Chapter 25 - Give & Take
The Great Below, the Everdark, and the Realm of Shadowed Rock are just a few names given to the great expanse that lies beneath the surface. The Dwarven miners of old were said to have first made entry there even before the cataclysm. Great artifacts from bygone ages are said to lie there, guarded by monsters and natives who have only known the embrace of the night. Adventurers from the guild have been sent on countless expeditions to ma...
2022-10-07 03:32:10 +0000 UTC
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Here you go! The wildman himself tracking a monster through the forest.
2022-10-06 02:46:46 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 24 - Small Mercies
With the cost in blood ever-rising as the war raged on, the leader of the Alliance, the Elven High King even offered amnesty to the Republic on the condition that they surrender their leader in chains. This was met with derision by the senate and their envoy was sent back with a message that there would be no surrender to the savage barbarians from across the seas.
- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Scholar circa 103 ...
2022-10-06 02:42:13 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 23 - Lucky Strike
It will come from the land of tall metal spires and poisonous fog. Hunger never sated by the harvest of the sands. Come it will to the sea that is no more, chained and buried in halls of milk-stone. Grave risen, will claim the consuming end. Scion of the ravenous people. False justice and father of chaos. Herald of the final cataclysm.
- Attributed to the Wrack Witch before her execution circa 245 A.C
Our grou...
2022-10-05 12:48:43 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 22 - Dangerous Conditions
The people of the New Empire say that the best slaves are those who are born into slavery, they have known nothing else besides the discipline of the whip and the benevolence of a master. These chattels will often work much harder and are one of the pillars of a well-run house. For surely iron and steel may rust but the threat of punishment once learned is until death.
- The Fanciful Travels by Beron de Laney 376 A.C<...
2022-10-05 12:46:53 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 21 - A Change of Circumstance
The Eastern Alliance vastly underestimated the depths to which a free people would resist an oppressor, and troops of the kingdom now known to be called the Republic of Arastia fought with great zeal and fervour. They knew what fate awaited every single man, woman, and child should they become a conquered people.
- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Scholar circa 103 AC
The days followed one anoth...
2022-09-30 05:05:37 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 20 - A Time to Heal
But the spies and scouts of the unknown kingdom had not been idle, and they discovered horrifying facts that only hardened the resolve of the people to resist. Many of those who were brought across the ocean were in fact slaves. Men and women who had pulled at the great oars, who had cleaned and scrubbed the decks, tended the fires and cooked the meals that fed the armies and a thousand more labours were chattel with the hateful mark of s...
2022-09-23 13:20:23 +0000 UTC
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Here is an initial sketch of Kidu tracking through the Sainba Forest.
2022-09-16 06:02:09 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 18 - The Grind
Spies from the alliance and divine scrying showed that the mage-king was actually no king at all. In fact, he was seen to be more of a Steward and Servant of the people and was in fact chosen by the majority of them which was a concept that was so alien and foreign to the members of the alliance. The system of government was seen as preposterous for who would ever in their right mind allow the common man to dictate the rules of power above the...
2022-09-16 06:00:38 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 17 - Discipline & Punishment
When the ever creeping ice drifts further to the south there is often called the ‘Time of Trials’ by the people of the North. The greater cold would force these fearsome tribes to become more bellicose, raiding their neighbors in a bid to maintain their power and prosperity. When a tribe succeeds on a raid the barbarians would sell their broken enemies into bondage, if they fail their ‘excess’ children are sold in the...
2022-09-09 21:36:17 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 16 - New Lodgings
The great Arks, living ships of near-indestructible magical witchwood, made excellent time across the water, their massive bulk now pushed and pulled by the gigantic leviathans that made the deep places of the sea their home. Great cheers were raised when the ships made landfall on the western continent.
- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Scholar circa 103 AC
Half a day of gruelling labour had been an e...
2022-09-02 18:21:58 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 14 - The Characters of a Slave
They were met on the beaches by envoys of the unknown mage-king under the banner of peace. Their decapitated heads were sent back wrapped in spider-silk and sweet-scented with Aeyory blossoms, a traditional declaration of total war in the east.
- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Scholar circa 103 AC
It stank with the general effluence of the city and the newly enslaved and packed humanity. ...
2022-08-26 18:13:21 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 13 - A Test of Iron
Our enemies are the whetstone upon which we hone our bodies and minds. Ever striving to reach perfection, until all that is left is only that which is required.
- The Living Sword by Fen Vaigorus Kaldari Swordmaster circa 520 AC
Repeating the mantra that this was just a game I was able to tamp down a blossoming panic that had found purchase on fertile soil. Unlike the others before me, by some stroke o...
2022-08-20 00:57:20 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 12 - The Sword of Damocles
The Queen’s first egg was to be presented in ten turns of the seasons as a new bride. Such was the desperation of the alliance with the fate of the world on their shoulders. The Dragons in their great pride would never forget what the ‘lesser races’ had forced upon them, and their resentment would only grow with the passage of time.
- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Scholar circa 103 AC
...
2022-08-12 01:18:04 +0000 UTC
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The new artwork is here, hope you guys enjoy it!
2022-08-10 09:38:09 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 11 - Arbitrary Justice
After many years the great horde started their journey across the vast Untouched seas, unmolested by the scaled leviathans of the deep. The dragons had negotiated their safe passage, securing it in the ancient way of their kind. The serpents of the sky and sea were to be bound together once more.
- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Scholar circa 103 AC
I wasn’t in any immediate danger, but the mon...
2022-08-05 18:54:27 +0000 UTC
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Hope you enjoy this concept art for the MC's early encounter with the Bibsis.
2022-08-04 13:13:35 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 10 - Halls & Corridors
The language of the knots was the Tide Children’s answer to a life spent almost perpetually on the cold grey seas. Parchment and paper too quick to rot in the salt air. Surprisingly detailed, whole meaning can be conveyed by both distance and type of knot on a length of twine, silk, cordage, or any combination thus. I myself find it a slow and ponderous form of record, but perhaps that is just a failing of one who was not born to...
2022-07-29 17:11:08 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 9 - Introspection
Prophecy is a rare gift granted to only a select few by the River God. The ability to see the future by classical definition means that the temporal is a straight and defined path. Knowing the future if even for an instant would mean that all destiny is set and shackled. However the flow of time is not straight and predestined, instead, it is curved like a river around islands of primordial chaos and Entropy that stain the very fabric...
2022-07-27 21:55:58 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 8 - Surprise & Respite
The Fae of the deep woods and the places of the In-Between honoured ancient pacts and promises, presenting their best warriors and life mages. They also gave unto the First Children great stores of witchwood lumber, grown from the giant sentient trees that had roots in both worlds so that the elven craftsmen might make living ships to travel the deeps. The forces under the command of the Elven High King were named the Eastern...
2022-07-23 19:18:10 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 7 - Progress
The Under-Kingdoms were slower to answer the call, but dwarven greed eventually won over ancient enmity and they flocked to the banner under elven kind. The dragons of the mountains and the sky, understanding the threat the mage-king possessed grudgingly promised aid, though in their pride they would suffer none to command them.
- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Scholar circa 103 AC
I awoke to the pleasant ...
2022-07-21 23:11:48 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 5 - Testing Theories
Although humans were short-lived in comparison to the elder race, they were as numerous as the trees in the forest and were almost as ferocious as the barbaric orcs of the Long Hills. The League and the Old Empire ceased their endemic wars, united with the promise of gifts of powerful elven artifacts and mithril bullion.
- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Scholar circa 103 AC
Looking at the night sky...
2022-07-21 22:39:17 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 1 - Strands of Fate
The war had started at the behest of the elves when they were still one people. The First Children spoke of the great devourer, the herald of the end that would consume all things and leave this world a shrivelled, cold husk of rock. They predicted that Mana, the god-gift which flowed through all things, the giver of life and the hope of the future, would be ended by this grave new threat.
- On the Cataclysm by ...
2022-07-21 02:07:25 +0000 UTC
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Thank you again for your support, it will help me enormously to continue writing the Grieving Lands (and many more novels beyond).
Enjoy your artwork! (more to come in the future).
2022-07-19 17:12:04 +0000 UTC
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Thank you again for your support, it will help me enormously to continue writing the Grieving Lands (and many more novels beyond).
Enjoy your artwork! (more to come in the future).
2022-07-19 17:07:38 +0000 UTC
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