Author Archive: Alexjh

30 – Beryl Jones

In a remote part of the Welsh Coast there is a lonely penninsula, and on this there is an orchard, a few houses and a lonely Inn – the Green Lion.  It’s a small establishment mainly frequented by locals, and of course the people who travel for a taste of the pear cider.  No one is entirely sure where the pears originated from, but at the back of a perfectly ordinary orchard is a single ancient tree that still bears fruit.  These pears are brewed separately to the others - and sold only to visitors willing to pay exhorbitant prices.  The reason, is that the Cider has various properties – it extends life, causes any ailment to not be cured but to permenantly stabilise.  Most famous perhaps of it’s abilities are the ability to see the future and how to change it, making it very highly sought after.  Beryl Jones is the latest member of the family to own the business - while she only appears 16 years old, she is well into her 30s due to the effects of the cider.  The owners of the establishment tend to live for many years until they eventually leave home and disappear for ever.  They wear the blindfold while serving the cider because even the presence of  the vapours in the eyes can cause prophetic-hallucinations in someone who has been exposed to the cider for so long…

27 – Hrolf Wyrmsbane

As in many cases, former hunters make great conservationists as they have become intimatly familiar with the species they have formerly pursued.  As an immortal dragon-hunting Demi-god, Hrold Wyrmsbane has killed dragons for century upon century, but it wasn’t until more recently that he came to be aware of the plight of the related Wyverns – a species no way near as dangerous or destructive as full dragons but persecuted intensely because of the common perception that they are merely young dragons.  Hrolf sponsors and works in the Hrolf’s Wyvern Sanctuary and Hatchery to help reestablish this now critically endangered species.  He is still a part time adventurer and fights evil using his enchanted sword and his demi-godly immortality.

23 – Poon Hu

 In a tiny backstreet in a dingy corner of Hong Kong there is a quiet little noodle stall with a bit of a difference – it is owned by a man named Poon Hu who has a slightly unusual menu.  He is the world’s foremost expert on mythical beasts and has had this little booth open in various forms for over 200 years.  His menu is varied but it’s the cockatrice chow mein that is particularly famous.  He cooks on phoenix fire (burns away all impurities) and garnishes with powdered unicorn horn (enhances all flavours).  All in all there are twenty three mythical creatures on his menu.  Although he is content running his noodle stall, and the large quantities he ends up consuming of ingrediants such as unicorn horn and kappa-water has granted him a largely prolongued life.  When earth has any problems with monsters, there is inevitably an influx of visitors to his bar from people seeking his expert knowledge with a carton of tasty magic noodles being a welcome side.

18 – Azzah Zahawi

During a trek across mountains in Afghanistan to escape the coming Winter, a young Azzah Zahawi encountered an old man who Donkey had broken a leg.  The man seemed to be in despair, for all his possessions were upon the Donkey, but he couldn’t take them.  As a gentle soul, Azzah relieved the Donkey of some of the weight, allowing the donkey to be able to move enough to get back to the old man’s shack.  It was treacherous, and three times the old man suggested she could leave him and continue with her own journey, but she assisted anyway.  Eventually they reached the old mans hovel, and in gratitude he provded her with a strange object.  It appeared to be a shield – intricatly carved from white-gold wood, and with an inner warmth and glow.  The man said that she had proven worthy of such a gift, and having finally found someone to pass it onto, he could leave this world easy in the knowledge  that it was in good hands.

The shield, it was revealed, is made from a piece of wood from Paradise, and as such, contained within is immense power for goodness.  Even having born it for 8 years now, Azzah does not claim to comprehend the shield, for it seems to know some greater purpose – it heals the sick, rests the wearyand sooths the suffering. However, evil cannot bear its presence, looking into it seems to stare into the soul of evil, and people find themselves unable to lie in its presence.   In the occassional extreme case it has been known to do more radical things demons are burned by its presence, and on at least one occassion it has struck a man mute for trying to decieve his way out of a great crime.  Azzah suspects it of having even greater capabilities, but she has no  desire to test them, for such things shouldn’t be toyed with.  The way that is guages these things seems is impenetrable however – though Azzah herself is a Muslim, it does not seem to adhere to the specific trappings of hers or any other faith that she can tell – it tends to act most decisively on clearcut sins where one person does evil unto another.  She partially suspects that the shield forces people to judge themselves by their most deep values, as well as those of some greater power…

13 – Daisy and Percy

Daisy is a gnome, a generally very jumpy and easily scared species, but Daisy is the exception, for she is the Bravest Gnome in the World.  Percy is a Guinea Pig, and is the Greatest of His Kind – no other Guinea Pig can match him.  Together they are best friends who travel around having adventures and vexing evil.  They frequently clash with the nefarious Duke of Cats and his schemes to take over the world, but best him every time, but they always travel together, exploring the world of the big people.

Daisy and Percy are very much children’s characters but I like the idea of them existing in the shared world of all the other characters – I feel there is room for innocent stories about daring and courage as much as darker stories.  I also really like the idea of the “Duke of Cats” being a legitimate threat to the entire world, but being continuously vexed by a (very) little girl and her guinea pig – even if he is the greatest of his kind.  That part I particularly like, in Tolkein you encounter horses, wolves, dogs and eagles who are “the greatest of their kind” or similar, but I liked the idea of something more meek and fluffy also having a greatest of their kind!

11 – His Excellency, Dr. Ydronius

Dr Ydronius is one of the most well respected politicians on Earth – the fact that he is the 25ft tall purple ambassador from the planet Thrakun and Affiliated Planets is however the thing that tends to catch peoples attentions the most.  Thrakonians are a sentient race who, having evolved on a world which regularly has large fluxes in its gravity due to the influence of its vast moon are increddibly strong – not only do they have the strength you’d expect in a 9 ton being, but they are able to convert their circulatory system into a form of hydraulics to amplify their strength yet further when needed.  That being said, as a race of herbivores they are less prone to violence than humans, and while Thrakonian on Thrakonian violence isn’t entirely absence, there have only been 3 instances of Thrakonian/human conflict, all started by humans.  Predictably, the winner was the side who could shrug off an artillery round.

Ydronius is an incredibly skilled negotiator, and has done a lot to increase trade between the Thrakonians and humanity, aswell as preventing several intergalactic incidents between humanity and other races.  He is known for his appreciation of art, music and literature,  Much to some peoples amusement he is partialness to merlot, which he drinks using a ratio of one barrel filling one of his giant sized glasses.  He is in the process of having some giant human instruments made so he can attempt to learn them.

I came up with the idea of a hydraulic blood system years ago, and indeed the concept was then also attached to a giant purple monsters then.  I never did anything with the concept though and I put it in the mental file “for future use”.  When I was doing this I wanted to have an alien who was physically powerful, but not a warrior, and it occured to me that using the old hydraulic blood would make sense here, and I liked the image of a giant monster in a suit walking to some sort of fancy dinner with a tiny human woman accompanying him.  I imagine that Dr. Ydronius sounds something like Kelsey Grammer.

10 – Zimnoilur

There are currently seven recognised species of griffon extant today, the most famous, studied and numerous is the Heraldic Griffon, but there are also the Great Griffon, Plains Griffon, Griffon-swift, Little Griffon-swift, Imperial Griffon, and least known of all, the Marsh Griffon.  The Marsh Griffons are by far the most intelligent, but least known of the species – they breed high on the Russian Tundra in isolated pools and migrate south to spend the winter in a few small areas of Southern India and Sri Lanka in their drabber grey winter plumage.  They have a very complicated language of their own, and pick up  the languages of others far faster than any human.  Marsh Griffon language sounds like a high pitched piping noise, and is considered one of the most difficult languages to master on the basis it’s designed to be spoken with a long thin beak

Zimnoilur is a current “outflier” – each generation three young marsh griffons are selected to live amoung humanity to act as diplomats and share knowledge to the gain of both sides.  The three usually have a far more intimate knowledge of the oldest fundementals of magic than any living human, often knowing nuance that has been lost for millenia.  He is also a world class expert on folkloric creatures found on the tundra, an area with a disproportionatly high level of such things, making his consul valued for research on magical beasts, further aided by the fact that all griffons can see into the thaumic (magical) parts of the spectrum.  Like most marsh griffons, he is not a fighter, and tho he can defend himself, their first instinct is flight or hide.

For this character, I’d decided I wanted to create a griffon using a non-raptor as the bird part – I settled on a black redshank due to it’s stylish summer plumage, and I liked the idea of a sentient character both migrating and having different plumage at different times of the year.  To have a non human living in an isolated community, I needed to make him different to Shiqi, so while Shiqi was from a magically created warrior race, Zimnoilur is a non-combative academic of sorts from an apparently naturally evolved lineage.  The two probably don’t get along as Shiqi or one of his people would probably happily catch, kill and eat a marsh griffon should the opportunity arise.

08 – Princess Rosaline

Princess Rosaline is the current leader of the tiny central european principality of Rosatia nestled in a particularly unusual valley high in the Alps.  Rosatiais unusual in several respects – for one the mountain formations around it act as a breakwater for rain clouds, so while it never rains in Rosatia itself, the rain that lands on the hills around it keeps it green.  It is perhaps however, more notable for Rosinium – a bizarrely unique element named after the country  – 99.7% of the entire world’s supply is found in Rosatia, and it defines alot of the country.  It is found in the form of large pink crystals, and can be reduced down to its pure form it can be combined with metals to produce alloys of unmatched strength, flexibility and lightness.  It also has a strong hue to it - it is bright pink in metallic form, and its presence in Rosatia has caused the the rocks to be pale pink, the flowers to all be pink, and feeding on them, the world’s largest managed heard of Unicorns to also be slightly pink.

 The royal family of Rosatia is notable for their use of their Rosinium alloy armour and their great training allowing them to defend the nation from those who would come to steal the Rosinium, resulting in the current princess being considered one of the most dangerous fighters on the planet – and charging down enemies atop her similarly armoured unicorn has been the last sight many villains have seen.  The heart motif seen on the armour isn’t a heart at all, but a representative of the endemic Rosinium Thrift – the national flower.

This is an idea I started ages ago but never got round to putting together – try to put together a gritty version of a pink princess who rides a pink unicorn.  I seem to have reached this summary by shamelessly ripping off a lot of the backstory of Marvels “Black Panther” and twisting them to my own ends to explain not only why there would be a pink armoured princess, but how to make her be at least vaguely plausible in the real world.  If I wasn’t behind on my characters already I’d have rendered up her battle unicorn a bit more…

07 – Shiqi

The Uncina were a result of one of the Mage-Emporers who held a small Kingdom in Western Tibet.  He created sentient beings from the Snow Leopards in the hills of his Kingdom to act as his personal guards and enforcers until his death ninety years later.  Similar practices were common throughout the world, and at least 107 new sentient races were created.  Out of these, only three survived to the present, the Uncina being the most secretive and fewest in number with only around 300 still alive. 

They are culturally very different to humans, they are largely solitary and they are not named as humans do – the females take the name of their territory, while, the males, once adult, take their name anew at the Cragmeet – where all Uncina meet on the Winter Equinox every seven years.  At this point, male children get their first name – essentially it is a tournament with various physical disciplines.  Every males name is essentially his numerical rank – the champion is the Uncina word for “one”, second is Uncina for Ttwo” and so on.  They keep this name for seven years when they must defend or attempt to improve upon their rank.  Children in their first Cragmeet have a title meaning young, and an Uncina who has fought in seven or more becomes “venerated”, these function to allow for children and elderly to be protected from low status due to age, as status is important in controlling territory.  A high ranked fighter has the right to hunt in the territories of lower ranked males surrounding his own.  A small number of females enter each year too to assert their prowess.

Shiqi has just come out of his third Cragmeet, and is ranked seventeenth – a very good ranking for one so young, second highest of all those whose first cragmeet was the same as his.  He is also the one Uncina to have any notable contact with the outside world, and is unofficial representative to humanity, both to the humans who live in the foothills below the Uncina territories, but also to the group of people from the UN who serve as intermediaries between the Uncina and the rest of the world.

This character came about on a discussion I was having about how “Cat-people” in popular fiction tend to be a bit rubbish – not necessarily as characters, but just that the concept is generic and they are never really presented as anything other than quirky humans who happen to look like cats.  I decided it would be an interesting challenge to try and come up with a race of Cat people played seriously, with a social structure that made sense for a species which is solitary, carnivorous and territorial.  I’m vaguely pleased with the results.

04 – The Sea Wizard

The Sea Wizard is the last surviving Archmage on the planet.  His name is long forgotten, and he himself is perhaps the oldest human on the planet.  Back in the heyday of magic, many wizards preferred to follow the more spectacular schools of magicand set themselves up as the overlords of men – fire, ice, lightning, rock and the dead themselves were the preferred tools, and they carved mighty Empires for themselves.  However, slowly but surely, people found a way to kill them – to get close enough to end them.  It took hundreds of years, but eventually all the Mage-Empires were liberated.  Unfortunatly, the fervor that lead to the defeat of the magical tyrants wold not stop there, and many innocent magic users were slain to sate the bloodlust.

The Sea Wizard is thus the last – having followed a path of neutrality and lived in isolation, never letting others know of his powers.  As an adversary, he would be perhaps the most dangerous man to walk the earth – he can manipulate the tides and currents, water in all its forms and is certainly capable of blasting torrents of ice or searing hot steam.  A blow from his staff hits with the concentrated impact of a tsunami.  He is rarely drawn to battle though, and is content to live in peace in his abode – the tip of a pier – long ago left standing in the middle of the sea when the connection to the land burnt down, and shares it only with the gulls and cormorants. 

This piece was inspired quite a while back during a visit to Kent where I saw just such a pier as I describe here – I thought at the time that that place far out to sea looked like some sort of hermit might live there, and I liked the idea of the sea being a less glamourous but incredibly potent form of magic.

02 – Kesari Singh

Kesari Singh is the latest bearer of the ancient weapon known as the Divine Rod.  It is an incredibly potent artifact, created over 1200 years ago by some of the holiest men in the world, distilling a tiny portion of the essence of their Gods into a staff.  It’s powers are vast – it grants the bearer superhuman reflexes, and automatically guides the movement of the bearer to the point where a weilder could stroll forward into machine gun fire and the staff would deflect every single bullet.  It is also capable of prolonging a bearers life indefinitly, breaking any substance short of something similarly divinely infused, absorbing energy (divine, magical and natural) and banishing monsters and demons from this realm.

It does have one rather specific requirement though – it cannot be used to kill nor be used by a killer – in the hands of such a person it is merely an ordinary staff.  While this doesn’t include accidents, it is specific enough to include that a bearer must have never knowingly consumed meat.  This tends to be the way through which the staff is passed on – eventually a bearer tends to encounter an evil which no other can defeat, and can only be ended with it’s death, and so they unleash its awesome power once to end this evil, but in doign so become unworthy of the staff.

Kesari is the current bearer of the staff, having bourn it for twenty seven years now – she was raised from birth to be worthy of it.  Now she walks the land vanquishing evil and protecting the innocent wherever she goes.

This was an attempt to use a challenging colour palette for a painting and I don’t think it necessarily entirely worked.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, as you can’t really improve without pushing your boundries.  Slightly more irritatingly, focusing on the colours caused me to mess up on the anatomy a bit, but nevermind.