Vroll
History of Vroll's creation | Current art reference | Character info
Whenever I ask for a drawing of Vroll, I often get the response: "Ohh! Andrewsarchus!" Well, yes and no. Vroll was based on Andrewsarchus mongoliensis, but she has deviated as I've added features from living critters that I like. Not to mention that with only a partial skull available from Andrewsarchus mongoliensis no one really knows what they looked like, though we can extrapolate from other complete mesonychid fossils.
Vroll's creation history
At one point, probably in 2001 or 2002, I bought a small Andrewsarchus toy figure. I've searched on the web and can't find it, and I can't find the figure itself because I've moved several times since then and things are still in boxes and in storage. It's somewhere and someday I'll dig it up and get some photos of it. It did look very similar to this:
I really liked the look of it- the slight mane, the stripes, the way the eyes are set a third down the length of the head.
I did a sketch of an Andrewsarchus in 2002:
And later colored it:
I really liked this drawing but did nothing more with it. Too complicated to draw with that crazy coat pattern, I suspect. :D
Life stuff happened- I got laid off, moved a couple of times, and was pretty unsettled. I finally found decent employment and started sketching again. During a meeting while taking notes I sketched this (probably in 2006):
The character intrigued me and I remembered the old Andrewsarchus drawing I had done. I liked the way one sketch was fluffy and one was smooth. I did more sketches of it:
Tons of sketches, and I decided to give the character relevance by sticking it into one of my stories. I decided to make her female because the other two main characters (elves) were male. That and I liked how she didn't LOOK female.
Then she needed a name! I'm a big fan of male trolls in World of Warcraft, so I named her Vroll, except that "Vroll" is what humans and elves would call her. Her name is actually a lot harder to pronounce, as is her species: Kruvaas. I suspect the double a in "Kruvaas" is an homage to C.S. Friedman's wonderful hraas species (from her book The Madness Season (awesome book, btw). I don't remember deliberately doing that but I did reread The Madness Season recently, so who knows.
On my drive back and forth from work I thought a lot about the Kruvaas, their language, and how Vroll came to live at Khangard (the keep where Dalan and Jarival, the two elves, live.) Khangard is set out on large rolling plains on the very edge of a large empire, two months' travel from civilization. Khangard's location is based on Mongolia... and hey, Andrewsarchus mongoliensis! How neat. :D
I won't get into much more about Vroll's story history except basic character traits.
Current reference art, 2010
I used several animals in finalizing Vroll's look. She has the black throat patch, stripes, and fuzziness/mane of the striped hyena, the long body of a weasel, the white ear markings (doubled) of a tiger, the facial markings of a genet (stretched to fit her long head) and the narrow stripes of a thylacine. Her feet are somewhat tapir-like (and she moves like a tapir too). I also made her head fairly crocodilian, long and with her eyes set 1/3 down her head from her ears.
Vroll's traits
Name: Vroll (as pronounced by elves and humans in the story)
Species: Kruvaas
Sex: Female
Age: Middle-aged for a Kruvaas, about 35 years old (they can live to be about 80)
Height: 6 feet tall at the withers (shoulder) (1.83m)
Weight: 1500lbs (680kg)
Eye color: Light bluish-green
Coat color: Bluish-grey
Personality: Confident but not arrogant, nor a bully. She has a good sense of humor and can laugh at herself. She's fairly even tempered and aware of her size in relation to the elves and humans around her. She's friendly enough but is happier away from the stares and reactions of humans and elves who aren't used to her. She is constantly befuddled by how complicated elves and humans make their lives and thinks everyone should just run off onto the plains and live like Kruvaas. She doesn't dwell on the future, but very much holds a grudge from the past.
Species information: Kruvaas live in clans of 5-15 individuals. There is a hierarchical order with alphas at the top and lower ranked individuals at the bottom. Only one or two cubs are born at a time and they are slow to mature, nursing for 2 years and finally being weaned by 3. They don't reach full adult growth until about 15 years old. Their language is a combination of growls, hisses, vowel sounds, teeth clicks and body language. While primarily carnivorous they are capable of eating anything, and they are not picky. Family groups can break apart and reform every few years, though it is possible a male and female will stay together for the length of their lives. Coat patterns vary with stripes and spots and patches, though often these markings are regional and serve as a visual indicator of where a Kruvaas has come from. Kruvaas appreciate forthrightness- a stranger lurking on the edge of a territory, skulking about, will likely be chased and killed, while a stranger who approaches boldly and bearing a gift will received more gracefully.
It's nice to have recorded this... my memory is so bad it's hard for me to remember how my characters got created, but I've found the internet is helping to track this stuff. :D