Grislings - Zobnans and Nyxians

I've been trying to avoid big image dump posts, but occasionally, I just kinda want to. Here's a bunch of Grislings, Graymen or Hyperboreans, with a little bit of commentary on each image. 

I had a couple of almost every other race, so I thought it would be a good idea to make one of the Grislings too. I think that the man came out too grayscale with even black clothing... but on the other hand, maybe that's the point. I think I'll leave him.

Ampelius Pictor is, of course, a named NPC character of some importance. He's a necromancer and Death Cultist. While he poses as a respectable Zobnan academic, in reality he's a Nyxian cultist. This goes to show you; the ethnic differences between the two are indistinguishable; it's all cultural. They don't even have any distinctive features about them, and even if they did, after a few generations, there has been considerable intermarriage between them anyway.

Bethan Argavad is another character of some importance, being Kimnor Rugova's former fiancé and now nemesis. I've often treated her like a dhampir, but she isn't really. She's a grisling under the effects of the curse. Rather than devolve into a ghoul, or die, she became a cannibal to retain her humanity... somewhat, although how much humanity do eager cannibals really have anyway?

Drancent Hewe, iconic grisling traveling scholar and sage.

Two versions of a generic Zobnan woman.

An iconic Zobnan, not unlike Kimnor, except without the beard or the tragic backstory.

Multiple versions of Kimnor. The last one, as you can see, looks almost exactly like the generic Zobnan, except with a Shadow Sword blade and a musketeer moustache and beard. I also just noticed that the number of fingers on some of his hands is not right. One only has four fingers, and a few of them have six on one hand. 

Kimnor, of course, in "reality" has a normal hand, duh.

Two rather traditionally dressed Nyxian warriors, with their iconic serrated sabers.

I'm not a fan of girlboss action characters, but I don't mind one occasionally. If anyone's going to have a few of them, the Nyxians seem like a good candidate culture. Like girlboss characters everywhere, in reality, physically she would be no match for a man, but this is fantasy after all. We'll let one or two slide through from time to time.

I do prefer to have female characters be characters that rely less on physicality, of course.

A girl in a very Nyxian outfit. She probably is Nyxian, but other people in Lomar would be drawn to the look even if she isn't really. 

Two takes on a Nyxian rogue or assassin type character. Even the rapier and dagger are serrated, although with finer teeth. That's a Nyxian affectation.

I occasionally need a real big bruiser of a character. Not everyone can have the same build. 

Girls make good sorceresses, especially in a setting where anyone who casts magic is morally questionable in the first place, lol. Anyway, after her, I've got a few versions of a guy version of her too; someone to take the place of Ampelius Pictor in a Nyxian party that doesn't use an established character. 

These last two are to represent an older, maybe wiser, and probably a bit richer version of Kimnor.

Kimnor Rugova

I don't know why I've made so many iterations of Revecca von Lechfeld, but I haven't done the actual iconic characters for Old Night. Anyway, here's Kimnor Rugova, iconic grisling swashbuckling shadow sword (although he also usually carries a rapier and flintlock pistol. At least he does in this image.) Tomorrow I want to get a good Dominic Clevenger.

Normally my Kimnor has a Van Dyke moustache and beard, but here's a clean-shaven version of him. I'll generate the next type when I'm available to do so (I think I need to wait almost seven hours before my limit resets.)

I've also been working on kemling variants, but I'm not yet sure who these are. The one with the mustard yellow might an NPC gangster villain, Vaspar Oksandros.

And finally, I took my old Frankenstein's monster Werner Otten, and made him look a little bit less like the movie version with the beat up old suit coat, and more like a D&D flesh golem.

UPDATE: the "real" Kimnor, with his beard and shadow sword. 

Kemling gal based sorta on the same original.

"Dark Bridgetown". I had an earlier version done like this, and I wanted to again.

An AI image that I found online. Actually, a few of them.

Minor race updates

As soon as I have access to my source files, I'm going to make a few minor updates to the race descriptions:

• Kemlings do not obligatorily have weird features like the crown of horns. Mutated features like that, or scales, or a forked tongue, or cloven hooves instead of feet, etc. are not unknown among them, but are rare.
• I've struggled for years with what to call the people of Lomar. Cursed, Hyperboreans, graymen, etc. I haven't been super happy with any of them. Looking at some Old English and even Proto-Germanic roots I've found two options, and I'll almost certainly pick one: Grislings or Hoarlings. I kind of like the latter best, since I like the old fashioned words hoar and hoary, but since it sounds like whore, it might be a no-go at the table. Sadly. Grislings is based on the same root word as grizzled or grizzly, but spelling it with an [s] just looks better written and is equally authentic.
• Neanderthals never really worked because it sounded too scientific. Atlantean kind of does, but I don't love it. Wendak is a good endonym, but I kind of want a Hillmen-themed exonym too. Grendling, as in Grendel + ing (an old fashioned English term meaning, "people of". Or at least close enough for my purposes.) 
• On the other hand, although I experimented with using the same formula to create swertings or even surtings or surtlings (the first being a word Tolkien himself used at least once) it didn't sound a good as surturs.

Anyway, here's some "Grendlings" assuming I go with that. Keep in mind that they're not all equally devolved, so some look like regular humans still, if of a unique ethnic group. The worst look almost like man-apes.