Aspirant Cephalopod

Came up with these guys talking nonsense with some friends. Don’t remember the exact context but we ended up with a triumvirate tribe of orcs lead by from left to right, Knives, Guns, and Look.

We spoke about how sometimes they can be defined by one thing entirely. We joked that that was all they were. But the more we joked the more I liked them and a story fleshed out in my head.

I mean, these can rather be cliched or trope heavy, but I like the Idea that Guns is a gentle big guy, cultured among his own people but isn’t articulate amongst humans or other “more refined” races. I like to think Knives is non-verbal but extremely expressive regardless, how he’s so sincere a quirk of an eyebrow is a quip and a glare is a scathing remark. And for Look, just that he’s not masking shame behind bravado, what you see is what you get, and he expresses himself for his own sake.

I don’t remember why we decided Look was gonna be a dandy. My personal favorite is Guns.

While I’m not where I want to be at drawing level, I learned a lot from drawing these guys and I hope to redraw them someday when I’m better.

Things I would change now however knowing what I know is I’d change Knives’ color scheme to be darker, something that sells stealth more than bright red.

For Look, I should have probably studied androgynous or Femme body types and posture.

I quite like Guns as he is, maybe I could refine him a bit more, but at my level, I think he’s quite good.

Of all the characters here I feel I owe it to Look to draw him again, give him the pretty pomp he has in my head.

Introducing another Tau OC.

How easy it is to practice drawing when creating OCs! :>

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Fior’O Roz Hai’lo

Earth-caste of the highest degree, of the Roz sept, named Hai’lo. Name roughly translating to the feeling of a good idea suddenly appearing, or a solution emerging from the recesses of your mind. Quite like a “lightbulb moment”.

She’s big for an earth caste, and I tried to portray her as aged and having gained weight. Though she’s still a force. All the engineering muscles just have an extra layer over them now, biotech insulation O’Hai’lo would say.

Presently she serves as the Earth Caste representative on Aun’Mai’ada’s Elemental council.

The face tattoo is intended to say “Rosx” since the tau alphabet chart I have doesn’t have “Z” I chose “SX” to represent it.

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O’Hai’lo was an active drone engineer and a pioneer for remote operated battlesuits. Believing that Shas blood could be spared with Fior Sweat.

With modest beginnings, she was taken along with cadre convoys in her days of La, Ui, and Vre, favored by Shas commanders and Kor pilots for her ability to modify their weaponry or battle suits to their liking and to calm and quell the minds of their AI components. An unstable AI after a brief chat with her was not only repaired, but all the more ready for combat. She was particularly beloved by Bonded Shas who lost a member amongst their bondmates, for her skill at preserving their passed comrade in AI form, implanting them into their battlesuits to keep them company, or a new battlesuit altogether to keep their union of battle intact.

Upon reaching Fior’El, she was sent to a planet rich with raw resources with the hopes of establishing a manufacturing depot that could supply the rest of the planets around them, however it would not be a quiet settling.

An admech ship crashed landed on the planet, pursued by Orks who had been harrying them for quite some time.

One of El’Hai’lo’s drones found a lost and injured Tech-acolyte and the love of technology won over the hatred of Abominable Intelligence and Xeno-tech. So the drone and the acolyte set about regrouping lost admech together.

It was when the Drone and Acolyte gathered all the remaining tech priests, skitarii, and their last surviving Magos, an Explorator (with Xenarite sympathies.) that the Orks mounted their final charge.

El’Hai’lo laughed, seeing through the eyes of her drone and activated her experimental battlesuit. One she affectionately named “Sawtooth”. Based off of the Chainswords of the imperium, this AI controlled battlesuit made short work of the Orks, paired with the Admech support.

In the end, the admech accepted El’Hai’lo’s offers of assistance.

But their magos was caught speechless, when the Fior touched their weaponry, or repaired their machines, the voice of their machine spirits didn’t just speak, they sang, and the drones sang along too.

When they witnessed repair drones, they found their hearts turning, how could something evil, preserve, protect and restore what is good?

They stayed on with El’Hai’lo, at least tentatively, until the incident that took her legs.

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Once while testing a new battlesuit, the machine failed, and her legs were blown off. To the pleasant surprise of the newly formed Heretel Xenarite Gue’Vesa engineering division, she spurned the cloned limb replacements in favor of cybernetic prosthesis, which brought her and the Admech traitors closer.

What solidified the bond was when she discovered the Admech traitors repaired the machine to its original state, even with the knowledge it would fail and likely kill its pilot.

When O’Hai’lo approached, the machine shrank away in fear, protocol dictated it should be scrapped, and the design reworked into a safer stepping stone. It was fortunate to have even been made at all, thanks to the magnanimity of O’Hai’lo’s Aun.

The Admech, flinched, and their shoulder hunched down, hanging low in prepared mourning. Though experimentation was new to them, they knew what would likely come next. They had hoped it would be entombed, however and not scrapped.

The Magos looked on, disappointed, she had thought O’Hai’lo a kindred spirit, a lover of technology and one whose heart was opened to the machine spirit and Omnissiah.

Finally managed to draw my new tau oc.

His name is Shas’O Roz Kais’vash Lo’nul.

Commander of the Fire caste, of the Roz sept, one who is skilled, named Lo’nul. “Lo’nul” or “Closevoid”

A skilled soldier, who rose through the ranks rather swiftly, Shas’Lo’nul’s original goal had been to become a Cadre Fireblade, after having been inspired by one, taught by one, and saved by one. However, after catching the attention of an ethereal he was tasked to protect, Shas’Lo’nul ended up being taken on as a pet project, without his knowledge.

The Ethereal saw to it that Shas’Lo’nul was placed in challenging positions, ensuring he was tempered in the fires of battle.

As a pathfinder, Lo’nul would venture as close as possible to get as accurate information as possible, which allowed his army to efficiently decimate their foes.

With intervention from higher ups, Lo’nul was then allowed to don a stealth suit and was allowed to continue with leading his pathfinders. His scouting and reconnaissance became a known pillar of his cadre. They would say. “While Lo’nul watches, we can sleep.”

It was through the recognition and the tending to his talents of stealth, covert operations, and his ability to coordinate effectively that carried him up the ranks of the Roz sept’s unified military.

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Presently, O’Lo’Nul or Commander Closevoid pilots a Ghostkeel and conducts personal incursions. He is a master of Kauyon and a student of Monat.

A battle against him typically follows this pattern from the perspective of his enemy. They encounter repeated sabotage, their reconnaissance is halted, their incursions are ambushed, and when the main battle begins, their commanders are suddenly picked off simultaneously by enemies that they cannot see.

He earned the name Closevoid for his style of Kauyon fighting. To the enemy he seems perpetually near, striking from stealth, and with how suffocating and how thoroughly he decimates the enemy, it is as though they were pulled into a void.

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Despite how fiercely he fights, and how dangerous he seems. As a commander and in parley, he is easygoing, wears his heart on his sleeve, and appears easy to read. His wants and desires can be quickly gleaned from his face alone.

Don’t let his aloof appearance, mislead you, he is still firecaste and is still passionate and nothing flares his passions higher than having a rival or being compared to another.

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He is widely considered handsome and almost too youthful and aside from one prominent scar, he seems to never blemish or mark.

When questioned about his most difficult battles, especially the ones where his battlesuits are destroyed beyond repair. He claims he doesn’t recall the ends of those battles. That from what he knows, he was retrieved by the Ethereal’s personal pathfinder unit and is nursed back to health before coming to, in the Ethereal’s medical bay within their private compound.

When the Ethereal was questioned why he took such special interest in this one commander out of all the others, he said simply this.

“Truly his skill, is borne by many lives on the field of battle.”

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The tau characters on his chest plate is supposed to say “Son of Rosx” since there isn’t a Z character from what I drew from, I ended up using “sx” to imply “Z”.

This character was inspired by @mackintoshx3’s own OC commander Farsun, of which I’ve decided that Closevoid has a one sided rivalry.

For those who’ve read elemental council, the implication I’ve tried to portray is he’s similar to Swordlight, except he’s taken care of rather well by his Ethereal, explaining his Hale, hearty, and youthful vigor.