Siege of the Atlas Talent Competition

Here is my Girlfriend's submission to the fanart contest, she doesn't have an account so i'm posting with mine. I hope it's ok for me to post it for her.

Here is her instagram if you want to check out her art : https://instagram.com/_gvvenn?utm_medium=copy_link

We both hope you like it ! :)

It's called Into The Tangle

repost by mistake. sorry.

Pet Battle entry!

some close ups

Here's my entry:



https://imgur.com/gallery/6axz2gE

Here's my entry! an alternative art for Atlas Map.
I have called it "Through Fire and Darkness"

My entry for the talent contest. The last moments of The Shaper's life.

Instant Eternity

The woman with red hair trembled beneath him, and The Shaper smiled at her weakness, wielding his crushing hammer high. The might of the cosmos in his palm! His master held back the brutes the red-haired woman brought among her, the little warriors with their staves and bows. They were primitives struggling against him and his Master of tentacles and screeches. His Master is of Decay, and Decay is endless, eternal, triumphant at the end, always, always...
His arm stretched, readying to smash her to pitiful bits.
“One less little mouse,” his mouth spoke for him, the terrible twisted thoughts, the ecstasy of death so near, so very near. “Time to—”
“DIE!” The beam of blackfire burst through The Shaper’s chest, the scorching of flesh, burning and blackening inside him, the vile heat of it digging into his heart, the pain, the pain of blackfire and death and…
He was Valdo Caesarius again.
His chest was a smoldering empty core, the last shreds of life fluttering away, tiny fireflies dying where his heart should be. He saw Zana then, his little girl. His beautiful girl. The man who killed him stood by her, helping her to her feet, and they shared that look of love he knew from so long ago. That steady gaze, as if their souls peered into each other’s. Valdo remembered that look, the one he gave his long dead wife, Zana’s mother. The look he gave Zana every day since she was born. She was safe, he knew, and he closed his eyes for the last time…
“Greetings, little shaper.”
His eyes flicked open, much too awake for a dying man. “Who… where?” There was no pain, or feeling of… flesh. Valdo looked down to his chest, but there was only emptiness and darkness there. Far off, endless stars throbbed with energy and light. “Where am I?”
“The space between stars, between life and death.” Valdo followed the voice to two bright eyes in a black face, skin stretched tight as leather. “I am The Envoy, and I’ve come for you at your demise. A fitting time, as any. The fleeting moments of eternal death where we can meet and discuss your new… life.”
Below, Valdo saw Zana and her friends frozen in time, The Elder pulling the man that killed him into a black void of writhing tentacles. Valdo remembered that place, the black hall of mirrors that twist and shred the mind. He remembered it far too well. He almost hurt his little girl because of that place. If his heart had not burned out, it would break for the man that killed him, and the love lost between him and his little girl.
Valdo descended to the battlefield, landing next to her. He placed his lifeless hand on her cheek, but she did not feel it, not when time stood still. “This is the first time I’ve touched her in years,” he whispered. “And only after I’ve met my end.”
“A parting gift,” The Envoy bowed slightly. “For this is the last you’ll see of her.”
“Tell me then,” Valdo said, keeping his eyes on Zana’s face. She looked so much like her mother that his empty chest felt heavier, weighed down by the thought of years lost and gone, her bright hair flashing in the sun. “Tell me of this new life.”
The Envoy straightened, turning his gaze starward. “Look to the stars and worlds of this Atlas, and you will see much more than darkness. Your mind is mortal and infant, but you have perceived beyond your capabilities. You have seen the cracks between the chittering stones, and you know these living stones turn into towering monuments, mountains of black flesh in the screaming distance. There are bright eyes in the darkness, hiding behind bleeding and blinking stars. Rot and Decay shuffle through the endless night, closer, closer… The Fire, crusading, and it comes, as ravenous as the Tangle’s vines that gnash and cling. This, you’ve seen. This, you’ve felt. This, you’ve known.”
Valdo looked up with The Envoy, and felt them there in the endless black. All of them, like a missing limb threatening to return, the terrible tickle of their presence. Writhing, burning, rotting, decaying, gripping, biting… The darkness was full of them, and he always felt them coming.
Valdo gave a soft chuckle. “Greater nightmares yet live.”
“And unlive.” The Envoy turned to meet Valdo’s eyes, and stared deep into him. “They are living and dead, and there are those that cannot truly die among them. It is these beasts beyond brutality, amalgamations ascending ancient aberration, that we must struggle against. You will be a glorious general in our war, Valdo Caesarius. Your gifts are a notable rarity, in a mortal so old. You will be formless, but not without power and purpose. You will be a small drop in the black heavens, but a drop that rages into a breaking tempest, churning the dark ocean and its countless worlds. And… you will serve.”
“Serve?” Valdo sighed softly, but that was some relief. “So, there is Order.”
The Envoy smiled, tight skin creaking into his black cheek. “Some Order in the Chaos. We strive for Order, in any way.”
“May I refuse?” Valdo asked, but he doubted there was any chance to refuse the cosmos’ messenger.
“No,” The Envoy said. “Even I am without choices. I am forced into my willing duty, and I must take pleasure in fulfilling it, even if my soul is scratched to pieces in the process. We must become more Valdo Caesarius. War comes from the darkness, and we do not get to choose if we fight.”
Valdo reached for Zana again, brushing his dead thumb against her warm cheek. “Everything I’ve done, shaped and molded, broken and made anew… it was for her. And now, I must leave her, and tread the starscape for war.” He tried to smile, but it turned into a deep frown. He remembered her dancing in Oriath square, the middle of winter when the flurries fell softly in her red hair, and she laughed as she stomped the snow covering Innocence’s bloody eyes in the pavement. “Do you know what will become of her, Envoy?”
“She will live and struggle. She will suffer, too, but we all do.” The Envoy waved a hand, and a black hall gaped in the darkness. Within, stars blinked and thrummed with warmth. “But she will have a life. Harder than most, but a life. You saved her once from the beast that takes the children.” Valdo and The Envoy both looked back at The Elder, its black nails digging into that man’s pale face. Sirus, Zana called him. Sirus. “And you’ve saved many others in aiding in its defeat. But there are more, always more. Protect her now, as you have before, Valdo Caesarius.”
Valdo let his arm fall from her face. “Will I remember her?”
The Envoy gave him another smile, a terribly sad smile. “We can hope.” He floated toward the opening in space, gesturing politely with one black hand. “It’s time we’ve went on, and you’ve become more.”
“So it is,” Valdo whispered. He thought to give Zana one last smile, but she would not see it, not in this instant eternity between life and death. He hoped then, to remember her laugh even if he forgot everything else. Her happiness, the core of his being, the shackles that kept his soul bound and focused. That was his wish. “After all, death is but a chance for rebirth…”
He followed The Envoy into the portal, then he heard the screams of Sirus and Zana behind him. But he could not turn back, not even for his little girl. His beautiful girl…

Talent contest entry:



Full size:
https://i.imgur.com/w4MESgE.png


Good Luck all!

My entry for the contest! :)

Here's my take in this challenge.
Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to finish the pic properly so its kind a rough. I will definitely polish it more later but for now here it is.
Good luck everyone in this contest!