An expansion to the previous map, outlining the neighboring fictional continent. Drawn with pen and colored pencil on grid paper. This continent was something of a challenge because it's a major revision of the old draft (as in, circa 2003 or so). I had another story draft that I'm folding into this world and setting, so I'm blending some of the world design to pick and choose elements from each. It was also a pain trying to lay it out so it was close enough to the intended size without spilling over the page! I'm going to need to double check my work on this one before I do any versions with the climate regions. The latitudes are switched around enough to screw with the old design. May reupload with better images later.

*Edit: Holy html fail, Batman!

Sketches done between 3/18/2015 and 3/28/2015, detailing character design, religious imagery, and city planning for the story and setting I've been working on. Pencil and colored pencil on paper (60lb sketchbook and regular printer paper respectively). The top is a set of busts of the primary protagonists for (working title) 'In Their Wake'. Top is the unnamed member of the Aculeus clan, the bone binders (funerary priests / necromancers) who ends up at the center of a continent-wide revelation about the end of the last great war. Left is Echo, unflatteringly nicknamed Flotsam by other tide tenders (merfolk and placaters of ancient sea monsters) for her intention to live ashore instead of taking a place among them. Right is Baelian, idealistic and talented student of the lore keepers (self-isolating scholars, archivists, and mages) whose sheltered upbringing didn't prepare for how to make any change in the world. Left picture is a basic face layout of each of the three, exploring the differences to help me simplify them for quick cartoony drawings. I haven't yet properly examined reference images to make their facial features more realistic, so these will change somewhat. Right is a series of symbols I've challenged myself to design. The rules are: you get three strokes. The first stroke is a larger, primary stroke, starting and/or ending in a spiral (one or two curls acceptable). The other two strokes are lines or curves, but /not/ full spirals, that can be adjacent, crossing or detached from the main stroke. I want to have at least one for horizontal and vertical curls in each of four directions, and least one for each combination of up/down/left/right double curls. Included are the symbols for Breath, Blood and Bone (the primary media of magic in this setting) as well as symbols that might work for groups like the Light Keepers. Bottom is a pair of maps and a rough city sketch of Koihill itself. The regional map in the upper right is the part of the world most relevant to the story (Koihill would be on the coast of that large bay, in the tiny nick on the northern side along those hills). Koihill is supposed to be a punny name, referring simultaneously to it being a hill-based town with associations with fishing and aquatic people, the coiling roads that climb up the twin hill peaks, a reference to FFX's Spira (and the undue influence that dead people have on the setting), and a fun reference to how the city looks from above with its primarily white walls and orange roofing.

Planning drafts for symbols and depictions of three gods for the world I'm designing for stories and/or roleplay. Devourer: the spirit of resentment and unfulfilled craving. The desire of a moth that flies into flame. NE. Symbol: an open moth-like skull within a black hole, sometimes surrounded by colors that turn to gray in its presence. Decider: the spirit of authority and restriction. The fear that witholds flame within the security of a lantern. LE. Symbol: a tall thin black lantern slightly shaped like a house, with a small orange flame within and an impression of bars before it. Destroyer: the spirit of sanctity and purification. The wrath that burns out rot and corruption. CE. Symbol: a comet of silver blue light turning red as it enters an atmosphere, with broken shackles trailing behind.