"From my rotting body, flowers shall grow, and I am in them, and that is eternity." Edvard Munch

Apologies for the lack of updates recently. It's been a while, but then it's taken me a while to tackle this month's challenge. At the beginning of February, to align with Tales of Instahammer's Monster Month, I set myself the task of complete The Ancient One atop his zombie dragon. I'd be lying if I said it hasn't been a slog, but we've made it.

Who is The Ancient One? (The lore)

For decades, this vampire's spirit has walked the Realm of Death's many underworlds. Unfettered from his cadaver during bouts of deep sleep, he has travelled far in his hunger for knowledge and secrets. Most souls are all too eager to share their stories. Others are doomed to repeat their final moments or strongest memories; The Ancient One need only watch. Even the dead want to be heard.

Now his tower stirs again. Fell bats flock to the upmost turrets, crawling like lizards to rest in the rafters. Those humans and the other base creatures held in the laboratories huddle deeper in the shadows. Deep beneath even the duardins' old tunnels, rows of iron maidens rattle once more with madness and the crunch of mandibles. Acolytes long sequestered in their private quarters feel the winds shift and look up with red eyes and trembling hands, helpless against their father's will.

Back in possession of his remains, he pushes aside the lid of his sarcophagus and emerges into total darkness to record that knowledge, the secrets of the dead painted on reams of human skin that he might reread them, refer back to them, draw pleasure from them all over again in his quest to understand them. For only in understanding them does he make them his own. And they will be his.

"I come back to myself slowly, and the visions of the dead come with me. They dance in the corners of my eyes as I reach out to drag the vast stone cover from before me, retracing steps they once learned in life or else writhing from base memories of a different kind. A select few of them I recognise, their features etched into my being, bound to me or my holdings until such a time as I deem otherwise. Others I might recall once I have woken properly. Most of them are as faceless to me as the dead in my dreams and just as immaterial." Dark Awakening, Ch. 1

Bringing The Ancient One to un-life

You might recognise several of the parts used to convert The Ancient One and his mount. Much like his experiments, this vampire's model is made from a variety of different sculpts. At its base is the Tomb Kings Hierophant from the classic Casket of Souls set. There's a Spirit Host arm, an arm from the Warcry Beasts kit, several skulls from the Mortis Engine set, and a Terrorgheist with a Troglodon's head, which to my mind is super serpentine and draconic. The rest is Greenstuff.

(Curious? Check out some WIP shots.)

I think my favourite part is his gnarly expression, which I feel really captures the essence of the Necrarchs and the classic Vampire Counts artwork that has so inspired me. I hope you like him as much as I do. If so, I'd love to hear about it.

Related read: Sunday Spotlight: The Acolytes Five

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