Splinterlands Art Contest Week 254: Theorosa Nightshade

Here is my entry for this week's Splinterlands Art Contest found HERE

Experimenting with styles again. This time tried just skipping the line art layer completely. Just went from rough pencils to blocking out sections of flat color, then added shading and highlight layers. Not sure if I like it or not...

From the Splinterlands Wiki: https://splinterlands.fandom.com/wiki/Theorosa_Nightshade

The black moon of Sardak is the largest of the Splintral moons, but it is always difficult to spot in the night sky. Still, it is only by Sardak’s dim light that Theorosa Nightshade has been guided and given power for all this time.

A dozen years ago the brilliant Belurocian wizardess was all but destroyed in a great duel of witches, one that threatened the entire city of Beluroc. It was a fight for family honor and survival of the innocent against a foe that would stop at nothing: The witch sisters known as Gorlaak Dua, who did not care how many dead were left in the wake of their hatred and destruction.

Theorosa’s husband was named Beilo. He fought bravely that night, but he was the first to fall, the victim of a ball of black flame from the bony hands of the younger Dua sister. He was melted to a puddle in a moment; he felt no pain. Theorosa was able to channel the rage within her response to her lover’s death into a powerful telekinetic attack that literally ripped the younger of the sisters into two, killing her.

Theorosa continued battling the elder Dua for several minutes, knowing that if she fell, nothing would stop the evil woman from destroying all Beluroc in her fit. Theorosa’s daughter was nowhere to be seen, and all she could hope was that the four-year-old had found her way to some dark corner of safety.

It was a moment of fate that finally spared the city and ended the horrific duel. As the elder sister prepared to loose a spell of ghastly corrosive vaporization, Theorosa performed a spell of her own. This spell of shrinking was only possible beneath the full Sardak moon at its apex in the night. Theorosa took a chance that this was the correct moment, and fate took control.

The shrinking was instant, and more intense than Theorosa had ever imagined from reading about it in her father’s books. She became so small so quickly that for a moment she could no longer see her enemy standing across from her. After that moment, the great elder of Gorlaak Dua was there, filling Theorosa’s entire field of vision and releasing her grim spell. The moon was not yet finished with the Dua. In this moment of fate, the Dua sister performed her spell incorrectly. The corrosive magic instantly began eating away at her own flesh, and before the sound of her shriek could reach the Beluroc Canyon, she was dead.

Theorosa had won the duel, but she appeared to have been vaporized. The wizardess wished she was dead, for she did not have the tools or skills to reverse the shrinking spell. She was smaller than a grain of sand, and trapped that way until she was able to find a way out. She vanished into the cracks of the night, thinking only of the beloved husband she had lost and the innocent daughter whom she knew she must leave behind.

Recently, Theorosa has returned to Beluroc with no memory of the fateful duel from that night. She is not the same as she once was. She wears a glazed look of giddy satisfaction, and she dances through the streets alone, often laughing to herself. Old friends and acquaintances have approached her to no avail. She remembers her name, but neither husband nor daughter left behind. Her powers are still intact, but they are different now. The wisest mages in Beluroc have said that when Theorosa regained her true size, she damaged herself beyond repair. She remembers her magic and remembers the moon, but has forgotten those she once loved. They tell her that her daughter has become a great sorceress herself, that she is in the clutches of the Dark Lord. She dances away, giggling and saying, “How peculiar, I do not have a daughter.”

Created in Clip Studio Paint Pro on a Surface Pro 4. Here is the time lapse video: