Rikker of Talaus

Untitled self portrait
Rikker of Talaus, I.M. 4198

Rikker of Talaus was the foremost Visual Historian of the great Juran Empire, famous for painting epic scenes documenting the events of the Wars of Juran Hegemony in what is now the Broken Empire. As his title indicates, he was born on the isle of Talaus, one of the Ten Thousand Islands north of Kallor, then a subject of the Juran crown.

Rikker is a highly controversial figure in the field of art history: he is dismissed by many as a propagandist for an oppressive regime—one which the Gamma Quadrant is still recovering from almost a century later—however his immense influence over the modern Gondaran & Lorentian art community cannot be denied. His œuvre also included writing, and while his written works have enthusiasts they are generally regarded as rambling, incoherent and poorly-written.

Rikker of Talaus was generally regarded as ornery and unpredictable, prone to mood swings and great bursts of creativity followed by periods of stubborn inactivity. These swings worsened in his later years, coinciding to the development of more and more experimental, genre-defying techniques in his paintings. There is strong suspicion by art historians that his brain was slowly poisoned by his habit of wetting his paintbrushes with his mouth, thus ingesting the paints.

Arguing against his position as a mere propagandist, some art historians note paintings that portrayed certain Juran Empyreal actions in a dour, even negative light: he is considered one of the few people on the plane to be given full leave by Jura's ascendant God-Emperor, Olcadan of Dhund, to portray the Juran Campaigns as he truly saw them.