One of my favorite video games of all time is the 1992 tactical role-playing game Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention. I first played it on a Sega Smash Pack 2 CD-ROM that my best friend lent me on-and-off throughout the eary 2000s until he eventually burnt a copy for me to keep. I don't think any other video game has had such an influence on what I find interesting in terms of genre fiction conventions and character design. Long before I read The Book of the New Sun or watched Nausicaa, Shining Force introduced me to a world built on the ruins of an ancient apocalypse populated by primeval automatons and itinerant swordsmen. From the moment I first played it I was obsessed. I've heard that it's not a very good tactical RPG, that it's dated, easy, and repetitive. Maybe that's true, I don't have anything to compare it to. However, I still boot it up every once in a while when I'm laid up in bed with a cold and play through the first couple hours.

Every time I've played through it I've started (and stopped) designing my own roster of "Shining Force type" characters. The in-game characters are just so fun (centaur with a bazooka, armadillo with a steam-powered hardsuit, telekinetic jellyfish, to name a few) that they get my creative juices flowing. In early 2022 when I was trying my hand at being a full-time illustrator and when I was also laid up with Covid re-playing Shining Force yet again, I made my first serious attempt as an adult to draw a whole bunch of Shining Force characters. This became Brilliant Legion. I had hoped to turn it into another Barlowe's Guide-style book on the heels of finishing Burzok's Mercenary Handbook with my friends. Life happens, however, and I never got the time to finish it. And really, there are enough character handbooks and fake video game guides being put out by better artists than I. If I ever do make another book it's really about time I try my hand at comics.

That said, here's what came out of the Brilliant Legion drawing sessions:

I could probably tighten up this logo if I tried again, but overall I still like how it came out.

Foxfire

The first character I tried. I never really realized it as a kid, but the guy who designed the characters for Shining Force (Yoshitaka Tamaki, RIP) was probably a furry. It becomes a lot more clear if you check out his work on Feda: The Emblem of Justice (which I really want to play some time). Anyway, this one would need to be reworked if I ever actually made the book. Most of the Shining Force characters have two stages: a base stage and a promoted stage. This design feels somewhere in between.

Mielomancy is a form of hedge-magic practiced to some degree or other by beekeepers throughout the realm who have the knack. Like other hedge-magics it is considered base and plebian by academic mages and is thus poorly documented. What is known is that dabblers in the art, generally termed “Apicultists,” are capable of communing with and commanding their insectoid charges as well as exerting rudimentary noetic control over honey. Full-fledged Mielomancers have developed these skills to such an extent that their consciousness exists in a symbiotic communion with their bees and they can shape honey into fearsome weapons or purifying balms. Such powerful mages often take up lifestyles as itinerant warriors or miracle workers.

I know everyone's done the "what if I made a wizard out of the medieval beekeeping PPE" but I'm still proud of my take on the concept.

The age of the Ancients is thought to have been lacking in magic (whether from lack of knowledge or ability is unknown) with the singular exception of Psionics. It is believed that in those days, Psions were numerous, their schools prestigious, and their methods highly-developed. The Ancient Psionic masters were said even to interface noetically with complex artifices, creating a seamless and powerful marrying of man with machine.

Following the various collapses and declines that have led to the present day, Psionics retreated from its central position and is now considered one of the more esoteric branches of magic. Its practitioners are strict ascetics and must train under masters for years before they are able to fully grasp the complex mind/body synthesis central to the art. Those willing to pay the heavy price of a life given over to such intense study, however, are rewarded with abilities regarded as among the most powerful achieved by any present-day thaumaturge.

Psions are known to travel the realm in search of relics of the ancients- artifacts whose latent power can only be released and channeled by the skilled application of their art. Contemporary Master Psions can be easily identified by their myriad mechanical prosthetics- artificial extensions of the senses and abilities accumulated over a lifetime of study and dedication.

If the book ever got made, this character class was going to have branching promotions with the secondary promotion being psionic hardsuit pilot. I never got around to drawing that.

Those who would cross the desert wastes with their purse and body intact had better keep a keen eye on the dunes and a quick hand on their powder horn.

This guy I was mostly thinking about in terms of gameplay (like in my wildest dreams if I made a Shining Force knockoff character handbook and it somehow got made into a Shining Force knockoff video game) The character has high mobility and damage but low ranged accuracy unless the eagle is deployed near an enemy as a spotter. Melee attacks can be made with the bayonet but an enemy must still be at least a tile away.

The fishermen on the great lake have no need to waste their time angling. They instead employ their trusty avian familiars to snatch prey straight out of the water. The birds are kept well fed for their hard work.

Based on cormorant fisherman. Gameplay-wise, the fisherwoman would be able to deploy her two birds to attack enemies far away, but the birds are vulnerable when used this way. I never got around to drawing the promoted stage, but I had planned for the cormorants to metamorphasize into bird-wyvern hybrids. You can see my attempt at a design for that above. I'd like to give it another shot when I have a chance some time.

Sadly, those are the only drawings I finished, although I maintain a long word doc with character ideas and gameplay notes.

BONUS: I made several color variants for the logo. People seemed to like black the most, but I still think the others are pretty cool.