#dragonintelligence

[desert-of-song]

I've been enjoying a lot of HK/Silksong & MIO fanart here so I decided to share my contribution as well: mostly little doodles on various mediums (they helped me a lot when I had an art block)

However I haven't drawn fanart since, so this is all I got for now.

[desert-of-song]

Desmond, dwarf rogue barbarian, is my character in my second campaign (same universe as Simone but hundreds of years ago on a different continent). He's a war veteran turned mercenary, now hired to help a resistance movement within an elven empire that conquered his home and now oppressed his kind.

Me playing Simone: *loves using Disguise Self, Dissonant Whispers, Shatter & Aid, loves magical items, has backstory about her and her band playing magical music*

Me playing Desmond: *rage & slash people with daggers yayy sneak attack yayy reckless attack yayy frenzy, no need to worry about spellcasting and shit*

[desert-of-song]

Here's another NPC from Simone's backstory, and part of the polycule (Simone x Hector x Vivian), together with some very summarized lore:

Hector Sterling, half elf musician and instrument maker, was known for his innovations in magical music and audio recording technology. He formed a band with his best friends & lovers Simone and Vivian, planning to travel the whole world. But the anti-magic empire in their path ruined everything.. One day after a shocking twist, Hector and Vivian were arrested for rebellion against the empire, only Simone managed to escape. Now his fate is unknown, but it seems the inquisition has acquired some of his skills.. how could this be?

And some more art of him:

Finally, the inspiration behind his face / hair was my older design interpretation of The Historian from Ayreon The Source (concept album), and by extension his singer James LaBrie. But I diverged quite a bit from that.

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Yes they were in fact made to be matchy !!! Both of these were for a DTIYS challenge on BlueSky because I loved the pose, and I mean why not draw the enemies in the same pose? 👀

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Here's the antagonist in Simone's backstory: Tommy the inquisitor. Once a friend, then traitor. Find some lore below these images but it's very summarized:

Thomas / Tommy used to be a folk woodwind musician living peacefully in a glorious empire. He joined Simone's band, but later learned that they were spellcasters and rebels against his home. After some internal conflict, he took matters into his own hands and got them arrested (but Simone escaped).

Now he's an inquisitor climbing up the ranks, thus ending his flutist career. His motives and fate are unknown, but it seems he got his hands on Hector's recording tech, and he's contributing to an invasion on the neighboring free city harboring mages and fugitives (does he know Simone is there?)

Here's some more art of him during various moments of the story (while the first 2 pieces are him in the present, these are from the past)

(bro has a lot of hairstyle changes, will be a nightmare to make a reference sheet)

His design and name were secretly inspired by Thomas Giles from Between The Buried and Me (particularly the long hair & beard phase, and his younger self) but shh 🫣

[desert-of-song]

"Nooooo don't turn me into a playing card" *AAAAAAAAAAAA*

Anyways I tried something out and it turned out pretty cool I think? (Note: the suit is a crimson sun instead of a heart or other suit because it's the symbol of Tommy's inquisition order)

[desert-of-song]

I can't believe I forgot to introduce the OG: my first DND character Ice Storm, who was in fact based off an old dragon OC, then she had 2 different iterations of DND dragonborn. Here's some art and lore of the latest iteration:

Ice Storm, dragonborn drakewarden ranger, was my character from a now finished campaign, in a separate universe from the rest. She was the heir to the throne of her clan, which she didn't want, but preferred it over her family's tyrannical rule. But her family had other plans and cast her aside. She was exiled and teleported somewhere far away. Here, she was hoping to recover, and either move on, or return to face her family, but she was left with no choice when this new land was suddenly invaded by blood monsters. She joined forces with some random people to survive, navigate the land, take on quests to make some cash, and gradually aid in destroying the cult of Bhaal, the source of blood monsters and blood rain plaguing the island. Which in the end was successful. Somewhere along the way, she developed an aberrant dragonmark, maybe related to her heritage but still unknown. The campaign was finished, but I have yet to come up with a personal conclusion for her, and there was a personal side plot that wasn't finished.

She also has a draconic spirit companion manifested as a small drake, called Lantern Light. He grew over time until he became a majestic dragon. He's summoned by an item signaling dragonborn leadership in a clan, which Ice Storm got her hands on after some complicated family drama, but she had no idea of what it truly did.

In the first iteration she was a Druid circle of stars. She was my first ever DND character, and initially I wanted to make a completely new design, but somehow I got the idea to reuse an old character design and turn her from a dragon into a dragonborn. I briefly wanted to do the same with other old OCs, such as Silver Claw (her evil sister), Frozen Ocean (who was meant to be her girlfriend) and Eaticx (who was meant to be her child). Eventually I decided that only Silver Claw existed in the DND universe to avoid confusion. However, later in the second iteration, Frozen Ocean does exist as well but I didn't establish relationships or lore. Anyways, in the old iteration the backstory is pretty similar but the actual campaign premise was different. She was still teleported against her will to a random place (now different), and she lived like a hermit for years, learning the ways of the druid from another dragonborn called Token, who eventually died. She later got the courage to interact with civilisation so she joined an adventurers' guild, hoping to learn more about where she is and how to get back home. Or maybe forget it all and live a new life? Anyways, she's just been adventuring with various people, and making some money.

[desert-of-song]

Here's some DND OC doodles I've done over the years (it's actually crazy to say that but they've been around since 2024 😭)

(yes I often use Procreate canvases as if they were digital sketchbook pages, it's more fun this way but it's also very chaotic)

Some designs are changing but the overall concepts are the same. And this series also features some of Simone's magical disguises (with different plumage colors), concepts, even a couple AUs, headshots of Simone's parents, Titan Claw (the band's dog, which is the reiteration of an old OC), the DND party's unnamed dog, and an unnamed OC I recently designed as another NPC in Simone's story, yet again based off a metal singer (Alissa White Gluz)