Tiamut, Mother of Chaos, Womb of Salt
Among the Great Names, none are as dread, nor as venerated, as that of Tiamut, who taught the Earthen-Beings right from wrong that they might rebel against the Giants and taught them writing so that lies would persist as long as truths.
It has been difficult to portray her. Tiamat, from whom I draw inspiration, is described in two ways: the salt water mother whose union with the fresh waters of the rivers birthed the world; and as a terrifying monster described only in glimpses that usually sound like a sphynx with the head of a lion, hands of a human, wings of an eagle, and udders.

Since Labiasam is the Mother of Sea Monsters in the World of Names and I wish to be faithful to the mythological feeling of the setting, I’m being completely unclear about which is what.
That said, here she is in my first decent sketches. I think she will be something like this in the final. I’m making her features just slightly human, but I don’t want her to quite be personable. The character I’m keeping in my mind is that she’s like a 50-year-old woman, who’s had her kids who have grown up and now she, more than anyone, knows how absolutely everything works.
My favorite canonical feature of Tiamat, by the way, is the pomegranate of wisdom growing out of her head, echoing the Forbidden Fruit of Gan Eden (do your research, Christians!) and Persephone’s pomegranate that makes her retreat each year, bringing winter.

Kalush, Buried Beneath the Twins
When the Giants quarreled, they brought forth many monsters to do their violence before Ummud conceived to form the Earthen-Beings out of red clay. The great serpent Kalush was birthed by Ishmu to seize the ruby heart of the river Ufaret and hold it close that Shutu might not regain it to place it again within her ribcage.

Bahamat, Mother of Sea Monsters
Bahamut, whose Stride Spans the Horizon
Bahamut is very big.
Continue reading “Bahamut, whose Stride Spans the Horizon”Bahamut, whose Stride Spans the Horizon
I was having a hard time illustrating Bahamut, so I needed to figure out its physiology. Were one to back up against the Vault of Heaven, this might be what you would see far below, somewhere. How this beast manages to hide is a deep mystery. It surely does not want to be found.
Continue reading “Bahamut, whose Stride Spans the Horizon”The Sunken
Among the creatures described in the Monsters chapter that the backers of The Bloody-Handed Name of Bronze and the xenophiliacs received last night were The Sunken. But that page was unillustrated, with just a placeholder where it went.
Continue reading “The Sunken”The Iguk
The Iguk is one of the monsters listed in The Bloody-Handed Name of Bronze. It guards the opal skeleton of Yog Shul and is duty-bound to return any piece stolen. To accomplish its task, it is thus blessed: that it may never be killed the same way twice.
Continue reading “The Iguk”Protected: The Monsters (for xenophiliacs & Kickstarter backers!)
Free Explorer Emerald
The Emerald was originally built on Kantauri Five and titled Jannisary as a coast guard irregular vessel to patrol the interplanetary spacelanes of the Kantaur system, but after its hull fractured in pursuit of Betan lurra smugglers, the ship was scrapped.
Continue reading “Free Explorer Emerald”