#philipp a. urlich

[thecollectibles]

Art by Philipp A. Urlich

#art #digital art #Illustration #painting #Philipp A. Urlich #landscape

[whateverbringsyouthroughthenight]

Mountain top Philipp A. Urlich

#Philipp A. Urlich #digital art

[wh40kartwork]

Arx Angelicum On Baal

by Philipp A. Urlich

#imperium #locations #space marines #loyalist astartes #blood angels #primaris space marines #common people #aircraft #dark imperium #warhammer #warhammer 40k #warhammer 40000 #40k #philipp urlich #illustration

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Dragonlance: Dragons of Eternity Cover Art by Philipp A. Urlich

#Dragonlance #Dungeons & Dragons #D&D #Dragons of Eternity #Fantasy #Art #Krynn #Covers #Cover Art #Philipp A Urlich #Wizards of the Coast

[theamazingdigitalart]

The amazing digital art of Philipp A. Urlich

#art #illustration #landscape #digital #digital drawing

[manfrommars2049]

Dragon Fight by Philipp A. Urlich via ImaginaryDragons

#ImaginaryDragons #oray

[myeternaltime]

by Philipp A. Urlich

#art #illustration #nature #landscape #environment

[silverglass83]

Dragonlance Destinies Book 2: Dragons of Fate cover reveal!

Following the events of Book 1, Raistlin, Sturm, Tasselhoff, and Destina find themselves in the past during the Third Dragon War. Release date August 2023. Artist for the new trilogy is Philipp Urlich

Look at my boy. JUST LOOK AT HIM!!!!

#dragonlance #raistlin #raistlin majere #dragons of fate #august 2023

[amdd1990]

Artist: Philipp A. Urlich.

[wh40kgallery]

Planet Vespid

by Philipp Urlich

#vespid #tau auxiliary #xenos #location #philipp ulrich #40k #liber xenologis

[septembergold]

Philipp A. Urlich

#mountains #capricorn #art #animals

[thecollectibles]

Friends by Philipp A. Urlich

#art #digital art #Illustration #painting #Philipp A. Urlich

[hatchingphoenix]

The Path

Everyday Drabbles #962

The path wound out from his door, through the wooded hills, and towards the distant mountains. It led away from the safe, secluded life he’d always known and into the unknown. Or so he imagined as he trudged the path from the cabin into the woods. Every day was the same: Food had to be grown or hunted, firewood needed splitting, and there were always chores to do around the cabin.. He daydreamed of adventure and excitement outside his little patch of forest. Until one day, a group of tourists arrived, seeking solace from their stressful lives in the city.

[artist: Philipp A. Urlich - https://www.artstation.com/somartist]

#Drabble #100 Words #Flash Fiction #Microfiction

[nerath-mp]

Lore: Apophis, the Night Serpent

"I am known by many names, but the one most known in this land, it is Apophis, the night serpent. Titansgrave. Ender of the Giantwar. And once, Great Mother Serpent of the murdered Hyksos Sisterhood.

[npc sphinx ally to the PCs shouts - Queensbane, blasphemer, liar - then is promptly banished by a spell]

I have been a bane to your queens, but I am not a liar - I tell truths, dark as they may be. AS for blasphemer, that is the heart of the listener, not the words themselves. Not all truths are pleasant, or desired, and very few are safe to know."

Apophis introduces herself to the party in her first appearance.

Apophis is a name synonymous in Khonsuria with Asmodeus or Zehir - a supreme evil, all the more threatening because of her focus on the sphinxfolk of Ilsundal and Ioun and for the challenging role of ally she sometimes played in earlier dynasties.

(Source: Ninḫursaĝ by Kinga Szondi on ArtStation)

History

Earliest record of the naga is in the records of the final campaign against the Storm Titan of the Herrenia Mountains, ruler of the Ordnning of Storms. Here she is first described as an anonymous 'dark serpent' who is sent into the Ordnning in advance of the final siege. She is not heard of again until after the battle when it turns out she had indeed been not only caught, but killed and cooked into several dishes for the celebratory feast for the Titan and his generals and allies. It is said her blood was made into sauce, her bones into jelly, her flesh cooked into pies and stews. And that she survived the ordeal, and assassinated the titan, signalling the assembled forces of dragons and sphinx. For this she was rewarded with the epithet Titansgrave and was commended by a young Abisha II and the leader of the dragonflight, Nistru the Midnight Storm.

(Source: 'Mountain top' by Philipp Urlich on ArtStation)

She would then fade from records for centuries, returning when Abisha's various campaigns of reunification of her own people and the dispersal of the giantkin frustrated the Pharaoh and weakened her Kingdom. Apophis arrived in the Pharaoh's Court claiming to have spent years travelling the world, and having found out secrets and lores from Uresia to Arkhosia to the furthest reaches of Selduria. One such place, Achaemia, a City of Blasphemies, where dwelled the most amoral of the Dawn War - betrayers and outcasts from both the Elemental Chaos and the Astral Seas, enemies of demon, titan and god alike - that she had learned of magics buried in the tombs of Khonsuria's First Dynasty and deep under the Bloodsands, that would allow the sphinx queen to fulfill her grand ambitions. And together they would find and study these secrets and bring Khonsuria to a golden age of imperial hegemony over the whole of the Material Plane. The key, the stories say, lay in Apophis having discovered a hoard of secrets, penned by Ilsundal himself, which highlighted truths discovered by the gods during the war with their creators.

(Source: 'Evil advisor' by JungSung Kim on ArtStation)

The Hyksos and the Tragedy of Pharaoh Abisha II

As Apophis corrupted the queen and her son, making them her apprentices, she was also stirring up trouble and exploiting the destitution that Abisha's crusades had reduced her people to, spreading her other cult, the Hyksos, and stealing souls into the desert night, bound in chains and dominated minds for use in darker realms like the Abyss. And before Abisha's son could murder his mother, Apophis is said to have fled the lands of Ioun, mocking the goddess and her immortal sphinx children for having fallen into the darkness of secrets, riddles and superstition once more.

(Source: 'Eris, Goddess of Discord' by Alex2424121 on DeviantArt)

What is known now is her next destination was not the Abyss, the Shadowfel or some other equally dark place, but simply back to the Broken Ordnning, using the teleportation circle she had never forgotten about, and sent out her Hyksos to raid, and plunder and retrieve relic of antiquity for her collection of fallen empires and lost civilizations.

The Heroes of Rheksus

When the heroes of Rheksus would find her, her most powerful daughter, Nysixia had allowed the secret location of her sanctum to be discovered, and not even with the help of a false sphinx, some twisted mockery of the Forgotten King created by Apophis for some reason, had Nysixia managed to defeat them. Rather than allow her daughter to continue to fail her, Apophis killed her daughter herself, first by breaking her heart and mind by pointing out that, like so many, the lamia matriarch was simply one more tool to the naga, just as disposable and forgettable as any other, then in body with a bolt of necrotic energy. Apophis then introduced herself and praised the mortals - offering them a reward if they would but name it. She offered to betray Nistru, to grant them the benefits of her knowledge of the arcane and history, she willingly gave up not only her treasury but her real treasures - her collection of relics. She even gave them, without asking, the prophecy of the Celestial Oracle that Nysixia had recovered outside Setessa that had ultimately led to the heroes finding the Ordnning and defeating the Sisterhood once and for all. The heroes refused to make any pacts or take any favours, but the naga let them have the material treasures anyway and simply plane shifted away.

What was less known, and remains a secret among some of the heroes, is that she had spoken in the minds of a few of them, teasing them with a taste of whatever knowledge she had of them.

Apophis - her nature and abilities

Apophis' natural form seems to be a huge spirit naga, well over 50ft long, constantly cloaked in wisps of darkness and whispers of unknown origin or content. She can alter her appearance - either physically or use of illusion - to appear as any humanoid of any size from a pixie to a titan. In her appearance to the PCs she initially hid in the skeletal remains of the Storm Titan whose chest she burst from messily centuries before, and assumed the form of a large khonsurian woman of indeterminate age and awe-inspiring beauty.

Very little is currently known of her abilities - she is apparently immortal in the sense that she does not age, nor does death seem to have much hold on her, resurrecting from even being digested by a dozen different individuals. She is an accomplished spellcaster as well, having over time prepared several wards and enchantments over the ruins of the Ordnning, such as a variation of Guards and Wards and a spell which gave her and Nysixia access to lair actions in their portion of the fortress.

Apophis also seems to have the ability to speak telepathically, plane shift, and have knowledge of a person's destiny or their origins - but how much is spellcasting, innate ability, or subterfuge on her part is unknown.

Finally, she seemed able to transform lesser beings into other types of creatures. According to records found in the Hyksos cult beliefs, this involves a spiritually prepared vessel consuming some of her blood or essence (it was unclear from the hieroglyphs) and being brought into her direct presence while in an altered state of consciousness. Common forms included lamia (which would be further transformed into medusae), harpies, sirens and in at least one instance, a false sphinx. She also had the ability herself or through one of her cultists to animate the dead - making skeletal giant minions, as well as shadowfiends, and could channel energies and summon minions from the elemental foci left in the fortress by the Primordials.

Finally, she seemed able to transform lesser beings into other types of creatures. According to records found in the Hyksos cult beliefs, this involves a spiritually prepared vessel consuming some of her blood or essence (it was unclear from the hieroglyphs) and being brought into her direct presence while in an altered state of consciousness. Common forms included lamia (which would be further transformed into medusae), harpies, sirens and in at least one instance, a false sphinx. She also had the ability herself or through one of her cultists to animate the dead - making skeletal giant minions, as well as shadowfiends, and could channel energies and summon minions from the elemental foci left in the fortress by the Primordials.

Coda Note: Apophis

Apophis also is heavily inspired by the "monstergirl" of the same name from The Monstergirl Encyclopaedia volume 2 by Kenkou Cross, as well as the personality of the Goddess Eris from the Sinbad animated film from Dreamworks - especially from this tribute video with the song The Devil Within by Digital Daggers. She was also the characters first real encounter with an eldritch, cosmic entity. They really had little idea of how to approach her and were mostly scared how little concern she had for their presence. Next week we end this tour of the first tier of my campaign with a sort of wrap up and update of the state of the Lower Kingdom after the characters defeated the Hyksos Sisterhood and recovered the Prophecy of Joy. -Me

#lore #dnd campaign #nerath #apophis #khonsuria #hyksos sisterhood

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

First Founding - Arx Angelicum, Baal by Philipp A. Urlich

#Warhammer #40k #Imperium #Imperium of Man #Arx Angelicum #Baal #Blood Angels #Space Marine #Adeptus Astartes #Sci-Fi #Philipp Urlich #Games Workshop

[theamazingdigitalart]

The amazing digital art of Philipp A. Urlich

#art #digital art #digital painting #illustration #illustrations #landscape #mountains #trees #nature #lightening