Malebranche, Hadriel

Image by Sam Wood, © Green Ronin Publishing

[Commissioned by Soluman Blevins. Hadriel first appeared in the 3.0 book Legions of Hell, as the leader of two whole factions of devils, the Submitted and the Obeyed. This was yet another “BDSM is Evil” themed monster, which were a common theme in RPGs trying to be “edgy” in the 90s and 00s. And her backstory, rebelling against the misogyny of Hell, gives her original flavor text something of a girlboss vibe. I have nothing against either BDSM or rebelling against misogyny, so I wanted to make sure there was something genuinely evil about my take on Hadriel. Long story short, Hadriel is a TERF.

There is a 5e conversion of The Book of Fiends, which has rather more of an art budget and is in full color. I don’t like that rendition of Hadriel as much; she’s more conventionally beautiful and doesn’t even have visible bone hooks. Sam Wood’s more extreme take is very cool and very HR Giger meets Clive Barker.  I suspect Hadriel might even have been an influence on Magic: the Gathering’s Elesh Norn, with the sweeping headdress and corset of gore.]

Hadriel Duchess of Domination, Lady Cindara, Mistress Concerns aristocracy, radical feminism, sadomasochism Domains Charm, Evil, Law, Nobility Subdomains Aristocracy, Devil, Lust, Tyranny Worshipers female supremacists, noblewomen, slavers Minions erinyes, handmaiden devils, kytons Unholy Symbol a crossed sickle and riding crop Favored Weapon sickle Obedience spend one hour inflicting pain on a sapient creature without killing it. You may use yourself for this purpose if you do not have a subject on hand. Gain a +4 profane bonus on saves against the staggered and stunned conditions. Boons 1: eagle’s splendor 2/day; 2: charm monster 2/day; 3: waves of ecstasy 2/day (as 6th level spell)

Malebranche, Hadriel CR 21 LE Outsider (extraplanar) This giant humanoid is cruelly thin, with violet skin stretched over bone. Her face is beautiful, but cruel, and a mane of spines grows from the back of her head. Bony hooks protrude from her wrists, and she wears a corset made of bones and a skirt made of tanned leather.

Hadriel, the Duchess of Domination, is a powerful and ambitious devil who became a malebranche on her own initiative. Originally an erinyes, she expected and demanded more power, eventually carving her own body into a stronger and more monstrous form and joining the court of Mephistopheles. In the misogynistic hierarchies of Hell, this entailed acting as a consort to a male pit fiend, who met with a “tragic accident” and had his resources usurped by Hadriel. She has since moved to the Material Plane as her primary base, seeking to sacrifice an entire planet to Hell in order to curry Asmodeus’ favor and gain further advancement. Part of this process has been spurring a cult to form on her behalf, granting her a sliver of divine power.

Hadriel is a sadistic combatant, and although she can end fights in an instant with her mind controlling abilities, prefers to drag them out. She wants to leave enemies broken, beaten and humiliated before making them her slaves. She has two auras, the first inspiring fear and the second an enthralling mental weakness. In melee, she fights with her bone hook and quill-like horns, but rarely fights alone, instead working along with a squad of bodyguards and thralls. She has no compunctions about abandoning a losing battle, leaving her minions behind to die as punishment for their failure.

The Duchess of Domination has shapechanging abilities, and commonly travels the Material Plane under the guise of Lady Cindara, a woman of great wealth and vague royal descent. Lady Cindara is the leader of the Shrieking Violet Society, a women’s club that acts as a front for Hadriel’s cult. Every headquarters is the site of an infernal sigil, part of a plan to transform an entire planet into a magic circle and transport it physically into Hell. Initially, the Shrieking Violet Society seems to be a place for upper class women to converse and advocate for their position, but the more initiated one becomes, the crueler revelations are made. Hadriel’s experiences with misogyny have warped her perspective into a complete reversal, envisaging a perfect society where “proper women” completely dominate men and rule over them with an iron fist. The Shrieking Violet definition of a “proper woman” is narrow, and trans women, gender nonconforming people and others who do not fit their criteria are seen as abominations to be exterminated.

Hadriel stands ten feet tall in her natural form. Her pride prevents her from ever assuming male guise through shapeshifting or illusion magic.

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Mechanical Daga (is a fighting knife) , Germany, 17th century.

would this even work in the dagger form?

Happy Mid-Autumn Day!

（To the Chinese, Mid-Autumn Festival means family reunion and peace. It's only natural that the Commander spends time with all of his buddies this holiday season!）

中秋快乐！祝各位指挥官盆满饼满事事满！

u can call ur skull-head deer oc literally anything else u don't even have to change the design

PLEASE. THIS IS A ONE INCH HIGH BARRIER: JUST DON'T USE A WORD. IT'S NOT HARD.

It's a frightening lack of respect for a group to go "hey this is our culture/religion/mythology? Please don't use that word" and apparently all the white people are like "but what if I did anyway to make my unity horror game 0.01% scarier?"

Just use a different word! Call it a deerman, deer god, forest spirit, whatever. Try to care at least a little when someone says not to use their culture for entertainment.

Here's a list of deer in mythology. If you have to have a mythology-based creature, you can go find one of these that's not THE ONE YOU'VE BEEN SPECIFICALLY ASKED NOT TO USE.

You've stepped on one of my main pet peeves.

First, I am native American, I have a tribal ID card, I qualify for tribal benefits, and I have extended family that lives on the reservation, so I hope that's appropriate enough clearance to speak to the 'stay in your lane' people.

'Wendigo' is not a forbidden word, first of all. Believe it or not, most indigenous people are not living in Disney's Pocahontas land talking to the trees and shit, we are not all especially superstitious and we don't all shiver in fear every time people say the fucking word 'Wendigo' or 'Skinwalker' or anything else, do you have any idea how racist that is? Picture in your mind for a moment what you are implying by conflating a race of many tribes with the act of being so superstitious about a word that it's offensive to say it.

Second, the deer-monster-thing is not a fucking Wendigo, so even though you can say the word Wendigo, don't use it to describe the fucking deer-monster-thing. A Wendigo is a spirit that possesses you when you eat human flesh out of desperation, it dwells in snowy/mountainous areas, and it is a warning tale for a 'Donnor Party' like scenario, it doesn't look like anything by itself, it's a human driven mad by corrupted consumption, although many stories describe the possessed human to look very emaciated. Probably because in order to resort to cannibalism you're most likely starving to death. Also, Wendigos aren't real. Many native American stories and myths are just that.

You're all wrong. Good night.

I am peer-reviewing you on this because I'm not done bitching about it. My tribe is a subdivision of the Algonquian nation who literally invented the Wendigo and usually the thing I have to bitch about is people attributing it to the deer-head thing. I don't know where that thing even came from, like, it's a cool design. I love the design. It's not a goddamn Wendigo though, and now EVERYONE thinks that's what it is, it drives me crazy. The language my tribe spoke is now nearly extinct and I don't mind if people use the words, PLEASE use the words, keep the language alive by speaking the words, but do NOT attribute them to something else and obscure the meanings of them for the love of everything unholy. If you don't know what a Wendigo IS, and you want to call something a Wendigo, look it up on a reliable source first (not Pinterest), please. And don't even get me started on what people think Skinwalkers are, but that's a different tribe's legend.

@lacroxgrimoire The whole "Horned Devil is a Wendigo" thing comes from the 2001 movie Wendigo, its not based on anything more ancient than that. The imagry of the Deer Head forest monster is actually from Europeon Slavic/Celtic folklore, its not native American. So when Wendigos are depicted with deer heads, its a weird projection of Europeon mythology unto Native mythology.

A lovely commission from @mooreaux of my OC Lenarius/Leonosa and Daeran Arendae from Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. The Count and Countless turned out amazing!

This scene takes place 10-15 years after the events of the game. The now middle-aged Count and Countess are at some soirée somewhere, making snide remarks about the host.

Names for Isaac’s Night Creatures!

I got my hands on the art book for Castlevania Netflix, and it had a lot of cool stuff! Unfortunately, if you’re here for a comprehensive look at the show’s night creatures, you might be a bit disappointed… Only a few have their models shown, but never a full character model sheet; Some are depicted only in concept art, and some not at all, such as Queen B, whom we DID get an actual character model sheet for!

But amidst this disappointment, we did get lots of new information! Particularly with Isaac’s army of night creatures, my favorite… Apparently a lot of his monsters are based on creatures from African folklore, something I’d never considered, but in hindsight it makes a lot of sense! African folklore is an incredibly broad yet highly underrepresented category.

Since Castlevania is no stranger to directly naming/adapting its bestiary after folklore and myths, we may as well go with these names! Of our new names, there’s the Abada, AKA Isaac’s demonic steed;

There’s Ninki Nanka, a long and reptilian creature once compared to a Chinese dragon;

We also have mentions of a Bultungin. In folklore, this is a werehyena… So most likely this night creature, which fits the description more than anyone else;

Impundulu means Lightning Bird, so obviously these creatures (also shown in the previous picture on the right)!

They’re a particular favorite of mine, and I liked to call them Lightning Harpies before we got the art book! There’s also the Rompo, though we already know that the one we see in the show is called Rompa, according to a tweet!

Finally we have the Grootslang, which… Aside from Abada, none of the names are specified, so it’s up to the reader to figure out which Night Creature was adapted from which myth named.

The Grootslang confuses me most, because in folklore it’s described as a giant serpent… So possibly the night creature with actual scales, but some renditions of the myth give the Grootslang elephantine features.

The latter creature has more mammalian characteristics in addition to its serpentine tail, as well as the larger fangs that are more like tusks! I honestly can’t tell which of these is meant to be the Grootslang, the night creature with the spear, or the one that gets memorably killed as the first casualty against Legion.

We also have the Merman and Abel (from the games), as well as Flyseyes and Fisharoo (fully original). To cap this all off, knowing Isaac’s night creatures are named after African folklore, might I suggest Anansi as the fanon name for this spider-like creature?

Anansi is a famous spider trickster deity from Akan folklore, and this night creature’s appearance reminds me of the story of how Anansi’s legs became long and thin; To put it in a nutshell, it’s because of his hunger that led to Anansi’s limbs being pulled and stretched out like that.

The spider creature also has attention drawn to its potbelly in the art book, which COULD be a reference to that appetite, amidst the obvious drool… Is this a stretch? Perhaps. But for now, I’m happy with my suggestion of Anansi as the name for this night creature!

I might look into creatures from African myth after this… Knowing some (but not all) were inspired by that folklore makes me want to find names for the rest, same with Anansi!

Strahd von Zarovich, but make it a bit more Slavic. And then add eyeliner.

Saw @barovianwitch design with white lock and was like “yep, I want this”, so here we are.

Masaaki Sasamoto

Wouldn’t leave my mind sorry

Vitreous Drinker

Image by Wayne Reynolds, © Wizards of the Coast. Accessed at the Monster Manual IV Art Gallery here.

[I used one of these guys in my Age of Worms game, to replace the inevitable noble ghoul character in Wolfgang Baur’s adventure. Noble ghouls are fine and all, but a solitary undead rogue in 3.5 would have been mincemeat to my party. The vitreous drinker was a suitably durable and creepy replacement. My version streamlines some of its abilities, notably the spectral ravens, which are too good in the original.]

Vitreous Drinker This hunched, robed figure is human shaped, but its skin is covered with hundreds of bulging eyes. Its mouth is agape, and its tongue is disturbingly long and prehensile. Ravens perch on its shoulders and hover about its body.

A vitreous drinker is a horrible undead creature made from the body and soul of a spy or voyeur—anyone who watched others without their consent. They are animated by a violent desire for secrets, and will gladly kill for them. More often, though, they turn their victims into unwitting agents, clouding their vision with magical cataracts that allow the drinker to see through the victim’s eyes whenever it wishes. As such, vitreous drinkers will often conduct hit-and-run attacks to create multiple windows into the world. If pressed, or if prevented from fleeing, they use their spectral ravens to deliver deadly touch attacks while lashing out with their gnarled hands and piercing tongue.

Vitreous drinkers typically work alone—they make minions, not allies. A vitreous drinker may sell its secrets to the highest bidder, infiltrating mortal society in disguise so as not to give away their horrific nature or weaken their clientele with their awful visage. Such urban drinkers make spies from the dregs of society; beggars, thieves and vagrants with milky eyes are common in cities where a vitreous drinker dwells. Occasionally they will partner with the clerics of an evil god or some fiend in pursuit of higher knowledge, but such alliances last only as long as the drinker feels it has some information to gain.

A vitreous drinker stands as tall as a human, and their withered frames are typically slightly lighter.

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my favorite scene in LotR as a kid was when Sam started miserably freestyling in the tower of Cirith Ungol and the only reason he ever found Frodo was because he deliriously tried to join in

…i did read some of the novels, but i couldn’t get through them entirely…

…and so i genuinely have no idea whether or not this is serious. coz i mean, obviously, it could be a joke. but it could also have legitimately happened. people who have only seen the films underestimate the amount of random things that happen in the books that could come off as utterly silly and ridiculous if removed from their context.

Haha, well, it is pretty much what happens. Sam is looking for Frodo in the tower of Cirith Ungol and is despairing that he will ever find him. He sits down and does what any self-respecting Tolkien character does during their moments of hopelessness and bursts into song.

It’s a really good song (ten year old Ship had it memorized) and as he begins the refrain a second time, he hears Frodo’s voice answering weakly from above. Frodo is poisoned and despairing and beaten but he is still a Hobbit and cannot resist a singalong even while on the brink of death.

I just have to reblog because it makes me laugh EVERY TIME

William Alberto Huaman Vilcatoma

Guilin Mountains China

#this is one of the wildest landscapes to me#but i will not be seeing it live. just look at that steamy fog#i am not compatible with that kind of humidity 

these landscapes are great bc you see these chinese paintings showing what you think are very stylized landforms, but then you see photographs of the actual mountains in south china and it’s like, no, that’s actually just what they look like

iirc these kinds of insanely dramatic peaks are characteristic of karst topography, since soft limestone is easily eroded and can create some pretty wild shapes in the process. some of the really insane ones include the stone forest (also in southern china) and tsingy de bemaraha in madagascar.

needless to say you often also get incredible caves in karst regions, even ones which don’t have nearly as dramatic surface features as these

Horseman's axe, Spain, 16th century

from The Art Institute of Chicago