the Earth Colossus by Partin-Arts on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

This is my Earth Colossus entry for the Rift Contest. This was by far a really fun experience, given how long it's been since I've entered any kind of art contest at all, so between Rift and Deviantart.com, THANK YOU!

Now to be 100% honest I've never actually played Rift but indeed I want to now God help me, I read up a little about the Earth Plane to conjure up some ideas and from what I discovered(and by all means don't fear to correct me on anything I misunderstood in any way) I thought of a beast that could blend in to the environment, including the rocky ores around it when submerging itself in sand for concealment. When approaching the Earthly theme, I from the start wanted to create a creature that could/would fit into that bonus/special/side quest boss sort of category. In RPGs you see these kind of bosses all the time, especially in the Final Fantasy series, and they pretty much Always come complete with considerable rewards if you manage to defeat them.

With this character, who's almost completely composed of various sorts of crystals and metallic elements, the prize at hand could go a number of ways, especially on the financial scale; I mean lets face it, you kill a monster of that size carrying that much ruby, sapphire, emerald, gold, iron, amethyst, diamond, etc etc, you are Set for LIFE. But to defeat this colossus, that's where I wanted to get creative on the strategic level.

As you see on the picture under the main creature pose, standard melee attacks aren't its only means of combat, because this thing can wield the power of the sun as its deadliest weapon during the day, thanks to the crystals on its body. By lifting its palms to the sky, the specially shaped diamonds in its hands surge concentrated sun rays through its hollow body that is littered with other crystals which further intensify the rays. these rays are then re-emitted through its exterior crystals(as well as its eye) and the desert area around it is incinerated and reduced to glass. This idea was fun for me because I pictured this as a way for players to hunt for it and track its movements in the desert regions because if you were to stumble upon a trail of heated glass you may be looking at where this monster is going. Thus, needless to say, if you Really want to win than confronting it in the daytime may not be the wisest move. At night however, it doesn't mean it's much less dangerous, because aside from the fact the creature can burrow under the sand, it also breathes powerful storms of sand and glass shards, which do plenty of damage.

So, in short: Don't fight it during daylight, and make plenty sure you have some serious experience, magic, armor, and weaponry. Anyway, sorry to you all for my long-windedness, this was just an exciting occasion, creature designing, Always a pleasure. Hopefully I'll be able to deliver more monsters, especially for the next time, but until then, I hope you all liked this one!