Marid

 

Marids are the water based version of genies (with Efreet as fire, Djinni as air and Dao as earth) and in classical mythology are thought of as the most powerful of the genies. They match the other genies in D&D mythology though, with some especially powerful ones (padishah) that may act as rulers. Rulers that don't especially get listened to because marids like to do their own thing, whether it's chilling in a palace, gathering pearls or capsizing ships. Honestly, it kinda sucks to be the padisha sitting on the Coral Throne, since the other marids really want that throne.

Like other genies, marids have a number of magical abilities, some of which are tied to their element, and are able to grant wishes if compelled to, a mood which can last a very short time since they're quite fickle beings.

Post somewhat late due to job responsibilities and being in Spain with my folks for the past week. It is crazy hot down there. My grandma hit the big 9-0 last weekend, though it's surprising how little she shows her age. It was a lovely celebration with absurd amounts of food. Feliz cumple, abuela.

DRAGON MONTH: Tiamat, Mother of Evil Dragons

Tiamat is one of the most iconic members of the Greyhawk pantheon. Although only a minor goddess, she's heavily involved in the mortal world, and in her home plane in the Baator. All evil dragons keep shrines to her, in rooms separate from their treasures so she won't reach through and take their hoard. Good dragons respect her (warily). She's a vengeful creature and concerned only with her survival and that of her progeny. Her enemies include most good deities, with special regards to Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon. She sleeps in a mountain of demonic skulls and guards the borders between Avernus and Dis, attended by five ancient dragon servants.

Even people who aren't familiar with games might've heard of Tiamat. She's a common enemy in the Dragonlance books and was one of the main baddies in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.

First of all, I'd like to apologize for being so late with this. I've been working really hard for the past few months on some animation for a film, A Liar's Autobiography, a documentary about Graham Chapman of Monty Python fame. While it's been super awesome to be working on a film, doing character animation (basically exactly what I want to do), it leaves me absolutely exhausted when the weekend comes around.

Joe's already mentioned that he doesn't intend to return to Dungeons & Drawings on a regular basis due to other projects he wants to work on. We started this blog just over a year ago with the intent of it being a weekly drawing exercise while we looked for work: pick a monster, draw it, avoid getting rusty. With the work he and I have been getting it's been harder to keep up with the blog. So, for now, Joe's called it quits. Not me, though. I'm still too obsessive over this game to stop.

I'll start putting up the poll again so you guys can help me pick the next monster and I'll keep doing my weekly thing.

Mercane

Mercanes are the ultimate salesmen of the universe. They travel across dimensions followed by their entourage of bodyguards and train of merchandise, ready to buy and sell. As completely neutral creatures, they're free to wander where they please. You can find them anywhere from the mortal plane, to the Heavens, to the Abyss.

The winner for last week's which type the monster should be was the outsider. Not exactly surprising, since they're one of the groups with consistently interesting-looking creatures.

The manual describes these creatures as blue-skinned with multi-jointed fingers. Let me tell you, it was really difficult not to make him look like a certain fella from The Thief and the Cobbler.

New poll this week. Hoping to make a regular thing out of this. There's too many cool monsters to pick from.

Githyanki

Githyanki are vicious, gaunt humanoids who live in societies strewn across the Astral Plane, the vast, timeless space between dimensions. Long ago bred as slaves to the ancient Illithid empire, the Githyanki were led from captivity by their ancestral leader Gith, in a great war which nearly wiped out the Illithids altogether. Now, wracked by internal conflict, the Githyanki are little more than a race of pirates, adding to the dangers of astral travel. They build their fortresses on the petrified bodies of dead gods adrift in the void.

The Githyanki are a weird sort of race in D&D, looking a little like a cross between orcs and elves (if such a thing is concievable). Not only are they essentially pirates, they are space pirates, which is pretty cool in my book. I inked this one by hand in Photoshop after making some custom brushes, and I'm pleased with the result. I tried to make up for the fact that they're usually depicted as barely clothed humanoids by doing a ridiculous upside-down foreshortening thing, but I think it gets the zero-gravity feel of the Astral Plane across fairly well. Oh, and they use these cool mercurial swords.