Campaign art - The Rise of Wesnoth

[LordBob]

There is, but I'm only half convinced by the result. I might just as well keep the intense lighting on his body and drop the glow.
It's a shame you can't properly see his face from the glow ; I painted a pretty red nose and cheeks that'd make him at home among dwarves

[thespaceinvader]

I'd be concerned about doing that - without it he just has a really white face. The lighting confused me because I *couldn't* see the glow.

[zookeeper]

Oh, I really like that. I have no particular opinion on the glow, lighting or the scarf thingy, although some parts of the embroidery look a tad metallic...I don't see it as much of a problem though.

One possibly interesting idea might be to give his clothes a bit of dirt: he'd be mostly glowy and shiney but with some mud and such here and there, which might make be fitting considering that he's apparently a bit funny in the head anyway and that you actually find him from the middle of a swamp inhabited mostly by mad cultists. Anyway, that's just an idea, so if you don't feel like it, it's not a problem at all.

[lostnumber]

He really does appear to be wrapped in newspaper to me

[Mountain_King]

I rather like the embroidering on the minister. As someone who knows a couple of real embroiderers it looks good and makes sense. The only thing I can see that bugs my eyes is the minister's right shoulder: The sash appears to be floating above his shoulder from here.
[/bikeshed comment]

[LordBob]

I'll try different option for Edmond and the shoulder's duly noted.

As a break from all this, I went back to the concept for Jevyan. The result is less like the skeleton of a mage and more like actual liches Valkier has been designing for Northern Rebirth. So yes, he does have three arms and there will be magical skull thingies floating around him

[StandYourGround]

Perhaps additional limbs on a lich signify rank, or are trophies of their victories over rival liches... In which case it would seem interesting if there were something unusual about the third arm that would make it possible to have come from another lich "donor"...

That could also explain why after all those centuries, Malin Keshar has only two arms... because he never faced other liches in battle, only "foolish heroes." It could also be possible that he chose not to add extra limbs to himself as a means of expressing his former humanity. On the other hand, I'd love to see Mal Hekuba just full of arms...

/peanut_gallery_speculatory_post

[Sgt. Groovy]

Looks good, but I'm afraid we need a new entry to the Wesnoth jargon file: creeping extravaganism.

[thespaceinvader]

Jevyan's an immortal lich-king. He can be a bit extravagant

[zookeeper]

Nice. Although I'm not personally fond of hats on liches, I don't really have any thematic issues with this one; fits very well with my idea of what Jevyan's like. The third arm seems perfectly all right, as do the floating skulls.

However, it was initially a bit hard to read which of his our right arms was the "original" arm and which one was the extra one, but I guess that's just due to all the sketchiness. Also, the massive book combined with how the upwards protruding robe over his shoulders might obscure so much of his body that it might be hard to tell how his his chest, shoulders etc are aligned or even where they are exactly. Maybe it's not a problem when coloured, or maybe it's not a problem at all; just saying.

[LordBob]

Looks good, but I'm afraid we need a new entry to the Wesnoth jargon file: creeping extravaganism.

I swear, it's Valkier's Ancient Lich sketches that started everything. One minute I look at'em, the next thing I now imagination ran wild and here's Jevyan with plenty of fancy stuff

Seriously though, I might tone down the eccentricity (only a little) on the floating skulls compared to the sketch - not that I don't like them, but they also have to fit the style of the character, which they currently don't.
The winged one might be recycled as the Familiar portrait, though.

Regarding the extra arm, I didn't really plan on showing which one's the spare. I might consider doing so (through bone colour variations ?) if it really confuses viewers, but there's no particular reason to differenciate them I guess

[thespaceinvader]

I'd be inclined to lose the floating skulls myself. They're a bit too akin to Warhammer 40000 cyber-skulls - that was my first thought when I saw them. The skull as the familiar could be cool though. I'd be more than happy to knock together a quick sprite to that effect. Bat wings plus skull.

[Valkier]

Looks good, but I'm afraid we need a new entry to the Wesnoth jargon file: creeping extravaganism.

I swear, it's Valkier's Ancient Lich sketches that started everything. One minute I look at'em, the next thing I now imagination ran wild and here's Jevyan with plenty of fancy stuff

Seriously though, I might tone down the eccentricity (only a little) on the floating skulls compared to the sketch - not that I don't like them, but they also have to fit the style of the character, which they currently don't.
The winged one might be recycled as the Familiar portrait, though.

Regarding the extra arm, I didn't really plan on showing which one's the spare. I might consider doing so (through bone colour variations ?) if it really confuses viewers, but there's no particular reason to differenciate them I guess

Prime example of why I should be allowed to go nuts on portraits!

But seriously, another concept I'll be toying with (I haven't chosen one yet) is multiple mouths so that multiple incantations can be chanted. Either that or one to whisper in the soothing voice of the mother and one to devour the children whole.

As for yours, I like everything but the staff so far. Unless it will turn out to be an eyeball of some sort. Then it will be cool. Also the moon symbol on the hat is making me think too much of the Mickey Mouse Fantasia movie where he's dressed in a robe covered in moon symbols like that one.

Edit: I thought I'd share this here since it may be of use to you, LordBob. The conversation that spawned my version (and future versions) of ancient liches was when I spoke to Jetrel about it. Basically, he doesn't really want them to be extremely human anymore. These are beings of pure magic after all, and a body is basically a trivial thing for them.

So my idea was that they can incorporate anything they want as their bodies, not even necessarily using their human shell anymore. After all, they are able to place their souls in to philactories, why not have them be able to use anything and anyone as part of their physical form?

So while I like what you're doing with this one, I'd really encourage you to loosen up a bit more and not rely on the human form. The only constant Jetrel specified to me was that they have a human skull so that people know it was human to some degree. Go nuts!

[thespaceinvader]

NB: the translation of the second part of the blue text is: an open eye on the top of a staff. I can't read the top part well enough to translate it, but it says something about an extra arm.

[boru]

The winged one might be recycled as the Familiar portrait, though.

I really hope you do this.

Call me crazy, but I see no value in realistic liches, only extravagant ones.