#opium pipe

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.

• See more of this Art Challenge here.
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