Angel of the Cycle. Personal work of mine, started as a MTG style assignment in Winona Nelson's Smarterartschool class wayy back in winter 😂 I tinkered with it on and off over the months, between freelance work. Now it's finally finished! :D https://www.instagram.com/kristinagehrmann/
In my world building, necromancy is a very dangerous practice, as it is basically breaching a hole between two plane of existence, trying to fish for a soul in the abyss of afterlife , which is a void full of unnamed eldritch entities with no form.
The natural of the dark abyss is that it amplifies and twists any input of any kind, emotion, intention, basic instinct. The action of said breech would cause some information of the living world to leak into the abyss, as if shining light into a dark sea, it attracts unwanted attention from things that runs on animistic instinct.
when infect with information leaked from the world of living that was twisted and amplified by the abyss , they began to take from and shape, and would crawl their way up to the breech, and if they enter reality, a devastation would sure come after.
Usually , in ideal circumstances the ritual could be stopped and the breech sealed. But if shit hits the fan and the creature had already honed onto the source and about to breech into the living world. an undertaker knight will be sent in to deal with such issue.
A knight paladin volunteer him/herself to be possessed by a saint with a ritual and becomes a vassal of their powers, but such powers are like overcharging a battery it will burn down the human soul and body. The undertaker knight will banish the creature and seal the hole , hopefully before they turn into ash.
Commissioned for my D&D projects, made by OlieArts!
“He’s got many names.” The Wardens of House Kundarak were a cold bunch. Yet it was rare for them to be afraid of their own prisoners. Approaching the cell, the Lord Warden continued, grim and heavy. “The Lord of Death, the Right Hand of the Keeper. The Harvester.” Slowly he started undoing the locks on the heavily reinforced door, both physical and magical not undone, merely opened for a moment. “We don’t speak his name, superstition or not we will not risk giving a thing like that ANY power. Bastard is already unkillable to the point the Templars just gave up and tossed him here.” As the seals opened to reveal a warded glass panel, the figure behind could be seen. Dark rags clung to his shoulders, and his own ghostly white hair clung to a face that was dark like a drow’s yet pallid like the dead. Though the chains that bound at his sides restrained the wings, raven black like the night sky, the chains shimmered in gold, burning active, as they trapped his wings around his own body. Slowly those dull blue eyes looked up, even through the glass wards, he could clearly see them.
“Prisoner B-02 is how he is to be addressed."
The Throne of Death, Kotharel once embodied knowledge of all methods and forms which one could meet their end. So Kotharel watched mortals enact their one defining trait: Die. Yet the angel’s true horror came not from the horrible atrocities but from when he finally sought to scry beyond his Domain, looking into Dolurrh and Mabar, it is what he saw there that truly shattered his faith in the cycle of Life and Death. Kotharel grew obsessed with finding an alternative, and in his worship of the Keeper as Sovereign of Death, soon he considered if he could create something more merciful than the Dark Powers or the apathetic observation of the Queen of the Dead. Shaping a new demiplane where he’d bring souls, Kotharel sought to replicate the efforts of the Spirit Idols of the Undying Court in shaping realms of peace and reflection. However once he began siphoning souls, the powers of Dolurrh and Mabar (for once) agreed on calling for justice.
Shadar-kai and Marut struck the Spire of Death, the Dark Powers of Mabar sought to try and bring the spire itself into the Hinterlands. The sheer planar unbalance was too much for reality to bear, and the Thrones called upon the Panopticon of Daanvi to intervene. The solar Hazariel had long observed Kotharel’s ambitions, his defiance of the cycle he was meant to study a singular aspect of. Kotharel was powerful, and Hazariel needed the aid of the shadar-kai agents and a death knight of the Bone King to finally subdue Kotharel. The decision for execution was swift, for his obsession with death, he would walk the world where mortals lived. Kotharel was made into a Radiant Idol and stripped of his hoard of souls. That should’ve been the final descent of the Throne… but no, it was but the beginning.
After his fall in the 710th Year of the Kingdom, Kotharel spent the next two decades spreading a reign of terror across Galifar, his power as a Throne may have been torn, but his knowledge of death allowed him to draw on the dark magics that predate much of history which combined with his influence over mortals as an idol, allowed him to begin the Bloody Road Cult. At first they only sacrificed their loved ones, but the more souls Kotharel gathered, the more he coveted. Each soul sacrificed to him greatly expands his powers, to the point he successfully restored much of his former power as a Throne. Hazariel felt his power grow, but the solar cannot interfere with the material plane… but her aasimar can. So she guided them, clues and hints. Kotharel would face the justice of the material, mortal heroes would rise against him.
Discovering the Anchor Point: the catacombs of Metrol, it took the combined efforts of the heroes known as the Knights of Dol Arrah and the Church of the Silver Flame’s templars to defeat him… but not kill him. While idols will usually need time or specific conditions to reform, Kotharel’s recovery is near instantaneous. He was stabbed, quartered, incinerated, even disintegrated twice. Yet as the Throne of Death, his domain would not fail him. Kotharel’s weakness ultimately came from his obsession, so focused on avoiding death, other methods ultimately proved victorious when the wizard who had tried disintegrating him twice instead opted to petrify him, albeit temporarily. The heroes ultimately opted to seal him, to lock him away in the deepest of the cells of Dreadhold. Where Kotharel remains to this day, bound to the Deep Ward amidst the greatest evils Khorvaire has ever seen.
While contained, Kotharel can prove an incredible source of information… Yet the time jailed has only cemented his determination to create a new realm of death. The mass casualties of the Last War followed by oblivion of the Mourning were felt even in the depths of his cell, and Kotharel hungers to “save” all the souls in the Mournlands.