Mouth of the Gods

awarded KOSA:  
and featured here: kingdomofsweden.deviantart.com…

may 2013

Storytime!

...Once there was so much life in these halls. Even in the rooftop garden where the well stands. Now all are empty and almost dead. The spirits cry in hunger; no more rituals performed and no more prayers to be spoken...

The world turns and moves on, without fear and without faith. Soon people just hope that what they once heard is no longer true. But in distant dreams we will dwell in the end.

(This will be) our last envoy, one that will last forever when no one else will come, or even dare come. And all this before we forget ourselves. Before we are forgotten.  Before we turn into dust. The spirits cry. In hunger. And in anger.

Fragments translated from scripts, dated to year 80 831 ‘Etasian era’, found among the mountain ruins from what is thought to be the temple of Bellath Henon. I also suspect, given the ever so fanciful myths about this place, it’s written more as a dictation rather than a firsthand statement. During the excavation we also found, surprisingly, poetry among the fragile documentations. Much is just bits and pieces but some are complete. Here’s one:

Ghosts and Bone by skywards stone, a mighty source so rare
Crackling wall is soon to fall despite our watchful care

Temple rotten, soon forgotten. The well is almost dry
Ally needed, we all conceded. Ancient wisdom mustn’t die.

Last of gifts to us and thus in respect and primal fear
they called their wise and paid the price and gave us a volunteer

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Artist’s comments. Yeah, sorry about the wall of text. Could write a whole story once I get going.

Technical stuff: Mechanical pencil – 0,5 mm & 0,7 mm aided by a HB pencil. Size: 59x42cm / 23x16in. Time: approx. 145 hours (45 h sketching, 14 h lineart, 86 h main work.) 

Since I had to buy a new and bigger drawing pad to accommodate the whole idea I had a hard time getting along with the new and slightly thicker paper. To think 30 extra grams per square meter would cause such trouble. 

It’s impossible to see every detail in the scan because the drawing is so huge. I’ve put together a few detail shots here: loulin.deviantart.com/art/Mout…