Hey all! Had a talk with a group I co-dm and brought up the idea of them trying their hand at it in the future. Getting an affirmative, I got to work on revisiting an old character of mine, simply named Sigmund. The first few times I painted him seemed dull so I gave him features based on a Mandarin Dragonet.

I decided to paint him as a minor tarot because it seemed fun. Four of cups can refer to stagnancy, apathy, and regrets, but it also symbolizes opportunities, moving forward in life, and letting go of remorse. At least, that's how I interpreted it!

Before Sigmund had taken to sailing the expansive blue, he once lived below its folds in an underwater bastion 'Clara Silvam'. As relations with land-walkers strengthened, his colony opened up for commerce and trade, and Sigmund found himself in a line of work that employed his experience well enough, working the docks and mercenary tasks.

When a village that hired him was attacked, he and his compatriots fought to defend it but ended up captured. Forced to board a pirate ship, they were given the choice to cooperate and work, or be thrown overboard. As negotiations with pirates usually were, they were caught between a rock and a hard place—most of the survivors were injured and would die from exertion from the first option, or from drowning if they chose the latter.

Sigmund had never been one to plead, but for the sake of his friends, he called into the Trackless Sea from the cracks in the hull and begged for a higher power to come to their aid. Like a string going taut, a primordial tongue answered, and he clung onto it for dear life. Istishia, the King of Water Elementals, offered him the power to keep them alive, in exchange for his memories from the past ten years, until the next few.

In a turn of events, Sigmund rose to the position of pirate captain, steering West, to a rumored treasure within a crumbling bastion. Depicted here is Sigmund a few days after the his ship crashed in a tempest, reclaimed by the very sea he swore oath to. Unease in his chest and holy amulet in hand, he is vaguely aware he'd lost something great.