#baptisma

Inheritor Acolyte II (2021) -

Rework of this old design: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/L6zBP

Sleep Diviner - Magi class cultist from my Baptisma boardgame project. Sketched in 2017, colours finished late 2018.

Horrifically scarred and ruined of mind, the 'Goremakers' are Berserker class cultists of the war cult known as 'The Lance'. The constant strain of battle and induced hallucination can bear heavily on a cultist, snapping their psyche like a delicate twig. These unfortunate individuals are stripped of the shrouds that blind the sight the material plane, and are fitted with chain grenade dispensers. The frothing, animalistic fury that remains numbs the many blastburns and scars that inevitably accrue.

Between raids, these horrors are kept in confinement and in battle the more cognisant Lance make efforts to avoid their attention. For a goremaker, anything that moves is an adversary, and as a hulking wall of flesh whirling explosives like morning-stars, that usually brings doom for whatever is in their path.  

'Pillagers' are the acolytes of the mad war cult known as 'The Lance'. They ritualistically ingest large quantities of hallucinogenic elixirs and stimulants brewed by the cult magi. In this state, the cultists perceive on what they believe to be an ascendant dimension, where they catch glimpses and whispers from the bloody, all conquering alien race after which the cult named itself. They believe that one day that this onslaught will be visited upon them and all other lifeforms on Baptisma, and that there will be no defence against their wrath - save for to become as war hungry and ferocious as who they emulate, in the vain hope that on that day, they will be welcomed into their dread ranks.

To this end, Lance Pillagers seek to constantly be in a state of conflict with everything other than their brethren, so that upon their reckoning they will be rewarded.

The Gallowglas are zealot-class cultists belonging to a religious organisation called 'The Prism'. Their faith in Ahra - The Prism's patron deity - is night unshakeable, and their piety is absolute. Their societal role in times of relative peace is of executioners, enforcers and bodyguards. This makes them a valuable asset to the Magi in their inquisitorial duties, a common sight in Prism-held districts. In skirmishes over territory with rival cults, the Gallowglas can always be counted among the most skilled close combatants. The sanctified quartz used in their glaives, axes and claymores is incredibly durable, and discharges holy solar energy. It is for these reasons that the leering hourglass helm of the Gallowglas has been a symbol of death for generations.