In my odd doodling I stumbled upon a gap in the story concept, what exactly was the witch doing to these people she carted off into the wildness. I formulated an idea that perhaps the witch was experimenting with the people she lured into her clutches turning them into horrid abominations after exposing them to the demonic power of Naz,ji,kile. Another idea is these creatures are the poor souls she offered bargains and miracles to in exchange for completing a seemingly simple request which in reality is an impossible task the gullible mortal had no chance of completing. In accordance to the deal the witch gains the victims soul and the horrified mortal is transformed into a mindless slave forever trapped and tormented for their foolishness.

Above are quick sketches for three possible abominations created by the witch through her sorcery and arcain powers. Infulences were drawn from games such as Dead Space's Necromorphs and the Mandragoran possessed villagers featured in Sword of the Berserk :Gatts rage.

Here I have experimented with exaggerated silhouettes to quickly concept ideas for the witches true from.

Using this technique I can quickly express my ideas and experiment with silhouettes as well as detail at the same time. This is much faster than traditional pencil drawing and is far better suited for the task of speed concepting than traditional pencil drawings. 

I wanted the witch to have some kind of concealed true form she hides from her unsuspecting victims until the last possible moment when there is no hope of escape.

The witch is in a seance being enhanced and empowered to far greater levels by tapping into the currently dormant Demon God Naz,ji,kile feeding on the fallen god's energies that have permeated throughout the lands ever since Naz,ji,kiles imprisonment five thousand years ago at the hands of the Dark Heart linage.  

A new Story an old Fear!

After pondering on my new story and looking into myths and legends across Europe and pretty much the rest of the world I wanted to take something most people of many faiths, religions or simply folklore enthusiasts would easily recognise the witch!

But I did not simple wish to slap a stereotypical witch in there and call it a day I wanted to take the basic concept of what a witch represented and re shape it into my own twisted demonic force that conforms to the lore of my own dark fantasy universe, Spawn of Darkness.

What we perceive a witch to be in modern times has been shaped largely by the demagnification by the Catholic church and other monotheistic religions. Feeling that any mortal creature with supranational powers of any kind must be of the devil or under his control. The situation was made worse due to the fact that a witch was predominately female, which allot of monotheistic religions usually hold in contempt for bringing about the fall of man according to their beliefs. 

This theme of the superstitious primarily monotheists having a fear of a woman with power or knowledge seeking their revenge against society, the church or men in general is a common theme seen throughout folklore. A very good example outside of monotheism would be the Onryo, whose origins can be found in Japanese folklore. They were the angry and extremely disturbing spirits of frail and weak women beaten and abused in life, now seeking there revenge on the people who wronged them. Such spirits have featured in films such as The Ring, The Grudge and the Korean horror A tale of Two Sisters. Onryo have also made there way into games such as Project Zero and S-Ko from Guilty Gear. 

I also want to draw inspiration on the fear of going missing or being taken by an unknown possibly malevolent force. Tales in recent history would include witches, hags and strangely enough female sasquatch who carried large baskets on their hairy backs and used it to whisk away children into the night.

Modern versions of this fear manifest in the phenomenon known as alien abduction, films such as The Forth Kind, Fire in the Sky and The Mcphersons Tape all deal with the stress and anxiety associated with being taken against our will by an unknown force for unknown reasons. 

This fear can also be applied in a third person perspective e.g. seeing a loved one be taken by an unknown force. In recent history legends of changelings being found in the cribs of a children's bedroom was a sign the real family's child had been taken and replaced with a deformed and hideous parody of a human infant.

There are also the endless tales of children and adults being lured to their deaths by mysterious beings and creatures. Creatures such as mermaids, selky, kelpie and sirens charming sailors and unsuspecting villagers to their watery graves. Witches luring dazed and charmed villagers into the deep depths of the forests and dying of exposure to the wildness. History is full of such tales and legends and I intend to draw upon this primal fear to enhance the eeriness of the story.   

My first conceptual idea being originally inspired by the TV documentary series River Monsters produced by Animal Planet featuring Jeremy Wade, I felt was not a strong enough idea or at least I did not find it all that inspiring.

It wasn't until I started playing around in Skyrim in my spare time that I started to formulate a new conceptual idea.

During my travels around Skyrim I started to love the idea of a dark medieval fantasy for my setting instead of the tribal like dream time I was envisioning prior. This would also allow me to link my project with my graphic novel project I have been planning for a while now. In essence this will allow me to ease my way into the overall project of Spawn of Darkness a trial run if you will.

After linking the project with Spawn of Darkness a new plot began to quickly unravel in the dark depths of my mind. Using the basic formula of my previous story idea I will re shape it accordingly twisting and contorting the concept to fit my new theme.

 With the basics of my story and brief in mind I start to draw up some designs of the lake monster and the tribal like nomadic warrior that will encounter this beast after it as terrorized a nearby village.

I chose a female protagonist as it is slightly unexpected when dealing with a tribal worrier. She is stout strong willed and incredibly durable able to withstand the onslaught of even the deadliest monsters.