Dol Athar - Development sketches

An eternal bitterness. The immortal poison of the heart.



Design notes for next iteration:

Still needs to be more decrepit! I am still quite close to the original visualisation of Dol Athar, needs more sinister overtones. Need to research the aging process, mummification, petrification and cryogenics! Liking the idea of a fragile/still body housing a dark and powerful mind but will need to ensure he is capable of expressing the range of emotions required from the script.

Dol Athar's Tower

Dol Athar's tower is located in Yurruq, the City of Mages. It is a sprawling but relatively sedate coastal metropolis, its skyline dominated by a multitude of crooked towers, the homes of wizards and necromancers who have retired to the city in their dotage, taking advantage of its warm climate and balmy sea breezes to ease the rheumatic pains and rattling lungs which are the curses of a magically-sustained existence.


Dol Athar’s retainers might look like fearsome zombies but by nature they are little more than harmless old codgers, glumly obsessed with the many infirmities of undeath (aching joints, muscular degeneration, irregular bowel movements etc) and keeping alive the nostalgic memory of their master’s earlier career. They have been around far too long to care much for the swashbuckling antics of thieves and heroes but they do like routine and will be peeved if anyone upsets the status quo within their tower.

Words: Lee Williams

Dol Athar

Once the greatest necromancer in seven kingdoms, Dol Athar’s glory days are now centuries behind him. He ekes out a quiet undeath in Yurruq, attended by his ancient retainers. With his memory failing, he devotes himself almost solely to the arcane calculations and intricate rituals needed to magically sustain his existence.

Although history has dulled his once glorious reputation and there are few books left which mention him by name, acolytes still occasionally make the journey to Yurruq to seek him out in hopes he will impart some of his timeless wisdom. They are usually disappointed by the senile ramblings of the ancient, toothless wizard they find.

Words: Lee Williams

Spell Dance

After the last true wizard's disappeared from the face of the earth, their infinite knowledge largely destroyed in the Age of Ignorance, magic has struggled to achieve the significance it had once enjoyed in previous ages. Yet magic remains a revered and misunderstood craft (much like elvish fashion design).

To the uninitiated, spell casting resembles a highly energetic drunken dance, complete with incomprehensible mutterings. Channeling and controlling magical energy is a very strenuous activity and the fragile human form is not a suitable conduit. Whilst weaving magic, bones will twist and warp, skin will glow and shimmer and there can be localised anomalies in the laws of nature (time, light, gravity, etc...) Often these side-effects will leave the magic users body permanently transformed, including: rapidly growing fingernails, glowing mucus, prehensile beards and such like.

Once the exhausting ritual is concluded, which can be anywhere between a few seconds and a few centuries, spellcasters are often left fatigued, with a severe migraine and a bad case of the munchies.

Lately, non-magical interpretations of these 'spell dances' have become a popular form of entertainment and are today enjoyed in taverns and palaces alike. Notable spell dances include:

1) The Prance of Death
2) The Shimmy of Healing Rain
3) The Jig of Summoning

Magic: Thought bubbles

Thought Bubbles are the fruit of a magical process that facilitates the transference of information from one mind to another.

Thought Bubbles are knowledge manifest. Extracted from the host brain through the nearest orifice, they are then orally ingested (to absorb the knowledge) or popped (to destroy it). Thoughts can be implanted, secrets distilled, memories eradicated.

Typical uses:
1) To learn arcane knowledge from a rival wizard.
2) To make a loyal retainer out of a powerful foe.
3) To remove the memory of last night liaison with a less than comely bar wench.

Zagor

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is 30 years old.
Thanks for the memories (and the inspiration).

Fan art based on the awesome Russ Nicolson interior illustration.

Wizard Kings

Narcolep of Dreams,  Multifax the Many, Metamorphix the Shapeless & others.

The wizard kings don't like each other very much. In fact they have been warring for thousands of years, and so they have created many magical-post-apocalyptic scenes for our hero to wander through.

These are sketch book scamps, scanned and coloured with trackpad-finger-painting in photoshop.