IOT4: Fighting Nightmares by @Thorvald (El Thorvaldo)

Fourth of four illustrations for the epilogue to Imperium Offtopicum IV, September 2010. Completing the trend of 'leaving no deficiency un-agonized', though the soldiers' poses are solid, I should've done more with the Abhorrents.

When the game started to slacken, I had the bright idea of giving everyone nukes in the hope the warmongers would kill themselves off and a "winner" could be scavenged from the surviving wreckage. Turns out even this wasn't enough to push it through to the end, so I finally just pulled the plug. One of the players voiced interest in continuing the story, so I began drafting an epilogue as a springboard for a sequel that I would ultimately end up running.

Despite xenophobic bluster, the Kaetif are ultimately fellow victims. Not so the "Abhorrents"—monstrous creatures that thrive in the irradiated Red Zones, and act as a universal 'barbarian' faction in the sequel game. Their origins and physiology were never made clear, but following one player's full-throated embrace of the villainous role in The Aftermath, they became a vector for super-soldiers in a never-realized revenge campaign.

Originally submitted to Buzzly.art November 2021; reuploaded to DeviantArt February 2022.