Radzryn is a goblin city along the southeastern coast of Mistfall.  They’re relatively close by to the Black Lantern, though they know well enough to start any problems with them.  And it probably helps them to both stay clear of everything that the goblins of Radzryn mostly stay ashore.  Still, both areas have considerable strengths, and the goblins are no pushover.  They’re fierce, tough, and persistent.  You don’t have a blade on your sigil if you’re not afraid to use it.

Radzryn stretches far, and its main settlement is old.  The goblins of Tellest aren’t foolish, and they know that stone offers better defense than wood.  Many of their forts and walls are hewn from stone, whether its carefully crafted or constructed out of what is available.  With that in mind, it’s likely that their simple sigil would have found a home atop many a stone surface throughout the years, and weather and age would have contributed to some wear and tear.  The goblins of Radzryn are devoted to their city, and would plaster their sigil everywhere, especially when they are trying to make a claim for land in a place that might have otherwise been seen as contested.

While the Black Lantern has certainly made their presence known on the water, Radzryn’s goblins are amongst the most proficient warriors on the eastern island of Mistfall.  They’ve got a lot of influence over the place, and in a lot of ways, the continent is there’s to do with what they will.  While you might not often see their flag flying atop a ship, you’re more likely to see it waving in the air atop a fortress or tower out in the wild.  Though goblins aren’t exactly known for following rules, there is a bit of a border that their constructs represent, and folks would be wise not to cross that line.

To that end, there are likely goblins to this day who are painting more recent versions of the sigil in places.  Again, it’s a simple enough drawing that most goblins would be able to carry it out, whether it’s intended to proclaim ownership, or just to drive fear into the hearts of their foes.  And in any cases, they spread their sigil as they spread their influence, and those they border their land with ought to know that their borders are bound to change.

As always, we leave you with one final picture: the phone background.  I hope you enjoy it!

That is it for our sigils for this year, but for those of you who like these posts, you’ll be happy to know that we’ve got enough currently to take us all the way through the rest of 2024 as well!

The post Sigil Art – Radzryn appeared first on Tellest.

While we haven’t exactly spent time there yet, we know where the Black Lantern is, and what sort of refuge it is.  It’s a place for seafarers and pirates to find sanctuary, and as such, it’s not exactly known for having a good reputation.  Still, there is sometimes honor among thieves, and there’s been a sort of code of conduct implemented for any denizens who call the Black Lantern home, even if it’s just temporary.  It’s because of such promises of safety (or swift retribution if the code is ignored) that you have people who are willing to make it part of their day to come up with beautiful things like this sigil, which would be impossible without some sort of tremendous skill or magical prowess.

While most of the sanctuary would likely be made of wood—there are plenty of pirate ships and merchant vessels that might have run ashore over the years, and they could use the materials to develop their haven.  But that’s not to say that there wouldn’t be cause to have some stones painted with the wonderful Black Lantern sigil.  I imagine the sigil being painted on rocks that jut out of the sea, leading seafarers to the safety of the city.  With the magic at hand in the Tellest universe, they could even have done such a thing to serve as their own sort of lighthouses, ensuring that the glow of lantern is actually visible like real light, instead of just paint.

Just because the Black Lantern exists as a refuge for privateers and pirates bearing any flag doesn’t mean that they haven’t acquired seadogs who have begun to think of their new sanctuary as a home worth representing.  Many of the ships that have been exiled from their previous homes have found new life within the kinship they have with other sailors.  Together, they’ve amassed a sort of armada of their own, each of them happy to fly the Black Lantern banner.

We’ve made mention of the painted version before, but this is a more artistic style than the chipped paint one you see above.  Whoever it is that’s responsible for coming up with the idea of the sigil of this grand place has got some talent both artistically and magically, so it’s very cool to see this all come together.

As always, we leave you with one final picture: the phone background.  I hope you enjoy it!

We’ve got a very different sigil coming your way in a few weeks.  Make sure you pop in on Wednesdays to see all the great art we show off!

The post Sigil Art – The Black Lantern appeared first on Tellest.

We’re going to be looking at a sigil of a city that’s a little less apparent in Draconis now.  We’ve spent a lot of time with humans and elves and dwarves, but there are a lot of other races that call Draconis home, and in Daltain, we have a city of gremlins that is called The Undermire.  We’re going to be spending a little bit of time with them now so that we can figure out what’s going on with these clandestine gremlins.

Just like most spiders you know, the most dangerous ones are the ones that you don’t see.  The Undermire is quite possibly the one place on Tellest where all the most dangerous gremlins in the world like to hang out.  It’s not the kind of city that is very welcoming to anyone else, and that includes even the races that are usually aligned with them.  The spider, therefore, represents them very well, and a green background helps to convey their relationship with the world rather well.  It’s sort of a reference to their skin, but it also references their toxicity.

From what you likely know about Tellest gremlins (or goblins in many other fantasy worlds—perhaps most namely the Warcraft universe), they can be very volatile.  From dangerous experiments, to machinery and tinkered objects that they know are a little unwieldy, the gremlins of Tellest can mess things up a lot.  To that extent, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to see their sigils smashed up here and there.  And those who live in the Undermire might not care too much to clean it up.  These are some of the toughest gremlins there are.  Who is going to ask them to make reparations?

While the gremlins of the Undermire are fierce, they’re are brave perhaps because they know they have a place to go and lick their wounds.  To that end, they’re not going around announcing where home is.  There are not a good deal of cases where you would see them flying their banners with the exception of within their hidden city.  And even then, they might not last long, as those volatile acts I mentioned earlier?  They more than likely have led to the destruction of more than a few banners and tapestries bearing the Undermire sigil.

Now, while the sigils might not last long, that’s probably not enough of a reason to stop those gremlins who have style and pizazz from finding fun and interesting ways of throwing the sigil to the ground or on the sides of buildings.  Heck, it may even be a rite of passage for an Undermire gremlin to sneak into a nearby city and tag their sigil on them.  Maybe it’s a pilgrimage of sorts, and those who travel to the farthest cities to make their mark have the greatest stories told about them.

As always, we leave you with one final picture: the phone background.  I hope you enjoy it!

It has honestly been so long since I’ve taken a look at what sigil is next that I don’t have the faintest idea of what comes next, but suffice it to say we have more on the way!

The post Sigil Art – The Undermire appeared first on Tellest.

Because Trenton’s Blade is a relatively new city (sort of the antithesis to Atalatha, which is about the same age but came up by nobler means), you likely wouldn’t see too much by the way of chipped paint, but you could definitely see their mark in other fashions.  As Trenton’s Blade is also known for its darker arts and thievery, it’s likely that the sigil wouldn’t often be found in too many places, especially leading into the city.  Even as it grows, they’d be likely to hide its presentation from the outside world, ensuring they have a better chance at survival and prosperity.

It’s not often that people would see a banner flying about, but Trenton’s Blade has expanded enough to become a pretty powerful coastal city.  It’s likely that any ship bearing a Trenton’s Blade flag would be seen as the Tellest equivalent of a Jolly Roger.  As helpful as orcs have been in other parts of the world to the fairer races, it’s likely that those from Trenton’s Blade would be a bit on the xenophobic side, using every opportunity to push those from their sights.  It also wouldn’t hurt to go hunting ships that come too close to the southwestern coast of Lustra.

It wouldn’t be completely out of left field to see an aspiring thief from the city making the mark of Trenton’s Blade known to those who they had stolen from, whether that’s on dry land or at sea.  And then, whether it’s by pride or arrogance, even if they were caught, those who call Trenton’s Blade home wouldn’t dream of giving anything back, even if their calling card was left behind.

As always, we leave you with one final picture: the phone background.  I hope you enjoy it!

Our next sigil will be taking us to another continent, where we’ll be looking at another race.  And not quite in the shadows as much as Trenton’s Blade, that city proudly basks in the sun.  See you for that soon!

The post Sigil Art – Trenton’s Blade appeared first on Tellest.

Conceptually, Valtega is meant to look very similar to Mdina in Malta.  You might also conflate your perception of it with King’s Landing from the Game of Thrones series, since that’s where a lot of it was filmed.  Valtega is a bit smaller, certainly, but it also doesn’t have nearly the height variance that the city in Westeros does.  It just has that sort of closed-in, intimate spacing that you feel in that area of our world.  Valtega is a bit on the older side as well, and while there are parts of the city that have been restored thanks to the riches that pass hands amongst the nobles and merchants, there are also low-lying sections of the city that would show the sigil displaying some wear and tear.  Old administrative buildings, long since abandoned to be made anew in wealthier sections of the city, would still have the sigil on the ground outside, the brickwork becoming dilapidated over time.

One place that the sigil would certainly show up on is atop the masts of any of Valtega’s many ships.  Valtega is one of the cities in Tellest that has a tremendous naval presence, whether it be serving under the military rule of the city, or a privateer or pirate vessel owned by one of the more influential people from the city.  In any case, it’s very likely that if anyone saw the compass flying atop the brown sea of canvas, they would know to give it a wide berth if possible.  The people of Valtega are more than equipped to handle any sort of encounter at sea.

Valtega keeps expanding southward into Saveon, and as it goes, great and gorgeous limestone walls continue to be expanded upon in the fields.  The path into Valtega is lined with beautiful stonework as well, and while the main road displays the sigil in that style, there are plenty of places within each of the sections of the city where the compass would be quickly painted instead.  More often than not, the sigil is used for representation of the seafaring professions, so it is seen most frequently around the coastal sections of Valtega.

As always, we leave you with one final picture: the phone background.  I hope you enjoy it!

In a few weeks, we’ll be taking a look at another coastal city, but this one is on another continent, and populated by a completely different race than that of Valtega.  We’ll talk about that soon!

The post Sigil Art – Valtega appeared first on Tellest.

Vessa is the new capital of the kingdom of Cracius, as it used to be Prassa, to the far southeast.  Vessa was chosen as the new throne of the human leadership as it brings the people closest to those that it has some of the most strained relationships with.  Artemis Fagan has a lot of work ahead of him, as his father was the one who was responsible for the imprisonment of harpies, naga, avarians and elves.  The dwarves were able to avoid such treatment, and stand almost as arbiters to ensure that no such treatment ever takes place again.  While the dwarves continue to live primarily within the mountains, Artemis and those who followed him to Vessa have adopted a similar lifestyle.  However instead of living within the caves, great architects have created a city that extends out of the mountains, close to three of its peaks.  While some of them have been repurposed as temples and the high throne, most of the buildings are indeed on this great dais, and on the sub-platforms below.

Vessa itself is not a new city, but it was given new life when Artemis repositioned it as his seat of power.  It was growing even before that, but of course having royalty at hand brings everything to a new speed.  To that end, the mountain sigil would have likely been used for architectural reasons for many years beforehand, and as such, it would not be unlikely to find it at the onset of tunnels, or when a plan had been made to extend one of the platforms that extends out from the mountains for the sake of the populace.  Over time, it would show wear and tear, especially as construction continued.

While Vessa is far from the coast, Cracius has a mighty military presence, and Artemis’s father Warrick ensured that a tremendous amount of that focus was on their naval forces.  Indeed, Cracius has the most powerful navy on mainland Draconis, and Artemis has some training within that military structure.  When Vessa became the seat of power within Cracius, Artemis instructed the new sigil to be imparted upon the masts of his ships, and thus the white flag with the black mountain flies on the ships of Cracius.

As work is ongoing in Vessa, new tunnels would be forged, and new platforms would be built all the way down the mountain (as opposed to, say, Minas Tirith, where it was built from the ground up), knowing exactly where you’re going with things is very helpful.  The sigil of Vessa would thereby be used for measurements and planning, and very likely nearby administrative and religious buildings.

As always, we leave you with one final picture: the phone background.  I hope you enjoy it!

The next sigil that we’ll be looking at is about six weeks away, and it’s another place with a big naval presence, but it’s across the sea.  Even so, they’ve had a bit of a presence on Draconis, and especially with some of our more popular characters.  More on that soon!

The post Sigil Art – Vessa appeared first on Tellest.

Of all the cities and settlements that we’ve taken a look at throughout the years, Skar’dell is one of the newest ones.  Certainly Heart of the Forest takes place just a bit in the past, all things considered, but not by much.  And as the trolls of the area needed a home, they found it in the caverns along the Dragonsbane Mountains along the western side of Daltain and Cefen’adiel.  There might be some paint on the walls, but it’s very unlikely that it would have been battered enough to show a sort of chipped paint look like we have here.  Then again, Erzar and some of his ilk are mighty trolls that are pretty heavy-handed, so perhaps there is a chance…

There’s a bit of an interesting duality when it comes to the trolls of Skar’dell.  They’re incredibly powerful, especially when they stand together, but they’re also smart enough to know that even they could be overwhelmed if they are found before they are settled properly.  To that end, it might have been some time before the first banners were strung up showing their new sigil.  And even then, as they attempted to remain clandestine to a point, it’s likely that nothing marked their home in any great proximity.  That said, when it is time to come to war, it certainly may not be long before people learn to fear the strange abstract symbols that show up on those bright pink banners.

More than anything, I believe we would see the sigil of Skar’dell emblazoned in caves in the western end of Daltain.  While the trolls definitely seemed amenable to peaceful life among the other inhabitants of the forest, there are likely to be many tunnels through the mountains that they could use to their benefit, and that’s to say nothing of the corridors they bore through themselves.  Their sigil makes for a very quick way of identifying what belongs to them, and warns others not to try and take resources that exist too close to the mighty trolls.

As is always the case, we leave you with one final picture: the phone background.  I hope you enjoy it!

We’ll be looking at the sigil not of a city or a settlement, but of a guild next time around, so we’ll see you in a few weeks for that!

The post Sigil Art – Skar’dell appeared first on Tellest.

What you may know is that Sentinel is meant to be the last vestige of hope for Raleigh if Blacklehn should break through the Sentinel Pass.  The city at the mountains is essentially a military base, and it has expanded over the years to include families of the soldiers, and grown because of it.  While there is always the threat of an invasion, the troops who guard the pass have done so diligently for decades, and they’ve always managed to keep their foes from breaching to the city proper.  What you may not know is that the concept of the tower being part of the sigil was done because I used to be (and still am) a huge nerd for Tower Defense games.  Back when As Darkness Falls was still a spark of an idea in my mind, I envisioned a tower defense game that took place in the Sentinel Pass, and it was through the development of that idea that we ended up with characters like Pendrich, and some minor characters that we spotted in The Enemy Within.  Tellest truly is a world where the tiniest detail can come back and grow in a big way.

Since Sentinel is known for the stonework of the towers in the pass, and they’re likely under constant siege, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to believe that the sigils painted here and there would see some wear and tear over time.  In fact, it might even be the norm, as it’s unlikely that a talented artist is going to spend too much time refreshing the paint here and there.  Then again, through the course of the long battles, it’s possible that the rival kingdoms have painted over each others sigils over and over again.

Now, while Sentinel certainly isn’t going to be using any ships in the mountains in their region (although airships would be another thing entirely), they would have banners on administrative buildings in the city, wagons that travel to the larger allied settlements and even the capital, and of course, the towers in the pass.  At certain points in the Sentinel Pass, there is likely a chance to spot several of these banners fluttering in the wind.

As we mentioned earlier, the painted version of the Sentinel sigil might be used to quickly identify ownership of a tower.  While banners would be quickly burned or torn to bits, an army might be able to get a mildly talented artist in place to paint something on the side of a tower in order to ensure their troops were moving toward an allied battlement.  Even then, there might be some confusion with all the chaos that goes on in the pass.

As always, we leave you with one final picture: the phone background.  I hope you enjoy it!

Our next sigil is a bit different, as we don’t see too many sigils that are as abstract as this one is bound to be, but I have no doubts that you’ll enjoy it.  We’ll see you with that one soon!

The post Sigil Art – Sentinel appeared first on Tellest.

Francois made easy work of the sigil, giving us something that had a simple elegance.  It’s not exceptionally busy, it doesn’t bother the eye to look at it.  It just does its job and moves on.  Perhaps that’s reflective of the rangers and sentinels that guard the border and man the towers that Greenwood is known for.

As Greenwood has been around for a while now, it’s likely that they’ve had some fortifications made with stone that are showing their age.  Perhaps a few of these depict the sigil of the town, and are showing a bit of wear and tear that might be indicative of needed repairs.  It also might show some towers that may have been abandoned over time, as there has slowly grown an unsteady alliance between the gnolls of Warus and the other races therein, and that’s extended beyond their borders as well.

Greenwood’s banners are meant to be a method of warning.  The gnolls previously knew not to venture into the area under the town’s protection, which was clearly emblazoned upon their towers.  There might also be pennants flying high above the trees, in case any of the elves nearby are scouting by way of the treetops.  It’s an easy way to make sense of friend or foe in the nearby area.

Below, you’ll see the painted version of the sigil.  While the town of Greenwood has its history, they aren’t opposed to carving out a place for their future, and that means leaving signs and symbols for those new rangers and adventurers who are being brought up.  This could be for the newer towers or even small barracks-type-buildings that might be in the wilderness.

As always, we leave you with one final picture: the phone background.  I hope you enjoy it!

Our next sigil is going to represent a place that we’ve been looking at for a very long time in the Tellest universe, but will give us more context about what goes on in that city.  See you with that in a few weeks!

The post Sigil Art – Greenwood appeared first on Tellest.

A big part of me feels like every city in Tellest is going to try to be known for something.  Yes, the little hamlets and villages might just be trying to survive, but they don’t get sigils!  To that end, I wrote places like Ashcombe in D’Aprile’s Fools, a place that’s known for making soap.  Soap’s good and all, but Graden found something people like a lot more: wine.  As such, the folks have a nice lilac background, and upon it sits a wine cask.  It’s a little abstract, but then, that’s when you get when you’re drinking all day!

It’s fairly likely that since Graden has just come into an understanding that wine makes the people of the city so filthy rich that they wouldn’t have had a lot of time for their new sigil to age all that much.  In time though, you know they’re going to have that design everywhere, and someone’s going to block up some back area of a warehouse (maybe even Cask of Amontillado style), and it’ll wear down over the ages.

Now, you might be surprised about how often we’d see some Graden flags waving about.  First off, while Graden makes a lot of money shipping their product out, and yes, you would see merchant wagons with banners, and even ships that sail down the river, it’s become a bit of an experience to imbibe at the city as well.  Think of Graden in some ways as the equivalent of Napa Valley in the Tellest universe.  It’s a whole experience.

Below, you’ll see the painted version of Graden’s sigil.  Once again, they’re relatively new, so they haven’t had a ton of chances to go ahead and paint things yet, but as their warehouses overflow, they might have to make more buildings, or even search out nearby caverns to store their surplus.  One thing that people never tire of is getting a little wine drunk.

And once again, we leave you with one final picture: the phone background!

When we next look at a sigil from the Tellest universe, it’s going to be from a city that we’ve seen mentioned in passing in some of our newer books, and was described in small details in one of our old encyclopedia entries.  If anyone guesses it, I’ll send the first person who comments correctly some cookies.

The post Sigil Art – Graden appeared first on Tellest.