D.W. Nunya Art Blog

Another Concept Drawing of Barlam Curassier Armor

The Wayfinders of Valen. These fellows started out far more knight-like, but as I got a handle on the setting it became clear that such an aesthetic does not suit their role as scouts and messengers, nor the pseudo-pacifistic nation they originate from.

So I got rid of metal armor entirely (expensive) (takes a long time to make) in exchange for a long leather shirt under a gambeson under a leather vest with rectangular iron lamellar. Horse hair plume on the wide brimmed hat (for rain and shine). The most pricey things a Wayfinder should be carrying are their boots and their horse

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.

Art I made of Livesy and LOT, high-CAT exorcists of my friend and I :)

Fonts: Thermals by The Branded Quotes, cut n paste by Pennyzine, b Bendahara by wep, Prefix by Divide by Zero. All sourced from dafont.