Harrek the Berserk & Gunda the Guilty Art Preview

Posted on June 20, 2013

Another lovely picture by Mike Perry.

Note that these match the description from Greg (whose notes with descriptions of Harrek going back to the 70s gave a big black mustache to the guy despite that being ignored by William Church). And that is the look of Harrek.

Gunda comes across as Wagnerian, because she is Wagnerian. She’s explicitly based on Rackham’s Brünnhilde – which is exactly the visual inspiration for Gunda the Guilty.

Here’s the art description:
Harrek the Berserk: Harrek is a savage, half-mad killing demigod. He comes from a brutal, savage homeland and killed and bound his people’s own god, the White Bear, to serve him (or perhaps he serves it). His savagery and brutality have saved his life many times, and he defers to them in most unfamiliar situations. He has never lost a fight.
The White Bear is his slave, or perhaps he of it. They work in close conjunction, with two intimately linked consciousnesses.
Harrek is a massive (seven foot tall), extremely-muscular, brownish-skinned man with long unkempt hair who always wears an oversize, shaggy white bear cloak. He’s got a huge shaggy black mustache, but no beard. He appears to be middle-aged.
Outside of combat, the bear head hangs behind Harrek’s head. In combat or uncertain situations, it is over his head like a helmet, his face looking out through its fanged jaws, with the lower jaw under his neck. The bear’s eyes look around, its ears turn, and sometimes it can be heardsniffing. The hide’s forepaws envelop his hands, and he can extend black six-inch claws at will. These do not inhibit his manual dexterity.

His default expression is a scowl, posture is menacing and with bestial awareness.
He wears a sword on his left hip (a kopis as descripted in the attached pictures), a bronze axe on his right (like this

and sometimes carries a large shield.
He wears a necklace of crude charms, with many others on his felt and sewn or attached to the inside of the cloak.
Viewed with magic, he is extremely powerful with animal vitality and power. The cloak has its own aura and surrounds the man’s. Several of the charms are powerful spirits in their own right.
Depictions of Harrek are attached to this email. Other depictions over the years included: 

Gunda the Guilty: This daughter of a barbarian warrior woman and cruel immortal sorcerer has spent her life in war and piracy. She is most famous for her stay with the notorious Queen of the Kiss whose lips seduced man, woman, and monster alike into sworn obedience. Of those so trapped, only Gunda broke the spell, her oath, and the Queen’s back – but at the cost of never knowing love. Shortly thereafter she met Harrek, and from that meeting their friendship has grown.
Gunda is a stunningly beautiful woman with pale-white skin, and long blonde hair. Despite its beauty, her face is a mask of cold cruelty.
Overall, Gunda looks like a “valkyrie”. She carries a long, deadly spear, and broad, leaf-shaped sword at her side. Her helmet has wings or horns (your pick, but if horns, they should be in the style of a Celtic Horned Helmet:

or if wings, you might look at

Her armor is reminiscent of the Arthur Rackham “Valkyrie”:

This was originally posted on Google+, archived on TapaTalk

Jeff Richard

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