Behold, the Dark Dragoon, the One Who Has Gone Super-Saiyan In An Edgy Way.

This is what happened to my character last couple sessions: due to drama overload, his patron finally took control of his orb artifact, which turned out not to be a plain gemstone but actually an eyeball, lodged it in his forehead, and gave him some temporary upgrades to fight the boss on better terms (I don’t know exactly what they are, because the DM hasn’t worked it out yet, I just know it’s going to be once per day) (also he didn’t get wings on the first transform, that’s going to come after the upcoming training montage). While Reid’s angry and frightened at having some of his agency taken from him, by a mysterious unknown entity, he’s not exactly loathe to have this new power at his disposal. Especially after they went to go find the witch-who-knows-things in the swamp, and she explained that they share a master, a cosmic manifestation of The End of All Things called The Devourer (among many many other titles, that one’s just my favourite). Reid recklessly accepts her offer of training as he’s already permanently bound to this patron, and it would be foolish not to know how to use it. Just have to push away the nagging voice that asks if he’s one of the bad guys now.

The title is what Raïsa called him as she flew in to save the day. It’s cheesy AF and I love it.

I went through like 6 different horn prototypes (before I picked the second set I drew lol). He wields his Book of Shadows and his dagger is also a magical pen. He’s got a bit of a “Cosmic Adjudicator” thing going on, imo. For the wings I am indebted to an artbook by NeonDragon (who seems to have disappeared from the Internet – well, that happens sometimes!). I’m not sold on his having claws on his fingers (he also has fangs – see below (as a nod to Murlesson)) but apparently his transformation is semi-malleable so if he really doesn’t want claws he can focus on it and make them go away. I’m really proud of the skirt of the robe, because it came out so well by accident! I also took some influence from the LoD dragoons, with their blobby, bio-mechanical armour. Tharash suggested it look like dragon-hide-covered cartilage burst out of him to envelop him, and so that’s where the asymmetrical abdominal armour comes from.

I was going to do some pictures of the transformation, of biomass erupting out of his back and wrapping around him to form wings and armour (while he writhes in temporary torment because edginess), but I couldn’t find or create good reference pictures so no magical girl sequences for now.

I also did a colour sketch beforehand, because I was listening to Disturbed (to Reid’s new theme songs) and they made me think of this face:

Done a lot quicker, and served as proof-of-concept for the glowy armour. The glow is more saturated, which I like, but I found that it didn’t stand out very well in the larger image.

It does amuse me that the Arbiter of Shadow has freckles. And a broad Scottish accent.

All this (and more pictures that I can’t show because hidden backstory) has really gotten in the way of writing more FFXIV fic. Oops! But this is a good sign; it means I’m ‘nesting’ in this new story.