If you do not know, the Tuatha de Danann are figures in Irish mythology commonly equated to gods. Except it's more complicated than that. While cognate deities for the figures can be found commonly in other European nations with Celtic pasts, in the Irish cannon they are described as the fifth in a line of six migrations to the island. Instead of gods, they are simply described as a race of supernatural humans who arrived in an all encompassing mist, conquering the previous inhabitants, the 'Fir Bolg'. Going to war with another supernatural race, the 'Fomorians'. Before being invaded and defeated by the 'Milesians' said to be the ancestors of the modern inhabitants. In defeat a deal was struck, the Milesians would have the surface, while the Tuatha would have the otherworld under the mounds, their descendants becoming the 'Aes Sidhe', the 'People of the Mounds' known commonly today as 'Fairies'. It's important to note, that this version of events was penned by Christian scholars, and it's likely this pseudo historical tale is in fact metaphorical. The pagan religion of the Irish being represented by their gods, the Milesians representing the Christian future of their people. Christians un-deifying pagan gods was common practice during missionary practice in post-roman Europe, allowing cultures to keep their mythologies while demoting the stature of their deities as to be compatible with monotheism. In the case of the Tuatha de Danann, this decrease in stature was made literal, as well as figurative.

Playing around with the idea of fairy wings. Skin of the throat opens up to reveal larynx and vibrates like the wings of an insect. It's this diabolical sound which allows the fairy to manipulate reality. Fairies are deathly allergic to iron, instead of blood, a copper-based Haemolymph runs through their veins, hence the blue flesh. The symbol on the stone is a Pictish Z rod.

Most of my other drawings of the Tuatha de Dannan are in states of either nakedness or semi-nakedness, trying to capture the kind of tribal primitivist aesthetic you see in a lot of media surrounding ancient Celts. In the mythology however, this is not the case, the Tuatha are described as advanced, sophisticated, masters of many crafts and "diabolical arts". So I'm trying to introduce more of that into my designs, what's been difficult about that is try to figure out what a highly advanced 'alien' bronze-age culture looks like, especially one taking inspiration from pre-roman Celtic culture for which we have minimal sources. The robe and jacket this character is wearing is actually a wholesale copy of the 16th century Irish leine and ionar which if I understand correctly was common Gaelic clothing for the time, the Ogham hemmed tabard down the middle is my own addition. The helmet is an exaggerated take on a bronze age Celtic head-gear, along with the torque around the neck, large moustache and lime-stiffened spiky hair cut harkening back to those stereo-typical depictions of Celtic warriors. This Mash up of time periods is meant to create an kind of un-tethered idea of what Cletic culture might have looked like had it been allowed to develop undisturbed. Maybe in another world? A pocket dimension perhaps? of course he's sporting the three pupiled eyes and blue blood typical of fairies. The thing coming out of his finger is a pheromonal manipulator for casting glamours.

The 'Father deity' of the Tuatha de Danann, which is odd because within the myths he isn't even their first king, that honour goes to Nuada. Dagda Is said to wield a giant club that kills with one end and resurrects with the other, an enchanted cauldron which never runs dry, and a magic harp, which he uses to manipulate the emotions of his enemies.

Concepts for the Irish gods Dagda, Nuada and Ogma. In some parts of Irish mythology the Tuatha de Danann, specifically Lugh, are described as having multiple pupils, ranging from three to seven in some cases. I thought this fit strangely well with the insectoid theme present in many modern fairy depictions (invented by the Victorians). The shape of some Celtic helmets also lend themselves to this. The one on the left for instance (Daga), is based on the helm of waterloo, which has two conical protrusions that always reminded me of the horns of a snail. The one on the right (Ogma) I've just turned into a giant floating moth-head. Supposedly he was so gifted in the realm of speech he was able to bend any man to his will, usually represented in imagery by his pierced tongue being attached to the ears of three or four men by thin chains.

A reimagining of the character from a midsummer night's dream as a sleazy club owner.

Minor world building for my friend's DND campaign. My character, Milkdud (the man covered in dirt) is a warlock who's mother traded him to a tooth-fairy turned patron, Ficklebreeze, for a magic cow, prefaced on the lie that her son could produce more milk. Now spurred on by an irrational hatred of all things bovine, Milkdud travels the land on a never ending quest for blood and milk, all in an effort to feed Ficklebreeze's thirsty forest of tooth-trees, lest he become one himself. (If Milkdud doesn't wet his blade with milk in a fortnight he starts growing rows of teeth exponentially).

Trying to figure out Fairy-based body-horror. The idea was that the standing stones were alive in some way, and a conduit to a plain where an ancient civilization (the Tuatha de Danann) had uploaded their minds. Through the stones they could manipulate the biological material around them through "erotic suggestion". And that historically witches were just people traded over their bodies for biological assimilation in exchange for power in life and upload to the immortal fae realm in death.

My interpretation of Cernunnos, Celtic deity of fertility and the hunt. He has a bong for a willy. It represents the cyclical nature of life.

I was thinking about that time they grew a human ear on a rat.

He has snakes for feet.

Self-explainatory.

In the original folklore, it's said that redcap goblins live on the borderlands between England and Scotland, where reaving was common on both sides. There they would peruse corpse filled battlegrounds, dipping their bonnets in the forming puddles of blood, for if the caps ever went dry they would shrivel and perish. I like to think this gave them an incentive to stoke animosity between the nations, keeping the blood flowing. And that maybe, after the last war in the union was fought, they went on to follow the locals outwards, finding new conflicts to parasitize. After all, who's put down more borders than the British?

A pile of people assimilating themselves into a giant evil mushroom.

From left to right; Descendant- From the far future, through the singularity humans have combined into gestalt consciousnesses. Living in a state comparable to 'heaven'. They manipulate history to ensure the singularity's fruition. Mistaken by their ancestors as "angels". Maldescendant- From the far future, a human consciousness that has fled back in time into the body of an ancestor to escape assimilation into a gestalt consciousness. The root of demonic possession/fallen angel myths. Actively trying to prevent the singularity. Mandrake- Human-plant hybrid, created in an attempt to make humans more survivable in the event of a man-made ecological collapse. Can photosynthesise, but spends most of it's time refusing to move. Sprite- Bio-luminescent hologram created by wisps, expressing the form of a Fae consciousness. Changeling- Human infected by a fae consciousness, mutated into a wisp factory and pheromone distillery.

Fairy hunter of the honourable order of St Patrick. Wears a suit of rusted iron armour to repel the Sidhe.

In English folklore, 'Black Annis' is a one-eyed, blue-skinned hag living out of a cave in the Dane hills of Leicester. It's said she had nails made of iron, which she would use to flay children alive, tanning the hides on an oak tree to sew into her horrible man-skin apron. The origins of the legend are murky, but she bares a striking resemblance to Celtic Goddess 'Cailleach' the storm hag, who also had blue skin and one-eye. Formerly worshipped in Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man, 'Cailleach' broadly translates to "old woman" in Gaelic languages, and she was said to hold dominion over the formation of the land, bad weather and the arrival of winter. In legend she is described as having created the mountains by flying through the air and dropping large stones from her apron. Back in Leicester, belief in Black Annis sometimes ran so deep, it's said that houses were purposely built with windows too small so she could only fit one arm through, and that still villagers would fasten skins and protective herbs over them in order to ward her off. Sometimes known alternatively as 'Cat Anna' She was also said to be able to take the form of an enormous feline. This apparently led to a local custom wherein a dead cat would be drenched in aniseed and dragged before a pack of hounds, starting from Black Annis' cave all the way to the mayor of Leicester's house in order to celebrate the end of winter. The practice only dying out at the end of the 18th century. In my head-canon, Cailleach is a relative of the Fomorians, hence the puckered blow-hole for an eye. She was imprisoned under the Dane-hills by some arcane rite after an ancient war. I also tried to give her some cat-like features, in reference to her feline aspect.

See Black Annis coloured for a full lore-description.

In the Irish book of invasions, the Tuatha de Dannan went to war with a race of one-armed, one-legged, one-eyed giants from beneath the sea; The Fomorians. Interestingly, this appears to be a feature unique to Irish mythology, Fomorians seemingly not being present in Celtic myth from mainland Europe. This has lead to theories that the war with the Fomorians is actually representative of a historical bronze age invasion of Ireland by an outside force. Some believing them to be a stand in for the mysterious "sea-people". A group (or groups) of sea borne raiders that ravaged the Mediterranean and perhaps further afield, marking the beginning of the bronze age collapse. For now, simply conjecture.

Fomorians are described in many different ways depending on what source you're looking at. I myself am partial to the "one eye, one arm, one leg" line of thinking. There's a strange kind of terror invoked by the idea of being eaten by something that looks absolutely ridiculous.

The final draft. My Fomorians are half-Cetacean, so what looks like an eye there is actually a blowhole. Fish-people are over done, I wanted to give them a look that was reminiscent of sea-mammals as well as deformed humans. If you've ever heard of (now debunked) aquatic ape theory, it was at the forefront of my mind.

Chief of the Fomorians in Irish mythology. It's said that he was so huge that it took four men to lift his single mighty eyelid. Here represented by four figures nailed to his crown and tuned to his faulty sonar. Their screams allow him to open a miniature singularity, "his eye", which then subjects whatever it gazes upon to a number of horrible effects I've yet to decide on. This design has a dolphin skull for a head, in keeping with the half-cetacean theme I've settled on for the Fomorians. The singularity appears over where the 'melon' (sonar amplification organ) would exist on a living specimen. In my head cannon, the Fomorians made him chief simply because he has the right number of limbs.

Sea-devil from Orcadian folklore. A beast with two backs.

A half-Fomorian, half-Tuatha prince who betrayed the Irish gods after usurping the throne in the book of invasions. Said to be shockingly beautiful, in my mind he was given the name ironically as the least ugly Fomorian.

I've always been interested in the idea of biotech. There's no fire underwater, and the use of electricity is inadvisable, and most sea-creature don't have hands. These guys have figured out a way to manipulate lesser creatures with sonar, and have selectively bred crustaceans into mech-suits. In folklore, a zititron is basically a merman in a suit of armour.

This things blowing up the guys head with a beam of concentrated sonar clicks.

These guys are meant to be the daddies of the Fomorians. Hyper-intelligent subterranean cetaceans. Completely blind they can only 'see' through echo-location and their 'olfactory eye'; a blowhole that's regained the ability to smell, and smell well. A feature they passed down to their Fomorian descendants.

Spooky idols

According to legend, when saint Patrick arrived in Ireland he found the people there worshiping a Giant stone Idol surrounded by 12 smaller ones. A representation of the god Crom Crauch, which they'd sacrifice Children to. A terrifying prospect, he then goes on to tear down the idol, banish the snakes, convert the locals, yadda yadda etc. Somewhere on the internet there is an image illustrated by L.D Symington depicting the stand off between St Patrick and the old god. In which, Crom can only be described as comically phallic in appearance. It's likely this form is a Christian demonization of pagan theology, as in the original mythology Crom is described as a wrym or dragon or sometimes a man. But none of those are anywhere near as striking.

From left; Swanrod, Cernobern, Fragarach, Excaliber, living carnyx.

Before the Tuatha de Dannan arrived in Ireland it's said they came from four mystical cities in the north; Falias, Gorias, Findias and Muirias, apparently where they learned their diabolical arts. This is a representation of a fort in falias, I wanted to give the fairies a distinct architectural style based of the Newgrange monument, the Brochs of Scotland, Stonehenge and other Neolithic structures found around Europe. Both ancient and seemingly primitive in construction, yet taken to an extent of scale and complexity so extreme that it comes across a wholly alien.

In Irish mythology, the Dullahan is an evil fairy who takes the form of a headless horseman brandishing a whip made of a human spine. Interestingly he is also sometimes referred to as 'Crom Dubh', an aspect of Crom Cruach perhaps? Here he's been reimagined as a headless biker, and the whip is his literal spine.

An assortment of scribbles

Horror fairy designs.

This is an earlier design for Ogma, the Idea was he was just a severed face on a necklace of ears who would control which ever body it was placed on, speaking through two captive fairies on string. He'd pilot around a headless corpse and no one would be the wiser, because magic.

They made it out of bit and pieces they found round the house.

Wasn't sure how big I wanted the redcap to be.

Lovecraftian rendition of Lugh Lámhfada, the Celtic god of the sun. "Lámhfada" is Irish for "of the long arm", sometimes replaced with "Samildánach" meaning "of many talents". Often depicted in continental Gaulish culture as having three faces, thought to represent his position as youngest of triplets. In the Irish Cannon, the other two were murdered by their grandfather and Fomorian chieftain Balor, after his wife Cethlenn prophesized his murder at their hands. Lugh was saved from this fate by being thrown into a river. Years later he indeed wound up leading the subjugated Tuatha de Danann to meet the Fomorians in battle, culminating in his slaying of Balor. This myth bears a striking similarity to the Greek story of the Titan Chronos, Oedipus and even the biblical tale of Moses, exemplifying a mythological trope common in Europe and further afield. That of a patron or king, ensuring his own death at the hands of a child, in the act of trying to subvert that very fate.

He really wants your toes.