Krosh Tǎhavek

A cloaked orc woman with a drawn bow gazes from a wooden crosswalk in an arid cave’s interior down and out to a large collection of people milling the massive entrance to the cave. Both interior to and exterior to the cave entrance are a haphazard assortment of brick towers and wooden scout towers in various states of disrepair.

Lore

Krosh Tǎhavek (/kɽoʊʃ ʈɑheɪːvɛk/; krohsh tah-HAY-vek), or the Home of Fire, is the capital city of the orcish Adǎr Kad. Carved out of the cliff face defining the western border of the Silent Moor, its scope is massive, originally designed to demonstrate the full might and cunning of the orcish people. Built in the third century of the Age of Transcendence, it was once the youngest major city of the region; however, despite its dense population, it no longer qualifies as a major city in modernity. In the wake of the Adǎr Kad’s defeat in the Incursion and the Ascendancy’s military occupation of the Hellstrand, much of its grandeur has been lost, leaving the city as a hollow shell, even a prison for the orcs who inhabited it.

Atlas of Central Fao, Palm Corridor: Hellstrand

Techniques

Lots of “sculpting” in this one more than hand-painting, mostly focused on cultivating proper perspective to keep the scale of the piece large enough. I had a lot of fun with texture and composition with this, leaving the painting down to mostly coloring and making the crowd milling about in the lower section, as well as doing the “fun” things like throwing in little details.