Lineart - The Earth Warder

My blessing upon you will seem humble compared to those which have been bestowed upon the others: the managing of time, of life, of dreams and magic. I offer you the earth. The soil, the ground, the deep places. But know that the earth is the basis of all things. It is where we are rooted. Where you must come from, if you are to go to. Here is whence true strength comes. From deep places...within the world, and within oneself. - Blessing of the Black Aspect, given by Khaz'goroth

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For once here's some fanart that isn't fanart about the Legend of Zelda. This guy has got to be my upmost favorite character in Blizzard's Warcraft universe; from the time he was introduced in the second game to his modern counterpart in WoW, Deathwing the Destroyer has retained a special place inside of me. Unlike the other dragons in the universe, he and his flight retain the classical westernized dragon behaviors and appearance; as hellish, bloodthirsty monsters whose primary desires are gold and destruction. He would later become the main inspiration for my dragon character Sinkraloth, and many of my antagonist dragons resemble him in some form or another.

Of course, Deathwing wasn't always Deathwing. Beforehand, during the time known as the First Sundering, he was Neltharion the Earth Warder. A powerful Dragon Aspect charged with watching over the world by the Titans, his flight took charge of caring for the land of Azeroth. Of course, he was the easiest one that the Old Gods could taint, for his power was the power of Azeroth...and buried within Azeroth were the steadily growing forms of the Old Gods themselves. Through him, they managed to create the deadly weapon known as the Demon Soul, and played a hand in the steps that caused the first Sundering.

I'm pretty proud about how this lineart came out. I had at first thought that the neck was a bit too long, but given that Neltharion's technically a Wyrm and will later become a monstrous iconic dragon villain, I thought it would suit his appearance. You can tell that Neltharion and Deathwing have quite a few differences; a lack of armor covering his body being one of them. But he still retains some of the key characteristics; the two horns, the neck frill, the spines across his body, stuff like that.

I'm going to do a couple more bits and pieces of WoW fanart here and there (mostly dragons, for obvious reasons), though it won't be a constant thing. Until next time, me out!

Neltharion (c) Blizzard
Lineart by Kerian Halcyon

-Kerian