Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School Art Reference: Ilunor Rularia (Patreon)

Hey everyone! The wait is finally over! Because the next lineup on our rapidly expanding references for the main cast is coming hot off the drawing tablet!

Third on the list is our favorite discount kobold, resident football, and puntable friend, Lord Ilunor Rularia!

Here, we see him dressed in his typical finery, not yet wishing to remove the cloth of nobility for the articles of scholarship.

Indeed, there’s a lot that can be said about his choice of attire. In fact, there’s a lot that can be said about Vunerians in general as their social rules of decorum and etiquette have taken a great deal of inspiration from that of the elves and other “cornerstone” races of the Nexus.

In the same vein as the Nexus, Vunerian society places a great emphasis on the delineation between not just social classes, but on what separates the sapient from what they would refer to as "the beastly". As a general rule of thumb, they believe that the main differentiator between sapient peoples and “beasts”, would be social rules. To them, the marker of sapiency and civility is the ability to both understand rules, and the discipline to follow them. The more rules there are, the further ‘up’ in the hierarchy you go in terms of how “civilized” you are; you can definitely tell the Nexus' whole use of social constructs to control the populous from here where even nobles aren't safe. Thus, nobles such as Ilunor have quite a long list of social rules to follow, as they not only wish to differentiate themselves from “beasts”, but also from the commoners that they see as beneath them.

Getting back on track, clothing is a major aspect of this. Everything rides on the idea of what “separates” you from “beasts”, and as a result, clothes are everything. This idea is taken a step further the higher up you go on the social ladder, as more complex patterns, rarer materials, and finer craftsmanship is used to further widen the gap between a “civilized” person and that of a “beast”. There are complex rules that govern what is acceptable and what is not, and deeply rooted traditions in what decorations are considered acceptable for where exactly you land within the ranks of nobility. Again, this ties back to the adherence to the Nexus’ love of rules, and their belief that these social constructs are what makes someone “civilized”.

This also ties to a few things you can note here about Ilunor, most notably how his tail is always raised off the ground. That’s one of the many learned habits that all nobles with tails must adhere to. As social rules dictate that quote “only two appendages may be on the ground at any time”, once again showing the clear bias towards the elves as they only have both of their feet to worry about. Races such as the Vunerians, and other races with similarly long tails, must adhere to this rule by constantly raising their tails so that they don’t touch the ground. However, even this has its caveats, as there is a point where raising it too high is a social faux pas, so there’s a narrow window where this is acceptable.

Many employ tail straighteners at the base of their tails to help in keeping them stable, these devices are hidden underneath cloths draped over the tail.

But even this is considered to be a sign of poor etiquette, as social expectations dictate that it's up to the discipline of the individual to maintain this posture themselves. So by delegating this responsibility to a tool, the person is openly showing just how “weak” and “undisciplined” they are in their resolve to follow the rules.

This example is just one of the many thousands of social expectations that exist for nobles to follow.

Maybe this explains why Ilunor is always so grumpy.

Maybe not though!

Regardless, this is a brief glimpse into the world of our dear Vunerian friend. 

Please be nice and do not punt the discount kobold!

With all of that being said, let’s get to the art!

The artist has done a spectacular job, and I’m honestly blown away by what they’ve accomplished. This is the first time working with this artist, but I chose to commission them because they do great work with Kobolds! They’ve been awesome to work with and they were extremely creative with their design process and everything!

So do check them out! :D

Artist Reference: RMikkyart on Twitter