Song for the day: Monster by Detekivbyran

(Slight spoilers for Mimsy and Dylan's Veritas, moderate spoilers for Red. I can not tell you if his does or doesn't come up in book but as of the beginning of AMALGAMA he has no idea what it is and has never consciously activated it. Also TW for mild nudity? Super mild. Literally so mild.)

The Amalgams all have different relations with their true self, or 'Veritas'. For some of them (COUGH COUGH MARY), it's just an even bigger, meaner weapon to go beat people up with. Others see it as a natural extension of themselves, like Dylan, and then Red sees it as something dangerous and alien that he's not going to poke with a ten-foot pole. Regardless, I did some mid-transformation sketches to illustrate the point.

Mimsy's Veritas is a giant cat with a mask. She's chill with it, to say the least, but she would probably stay in it all the time if it weren't obtrusive (big white cats are high-visibility). It comes up a few times in my last art book and will come up a few in this one, but I never promise to draw Veritas because they're all super complex and I never follow through on it.

Dylan, Red, and Kali all have some form of a skull incorporated into their Veritas forms. Dylan's Veritas-exclusive power ties him into the world, allowing him to see the bronze lifelines of living beings and, depending on their relative level of intelligence, toggle them at will. Dylan doesn't get much combat in which is why he's especially thrilled here.

(Quick Chronaverse note: interdimensional bonds with the self are generally coded 'gold', bonds between individuals are coded 'silver', and lifelines are coded 'bronze'. Sometimes both of the former are coded gold, but generally, gold is self, silver is close acquaintances, and bronze deals more with physical matter or large-scale groups with which has no connection.)

Red's big motifs have moved over the two years (three in September! birthday boy) I've been developing him from fire and death to invasive plants and death. He's always had a bit of a noose motif around the neck but I like the idea that he is, to some extent, literally consumed by small, dark plants, as if his energy is being sapped by something... or someone... hmmmmm. I won't go any further of this and I hope not to post his Veritas pics until I finish and post the whole book, but until then, consider this a teaser!

If you do want to see any more Veritas, I swear I'm terrible at this and might not get around to it, but tell me and I'll make it happen at some point. If you don't know the characters, hop on over to AMALGAMA. This art book is supposed to be mostly newbie-friendly, between spoiler warnings, introductions, and the fact that you can see art with your eyes whether you've read the books or not, but it's much better if you know what's going on. That is to say, the promotions will continue. :P