy that interest. The image I use as my avatar (top right of this blog) is part of this series, though itself is a Clanspirit of Edadh, inspired by house elves like Domoviye (Russian folklore) which is why it’s part of that series. They generally have a more humanoid look, but I wanted to have them as if made of light, an aetheral appearance as if they could wink in and out of our world as they will. Having a black background helped a lot. You can see the ones in existance so far by visiting my Dreamcrows website (a name inspired by that Rackham fellow again).

The Edadh Vaechi generally differ from this overtly humanoid approach.

I intend to realise some more folklorians at some point, but the world of Edadh is very demanding of my time. Just as well I enjoy visualising this alternative fantasy of ours, really.

Alternative how? part 2 - whence did it come?

2008-03-05T06:06:00.000-08:00

I just can’t help myself. No matter how I try, I can’t stick within the set boundaries and end up making something that departs from the norm or expected in some way or another. It’s part of what helps me to breath.

I grew up on a staple diet of imagination, as do most kids, and was helped along the way by skeletons from hydra teeth, silver arrows, sparklers on the back of black and white spaceships, boys that never grow up, haunted trees and three rings for the elven kings, to name but a few.

Some images stay with you, others are culturally adopted. Like Rackham’s Elves. Indeed, this look has lasted a long time and has been much emulated. I know it’s influenced me.

Middle Earth was a place for geeks/outcasts for many years. Jackson changed that for good and it was nice to see the original form of that particular fantasy take it’s rightful place above the pretenders. Not that the pretenders all sucked. Cos indeed, if certain games had not been made then perhaps my attentions may have wandered away from the exploits of heroes within that alternative world of orcs and elves and dragons.

So yeah, you’ll see familiarity in my work, but originality too. I have stamped my own particular viewpoint and ideas into the art.

The ‘elves’ of Edadh (ee-dath) are somewhat different than you may have seen before – I’ll pick up on these in subsequent posts.

The world of Edadh itself is a departure from the fantasy mythos that has almost become synonamous with fantasy itself. Wrongly so. Fantasy is vast, and I hope the world of Edadh proves this. (Here also, you will find points of familiarity. How can we not be influenced by all that has come before that we admire? But I suspect you will find that it too departs into the differing, having a good portion of originality to make it satisfying and fresh)

As for whatever artworks I get myself into, in the end I hope that they are pleasing, originality and familiarity aside, because I don’t create art to ‘be original’. They should, as art, communicate something to you, the viewer, wherever you are! (hahahahahahaaaaaa – okay so that’s a straight rip from Count Duckula)

Alternative how?

2008-03-04T03:02:00.000-08:00

The words ‘unique’, ‘original’ and such have without a doubt been overused and abused by marketing departments. However, in some cases they do indeed apply.

The danger of originality is, if it’s too much so, no-one will get it and you lose the audience. There must be some reality that resonates, or strikes a chord. So in creating art, if one wants to be original, that balance of originality and familiarity must be maintained, that line walked.

In the end of it all, that new artwork will create a new flavour of biscuit to add to the tin, which some say has gone stale, others that the flavours are too few or grown tiresome. Some may be content with the selection to hand. There are biscuits already in the proverbial tin that are tasty indeed (some people don’t like fig rolls, but that doesn’t make them any less excellent biscuits to those who favour them), but sometimes it takes a fresh look at things to appreciate the old flavours.

But that’s an aside actually. I don’t try to ‘be original’. I just create the art I want to create, with a mind to those who are gonna view it. After all, if you don’t get it, what was the point?

I realise I walk that fine line, and perhaps with regards to some of my work it will take familiarity with my particular way of thinking, my style, to really get it. I do try to make it easy, but sometimes my desire for detail, or the particular idea in my head gets the better of me. Take the picture to the right for example. Maybe you get it (there's five hands in there), but certainly it's harder to view than the image top left of this post. And i didn't make it smaller on purpose, it was designed to be this size.

In future posts I’ll go over various stuff in my portfolio, past (oh dear) and present and I hope you’ll stick around to see stuff that may otherwise never see the light of day. We’ll see. All said and done, I just hope you get a kick out of it.