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rperboni · 4 days
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If you’re wondering what the whole drama regarding tieflings is in the Dungeons & Dragons fandom: basically, capitalism ruined tieflings, and for once that’s not even slightly a joke.
Tieflings were first introduced as a playable species in Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, via the Planescape campaign in 1994. At the time, there were no particular rules regarding what a tiefling was supposed to look like. The text explicitly stated that their basic physiology could vary wildly depending on what their fiendish ancestor was, and one of the first major Planescape supplements even included a table for randomly generating your tiefling’s appearance, if you were into that sort of thing.
This continued to be the case up through the game’s Third Edition. However, when the Fourth Edition rolled around in 2008, the game’s text suddenly became very particular about insisting that all tieflings looked pretty much the same. Some campaign settings even provided iin-character explanations for why all tieflings now had a standardised appearance. Understandably, this made a lot of people very annoyed.
There was naturally a great deal of speculation concerning what had motivated this change. It was widely cited as “proof” that Dungeons & Dragons was trying to appeal to the World of Warcraft fanbase – which was nonsense, of course; nearly all of the Fourth Edition’s allegedly MMO-like features were things that popular MMOs had borrowed from Dungeons & Dragons in the first place, and to the extent that tieflings’ new look resembled a particular WoW race, it was in that they were both extraordinarily generic.
In reality, it was a change that had been lurking for some time. Though Dungeons & Dragons is directly published by Wizards of the Coast, Wizards of the Coast is in turn owned by Hasbro, and Hasbro has long regarded the D&D core rulebooks as a vehicle for promoting D&D-branded merch – in particular, licensed miniature figures.
This was a bugbear that had reared its head before. When the Third Edition received major revisions in 2003, Hasbro corporate had ordered the game’s editors to completely remove any discussion of how to improvise minifigs for large battles, and replace it with an advertisement for the then-current Dungeons & Dragons Heroes product line. Implying that purchasing licensed minis wasn’t 100% mandatory simply would not do.
If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve probably already guessed where this is going: tieflings having no standard appearance made it difficult to sell tiefling minifigs, as any given minifig design would only be suitable for a small subset of tiefling characters. In the brutally reductive logic of the corporate mind, Hasbro reasoned: well, if we tell tiefling players that all of their characters now look the same, we can sell them all the same minifigs. So that’s what the game did, going so far as to write justifications into several published settings for magically transforming all existing tiefling characters to fit the new mould!
This worked about as well as anyone who isn’t a corporate drone would naturally anticipate – and that’s the story of how capitalism ruined tieflings.
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rperboni · 5 months
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PATHFINDERS - The Iruxi Sorcerer
This is one of the parts of this series that I was most excited to do. Not only is it an unusual combination of class and ancestry, with an Iruxi Sorcerer, but because it was a character that I played myself. So instead of describing the concept of his creation, here's a summary of his lore:
Karkow was born in Sargorya, a region of several lizardfolk settlements, with his village led by an evil mystic linked to a dragon called Zalhtara, The Emerald Lady, ruler of the rainforests and bitter enemy of the elves who inhabit the border. The mystic, Norzok, chose one of his "followers", Larzanna, to lay the egg that would bring his master's chosen one, on a night stained with innocent blood from a sacrifice to the dragon. From the egg, a baby with green scales and a reddish head, as if stained by spilled blood, was born, named after the sound of the incessant thunder that night.
By raising him as any iruxi does with her child, Larzanna realized the magical power within Karkow, but not demonic or draconic bloodlines as old Norzok expected, but rather the chaotic energy of the inhabitants of the First World, the fairies. Fearing the leader's wrath, Larzanna tried to hide her son's power, but Karkow was ripped from her arms by the dragon worshiper, who, in his fanatical fury, attacked him, for considering that his mother had betrayed Sargorya. Karkow had fled that night, never seeing his people since.
In the meantime, wandering through unknown lands and tormented by nightmares of his past, Karkow lived in the shadows, trying to perfect his connection with fey magic, which ended up causing a fire in the shelter where he slept, which led to him being chased by angry villagers. His fate only reversed when he was found by a powerful wizard, who knew how to teach the young sorcerer to master the magic that ran through his veins, which made him more connected with his origin, as if it were a victory over Norzok and, perhaps, a victory for his mother.
And for those curious, I was inspired by one of my favorite lizards, which even lives here in Brazil, the northern caiman lizard, an excellent swimmer that loves to eat snails.
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rperboni · 5 months
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PATHFINDERS - The Halfling Bard
As I've said many times before, in this same series of drawings, bards are much more than the musicians in an eternal state of lasciviousness and wanting to get laid with everyone, something that they tend to be seen especially by older RPG players. The historical inspiration of the bards includes true human archives, responsible for preserving knowledge, whether of the places where they live or of a specific noble family to which they are linked - William Shakespeare is often called "the English bard" precisely because of this. Furthermore, they do not always need to be linked to musical performances, they can be dancers, actors and, in this case, orators.
I built the idea of this character a little together with my cousin when I made him a Halfling Bard, with a special focus on the oratory aspect and also on the social history of Halflings - in the original idea it was with D&D 3.5e in mind, not Pathfinder 2e, but which ended up fitting here too -, generally shown as a people without a land to call theirs, seen as inferior beings by other societies. Perhaps with this specific bard, using the magical item of a phoenix feather used as a "pen", he will do just that, uniting his people in squares in large urban centers under the banner of an ideology that will free them from oppression - something that is much more obvious in the original drawing, but I hid it here just for better aesthetics.
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rperboni · 5 months
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PATHFINDERS - The Grimspawn Cleric
Update from the PF2E Remaster coming in late 2023: Due to Tieflings and Aasimars being liked to the OGL, Paizo merged and renamed these versatile heritages as Nephilim. I shall keep these names in some descriptions for better comprehension.
The only things in classic D&D that I believe could be compared to the Daemons, dark inhabitants of Abaddon, would be the Yugoloths, but only in certain aspects, especially the neutral evil alignment - something that Pathfinder is already discarding, thanks to WoTC being this beauty of a company that it is, but that's for another day - since, even though they are selfish and only interested in their own agendas, they are not mercenaries necessarily linked to whoever pays the most. Daemons seek death and entropy, but without the disorder and chaos of demons or the systemic and orderly depravity of devils, being avatars of the purest evil and discord, especially interested in mortal souls as almost a type of sustenance, not numbers for their hordes. And, sometimes, these creatures leave their mark on the blood of mortals, creating Nephilim known as "Grimspawn."
Of all the drawings in this series, I think this will be one of the only ones - if not the only one - that received a complete remake at the end. In the original drawing (2nd drawing), in which my cousin was transformed into a cleric, we both had the idea making him linked to death, but also to nature, with armor and weapons covered in fungus, as well as a scarab beetle, a classic symbol of death, as a "family member". But, when redoing this char, which was even sketched in my new style (3rd drawing), I wasn't connecting with the idea. Which is why I ended up remaking him as a Nephilim Cleric of Nocticula, a goddess who previously belonged to the Abyss, but today presents herself as the Redeemer Queen, protector of artists and exiles, which fits perfectly for both a "tiefling" and an orc, which is the base ancestry that I mixed here by surprise - Nephilim are a versatile heritage, not limited to humans as usual - but still maintaining the original idea of making him a descendant of Daemons, even if distancing him from the idea of "cleric of death ".
I also wanted to bring a different color to those generally used in this type of Nephilim, with an almost draconic green, complete with scales and thorns, as well as the blue and white colors of the goddess. Nocticula's weapon is the dagger, which he carries on his belt, but hammers and clerics go together so perfectly that I couldn't leave him without it.
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rperboni · 5 months
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PATHFINDERS - The Amurrun Thaumaturge
Just like the spiritualist, one of the other so-called "occult classes" present on Pathfinder 1E was, literally, the Occultist. Members of this class studied the magic infused in the world around them, whether in the environment or in the special items through which they channeled their magic, called implements. In the Second Edition, they are apparently back, but reworked as the Thaumaturge, who also has powers that come from implements, be they magical weapons, ancestral relics, lucky amulets and talismans from different cultures, using them to discover weak points of their adversaries, as well as using their knowledge in more occult areas such as esotericism, haunts and curses.
Given the classic connection of cats with mystical and esoteric things, I think nothing would be fairer than bringing in an Amurrun Thaumaturge. Just like cats in the real world, the Catfolk are linked to graceful actions but also to almost supernatural luck. For this design, I took inspiration on a caracal, an African wild feline similar to a lynx - which has been successful on the internet as a pet in viral videos, which in my opinion is terrible for the preservation of the wild population and potentially dangerous -, complete with beautiful curved mustaches and tufts of fur on top of its huge ears, always aware of its surroundings. For his thaumaturge's implement I chose a chalice, generally linked to healing, life and nourishment, with the symbol of the Amurrun goddess Adanye, called "The Warmth of the Hearth", which combines very well with the auxiliary and supportive function of this type of implement.
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rperboni · 6 months
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rperboni · 6 months
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Hey Guys. Apparently I was scammed by a cryptobro
TL,DR: Would someone buy prints of my work to help to get through the month?
Hi guys
I really need help due to a commission that appears to be done through a scam using Binance, which is a cryptocurrency app, something I never really wanted to use. The commissioner would pay me 400 dollars - in my local currency, its the equivalent of almost 2000$, something that would greatly help me given my financial situation for the month. But, every time that I think the funds would finally be liberated to my account, the app asks for different transactions to be made - called service fees. The last one left me completely without money to get through the month, as I already have late bills from last month that only get bigger due to bank fees.
And before you say anything about how gullible I was, I really needed this extra money. I really prefer using PayPal for international transactions, but I did what the client said due to my situation and amateur stand in the art community.
In this case, I really need help. So I ask: Would some of you buy any artwork of mine as prints if I sold them? I created the little info above the text last night. The galleries that are avaiable are the following:
Demonktober 2020
Dinovember/Dinocember 2020
MythicMay 2020
2020's Brazilian Folklore Drawings
Thanks for the attention.
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rperboni · 6 months
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Pokemon now with the mon
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rperboni · 6 months
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These are some cute Rexes
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Last time I drew a tyrannosaurus was like 4 months ago. This is unacceptable! So I drew some rexes!
And baby rexes! >:3
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rperboni · 6 months
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PATHFINDERS - The Sylph Necromancer
Necromancy is probably the most recognized school of magic in the most classic fantasy universes, but also the most ostracized and poorly seen, associated with villainous characters and the most recurrent elements among its practitioners, such as zombies, liches, skeletons and magical artifacts made from bones and tendons. However, necromancy, even though it is not much remembered for this, can also be linked to the cure of diseases and the journey of souls to the Great Beyond, including - at least in the setting of Pathfinder Second Edition, in which this entire series is based - divided precisely into three main disciplines: Vitalism, which seeks to purge and cure the evils of the flesh; Soul Magic, which manipulates spiritual energies, and Undeath, which is the classic stereotype of the wizard who commands the undead.
The blurred vision about this school of magic was what encouraged me to bring my friend as a Sylph Necromancer, probably more linked to Soul Magic, also taking into account the more free nature of a sylph, especially the one with heritage linked to a primal cloud dragon, a naturally mercurial being, who seeks to explore and discover new things, but who is also capricious in their actions. I tried to bring the colors linked to the school of necromancy - black, gray and white - in their clothes, and instead of a familiar, I brought an ancient and fossilized skull as the arcane link, so it can also deliver its magic, as well as the static touch of a stormsoul sylph.
As usual with friends who, like myself, are on different LGBTQIAPN+ spectrums, I brought two more flags linked to them, but this time not so hidden: Gender Fluid and Pansexuality. This time they're not so hard to find hehehe
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rperboni · 6 months
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PATHFINDERS - The Ysoki Magus
As far as I am aware, I think that the Ysoki - or Ratfolk - are something specific to Pathfinder RPG (although they only received an official "racial" name in Paizo's futuristic system, Starfinder) - unless there is something in Magic The Gathering that I don't know, which is very likely. Even though they are, like other "beastfolk" in RPG games, based on a single specific animal, I always like to bring different things into the mix so to speak, so I decided to base this girl not on a rat, but on a pacarana, one of the largest rodents in the world, related to pacas and capybaras, and certainly one of my favorite mammals.
That said, it was also up to me to bring something else that feels unique to Pathfinder alongside her, so I made her a Ysoki Magus. Despite the similar name - at least PT-BR translation, in which wizard is "mago" - the magus have some differences from traditional wizards, being more focused on direct combat, using magic as a fundamental part of their attacks along with weapons and armor, resulting in so-called hybrid studies. I decided to bring a few more different elements here, such as the padded armor similar to that used by some Mesoamerican people, in addition to her main weapon being a pair of knuckle dusters with shark teeth, similar to those used by the ancient Hawaiians.
Oh and she is Lesbian. She has a Lesbian pride flag in there somewhere.
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rperboni · 7 months
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PATHFINDERS - The Oread Ranger
Update from the PF2E Remaster coming in late 2023: Genies native to the Plane of Earth are now know as Jabalis, due to Pathfinder trying to distance itself from the OGL - despite OGL Earth genies being called Dao and not Shaitan, but it was a more culturally appropriatte decision according to the dev team too.
Oreads are often connected not only to the Elemental Plane of Earth, but also to the environment where they were born. The so-called "Dustsouls" appear to be linked to the more subtle forms in which the element presents itself, like grains of sand carried by the wind, practically as intermediaries between Earth and Air. This mixture may seem a little unexpected, considering that the Jabali - genies native to the Plane of Earth, who are also the most common ancestors of these geniekin - are resolute and austere, drawing attention to their bodies practically carved directly from rough stone.
To bring this subtlety and stealth, I decided to transform my friend into an Oread Ranger, adapted to drier and sandy environments, being able to blend into the environment with his marbled and rigid skin that resembles a sandstone. Besides, when it comes to combat, nothing is fairer than knowing dual-wielding techniques and having an animal companion like a kangaroo. I wanted to bring colors closer to earth tones for his light armor, but with touches of blue in common clothes underneath, something very present in several cultures native to desert regions in the real world.
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rperboni · 7 months
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PATHFINDERS - The Undine Evoker
Update from the PF2E Remaster coming in late 2023: Genies native to the Plane of Water are now know as Faydhaans, due to Pathfinder trying to distance itself from the OGL.
Evokers are, I believe for most people, representatives of that more classic view of what a wizard would be in popular culture, adept at using magic coming from primordial energies in their most raw and not subtle forms, even when it comes to defensive magic. The evoker's destructive power is the greatest of the seven basic schools of magic, often represented by wizards on battlefronts and at the forefront of armies, destroying foes with fireballs and magical missiles, or protecting their allies with shields of ice or walls of pure arcane force.
Because of this primal connection with the elements, I think it was a cool idea to transform my friend into an Undine Evoker, with magic missiles in the shape of a mosasaurs to represent the connection of her heritage with the seas. Also, my main idea was to bring her the ancestry from the faydhaans, the genies of the Plane of Water, mercurial creatures and lovers of the arts, which also goes well with the fact that she is an amazing tattoo artist. In addition, her beach lover soul made me think of elements linked to coral reefs, from her arcane link with a staff covered in anemones and sea fans charged with magical energy to the patterns of her colored skin, reminiscent of the delicate paths made by polyps when creating their colonies on the reefs.
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rperboni · 7 months
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it’s a tragedy that dinotopia was adapted as a weird gritty looking tv movie with bad cgi when it’s, without exaggeration, the most ghibli any book has ever been
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rperboni · 7 months
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PATHFINDERS - The Naari Barbarian
Update from the PF2E Remaster coming in late 2023: Ifrit is now the name of the genies of the Plane of Fire, and due to that, the fire geniekin are now renamed as Naari.
Naari, geniekin descendants of elemental beings from the Plane of Fire, are commonly descended from creatures called Ifrits. Practically the lords of their native plane, the Ifrits are genies, known for their cruel and bellicose nature, as well as their reddish skin, flaming eyes, and spiraling horns sprouting from their foreheads, giving them a look more akin to the classic view of demons and devils. Medina Mudii'a, at the heart of the Ifrit Empire, is one of the greatest metropolises in the Great Beyond. Even from far away, these creatures can still have an effect on mortals on the Material Plane, creating offspring scarred by the cruel hand of these genies.
Despite this, being descended from an Ifrit doesn't make the Geniekin naturally evil, but it can certainly help those who follow more bellicose paths, which is why I decided to make my friend here as a Naari Barbarian with flaming hair and horns as a mark of his descent. Other aspects I wanted to bring are colors more linked to human cultures linked to the desert - after all, Ifrits also exist in human folklore, more specifically in pre-Islamic Arab folklore - such as blue, copper and brass. A desert barbarian, with natural resistance to the weather, a light but resistant armor and armed with a BIG ASS sword would definitely be a very interesting character to present in game.
Oh and yes. His flaming hair and mustache colors are a reference to the bisexual flag. There's a demisexual flag too, but that one I'll let you look for.
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rperboni · 7 months
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rperboni · 11 months
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I just realized that apparently I never shared this series here on Tumblr??  
I call it Living Paintings, as they are recreations of extinct animals that some artists actually saw and painted from memory, a long time ago.
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