Last Ride of False Prophet Yuzhadaraf
Following the obliteration of an outmaneouvered Infernal Dwarf host on the Sacred Coast, popular Gavemite tales tell of how its cruel leader succumbed to wroth frustration and darkest despair. Surveying the field of corpses on land around him from bull-wings on high, and seeing nought but hostile ships and sea monsters devouring his scattered men driven into the salty waters, false prophet Yuzhadaraf let out an abysmal howl, echoed by his horned mount. So fell was this bellow from deep pits, that Daemonic hellfire sprang forth from the tusked mouth of the enslaver king, and the eyes of the vanquished warlord turned to burning coals in his unhinged fury.
Driven mad by the fullness of his defeat in battle, the flayer of the innocent bewailed his bitter loss of power. In hellish wrath did the trampler of prisoners lash out at his own dark deities, blaming them for withdrawing their favour from his victorious head out of fickle ingratitude. Had not he loaded the pyres with plenty of sacrificial victims? Had not their screams risen along with smoke to the high heavens without faltering? Had not the altar fires consumed the flesh of impure foes?
A tall flame rose out of the throat of the maimer of slaves, as he tore at his beard and cursed his triumphant enemies and heathen gods alike. Lo, how the mighty shall fall! His last words amounted to a furious prophecy of damnation, so heinous that those who heard it all dreamt nightmares of distant doom that night. And so false prophet Yuzhadaraf rode out one last time, consumed by baleful anger, and flung himself and his mount into the frothing sea. And the waters extinguished his fiery breath, and the waves devoured them whole, and so all was good along the Sacred Coast.
Thus was the first war between light and darkness won by the righteous.
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Art inspired by my friend
Igor Levchenko, a masterful artist. The leftmost and rightmost Dwarves in this drawing are directly based on two of his paintings, namely
Proclamation Against the Infernal Dwarves and
Dwarven Sicarius.
This fantasy scene is based on the fate of the last
Himyarite king
Dhu Nuwas, who commited suicide by riding his horse into the Red Sea after an Aksumite army (transported by the Roman Red Sea fleet) had conquered his kingdom in Yemen. This led to two wars over Yemen between Aksumite Ethiopia and Sassanid Persia, which saw the Persians victorious, in no small part thanks to their mastery of horse archery and siege artillery.
The parts of the rosary border with black background were the result of a mistake. The plan was to colour the background grey, as in previous Gavemite iconography. However, the grey felt pen had too similar a tone to the purple and blue, and so I tried to work in more contrast by colouring over the grey with black. Dark green would have been better, In hindsight. At any rate,
here is the empty border for anyone who wants to use it for anything of their own (open source, no need to ask), and
here is the lineart for anyone who wants to recolour this particular piece.
Reference Images
