T.A. Bres

@tabres.bsky.social

931 Followers 1849 Following

Writer, gamer, historian, world religion nerd, aspiring author. Periodically posting history essays and short stories here: https://vocal.media/authors/t-a-brescia

A memorial honoring those African captive slaves who drowned at sea. Clay busts of African men and women stand partially submerged in a pool, surrounded by cloth-wrapped sacred trees.
A tanuki exemplar from Pathfinder 2e brandishing his tanto menacingly/adorably, wearing a sake barrel for armor and its lid as a hat.
The cover art for The Spirit Princess, depicting the main characters - Zaphura and Alimazi - standing back-to-back and surrounded by the grasping claws of darkness. Alimazi brandishes a radiant spear of sunsteel, while Zaphura holds her adamantine staff and holy mask.
April Worldbuilders prompts - for today: Weapon used by a side character of the villain.
Basic anatomy diagram of a horse, showing the location of its shoulders as matching the area in question.
A mood board for the novel, The Spirit Princess. Picture on the top-right: A Nigerian staff-head depicting Papa Legba, the divine messenger, master of fate, patron of travelers, fertility, and all-around trickster. Center-left: A regional map of Fahomey, the region of Midaye where the story takes place. Center: Our protagonist, Zaphura, displaying her demonic left eye and her celestial right eye, along with the multicolored birthmarks that have forced her to live as an outcast for much of her life. Center-right: The author's depiction of a Nubian Isis (going by her Meroitic name of Wusa) - her heir lurks in the background of the story. Bottom left: An Aztec carving of Quetzalcoatl - Zaphura's bloodline includes coatl influence. Bottom right: A carving of Ereshkigal, the Mesopotamian goddess of death. Background: The veve of Maman Brigitte, Lwa of death and rebirth, wife of the more well-known Baron Samedi.
FantasyIndiesFebruary, hosted by @ChesneyInfalt, @LydiaVRussel. Today's prompt is 'Sweetheart Nicknames in WIP'
A mood board for the novel, The Spirit Princess. Picture on the top-right: A Nigerian staff-head depicting Papa Legba, the divine messenger, master of fate, patron of travelers, fertility, and all-around trickster. Center-left: A regional map of Fahomey, the region of Midaye where the story takes place. Center: Our protagonist, Zaphura, displaying her demonic left eye and her celestial right eye, along with the multicolored birthmarks that have forced her to live as an outcast for much of her life. Center-right: The author's depiction of a Nubian Isis (going by her Meroitic name of Wusa) - her heir lurks in the background of the story. Bottom left: An Aztec carving of Quetzalcoatl - Zaphura's bloodline includes coatl influence. Bottom right: A carving of Ereshkigal, the Mesopotamian goddess of death. Background: The veve of Maman Brigitte, Lwa of death and rebirth, wife of the more well-known Baron Samedi.
A height comparison chart approximating the visual difference/scale between a 5'2" woman and a 8'5" woman.
A black-and-white, pencil & ink drawing of a lion-headed divine serpent, after the style of Meroitic gods like Apedemak and Menhit.
A snippet of text from my WIP: Reckless anger, combined with a continuing sense of inexplicable empowerment, drove Zaphura to reach through her barrier and plunge her hand into one of the bulgu’s featureless eyes. As the demon howled with pain, a flurry of fleeting visions passed through Zaphura’s mind. Hundreds of different hands touched just as many different foes, each of whom succumbed to rot and decay. “Jenik onya!” Zaphura screamed. At once, necrotic energy flooded into the demon’s body, forcing a hideous death rattle from its collapsing lungs. The bulgu’s flesh bubbled with pustules before sloughing from its bones. The hollow armor and brittle skeleton left in the wake of Zaphura’s spell quickly collapsed and crumbled to dust.
The cover of the Factol's Manifesto, displaying the badges of Sigil's Factions, as of 2nd Edition.
Sun Wukong built via Age of Wonders 4 - a giant of a monkey with stony skin, glowing eyes, and his trusty staff (actually a glaive).
Ayida-Wedo, the Rainbow Serpent of the Vodoun Religion, appears amid rainbows and rainclouds. Though her feathers are rainbow hued, her scales are largely white - representing her male alter-ego/twin/husband Damballa, whom she always appears with.
297 followers O.o
When Zaphura took her first step into the Marrow Waste, she felt as though she had stepped into another reality altogether. Humidity, warmth, and the ever-present sounds of the rainforest had been left behind in the tunnel. On the other side of the Westwall, the land was chilly, dry, and silent. The air tasted stale and smelled repulsive, but not in any way that Zaphura could readily explain. With her second step, she noticed that the foothills were surprisingly springy beneath her feet, and covered in thin, black grass. Curious, she prodded the ground with her staff, and watched as it dimpled under pressure rather than gouging like dirt. Zaphura frowned a bit and willed the end of her staff into a sharper point, before jabbing it into the ground more forcefully. The ground beneath her staff parted, and viscous black blood began oozing up from the wound. It’s hair. Hair and skin and blood, she realized as she tried to fight down a rising wave of nausea. “H-how does one even track across…ground like this?” she asked the group, hoping in vain to be distracted from her discovery. “Moving quickly means harder steps, which means bruises.” Ez replied, crouching down and training her keen eyes across the nearby landscape. “Hairs also get torn out, and take some time to grow back.” “Oh gods…why did I ask–” Zaphura muttered, before heaving a mouthful of bile out onto the ground.