Valac - King of the Dead (Happy Halloween!)

Oh man, today brings us another blessed MWTX artwork post!

Valac is one of 'those' characters from Cryopod Classic. You know the ones. Boring, one dimensional, they kinda barely even existed at all...

Originally, Valac was born out of a need to stick "someone" inside Blaarjiim's orb of darkness. Since I'm closing all those plotholes from Classic, but I still wanted Valac to be a character in Refresh, I completely threw out his old design and make him a flesh and blood character.

...So to speak. I mean, he has neither flesh nor blood, but...

Okay, you get the point.

This image below was the initial design for Valac.

I found this while browsing Google Images, and it was such an interesting character design that before I even started Refresh, I knew I wanted to create a character based off it.

The details of Valac's personality shifted over time. Eventually, he became a rhyming trickster who manipulates souls, but that only happened about around Part 60 of Refresh, when I started really planning ahead for the War in Heaven arc.

Observant Cryopodders may also notice that his design bears a striking resemblance to Mephisto.

This is not a coincidence. The two of them are intertwined in Cryopod Refresh's lore, and they share a lot of similar traits... not least of which are their abilities to reanimate the dead.

However, a war is coming. The fandom will have to pick their favorite character, and I don't know which will win.

Meanwhile...

Check out all the WIP art that MWTX made along the way! If you want to see WIP art as drawings are being made, make sure to become my patron, join the Discord server at https://discord.gg/uTmq2dM ! Then, link your Patreon account to your Discord.

From the very beginning, this design was awesome. The image above is the very first mockup sketch, and already it's phenomenal.

We progressed along, adding colors and flashy things until finally it became the image at the top.

Overall, I think this is my third favorite of all of MWTX's art, right after Satan and Mephisto.

Join my Patreon if you want to help pay Raul a living wage! In addition to paying my rent, I give him almost all of my leftover money. Every dollar helps!

Thanks for reading :)