City of Crows: White Hats, Black Hats

I'm not much of an artist when it comes to drawing, and it takes me weeks to do a half-way decent concept drawing, so I cheated and used Fabrica X to do some simple preliminary character concept sketches. The final concept sketches will be done by someone else, probably Matt (he and I chatted a it last weekend and will definitely be working together on this project), and will look more realistic and less DC Comics.

But that said, here are the basic concepts for the "Good Guys" and the "Bad Guys."

On the left is an "Imperial Soldier." Clean cut, dashing and heroic with fairly modern styling for a medieval outfit. With the heart of the Empire destroyed, the once mighty Imperial Army has fallen into deep disarray. Most of its numbers have deserted or tossed in with the ambitious nobles who have carved the Empire into a thousand tiny kingdoms, only those most loyal to the ideals of the Empire remain. The Imperial taxes and levies that once supported them are gone, so the remaining soldiers have been forced to scrounge and plunder to keep the army fed and armed. Lead by the Emperor's Paladins, many Imperial squads search the ruins of Cloneheim, gathering treasure to fuel further exploration. Their ultimate goal is to find the lost Crown of the Empire, which would give them the power to select a new Emperor and begin to rebuild.

On the left is a "Darkling." I want to get away from the boring heavy-set and doughy orcs or tiny and feeble goblins, go for something that is a bit more graceful and athletic. I want bad guys that can be every bit as dashing as the good guys. Darklings are near-humans originating from one of the Demon Dimensions. They are slightly tougher than humans, but are poorly organized and don't work together well. While not stupid, they tend to be too clever for their own good and are prone at thinking themselves into circles, which often leads to explosions of rage. On their native plane they roam as small bands of feral hunters, with a few of them achieving a barbaric mockery of civilization under the leadership of demon overlords. The magical cataclysm that destroyed Cloneheim ripped holes in the fabric of space that allowed hordes of Darklings to invade the ruins and set up a breach head for the eventual invasion of the whole world, but even here they find themselves fighting amongst themselves and falling under the sway of powerful wizards and warlords.

So two of three basic starting units will be Imperial Soldiers and Darkling Warriors, and I'm working on the third group. I'm kinda thinking pirates, but pirates are kinda overdone. I don't think the market really needs more pirates.