Here's entry number 6 (face #5) in the Halloween series.
This is the Gluttonous Ogre, Voracion. Just like the all the others, here is Voracion's lore.
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It’s
been two weeks since I left the coastal temple. I continued to follow Ardelrius
north along the coast. The robed traveler passed through the ruins of a
destroyed city called Heisath. From the way it navigated the battered streets,
it seemed Ardelrius had been here before. After an hour of crossing the central
square of the ruins, Ardelrius stopped at an open clearing. Burned into the
ground near some rubble was a large singed black outline. I watched the
creature stop and stare at the marking for what seemed like an eternity.
Finally, it made a gesture with its staff and then continued on.
We left
the Heisath and took a turn west toward the forestlands. This was the territory
of the ogres, great beasts of a separate species from the demons we knew. They
had constructed numerous crude dwellings within the forest and Ardelrius headed
straight into the most prominent settlement. Fortunately, the dense clustering
of trees made it easy to keep myself hidden while I followed. I kept my eyes
out for the ogres as well. I’ve heard they can smell humans from a considerable
distance.
The
mysterious stranger had only gone a short distance into the ogre settlement
when he was surrounded and accosted by a squad of the brutish beasts. They led
the intruder into their town square and waited. While the wanderer stood with the
ogres pointing their spears on all sides, a large form appeared before them
atop the platform in the village square. It was the leader of this ogre
village, a massive creature named Voracion. I’ve heard ogres are stupid and
barely capable of forming sentences but Voracion seemed different. He didn’t look
at all surprised to see the stranger and also didn’t appear to be threatened by
its presence. After gloating about his recent razing of Heisath and the
apparently invincible nature of his army, Voracion demanded that the stranger
hand over his walking staff. There was an awkward moment of silence, the robed
wandering making no sort of response.
When one of the guards walked up to take the staff, Ardelrius turned,
made a single gesture, and turned the ogre to dust, armor and
all. This seemed to spark a reaction in the ogre leader and he descended from
the platform to face Ardelrius.
The
fight between the two was brutal but quick. Voracion was a savage fighter and
he fought with the ruthlessness and cunning expected of a leader. He was unable
to defeat his foe and it seemed clear the fight itself was little challenge to
Ardelrius. After dodging many crushing blows from the enemy, the wanderer
raised his tree-staff and summoned what looked to be blades of stone from the
ground! They struck up in a line in all directions, cutting Voracion through
his armor and dropping him to his knees. The injured commander bellowed for his
troops to aid him but they didn’t come forward. All of the armed beasts shrank
away from Ardelrius’ gaze. While his fallen foe spat curses at his betrayal and
his enemy, the traveler walked forth and held his staff out. A blinding yellow
light consumed the area and when it had faded, the massive ogre leader was
gone. The destroyed pieces of his armor sat on the ground but the beast himself
was nowhere to be seen. It was at this point the other troops broke rank and
took off into the forest in a panic. Ardelrius made a slight bow towards the pile
of armor and then set off through the village and back into the forest. It
seems the tree-like staff is some sort of artifact that’s linked to the
disappearance of those defeated by Ardelrius. I feel like I’m closer to
discovering the truth…
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| Front View |
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| Side View |
For Voracion's color palette, I wanted to make something lighter that would set itself apart from the darker color schemes so far. Grahl, K'taerthos, and Calderyn all had darker shades in their color scheme so I initially went bright yellow with Voracion. I blended in some darker colors and made the shading darken more around his face and eyes. After adding the blackwash, this made the colors stand out a bit and I'm pleased with the effect. It still creates a neat contrast with the teeth and brow crystals. I also experimented a bit more with the coverage and placement of anchor magnets for this one. Note the head covers more of the top of Ardelrius and the chin has a plate that extends back. This allowed me to make sure the anchor magnets on the face had plenty of room to align with the ones set on Ardelrius. The end result is a snug fit and this mask stays in place pretty well.
Here's the concept art. I feel like some of the more feline sub-elements come out here. It's probably the ears and big grin on the rendered image that do it. I wanted to make sure to have Voracion drawn with a larger build like the other monsters. He's also a commander like Grahl so I felt this should be prominent in the drawing. If nothing else, there should be some hints at his gluttonous nature. The bottom left sketch is a bit more comical than the others so far. Perhaps the ogre is looking at some food...
That's it for this one. Tomorrow we will be back with another piece that's going to be a bit more of a departure design-wise from the ones posted so far.
Stay tuned,
~Zan