Sparks, Knockoff Warforged Warlock - Sketch (Patreon)

A warforged commission I drew recently! In the game Sparks appeared, he caused the event known as the Mourning!

Character: Sparks, Knockoff Warforged Warlock

Sparks was created as part of a project to build warforged without paying the ludicrously overpriced fees house Cannith charged. But without the soul forge, they were unable to build true warforged, and were forced to build something that merely looked like one externally. Soulless automata made of metal and gears rather than the wood and life of a true warforged.

The project was shut down, but a number of these prototypes still existed, and were used extensively for well over a century, more than proving their worth in performing the most truly vile acts any being with a soul would have refused to do. They were adapted, rebuilt, modified and repaired countless times over an incredibly long service in the service of a war that seemed without end, until someone had an idea to design a weapon to end all weapons: the soul syphon, a weapon so devastating it would literally steal the souls from a whole country of people, capturing them inside a crystal.

The weapon was designed and built, but one problem remained, who would give up their soul for their country? Then someone mentioned the automata. And thus, Sparks and his team were sent on their most devastating quest, to destroy the very souls of the country known as Cyr. The soul syphon was carried, in secret to the very heart of the country where it would do the most damage. There it was planted, armed an in 3... 2... 1...

BOOM.

A whole country... gone, their souls trapped inside this crystal.

But something was wrong. The device should have been able to hold this much power. Was it malfunctioning? Sabotaged? Impossible to know, as the device exploded, sending soul-infused shards of crystal and metal everywhere, including into Sparks, the one who activated the device.

Everything went black. A short while later, Sparks woke up feeling terrible. This was confusing to him, as he had never felt anything before, including confusion.

There was a lot of... pain? He assumed it was pain, he figured that having shards of crystal embedded in his body would be very painful. Then came the memories. They came in flashes, hot, fast, violent, and yes, painful. He felt countless souls in their last moments, crying out in fear and anger, then silenced. Then a new memory, faster and faster, overwhelming his mind...

When he woke up again, he was staring at two fantastical beings, a unicorn and a pegasus. They introduced themselves as the sisters of the sun and moon. They were aware of what happened, and told him that he was given life, such as it is, by the power of the crystals in him.

He spoke about the memories of the dead, how overwhelming it was. He spoke about the things he had been forced to do in his life, and the war crimes he had committed. He asked to be given another chance, to start again, to leave these terrible memories behind, he would do anything to atone for his sins.

The sisters, accepted his pleas. He would begin a new life, on a new plane with a new name and memories, and a new form. He would serve the sisters by taking the place of one their fallen warlocks, to ease his new job serving the sisters.

Efferil woke up in a field. He didn’t know how he got here, but had an inkling that he needed to find the dragonborn bard known as Kledash, and so he set off to find him.

And that is the story of who the Efferil the party knows and loves, before he joined the party.

The original Efferil who died to give Sparks a life to use as a disguise? That is a story for another time…

What do you think? :)

I'll post the full illustration in various versions soon!