The World - A bit of a preamble.

For a really long time I've debated whether I should go into the more detailed bits about the world I tend to create things in.  I didn't want it to feel like I was clogging the feed with things that some might find boring, straying and filling things with a feed of non-painted or illustrated images and writing.

In short, a feed where the 'D&D-isms' start flying.

I tend to constantly do what I call 'head-writing'.  A way of exploring and escaping reality without sitting at a keyboard and while I'm doing a lot of other things.  I even do this while doing art, imagining the odd story of people in illustrations that I post here.  Sometimes they're just random people.  Creatures made from wanting to practice and keep skills sharp, but often they take on a bit of a life of their own.

I also do a lot (and I mean a lot) of world-building for a bi-weekly game of D&D I'm tentatively running.  Meaning much of the world suddenly takes on little statistics or seemingly obsessive little details that most folks who don't run or play in TTRPG's might see as just rambling statistics and acronyms that mean nothing to them.

None of this actually detracts from the work I produce, of course.  I love art.  I only tend to push it aside when my mind isn't quite clicking with a picture (its best to walk away for a bit and let your brain work on the problems rather than force it through).  But I sat and thought about it today while at a fairly boring appointment and realized that adding 'world posts' would actually be additive, and not -as I had believed, take away from the feed.

So, I went about creating a quick banner that can differentiate the more dry posts to some folks.  While the posts will usually have art in them: Maps, geographies, items and buildings, and even 'NPC' inhabitants of the world, it will allow folks who aren't interested in rambling diatribes of the 'number of cultists who infest this ruin or that sewer' to skip on to the more meaty arty bits.

It can also serve as a way for me to flesh out certain characters that do intrigue me.  Taking the last picture (the doofy one with the 'Hill-Lorrnath' wandering into a pub) there were a couple characters that stuck out to me that I'd like to put a bit of detail into.  Namely the gnome (a down on her luck bard and wandering performer), the braying dwarf she travels with, and of course, the Lorrnath that is apparently saving up for pants.

There are also a huge array of other characters I'd like to introduce through the 'adventures' they had gone through.  From a woman dodging a group of Asmodeus worshipping lunatics from her home village, to Chime, the aarakocra (bird) woman who had the arduous journey to re-learn the song of her people.  A prayer of sorts, that could appease the winds at her homeland, and give her people hope and strength again.

So, that's the general preamble on what I might try out here.  I hope its fun reading, at least, and I'll try not to go too mental with all the little statistics, but the banner above will mean a more world-buildy post, and probably less about just one picture itself.

It might also mean a more active feed.  I realize that it might seem that I go quiet between posts, often its simply due to being kept busy as a caregiver, but often its a feeling that I don't want to flood people with my geekisms.  So I can let it all out in The World posts :)

More sketches to come tomorrow and the next day.  Still working on getting the background for one sketched out.

Thank all of you, as always, for your interest in my mad, weird little world, and for your generosity.

-T.J.