#shaar desolation

“Umara” [Commission] 02/25/2021 White Nights Watercolors and India Ink on Parchment 9”x 12 “

Text: Είναι τόσο τραχιά όσο η άμμος των μεγάλων άγονων ερήμων, αλλά φαίνεται μια χαμένη και αγνή ψυχή που παγιδεύεται στα χείμαρρα οργής. Translation: She is as rough as the sands of the great barren deserts, yet she seems a lost and pure soul caught up in the torrents of rage.

1) Black Stone 2) Fjolk (Portal) 3) Línghún nǚwáng 4) Línghún nǚwáng Revised Artist’s Note: This is the fifth painting that’s part of the set which my 5e DM commissioned me to create. The NPC’s name is Umara, one of the oldest generals that’s part of Black Stone Legion. Naveen Najafi of Calimport (my aasimar wizard PC) spoke to her with sincerity and then genuinely asked why she is serving Black Stone. After a few more words were exchanged, Naveen was able to inspire her to think for herself  to the point she directed the party where to acquire a dagger that’ll drain Black Stone’s immortality. She then offers her service to help the party and the crusaders against Black Stone’s madness. All she needed was a friend to ask what she wants in life. 

Full disclosure, the armor she’s wearing is based on the Easterling Armor from Lord of The Rings trilogy. Thanks to the White Nights watercolors, this painting came out beautiful. It’s worth the price. Below is an excerpt from Count Simon De Montfort.

“The first and most potent of his generals is Umara; she hails from Sheirtala, located deep in the Shaar Desolation. The city was practically a ruin when she was born; its inhabitants scratched out an existence from the unforgiving deserts surrounding it. Umara’s father would be the one to set the city on a path with its destiny as a stronghold full of brutal desert raiders. Her father was a cruel and savage man who cared very little for his people, even his own family. When Umara was a young woman at the behest of her father, the city’s shaman imbued her with a great and terrible power they referred to as the sands of Almawt. The sands are coarse and sharp as glass; the grains are as black as the void of death itself. She suffered greatly during the ritual; she suffered so intensely that she lost her sanity. Upon the ritual's completion, she lashed out at her father and the shaman shredding them with the sands.

After murdering her father, Umara used her power to take control of the city's raider hordes, consisting of thousands of mounted warriors. She led these warriors on one savage conquest after another. Burning and slaughtering every town and city within striking distance of the Shaar Desolation. As they conquered, she began to truly develop her powers discovering many terrifying abilities, such as her ability to summon a great black fire drake made of pure sand. Or her ability to summon a sand storm so powerful that it can disintegrate entire armies and cities that are caught in it. It's not known how she came to be in Blackstone’s service, but it is believed they encountered each other during the  Blackstones Calimport campaign in the mid 300’s—thus making her his first and most terrible general.”