#istrati clan

[grimae]

We come carry the face of a dead sun.

[zmwrites]

What supernatural factions are there in Pine Hollow and do they all just fight each other or are some allies?

Hello friend!

Within the town of Pine Hollow, there are many supernatural factions! So far, the ones that have been introduced are:

Rising Sun Coven - witches, led by Demetria Crane, very strict, look down on other types of supernaturals

Safe Harbour Orphanage Pack - werewolves & others, the only inter-species group in town; the orphanage started as a safe place for orphaned supernaturals and people turned into a supernatural who weren’t ready to handle the world alone, now they take in ‘troubled’ human youths too as the aggressive pack-bonding of werewolves turned out to be a very effective way to deal with kids who’ve lost their way

Dyachenko Clan - vampires, led by Jarlen Dyachenko, superiority complexes & revenge

Borthwell Family - shapeshifters

Sabilline Family - shapeshifters

Holy Oak Asylum Pack - werewolves, the smaller pack in town, like urban exploration

Istrati Clan - vampires, led by Garvan Istrati & Catelina de Segura, take in vampires who are just passing through for however long they stay, 

Silver Flame Coven - witches, a young coven, reputation of promiscuity bc they’re living their best lives, kind of like a sorority house, formed by witches from other covens who didn’t like the rules and seriousness of it all

Morning Star Coven - witches, mostly consists of the Norwood family, dying out as the family shrinks

As for alliances and who doesn’t like who, it can get a bit complicated. So I’m sorry if this explanation is a bit messy!

As a rule, each faction will side with their own kind in any sort of disagreement. So witches will side with witches if one of the covens is having a disagreement with werewolves or vampires or shapeshifters.

The Borthwell and Sabilline shapeshifter families used to have a feud, but that was set aside when members of the families ended up in a Romeo & Juliet situation, except it turned out happier and they had a kid. They aren’t involved much in the town fighting as their families aren’t large or concentrated enough to be contenders to control the town.

The Rising Sun Coven finds the Silver Flame Coven to be frivolous and don’t appreciate the perceived��‘disrespect’ of the old ways.

The Dyachenko Clan doesn’t like the Holy Oak Asylum Pack due to an unconfirmed murder committed by a member of the Holy Oak Asylum Pack, and has murdered two members of the Pack because of it.

The Istrati Clan and the Safe Harbour Orphanage Pack get along and work together to house supernaturals who need help.

The Rising Sun Coven and the Dyachenko Clan have a tense relationship. They get along when they need to, but they’re also the two main groups vying for power when Ms. Krauss dies.

The relationships between groups are ever-evolving. It’s a lot of petty squabbles between the smaller groups, while the big problems almost always involve the Dyachenko Clan. It’s an interesting town to live in!

[grimae]

45 pages of my heart's blood project, babeyyy

[grimae]

Hi! I really admire your artworks and remember you talking about writing huge amounts of Lore for them and vice versa. Do you plan on publishing it as illustrated books or something one day, or is it one of those eternal passion projects some artists like to do (I do it too lol but haven’t posted artworks of it yet) for themselves that will probably never see the light of the day if not for some bits and pieces? Just asking out of curiosity and respect for the craft that goes into things like this plus from what I recall it sounded very interesting and like something I’d like to read. dont mind me if you talked about it before I wasn’t following you yet. anyway Have a good new year!

Sup, and good new year to you too! Last year I massively revamped my entire world building, which made a lot of the 400+ pages of outlines and world building I had obsolete. That isn't bad at all - I'm incredibly happy with everything I have now it feels much more true to who I am as a person and what I want to stand for. It was also taken with a ton of enthusiasm by my friends which just makes it more exciting lol. However, I feel like I'm sitting in front of a big pile of shards (affectionate) now. There's a ton of things to be sorted and worked on new, and I traded a more linear kind of story for a more ethereal and "wooshy" setting. I'm p much laser-focused on my Istrati vampire clan right now, even worse than before, and am developing the world around them. I still don't have a set protagonist, I prefer to see that world as many lives intertwined.

In short, I would absolutely love to release something physical one day. I have so much art. The BotS pages alone went over number 40 last year, and while most of them went equally as obsolete as the five year old world building, it's still a pretty dear project to me even when I stopped plastering it all over the web. I'm just really bad at wanting to sell people things, which is inevitably what comes when you release stuff. That also makes me a pretty lousy freelancer actually rofl.

Also, I'm eternally grateful that so many people love and support what I do, no matter how little or much I talk about it. It's genuinely healing and whenever I see someone getting excited about something I did, be it friend, or acquaintance or just some stranger on socmedia, it makes me just so fucking happy. If you have any questions feel free to throw yourself at me anyway, I always love answering questions and talking about stuff lol.

[grimae]

"There are golden flowers and grass that grow wherever the Sun Dragon's blood has been spilled. In this region you can find that basically everywhere."

[grimae]

glory to the sun, glory to the heat

[grimae]

Two pages from the Book of the Sun. 31 and 32, to be exact, at least in the order that I draw them. Intended to have text on them, now I'm loving the negative space too much they have, so feel free to enjoy them like this.

[grimae]

Vampires of the Istrati Clan

[grimae]

there is a sunless firmament in front of us

[grimae]

Alexandru, High Lord

[grimae]

first Great Lord of the Istrati Clan

[grimae]

"Do you remember me?", our High Lord spoke. The dragon answered in a voice like bursting glass. "Who?"

[grimae]

I know 100% fully perfectly that I make prints of my Book of the Sun pages, but each time I draw a new one I completely throw that knowledge out of the window and draw it in a way that I need to readjust and edit it for printing anyway.

[grimae]

A page from the Book of the Sun

[grimae]

A few weeks ago I had a pretty big commission for a client who wanted me to draw 11 Book of the Sun inspired artworks for their own world building project. Payment was awesome. That was cool. Gladly accepted it, and over the course of working on it, I realized how that entire BotS project has stopped having meaning for my headworld, world building, OCs, Skindarim, you name it, and instead started having meaning for me personally in different times of my life. I look at page 8 and I know I drew it for Eleonora's sons - Vasil, Rafael, Jarek - but I think about the time the weather was beautiful and the sun was shining, I was enjoying my life in the June of 2020. I look at page 6 and know I drew it because I wanted to explore the backstory of the Istrati, but now what I see is the very first picture of a character that has become more than just dear to me, Alexandru. Someone I literally never expected to draw more than once but has now taken permanent residence in my brain. I've been working on these gold-and-black pages for a literal three years now, and I never even intended it to happen actually. I made a few because I found it fun to develop the Istrati aesthetic a bit, my weird sun vampire clan, but then people wanted to see more and more, and started asking me more often whether I will publish them, something I literally never thought about. It became overbearing. People told me that everyone is just waiting for it (oh damn, expectations), I would make bank (nah, I wouldn't), etc etc. In a way I felt thrown into some kind of hustle culture. On top came the sheer amount of times people stole them, ripped out of context, for their shitty mood boards or Dark Art Aesthetic Facebook Pages, or claimed I wasn't the actual artist because the vague mythology they built up over these photoshop made pictures was more fascinating than the reality of the person behind them.  Anyway. A few months ago I radically changed the world building of Skindarim which also included my vampires logically. I love it. It feels like me. I still haven't gotten around writing a proper new readable description beyond a giant collection of notes and cornerstones written as if in mania, but it feels like everything I wanted of my brain ghosts and world to finally become what I really love. Wilderness, nature, hope, light, darkness, gore. All topics I love to explore. I look at the BotS pages now and see everything that has changed in lore and world building, that isn't accurate anymore at all.

I drew page 38 yesterday. I barely know what it means in the setting of my characters anymore. I know it what it means to me, as a person, as the artist behind it. I'm glad I made it, and I'm glad I made the 37 before it. In a way they became obsolete, in a way they've become just as, or even more important to me than before.

[grimae]

Judrig, one of the Istrati Clan vampires, and a mage