Devotion

My, oh, my! I've had this done for weeks now but never uploaded it. So here it is! I hope it isn't so damn dark you can't see anything.
I had a lot of fun with the extreme lighting in this painting. I usually don't do anything that's lit by candlelight. And I have no idea how on earth I managed that room perspective thing going on there. I don't think I could manage it quite the same way again.
My favorite parts of this have to be the scroll cubby and the brass dish the incense is burning in.
EDIT: Did some fixer-upper painting, mainly shrunk his right hand down, retextured the room, textured his clothes and the statue and stone bowl, cleaned up some sloppy brush strokes, and actually painted that ugly window. Done now!

The Blab About Vashi
Vashi History: Vashi were once the personal servants of the Velrocci, more trusted than the average slave, but still a slave. The word, 'Vashi' means 'little one' or children, mostly because of the physical similarities between Velrocci and Vashi (except for height, though Vashi aren't short, they're just shorter compared to a Velrocci). Vashi endeavored to by their race out of slavery and stand equal to their Velrocci cousins, which never really happened. After the fall of the Empire, Vashi were exiled and ostracized from the now-freed slaves' new societies. Driven to desperation and near extinction, the Vashi fled and made thousands of small settlements in the wilds of Enrosia, hiding from just about everyone else, who had marked them followers of a dead race and worshippers of evil. Vashi survived in isolation, but as the other races began expanding, the Vashi were forced to assimilated themselves into their neighbors society or face annihilation. Vashi were still considered to be the filth of the earth, though, and were unable to really be a part of functioning society, so they turned to less 'legal' ways of survival. Thus, they were then marked as 'thieves', 'murderers', and the basic equivalent of gypsies. To this, prejudicial ideals turned the Vashi into not only murders and thugs, but stealers of children and practitioners of cannibalism (due to a certain religious observance involving the consumption of human blood). Vashi were often put to death if discovered committing a crime (regardless of the crime) or perceived to be committing a crime (basically, they could be killed for just about anything). It was perfectly acceptable to beat a Vashi, starve a Vashi, or burn a Vashi home to the ground for no other reason than they were Vashi. During High King, the Vashi were given rights by Avarion, who offered them social standing, land, and created laws that made it so that a Vashi could not be arrested, charged, and put to death for a crime that someone of another race would not have been. The Vashi did not get complete and total freedom (they could only have certain jobs, live in certain areas, and follow certain laws that others did not have to). The Vashi still await the day when they will be set free from the injustice and stand as equals to everyone else. Legend says that the chains on every Viashanu statue will be severed when that day comes.
*gasp* And that was the short version. Onto religion!
Religion: The Vashi faith was not really their own. It was once the Velrocci's. The Vashi continued to worship their gods even after the Fall (though just about everyone else adopted something new, namely, Darsha). The Velrocci pantheon has a god or goddess for just about everything but the Vashi mostly worship Viashanu and only dabble in the others of the pantheon. Viashanu is the god of slaves, prisoners, those visited with injustice, and wrongful servitude. Vashi worship statues of their gods and goddesses, using them as focal points for their prayers (believing that an image will guide the smoke to the proper deity). Nudity and hair-less-ness is considered 'divine' in Vashi culture and religion, though no Vashi would dare shave his or her head (a sacrilegious action), or walk around in the nude (a divine blessing meant only to be shared with one's significant other).
In this picture, the large statue is Viashanu while the smaller statue is the hermaphrodite god/goddess of fertility. When a Vashi (or Velrocci, during the Empire) wants to be particularly *ahem* gifted, they rub the part of the statue that they wanted to receive endowments in. This man's eldest son (fellow in the background) is probably the current owner of the statue.
Vashi burn incense to carry their prayers to their gods (and it's considered taboo for a non-Vashi to burn incense in just about every society). They also burn a 'sacrifice' in the long box, which is usually herbs, grains, hair, precious wood, or, when the prayer is extremely desperate, the Vashi's blood. The smoke of the sacrifice is taken up with the incense smoke and both carry the prayer higher to their god. When a Vashi is through with his or her prayers, they then throw a pinchful of salt on the statue(s), sealing their religious observance. A Vashi prays twice a day, at dawn and dusk, and often prays at points in between, but those are not mandated. The silver scroll case contains writings of their prophets and the words of their gods, though most cases only contain scrolls pertaining to Viashanu, mostly because of the size constraint. All Vashi men pray with those little shawls around their shoulders, though in some more liberal households, the women are allowed to as well.
The long-dead Velrocci are considered 'Avatars' of the gods, and should one ever crop up (impossible, to be sure, as they're extinct), the Velrocci would be hailed as a god incarnate. Vashi with exceptionally 'blue' or pale skin are considered prophet material due to their resemblance to Velrocci.
There is a religious observance to Vrakku, the god of war, in which a Vashi must drink the blood of a vanquished enemy in order to gain his strength and complete the Vashi's victory. In the more recent years of their history, Vashi do very little vanquishing that doesn't involve a nasty tax or a vicious business deal, and so there's little blood-shed (thus, no blood drinking). Other races, though, refuse to let this little bit of text slide, and call Vashi out on cannibalistic practices.
Culture: At the age of six, Vashi boys have their heads shaved and they are then considered 'men', or on their way to being 'men'. They are also eligible for marriage at this point, and their parents start arranging for their wife. Women are born 'women' and can be married off at any point, which is why it is very likely that a six year old boy is set to marry a three year old girl. They are not completely set in this marriage arrangement, and it is possible that the marriage can be broken off. If the boy is still a boy, his parents arrange another marriage to one of several other 'second' choices that they had already prepared. If the boy is now a man, he is able to choose his wife.
The Meanings Behind These Various Observances:
The Shawl: Originally, the shawl was a sign of wealth and importance in the Velrocci Empire. The higher one is on the social ladder, the larger and more ornate the shawl. Only men wore these.
The Blood Drinking: This was really a Velrocci observance, as most Velrocci men worshipped Vrakku exclusively at some point in their lives, and there was an awful lot of killing one's neighbor for power, so the blood-drinking happened very often.
The Shaving of Boy's Heads: Velrocci boys were Tainted (given magic power) at the age of six, and their heads shaved in order to symbolize rebirth and their proximity to the gods' domain. Though Vashi never Taint their children, they still practice this observance.

Well, if you read that huge info-dump, you get lots o' cookies, 'cause that was a helluva lot of information.
I just spellchecked this. You have no idea the number of redlines I got for some really stupid words (like 'receive' and 'their').

Textures:
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I used some textures on the walls, but I can't track them down. They may have been from a free stock image site.