THE CHRONICLES OF INTHANDONIA: PART THREE

The Doors of Qloom

The following morning reveals a wonder and a mystery to Sam and Amy. When they had gone to bed last night there had been an ordinary, nondescript mossy wall of stone sheltering their campsite, part of the walls of Gremmels Gorge. Now however the cheery morning sunlight illuminates a set of massive stone doors, bearing the signs of ancient bombardment. Antiquity emanates from this unexpected portal, tangible waves of age that unmistakably confirm this structure as a marvel of ancient days. Supporting this visceral knowing is the intellectual knowledge that the giant stone face above the doors is none other than that of Athil Atoz'i, the horned god of Elder Darthan. Known also as the Foliate Man and The Green Man, Athil Atoz'i was not worshipped as a god - rather he was venerated as a human creation, a symbolic entity representing a human face on the spirit of nature. In the days of the Darthan Empire this stone visage was a common adornment above the doorways to many buildings. Today, in modern Thania such faces are very rare, found only in the collections of great museums. The barbarous ages that followed the great Wizard Wars obliterated almost all memory of Darthan and the Green God. Sam and Amy, as bardic minstrels, know all the old songs - thus, as they stand in amazement at the great battered doors before them they both recognize the carved face of Athil Atoz'i. The also recognize the Sun Symbol carved upon the doors themselves. After the breakdown of Darthan resulting from the Wizard Wars the great Magus, Bolgaradol Smekter, had built himself a most marvelous city using the mighty powers of the surviving Darthan Battle Mages combined with alien Skrell-tech captured from the defeated Skrelldeggian Alliance. Although Darthan was victorious - largely due to Smekter himself - the nation was broken by the savagery of the Wizard Wars and bands of self appointed warrior chieftains skirmished around the doors of the City of the Magus. To prevent further hostilities Bolgaradol Smekter took all doorways and portals into his city and hid them from this world within the fractional dimensions of quantum magick. Thus the fabulous City of the Magus was no longer seen in the world although legend and rumor kept some knowledge of it alive. Sam and Amy, knowing all the old songs (even the forgotten verses most folk have never heard) realized immediately that - no matter how strange and improbable - they were standing before the entrance to the fabled hidden City of the Magus. Towering above them in the soft morning light, magickly revealed for the first time in two thousand years, were the legendary Doors of Qloom!

Rendered in Vue 6 Pro Studio, modelled using trueSpace 7.6 and featuring 2 Millennium LE cats and one cat model of my own.