#gryphonfolk

[zenaquaria]

Just a few quick things of some of my characters!~

First portrait is Knight Gaelinien Falke of Greymoor's Grim Knights, and my half-elf ranger/rogue character for @themetaisfutile's homebrew game, The Risen War!

Second portrait is another horse of mine, imported into humanoid form. Grand Warden Amildael Rendikyr~ (Yes that means he's Felfyre's dad! xD) Formerly the king of my hellhorse species, he's now an Aasimar tiefling, Watchers Paladin, and head of an order of protectors in Ulei'Var!

Third is a little thing of my Feitorai girl, Brightblood, that @rosexknight designed! She's a divine sorcerer/undead warlock, and I love her design so much!~

Do not repost, edit, alter, trace/copy, use/redistribute my artworks without my permission

[satyrradio]

Kieseq knew it's brother was a cowbird, even if said brother didn't. It can only hope he comes down from his 'mushroom prince' fantasy and returns home.

[themetaisfutile]

How do you go about creating a new character?

Literally anything can start it, from the simple concepts to jokes to memes to subversions of archetypes or the archetypes themselves.

CptTritium: There’s a couple of processes. Oftentimes I think of an archetype. Thorne, one of my favorites, was going to be the horny bard, but that ended up being a drow tiefling and she ended up being more nuanced than that. But Thorne was supposed to be the horny bard, but with discussion with other table members, it went from that to “What if he’s on a quest for love?” Very upbeat, very passionate, bright side of life, super happy all the time; he could find a redeeming quality in a Balrog. Golden retriever. Then Rose said, “why not make him an artificer”. That’s how he got his gun, Commitment, and a sniper rifle attachment, Long Distance Relationship, and then he has the undocumented feat where he can just, tuxedo-mask a rose out of nowhere. But for an NPC, that can be either super planned out, or like. Cutter, for example, exists because I have this scar on my neck. Scourge of the seas, he was mutinied against, did they not cut deep enough or did he crawl back out of hell. He was going to be a Halloween costume but I ended up making him the villain for Axia and charting out his wants and needs and motivations. Then there’s off-the-cuff NPCs. Most comes organically, others require thought, I listen to music and come up with ideas.

RosexKnight: I sometimes make my characters around the builds! Character creation just works like this, literally any prompt can spark a new character. I’ve made entire families for a character based on a bit, or for a ship, or literally any spark!

Jademod: A combination of things, really? If I get an adopt design, how do I build the character around this design; other times we design the characters ourselves from scratch. That’s a combination of what I think would be an interesting thing to do or not done before, like a take on a class or combination of classes. Now that the world’s getting more fleshed out I try to come up with things that tie to something we know in the world.

Ry: Monkey brain; throw things at a wall and see what sticks/people like. I wanna make a character that jives with everybody, and has some level of chemistry with the group. Like Ezraan was just made to be a scaredy-cat who just wants to help everybody and heal people; he’s the voice of fear, not the voice of reason, but I’ve had a lot of fun with playing him. It’s not that he won't do something, he will, he just won’t be happy about it. He is easily frightened, can see the odds are completely overwhelming but still chooses to go help everyone out. He could just cower in fear but something in him propels him forward.

Bluebrush09: I go through my horses and figure out which I feel like doing. Making new characters is very prone to whimsy. Like Quentin, it was 2am and he just, never left. Hecked off for a while, had to do stuff with Flick, who was out of spite because too many horny kobolds… I just make whatever works.

ZenAquaria: Like the other artists at the table, it varies! Like, for Vess, with her creation, I am obsessed with vampires and I wanted to do the take on the reluctant vampire, but also accepts what she is. With her, it was just a matter of bringing her from her original writing in a roleplay some 6 years ago to a more contemporary character build. She was already designed and fleshed out, I just applied the classes that fit her abilities the best, as opposed to someone like my homebrew gryphonfolk, the Toraion. Ash was crafted entirely out of a concept I nicked out of Blu’s server for a general premise based on Percival du Rolo from Critical Role with the whole warlock plague doctor aesthetic. So how can I take that premise and make it so that it works? It was a focus on acid and poison with necrotic but the limitations of warlock made a pure warlock difficult. Ended up going alchemist artificer with it, which has the abilities for the bonuses to those damage types, as well as feats like Metamagic Adept, for Transmute Spell, turning a fireball into an acidball. And artificer also for the firearm proficiency so I didn’t have to grab another feat for it.

[colorstormx]

anyway here’s a wip of a new character

snow leopard/bearded vulture...self indulgent but idc

[welcometoenchiron]

an old unused race. became the gryphonfolk

[satyrradio]

There's a smaller island off the coast of Auklan, the continent where the gryphonfolk mostly reside, that's forbidden to enter. It contains thousands of towering mushrooms that will put you in a permanent hallucinogen high, while they slowly take over you. There are rumors going around that there might be a community in there...

[satyrradio]

With gryphonfolk, those with bird-of-prey features will often have big cat features as well, whereas those with non-raptorial bird features will often have small cat features. There are exceptions of course, usually occurring when the parents have mixed features.

[zenaquaria]

There’s a corvid-themed show pirate/tourism corsair in the Axia setting, and I posited to our DM that the captain’s first mate could be a magpie-based Toraion boy! So Jay Swifte came into being~

It’s likely that Jay here came from the same batch of stolen Toraion young’uns as Ashenfur did. Like Ash, his wings were removed; but when this guy stole off to Axia, he found tourism piracy under Captain Jack Dawson of the Raven. Being up there in the shrouds and sails gives him the wind in his fur and feathers that was taken from him, and he’s blossomed into a capable sailor and loyal mate aboard the Raven. And a fancy-footed showman, to boot~

Do not repost, edit, alter, trace/copy, use/redistribute my artworks without my permission.

[zenaquaria]

“I don’t particularly like hurting people the way I was hurt. But for you, I make an exception. My toxins to cleanse your noxious existence from the mundane!” ~ Ashenfur, to any slaver

Ash, my Warlock/Artificer boy, in the midst of a poison cloud and about to sling a ball of acid! And bandolier loaded with more home-crafted poisons~

Ashenfur can alter his spells to different flavors of damage, as he’s doing here. That would have been a Fireball, if he had left it unchanged! But by his will and adding a liquid reagent, it becomes less boom and more splash. Burns bad regardless! He’s a sweetheart under that mask but up against those who are anything at all alike to those people who stole him from his home and put him through Hell, they best beg for a swift end. The alternative is succumbing to poison’s havoc or acid’s burns.

Do not repost, edit, alter, trace/copy, use/redistribute my artworks without my permission.

[zenaquaria]

A few doodles of some of my D&D characters!

Top is Spooks floating in gross old-castle-dungeon-floodwater because she is simply too short! This actually happened in our penultimate Curse of Strahd session, when the party reached the castle dungeons/catacombs and found them flooded. Fortunately at least two of the party are 6ft tall, and our centaur paladin gave the lil owl some help.

Bottom left is the new boy, Ash, giving some love to his crow-munculus, Blackberry, after some maintenance. He calls Blackberry “she”, and yes she is perched on his tail. x3 The construct is one thing Ash considers his closest friend and he treats her as such. Bottom right is Naruus Kar’kuun, Naru for short, my dragonborn necrodruid. They have fascinations for “unconventional” critters. Leeches, spiders, salamanders, y’know. What the world generally doesn’t see as “cute” but Naru does see as “cute”. They are absolutely fine plopping down in the middle of the swamp to watch slugs winding over a tree, or a knot of leeches in a shallow pool.

Do not repost, edit, alter, trace/copy, use/redistribute my artworks without my permission.

[zenaquaria]

Ashenfur Refsheet, 2022 edition~

Meet Ash! The first of my D&D 5e compatible Toraion homebrew race, possibly a future playtest of the race, and overall an embodiment of a concept I’ve been trying to pin down for a while.

“Ashenfur” is a name he gave himself, after losing memories of what his parents named him. There’s still some background and game-mechanic wibbly-wobblies I need to work out but as it currently stands, Ash is to be primarily a Warlock, with some Alchemist Artificer on the side!~ Enough to give him some potion/elixir savoir faire and let him have a little construct buddy in Blackberry, his crow homunculus!

Story-wise, Ash was stolen from his homeland in Torai, by slavers in nearby lands and seas surrounding the landmass. The slave master who bought him took his flight, the few precious mementos he kept of home, and his name from him. Shortly before making his escape, Ash entreated some power beyond to help him get out, forming his Warlock Pact. He killed or severely wounded his captor and fled to the nearest sea port, where he stowed away on boats heading west towards the lands of Curoq and Axia.  It is in Axia that he picks up his first Artificer level, as well as learning how to handle firearms. Axia is the leading region for firearms development, and its western neighbor, Breggario, is THE alchemy/apothecarial hotspot of the world. So he spends his time learning here and having his trust in humanoids built/restored. It’s slow going but he is extremely receptive to real kindness; I’m talking big ol Ghibli tears at being shown hospitality for the first time in years. c: 

One day he IS going to go be the freedom fighter he feels he should be. <3

Do not repost, edit, alter, trace/copy, use/redistribute my artworks without my permission.

[zenaquaria]

Meet a newly redesigned old Toraion gal of mine, Driftess Su’Kirra of Aerie Hold, Torai Empire!

She was the very first Toraion I ever made. Back when Zen was just a wee teen, I made her just to dabble with goth-ish aesthetic and tribal ink designs.The Toraion evolved around her from that point on. Back then, she was Tsukizo. Something to do with the moon. Which happened to be the name of the clan she led way back then. Back before I turned it into an empire and called the regions ‘holds’ and gave the biggest cities “real” fantasy names. xD And she had black hair with red dyed tips, and under-eye tattoo designs, and a beak “tattoo” in that pseudo-tribal spiky style that just looks edgy, and like four or five ear piercings. Teen me thought it looked sick and had to express it somehow, so I put it all over an anthro gryphon since I couldn’t wear any of it. xD

But now and onward, she is Su’Kirra, the Lady of Aerie and Lifebonded to Driftlord Taikahl, who will also be getting an update from HIS old look to one that matches his wife here. c:

[zenaquaria]

The other redesigned old Toraion of mine, Driftlord Taikahl of Aerie Hold, Torai Empire!

Like Su’Kirra, his old version was loaded down with edgy goth/weeby aesthetic. He was the design that followed right after hers, and if a birdface can be bishie his old self was much closer to that than he probably had any right to be. xD Back then he was Taikizo. Now he’s got some rugged dwarfy influence in his style. lol Some of his best friends are dwarves though, so this is logical. I don’t remember which city used to be his when they were clans in my meta, but regardless, he and Su’Kirra are direct council to the Empire’s Elder Driftlord these days, keeping the old Toraion abreast of news flowing through their constituency.

(also hallelujah I finally figured out how2raptorbeaks from the front; it only took me 20+ years to figure out! xD)

[zenaquaria]

Torai Empire flags~

I’m pretty happy with most of these! I’m iffy on the Imperial flag itself; it might see a rework. Constructive crit on any of these, really, is welcome!

I don’t have much to say on them, unfortunately. Mostly I was goofing off with banner designs and a touch of heraldry and wanted to make flags for the Torai Holds.

[zenaquaria]

Some un-detailed dinking and sketching around with structural differences between the Toraion and regular gryphonfolk, both of which I’m writing and planning to write (respectively) D&D 5e supplements for. The sketches are not to-scale, I should prolly say. xD

Gryphonfolk are a more generalized anthropomorphic-gryphon race, akin to hybrid-form therianthropes and beastfolk. They’re digitigrade, their hands only have four digits, and they can lope around on all fours if desired. Their ears are typically long and pointed, if they’re present. 

Toraion, on the other hand, are more humanoid, closer to a Skyrim-styled Khajiit. They’re plantigrade, have five digits on their hands, and only walk bipedally. Their ears resemble those of their cat half.

Both have wings and tails, and both can have style-able hair or feathers on their heads. Both have beaky faces, both have feet that are cat paws, and both have a wide range of bird/cat combinations.

[zenaquaria]

And the super-rough concept for the combo that started the idea for a fey-touched Toraion offshoot: A kingfisher/fishing cat!