Another fine chimera, adhering to the monster’s female gender, with dragon, lion, and goat heads, dragon wings, and a snake’s tail — with hair!
Category: Fantasy
Worldbuilding Wednesday 2/23/22: Chimerae
Pretty much anyone with a passing knowledge of Greek mythology or fantasy gaming knows what a chimera is, right? Part lion, part goat, and part snake, embodied in this Etruscan bronze statuette. It’s a goofy-looking beast in its original form. It has a lion body (note, however, the body looks more canine than leonine), …
Women of The Witcher
Cosplayer, photographer, and stylist Milligan Vick of Deviantart has created some mesmerizing portraits of The Witcher’s female characters, like the one of Adda the White at the top. Adda, for those who don’t remember Season 1 on Netflix, is the king’s daughter who becomes a striga, a vampirelike supernatural being whom Geralt must defeat, …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 2/16/22: The Witcher
Which Witcher? Hot, hairy, and handsome, in an open-collar shirt, or grizzled, scarred, and dressed for business? Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series (reviewed by me here) has a naming convention for characters that is all over the map, yet taken as a whole, also unlike any Western fantasy I’ve read. There are names derived …
The Witcher, Season 1 and 2 [Review]
The Witcher, based on the writings of Polish fantasy author Andrzej Sapkowski, debuted on Netflix in 2019 and has remained one of its top draws ever since. It’s not hard to see why. The series is full of action, adventure, and romance, tempered with a wry, dry, typically Polish sense of humor. The Netflix show …
Black and White Swans
This lovely illustration, for the MG book series The School for Good and Evil, is by Italian illustrator Iacopo Bruno. It’s the cover art for the third book, The Last Ever After. Bruno’s previous covers were OK, but this one really knocks it out of the park with its black and white swans and twin …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 1/26/22: Highfalutin Magic Rings
I’m talking about the ones featured in The Lord of the Rings: sophisticated, powerful, conventional (in appearance) tools of mass destruction, masquerading as fine jewelry any 20th century European might want to wear. Foremost among them was Sauron’s One Ring, of course, of unadorned gold, with a mysterious script running around the inside as demonstrated …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 1/19/22: The Best of Twittersnips (Playing in Another’s Sandbox)
Very occasionally over the past years I’ve stepped out and created random characters for existing media — books, movies, or even toy lines. Here’s a selection. Franchise and fanfic characters Middle Earth (J. R. R. Tolkien) Smerri Peachlake, Nol Bluffbuggin, Gosti Threeclasp (Hobbits) Yevenglazar, a giant spider Prince Thrindhöil Gandian Graymurgh, a wizard Islands …
Water Pug
What do you call a pug crossed with a manatee? A Pugong, of course!
Worldbuilding Wednesday 1/12/22: Mermaids
Mermaids are one of those mythological creatures everyone thinks they know everything about, yet no one knows anything about. To begin with, in spite of a certain mockumentary, they are not real. I repeat, mermaids are NOT REAL. Any sitings purported to be mermaids in ancient sailor’s tales and the like are probably of sea …