Rise and Fall of the Balk

"Amongst the first to rise, not the last."

Unlike usual, I'm keeping this backstory, short, ambiguous, unbiased (even though the image kinda appears biased hah) and with a broader meaning then might appear, for a change.
There's a reason for that, though.

Edit: Additional story information.

"This scene marks a beginning, not for one but for all. It doesn't just mark the future but also the past, the events that led to this point and all that come beyond. Even when such a moment can simply not be pinned to a single point in time. It represents the escalation of contact, the resistance against ideals, and the refusal to give in.
Pride to that what is known and fear for what is not."

With this I'm attempting to reinvigorate my First Contact War universe I had started but last worked on back in April.
That was too long ago, so I thought I'd bring it back big and with both sides. Much like the first piece where this entire universe started 2 years ago. ( fav.me/d5az6hy )
Going by the time spend, it's amongst the biggest, hitting an approx of 30 hours with only 2 other pieces in my gallery along those lines.

The amount of characters this had, I knew it wasn't a small piece and I kept it to my Saturday Livestream. For those who might have noticed me upload the WIP last week. ( fav.me/d7rgi1j )
So I hope I delivered on the expectations that one brought. It was quite fun to make this, for different reasons.
The scene, the colours, the poses, action, amount of characters (I wanted to do a crowded piece again for a while) and all the puzzling.
Good fun, may it been an enjoyable one to watch being streamed, as well.

I'll be trying to make more FCW stuff in the future building upon the universe.
This piece has quite some things going for that, maybe I'll explain those later in a larger backstory quote.

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Approx Time: 30+ hour?
Time Lapse: Pending (slightly incomplete missing some hours, will have to check on this later)


PS: Me and my title words