zummeng

Exclusive Sketch #337

Added 2019-09-11 09:22:28 +0000 UTC

"Domovoy the Caretaker"

Simone gave me a little bit of a challenge, and I felt this sketch needed explanation, because I think it became a quite complex in many aspect.

Simone request was a mythpunk picture, and because I knew so little of that genre, I asked Google for help. And I found my answers! (And I realized the “Wolf Among Us” Telltale game is pure mythpunk. Interesting!)

Mythpunk in short: it’s about fairy tail, folklore and mythical creatures, and you add the “-punk” ingredient. Put the characters in a distorted, bizarre, urban fantasy world, with strange social standards, and they try to adapt their own ways.

So I found a folklore creature and tried to punk it. My choosed Domovoy from Slavic folklore, in other name “Household God”. Originally he’s a kind of household spirit, and if you make a “sacrifices” to him, (like giving some from the leftover food or bread) he will look after the house and he protects the well-being in any aspect of the family who lives in the house. You have to take care of the house spirit so it doesn't get angry, or you have to be atoned for. (Kinda like in the comic called “Seconds”) So I used that base for my sketch.

So here’s mythpunk Domovoy the caretaker, and the owner of a not very modern, but livable hotel. It’s a really unique place, people often use it as a kind of sanctuary. Domovoy never asks questions, if you have something for him, (anything that has value for him, food, money, anything) and he likes it, then you’re part of the “big family” of his hotel. He protects every tenant from any kind of harm, and assures their peace until they can “pay” with gifts. Until everything’s okay with the payment, you are very important to him. So for example if a gang want to march in to demand something from someone, Domovoy will stop them in any way, at any cost if that certain person they’re looking for is paid for his peace in the hotel.

This description turned out really long, but I thought it was worth it, because I had a lot of things to tell about this piece. I think it’s useless to say I enjoyed to work on this sketch very much ^ ^