TATRA: Highlanders

October 2022
Note: If you're willing to see my design process, check my other works. I did not intend to come up with a design of one specific character along the way, just shooting off ideas for fun, also being curious how good stuff I am able to produce in shorter time/less iterations. Yes, this was a fanart project :) I longed for a slavic/polish iteration of AC and I think that the times of partitions (1772-1795) and peasant uprising (1846) are perfect background for it.

I've created the project around October 2022 by dwelling into local southern-Polish half-legends and getting inspired by few rogues who where rebels or simply bandits in Beskid and Carpathian region. I planned to make way more designs, but now I have different plans on my plate and will just release it as it is :)
The historical (or legendary) figures I've been inspired by are Slovak Janosik, Klimczok, Ondraszek and Jakub Szela.
Janosik, Klimczok and Ondraszek were highlander bandits, while Szela was the leader of a bloody peasant uprising against the Polish gentry in Galicia in 1846 against serfdom.
All those figures remain controversial, being perceived as heroes or criminals, depending who you ask.
They are conceptual inspirations and I was not trying to reconstruct any specific figure. I was inspired by polish highlanders (górals), slovak, but also ukrainian hutsuls and romanian highlander culture.
But most importantly, felt inspired after reading "The Tale of the Serpent’s Heart" by Radek Rak.
Also, just wanted to do some slavic dark characters for a long time, especially in highlander culture setting, which is close to my heart :) I also played some AC at that time, but making a simple fanart did not sound fun for me. So i studied what defines Assassin's Creed character designs, searching for and decyphering characteristic elements - it was super satisfying.