The Faceless Summoner Entry #2: Subterranean Killer Tirradol

Let's get right to it. Here's the second entry in the "Faceless Summoner" Series:

This is the "Subterranean Killer", Tirradol. As shown in the spotlight video, this is another papier/cloth mache mask that can be attached to Ardelrius and worn. Just like the last piece, I've drafted up some lore for Tirradol.

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For three seasons our crops withered. Our village is small and without food from our fields we were soon faced with starvation. After the third failed season, a group of our villagers set out to investigate the fields and the surrounding area. On the second night of their investigation, the group mysteriously vanished without a trace. We searched for them but no trace was found. Finally, a larger party was formed, armed with weapons this time. They set out for the fields and discovered traces of an unfamiliar creature that led down into a set of nearby caves. The hunting party again vanished after that first night.

Two days later, a lone survivor of the hunting party arrived in the village. One of the armed men, he returned in a state of sheer terror and panic. We tried to calm him down but he could only recount what had happened in fragments. Apparently some sort of beast was to blame for our crops withering and the hunting party stumbled upon its underground layer. The creature could move beneath the dirt and it ambushed the hunters, pulling them beneath the ground. What resulted was a mass slaughter of all except the lone survivor. He claimed to have laid eyes on the creature once as it killed his friends. From his panicked description we pictured a spindly insect-like monster with rough armored skin and blade-like claws. The man also claimed that the beast spoke to the hunters as it killed them. He could only hear one word, “Tirradol” so that must be its name. We couldn’t risk sending more of our people out to be slaughtered so we waited while the elders tried to find a solution.

One week after the attack was when the traveler appeared in our village. Nobody knows where it came from but it appeared out of the fog one evening. I saw it walk through the village outskirts toward the elders’ quarters. Man or woman I couldn’t tell as its body was obscured by a black robe and it carried a gnarled tree-like walking staff. The face of the creature was bizarre and unsettling to say the least. It had no discernible features save for two eyes and a narrow mouth. Its skin was a mottled orange-brown and streaked with black markings. Several of us followed the traveler and watched it knock on the doors to the main elder’s house.

It seemed like this mysterious traveler was not an enemy. We could hear it speaking to the elder in a hollow toneless voice, again making its gender unclear. The creature listened to our story from the elder and then asked where we had last seen Tirradol. Last I saw this so-called “Ardelrius”, it was venturing towards the caves. Nobody knows what happened after that but the following week our crops began to return and we never saw Tirradol or the mysterious traveler again.

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On to the mask itself. Tirradol was the first design I initially sketched when I started working on this project. As you'll see later, I've created 8 unique faces for Ardelrius each with their own distinct features and lore. The daily posts in the countdown will go into the specifics.

As for Tirradol's creation, I knew I wanted a vaguely insect-like shape so I emphasized the flat elongated crest. This mask also features a new technique I haven't in my mache pieces up to this point. The textured straight line highlights that are yellow are actually hot glue sticks that have been attached along the skull crest. After applying the skin, it creates a pronounced ridge that helps make the design stand out. I've used this on some of the other pieces as well. Tirradol's color scheme is supposed to be a dirty almost earthen palette. The blue stones long the center of the skull work with the yellow sections to create some contrast.

The defining part of these masks is their ability to attach to Ardelrius. I did this by inserting rare earth magnets in between the skin layers on Ardelrius. There's one large magnet on its forehead and one under the chin. Similarly, each face has a magnet built into the back of the head and chin to align with the ones on Ardelrius. The end result allows the face to snap securely in place and it's pretty sturdy. I can walk around and move my head without shaking the mask loose.

 

 Here's the next piece of concept art. When I asked TyvridKizuna to do some basic concept pieces, I intentionally left out the specifics for each one aside from the photos. I wanted to see what someone else's interpretation of the creatures was just based on the design elements in the mask. For Tirradol, you can see the insect-like shape combined with what looks like shell plating which is fitting given it can move underground.

That's it for this entry. The next one goes up tomorrow per the schedule.

See you then,

~Zan