Thralls on the South Front (PSD and full-res) (Patreon)

Another painting for my setting The Loyal Ones ^^  

A PSD can be downloaded here:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YB6EJgCgDJ9UZWnyWKY7rGPV6ULE8ozI/view?usp=sharing

Image caption:

Thralls in no man's land, considering their next move.

Thralls are a slave race that were created to fight in endless border wars by transformation of human subjects. As a result they have two forms, human-like 'home' form and monster-like 'major' form. The home form has varying degrees of features from the major form, hence the vestigial tail on the small guy here.

Their weapons are simple harpoons and a twitch-gun. The gun relies on potential energy stored in cilia within the barrel, rather than gunpowder. Anything small enough can be crammed into the chamber and accelerated down the barrel to lethal speeds. There are various official ammo types with awful biological effects, but they're in short supply. Luckily.

In general the Southern Front is under-supplied, barren and basically abandoned by humans. The few remaining human officers each command hundreds or thousands of thralls, while trying to wait out the war from the comfort of plush bunkers. Often they act more like local warlords or petty dictators than officers in a larger force. Most are political exiles that 'volunteered' to avoid some danger at home.