The Highlands

Introduction

For hundreds of years, the Kingdom of the Dál Riata and the Picts were enemies. Neither could ever seem to completely dominate over the other, but they fought endlessly over land and resources.

Eventually, both kingdoms found themselves falling into decline. To make things worse, the Viking age had just begun, meaning they were being raided and pillaged mercilessly. Both Kingdoms were on their last legs when Kenneth MacAlpin was crowned the King of both the Dál Riata and the Picts in 843CE, joining them as one to become the Kingdom of Alba.

Despite speaking different languages and recognizing different customs, the people slowly merged into one. While divided they were weak, united they grew strong.

The Viking raids lasted for nearly 400 years, with wins and losses on both sides. This all came to a head in the fall of 1263, when the Kingdom of Alba took its final stand.

Here is where I laid the ground work of the culture for both sides of the story. After doing extensive research, I designed some of the rock formations the people would have carved, the patterns and jewelry they would have decorated with, as well as their housing structures which gives a lot of insight into how they lived their daily lives. In order to distinguish the two similar cultures, I established a shape language guideline based off of their native languages in which the Kingdom of Alba has more curves while the Vikings are more sharp. I wanted Alba to feel more earthy and soft while the Vikings are more wooden or metallic.

This is a sequence illustration depicting an Alba village under siege from the Vikings. I wanted to showcase the drastic shift in tone that happens after the pleasant and peaceful village gets burned to the ground. 

Above you can see all four illustrations together and below is my process work for each one individually.

The Vikings are on the move, raiding and pillaging every coastal village they come across. I wanted to give the viewer an idea as to just how big and imposing this Viking fleet would be so I designed what one of their warships would look like and painted an illustration depicting hundreds of them sailing towards the final battle.

This ship is designed to hold twenty to thirty men which, believe it or not, is on the smaller side of Viking longships. Some could hold up to one hundred! This ship is intricately decorated and has a retractable rudder to allow the ship to sail in both deep and shallow waters.

Both Alba and the Vikings were prepared for battle and each were armed with deadly weapons. Below are some of my weapon prop designs for both sides, along with one fully rendered weapon each.

Alba was outnumbered nearly two to one, but their training gave them the slightest advantage. The first line of shields and spears held for as long as they were able, but once it had been breached, chaos reigned and the neat lines of fighters broke. It was now every man for himself.

Hours passed with wave after wave of Viking warriors slamming into the Alba fighters. Due to their lack of training, many Viking warriors fell easily, but their power in numbers was soon overwhelming.

The fighting had nearly reached the front gates when it was narrowed down to the final few standing. 

Surrounded by the bodies of their fallen brethren and completely drained from the night of fighting, an Alba fighter countered a final swing from a Viking warrior...

...and broke his axe cleanly in two.

Afterwards

Finally defeated, the remaining Vikings settled in Scandinavia and Iceland, never returning to Alba again. This period of peace was brief, however, as the English were becoming more and more powerful. They had conquered all of the south and the Kingdom of Alba had become their new target.

In 1296, only 33 years after the defeat of the Vikings, the English attacked, taking great expanses of land and forcing the remaining rulers of Alba into a corner. This went on for nearly 40 more years! Alba did not take this lying down, for they fought with all they had, but for the majority of the war they seemed to be on the brink of destruction.

By late 1336, however, Alba had started to regain control over virtually all of the land that was stolen from them. By the next year, the tide had turned and Alba was back in power. They rode that wave of victory until 1357 when the two kingdoms sat down together to sign the Treaty of Berwick.

Alba, a Gaelic name, was translated to English in the treaty, officially establishing it as the Kingdom of Scotland.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed The Highlands! If you want to see the full book you can visit my website here.