gobs-o-cs

[gobs-o-cs]

Oh, also - The colour palette of the Hells'-Haven garb he's wearing as Cuprite - Black, red, orange, and yellow - Is meant to lean into imagery of fire and forge as means of creation and protection - Hence, the warm-coloured glow instead of "pure" white light imagery (while probably wouldn't play 100% well with a bunch of Tieflings exiled due to religious bigotry in the Empire they were originally from before Hells'-Haven was founded by the refugees as they congregated outside the borders of the Empire)

Cuprite/Malachite himself is a Havenmade Warforged, as opposed to a Recovered Warforged. He was created by the Artificers of Hells'-Haven, using the techniques they developed through studying and reawakening the dormant Recovered Warforged, who are found in the scattered ruins of the ancient Precursor Civilization who originally created them.

Recovered Warforged tend to be overall sturdier, but have some difficulty in approaching the notion that they have freedom to choose their own paths. Havenmade Warforged were not created with the mindset of being tools as their Recovered kin were, so tend to have more-independent personalities and more easily find their own paths in life. The Haven's work is very skilled, but lacks certain ineffable elements of the Precursor's mysterious magic, so the younger Warforged might be more susceptible to breakdown than the original models as they age, but as the oldest Havenmade Warforged are just over 35-years-old (the oldest Recovered Warforged were only revived not-quite-45 years ago), it's not yet clear how the two will compare in the long-term.

[In terms of lore for individual races in the shared-world I'm writing for all my characters, Aasimar, Tieflings, and Warforged have the most for sure Aasimar and Warforged are linked together through the mysterious Precursor Empire, while Tieflings and Warforged are linked together through the work of Hells'-Haven. Aasimar are extremely rare and all surviving ones had their memories tampered with - So, they don't really have a broad/general characterized relationship with other races - Just interactions of individuals. I do have some non-Human-origin Aasimar written up - They're meant to have been rather rare and somewhat minimalized by the Human-centric Precursor Empire. And as far as Tieflings and Aasimar interactions are concerned, there's the first confirmed newly-Exalted Aasimar since Precursor times - Novelty, and everything going on in her backstory.]

"We have to get back... We have to warn them! We can't be too late! ...Please. Please tell us that this was not how it ends!"

Malachite

(He/Him)

Warforged Warlock, Great Old One Patron, Pact of the Talisman

Neutral

Courtier Background (Emissary)

Prior to the Backstory Event that Led to Making a Warlock Pact:

Cuprite

"On behalf of the esteemed City-State of Hells'-Haven, I thank you for your hospitality in receiving this envoy and express our most sincere wishes that we can together forge an enthusiastic, efficacious, and enduring partnership."

Dice Set #74 - Oxi-Copper

----------------------------------------------------

What can I say? Inspiration is a fickle thing. I'll take it when I can get it, but I've definitely been slacking on making characters or minis. Definitely fell deep into a jigsaw puzzle vortex.

But, anyway, a post on bluesky inspired me to go back and remake a character's mini into a nice, proper one with all of the new features at my disposal.

Malachite's a character who in some form or another has been rattling around in my head for, like, something like 15 years now. I originally made the Warforged Warlock for 4th Edition - He was actually a counterpart of sorts to Morana.

For my 4th Edition characters, I was putting together the vague idea of them all being on the same team of mercenaries - If I were to ever DM a campaign, they'd be available for the PCs' party to hire/bring along for missions to shore up any weaknesses they had, to act as quest-givers (especially side-quest-type stuff), and in-general to give them NPC friends to care about (the plot hook I had in-mind would begin with the party being recruited into this merc group).

Actually, if I ever do run a campaign instead of just writing a story, I think I might still approach things with that whole setup in-mind.

Anyway, a trope I'd noticed in many media is that groups/teams/parties only ever seemed to have one member of each type/class - Maybe a beefy-type-fighter and agile-type-fighter, but that was the most overlap that seemed to exist, and usually that'd be more like a fighter and a ranger, or a fighter and a barbarian.

So what I wanted to do was have two Warlocks both as part of the core crew - Because the mercenary group liked each other and wanted to work with their friends, rather than shrewdly looking at their roster and rejecting someone because "they already had one of those".

While HeroForge still doesn't have the very niche ideas I have in-mind for the ultimate vision I have for Mal, the new options are certainly a step up from my first attempt at making a mini for him back in 2020.

In my vision, he doesn't have normal-looking horns, per se - He's got two metal slats attached to his faceplate, in place of horns - The Tieflings that made him did make him to resemble them, but still more stylized. Also, the green "hair" on his head is meant to be an accumulation of Old Man's Beard lichen, which started growing on his immobilized body while he was stuck in involuntary stasis, caught halfway in a time-bubble (hence the patina on his right side)

The reason for his making a pact, and the reason for his persona change is that he spent over 20 years stuck with his body and mind half-in-half-out of magical fallout, basically. And the source of the eldritch magic eventually reached out to his literally-fractured mind, and that aspect of his personality - An embodiment of his utter desperation and outrage, was the one to form the pact.

Finally freeing himself from the stasis effect stabilized his mind for the most part, but in terms of which facets of himself that are driving the actions now, there was a shift from his normal self to the part of him that made the pact. It's not a clear distinct-personas Dissociative Identity Disorder thing - There's no different-alters-taking-control-at-different-times switching - Malachite and Cuprite are the same person, just two of many voices that would debate ideas back and forth in his head, same as pretty much anyone else does. Malachite ultimately isn't any less reasonable than Cuprite - More guarded and paranoid, more affected by trauma, certainly. But still essentially Cuprite.

Nevertheless, learning that he was framed for causing the explosion of the strange magic that trapped him and destroyed a fortress, and that this incident was used by the other nation as a justification to invade and destroy his home City-State will definitely not sit well with him. His people - Both in the sense of the other residents of Hells'-Haven in-general, and his Warforged kin - Those who survived the invasion have once again been scattered to the winds. Hells'-Haven was a center of invention and research, and they had found ancient Warforged in tombs and revived them from their dormant states, which led to the development of techniques for creating new ones. So, the Warforged had their new home amongst the exiled Tieflings (and others) of the Haven.

He wishes to return to his service as an emissary of his people, which means finding whatever surviving leadership he can, if there's indeed anyone left to find. All the while his new "friend" whispers promises of vengeance justice in his mind.

[gobs-o-cs]

"We have to get back... We have to warn them! We can't be too late! ...Please. Please tell us that this was not how it ends!"

Malachite

(He/Him)

Warforged Warlock, Great Old One Patron, Pact of the Talisman

Neutral

Courtier Background (Emissary)

Prior to the Backstory Event that Led to Making a Warlock Pact:

Cuprite

"On behalf of the esteemed City-State of Hells'-Haven, I thank you for your hospitality in receiving this envoy and express our most sincere wishes that we can together forge an enthusiastic, efficacious, and enduring partnership."

Dice Set #74 - Oxi-Copper

----------------------------------------------------

What can I say? Inspiration is a fickle thing. I'll take it when I can get it, but I've definitely been slacking on making characters or minis. Definitely fell deep into a jigsaw puzzle vortex.

But, anyway, a post on bluesky inspired me to go back and remake a character's mini into a nice, proper one with all of the new features at my disposal.

Malachite's a character who in some form or another has been rattling around in my head for, like, something like 15 years now. I originally made the Warforged Warlock for 4th Edition - He was actually a counterpart of sorts to Morana.

For my 4th Edition characters, I was putting together the vague idea of them all being on the same team of mercenaries - If I were to ever DM a campaign, they'd be available for the PCs' party to hire/bring along for missions to shore up any weaknesses they had, to act as quest-givers (especially side-quest-type stuff), and in-general to give them NPC friends to care about (the plot hook I had in-mind would begin with the party being recruited into this merc group).

Actually, if I ever do run a campaign instead of just writing a story, I think I might still approach things with that whole setup in-mind.

Anyway, a trope I'd noticed in many media is that groups/teams/parties only ever seemed to have one member of each type/class - Maybe a beefy-type-fighter and agile-type-fighter, but that was the most overlap that seemed to exist, and usually that'd be more like a fighter and a ranger, or a fighter and a barbarian.

So what I wanted to do was have two Warlocks both as part of the core crew - Because the mercenary group liked each other and wanted to work with their friends, rather than shrewdly looking at their roster and rejecting someone because "they already had one of those".

While HeroForge still doesn't have the very niche ideas I have in-mind for the ultimate vision I have for Mal, the new options are certainly a step up from my first attempt at making a mini for him back in 2020.

In my vision, he doesn't have normal-looking horns, per se - He's got two metal slats attached to his faceplate, in place of horns - The Tieflings that made him did make him to resemble them, but still more stylized. Also, the green "hair" on his head is meant to be an accumulation of Old Man's Beard lichen, which started growing on his immobilized body while he was stuck in involuntary stasis, caught halfway in a time-bubble (hence the patina on his right side)

The reason for his making a pact, and the reason for his persona change is that he spent over 20 years stuck with his body and mind half-in-half-out of magical fallout, basically. And the source of the eldritch magic eventually reached out to his literally-fractured mind, and that aspect of his personality - An embodiment of his utter desperation and outrage, was the one to form the pact.

Finally freeing himself from the stasis effect stabilized his mind for the most part, but in terms of which facets of himself that are driving the actions now, there was a shift from his normal self to the part of him that made the pact. It's not a clear distinct-personas Dissociative Identity Disorder thing - There's no different-alters-taking-control-at-different-times switching - Malachite and Cuprite are the same person, just two of many voices that would debate ideas back and forth in his head, same as pretty much anyone else does. Malachite ultimately isn't any less reasonable than Cuprite - More guarded and paranoid, more affected by trauma, certainly. But still essentially Cuprite.

Nevertheless, learning that he was framed for causing the explosion of the strange magic that trapped him and destroyed a fortress, and that this incident was used by the other nation as a justification to invade and destroy his home City-State will definitely not sit well with him. His people - Both in the sense of the other residents of Hells'-Haven in-general, and his Warforged kin - Those who survived the invasion have once again been scattered to the winds. Hells'-Haven was a center of invention and research, and they had found ancient Warforged in tombs and revived them from their dormant states, which led to the development of techniques for creating new ones. So, the Warforged had their new home amongst the exiled Tieflings (and others) of the Haven.

He wishes to return to his service as an emissary of his people, which means finding whatever surviving leadership he can, if there's indeed anyone left to find. All the while his new "friend" whispers promises of vengeance justice in his mind.

[gobs-o-cs]

I think that about covers the updates for now.

Everyone else's hands were full, basically.

[gobs-o-cs]

In addition to splaying his fingers, I also took the opportunity to update Ambrose's pose - Both facial and slight adjustments to his torso and arm position. Really getting into that belly laugh now.

Got his lips looking a little less disproportional and oddly-coloured too.

"Well, I reckon this here problem ain't so intractable. C'mon, have a seat, let's hash this out."

Ambrose Hawksbeard

(He/Him)

Stout Halfling Cleric of Pelor, Light Domain

Neutral Good

Acolyte Background

Dice Set # 11 - Yellow w/ Blue Numbers

[gobs-o-cs]

Prayer's hands are now properly resting on his sword and rubbing his chin, respectively.

Something weird was going on with his lips, that didn't seem to be the case in my previous screenshots of his mini, so I tinkered around with his facial expression to make sure his glower wasn't looking too goofy.

"There are dark forces at work in this town. I am certain of it. Heresy, sedition, monsters, Fey Magics. Perhaps worse. We must not let any of their wicked machinations come to fruition. Remember your oaths. See to your duties. We must prevail. We will prevail! By Word and By Sword!"

"Zealot" Prayer O'Toole

(He/Him)

Human Paladin of St. Cuthbert, Oath of The Crown

Lawful Neutral

Soldier Background - Officer

Dice Set #12 - Ivory Marble

[gobs-o-cs]

Orna-Jun gets a new beckoning pose for her empty hand, but also a slightly different camera angle so that her new hand pose doesn't get completely lost in her profile.

As it stands I'm not super-super happy about how her left arm scans overall, but to pose the whole "Bring it!" thing much differently would look really out of place, so we'll go with this for now. The biggest issue is that with how splayed extended her vertical profile is, it's tricky to find a good angle that gets all of her properly framed without being too zoomed out.

"My father prepared me for this. I don't care who you are or whatever business you have here, but I don't intend to let him down."

Orna-Jun

(She/Her)

Half-Orc Monk, Way of Shadow

Chaotic Good

Guild Artisan/Merchant Background - Potter

Dice Set #16 - Jade

[gobs-o-cs]

Velea's usual form is firmly holding a hammer in both hands, but her unmasked self and Mason Stone disguise get minor touch-ups:

"Good bookkeeping is foundational to building proper civilization."

Velea Spireward

(She/Her)

Human Cleric of Erathis, Order Domain

Neutral Good

Soldier Background - Support Staff - Clerk/Librarian

"Look, I get it. This doesn't really seem like the sort of society we'd want to foster - But they're growing and expanding whether we want them to or not. We have to keep tabs on them either way, and keep practicing our hiding - Even among particularly fanatical people. Maybe especially so."

Velea Greyeyes

(They/She)

Changeling Cleric of Erathis, Order Domain

Neutral Good

Spy Background

"Another round friends? Those bosses of yours seem to be working you extra hard these days."

Mason Stone

(He/Him)

(Another face to wear around town)

Dice Set #17 - Clear with Blue Inky Swirls

[gobs-o-cs]

More of a "C'mon, then. Try it." pose for Ix

"Oh... How quaint. These surface peasants almost have crudely replicated some of the basic tools of our illustrious kingdom. I suppose it's only natural that they would want to play at approaching our magnificence."

Ixius Renillath

(He/Him)

Triton Paladin of Persana, Oath of Glory

Lawful Neutral

Far Traveller Background - Emissary

Dice Set #18 - Teal and Silver

[gobs-o-cs]

Screw it. At this point, I'm just gonna ride this productive urge and finish all the hand pose updates tonight, because there's only a *ahem* handful of minis left:

Zoeyan's update is very easy - She can actually properly point ahead now

"Look at that sky, that horizon! Smell that air! Feel this grass beneath your feet! Feel that warm sun! And have you tasted this bread stuff?! I can't believe we were never told about all this!"

Zoeyan Renillath

(She/Her)

Triton Paladin of Melora, Oath of the Open Sea

[Possibly with a slight re-flavour to Oath of the Open Sky conceptually, but mechanically still the same for simplicity]

Lawful Neutral

Far Traveller Background - Emissary

Dice Set #21 - Blue and White w/ Red Numbers

[gobs-o-cs]

The fingers and arm position on the off-hand feel much better to me, now.

"Uh, Boss? You sure about this? This stuff ain't exactly battle-tested. Or field-tested under expected conditions. Or, uh, any. Conditions, that is. Like, we -just- got them to the point where they weren't exploding on the work bench, uh, if I'm bein' honest, 'ere."

Nazmazh

(He/Him)

Goblin Artificer, Armorer

Chaotic Good

Guild Artisan Background - Tinker / Smith

Dice Set #27 - Blue Swirls w/ Gold Numbers

[gobs-o-cs]

It happened again. It keeps happening.

Made his fingers splay and his mouth open in a bit wider laugh.

[Apologies in advance for me trying to simulate a Newfoundland-inspired dialect, and trying to transcribe it in a way that still reads somewhat coherently. I also only have the slightest familiarity with specific terms and usages of them, so I'm trying to piece things together, so the way it's used here might not actually reflect reality] "G'wan, b'y! Pudd'yer back inta it! We don' geddis stone loaded soon, we' bes late for supper down adda tavern, me sons. An' ya wouldn' wan da' now, would'ye? Don' make me ged after yehs 'gain 'boud id, now! We wanna geddown der right fas', 'fore da good stuff's a'ready been scoffered!"*

Tengiz Floatstone

(He/Him)

Mountain Dwarf Fighter - Champion

Guild Merchant Background - Masons/Stonecutters

*["Go on, you ["b'y" is derived from "boy", but is gender-neutral, as far as I can tell]. Put your back into it! We don't get this stone loaded soon, we'll be late for supper down at the tavern, guys. And you wouldn't want that now, would you? Don't make me get after you again about it, now! We want to get down there right [very] fast, before the good stuff's already been wolfed down!" [Admittedly, I'm not 100% that it wouldn't be "scoffed", or that'd be the word used anyway - I feel like I've heard it used in Newfie, but not remotely sure of that. But as I said - "Inspired by", and I liked the cadence on this a bit better]]

Dice Set #1 - Ashy White

[gobs-o-cs]

I've gotta stop opening the next one in-series, it keeps leading me to tinker with them instead of switching focus.

At any rate, for Novelty, I'm not going to update the minis in the scene with Pog, but for her main mini, I've updated her hand and overall posture to look more beaten down. Poor girl's been going through it, after all.

"Is it too much to hope that this so-called 'destiny' the gods seem to have in mind for me isn't all grim and serious and 'prim-and-proper' and 'dignified' and stuffy from here on out?"

Clara "Novelty" Morgen

(She/Her)

Tiefling? Aasimar Artificer, Artillerist

Neutral Good

Inheritor Background - Secret Heritage

[For my own purposes she would be considered fully both races. In terms of game rules if ever actually using her as a PC, the Aasimar is the more important of the heritages to be dominant for who she is. The Tasha's Cauldron Custom Lineage options don't really help to have inherent features from multiple races, unfortunately]

Dice Set #343 - The Dawn

[gobs-o-cs]

Another minor hand-pose update. Both of Cassie's hands are full in the main images, but her "having a vision" pose now has her empty hand looking a little more dynamic:

There's a stretch of characters whose minis I created between like, a certain point - Between the face-system update and me subscribing to HF that their images are from before I had access to the photobooth proper - So that's why the background is entirely stripped out here, now.

"Hmm... No. I don't think I shall accompany you. You may not wish to wear your finest coat for this. Also, be sure you bring a tomato, a good pair of gloves, and that pair of binoculars. No, not that one, the one with the red casing."

Cassandra "Vision" Glass

(She/Her)

Tiefling Wizard, School of Divination

Neutral

Sage Background - Astronomer

Dice Set #14 - Frosty Clear

[gobs-o-cs]

Couldn't help myself, because Reed's fix was quick and obvious too:

His free hand now has a more proper pointing pose.

Edit: Oh, right - His Profile includes that hand/finger. Updated that too, now:

"Aha! Now that's something I can work with! Just juicy enough to tell me you're up to something else too. Guess I'm going to have to pay you a visit and see just how deep this goes. ...And how much you'll pay to make sure nobody else ever finds out."

Reed Rostkovia

(He/Him)

Lightfoot Halfling Rogue, Thief

Chaotic Neutral

Noble Background [Could also qualify for Guild Artisan/Merchant as a Scribe/Scrivener/Printer - Technically he manages a branch of his family's publishing operations as his day job]

Dice Set #6 - Red and Blue

[gobs-o-cs]

What the heck, one more for the road -

Izzy also didn't need much, but her hand's now more open like it's reaching for someone, to pick them up off the ground. The fingers changed, and her arm and wrist position were adjusted slightly - Nothing major, but I like the feel of this better for the scenario I was envisioning.

"Well, that may take some time, but yes, I have sources that can acquire that for you, regardless of how the authorities feel about it. However... That's not really what you're looking for, is it? It won't actually solve your problems. It's just going to put a bandage on the surface wound, when your issue runs right to the bone, so to speak. You might perhaps instead be interested in a conversation with my, shall we say, benefactor. They might have a suitable solution for you as well. I see that you're worried about payment. Don't be. They're quite accommodating at finding solutions for that sort of thing."

Izar "Izzy" Alili

(She/Her)

Drow Warlock, Archfey Patron, Pact of the Blade

Chaotic Neutral

Criminal Background - Fence

Dice Set #7 - Gold and Black

[gobs-o-cs]

Trying to make myself do some more character-stuff again more regularly - Beginning with doing the edits with the updated hand/finger system.

It's a very small change for Zuri - Her fingers in her free hand now have a more relaxed, slightly more open, pose.

For comparison:

Tried to see if I could get a pose of her with her free arm wrapped around her torso and resting casually on her staff-arm, but it was being really uncooperative when it came to getting her two arms to meet without it looking like she was really stretching.

"I overheard your conversation. I can help you with the creatures attacking your caravans on the roads. I am thoroughly capable of assisting with such a task. You likely have other points you wish to discuss about this task, so we should move away from this street to continue our conversation. Too much awful green from all of these coins rattling near the merchants' stalls. It is difficult to concentrate when the environment feels so nauseating. And your voices - They blend into the purples and the blues of everything that is happening here. It will all be more clear away from these types of noise."

Zuri Opalalkiir

(She/Her)

Half-Elf Sorcerer, Wild Magic

Chaotic Neutral

Folk Hero Background

Dice Set #9: Multicoloured

[gobs-o-cs]

"My people know little fear, but that makes them arrogant. There are threats out there that cannot be easily overcome through strength and numbers alone. Though they may laugh at ritual and shun magic, these techniques will make it easier to cut down those foes of a supernatural or magical nature."

Nilzom

(He/Him)

Elfbane Hobgoblin Thaumaturge

Night Guard Background

Alternatively:

Hobgoblin Blood Hunter, Order of the Ghostslayer

Lawful Neutral

City Watch Background

Pathfinder Hobgoblin Lore Compliant Version (ie: Hairless)

(I actually don't dislike this look for him as much as I thought I might, but I'll still probably stick with the ponytail and goatee unless people are real sticklers for it)

Dice Set #288 - Ceanothus

--------------------------------------------

So, yeah, it's been a hot minute, eh? Such is the nature of hyperfixation, it flips wildly between things sometimes. Lately, it's been focused on various video games, but also especially jigsaw puzzles (both physical and digital). I'll try to get myself to do some more character updates/creation at some point here, but that will still require that needle to flip back over a little. It did feel pretty fun and natural to hop back into HeroForge to make this new character, though, which is always nice.

At any rate, in the meantime, my gaming groups' lives seem to have calmed down a little bit, and we figure we're just going to start up a new campaign and get a couple new folks in as well. And we're giving Pathfinder a go this time around, as you might imagine, with Nilzom being a Pathfinder-focused character. Of course, I've got the D&D roughest equivalent penciled in for him as well. I know that D&D Hobs are more likely to be orange-red skinned as opposed to the Pathfinder's blue-grey skinned. But, eh, he can fit into either setting. Including having some hair. As a treat.