Ludo

Cavaliers of Barlam

Some concept art for a faction in my custom ttrpg setting!

I based much of the design of the knights of Barlam around munitions armor of the 16th and 17th century and grotesque sculptures in Italy, but a better description of the desired aesthetic is soldiers of the late middle ages who know themselves to be part of the scariest and richest military in the setting. Grotesque masses of metal that at times cumulate in a thin needle-point, suitable for cracking open the crab shell plates of other knights. Something that's gilded and beastly. They are for use in a low fantasy world building project called Sinastria, representing a conquering empire's cavalry.

A few notable aspects: The horse's headwear I based closely off of Scythian horse barding, which I love the silhouette of. Their front bears what I'm calling a menagerie peytral, which is meant to display from a charge of knights galloping abreast that the forces of Hell itself are coming to run down whoever lay in their sights. In ages past, cavaliers of Barlam would garland the flayed skins of enemies along the bottom of the barding, but in more civilized times this has been replaced with curtains of fine red cloth. Likewise, the knight afoot bears two traditional markers: Panache of Entrails, what was once the large intestine (hip) and small intestine (shoulder) dried in the sun has now been rendered in feather-stuffed cloth sacks. The knight afoot I styled in the fashion of a gargoyle, while the horsed one was based on a rat skull.

"The Red" Illustrated on Procreate

I felt as though I had drawn everything but the animals I work with day to day recently so I opted to come back to this sketch I had been neglecting.

Theres something about the aesthetic of gargoyle and crested gecko morphs that complement eachother so I took the time to illustrate a Red Porthole Crested Gecko and High coverage Red Striped Gargoyle gecko