Hi everyone! I'm Hanin, the illustrator of Kaya's Guide to The Fabric of History, and here with another character design breakdown! This time it's the Cleric subclass, Chroniclers Domain!

The Cleric of the Chroniclers Domain thinks that history should be written and learn from, but most importantly documented. They will scribe from scrolls, tomes and spellbooks, retain glass projections, and record history as it happens.

For this illustration, we wanted to experiment with the page layout itself. This is another character that was focused on the subclass “at work” and we wanted the character giving a history lesson to a class or audience.

For this we had to split an illustration into 3 separate components: the character, the projector, and the screen. For the character we knew we wanted a Kenku Cleric, and we also applied the appropriate deity symbol on the back of his garb. The projector was originally going to be part of the Cleric, as he was holding the projector on his head and switching the slides from there. He has an enthusiasm for teaching history and is a bit chaotic about it. For the background, I downloaded a specific brush that gave a script effect for this.

I couldn’t think of a way to get it to work, so in the end I separated the cleric and projector, which is I think is for the best. As for the projector itself, it’s a magic lantern, which is an early type of projector that used glass slides. For the projection itself, it had to be a tall image to put on the side, so we went with a projection of a Rapunzel-adjacent story.

And that’s the cleric! I am quite happy with how this one came out.