Ink, then digital.

Work for an upcoming Ironclaw project.

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Coyotes tend to get around - perhaps not as far flung as your average rat, but they've Been There and Back a few times. They tend to have acquaintances in every port and will take to any port in a storm, which means there's always someone that knows someone that knows a coyote. This is true even if they don't know it's a coyote being discussed; it's not always obvious to the casual observer who they are dealing with.

Coyotes enjoy keeping a roguish air of mystery, and so a dimly lit tryst or late night encounter can lead to vague memories of a strange wolf, or perhaps a rangy dog, or a shaggy fox - someone a little exotic, and with a queer sense of humor. They are hardly ever local, and so people who don't know any better might mistake a coyote for another species.

Coyotes have a knack for misdirection, clever speech, and navigating absurdity with unruffled ease. They aren't ones for great causes, or deep passions, but they also don't knock what they haven't tried. Which is to say that a coyote will throw in with your revolution until something better comes along, and will love you forever until someone else smiles the right way. They are known for breaking hearts and promises; "a coyote can only end in tears", as the saying goes.

Coyotes have an innate distrust of systems and hierarchy, and so they are exceedingly rare in most forms of organized social activity, including the military, law, large scale commerce, science, church, formal education, group sports, courtship and marriage. They aren't very adept with grand conspiracies either, for the same reasons. Whatever a coyote is up to is likely a small private matter, involving a sucker or two at most, and paying off just enough to get by.

However, this does not mean that coyotes are ignorant loners, far from it. They are usually extremely genial and curious about the world - they just choose to learn from their own experiences rather than instruction and the codified experiences of others. Most coyotes are self-taught, self-made people, independent and beholden to no one.

A coyote is a wonderful travelling companion, and many are found on the road as wandering sorts, free lances, hired guns, spontaneous messiahs, occasional bards, gamblers, philosophers, and part-time astronomers. To the untrained eye, this can resemble simply being unemployed and homeless, but coyotes romanticize this as enrollment in the higher education that living in the world freely provides.

As a result, they don't actually accomplish all that much, but they do see a lot of the world and are generally street smart. The coyote way of doing things is esoteric, but effective - if you're a coyote. Though not suitable as soldiers, they can handle themselves in a back alley mugging. Coyotes are not doctors nor master craftsmen either, but they all know how to dance without hesitation and how to live without compunction, which are infinitely more valuable degrees. They have a sense for the magic in the world, but no need to use it for more than is necessary. Megalomania is not a common coyote trait.

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[NOTE: I've been making allusions to other period works throughout this series, some of which might be more obvious than others. I want to point out that this image is inspired by the charming but lesser-known painting The Magician by Hieronymus Bosch, 15th century.]