Conquering and to Conquer | Process

Context

Death & Taxes, an on-chain game by @m0dest___, was built around a paradox: it was never designed to end. Its players were divided. Some wanted the art, some wanted the ETH payout, some wanted both, some intended to hold to the grave, and some were only looking for a way out. The Four Horsemen grew out of that tension. A collection of 666 horsemen riding to bring the end of civilization, where near the end of time a white, pale, red and black horseman would appear. It was a collaborative art experiment tied into the endgame of Death & Taxes, open to anyone, with the goal of reaching all 666.
@AndrewRiBT

Conquering and to Conquer is one of those 666: a single white horseman, Conquest, freely interpreted. I created it fully in 3D, then overpainted it from a raw render of 10,000 by 10,000 pixels.

What follows is the process, from the first horse to the finished piece.

Conquering and to ConquerMuhju · 2026Created fully in 3D, then overpainted10,000 × 10,000 px · JPEG4 Horsemen · Death & Taxes1/1

IWhite on White

I started with a white horse and a white knight. The white horseman stands for conquest, domination, false peace or a false messiah. I wanted wild armour and weapons, and a colour scheme of white and gold only.

White on white on white.

I considered a huge scythe cutting the clouds, or cutting them open with hell underneath. Or nothing else, just the rider and the horse.

I began on the evening of 28 May 2026. I had been told the format should be 1:1. I wanted to go as deep into it as I had back in 2021. The first evening went into gathering a 3D horse with poses and figures to go with it.

A grey 3D horse rearing on its hind legs, alone in a dark viewport

The grey horse posed rearing, forelegs raised

IIThe Rider

I didn’t know how to pose a horse. I set a bare figure beside it first, then on its back.

The rearing horse seen close, beside a bare grey human figure

A bare grey figure riding the rearing horse

Then he grabbed the horse by the neck. That was it. A long lance went across his body, and I liked the pose. From there it was about the armour and the accessories.

The bare figure on the rearing horse, a long lance across the body

See-through viewport view of horse and rider, the rider’s hand at the horse’s neck

IIIArmour and Ornament

The armour had to be good. I wanted it all white, with the visor open and a skull showing. The main weapon would be a scythe, unless I found something better. I wanted all of it heavily decorated, in white and gold only.

The horse’s hair mattered too. I wanted a helmet plume rising to the back of the spear, and if the knight had a cape, it could burst out of the frame. He should have a keychain with a ledger on it. And I wondered about cloth.

Close-up of the model in red: the horse’s head and the helmeted rider holding on to its neck

Close-up of the rider’s armour in red: chain mail and breastplate

The model took shape with the scythe blade on the lance and a long ribbon from the helmet. A chain crossed the horse, and a large baroque ornament sat at the rider’s side.

The whole model in red on black, a scythe blade on the end of the lance and a long ribbon streaming from the helmet

The finished model in red on black, a chain across the horse and a baroque ornament at the rider’s side

IVWhite and Gold

I rendered the model first in white, then in white and gold. In both, the horse and rider stand against black, with the chain and the ornament in place.

Render on black: horse and rider entirely in white

Render on black: horse and rider in white and gold

The scene views show the model, the camera and the light. Then the whole picture went to render, and I wrote down what to check the next day.

The white and gold model in a light grey 3D viewport

The scene from above: camera, light and the dark silhouette of the model

VAfter the Render

The render finished at 10,000 by 10,000 pixels. The list for the editing was written the day before, while it rendered: the balance of black and white, where the shadows should stay and where to remove them, where the picture should be brighter and where darker. The skull had to be visible, and so did the Muhju and ETH decoration.

If time allowed, I would also render the black silhouette on its own, to make the masking easier. I did, and it is here, beside the clay render of the whole piece, without the gold.

Horse and rider as a solid black silhouette on white

Clay render of the whole piece in grey, without the gold

Then I overpainted the render. The horse’s coat, mane and tail became painterly. I finished the piece on 31 May 2026, with just the rider and the horse on a plain light grey ground.

VIDetails

The piece is held at 10,000 by 10,000 pixels so that it can be read close. I placed a line of binary along the lance’s shaft spelling Conquest, and another on the scroll of the large gold ornament at the rider’s side spelling muhju art. Both are small, only visible close up. Here are three details from the finished piece and a close-up of the gold made after the render.

Detail: the horse’s head in its white and gold mask, and the rider’s helmet

Detail: the gold baroque ornament and the lance, with its line of binary

VIIConquering and to Conquer

Conquering and to Conquer, the finished piece: a white horse rearing, its rider in white and gold armour, a lance with a scythe blade held across them

2026The white horseman, one of the 666