AUGUST 2021 on BESTIARUM ║ PREVIEW part 2 (Patreon)

Hi friends,

Getting back to you with another set of images from our August release.
Scorpions are all ready and are test printing at the moment!

All previous week i was working on the Haast - the giant bird. Damn i haven't sculpted for printing such giant model yet :) By my estimations it will take about 9 print plates to print on the smallest machines! I have already ordered 3 additional litters of resin just in case :)
Sorry guys :D

So far I am pretty happy how it turns out. 

Body is already finished but i still have to wrap up its gear, base and riders. There is plenty of work ahead but it definitely will be one of my favorite pieces.

Do you want to have unarmored version as well?

Here is our background story for the August release! enjoy!
You' ll find out why why those two tribes actually fight
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And the gods of the wind and the desert clashed under the roaring storm. Their battle cries were like thunder to mortals, and their blows shook the firmament of heaven and earth. And the stars fell from the sky, and the rivers broke their banks. And the spilled ichor sprinkled the mortal beings who witnessed that battle. The poisonous blood of the desert gods splashed on the tribe that turned into the Keliterians, and the silver blood of the gods of wind and heaven fell on the creatures that will later be known as the Haasts.

And so the mortal beings continued the war of the gods, and let them not stop until one of the tribes is destroyed, as well as the memory of it.

One of the legends of the Desert of Giant Skulls

To the south of the Hanging Canyons, a Desert of Giant Skulls spreads out. Its sands hide too many ruins where flags of states and cities, that once were strikingly beautiful and powerful, now rot. Today the Keliterians, a race of creatures with their body a mix of that of a scorpion and a human, live and build their colonies on these ruins. The Kelitarians spread the boundaries of their colonies further and further, desolating villages of other races and building their nests under their remains; and the Desert of Giant Skulls itself seems to move and expand along with the Keliterians’ domain.

The hierarchical structure of the Keliterian colonies is somewhat akin to that of ants. At the very bottom exist the looters -- creatures as tall as a person, which after their adolescence quickly turn into sexless creatures with no identity, guided by instincts and pheromones. Keliterians looters are responsible for the construction of colonies, the care and feeding of larvae and the cleanliness within the colony, as well as for the informational exchange between colonies.

The Keliterians are omnivorous creatures, but they prefer meat, so from time to time the Keliterian looters come to the nearest villages and steal small cattle, domestic animals or, if they are lucky indeed, the offspring of intelligent races. The latter are usually fed to the Mothers or the Queen.

Above the looters are the Keliterians of war, who are responsible for the exploration, protection and expansion of colonies, and sometimes for hunting large creatures. Keliterian warriors, who are larger than a man, are very effective in battle, and their ability to climb vertical slopes makes the walls of cities useless against their attacks.

Coordinating the actions of the Keliterian warriors is their Warlord. The Warlords’ intelligence and personality are developed much more than those of other representatives of this race, so in battle they understand the balance of forces almost on an instinctive level and make the right decisions almost instantly. With the help of sound signals and pheromones, they manage and correct the situation on the battlefield, stealing victory from enemies and crushing even superior forces.

The Queen of the Keliterians, in contrast to the Warlords, has no personality. When the central colony gains enough strength, the Queen gives birth to a Mother, who in the company of warriors and looters travels to the borders of the Keliteri territory to establish a new colony there.

When the Queen dies, the Mother of the strongest colony becomes a new Queen. If there is more than one Mother wishing to become the leader, a civil war is inevitable -- for there can be only one Queen. The same wars start when the regional resources become too scarce to feed several colonies, and so usually the strongest of them destroys and devours the rest, thereby restoring the food balance.

But the nests-colonies of the Keliterians are also often attacked by their main enemy: the Vaalakeri tribes. Their sworn enemies since ancient times.

The Vaalakeri tribes live on the peaks of the Hanging Canyons in harmony with the feathered race of giant Haasts -- huge vulture-like birds considered to be descendants of divine celestial creatures. These birds are sacred to the Vaalakeri tribes, and the Vaalakeri people consider themselves a chosen nation.

The elite of these tribes are those brave men and women who managed to win the trust of the Haasta and become their riders. Such warriors are revered on a par with shamans or the leader’s family.

Some warriors of the Vaalakeri wear ritual costumes made from feathers and bones of the dead nestlings of the giant Haasts. Due to the fact that the strongest Haast youngling throws the weaker ones out of the nest and Haast eggs are laid once every three years, such outfits are rare and are awarded only to the winners of the games arranged in honor of the initiation of new warriors. The Vaalakeri believe that these outfits help the soul of a deceased Haast to pass into the body of a young warrior, and so by donning such clothes the Vaalakeri strengthen their connection to their feathered patrons.

From time to time the Vaalakerians attack the nests of the Keliterians from the backs of the Haasts. The Haasts tear the tops of the colonies off and so it is easier for the Vaalakeri to defeat the Keliterian warriors and looters. The reward for the Haasts is the numerous captured larvae, a favorite delicacy of these feathered giants. And the Vaalakerians claim the treasures that can be found in the corridors of the Keliterian colonies.
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Be back to you with updates asap!
Cheers,
Alexei