This week, the fight continues with a severe head-butt dealt to Hardin! Seems a serious matter, but his compatriots seem nonplussed by the turn of events. Quite the contrary, it’s almost as if Ashtor and Rathik aren’t even paying attention, with Ashtor even letting slip mention of Felis slave blocks – a phenomenon that many displaced Ermehn living within the Four Kingdoms have had to deal with.

The Felis may consider themselves among the most cultured and forward-thinking of the races in the land, but old traditions die hard. With no draft animals existing within the continent, many kingdoms still rely on slave labor to complete their great works.

While digging around the archives, I noticed that Rachel had done an early concept piece of Rathik and Ashtor watching this very fight. The creation date on the piece? January, 2010!

It’s rather amazing to see the elements that stuck around all these years! Ashtor and Rathik’s general design motifs stayed the same – while the character on left, who will be formally introduced later on – has a much different design now than he did back three years ago.

This week we don’t have any fan-art to show, but I’ve got two great things I need to send your way. First off, what I can only describe as the finest example of a real-life Tesque battle!

And second, a piece that Rachel did a little while ago after reading the beginning of SaraaLuna’s “Ice Burn” Western Deep fan-fiction – the visual imagery of a lone Canid patrol in the most hostile parts of the Northern Wastes served as the motivation for this bonus piece: