Simikialis and more - Concept Art (Patreon)

I've got a big batch this week because I've got some minor edits of older pieces mixed in with the new stuff.

Sooner or later I'm going to have to make a map for this world. The base idea is that there are a bunch of cities built on top of dead Angels. A list of all the cities I need to design and their rough orientation to each other will push that process forward. Each city is named after the Angel whose body lies at its foundation:

Urialis - Uriel, Angel of Flame

Gabrialis - Gabriel, Angel of Strength

Sahaqialis - Sahaqiel, Angel of the Sky

etc etc.

One region I knew was going to be on the list, but hadn't gotten any attention so far was Simikialis, The City of Justice.

Knights of Simikialis

Simikiel is the Angel of Vengeance and their overall vibe is very BDSM. Lots of black leather. My first attempt didn't pan out the way I imagined so I pivoted away from the Jon Snow (Game of Thrones) look over to something distinctly more Voldo (Soul Calibur).

In addition to the knights, I added a weird monster guy that I imagine is something like a sphinx. The working title for him was "cat o nine", referring back to a BDSM whip, but I might end up making a series of sphinxes living in each city that take on characteristics from the patron Angels.

There were plans to make a number of chimeric creatures for this project from the beginning, but I hadn't done one yet. In my original series of notes, I was worried this idea wasn't interesting enough to create a full set of monsters for a DnD setting, but finally cracking that door open has alleviated that concern. Exploring just a tiny corner of this concept excites me to see what other weird little guys I can make for this world.

Rahab Knight

This is a rework of a more generic early concept. I built on the shell shaped rondels of the armor to make him more oceanic themed. If he's going to be a knight of Rahab, that would make this the first human character styling themselves after a dead Watcher as opposed to a Seraphim. It's an interesting idea to make some of NPCs that worship fallen angels in this world, so I'll probably keep exploring this direction. I don't think I'll be making any big cities styled after the Watchers, but having smaller cults dedicated to them might be really fun.

Priest of Sahaqiel

This is a really quick piece that I wanted to just jam out while it was in my head last night. I've found that taking strong visual queues from the original Angel designs is working out much better than making the connections more abstract. This design feels like it reinforces that idea. It's simple, it's elegant, and it 100% works for what I'm making here. I think I can probably reinterpret these elements in different ways throughout the whole of each Angelic order, but I do need to use a common design language for them in order to make it work. Borrowing that language from the patron Angels feels like the path forward.

Speaking of Patrons, HUGE THANKS to all my new patrons that have signed up this week. I'm happy to see this thing starting to grow again. Please don't be shy about asking questions.

Much love,

-Pete