Casus Belli art

Hello! I'm Casus Belli, I draw as a hobby about history, fantasy and other things because why not? Hope you enjoy. Primary account on Twitter (@CasusBelliGrey) , If you want to pay me to draw something, contact over Twitter or Discord

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Random grab bag of sketches I've made rescently (most based off Umamusume) because I hurt my hand recently and haven't made any big drawings because of it

Given I only check on my tumblr once every three months or so, I swear some day I'll find out some character of mine became popular but only realize it like 2 months after the fact

That time ain't this time though given it's just a sketch dump of Levinas

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"LET CHAOS REIGN UNDER THE EYE OF THE BLOOD MOON" Laroux Mehnot: Heel, agent of chaos, law student at Levina's University. Minor antagonist for my slice of life fantasy setting. She's one for theatrics. Self appointed Dark Lord, The Eye of the Blood Moon, The Shadow Queen, Master of the Blightwind, The Eclipse, Destruction Given Form, The Student Council's bane, and so on and so forth. Depending on what role she's playing any given day. LaRoux Mehnot (and a yet unnamed counterpart), a chaos - order duo in the university, with the counterpart being the head of the student council and a bastion of strict order, while Mehnot is basically the opposite, posing herself as an agent of chaos in a very "Traditional fantasy villain" kinda way, with all the theatrics that entails despite mostly being on the slice of life side of the setting, so the funny bit is going on all out on the theatrics despite the low stakes, she's very chuuni even for setting standards. An artistic soul she'd call herself. She does this anime villain thing for the love of the game

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Leysa rides out from the Cossack quarter of the chained city, it had been some time since she's felt the wind on her face and rhythmic beat of horseshoes on the stones of the road leading out of the city

The grievances with the months of policing a city in the middle of nowhere, seemed to be left behind at the gates of the city, as she crossed the curtain of magic that held the city together, and kept the wilds beyond, it felt like a curtain of cold rain as she rode past the shadows of the pillars chaining the earth, taming mountains surrounding the city like a tamer trying to break the will of a thrashing beast. It wasn't long until she was past the few camps, lodges and ruins scattered beyond the city, being left alone with her thoughts, and the cold wind battering her tail.

Her people had carved paths through these lands for centuries, they were the only ones hailing from the empire that could claim to have thrived here in Sylbryzar, where mountains consumed forests in avalanches, rivers carved through the land like worms through flesh and even the most lowly elements of nature seemed aware and in an ecosystem humans could barely grasp. It was her people that lead the armies of the Tsars to conquer the orient, when the very land had humbled them before. They didn't understand the food chain of these lands, they believed that like back west, the empire could impose itself above them. They still didn't today, they just did as her hetman told, not wanting to risk the weakest link in the chain that kept half the empire together. Today her people, she, was guiding the empire once more.

As she passed underneath the canopy of trees, trying to follow the shifting roads, she noticed that the mountains in the distance had moved since the last time she went scouting months prior, it was slight but she knew the land well, the shadows of the mountain lined up differently with the rest of the valley. In a few months she expected there to be earthquakes as the mountain ground against its rival. Just more work to do.

She didn't particularly believe it could be done, to link up both sides of the railroads east and west of these mountains through Vladizveri. Though she admitted that the last time she even saw a train was when she went to western cities years ago. Maybe something had changed. Maybe the Tsars hadn't changed at all.

She breathed fire to keep herself warm, as her blade cut through foliage that could obstruct the path, or grab someone walking on foot, her horse going around the foliage and animal tracks that she hoped didn't drag anyone off the road with it. At least it was something to keep her out of the city, there was little do there apart from alcohol, which she feared was much the same in any other city between the northern frontier and the south pole.

Maybe it was the monotony of the hours of riding, maybe it's due to months of being stuck in the city, maybe it was tiredness or the whims of fate, but before Leysa even realized she had gotten distracted with her own thoughts, she was almost knocked off her horse by a shadow leaping from the brush.

Reeling and barely staying on the saddle by steadying herself with her tail, knick of blood between her scales, she spun around to see what it was while reaching for the revolver she kept with her at all times. A disheveled deer aggressive posture, twisted horns and teeth, eye transfigured to look forward, a parasitic Bes.

She missed her first shot as her horse was spooked from the sudden attack, cold mist bloomed from the barrel as ice crystals formed where the engraved bullet hit. She couldn't afford to miss more shots with her engraved bullets, both literally and metaphorically.

As the monster prepared to charge at her again, her body tensed, her breathing focused, beads of sweat formed despite the cold as she summoned the power of her gift. As the Bes jumped back to escape the pillar of flame.

For a few more moments, the Bes and Leysa circled around each other, it knew that it couldn't attempt another wild charge less it incinerate both itself and its host. Leysa held her breath, rather not waste more bullets or energy fighting it, charging it would make it desperate, she still had a long way to go, more dangerous things could be found in the forest.

A mutual understanding was reached. Neither was the most dangerous threat to the other here, and only the tides of magic know what the sound of gunshot could attract.

They very slowly parted ways, not taking eyes off each other until the other was sure the other couldn't turn around and leap on them as soon as they turned around.

The Cossack was only glad she ran into a predator, they rather not fight to the death. Someone more foolish would've tried to fight it, take it home as a trophy, she might've done it elsewhere, but not here.

She continued the ride in tense silence, loosening buttons on her coat to let the heat of the fire within escape, riding quicker hoping to evade anything large that might have been alerted by the sudden noise. She only could wonder how the more "civilized" folk from the capital would fare here with their armies and trains. She guessed her people would have to be the tip of the Tsar's spear once more, ensuring the weakest link of the chain with their thrones and ballrooms couldn't break the second weakest link of the empire out in the wilds of Sylbryzar.

Writer's notes: Some early sketch designs of Leysa. My idea roughly with the setting is to make the fantastical mundane, and the mundane fantastical. So for Leysa, her having a gift of a dragon is fairly mundane as everyone in the setting by design has a gift of magic (even if not always a dragon themed one), while also working out how historical Cossacks could be integrated into a fantasy setting, especially one in the rough time period equivalent to the turn of the 20th century, plus some lore on one of the more magical places in the setting. Also I had fun looking up and reinterpreting some folklore, like the Bes, making it sort of a parasitic spirit taking over a deer. Also I finally found a good use for Tumblr. To post some of my longer lore dumps (with older art) I had confined to just sharing to my art friends because they were too long for any reasonable tweet. If the formatting is weird is because I just copy pasted it from somewhere else. One day I MIGHT post the actual intro and explanation to this setting rather than just randomly posting art and lore dumps of side characters.

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Huh. I have really forgotten this account lol, I thought I made it last year

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Circe Orloj, The witch of circuses

Circe Orloj is the owner and mysterious ringmaster of the Magicae et circenses , an odd woman few have met, always with her top hat and short velvet dress, she's a powerful magician having earned the nickname of the "Witch of circuses", her specialty being time and spacial magic, allegedly being able to carry her entire circus in a single train car, and her home in a single suitcase, that way she can travel in the luxuries of the Mercurio express with her entire circus without needing to deal with the hassle of logistical trains. Though her expertise with spacial magic is beyond what most can typically imagine, her heart is with the ticking hands of time. The clockwork heart Circe Orloj, the witch of circuses has an open secret of being a clockwork Curio. A human, as broad as the definiton is within the world of the Belle Époque, created in very rare occasion by the surges of the tides of magic, transmuting and giving life to which that does not live, be it as something that resembles a human or as a sentient, floating, talking object. In her case, a longcase clock.

Which explains how she seemingly appeared from nowhere, though looking and feeling human on the surface, the giveaways are in her metallic bones and joints, apart from her teeth and visible clockwork on her back and around her clavicle. If it's quiet and you pay attention you might hear her heart ticking, though you might confuse it with your pocket watch. She's one of the only known people on the continent to have a gift of time magic and one of only two within the story to have truly mastered it. Stopping, accelerating or otherwise bending time to her whim in feats that would not be possible for most magicians. For being of clockwork she's not very structured, being very determined but also doing a lot of thing on her own whims, she runs a traveling circus after all, routine isn't part of her modus operandi, leaving the schedules and timetables of the shows and trains to her more mathemathically gifted companions. The traveling circus of the Magicae et circenses isn't just a circus but it's also a network or secret society of skilled magic users, entertainers, performers and Curio all across the continent, usually they just help setting up the performances where the main circus travels, but Circe is also on her own personal joruney, to expose other more harmful secret societies, of all kinds, be it simply ones comitting petty abuses, to societies spanning the great empires of the continent, dedicated to unearthing dangerous powers for their own ends. Most recently she's looking into investigating the Order of the broken trinity, one whose plans are unraveled by the main story (which I won't delve on here)

(First art with her old surname) I dunno if anyone will actually read this, but hey, at least I remembered to post anything to my Tumblr account for once. This more of a synopsis and art collection I've made for this secondary character for the past year or so, so if it seems kinda scatterbrained it's because it is For some extra fun facts about her. She might be a weird mixture of human and clockwork (the fleshy looking bits are in fact, made of flesh) , she is still a clock at the end of the day, the clocks in her pupils are accurate to the minute, and she actually gets a headache whenever it's off relative to the solar noon, like when moving time zones or messing too much with time magic. So despite perpetually knowing what hour it is, she's somehow always 5 minutes late

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Cendrine, the ashen alchemist An alchemy student in my setting at the same university as Levina, her magical gift is one that means her entire body is made of ash Further lore: Though the in universe standard for being a normal human are pretty low in the setting, the accursed, those with bodies entirely made of non-flesh are some of the few to not clear that low bar, Cendrine being one of them, daughter of the new middle-upper class forming in Laucia, her body is entirely made of ash that from an early age she's come to view as annoying contaminant to her own experiments as best and as an embarassment at worst. She hopes to compensate for her gift by becoming a respectable and skilled alchemist, alongside her two best friends and fellow accursed, Gladia and Anaheim.

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The White Pearl. Cyberpunk RED Rocker PC

You don't believe in no fate I might just dig up your grave Step in the pit with the snakes City of dreams, live in your grave

Pealr and her Sandevistan, she has gotten one since last time I posted about her Have to admit, completely forgot I owned a Tumblr account and it's been like a year since I posted, so here's an update on my art

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La Marionette In universe movie poster of my setting, cinema is just now becoming a thing and Khalida is one of the first movie stars

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Perlé Jolie, a character in my current Cyberpunk RED campaign! Been a while since I last drew her and she's gotten some equipment upgrades

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Levina is, very lost in the Laucian countryside. She's starting to think using an early motorist guide instead of a map was a bad idea. Some background practice

Fun fact, in her fantasy story its the rough equivalent of the late 1890s and early 1900s, right around the time Michelin released its first country guide for motorists. in her own setting, the Blanche motor company released a similar book

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Adelia is suffering through exam season, student witch I'm suffering in exam season too

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its a me, sheep boy

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Da sheep himself

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Arta, the iron lady. Solider based of the Ardiaean kingdom on my Belle Époque setting.

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Mean catgirl bully that is secretly a nerd

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The Ilkhanate

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Soleil Lumière-Solar, grandmother of Lucia Lumière and also a celestially gifted GILF

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Rhincy Whark, local Whale shark girl