The Chronicles of Inthandonia, Part 4: The Wizard Wars The First Battle Modern historians generally consider the Wizard Wars to have been marked by seven distinct battles - the first of which was fought on the borders of magick and technology as Bolgaradol Smeckter battled the artefact's defences seeking entry. Many later commentators have been known to say he should have left well enough alone, that Smeckter's ego and pride were the ultimate trigger that unleashed the Skrellian Fury upon an unsuspecting planet. Other scholars simply shrug and say that if it hadn't been Smeckter, sooner or later the threads of fate and karma would have initiated the great war via some other agent. The High Wizards point out that both Skrellian Star-ships were alien to Inthandonia's morphic fields and mental being and that Smeckter's fate was shaped by the underlying planetary self-awareness in an attempt to evict the foreign contaminates from itself. As is so often the case in these matters, we will probably never really know for sure what drove Smeckters impetuous struggle to enter the Skrell ship - But it is generally agreed that this very struggle marked the First Battle and the definitive start of The Wizard War. From the Journal of Bolgaradol Smeckter: "I'm here! I've found it! But what in the name of A'tozi's beard is it? I have travelled the wide world and learned many magicks and sciences yet what stands before me, this 'Artefact', this so-called Starstone defeats me! I am beset by the utmost frustration! I, the great Geomancer who can sing the very electrons from their atomic orbits, am totally unable to pierce the matter of which this thing is constructed. I apply my Thaumic powers and sing a hole into it's substance yet as fast as I bore into it the faster this strange stuff seems to repair itself. I am at a loss yet find myself compelled, perhaps by pride, perhaps by a genuine scientific quest to understand, to wrest the secrets of this thing from it's tight and alien grasp. For of one thing at least I am sure - this artefact is not native to our homeworld. No mere Inthandonian ore was smelted to create this thing - it is clearly the product of some otherworldly technology and I am compelled, nay, driven, to understand it's secret machinations. At the same time I am loath to enter this beastly thing for although it's substance defies my abilities I can clearly sense the concentrated awareness, the alien mind-forms within. It's intelligence sings in my mind and the song of this consciousness is a song of madness. I long to commune directly with this timeless mind, to offer my help, to assuage it's blaring anguish. Today I am going to attempt to turn the powerful forces of the Star of Angorak spell against this things defences - if that dire magick is insufficient to the task of opening this cosmic puzzle then I know not what I will do. But I must keep trying." ^^^^^^^^ A little postwork here and there, different atmo settings and view point but basically another variation on my original artefact scene. Many thanks to all the regular commenters for your recent remarks on this latest flurry of images. I don't always get back to you but I do value your comments and support. Anyone wanting to read the story from the beginning should go to the 3d Art pages of my website at www.wizitch.com