Some Hero Forge stuff

Some new and newish images I've created or found and modified in Hero Forge. These may or may not all end up in Dark Fantasy X, but I like the images anyway. A few of them I've posted before, but they're now being looked at in new context; I'm seriously considering revamping my concept of the Drylander ethnicity of Baal Hamazi. Right now, they're a unique ethnicity that bears no physical resemblance to any existing human ethnicity on Earth, although I use a lot of old Fertile Crescent names for them, like Elamite king-lists, and stuff like that. I'm considering making them a hybrid of early Slavic or even specifically Zaporozhin Cossack-like people and the Dacians, using Medieval Slavic names more often, and suggesting a continuum from Baal Hamazi down to Tarush Noptii which preceded Timischburg, and even the indigenous peoples of the old Hill Country; the Tazitta people, and the peoples of the old long-lost kindgoms of Permia, Pezhek, Halych, Leszek, Vuronezh and Kinzassal are all part of it too. For the Tarushans, I had a Romanian name-list, but Romanians have been under a lot of Slavic influence for many centuries, and many Slavic origin names are common among the Romanians. I also already had some old balshatoi names from my Dark•Heritage Mk. IV that were Slavic sounding that ended up near Baal Hamazi and in the Hill Country before the Hillmen colonized it. 

I've deliberately taken away more Latin sounding Romanian names and replaced them with old Medieval Polish and Russian names I found in a namelist, but it's supposed to be more of a vague inference rather than a one to one correspondence. In any case, assuming that I do go forward with this, I'll need to rethink the look and feel of the Drylanders; making them more white rather than having a very unique look. Slavic and Germanic peoples, and other northern Europeans in general, all have a very similar look—even the Greeks and Romans commented on the northern look, which they attributed to Celts, to Germanics, to Slavs, to Dacians and to Scythians—tall, reddish or blondish hair, and blue eyes being common. I'll probably suggest that any northern European phenotype can be present in any of the populations, but that the following are the most common:

- Hillmen; blue eyes and brown hair

- Timischers; blue eyes and blond hair

- Tarushans; dark hair and brown eyes

- Tazitta forest dwellers; dark hair and blue eyes

- Drylanders - auburn hair and hazel eyes

Those who maintain a specific Skelldale ancestry will be similar to the Timischers, although they tend to be in the Hill Country, and those who have a specific Brynach ancestry will have a stronger tendency towards red hair and freckles with very pale skin. Because these ancestries (as well as all of the others) are mixed in the Hill Country, the Hill Country has probably the most diverse set of possible northern European-like features.

Not accounting for individuals who spend all of their time outside and are thus very tan, in general the Tarushans are the darkest skinned, and the Brynachians are the palest.

Whipped this guy up. He'd be a pretty typical Drylander.

Because Hero Forge doesn't give me fine control over facial features really, this guy could easily be of any human ethnicity in the area, except probably Tarushan or Tazitta, who are both very unlikely to have light hair.

Same with him

This Cossack-like outfit is begging to be a Drylander

Could be from lots of places, but he's also got a very iconic urban Drylander thug look to him.

This more middle-aged swashbuckler is probably from Timischberg, and might be mixed Tarushan and Timischer in ancestry

This was originally designed by me to represent Artemis Entreri from the Forgotten Realms setting, but he looks like a dark haired guy from Simashki with mostly Drylander blood

This guy could represent anyone, but the Germanic or Viking-like shirt means he's probably from the Hill Country

This is another take on a Cossack-like look. Probably a Drylander.

Grabbed this from the library; it's just an alternate take on Robin Hood.

A new goblin thief I got from the library.

This vigilante looks to be a northern Hillman type. The Hillmen are much more likely to be clean-shaven and short-haired than most of the other ethnicities in the region, although that look is also not uncommon among the Timischers.

I'll probably use this revised Herne the Hunter image for my column in the CIW 5x5 that has them being hunted in the Thursewood.

Another Cossack-like guy. Sadly, there's no weapons that look that much like a falx, although maybe I could repurpose a naginata to do the job, and create more specifically Dacian-looking guys.

Although it's unlikely that they're meant to be the same character, it always struck me that both the Dresden Files and the Warhammer world had an infamous necromancer named Heinrich Kemmler. This is my take on a third version. Why not jump in on the in-joke bandwagon, amirite?

Played around with some newish elements to make a jann. They're probably due for the next racial deep dive.

I think I've posted this before, but here's the most recent kemling character I've made.

This knight uses some new elements, but I didn't actually love the new breastplate, so I used a lorica segmentata-like one. It fits really well with the faulds, actually, and is a kind of unique look for a Hillman or possibly Timischer warrior.

This guy is specifically meant to evoke the American frontier vibe that is also part of the Hillmen look.

Another one who looks like he could be from anywhere, but this was specifically designed to be an older retired Ranger from the Hill Country.

Another warrior. See how that breastplate just didn't work with the look above? This guy could be from anywhere too.

A ranger veteran, although darker than normal for a hillman. But there are dark haired hillmen too. That doesn't mean he has to have Tazitta or Tarushan blood.

Two additional characters that have a Cossack-like look in some ways, so they're looking like Drylanders to me right now.

Springheel Jack, a fictional or urban folklore character from Victorian London who I've heard called "the world's first supervillain."

Desdichado. The Disinherited One. Dressed deliberately to disguise his features and even his ethnicity, so he could pass anywhere in the Three Realms without comment.

These older urban Drylanders will still work as exactly that.

This urban ranger, with what looks like an African hunting dog animal companion, is just a really cool image, but I have no idea what to do with him yet.

A veteran warrior. Experienced, but still very hale, and not starting to struggle keeping up with the young bucks because of age yet.