May I formally introduce The Crucified Dreamer. This alternate universe Abyssal form of my character, Kalara, enjoys seducing revolutionaries to the cause of her Deathlord, the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears.
She fiercely loves her Deathlord, who saved her from the days of torment she had endured after being crucified by the Guild for a murder she didn’t commit in an effort to silence her calls for reform.
The Lover gave the Dreamer the chance she craved to ‘equalize’ all in the embrace of death. The Dreamer enjoys finding revolutionaries much like herself, encouraging them to fight wars they cannot win so she can watch them die 'beautiful’ deaths.
Her skin is meant to be a corpselike blue with her crucifixion wounds still present and unhealed.
Merry Calibration to my Exalted Secret Santa giftee, @grimmjowjaegerjaquez! Here’s my take on Leno-Myraavi Khalil, a particularly anxious and polite Twilight Caste. Cecil mentioned making a comic of this character some day and I hope he will! Khalil intrigues me. I want to know more about his back tattoo and how he got it. A mark of his sorcerous initiation, perhaps?
I took cues from his iconic anima aura which is described as ‘eyes that look everywhere and nowhere arrayed like a peacock’s tail’. This was the perfect opportunity to test out Procreate’s Soft Pastel and inks for a Tarot-inspired style.
Thanks for organizing us @shiftingpath! It’s always fun to see what awesome art comes out each year.
Then I remembered to come back and share Kalara’s completed Shirt Cut Meme here! Her wardrobe and hair got an update and her Koh persona (Free Space) got a redesign to be way more sexy-badass instead of kinda nerdy, which just wouldn’t do for the Silver-Tongued Devil famed for many misadventures.
I also experimented with a new style in Procreate, which I’m digging. I’m slowly, but surely morphing The Uncrucified towards a more painterly, less line heavy style.
You can also watch a narrated timelapse of this piece here.
Kalara’s Shirt Cut Meme continues! It’s a dangerous move to wear your Anathema caste mark in your jewelry, but it’s a perfect way to keep your enemies guessing & distracted. Is it an ornate circle or a sign this lady’s Trouble?
Kalara Vadras, the main character of my story, The Uncrucified, inspired by the Exalted TTRPG. She’s a high level businesswoman, Guild Master, and lady with a score to settle.
Fashion inspiration Mollyca, Stephane Rolland, and Eli Saab.
Made with perfect pose reference from AdorkaStock.
So I’ve been art blocked for a long while. Life’s been busy and I needed a break! Who knew the silly shirt cut meme would be the thing to break me out of my block? It’s a fun excuse to put Kalara in pretty dresses! Powerful god-tier businesswomen need to have fun too, right? I’m going to share my topics one at a time till I reveal the final collection and stash these individual entries.
Fashion inspiration from Eli Saab and Sherri Hill.
For those who don’t know this character, Kalara is from The Uncrucified, my fan project inspired by the Exalted TTRPG setting.
I’m sliding in at the very last minute, but Merry Calibration, @sly-works! I hope I’ve done Jae justice. He’s an unassuming guy who is up to nothing particularly suspicious AT ALL. You can learn more about him here.
He’d fit right well in with my boy ,Laughing Fox, who is also fond of aliases and being up to nothing troublesome in particular. >:D
My first piece created in Clip Studio Paint and on a shiny, new Cintiq! Vector inking is a dangerous amount of fun in how much you can fiddle. Highly recommend it for making crisp, responsive line art!
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Deathlord - The Lover
Masters of the Abyssals, the Deathlords terrorize Creation, the whispers of dark gods in their ears driving them forth. Each Deathlord is a powerful ghost who rules over an array of weapons and armies poised to bring about the destruction of Creation for the Neverborn, the remnants of the Primordial gods imprisoned in the Underworld.
Not so for the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears. She has no armies, nor does she make war like the others. Her insidious claws seep into every corner of her enemies’ territories in the form of spies and hidden knives. She once seduced an entire monastery of celibate monks before transforming their holy land into a Shadowland and building her own fortress atop its ruins. I do enjoy a clever villainous lady and couldn’t resist drawing this particular Deathlord!
I wove the ‘tears’ of the Lover’s name into her design, her dangling jewels mimicking falling streams of tears and the makeup on her face flowing like tear streaks punctuated by a drip of ‘blood’ from her lips. The tear shape even echoes in the cleavage cutout in her dress. For a seductress as high caliber as the Lover, I wanted a sense of high class, of ornamentation. She has bare shoulders to show a tantalizing bit of skin and smokes an opium pipe, which to me embodies her motif of 'luxurious destruction’.
She really seems to agree with the muse! I am definitely planning to choose one of her thumbnails to turn into a full painting.
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Favorite God - Plentimon of the Dice
Creation is full of offerings a-plenty for the Plentimon of the Dice! He is the God of Gambling and one of the most present and active gods in Creation. This god gets a thrill from watching games of chance unfold and the excitement of high stakes. He’s always circulating Creation visiting every casino either in his full splendor or a mortal disguise. Those who gamble to him and lose without repaying their debts meet mysterious unexplained deaths.
The Plentimon shows up often in The Uncrucified, as Kalara’s hometown of Gem hosts one of the most magnificent subterranean gambling parlors built with such finery as to please the gods themselves. Games of chance are part of the culture of Gem, with fortunes always turning in their many gambling parlors. Kalara has experienced this firsthand as her contract was lost several times in a game of chance, usually during Plentimon’s festival day.
I’ve chosen to depict the Plentimon with a half-mask representing Good and Bad fortune with jewelry and adornments made from various game pieces and jade obols. Perhaps they are the good luck charms from those who have lost to him?
I knew I’d love this take on the God of Gambling when I was working on this. I’ll definitely be finishing up that thumbnail on the right! It just has something about it.
I’d love to go on adventures with the Plentimon in human form taking bets on what dumb thing the party does next. XD
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Favorite Incarnae
I chose the Incarnae, Luna, goddess of the moon in Exalted for this topic. The Changing Maiden is all things, trickster, lover, prankster, and so much more. Her capricious nature appeals to my favorite trickster stories.
For her concept, I explored what a mural might look like in her temple, eventually favoring an asymmetrical version that felt more organic and freeform, which suited her themes better than the orderly symmetrical concepts. The masks represent her shapeshifting identities, with moon phases and rabbit companions worked into her motifs.
Keen-eyed fans might also pick up the inspiration I took from the Diamond murals in Steven Universe. The cosmic space queen energy of the style felt fitting.
Out of the topics so far, this is one of my favorites I want to bring to finish!
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Favorite Charm
The concepts for Favorite Charm (or magical ability) gave me a chance to explore the many glorious flame FX of the Celestial firepower of a Righteous Devil like Kalara. It also granted a bit of wish fulfillment since she never learned Garda Flies on Gilded Wing Attack. These FX are just SCREAMING to be animated and are giving me more incentive to learn animation in Procreate!
I’m saving the top right thumbnail of Cloud of Ebon Devils for a cover piece because it just has presence! Future cover of a sequel story to The Uncrucified, perhaps? Or at least some cool promo art!
One of my favorite sketch compilations from my recent Art Challenge I’m sharing over at my Exalted fic’s account. Be sure to check out that account from the rest of the sketches from my prompt list!
The 3rd compilation of sketches for my Exalted Art Challenge arrives early for Patreon Patrons! Exploring concepts for the God of Gambling, First Age heroes, and more. Here are some of my favorite picks, with alternates and creative notes at the post.
PLUS enjoy a bonus sketch of the Plentimon of Dice’s poker face. I had a good giggle imagining what he’d look like while playing a game. His innocuous inky form would make it very hard to read his tells!
Signal boosting another fun collection of sketches I did for the Exalted Art Challenge!
The 2nd collection of Early Access sketches for my Exalted Art Challenge is up a month in advance for Patrons! This collection explores the spell “Death of Obsidian Butterflies”, the hedonistic nobles of House Cynis, and the Silver Lady herself, Luna, goddess of the moon.
More sketches and discussion at the post! It is available to Patrons at any level.
Miss the first collection with Favorite Charm, Favorite Caste, etc.?Find it here!
Signal bumping the art challenge sneak peeks I’ve been posting this month!
The Righteous Devil form isn’t merely a martial art, but a spiritual reckoning. When you draw on this art, you’re pulling from that turmoil deep down, from all the sins you’ve ever committed, and all the sinners you’ve ever reckoned with. All that roiling guilt and anger and painful understanding refined and channeled into the flame of your soul, of your weapons.
It took me years to even begin to master it…and it almost destroyed me. Only one who can understand their own sins can channel what it means to be not only a Devil, but a Righteous one.
- Memoirs of Kalara Vadras, The Uncrucified, RY 800.
It’s that magical time of year again for the Exalted Secret Santa! It’s also time for a new reference collection now that I have some new art to share this year. My Secret Santa has 3 options behind the cut. Choose your poison!
Kalara Vadras, The Uncrucified
A passionate Eclipse Caste, Kalara can often be found traveling Creation using her charm and wit towards the cause of achieving a more equitable economy and the abolishment of slave labor throughout the threshold. While she has a friendly public face, her enemies whisper of her spy network, Kalara’s “Tongues”, which work quietly throughout Creation eliminating her enemies.
She has a scar from a failed crucifixion on her left hand only,not both hands
Feel free to play with her hair and clothing style without sticking too close to the ref. Kalara mixes things up a lot to either blend in on her travels OR to make a big impression, depending on the occasion. She’s quite the fashionista!
Her totemic anima involves chains of sunlight wrapping around her arms and ankles as the links fall off one by one. Spikes of sunlight, which do not harm her, appear in her hands and melt away. Behind her, a phoenix with a long, trailing tail rises up behind her
NSFW ok!
When she can’t talk her way out of combat, Kalara uses a set of ‘plainer’ artifact firewands (pictured on the right below), though she prefers to leave the gunslinging to her alter-ego, Koh.
————
Koh, the Silver-Tongued Devil
Sometimes when Kalara requires more “discretion” on the road, she travels in the guise of her male persona, Koh, the Silver-Tongued Devil. Rumors swirl around about how this infamous gunslinger and Righteous Devil led a rebellion and rules a network of rebels, escaped slaves, and bandits in the forests between Nexus and Dinas Ryhdd.
Much to Kalara’s amusement, there’s even a rumor that the two are lovers after her Night Caste companion shapeshifted into Koh so they could pose together at a party to throw off suspicion.
Art Notes
Koh appears male with dyed brown hair, though the disguise in my ref image is slipping a bit with Kalara’s red roots showing and her shirt open.
The round-rimmed glasses are Koh’s signature, feel free to take liberties with everything else, though Koh’s appearance tends to channel Kalara’s Southern heritage
Koh uses a set of dual Prayer Pieces
NSFW ok
—-
Night Locust, the Kindly Reaper
Kalara’s right-hand ninja, head of security, and leader of her black ops, “The Embers”. The two formed a strong familial bond as fledgling Solars, as the young Solar took his second breath at the age of 19 when he refused to murder his assassin partner, instead taking the life of their assassin clan’s leader in a blaze of sunlit fury. Night Locust met Kalara in the wandering time after, Kalara giving him a purpose and compassion he did not have in life.
Night Locust may project an aura of calm sagely wisdom, but he is a prankster at heart and a keen edge on the battlefield. He uses a pair of short diaklaves and a dual-bladed scythe. He is not a fan of pointless murder, however, and also does his best to avoid violence.
Art Notes
Kalara and Night Locust are not lovers, but rather have a found-family relationship. Please do not draw them in a romantic situation.
Night’s totemic anima is a cloud of blackness that breaks off into countless locusts
So I’ve been art blocked for a long while. Life’s been busy and I needed a break! Who knew the silly shirt cut meme would be the thing to break me out of my block? It’s a fun excuse to put Kalara in pretty dresses! Powerful god-tier businesswomen need to have fun too, right? I’m going to share my topics one at a time till I reveal the final collection and stash these individual entries.
For those who don’t know this character, Kalara is from The Uncrucified, my fan project inspired by the Exalted TTRPG setting.
Finally drawing Kalara again and wouldn’t you know it’s a boob meme? lol!
Finally calling my try at the Exalted Art Challenge inspired by @theonyxpath ‘s Exalted setting is complete! You can see the entire set of images with links to each collection’s lore and concept notes at the post. Lemme know what your fave topics were!
Exalted Secret Santa 2020 for @theuncrucified of their gorgeous Kalara! I hope I got all the details in <3
OHHH! Look what was posted while I was sleeping! She’s absolutely stunning @fishcapades. Thank you for this lovely gift! This color scheme is gorgeous for her!
I’m sliding in at the very last minute, but Merry Calibration, @sly-works! I hope I’ve done Jae justice. He’s an unassuming guy who is up to nothing particularly suspicious AT ALL. You can learn more about him here.
He’d fit right well in with my boy ,Laughing Fox, who is also fond of aliases and being up to nothing troublesome in particular. >:D
This is the cropped version. See the vaguely NSFW version here. Warning for suggestive content, artistic nudity, and non-graphic body horror.
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Monstrance - “The Arms of the Lover”
The divine essence of a Solar is no easy thing to corrupt and thus the Neverborn created the most cruel of implements for their Deathlords to use - the Monstrances of Celestial Portion.
These sarcophagi are uniquely forged to corrupt and bind the Exaltation of a particular servant and keep it under the thrall of the Deathlord. A Solar thrust into this insidious coffin eventually succumbs to corruption until they give themselves over and accept their new existence as Abyssals…or perish.
As each monstrance suits the Deathlord’s intentions (the way I interpret the lore), I’ve chosen to portray this monstrance controlled by the Lover (the Deathlord from my last post) as being much like its owner. The silk satin pillowing inside makes it seem like a luxurious bed, the soulsteel and jade construct gilded with gold. A prismatic crystalline lid allows one to gaze on the poor soul inside, whose body is trapped in an arc that mimics ecstasy by gold caressing arms that come alive and clasp the victim within.
Inserted along the crystal lid, jewel encrusted needles stab into each of the victim’s chakra points, plying the Solar within for corruption. Like the Lover, this monstrance combines a beautiful and terrible aesthetic.
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Deathlord - The Lover
Masters of the Abyssals, the Deathlords terrorize Creation, the whispers of dark gods in their ears driving them forth. Each Deathlord is a powerful ghost who rules over an array of weapons and armies poised to bring about the destruction of Creation for the Neverborn, the remnants of the Primordial gods imprisoned in the Underworld.
Not so for the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears. She has no armies, nor does she make war like the others. Her insidious claws seep into every corner of her enemies’ territories in the form of spies and hidden knives. She once seduced an entire monastery of celibate monks before transforming their holy land into a Shadowland and building her own fortress atop its ruins. I do enjoy a clever villainous lady and couldn’t resist drawing this particular Deathlord!
I wove the ‘tears’ of the Lover’s name into her design, her dangling jewels mimicking falling streams of tears and the makeup on her face flowing like tear streaks punctuated by a drip of 'blood’ from her lips. The tear shape even echoes in the cleavage cutout in her dress. For a seductress as high caliber as the Lover, I wanted a sense of high class, of ornamentation. She has bare shoulders to show a tantalizing bit of skin and smokes an opium pipe, which to me embodies her motif of 'luxurious destruction’.
She really seems to agree with the muse! I am definitely planning to choose one of her thumbnails to turn into a full painting.
Now we’re getting into the fun spoopy topics of the Exalted Art Challenge I was looking forward to the most! Feels great to indulge my inner Goth Girl.
Abyssal - Golden Lies Spewn Forth From Avarice
No that title isn’t a sentence, it’s this character’s name. Abyssals are the dark reflection of Solars like Kalara. Their once-divine Sun essence has been corrupted by beings empowered by the ancient fallen gods. This character once had a name, but it was taken from him and stricken from the books in heaven when he was transformed into an Abyssal.
In life, Golden Lies obsessed over material wealth and pursued it to his end. In death (or undeath), he cloaks himself in the finery of a king’s funeral adorned with bejeweled bones and serves the Deathlord, the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears. I played with a couple of different color schemes for him and am favoring the white-haired look at the moment! This isn’t the last we’ll see of this fellow, as he might appear in The Uncrucified down the line, if the story goes where I think it’s going.
On the bottom-right, I also decided to draw fan art of another Abyssal who I liked the design of, the Saint of Promised Silence, who belongs to HamSandLich. Be sure not to be too loud in cemeteries around her!
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Incarnations Back to Back - Kalara and Calym
While Calym’s time is over, he and Kalara remain inextricably bound, with his Shard passing on some of his memories and knowledge. Kalara strives to learn from the mistakes Calym made and the emotionless spirit construct of himself he has left behind to tutor her in bureaucracy.
Should she ever prove unworthy, however, Calym has made his intentions known that he will destroy her so that a more worthy successor might come along more quickly, a threat Kalara never takes seriously.
The left thumbnail is another one I hope to bring to final! It has a badass epic mood to it that really inspires me.
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Age of Sorrows Incarnation - Kalara Vadras
When the Exalted of the First Age fell, the Age of Sorrows began, but a glimmer of hope stands on the horizon. The Shards of the Exalted have begun to appear again, imbuing heroes like Kalara with the power to change the face of Creation.
Like Calym, I’ve depicted her in a mural style with some key differences. While Calym’s focuses on veneration from his worshippers, Kalara stands among people who rise up in revolution carrying tools of their trade, as she spends much of her power in Creation empowering escaped slaves like herself with trade skills and fostering fair economy through her organization, the Pristine Guild.
She struggles between the Gun and the Quill, violence and diplomacy. By the end of her time in Creation, she will have learned to balance both.
She and Calym share the phoenix as a personal symbol, though they oppose each other in gold and silver.
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - First Age Incarnation
In each spark of Exaltation resides a Shard which is passed down from one worthy vessel to another. This gent here is Calym Lang, the Solar and Righteous Devil practitioner whose shard Kalara would eventually inherit.
Calym was a shrewd and paranoid master of trade whose cold pragmatism would be his downfall. Kalara is more like him than she would like to admit at times and the two maintain a begrudging respect towards one another. She often communicates with his greater soul in the underworld, the two poking fun at each other’s flaws in a good-natured competition to see who will achieve their goals through more effective ends.
He’s also ghostwritten a series of erotica novels that Kalara is a fan of, but will never tell him.
Calym’s mural venerates his status as one who united the four corners of Creation, all trade routes leading to the compass in his hand. I imagine this to be the centerpiece of a wider mural, each region of the mural depicting the exports of the area they represent (an image our Storyteller described once that never left my mind).
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Favorite God - Plentimon of the Dice
Creation is full of offerings a-plenty for the Plentimon of the Dice! He is the God of Gambling and one of the most present and active gods in Creation. This god gets a thrill from watching games of chance unfold and the excitement of high stakes. He’s always circulating Creation visiting every casino either in his full splendor or a mortal disguise. Those who gamble to him and lose without repaying their debts meet mysterious unexplained deaths.
The Plentimon shows up often in The Uncrucified, as Kalara’s hometown of Gem hosts one of the most magnificent subterranean gambling parlors built with such finery as to please the gods themselves. Games of chance are part of the culture of Gem, with fortunes always turning in their many gambling parlors. Kalara has experienced this firsthand as her contract was lost several times in a game of chance, usually during Plentimon’s festival day.
I’ve chosen to depict the Plentimon with a half-mask representing Good and Bad fortune with jewelry and adornments made from various game pieces and jade obols. Perhaps they are the good luck charms from those who have lost to him?
Merry Calibration, Exalted friends! I participated in the Exalted Secret Santa hosted by @shiftingpath (thanks for organizing us all, Path!).
My chosen recipient @akaittou had a lot of interesting characters, but this lady caught my eye! She is a Linowan noble and Eclipse Caste named The Wind Which Sways the Cattails Growing in the Last Meander Before the Rapids Flowing Past Two Flowers in Bloom and her mink companion. I couldn’t resist drawing my favorite Caste!
Do you draw, write, paint, compose, sculpt, or otherwise Make Stuff related to Exalted? Are you an admirer of Exalted-related creativity?
Do you want more artsy types to chat with who know what you mean when you talk about caste marks and anima banners and essence, manses and dragonlines and Elemental Poles?
Want a place to find inspiration? Share your works? Contribute to a friendly and helpful community of other Exalted artists & creatives?
The Forge of Wonders is run by me (Rae) and Ang ( @theuncrucifiedaka@angelasasserart ) – both writers and artists who adore Exalted.
We are also running an Exalted Art Challenge for Inktober/Sketchtember/etc, and a Semi-Regular (every other month or so) Exalted Art Exchange to gift each other art (post on that to come!)
Join us! Show off your pretties. Tell us about your characters and adventures!
AndPlease RT! Signal boost and share with the other Exalted creatives I know are out there!
Just a reminder to anyone who might be looking for a fun creative Exalted place to hang out online!
Here’s the finished product from yesterday’s stream of a Patreon sketch! The King of the Four Posts, Zenith Caste, Syn, manifesting the four arms of the Sun, which also poetically mirror the arms of his demonic heritage. Syn belongs to my lovely Patron, @silhouetteofadon
Inspired by the Exalted RPG from @theonyxpath . You can watch the recording of the stream where I drew this sketch here.
I’m hopping on the stream soon to work on a sketch of an Exalted RPG character for a Patreon Patron, @silhouetteofadon ! Come hangout with me at your fave streaming spot:
The final sketch for my September batch of sketches for my Patrons! All hail Queen Suma, river goddess and fiery wife of Syn, the Solar Exalted Zenith. Both characters belong to @silhouetteofadon who also has cool art of them up at his blog!
If you’d like to usurp my muse for your own sketch commission, keep an eye on my Sketch Collector tier on Patreon for availability.
I also had a little pose inspiration from the amazing SenshiStock!
Signal bump of an Exalted sketch I did for @silhouetteofadon of his fearsome river goddess, Suma! How I do so love drawing this character. She agrees with my muse!
Caught up with the last of my Patreon Sketches for August! Featuring Rage-Halo’s character, Suma, a ruthless river goddess who suffers no fools.
If you’d like to put my muse to the test, keep an eye on my Patreon page where you can snag one of my Sketch Collector tiers once it becomes available.
Re-blogging this Exalted piece from my main art account!
Do you draw, write, paint, compose, sculpt, or otherwise Make Stuff related to Exalted? Are you an admirer of Exalted-related creativity?
Do you want more artsy types to chat with who know what you mean when you talk about caste marks and anima banners and essence, manses and dragonlines and Elemental Poles?
Want a place to find inspiration? Share your works? Contribute to a friendly and helpful community of other Exalted artists & creatives?
The Forge of Wonders is run by me (Rae) and Ang ( @theuncrucifiedaka@angelasasserart ) – both writers and artists who adore Exalted.
We are also running an Exalted Art Challenge for Inktober/Sketchtember/etc, and a Semi-Regular (every other month or so) Exalted Art Exchange to gift each other art (post on that to come!)
Join us! Show off your pretties. Tell us about your characters and adventures!
AndPlease RT! Signal boost and share with the other Exalted creatives I know are out there!
I hope any of my fellow Exalted artists, writers, and creatives (or people who just like exalted art) reading this will join our budding community! The server has been a great place to share inspiration, critique, and motivate one another.
There are so many great Dungeons & Dragons-themed art challenges out there that I decided that @theonyxpath ‘s Exalted needed one of its own as well! Feel free to interpret these topics as loosely as you like or replace topics that don’t vogue with your favorite edition or subject matter.
