Chronology: Anubis

Anubis’ Timeline

It turns out Anubis is technically my longest-running character under the same name, (ifI do Ageaus’s full one later You’ll see why he’s an exception.) This is a compilation of (almost) all of Anubis’ images I omitted a couple sketches and I lost my older version of him from my cycle of the five heroes back in the summer of 04. But he’s changed drastically both physically an personality-wise.

Originally Anubis was part of my long-lived cycle of five heroes, in every sketchbook I owned as a kid there were always five characters based on an element, this one however had a sixth, which I named Anubis. They never stuck and eventually I redrew them almost the same and hadn’t named any of them until a sketchbook I started in sixth grade, 2001.

----Row 1: 2001-2003----
The first image is from the first newsprint sketchbook of mine that had original characters with names (before this they’d been DBZ fanart). Anubis here was probably closest to an anti hero, and was heavily based off of Golden Sun Characters and Trunks from DBZ. (Although his hair is black, he even has Future Trunks’ ponytail) He also had a bow (only one of two of my characters ever to be designed with one.) The symbol below his feet is the Planetary sign for Uranus (supposed to be this [link]) There’s a fairly good chance the energy ball thing is one of Ganondorf’s attacks in LoZ: OoT. His eyes are still Rectangles, making him very Toyirama-esque.

To the right of that is a leap in another direction entirely. These two are both from 2003. Anubis now has spiked plate armor, and knife as well as a cape. He keeps his black hair, minus the ponytail. As also shown in the next image he now has a jackal anthro form, which in the sketch to the right has the power to kill people by touching them (they get killed by some kind of black energy thing.) Anubis at this point was a villain. He’s more Ganondorf-esque than before, but now his complexion changed from sun burnt to gray. He gained eye paint now to link him to the Jackal god where his name originated.


----Row 2: 2004-2005----
The first image in the second row looks much more familiar, this is now 2004. This image is probably best described as the beginning of his “Magic the Gathering Phase”. The character has lost his armor and his human/elfish form, he is a demon now (surrounded by purple electricity al-la-DBZ). The main inspiration for his form is the image “Reiver Demon”, by the Artist Brom [link] He still has a humanish face, and retains a peachy complexion, but other than that he’s very similar to the demon from magic. His curved blade has been replaced with a simple knife. Personality wise is another issue altogether. At this point the Book that I was attempting to write had just begun, and one of my friends helped pick the influence of the character, as he would be writing for it. This Anubis is untrustworthy; he’d save your life in one action, and then take it in the next. His only friend eventually became Ageaus, as his author and I developed most of the plot and decided to make them allies. The suit of armor next to it is from the same year and when around humans, he used this to contain his power and hide his form. As for the style, he’s still very DBZ-influenced, with his bulky muscles and box-eyes.

The last image in this row (right) is from January 2005. This is when I first started to ink and all of the anatomical problems I could possibly portray are present in this picture, (not to mention the fact I punched a hole in the wings with a 3-hole punch). His arms are enormous, and his waist is tiny, his muscles in his arms and pectorals are enormous. He now has more complex facial markings, modeled after [link] and his color scheme was altered from a darker version of hers. As Phage was my favorite character from the Onslaught cycle, elements of her design were bound to make it in to my work, (his significant other had a dress based on Phages whatever you call that thing she’s wearing.) It also accounts for that weird purple sash he has trailing from his belt. His sword is a Black Ankh sword, that’s broken about halfway, it came from a powerful demon-spirit who he killed and took the weapon as a trophy.

----Row 3: 2005-2006----
The first image of the third row (left) is very similar to the last done in the spring of that year¬, the only major design change is a slightly better anatomy and many more spikes. His chest and arms shrunk to less ridiculous sizes, and his waist is not right, but better suited for breathing than before.

The next image (center) was done at the end of 2005, and Anubis finally got armor back, this time plate armor with a large collar. Spiked as his armor was, his body lost most of it’s spikes, only retaining them on his forehead and as hair. His proportions are very large, and have been given a Ball and Chain mace in addition to his Ankh-sword. The armor on the legs and arms were taken directly from this character [link]

The pose was referenced from another image of that character whipping his censor out. This image is the last that was made while the book was still a work in progress.

By the Spring of 2006, the book was falling apart. Due to school constraints, boredom and lack of inspiration: Pyron’s writer was kicked out for never composing a chapter, an argument broke the “white” author off, and Anubis’ author quit giving all control of him back to me. Anubis as a result was a slimmed down, better proportioned but ultimately it’s a boring version of him. As He was being re-worked I decided he was going to be more of a hero, as opposed to the self-serving villain/turncoat from the past. Armor became less spiky, and the sashes were reduced around his waist. The wings changed again to something else even more unrealistic than before. His eyes while still rectangular there were no new influences on this image and I consider it the last of the Magic The Gathering influenced images.

----Row 4: 2006-2008----
The next two images were attempts in the spring of 06 to give him more forms, which was around the time I’d become a member of Deviant art was starting to draw more transformations.

The first image of the fourth row is a Jackal/Hell hound thing. I drew this in the library at my high school basically I just applied his markings everywhere from his face to his feet. It was intended to be his speed form, as he’s rather slow in his armor normally. As for the next image, towards the beginning of the summer of 06, during the initial Requests rush I must have drawn over 50 dragons in long sequences for deviants like as well as others, and as I designed ones for Kejital, Ageaus and Ramesses I left that sketch in a folder for Anubis. It never got passed that image, I did one head shot of it, but it was nothing. After the sketch turned out less than desirable, Anubis was shelved for two years.

When I decided to remake him, was during the battle in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon with the Necromancer. I doodled that sketch at the end of the fourth row but nothing came of it, and was left in my sketchbook again. He was going to be more of a sneaky character, a spy or a sinister helper. He has goat like ears, armor similar to the 2006 version and a wide dagger, I lost my notes about anything else regarding him.


----Row 5: 2009----
When I redrew him again this past winter, I toned down on the spikes and gave him real hair in place of the head-spikes. His facial markings became purple, as it as it didn’t clutter his face up as much. The new design was heavily influenced by Ayami Kojima’s character designs from Castlevania especially Alucard’s design [link]
He became completely reborn. Renamed Sigismund Velant, he finally had a full name, with Anubis becoming a nickname, though a widely used. His history changed from a Frankenstein birth to something a little more shocking in how bizarre it was. His personality became that of a knight, yearning to be human, and dedicated to justice. His armor became more realistic than before, but he retained his ball and chain mace from older designs.

Then after even more Castlevania games and seeing more of Kojima’s work, Anubis got another style update. His hair was unspiked completely and Anubis’ sash was moved to the side and limited to one piece of cloth, and turned into a belt with his family crest on it. His wings were modeled after bats/dragons and his armor on the upper body became more of a plated kind, while his legs are clothed in boots with plates over them. I also made his collar much larger like the vampire’s but folded over to show his lack of malignity.
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And that’s it. I haven’t the foggiest idea why the colors are so off, I’m sorry it’s enormous. I got the idea from who did several of these already. I have other sketches of him, but these ones were selected as the most different and allow you to see a better scope of his transition. His old Jackal form I must have drawn seven million times, ripping apart and blasting zombies. I’ not original at all. I know that was a lot to read, so for those that did, thanks.

Big thanks to for giving me the idea, and allowing me to do one, I’ll do more if anyone wants to see them.

Sismund Velant (Anubis ) is © to me.