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Forum thread Necromancy
Alright, I thought my next piece of art was going to be the air elemental rider... Which it almost was, then school and work got in the way
; I wasn't making that piece to be anything grand, and I hope to have it up sometime after GDC.
GDC however, does not move for my schedule, and I wanted to create a grand piece for it. Elemental gave me just the inspiration, so here I give the creature I want to see most of all!
The life elemental: A being of neither life nor death, but holds the essense of both in pure magic form.
Or as Master of Magic players might call it: The Phantom Beast!

Of course it isn't the exact same hulking blue brute as in master of magic. This is a spiced up Landish version. Details such as this wouldn't be possible in ye-old 8-bit / 640x480 master of magic graphics.
The phantom beast was my favorite unit in master of magic, having won countless battles as a sorcery wizard simply starting the battle and then summoning two or three of these fiends. Ever since War of Magic was announced I wondered if my favorite unit would make a come-back. Obviously, he couldn't be the generic "sorcery' summon, since this game is based around elements. So I figured, he would be a creature of the "Life" Element. The phantom warriors were not undead, but they were not exactly living either, so to me it makes perfect sense to claim
the phantom units were living magic, the purest form of life magic.
The phantom beast I have drawn here is how I would have updated it, giving the a more ghostly figure with the skeleton being seen inside the blue exterior. This creature is more wolf-like than the ape-like phantom of MoM, also the head takes a bit from a dinosaur skull, and the hands being those of an ape or human with claws. The center of life, the creature's heart, can be seen glowing from the core of the creature, which I think gives a very cool effect.
I spent a long time on the background, since I wanted this to be a cornerstone for my portfolio at GDC this year (next week). So since I had to pick a moderatly high resolution to best show my talents, and because I wanted it to be among the best work I ever created, I prepared it so I can also use it as a computer desktop wallpaper (fullscreen). If anybody else wants to use it as a wallpaper, it can be found here in full 1600x1200 resolution.
"BUT WAIT!" You might say, "You can't post that here, it isn't a mount. Its just a fantastic beast!"
"Uh.... uh...."
"uh... "
... "LOOK A THREE HEADED MONKEY!" *points behind you*
(that doesn't work in text form as well as it does in person)
Anyway, in the amount of time I imagine you took to look behind you for the aformentioned three headed monkey (it was a long look anyway, certainly more than just a glance. In my mind you were staring off for about 5 min) I created a solution. So here it is: The mount I want to see 

See, now its a mount!
The horns were part of early concept work. One of my friends said he thought it would look better with horns, so I tried it out. I didn't think if felt enough like a 'phantom beast' however, so I decided to scrap the horns and instead give it pointy wolf ears. Here though, the horns make a comeback to support a shoulder mounted slingshot/catapult.