TEXT: Collector's Edition Cover Art 
  — Sam Manley & Rachael Macken
  Collector's Edition Cover Art 
  — Sam Manley & Rachael Macken
  
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  ENEMY WITHIN CAMPAIGN – VOLUME 2: DEATH ON THE 
  REIK COLLECTOR’S EDITION COVER DESIGN 
  Welcome to Dev Diary 17 — our first edition of 2021! 
  In Dev Diary 5, Cubicle 7 Graphic Designer Rachael Macken discussed her extensive work on the Collector’s 
  Edition covers for Enemy in Shadows — Volume 1 of the Enemy Within Campaign. Rachael, a fan of fantasy 
  art and gaming for years, is currently working across Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Soulbound and Warhammer 
  Fantasy Roleplay.
  Self-taught digital artist Sam Manley has created numerous amazing pieces of art across multiple lines, including 
  Lone Wolf, Doctor Who, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Wrath & Glory and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. 
  Back in Dev Diary 4, Sam discussed his creative process and favourite pieces from the Enemy Within Campaign 
  including the the Red Moon Inn, a double-page tavern scene.
  In this Diary, Rachael and Sam discuss their creative collaborative process during their creation of the distinctive 
  Collector’s Edition covers for Death on the Reik. We think the striking covers really capture WFRP and highlight 
  their extensive research and incredible creative flair. 
  You may have also spotted their work on the recently revealed covers for Volume 3 — Power Behind the Throne 
  and its upcoming Companion volume — we’ll share more on how these covers were created in the future. So watch 
  this space!
  Part 3: Death on the reik — Morr 
  Rachael Macken: This was the second volume in the 
  revised and updated Director’s Cut of the Enemy 
  Within campaign, that I had the opportunity to 
  design. Only, this time from scratch, a complete blank 
  canvas — exciting! 
  I was  more familiar with the WFRP line because of 
  my design work on Enemy in Shadows, but I was keen 
  to learn more about the Prince of Darkness himself. So, 
  it was time to do some more research, which involves 
  looking at previous editions of the books, bombarding 
  the team with questions and checking out fan-pages. 
  The gods in the WFRP world are usually represented 
  by a number of distinct symbols. The scythe, sand 
  timer, portal and number 9 are the traditional symbols 
  used to represent Morr.
  
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  For this design, I thought it could be very literally 
  ‘Death on the Reik’ — or Death in a boat sailing in 
  the river — just chillin’! Morr could be reaching out, 
  almost luring you in, urging you to take his bony hand. 
  I pictured skulls and souls surrounding the boat and 
  floating in the water around it, and raven skulls carved 
  in the sides of the boat. I imagined a sand timer hanging 
  from his neck and on from the scythe. At the top of the 
  scythe I visualised a raven that merges into the blade 
  itself. This was my initial sketch before sending it to our 
  fabulous artist Sam Manley. 
  The colours we decided on were red (from the Red 
  Crown cult) and a deathly green, in this case a pale, cool 
  green.
  Sam Manley: Drawing-wise, Rachael's ideas were 
  already solid, so I didn't have to do much design work 
  here.  I worked up a slightly tighter line drawing from 
  Rachael’s sketch — keeping the essence of what she’d 
  given to me — so the structure of what would become 
  the final image could be clear, and that would free me up 
  to consider colour choices.
  I did add in a couple of ravens, because of their 
  association with Morr. I was thinking of keeping the 
  number 9 present for that background Tzeenchtian 
  element.
  The sketch was approved, which is a two-stage process 
  involving  C7’s WFRP team and Games Workshop. So 
  with a few changes noted, including  having nine body parts emerging from the river, pushing the idea of roses on 
  the scythe, changing the prow and stern designs from skulls to ravens, and ensuring that we didn’t have dead space 
  (DEAD space! Eh, I'll get my coat...) in the sky. We added relevant WFRP elements to the sky:  nine stars, the two 
  moons, and a twin-tailed comet. However, probably the most compositionally important edit was deciding to keep 
  our central figure’s face entirely in shadow. With this woodcut-inspired style, part of Morr’s face wasn't quite right, 
  and the blazing eyes in the sketch seemed a bit too clichéd.
  You can see here the next stage, where I added colour blocks under the lines. Morr’s priests and priestesses typically 
  have black robes, which was not going to work with the fixed black background. The boat, river, and gateway needed 
  to feel cold but also a little bit unearthly, so a muted cool green was chosen. To contrast with that, to provide warmth 
  to the cold, and to play on the crown above the portal (a reference to an antagonist cult ‘the Red Crown’ in Death 
  on the Reik), we picked a red. We used this redin Morr’s robes, making him stand out by working with the classic 
  red-green  opposite complementary palette.
  
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  After the colours were looking about right, my final 
  steps were to remove the lines, clean up the colours 
  somewhat, and then pass the image back to Rachael.
  RM: Once I got a look at Sam’s art, it was time to add 
  some finesse. I modified the art to add depth with lighter 
  and darker tones of the red and green palette. I added 
  more components, and made changes to the symbols that 
  most represented Morr. His robe needed to look worn, 
  but not too threadbare (because you know, it’ll be cold 
  out on the Reik). The scythe was quite top heavy; I set 
  out to simplify it and made it look like a twisted wooden 
  staff. I removed the human-like skulls in the portal and 
  created these undefined creatures’ skulls — I thought 
  now it’s more WFRP like (at least my understanding of 
  it). I really enjoyed working on this piece.
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  Part 4: Death on the reik — Verena 
  SM: Verena was up next. OK, this one was mine from 
  the start, and I had a round of sketching already that 
  had been sitting for a few months.
  Upon reviewing it, though, it was decided that we 
  needed a different direction, something with a more 
  obvious balancing of scales. I quickly put this together, it 
  didn't really work. However, round three proved fruitful. 
  Time was much more of a factor for Verena than for 
  Morr, so a tight drawing into blocks of colour wasn’t 
  really an option.
  
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  The elements present in this piece are worth diving 
  into — especially as Verena is such a complex figure. 
  here’s an opportunity to present a little more in cover 
  pieces than first meets the eye. Verena is the Goddess 
  of the realms of wisdom, learning and  justice. Books 
  as well as candles show her dedication to reading 
  represent the realm of wisdom and learning. words, the 
  weighing scales, and her blindfold, represent the realm 
  of justice. Owls are symbols frequently associated with 
  Verena.  The presence of skulls highlight her marriage 
  and union to Morr
  Khaine, the god of murder, is Morr’s brother and 
  enemy. These brothers of death and murder are present 
  in the two skulls on the scales; the scorpion in the very 
  first sketch was a further representation of Khaine. (An 
  earlier idea was to paint one of the skulls red, but that 
  didn't make the cut.) A more elegant way to represent 
  Khaine was to place a red crown on one of the skulls. 
  This also alludes to the previously-mentioned cult.
  I want to take a moment to talk about the colours for 
  these. For each of the Limited Edition covers there’s a 
  basic unified pattern consisting of a black background, 
  white (to be printed silver), and two colours (which 
  Rachael adds variation to). Verena’s priests and 
  priestesses typically wear robes to indicate neutrality, 
  but white was taken, so we needed to look elsewhere 
  and chose blue. This mid-strength blue has enough 
  intensity to be distinct, but not so much that it feels too bold or dominates. We knew that the contrasting colour 
  would be red, for reasons already outlined.
  With all that said, this sketch was approved and went to Rachael's desk, and presumably therefore to Rachael, who 
  should be about to take charge of this article again any moment now...
  RM: Thanks Sam, I shall take the reins again. 
  After reviewing the artwork, I needed to focus on the elements surrounding Verena. Firstly, I added some highlights 
  and a light-blue shade on her clothes and hair. After that, I removed some of the bandage around her eyes to make 
  it look a little more worn. 
  As Sam mentioned, Verena is married to Morr, so I thought lets tie in some elements from the first cover — hence 
  the boat’s wheel for balancing the scales and the rose on her dagger pendant. 
  Next, the two skulls representing Khaine and Morr. I thought the skulls would be very heavy, especially with the 
  crown on one. It would be difficult for Verena to hold them with rope that was small enough to run through their 
  sockets. So I decided to break a hole through the top of them and run chains through to tie the skulls to the scales 
  in order to give them a stronger hold. Though I doubt a Goddess would have to worry about such things!) 
  Believe it or not, the inspiration for the candle, came from Snow White (I know). I liked the candle melting into a 
  skull shape(also  a nod to the skulls in Morr’s portal), so I thought it would be cool to remake it like this. The candle 
  holder was designed to create a balance with the image of the owl. Originally it felt kind lob-sided. 
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  Speaking of the owl, I thought, it looked much too friendly. So, I did some research on which owls are mostly 
  associated with wisdom. I came across the Horned Owl, which I thought would work perfectly, sitting beside Verena, 
  and giving a creepy stare to anyone who looked at it. I used elements of Sam’s original owl and broke it up using the 
  whitespace (or black background) to create the shadows in its feathers. Afterwards, adding the highbrows and side 
  stance, with its claw gripping tightly to the wooden desk. When I finished, I thought it’s not WFRP enough, so I 
  added in the skull pendant for extra impact. 
  I don’t know whether it’s the colours or the artwork itself, but this cover has to be the most eye-catching piece we’ve 
  created so far. 
  art by SaM Manley
  CubiCle 7 entertainment ltd. © Copyright games Workshop limited 2021
  
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