Tephra Iconic: Sir Henry Black October 20, 2016 19:03 13 Comments

 

I absolutely love the Tephra community and everyone in it. The discussions and ideas going on in our groups remind me that creativity doesn’t stop. Luiz Prado created this lovely fan art of Sir Henry Black last week, and it inspired me to dedicate this week’s blog post to Sir Henry Black’s origin and story. Thanks Luiz Prado for your wonderful work!



Born into the gentry and gaining inheritance to the estate after his parents’ death, Henry Black sought to give meaning to his life beyond his wealth. When the Hurricane Wars began, he left control of his country estate to his wife, Jessica Black, and engaged in battle after battle during the long Hurricane Wars.

When the wars subsided, he returned to his family home with several military honors, only to learn that there was a rebellion at his doorstep. A new domestic war began for Henry as he took up arms with the Royalists while his wife offered the Black Estate funds to the Militarists. This rift only widened between Henry and Jessica, who had gained powerful and influential friends in his absence.

During dinner one late evening, Jessica Black poisoned her husband’s meal and buried him in the woods. Henry barely survived, awaking from a brief coma and digging himself free from his muddy grave. After recovering, he proceeded to fight the Militarist threat and was later knighted for his efforts.

After so much war, Henry sought to focus on his faith and joined the Tailemite Church, favoring the peaceful life of a priest for the rest of his days. He found that he could not quell his adventurous spirit, however, and he left service to the church to take up law enforcement. This would be a brief role for Henry, as he found the system to be corrupt and inefficient, despite his attempts to change it. He soon broke away again and took to traveling, offering help to those who needed it and preaching the teachings of Tailemy on the way.

The character design for Sir Henry Black and Jessica Black are an homage to Tephra developer Henry White and his wife, Jessica. Henry’s tendency to play paladin-like characters became the strongest influence for this iconic character, and the tragic story that he and his wife developed give this character an amazing strength.

Thank you all for reading, and on behalf of Cracked Monocle, thank you to Luiz for this beautiful piece. If any of you would like to see more art by Luiz, you can check out his Facebook page here and his DeviantArt page here. Luiz is also doing “Inktober,” and his daily ink drawings are something to behold. You can find Sir Henry Black in our Rapid-Fire Guide, here. For more information on Jessica Black, check out our adversary book here. Until next time, Cheers and Gears!