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Description
The last major character from my novel I'd like to share for now is Galen Jiagu, one of the main players in the book's B plot. He's a shrewd, grizzled politician running for mayor of Eagle Crest. His entire life has been defined by strife and struggle, and he's decided that the only way to fix things is to do it himself. While many will accuse him of being cold and calculating, others point out the legitimate good he's done for his community through volunteer work and donations. That's not to say he doesn't have any skeletons in his closet. Every politician does, and the strongest evidence is the fact that none of his close family will associate with him anymore. He didn't get to where he is by playing goody two-shoes his whole life. He's made hard decisions, sacrificed much, and did some things he's not proud of. But he always did what he believed was right. He believes he is truly what's best for Eagle Crest, and he'll do what it takes to rid it of scum like the Gévaudan Club.

During the events of the novel, as election day is coming around the corner, Galen gets involved with the investigation of private detective Rhett Fievel, recruiting him to look into… difficult to reach corners of the city's shadows. Fievel doesn't entirely trust him, but then again, he doesn't entirely trust anyone. For now, they're after the same thing: getting rid of the Gévaudan Club. The enemy of my enemy, and all that. As they begin to encounter more and more supernatural complications, though, the line of who's on whose side becomes blurrier and blurrier. Things are getting weird at this critical time, and if they make the wrong calls, everything could fall into chaos.

Design notes, I really wanted to lean into a modern Genghis Khan sort of vibe for Galen. A big man with big dreams, willing to get his hands a little dirty to climb the ladder in his town. I tried to combine a bit of Chinese street fashion with traditional Mongolian steppe clothing to achieve that effect, and I think it came out alright. Might be a little too extravagant, but I could still see this gentleman standing at the podium giving a speech. The coat is definitely holding the rest of the composition together. Initially I took some inspiration from Roman von Ungern-Sternberg's uniform in those old photos you find of him. If you don't know, Roman was this psychotic German baron who murdered his way into becoming a Mongolian warlord so that he could create a new Mongol Empire and use it to try and conquer all of Russia. However, it didn't pan out as I continued to build the initial sketch, and Galen isn't on the same level of coocoo for cocoa puffs that Roman was anyways, so echoing him wouldn't have made all that much sense in the grand scheme of things. I did however keep the little tassel clasp things you see on the baron's uniform as a decorative element though. I'm sure there's a proper name for them, I apologize for my ignorance-

Room for improvement, certainly, but for now it does a good job of giving me a mental image while I write his scenes.

Description
The last major character from my novel I'd like to share for now is Galen Jiagu, one of the main players in the book's B plot. He's a shrewd, grizzled politician running for mayor of Eagle Crest. His entire life has been defined by strife and struggle, and he's decided that the only way to fix things is to do it himself. While many will accuse him of being cold and calculating, others point out the legitimate good he's done for his community through volunteer work and donations. That's not to say he doesn't have any skeletons in his closet. Every politician does, and the strongest evidence is the fact that none of his close family will associate with him anymore. He didn't get to where he is by playing goody two-shoes his whole life. He's made hard decisions, sacrificed much, and did some things he's not proud of. But he always did what he believed was right. He believes he is truly what's best for Eagle Crest, and he'll do what it takes to rid it of scum like the Gévaudan Club.

During the events of the novel, as election day is coming around the corner, Galen gets involved with the investigation of private detective Rhett Fievel, recruiting him to look into… difficult to reach corners of the city's shadows. Fievel doesn't entirely trust him, but then again, he doesn't entirely trust anyone. For now, they're after the same thing: getting rid of the Gévaudan Club. The enemy of my enemy, and all that. As they begin to encounter more and more supernatural complications, though, the line of who's on whose side becomes blurrier and blurrier. Things are getting weird at this critical time, and if they make the wrong calls, everything could fall into chaos.

Design notes, I really wanted to lean into a modern Genghis Khan sort of vibe for Galen. A big man with big dreams, willing to get his hands a little dirty to climb the ladder in his town. I tried to combine a bit of Chinese street fashion with traditional Mongolian steppe clothing to achieve that effect, and I think it came out alright. Might be a little too extravagant, but I could still see this gentleman standing at the podium giving a speech. The coat is definitely holding the rest of the composition together. Initially I took some inspiration from Roman von Ungern-Sternberg's uniform in those old photos you find of him. If you don't know, Roman was this psychotic German baron who murdered his way into becoming a Mongolian warlord so that he could create a new Mongol Empire and use it to try and conquer all of Russia. However, it didn't pan out as I continued to build the initial sketch, and Galen isn't on the same level of coocoo for cocoa puffs that Roman was anyways, so echoing him wouldn't have made all that much sense in the grand scheme of things. I did however keep the little tassel clasp things you see on the baron's uniform as a decorative element though. I'm sure there's a proper name for them, I apologize for my ignorance-

Room for improvement, certainly, but for now it does a good job of giving me a mental image while I write his scenes.