The other other major foe I love to introduce in fantasy (after evil people and undead) is, of course, demons and devils. Which, prior to D&D, were seen as interchangeable terms; I tend to see them as such still and reject the oversplitting of D&D.
Of course, I'm not alone in thinking so. After we got treated to a relatively long section on escaping the horrors of Undead in the first half of Fellowship of the Rings, we got the balrog. The balrog was a pretty iconic hat tip to Christian folklore about the nature of devils, of course, and it has been many times imitated. The image above is a bloodthirster, a fake balrog from Warhammer, fighting a fantasy version of a space marine on a dragon.
D&D's fake balrog is even more overt; it was literally called a balrog until copyright concerns convinced them to change the name to balor, just in case.
Of course, I can hardly complain. I've got one too.
I'm moving away from the archetype of the sexy, charismatic vampire to one that's more feral and monstrous. Sure, they can probably put out a good illusion and deception here and there, but mostly these are monstrous, supernatural, undead predators. Making vampires sexy again was one of the worst ideas ever come up with. No surprises that it's bored housewives like Ann Rice and Stephanie Meyer who've foisted that atrocious theme on all of us.
Graz'zt and his throne room.
I'll get more into this in a separate post, but there have been major changes (i.e., new developments) in Warhammer. I don't really pay all that much attention to Warhammer, and I'm still a bit lost on what the devil is supposed to have happened to the old setting and what the new setting is really all about, but as usual, they've got some cool new models, and some art to go with them, especially (lately) with regards to Undead. Warhammer (and now Iron Kingdoms) are both, by their nature, focused on army type stories and whatnot, which isn't really my thing—I like my fantasy to be a bit less epic and more personal, most of the time.
Well, I had the 5e balor above; why not add the devilish counterpart; the pit fiend? Another slightly different ake on the balrog archetype from D&D.
Both of those illustrations downplay the shadow aspect, though, which is the second half of the balrog, because they are more focused on the flame half. This one does the opposite.
Occasionally D&D actually does something cool with a more esoteric concept from mythology, like this illustration of a hecatoncheires, or hundred-handed one.
What if instead of wings, the balrog was a gorilla?
Aaaand.... another demon. A shadow demon this time.
I kind of imagine that anyone who's more than a dabbler in the mystic arts in Dark•Heritage ends up like this guy eventually. Monstrous, post-human, and scary.
I've got big plans for ghouls, actually, in Dark•Heritage. If you're familiar with DH4's take on the Cannibal Isles and can draw the connection between them and the current Cursed race, as well as being familiar with a recent development in the Warhammer New setting which parallels some stuff I've been doing, you'll not be surprised by it. But you'll see in a future post or two what I've got in mind.
I can't help it. Gerard Butler is, of course, a Scottish guy, not a Greek. But as I've said before, and it's not just me saying it, there is ample evidence that the aristocracy of ancient Greece, until it was miscegenated out of existence, had typical Yamnaya physical features. Given that the current Scottish race is the closest genetically to the old Yamnaya prototype, maybe casting a Scot as King Leonidas was a brilliant move after all!
As an aside, the Athenians were, by their own admission, mostly Pelasgian in descent. The Spartans were the more "authentic" Greeks. If that means anything significant, which I doubt.
And finally; fantasy apes as orcs. Another conceit of mine that I'm on the fence about, but which I may well end up using.
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