@nazrigar / nazrigar.tumblr.com
Another work-related warm-up. Arranged Marriages and Gwyn being a jackass as usual. A First Flame that doesn’t fade equals a Gwyn that really doesn’t have any restrictions morality wise. He thus becomes a stereotypical Medieval lord willing to use his children as chess pieces in a bigger game, regardless of how it may hurt them.
What’s this?? I’m posting Dark Souls fan art after how long? IMPOSSIBLE!
But seriously, it was fun to do! I drew these as warm-ups during work.
And yeah... I shipped them. I’ve shipped them since I became acquainted with the fandom. It’s also interesting how much my style has changed over the years!
Why you say? Well...
1. They're your most frequent companions in both games.
2. Contrasting personalities, but ultimately good people. Heck, I love Broody x Optimist couples in general!
3. Stong lad and strong lass. They'd make a kickass power couple.
4. Solaire's sheer uncompromising brightness would help uplift Lucatiel's otherwise cynical nature. Likewise, if Bro-laire ever gets even the slightest hint of despair, I'm pretty sure Lucatiel would try her damnest not have this beacon of optimism suffer the same fate as she's going through.
5. Sun Motif (Astora) and Moon Motif (Mirrah).
Also... an excuse of me to draw a headcanon I’ve had of Lucatiel for a while now... She is buff. I mean... have you seen how big her sword is? Like... damn. Solaire’s no slouch either, he’s a tanky beast after all.
I may actually complete one of these for Valentine’s Day.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays 2018 everyone!
I hope you all are having a great day.
Finally got to complete the first half of this piece for the Flame Endures AU. Set in a world where the First Flame still endures, Nameless successfully rebels and overthrows Gwyn, as Gwyn’s own megalomania and increasingly tyrannical tendencies becomes too intolerable (with no First Flame to limit Gwyn’s ambitions).
He rules a United Lordran that incorporates both Anor Londo and Izalith, via a Political Marriage set up, ironically, by Gwyn himself. As Nameless is the Heir to the Lightning, Gwyn thought it’d be most appropriate to tie his son to one of daughters of the Witch of Izalith. Quelana was chosen, as Gwyn thought that the combination of The Heir to the Lightning and The Mother of Pyromancy would be too good to let slip.
His plan worked... and blew up spectacularly in his face.
As a result of NK’s victory (here is refered to as Gwyntaran), dragons, gods and humans live in (relative) harmony. Of course, there are still those who stick to the old ways, and many who will never forgive him for allying himself with the dragons and ousting his own father, meaning a large portion of the original army of Silver Knights and other warriors departed rather than serve the ‘usurper’.
On the other hand, he still has the Storm King and Ornstein, who this time sided with NK as Gwyn’s flaws became more pronounced. And so, as NK’s first Knight and oldest friend, he sided with the son against the father. The Leo Knight now has the job being head of the royal guard and the overall commander of the armed forces.
Since he incorporates humans to his kingdom, he also finds a new source of recruits for the army... including a band of knights dedicated to jolly cooperation...
The second half will focus on Gwyndolin
Colored version of my WIP! Wanted to go for a simplistic style :) (and I needed something to calm my nerves after recent events...)
Not much more for me to add from the previous pic, but yeah... the gist is that, even if the First Flame is eternal and for some reason stopped fading, Gwyn will still be a massive jerk and horrible father. And without the fear of the First Flame fading... What’s to stop him from turning his need to preserve Anor Londo into making sure Anor Londo stays on top, regardless of his children’s feelings on the matter. Also, Ornstien’s is everyone’s favorite Uncle/Babysitter
Seriously the only person he wouldn’t treat like shit eventually is f**king Seath (seriously, Seath seems to be the only one who’d stick with Gwyn to the bitter end... I’m not gonna lie, @nightmaredaisy once again convinced me). But that’s a tale for another comic.
But seriously, Dark Souls politics is something that desperately needs to explored more. I would LOVE to see how countries like Berenike and Astora relates to each other, or heck, more lore involving Anor Londo and Izalith as nations. How did they rule? Since DS still functions somewhat like medieval europe, were political marriages a thing? There’s lot to explore fo in this category!
Welp, enough of my rambling, hope you guys enjoy!
Made this AU (seriously I think my purpose in this fandom is to visualize What If? Scenarios) after drawing my other, parody WIP.
Basically in this AU, the First Flame endures and when NK does eventually rebel against Daddy Gwyn, he actually succeeds because without the First Flame’s fading limiting Gwyn’s ambitions, Gwyn became much more tyrannical and thus giving Nameless a better motif for rebellion. Also thanks to Gwyn, Nameless is in a political marriage with one of the Witch of Izalith’s daughters, in this case Quelana, (the logic (from Gwyn’s POV) is that the combination of the Mother of Pyromancy and the Heir to the Lightning would produce powerful heirs)... Which promptly bit Gwyn in the ass. Quelana is big now, because time has given her the gift of exploring the nature of fire magic, and as a result of her new-found influence, she’s a LOT more powerful.
Ornstein remains loyal to the firstborn and is totes buddies with the King of the Storm. Ironic eh? And c’mon, we need to give Ornstein a break, his story in canon is already too tragic. Here, the Warriors of Sunlight are basically the main human armed forces within his realm. Their main advantage is the power of Jolly Cooperation on a large scale.
Gwyndolin meanwhile’s finally gets the chance to make a realm for himself. Called the Sunless realms, his land is a haven for sorcerers everywhere and those who embrace aspects of the moon instead of the sun (no offense to his big brother). Just like his bro gets the Warriors of Sunlight as his army corp, Gwyndolin gets the Blades of the Darkmoon, Targray’s Blue Sentinels and the Way of White (sorry Lloyd).
Today there’s no Mermay, as my creative juices weren’t there at the moment :(
BUT, to compensate I drew a lotta Dark Souls sketches, with this being the first part. AND YAY FINALLY I DREW ORNSTEIN WITH HELMET. Since Ornstein is captain of the four knights, I thought him being the group uncle to Gwyn’s children (even his former boss, NK) would be funny.
I had an idea to do this comic a loooooooong time ago after a discussion with @nightmaredaisy (I think it was months ago but correct me if I’m wrong xD) but never got to put into motion. It basically was about ‘How would politics in Dark Souls work’, something that criminally underused in fanfiction/fanart imo. It’s always fun not just about how societies look in fiction, but also how they function as a whole and their relationships with others.
One of the conclusions made was that... basically... Even if the flame was eternal (like in this AU), Gwyn’s own rather spotty morals (and awful treatment of his children), he’d probably do a LOT of jerkish things all in the name of preserving his kingdom.
Eventually preservation becomes making sure Anor Londo stays on top. And disregarding his children’s feelings for his own ambition.
THE TOURNEY OF THE GODS
FINALLY I HAVE COMPLETED IT! I apologize if this took so long, but I had to like... step out from a LOOOOT of comfort zones in order to complete this. This included using NEW brushes for texturing objects, as well as the fact this is the first big compilation piece featuring multiple characters plus environment. It was difficult, but I had to do it for practice. Plus, I wanted to make sure every character has a pose that can convey a story.
Now onto the Tourney! This was inspired by a conversation I had with @nightmaredaisy and @deshstack, at first about how the politics of the world of DS might work, and then divulged into turning the gods of Dark Souls into actual characters with their own events and stuff.
Here, I’m depicting a tourney where the gods celebrate either the anniversary of the First Flame OR a winning a particularly BIG battle against the dragons. Personally I’m going with the former, but this can ALSO be an AU where the First Flame does NOT fade, and thus, the gods make a HUGE festival (but since this is Dark Souls, the joy probably wouldn’t last long... because Gwyn’s a jerk and he’d still probably mess it up somehow).
Anyways, the Tourney features:
- A Melee where the physically strongest gods try to beat to crap out of each other... With good ol’ Nameless King/Gwntaran/Gwynnant being the CLEAR favourite.
- NK being shirtless... Because it ain’t fair for everyone else if he’s armored.
- Kremmel and the Smith god tried to put on a good show but are now unconscious. Smough is probably unconscious, but off-screen. This leaves only the god of war vs the god of blood.
- Gwyn’s other children cheering their favorite elder brother, but Gwyndolin has to stand on his... Snake-toes because Ornstein’s blocking the way.
- Ornstein being stoic, Artorias being a huge dork, and Ciaran wondering why her normally calm, moody, tol bf is suddenly all of the sudden so excited to see dudes beating the crap out of each other.
- Gwyn himself is enjoying this, if only to show the world he has a strong heir (fueling his ego). The Witch of Izalith thinks this is stupid and pointless and thinks the melee is only to prop up Gwyn and his progeny’s egos.
- The daughters reactions vary: Quelana is rooting for NK to win, enthusiastically, Quelaag is wondering wtf is going on with her usually level-headed and studious sister... Quelann (the Fair Lady) is worried about others going too far.
- Gossipy Silver Knights, one particular Knight is sharing all the rumors regarding Velka’s Ravens, much to the goddess of sin’s amusement.
- A drunk Silver Knight... because hey Ledo can’t be the ONLY eccentric one.
- Speaking of Ledo, he hath come for this special occassion, as a rest from travelling the world and meeting up with Havel. He can’t play a part in the tourney because he’d get in trouble potentially hurting Gwyn’s firstborn (plus he thinks he’ll lose pretty fast against the first born).
- Havel gets to unwind for a bit, and is cheering for his boss’ son.
- Unfortunately, Gough was too big, so he was unable to attend.
Felt like continuing this WIP I did back in 2017, while having a conversation with @nightmaredaisy . We talked about how the world of DS might have been before shit hit the fan, including the politics between some of Dark Souls’ major factions.
I thought, if there’s such thing as diplomacy, I thought it’d be fun to imagine what a tourney in Anor Londo’s golden age would be like... specifically a tourney of the gods. Here NK is duking out with the other war god/blood god, Nahr Alma.
The audience is would be filled to the brim with the other deities, but for now it’s just Gwyn, with three of the four Knights (Gough was too huge) and the Witch of Izalith.
My first colored comic! Yey :3. The story behind this one is basically what I would like to have seen explored more int he games... Namely how would Anor Londo and Izalith interact with each other. Plus, I reaaaally wanted to draw how Midir would look like as a baby, after all, he was raised by the gods. For this one, Gwyn’s Firstborn tries to help out a neighbor (Quelana, who happens to be a child of the Witch of Izalith, an ally) as best as he can (to the point of veering slightly into crack!fic territory xD or AU). I just thought it’d be funny to have the children of the gods interact, and even help out in their daily activities (like for Quelana, trying to explore the nature of flame).
All the while NK is completely ignorant of the political ramifications this might cause and that Gwyn’s gonna doom Midir to eternally fight the dark for all time.
Also, Happy Holidays everyone! I hope everyone is having a good time :)
Some Dark Souls Sketches from work, because I need some practice with posing, expressions and stress relief. Always did wanted to draw some interactions between at least one child of gwyn and a daughter of the Witch of Izalith. Chose Nameless King and Quelana... because they’re my favorite boss and one of my fav npcs respectively. After a long period of time with no dragon sightings, the two decide to just have a friendly chat. Quelana’s hoodless look is based off my earlier piece And of course Ornstein! Never too far away from his lord... Ever vigilant in protecting his master/liege... Yes that’s why... ;) I always thought it was funny/odd there’s almost little to no lore regarding the interactions between Izalith and Anor Londo besides Gwyn getting his butt whupped by the Bed of Chaos, and lo decided... “Hey, why not draw some headcanons?” xD
Quick Drawing, inspired by the in-game Description of his soul:
The Nameless King was once a dragon-slaying god of war, before he sacrificed everything to ally himself with the ancient dragons
While I was brainstorming the sequel for my Deities picture, I thought: What if the Nameless King (and his Dragons) defeated Gwyn? Plus I wanna draw something in my usual artstyle, and what better subject than my favorite Dark Souls character?
For this pic, I will refer to him as Gwyntaran, God of War and Lord of Dragons. I wanted to give this version of NK a vibe of a Conqueror, the god who overcame the wrath of the Lord of Sunlight and took his father’s crown and greatsword for his own. Even his shoulder armor is modified to look more like Gwyn’s. As a symbol of his power, drakes (like the hellkite drake), wyverns and a certain Darkeater guard and watch over the skies of Anor Londo, and storms have as much presence as the sun. Despite this however, he lives a constant state of battle as there are many who’d probably still be loyal to his father, and thus it’s up to him to “quell” these loyalists. In battle, he wields the Dragonslayer Swordspear in his right hand, and the Great Lord Greatsword in his left.
He’s always the first on the frontlines and the last to leave, and his influence is felt from all corners of the world of DS, from Archdragon Peak to Anor Londo itself, with ambitions to go further east to Forossa (where he’s known as Faraam) and beyond. Perhaps even the Ringed City may fall under his circle of influence, rather than be used as a glorified prison as Gwyn intended. He travels around upon his trusty companion, the stormdrake, though now he has a whole host of mounts he could use to travel.
The look for his face is heavily inspired by Geralt of Rivia from the Witcher along with... Edward Kenway from AC. They had the right look of the gruff and rugged protagonist I was looking for. He got that scar from his final duel with big daddy Gwyn.
Hey there everyone! WHOO! Finally got a reprieve, as I’m done with my drawings for my final project, now I have to continue typing the written parts.
Done largely in part because I love the lore, practice drawing human characters, and to pass the time whenever I need a breather from from college.
While researching for the lore of Dark Souls for my In-progress AU Comic, I noticed how LARGE the mythology of Dark Souls and the deities that reside, along with the fan speculation of which god corresponds with whom and etc. In spite of all this, from what I can tell, outside of Gwyn’s family, there has never been a, for lack of a better term, “compendium piece” of the gods and goddesses of dark souls, so I made my own :D
Because some gods are not represented in imagery, I decided to design how they might look if they ever showed up amongst mortals. I owe a lot to Tumblr, Reddit and the DS fandom as a whole, the amount of theory and lore discussions are always gold, and of course, the lore-lords like @vaatividya and @silver-mont, their vids are always interesting to watch :)
From the Top Row: The Bearers of the Lord Souls
Gravelord Nito: No need for an explanation here xD
Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight: Drawing him was easy, but here I wanted portray a very stern, no-nonsense god king who really, REALLY is someone you don’t want to piss off, and someone who is almost NEVER happy and/or satisfied.
The Witch of Izalith: I’m honestly surprised there’s not much fanart of how her face might look like, so I pitched in. She basically resembles her daughters, but with a more matriarchal vibe, with a stronger jawline and sharper eyes to reflect that. She’s also very tall, towering over Gwyn and just slightly edging out NK in height.
The Furtive Pygmies, featuring Manus and a Pygmy Lord: With the Ringed City revealing that there were SEVERAL pygmies, I had quite some fun with the speculation and possibilities of how the Pygmies as a whole looked like.
Personally? I simply interpret them as humans but more, with more power over the dark soul, but otherwise having different roles in society like regular folk, the Ringed Knights are Warriors, the Lords are the rulers, etc.
I put Manus amongst them, why? Because no way should ONE man be able to have THAT much abyss power just because he’s a human. Since the dark soul is divided amongst humans, I interpret him having a huge chunk of the Dark Soul (as per these two threads), and thus was simply a mighty sorceror who happened to be really, REALLY old, even by Pygmy standards. Plus I always wondered... How does one torture a dead man? The Mad King was described as undying, so according to my own logic, he wasn’t totally “dead” when he was buried. His grave could signify him wanting a modicum of peace, after all, his entire race was basically put in a glorified prison by Gwyn... Sensing the growing madness within him (probably due to sheer isolation), he probably decided to “die” on his own terms in Oolacile... then future idiots proceeded to listen to TOTALLY NOT SUSPICIOUS AT ALL SERPENT and dug up his grave.
The random Pygmy Lord is basically representing one of the first Pygmy Lords.
Second Row: The Children of the Gods
The Nameless King, Firstborn of Gwyn, God of War: In a short period of time, has become my favorite character amongst the gods... There’s so much of a story to tell from him, his relationship with his family, the reasons as to WHY he betrayed the dragons, and thanks to lore threads a-plenty, I interpret him as one of the most honorable and dedicated of the gods. He watches over his warriors of sunlight even if they ARE humans (whom Gwyn HATES) AND he protects Dragons. Despite meI head-canoning him bigger than Gwyn and is in general a wall of muscle and armor, he’s STILL shorter than his sisters.
Gwynevere, Goddess of Fertility: Gwynevere here I interpret as one of the nicer gods, so I made her expression to reflect such. Because Gwyndolin’s illusion of her may be simply him projecting what he remembers most of her and thus potentially exaggerating certain aspects, I toned down a lot the “Aphrodite-esque” glamor, in favor of a more personable look, though still decked out.
Filianore: The daughter we know even less of than Gwynevere, but thanks to a certain reddit thread that discussed how dedicated NK was to her via the floral carvings that is present in Archdragon peak... She must have been someone who NK was VERY close with, so I interpret her as the “Always trying to bring life to the family” kind of sister, though closest to her eldest brother.
Gwyndolin: The Dark Sun himself. Not much else to say here, I just wanted to draw him happy for once... Because WHY FROM? He really, really needs it.
The Daughters of Chaos
Quelana, Mother of Pyromancy: Due to her own title, I interpret her as the Studious Daughter, incredibly dedicated to her craft and always finding out ways to further her pyromancy... Until the Chaos Flame incident happened of course... Then she became wracked with survivor’s guilt...
I also interpret her as being the responsible one looking out to make sure her sisters don’t do anything too brash... Though in hindsight, that would make her suvivor’s guilt worse.
Quelaag: The most well known Chaos Daughter, and whom I interpret as The Aggressive Daughter, hence why she’s the only one of the sisters with a melee weapon. As the most in-your-face daughter I head-canon that she is the one who lowers down her hood the most, especially when she feels like challenging someone. Also VERY protective of her family.
Quelaan, The Fair Lady: Last but not least, I interpret Quelaan as always having been the shyest and nicest of the daughters. Her hood is more drooped down compared to Quelana, to highlight her shyness.
Fun fact, while trying to find her real name, turns out the name Quelaan was the name the community gave to her, and just became established fanon, so I just opted to name her just that.
Third Row: Other Members of the Larger Pantheon
All-Father Lloyd: Gwyn’s uncle, founder of the Way of White. Now there IS speculation that he’s not real, but here I interpret as the real deal, and thus looks like a wimpier, older version of Gwyn, yet still has an aura of authority. I used a bit of Paladin Leeroy for his crown, because I interpret that, when he REALLY needs to get his hands dirty, he too wields a mace, setting an example to all paladin-esque worshipers after him.
His clothes are tattered despite being the godly equivalent of a pontiff, to highlight two things:
One, despite him being a “lord”, his tattered look is to signify he is not “above” the rabble/his followers.
Two, I head-canon him becoming slowly more insane and full of hate toward the undead,as more and more of his family and friends either dies off or leaving home... He eventually disappears for unknown reasons and becomes forgotten.
Fina, Goddess of Love: The most popular candidate for Gwyn’s wife, or at least his first, I wanted to design her with the Embraced Set in mind, just modified to look more queenly rather than armor. Going by the general fanon, I interpret her as the mother of both NK and Gwynevere, but due to unknown circumstances, just up-and-left. Why? I dunno I haven’t thought that deep :(
Also wanted to try out and giving her a different look, skin-tone and facial wise compared to all the other gods and goddesses out there.
Velka, Goddess of Sin: My favorite goddess, her lore and weaponry associated with her is cool, but even with DS3 and all its DLC, I wish we got to know more of her and how she even became the one to hold the title of “goddess of sin” and how she absolves it. She is also, I noticed in fan-art and fanfic, the other most popular candidate for Gwyn’s wife.
Due to the fact that both Gwyndolin and Filianore are associated with illusions and magic, I interpret her as the mother of Filianore and Gwyndolin. She has sharp features and very pale skin, and share’s Filianore’s dark hair.
For her design, I compared aspects of the Statue of Velka from DS3, and both Oswald of Carim and Cromwell the pardoner. I didn’t want her to strictly dress like Oswald and Cromwell, so I incorporated more feathers to her outfit to give her a more “regal” look, as befitting a goddess, and not just pardoner. Funnily enough, with her book of sins and outfit, she also gives the aura of a medieval judge.
Caitha, Goddess of Tears: The third goddess associated with Carim, and one that I intentionally kept her eyes hidden. Mentioned in both 2 and 3, I want to reflect her constant “mourning” nature, and since ‘Gentle Prayer’ is associated with her chime in DS3, I thought her being in a position of prayer would be most appropriate.
Nahr Alma, God of Blood and Murder: Take Titchy Gren, make him more beast-like in proportion, now make him the size of Father Ariandel with the animalistic agility of the Orphan of Kos or Slave Knight Gael, and you have the God of Blood himself. I interpret him as a kind of god that is shunned by the rest, and is mostly treated as an attack dog, and nothing more. REALLY resents the other gods.
Sibling Rivalry: AKA A silly comic in which Gwyndolin and his elder bro settle their differences by engaging in covenant poke-battle... Featuring Sailor Sirris and Solaire Platinum and mangled anime references.
Set in the same AU as my pic with Lucatiel, because I loved the response and felt like continuing it, and thus ‘Dolin is not dead and the covenant leaders simply send a champion to represent them whenever there’s a kerfuffle, it’s less bloody and more efficient. Plus they’re bros! They’re just trying to be as cordial as gods can be! :D
Also because I need practice with posing, foreshortening as well as the need to draw more people! And I have to say I am REALLY enjoying drawing Dark Souls characters xD
Note: Gwyndolin here is basically a combination of DS1 Gwyndolin and his gettup when Aldrich consumed him.
What’s this? Another Dark Souls fanart? Featuring Gwyndolin and yet, another appearance of NK? Yes it is! Well at least a work-in-progress, but I’m so excited because it’ll be my first comic submission on Tumblr! Also something of a personal stress reliever xD
Set in the same AU as my previous pic, I just want to say I’m SO happy to see the responses! I really appreciate it, especially since it’s one of the few times I draw something not monster related. It really makes me want to push and develop myself as an artist.
Also I believe the fandom needs even MORE sibling interactions :D
The Nameless King, Gwyn’s firstborn! I gave him “pupils” to give a feeling he’s not completely as hollow looking like he is in-game... and to give a vibe that he’s revealing his current state to someone... maybe one of his siblings? Ornstein? Who knows xD.
I should be drawing something Kong related (fun movie btw), but I wanted to draw something that, I feel like I should have done a LONG time ago xD. You see, I’m pretty late to the fandom, despite the series having nearly EVERYTHING that I find interest in.
This started as a pencil test, basically to see if I can apply what I learned traditionally onto the digital plane.
