Monstrosities of Stone

Here's the thing with the Wyrdwold: it's the kind of place where you aren't really sure if what you're seeing is real. It's so chock full of strangeness and danger that after spending only a short period of time there, it becomes easier to assume you are having a nightmare than to try and repair your damaged reality principle. After spending a long period of time there, the immediate terror fades into lasting dread, then despair, then, eventually, derangement.

This is not to say that communities cannot live or even, in a limited capacity, thrive on the 'wold, but they would have to do so at the cost of high levels of paranoia and willful ignorance. Outsiders are shunned. Curfews are strictly enforced. Misdemeanor against the community is swiftly punished...or otherwise brought to a close.

Because even within the illusion of relative safety brought on by the herding instinct, it is never far from the minds of the god-fearing (and god-hating) 'wold peasantry that they live on the cusp of a realm of strangeness that neither fears nor hates them. It is, in fact, uncaring. It acts according to codes that are either ancient or arbitrary, and in either case bear no earthly relation to the pacts of civilization maintained, under the jealous eye of the Magnifex, in the Fulgent Demesnes.

It is difficult for the wretched-in-exile to forget that the Wyrdwold is home to powers which may do what they like, heedless of - or perhaps delighting in - the harm and madness they cause. This is the ever-present fact which defines the wold-folk's hurried, furtive, usually brief existences.

But should the poor dirt farmer ever forget this, he need only walk over yonder hill - past the last fence of the farthest field of the loneliest holding at the edge of their miserable hame - to witness the monstrosities of stone, and to be reminded that their world is composed more of nightmare than of reason.

*****

People seemed to really like the WIP shots of these that I posted a couple weeks ago, so I'm really pleased to present the finished versions here now. For the most part it was pretty simple. Once they were carved and primed, it was just a matter of dry brushing and some final touches.

One such touch included tinting some cheapo triple-thick gloss glaze with a few drops of Windsor & Newton's deep red ink to create the kind of red puddles caused by minerals leeched from clay-heavy soils, and which bring the mind unpleasantly to dwell on blood.

For the graffiti-carven stone, I also decided to add on a white-washed 'ace of dread' logo. This is because if/when the next edition of Skulldred comes out there will be a war band competition, and in order for a war band to be eligible, the photo must include the Skulldred logo somewhere. I prepared this one against that eventuality.

Do let me know what you think in the comments below. Bonus points for responses which test my reality principle.