The Origin Story of the Head of Uulhj: “Jowls of the Mad”

Head of Uulhj: “Jowls of the Mad”

 An Origins Story by Kevin Holmes

Head of Uulhj: "Jowls of the Mad" painting by Mike Burns

Far removed from the world’s surface rests a network of caverns lined by the drool of the Uuhlj. In time since lost, a demonologist cult sought to unleash chaos onto the world by opening a gateway to a dimension of pandemonium, only to become quickly overcome by the madness they had sought to embrace. With much difficulty and after much death and destruction, a band of demon hunters with a foundation of experience backed by powerful curse wards and sanity charms was able to hunt down the Uuhlj. Though the demons were immortal, the hunters sealed them away in one of the darkest corners of the underground, binding them completely and leaving them with no possible means of escape.

Innumerous years passed as the stories of the demons, their cult, and even those who fought against them were lost to time, yet the demons remained, furiously gnashing against their indestructible shackles. As their bonds did not break, their bones began to twist, their flesh tearing over eons as their heads severed themselves from their torso. With their bodies bound, these demon heads drifted off through their vault to aimlessly roam the long since abandoned connecting tunnels.

Uuhlj are fearsome in a way very different from an adventurer’s traditional encounter in that they are remnants of an immortal terror and cannot simply be defeated. Though incredibly slow in nature, their sheer presence emits a terrible aura of madness, causing the afflicted to suffer from a range of detriments ranging from paralyzing confusion to sinister and murderous suggestion. Often those unfortunate enough to encounter the head of the Uuhlj are more likely to find themselves backstabbed by befuddled allies than they are to get reach the fiend’s proximity. Should the demon ever wrap the shambles of its jaws around an unsuspecting victim, that person’s mind would surely be lost to madness forever.

Careful preparation is the cornerstone of living through an encounter with the head of an Uuhlj. With the aid of powerful curse wards or sanity charms, adventurers are able to approach the demon heads from a careful distance. At a range, the Uuhlj’s already tattered skin can be torn further with much resistance, and though it is impossible to kill one entirely, mangling one beyond recognition would certainly immobilize it, though the demon shreds may still prove problematic to those who encounter them in the future.

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Kevin was an old roommate and good friend of mine from college, and he has a good head on his shoulders when it comes to designing monsters and their back-stories. I didn't have anything super specific in mind when I painted this piece, but Kevin saw it and then wrote up his own idea for the origin of this monster, which I was very excited to include here in my blog. It was a fun experiment and I hope I we get the chance to do this again in the future. In the mean time, if you liked Kevin's story, you should follow him on his twitter page. He's in the process of building up his web presence right now, but if you're interested in seeing some of Kevin's future projects that would be the perfect place to be to find out about them. Thanks Kevin!

How Gabby, my 2 year-old niece, inspired me

A couple of days ago my sister posted to Facebook a doodle that my 2 year-old niece did. After looking it over I got really excited at the idea of giving it my own flare. I brought her drawing into Photoshop, lowered the opacity of it and traced right on top of her drawing, adding in details I imagined when I looked at her picture...pretty much doing my own take on Dave DeVries' The Monster Engine.

Gabby's & Michael's drawings

I really like the outcome of my piece. I think you can clearly see my nieces drawing come through, but at the same time I've made it my own. I'm not sure if my niece Gabby can understand what I did if I showed her the drawing, but maybe someday she can appreciate it and maybe even work with me on another piece.

Off to School - Collaborative piece with Anthony Briglia

Here's a piece drawn and inked by my good friend Anthony Briglia, with colors done by yours truly (aka me). I've been doing a lot of these lately haven't I? I've always loved Anthony's morbid characters and outrageous expressions and situations. I asked him if he could pass me a piece of his I could color in and he sent me this guy. I highly recommend checking out Anthony's website, he's got some really awesome work up.

Cytlierr - A Kevin Holmes Monster

My friend Kevin Holmes, has a pretty crazy imagination when it comes to creating monsters. He comes up with some amazing ideas aesthetically as well as statistically and I've always wanted to take a stab at doing my own thing with one of his monsters. The one above is named Cytlierr and it as drawn by Kevin and painted by myself.

According to Kevin...

"Cytlierr are guardians of the Bittercold Fortress and exist in small numbers, often fighting solo and guarding key positions. Covered in ultra thick ice armor, the Cytlierr acts as a powerful phalanx in combat.

Abilities:
-Frost Fastings - Covered in ice so cold, fire can't even melt it, Cytlierr can't even be harmed unless their front armor is broken, exposing the eye. Additionally, attacks cut through most armor and all cold resistance.

-Shroud of Sadness- When its eye is attacked, its eye wells up and cries tears that quickly refreeze into Frost Fastings.
-Phalanx- Cytlierr is aware of combat and able to parry up to three attacks either against itself or nearby allies, generally negating the 3 strongest melee opponents. Additionally, Cytlierr never flinch and resist most status effects.
-Focused Strike- By temporarily forgoing parrying, Cytlierr can lash at a single target 9 times in rapid succession after a normal hit, each hit shredding a bit more armor and causing the target to flinch.
-Icy Grab- If a large amount of damage is dealt to its arms, each arm that can't parry (in a multiple of 3) grabs a lighter character and binds it, dealing a large amount of damage and preventing it from doing anything. While grabbing, it rarely changes targets."

Collaborative piece with Ben Templesmith

Ben Templesmith recently posted some linework to his Deviant Art page and he said that anyone is free to color in the lines if they wanted to, so I took him up on the offer and came up with what you see below. The image was colored in Photoshop and it depicts the character Psylocke defeating a Sentinel from X-Men. This was a fun exercise to do and I hope to get the chance to do something like this again, perhaps with other artists too.