My anniversary is coming up and I'd like to get some art of my boyfriend's main OC, Hyde, to give him as a gift.
Note: By art, I do include things like music as well as visual arts.
[*] I am open to looking at most styles as long as they include the following:
[*] Non-exclusive list of things that I may potentially be interested in, with examples:
Our anniversary is on October 23, so that's the hard deadline. I will need to have any art in hand by then.
The Character:
Current Ref Sheet:
Pre-Imprisonment Ref Sheet:
Backstory:
Hyde's backstory is set in the anthropomorphic 1400s/Renaissance setting of our Ironclaw game. He was originally born in 1261. He was orphaned as a young age, but was taken in by the servants of the Plessis family, a noble house of dogs. He grew up working as a servant. Over time, he became close with the royal family and took on the role of their jester.
When he was not performing as a fool, Hyde was tasked with many other duties. These ranged from acting as a confidant to the Duke, to serving as a courier of important messages, to organizing and ordering the servants, to waging psychological warfare on the battlefield both by boosting the morale of his army with songs and stories and by mocking, taunting, and baiting the enemy soliders to demoralize them and lead those with the hottest tempers to break ranks and charge prematurely at him.
It was during the course of performing this last duty that Hyde was captured by the army of the Avoirdupois - a noble house of horses that had attacked them in a bid to conquer their lands and reduce the members of the house of Plessis to serfdom. Recognizing him as someone known to be trusted by Duke Plessis, they took him as a prisoner of war. He endured days of torture before they finally threw him into a prison cell.
The cell was small - roughly the size of a small bedroom - with ten people packed tight inside. And it remained that way throughout the battle. Sometimes one prisoner would be taken out, maybe to return, maybe not to. When they didn't come back, another was always brought in their place. Few of the faces remained the same and after a while everyone except Hyde and Benji, and old Foxhound with a bad case of leprosy, either died or was taken never to be seen again.
All the while, Hyde kept his ears sharp, listening for any news of the battle, watching for a familiar face to pass by. It wasn't until nearly 8 months into his imprisonment, at the end of the battle, that he learned anything though.
After the final battle, with spilled blood still soaking the soil and staining red, the guards came into the prison in a mass. Laughing and joking, they jeered at the prisoners and told them of their loss. While some of the prisoners growled or yelled at the guards, others didn't even react. Until a servant arrived with a wheelbarrow full of stone bricks and the guards began to seal the prison shut.
All of the prisoners save Benji began panicking as they realized that the guards intended to seal them inside. They attempted to rush the doors, to claw and bite their way out, but their futile efforts only resulted in getting a couple of them killed. The Avoirdupois left, every last exit sealed tight, abandoning everyone inside to the cruel fates that time, desperation, and starvation bring.
It wasn't long before the other prisoners began to die. With no food and only the little bits of condensation and rainwater to drink from, it wasn't long before the weakest of them died. Some fell to starvation, others to infighting. And as they did, Hyde and the others, starving and needy, found it.
By the time the first year of his imprisonment had passed, only Hyde and Benji remained alive.
Having spent so long together, the two had developed something of a rapport. Unwilling to kill his last companion, especially when his diseased flesh couldn't even serve as a meal, Hyde threw the last of his strength into trying to set them free. Using bits of rock and bone from those who had passed hide began to wear at the stone, hoping beyond reason that he might manage to make it through the wall.
Finally he collapsed, worn as far as he could be. And Benji offered to tell him a story. In the story, he spoke of a place with ancient and strong magic, true magic, stronger than anything practiced in Calabria was commonplace and where many strange and powerful creatures lived. Among the wonders there, there was once an amulet rumored to be capable of staving off death.
As he spoke, the leper began to wrap the bandages across his chest, revealing an intricate medallion of precious metals with a ring of dark red gemstones around the center.
Realizing that this wasn't just a story and driven by the need for survival, Hyde snatched the medallion from around Benji's throat before he could even finish explaining it. And then watched in frozen horror as the man aged rapidly and then crumbled to dust - leaving him completely alone.
It took nearly 200 years of hard, desperate work to chip his way through the stone walls and escape. 200 years with no company but the occasional rat or spider and the bones of the people that had been imprisoned with him.
It's been nearly 7 months since Hyde's escape.
The world is very different from the way it was when he last saw it. People spoke differently, did things differently. Still, a jester can find a home anywhere there's an audience. And though the type of dark-humor that was so popular in Hyde's time seems to have fallen out of favor, there were those that still found enjoyment in it. Through a stroke of luck, Hyde eventually found that the old-fashioned Marius Rindali, a distant cousin to the High King Rindali, took great pleasure in it - leading to the offer to come serve as his personal jester, much to the dismay of his wife, Adelaide, who soon came to find Hyde suspicious.
And not without reason. Though remnants of the jackal he once was remain in his memories, skills, and sense of humor, the influence of the medallion and his time spent imprisoned have warped his worldview considerably. Where he was once a loyal servant, everyone he still carries loyalty towards is long dead, and only a sense of opportunism remains. Where he once carried no bloodlust for any but those who would seek to harm him or his nobles, he now carries a strong malice towards anyone who he forms a grudge against - going so far as to murder and consume them when the chance arises. Ultimately he is driven by the conflicting desires to survive at any cost and to see everything - every person, including himself, the entire world, literally everything - end until only the void remains.
Despite this, his dark urges are largely not something compulsive - he is aware that they are socially unacceptable and is able to control them, though he has no compunctions about sating them whenever he gets an opportunity. A perceptive person who sees him may notice that something is off - his morbid jokes, his tendency to say things that don't make sense in the current time, his territoriality towards his possessions, or the occasional flash of a dark thought behind his eyes - but he's a jester and it often gets brushed aside as eccentricity because of it. For now, he lives normally - or well, as normally as someone with his habits can - waiting for his time to strike.
Personality:
Hyde is cunning, dark-humored, chaotic, opportunistic, menacing, and above all else, deceptive. His inner goals are conflicted and, though most either fail to notice or take it for humor, he's more than a little prone to wild mood swings.
Other Notes:
Payment:
I'm open to paying with If art is traditional, I am generally willing to pay the USD cost to have it shipped to me, but payment for the work itself needs to stick to the payment forms above.
Note: By art, I do include things like music as well as visual arts.
[*] I am open to looking at most styles as long as they include the following:
- Ties into the character's backstory/listed details in some way
- Dynamic Posing (If visual)
- Includes outfit (If visual)
[*] Non-exclusive list of things that I may potentially be interested in, with examples:
- Detailed Renderings
- Semi-Realistic Pieces
- Sculptures
- Sketch Pages
- Chibis
- RPG-style Pixel Art
- Telegram Stickers/Reaction Images
- Meme-Based Images (especially the circle game)
Our anniversary is on October 23, so that's the hard deadline. I will need to have any art in hand by then.
The Character:
Current Ref Sheet:
Pre-Imprisonment Ref Sheet:
Backstory:
Hyde's backstory is set in the anthropomorphic 1400s/Renaissance setting of our Ironclaw game. He was originally born in 1261. He was orphaned as a young age, but was taken in by the servants of the Plessis family, a noble house of dogs. He grew up working as a servant. Over time, he became close with the royal family and took on the role of their jester.
When he was not performing as a fool, Hyde was tasked with many other duties. These ranged from acting as a confidant to the Duke, to serving as a courier of important messages, to organizing and ordering the servants, to waging psychological warfare on the battlefield both by boosting the morale of his army with songs and stories and by mocking, taunting, and baiting the enemy soliders to demoralize them and lead those with the hottest tempers to break ranks and charge prematurely at him.
It was during the course of performing this last duty that Hyde was captured by the army of the Avoirdupois - a noble house of horses that had attacked them in a bid to conquer their lands and reduce the members of the house of Plessis to serfdom. Recognizing him as someone known to be trusted by Duke Plessis, they took him as a prisoner of war. He endured days of torture before they finally threw him into a prison cell.
The cell was small - roughly the size of a small bedroom - with ten people packed tight inside. And it remained that way throughout the battle. Sometimes one prisoner would be taken out, maybe to return, maybe not to. When they didn't come back, another was always brought in their place. Few of the faces remained the same and after a while everyone except Hyde and Benji, and old Foxhound with a bad case of leprosy, either died or was taken never to be seen again.
All the while, Hyde kept his ears sharp, listening for any news of the battle, watching for a familiar face to pass by. It wasn't until nearly 8 months into his imprisonment, at the end of the battle, that he learned anything though.
After the final battle, with spilled blood still soaking the soil and staining red, the guards came into the prison in a mass. Laughing and joking, they jeered at the prisoners and told them of their loss. While some of the prisoners growled or yelled at the guards, others didn't even react. Until a servant arrived with a wheelbarrow full of stone bricks and the guards began to seal the prison shut.
All of the prisoners save Benji began panicking as they realized that the guards intended to seal them inside. They attempted to rush the doors, to claw and bite their way out, but their futile efforts only resulted in getting a couple of them killed. The Avoirdupois left, every last exit sealed tight, abandoning everyone inside to the cruel fates that time, desperation, and starvation bring.
It wasn't long before the other prisoners began to die. With no food and only the little bits of condensation and rainwater to drink from, it wasn't long before the weakest of them died. Some fell to starvation, others to infighting. And as they did, Hyde and the others, starving and needy, found it.
By the time the first year of his imprisonment had passed, only Hyde and Benji remained alive.
Having spent so long together, the two had developed something of a rapport. Unwilling to kill his last companion, especially when his diseased flesh couldn't even serve as a meal, Hyde threw the last of his strength into trying to set them free. Using bits of rock and bone from those who had passed hide began to wear at the stone, hoping beyond reason that he might manage to make it through the wall.
Finally he collapsed, worn as far as he could be. And Benji offered to tell him a story. In the story, he spoke of a place with ancient and strong magic, true magic, stronger than anything practiced in Calabria was commonplace and where many strange and powerful creatures lived. Among the wonders there, there was once an amulet rumored to be capable of staving off death.
As he spoke, the leper began to wrap the bandages across his chest, revealing an intricate medallion of precious metals with a ring of dark red gemstones around the center.
Realizing that this wasn't just a story and driven by the need for survival, Hyde snatched the medallion from around Benji's throat before he could even finish explaining it. And then watched in frozen horror as the man aged rapidly and then crumbled to dust - leaving him completely alone.
It took nearly 200 years of hard, desperate work to chip his way through the stone walls and escape. 200 years with no company but the occasional rat or spider and the bones of the people that had been imprisoned with him.
It's been nearly 7 months since Hyde's escape.
The world is very different from the way it was when he last saw it. People spoke differently, did things differently. Still, a jester can find a home anywhere there's an audience. And though the type of dark-humor that was so popular in Hyde's time seems to have fallen out of favor, there were those that still found enjoyment in it. Through a stroke of luck, Hyde eventually found that the old-fashioned Marius Rindali, a distant cousin to the High King Rindali, took great pleasure in it - leading to the offer to come serve as his personal jester, much to the dismay of his wife, Adelaide, who soon came to find Hyde suspicious.
And not without reason. Though remnants of the jackal he once was remain in his memories, skills, and sense of humor, the influence of the medallion and his time spent imprisoned have warped his worldview considerably. Where he was once a loyal servant, everyone he still carries loyalty towards is long dead, and only a sense of opportunism remains. Where he once carried no bloodlust for any but those who would seek to harm him or his nobles, he now carries a strong malice towards anyone who he forms a grudge against - going so far as to murder and consume them when the chance arises. Ultimately he is driven by the conflicting desires to survive at any cost and to see everything - every person, including himself, the entire world, literally everything - end until only the void remains.
Despite this, his dark urges are largely not something compulsive - he is aware that they are socially unacceptable and is able to control them, though he has no compunctions about sating them whenever he gets an opportunity. A perceptive person who sees him may notice that something is off - his morbid jokes, his tendency to say things that don't make sense in the current time, his territoriality towards his possessions, or the occasional flash of a dark thought behind his eyes - but he's a jester and it often gets brushed aside as eccentricity because of it. For now, he lives normally - or well, as normally as someone with his habits can - waiting for his time to strike.
Personality:
Hyde is cunning, dark-humored, chaotic, opportunistic, menacing, and above all else, deceptive. His inner goals are conflicted and, though most either fail to notice or take it for humor, he's more than a little prone to wild mood swings.
Other Notes:
- At this point, Hyde cannot take off the Medallion or he will immediately age and turn to dust. It may be hidden behind his clothes, but it either needs to be included or implied if your art is set in our current time.
- Should it be relevant, Hyde favors daggers when it comes to weapons.
Payment:
I'm open to paying with If art is traditional, I am generally willing to pay the USD cost to have it shipped to me, but payment for the work itself needs to stick to the payment forms above.