#void knights

[chirons-mortar]

Void Knights: Dragons

Drawing for my brother's Void Knights setting. Once again these are mostly my ideas and they may differ from his vision and thus are not necessarily canon. I was trying to challenge myself to draw something different and I hope it worked out.

Ancient beings, Dragons are great beasts that survived the collapse of one of the many universes that came before the current one. They existed in realms whose very physics differed and within their bodies they continue to carry a piece of these old cosmoses. They expel the nature of these places on their breath, allowing them to alter the foundational laws of the current galaxy within their presence. No two Dragons are the same, and rarely do any two come from the same previous universe. Many dragons consider the current cosmos uncomfortable, finding its physics incompatible with their own, and thus they sequester themselves in lairs. In these lairs they dream of realms they once knew and sleep until one day the current universe comes to an end, and hope that the new one is more to their liking. In their sleep they slowly alter their domains with their breath, turning them into places more comfortable to their nature. Occasionally they may stir and venture out to gather things that remind them of the worlds they once knew, slowly building a trove within their realms. Most Dragons pose no threat as they are content to sleep through the eons, but occasionally they stir and harm Locals on their hunt for treasure. However, some grow tired of waiting and seek to hasten the destruction of the current universe in the hopes of bringing about one more to their liking. The Void Knights often challenge such threats, and many are famous Dragon slayers.

The Dragon depicted here takes the shape of a miniature spiral galaxy, literally carrying their ancient home within their being. This one has claimed an empty patch of space as their lair and is slowly shaping it to something more familiar and comfortable to their existence. They expel miniature planets and stars to populate their lair, and hopefully one day form a new galaxy where they may live at its center.

[reformedvillain]

Here’s a commission done for my friend, Scouser

Korasi from the game Runescape

[unclebladey-blog]

New set wowee

[chirons-mortar]

Void Knights: Gentry/Fairies

Another drawing for my brother's Void Knights setting, these are some of the least defined of his ideas and thus are the most non-canon of my takes on them. I was trying to draw something different but it did not really work out I think. They are inspired by the weird creatures in the margins of manuscripts called Drolleries, hence why they take the form of objects with various human appendages or features. Also inspired by the seven deadly sins and their corresponding colors on the rainbow.

The Gentry are photonic lifeforms made of light and wavelength. They are masters of illusion but possess relatively little material presence. However, their glamours are so realistic that they can fool most life into believing they are real. Most Gentry are fleeting ephemeral beings and pose no real threat, coming and going as they please or playing whimsical tricks, but others are malevolent, trapping Locals in lifelike mirages for their own amusement. Due to being light based, members of different wavelengths manifest differently, and are defined by a dominant color. These colors are often associated with alliances and certain demeanors called Courts.

Violet Court: The Violet Gentry are the most prideful and often kidnap Locals to be their servants.

Indigo Court: The Indigo Gentry are the most lustful and fickle, playing tricks on Locals or using them as playthings.

Blue Court: The Blue Gentry are the most slothful and passive, but they can harm Locals by trapping them in dreams and stupor.

Green Court: The Green Gentry are the most envious and often seek to replace Locals and take over their lives for themselves.

Yellow Court: The Yellow Gentry are the most greedy and often cast illusions on material treasures to keep to themselves.

Orange Court: The Orange Gentry are the most gluttonous and their ravenous behavior can drive worlds to famine.

Red Court: The Red Gentry are the most wrathful and often most malevolent, seeking to bring harm to Locals with their powers.

Anyway I do not think these really work for the setting, but at least it is different.

[chirons-mortar]

Void Knights

These are Void Knights for my brother's science fantasy setting. He describes them as beings called from the void to the material universe to save the Star Kingdoms from their various perils, such as wandering Giants, malicious Daemons, powerful Beasts, and ancient Dragons. He gave me a vague description of them which I worked off of for these drawings. Basically they are armored warriors but they are generally "off" in some way, not always adhering to proper anatomy or symmetry. If you try to look at their parts without armor all you can see is a deep abyss. The example he gave to me was a seemingly normal-ish knight at first glance, but on closer inspection has two arms on one side and a void within their helmet which I drew on the left. I added the detail of a bifurcated leg. I then tried to make another, this time a centaur Dullahan Void Knight with a hollow torso. He told me that Void Knights can make squires from the Locals, imbuing them with some of their abyssal nature, so I drew this Dullahan with a young ward who holds her helmet head for her in reference to this post he made.

[chirons-mortar]

Void Knights: Giants

This is art for my brother's setting Void Knights which is a science fantasy setting where cosmic knights summoned from the void encounter various fantasy tropes with science fantasy trappings. Note: While I have a write up below for them which contains my own ideas, my brother has final say and my description may not be 100% in line with his vision.

Born in the crucible of the galactic core, Giants survive in gravity and pressures that would crush even planets. They are beings of such super dense matter that they can bend light, matter, and gravity to their will. In recent centuries they have slowly migrated out of their oppressive homes to wander the less intense stars where they feel as light as a feather and as powerful as titans. The giant depicted in this image draws matter to their super dense body that forms an outer crust on their being. Just below this layer the matter they absorb condenses into lava under the pressure of their personal gravity. As they move their outer solid shell cracks and buckles, exposing the lava underneath only to reform and crust over once more during periods of inaction. As they walk they draw up and rip open the earth underneath. A master of gravitational forces, they can manipulate and crush objects from afar, bend light to become distorted invisible or devour it completely, and condense space itself to step between worlds.

[chirons-mortar]

Void Knights: Dragon (First Draft)

This is the first draft of a dragon for my brother's Void Nights setting. Quick summation, dragons are survivors of previous universes before the current one who exhale the physics of their ancient cosmos on their breath in order to shape the current one. Before I settled on the originally posted galaxy dragon motif, I instead was trying to go for an infinity motif, hence the coiling infinity symbol body. I still wanted it to breath miniature galaxies as a representation of them carrying the physics of an ancient cosmos within them. However I felt this drawing looked too much like a typical fantasy dragon rather than science fantasy being and I think the galaxy dragon I originally posted conveys it much better and makes them more strange. However, all dragons are unique and thus it is still perfectly possible to run into a fantasy looking dragon in the setting.

[brontes-anvil]

Void Knights and the Star Kingdoms: Steel, Technology, and Wizards

So I have a pretty broad definition of technology. Colloquial usage is is typically like tools and machines and shit, but I like to include what I tend to call cultural technologies: laws, gift-giving, social norms, animal husbandry (borderline case, I suppose), accounting, etc. They're all things people have made to solve problems.

As such, Steel is one of the Sources that characters can wield in my Void Knight setting. It's generally the Source used by cyborgs, robots, and people who delve in technology, but it also includes understanding and maneuvering in social conventions and structures, albeit not with the kind of intimacy that Star might.

Wizards are the foremost wielders of Steel, typically robots or cyborgs that hold up in or turn themselves into vast towers and satellites who spend their time fiddling with novel technologies or unraveling the mysteries of Steel. I want to explore a few things with them. I tend to encounter what I call the 'meme' wizard: a sort of hermit that barely respects their peers much less non-wizards or society in general, causes problems on purpose, ultimate power, etc.

And like there are like wild hermit wizards or wizards who spend half their time being hermits, but looking up and asking around about pre-modern wizards, there's a number of people who are involved in temporal affairs and politics. Merlin's a bit half-and-half, advising Arthur when he's not disappeared from the plot. Several kings, Solomon in particular but also Odin and Math fab Mathonwy if you include gods, dabble in magic. Medea gets married to several princes and kings. A few are minor lords or landholders.

Plus Steel is about social and cultural stuff as much as machines and such, so I figure you're just as likely to see Wizards who are all about society or their various obligations as hermits who dabble in and spam ultimate power.

I like the mental image of like a robot wizard tower who has a blood oath to a king (ancient or modern) and they are 100% about that blood oath. Or it turns out the robot that just died has an estate that is now caught up in an inheritance dispute.