Dinah is the daughter of a very wealthy spice baron, and as such, she attends one of the top academies in the city.  It is at the Roche Academy that Kelvin meets Dinah, but it takes a little while for him to learn more about her.

To begin with, Dinah is more skilled in combat than he would guess at first glance.  This is due to her father’s fears about her well-being.  As he is one of the wealthier lords in the city, he’s always worried about whether or not Dinah could be kidnapped and held for a ransom.  That was one of the reasons that he sent her to Roche, but it’s also the reason he’s had her professionally trained in order to protect herself.

Dinah also holds a power that no one, not even her father knows about.  All will be revealed in Silver Serpent, Volume 2, so be on the lookout for that over the next year or so.  We’ll also work at bringing you first looks at some of the other characters from this part of the world!

The post Character Art – Dinah appeared first on Tellest.

Over the past two years, I’ve been working on Adelia’s third story, and I’ve known for a while that she would visit the Okelatsho Islands, which is an archipelago that’s inspired by Hawaii.  The natives of the islands are varied, but Reylani, the main island that features in the story has a somewhat polynesian flair, without leaning all the way into it.  I wanted to give her an air of kind of a blend of hawaiian and romani fashion.  It didn’t quite come over the right way on Barnswallow’s first take.

But, she was awesome, and ended up giving us something that we could really work with.  Now, I don’t want to give everything away just yet, so I’m not going to talk about what her power is, but you can see that Barnswallow did some pretty cool stuff with her look, and the look of her ability.

Then, with a coat of paint, she really made her pop.  We ended up throwing in a slight Indian vibe as well, but I’m very much okay with that, and I think Kaleo turned out awesome.

I’m very excited to be exploring a new place in Tellest, and I’m even more excited to use Kaleo as the kind of flagship character of Reylani.  She’s not just being introduced in Wild Magic, she’ll leave her mark on the world in some even greater ways in the future.  Stay tuned later this year for the release of Wild Magic to get your first real chance to discover more about Kaleo!

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Basta has a little bit more mystery to him than this, but we’ll let that come out at a later point when we can really show you what makes him pop.  For now though, know that he is an agile, quick-thinking sailor that is more than willing to back up his captain, who just so happens to be his lover as well.

While Basta’s secret is a little more important to keep—depending on how you look at it—he’s usually the one front and center, always making sure that things are working smoothly on the ship.  The rest of the crew loves him, and they listen to him when he gives them orders.  But if anyone looked at him funny…

Here we have our awesome first mate in all his glory.  I’m excited to introduce people to him in the next book in the Heart of the Forest series.  And since he and Catelyn come as a pair…

Thanks for coming back for the second part of this series!  Catelyn and Basta are two great characters I’m eager to show off!

The post Character Art – Basta appeared first on Tellest.

So, you can see that we had a couple of designs to look at for Shiro.  That’s because Barnswallow wanted to capture her abilities when she presented her.  You see, Shiro has the gift of summoning celestial glass.  Anything that she can think of, she can create, though of course it takes its toll on her.  She primarily uses it defensively, making shields or walls.  But she also uses it for utility as well.  Got a problem reaching a book on the top shelf?  Why not make a step ladder out of celestial glass.  Need to cross over a muddy creek?  How about a quickly formed magical bridge?

We opted to go for something that let us see her in a more refined and almost regal fashion.  I wanted Barnswallow to be able to focus on her poise and her awesome outfit, as we haven’t really seen the culture of Numasa expressed yet (with a slight exception for Kazuri).

When you actually see the colored version of the piece, it pops that much more.  I especially like the effect of the celestial glass wobble on the lower part of the outfit.  I’d love to see Barnswallow do another piece of Shiro in the future, because you can tell that she had a lot of fun putting it together.  I also can’t wait to talk more about Shiro and the project that she participates in.  I’ll try to get on that soon!

The post Character Art – Shiro appeared first on Tellest.

Catelyn Angmar is now without her father, and also without his legacy.  Decades before, his ship, the Cutlass, went missing, and it’s been her quest ever since to find it and return it to her family’s posession.

Catelyn now owns her own ship while she pursues the hunt, but she does it from secrecy.  Her first mate, Basta, carries a lot of sway and also carries her correspondence to the rest of the crew and any passengers they might have.

Big thank you to Barnswallow for bringing us this character.  I’m very excited to bring her into the world of Tellest.  She’s not quite coming to the page just yet, but with luck, within the next year or so, we get to see Catelyn Angmar’s grand entrance!

The post Character Art – Catelyn Angmar appeared first on Tellest.

So, as is usually the case with Barnswallow’s work, she started us off with a sketch.

Now, usually the pieces that we see that include Jadie include vines.  This piece by Barnswallow was a nice breath of fresh air that only showed off some dandelions instead.  The outfit looks nice too!

Here you can see the full piece.  Jadie looks a little older here than we’ve seen her, and she has a look of someone who has seen more of the world, but ultimately, you get the idea that she’s still confident enough to stroll through the wilderness in her dress and cape.  This thief has got plenty more adventurers left in her!

We’ll be back with more Barnswallow goodness soon.  Keep an eye out!

The post Character Art – Jadie Rivers appeared first on Tellest.

We managed to put Barnswallow on the case, and she did an incredible job.  Check out the very first look at our new character, Alura:

Alura is a character born of dark circumstances.  She’s technically a half-elf, but there’s a lot more to it than that.  She’s one with nature, hence all the flora—though that also does a nice job of keeping this piece PG!

Here you have the full piece.  Barnswallow consistently surprises with her awesome work, but I think this might be one of my favorites that she’s ever done.  Alura feels like a top tier Tellest character and she hasn’t even had a page written for her yet.

Stay tuned for future news about Alura, and more works from Barnswallow!

The post Character Art – Alura appeared first on Tellest.

Today, we’re looking at Isabella, our vampire dancer out for revenge.

Our first look is the sketch that Barnswallow sent our way.  Isabella is one of a few characters who has a timeless look to her.  Her gown looks modern among all the fantasy outfits (apart from Azura—maybe they should meet at some point).  Still, Barnswallow captures it in a really awesome way.

With color, the piece practically explodes off the screen.  Barnswallow did a great job with this commission, and brought Isabella to life in a way that only she can.  We’re very excited to eventually get to this character, and also to work with Barnswallow again.  Remember, stay tuned here for the next couple of weeks when we unveil a brand new character!

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This version of Adelia is a little older and a little more confident in herself.  She’s still studios though, and loves to dive into a good (spell)book.

With the detailed sketch, you can see a lot more of what makes this picture pop.  One of the things that we noticed was that Adelia’s attire was almost contemporary.  It’s not something we thought we’d see, but we liked it nonetheless.

And here we have the full picture.  A lot of work went into this, and we were absolutely ecstatic with the final piece.  Barnswallow consistently does a great job, and this one just took the cake!

Bookmark Tellest.com, because we’re going to have two more awesome pieces from Barnswallow over the next few weeks.  They are just as incredible as this one, if not more so!

The post Character Art – Adelia Kreegan appeared first on Tellest.

Here you can see the sketch of our kaja from the Saveon desert.  Barely!

It’s when you get the colors involved that the work really shines.  I gotta say, I love when Barnswallow adds little bonuses like the grass and the branches!

That’s it for now, but we would love to work with Barnswallow again in the future.  What characters would you like to see her tackle?

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